My take on the issue of the sales drop is that the GPS market was approaching the point of market saturation already before the economic downturn, but the price points for the units had not started their normal trending down due to saturation market pressures.
When the economic downturn hit, the prices of the units were still high, but the market evaporated almost instantly. Had the prices already started coming down prior to the downturn, I think the unit sales would have been slightly better in the long run.
As it stands now, the consumer perception of the devices is that they're overpriced and not a necessity.
I know that I have sat on the sidelines waiting for the prices of the units to drop, and will most likely buy one now that the prices have corrected appropriately.
OK, the person that wrote the article really needs to stop using the term "cola" in place of "soft drink".
Soft drinks come in many flavors including cola flavor.
From my reading of the article, the soft drink can be any flavor and still be a problem if they contain any of the three ingredients listed (none of which include cola or cola flavor).
I'm ready to pay to have more pleasure using a computer. I don't want crap, even if it's free.
And the sad thing is that for the longest time I was paying for crap that would mysteriously stop working and force me to blow an entire evening trying to tweak drivers and the OS to start working properly again. I finally got fed up with tinkering. Sure, tinkering was fun for quite a while, but when it started to get in the way of creative work done on a computer then that's where I had to draw a line.
I bought my cast aluminum sliver of a machine a year ago March and have been very happy not having to worry if the video driver is going to hang or WiFi stack crash on me again.
So, why does this have to be an attack on the electronic infrastructure and not just an incident where a group of people were scavenging copper to sell it?
(4) pre-emptive removal of dead satalites (no, not shooting them down from earth - attaching small moters to send them into the atmosphere) - maybe steering them into a declining orbit as the last thing they do before swithing them off
This assumes that no satellites ever malfunction. Unfortunately, when satellites unexpectedly die in orbit, there is no way to say "and by the way, now that you're not responding to our commands would you please de-orbit yourself". One might argue that all satellites be programmed to deorbit if they lose contact or become disabled, but even such an automated system could be prone to failure -- in the positive and the negative.
The positive would be when such an automated de-orbital system failed to work when it was supposed to do so and the negative would be when an automated de-orbital system fails and causes a satellite that was working perfectly fine to de-orbit by mistake. How do you explain that to investors?
In this very instance, the Russian satellite that was involved in the collision was reportedly uncontrollable from the ground due to some apparent failure.
Like you said, this is a very difficult problem. I like the "space garbage collector" idea a la "Space Balls", but such a craft would require a nearly limitless supply of fuel in order to change orbits to intercept the space junk at sub-catastrophic speeds.
I vote for (b), since they don't provide their special power adapting drivers for OS X.
In my case, it's the same issue with their W385 phones -- no driver -- no charging.
This makes about as much sense as the chain letter emails that darken the internet that tell everyone not to buy gasoline on a certain day in order to "send a message" to the petroleum companies.
Slashdot Mirror
My take on the issue of the sales drop is that the GPS market was approaching the point of market saturation already before the economic downturn, but the price points for the units had not started their normal trending down due to saturation market pressures.
When the economic downturn hit, the prices of the units were still high, but the market evaporated almost instantly. Had the prices already started coming down prior to the downturn, I think the unit sales would have been slightly better in the long run.
As it stands now, the consumer perception of the devices is that they're overpriced and not a necessity.
I know that I have sat on the sidelines waiting for the prices of the units to drop, and will most likely buy one now that the prices have corrected appropriately.
This works until someone makes a mask of your face, puts it on, and then browses your bank account information.
Worse yet, someone cuts off your head and props it up on your joystick while they browse...
I prefer the idea of measuring something that isn't so easily duplicated like gaze-tracking!
You mean Yahoo! does web search?
Oh.. right.. I guess it does...
Scientology is tax shelter.
"I donate millions to my church!"
"Hey, my church lets me drive around this nice Maserati and cruise around in its nice 45 foot yacht."
Duh.
OK, the person that wrote the article really needs to stop using the term "cola" in place of "soft drink".
Soft drinks come in many flavors including cola flavor.
From my reading of the article, the soft drink can be any flavor and still be a problem if they contain any of the three ingredients listed (none of which include cola or cola flavor).
Get it right!
POP? We don't use no stinkin' POP. Use IMAP!
If my memory serves me well, encryption software is in great part illegal in France.
... I read Worldwide Pants!
I'm ready to pay to have more pleasure using a computer. I don't want crap, even if it's free.
And the sad thing is that for the longest time I was paying for crap that would mysteriously stop working and force me to blow an entire evening trying to tweak drivers and the OS to start working properly again. I finally got fed up with tinkering. Sure, tinkering was fun for quite a while, but when it started to get in the way of creative work done on a computer then that's where I had to draw a line.
I bought my cast aluminum sliver of a machine a year ago March and have been very happy not having to worry if the video driver is going to hang or WiFi stack crash on me again.
Yeah, just like I'll have to wait a few years.. I mean an eternity ... before at&t starts offering FiOS service.
Man I wish I lived in Verizon territory...
And no.. U-Verse is NOT fiber to the door.
So, why does this have to be an attack on the electronic infrastructure and not just an incident where a group of people were scavenging copper to sell it?
Why not just set up an /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny file and set up them up so that only connections from trusted locations are allowed.
Yeah, I hear people saying "hey, how do you connect when you're out on the road?".
Simple answer: VPN service for remote users.
I guess this guy was too afraid to take on Majel Barrett, and so waited until after her death to file this lawsuit.
I think that I need to dust off my HJKL keys....
I was going to insert a representation of what hack kind of looked like on the screen here, but Slashdot didn't like all the "#" and "." characters :-(
Filter error: Please use fewer 'junk' characters.
The dog misses It's a full moon tonight
Don't forget Nethack! The best way to learn the basics of moving around in vi. Back in the day, nethack was mesmerizing.
This is pretty typical of PC Mag of late. No research done, slap-dash work. Perhaps they too are outsourcing their work.
Not that I love Norton or their parent company Symantec mind you.
Having a rep suggest using another product that is owned by the same company isn't so strange.
(4) pre-emptive removal of dead satalites (no, not shooting them down from earth - attaching small moters to send them into the atmosphere) - maybe steering them into a declining orbit as the last thing they do before swithing them off
This assumes that no satellites ever malfunction. Unfortunately, when satellites unexpectedly die in orbit, there is no way to say "and by the way, now that you're not responding to our commands would you please de-orbit yourself". One might argue that all satellites be programmed to deorbit if they lose contact or become disabled, but even such an automated system could be prone to failure -- in the positive and the negative.
The positive would be when such an automated de-orbital system failed to work when it was supposed to do so and the negative would be when an automated de-orbital system fails and causes a satellite that was working perfectly fine to de-orbit by mistake. How do you explain that to investors?
In this very instance, the Russian satellite that was involved in the collision was reportedly uncontrollable from the ground due to some apparent failure.
Like you said, this is a very difficult problem. I like the "space garbage collector" idea a la "Space Balls", but such a craft would require a nearly limitless supply of fuel in order to change orbits to intercept the space junk at sub-catastrophic speeds.
Makes me want to drop Sprint and Motorola next time I look for a phone.
It's Motorola, since I have the same issue with my Verizon W385 phone.
I vote for (b), since they don't provide their special power adapting drivers for OS X. In my case, it's the same issue with their W385 phones -- no driver -- no charging.
You can keep track of the progress of this bill here
There seems to be some inconsistency between the subject and the body of this article.
Last I heard, a bill is not a law.... yet.
Funny how these kids have forgotten about such things as FTP that has been around even longer than web applications.
Web applications aren't the only things that one can download over the Internet!
AKA: Dudespeak
This is the 21st Century equivalent of killing the messenger.
This makes about as much sense as the chain letter emails that darken the internet that tell everyone not to buy gasoline on a certain day in order to "send a message" to the petroleum companies.