Re:may god forgive him for what he has unleashed
on
The First Smiley :-)
·
· Score: 1
Ahem. Shouldn't that be:
adding even more it also makes sense that we should not use commas to indicate pauses or periods for sentence stops since that should be clear from context we wouldnt want readers coming to rely upon mere punctuation now would we
Microsoft's market cap (probably the most relevant top-level measure when discussing acquisitions) is nearly twice that of IBM. $315.3B vs. $176.9B.
IBM revenue is larger (89B vs 25B), but with MSFT's 30.5% profit margin versus IBM's 9.1%, MSFT's EBITDA is 2/3rds that of IBM's.
MSFT has $31.6B cash on hand, versus IBM's $4B.
IBM might be a little bigger, or half the size, depending on your form of measurement -- but in no way is it "much, much bigger". Please, folks; don't just pop off -- do your research.
(Examining Sony as an acquisition target is left as an exercise for those who care about facts: with a market cap of $36.3B, MSFT could purchase all outstanding shares of Sony before lunch without even blinking. (I speculate that it's unlikely this would give them control, as Japanese companies typically have complex and interlocking control arrangements, but that's a whole 'nother topic.))
"Uh, no." It is necessary that the invention be publicly shown. It is insufficient (clear, black letter law) that you did it. You must have also shown it publicly, either demonstrating the invention (make one and offer it for sale, etc. etc.) or publishing in some written form that is publicly available.
Yaaargh! This is the epitome of what is so frustrating about much of the open source community; this is why so many of the efforts are doomed before they start.
Taco even mentioned the issue: "Much of the functionality I've described already exists in various forms, but writing a consistant, well designed UI requires rare skills in the open source world. And a device like this is almost entirely about the UI. Many Slashdot readers could build this box, but its going to take special people to actually make the UI friendly enough to gain mass acceptance."
Until is is usable, it does not exist.
Sony's skill, or TiVo's, or any other "evil corporate entity" is not in putting he technology together, it's in making it usable. If you can't see past the technical issues to the adoption and use issues, then... then you're a perfect example of why open source efforts fail so regularly.
--
lairdb
Marc Steigler's novel "David's Sling" (itself ref. Information Age warfare) prominently featured something called the "Zetetic Institute" (IIRC).
From "The Zetetic Commentaries", as quoted in the novel:
In the Information Age, the first step to sanity is filtering.
Filter the information; extract the knowledge.
Filter first for substance.
Filter second for significance.
These filters protect against advertising.
Filter third for reliability.
This filter protects against politicians.
Filter fourth for completeness.
This filter protects from the media.
Most of Stiegler's work is Information Age and mass-communication related; some of his work has been the subject of Slashdot discussion in the past.
--
lairdb
Because the United States (by the way, Mr.Global, you just insulted a lot of people by labeling it America) produces most of the civilization? --
lairdb
When I evaluated several OEM fingerprint readers, some of them included mention that they tested for seeing the thermal rhythm associated with a pulse, so that a severed finger could not be used.
--
lairdb
Can't quite tell, either from the CNN story, or from the vendor's page at www.foodserve.com which technology they're using,
though it's clearly an optical acquisition.
[later]
Food Service provides a pointer to a document describing the process here (wouldn't you like
some facts to throw at each other?) including specific discussion of how the data is
manipulated in ways that would make it approach zero utility for statist uses. These
statements are included:
"OK, so can my child's fingerprint data be taken off the MorphoTouch and used
to re-create their fingerprint?" No. There is no way for any fingerprint computer, or
for that matter, any fingerprint expert, to extract the record and reconstruct a
person's fingerprint image from this data. To be clear, there is no possibility of
"reverse identification" as it is called in the biometric industry.
"But can my child's fingerprint data be taken off the MorphoTouch and used as
is on another fingerprinting system?" No. Because of the way the image is evaluated,
the resulting record is useless to a forensic application.
However, it is interesting to note that the apparent OEM, Groupe SAGEM of France, is indeed
in the forensic AFIS business.
Incidental note: when my work involved evaluating several of these fingerprint readers
for identification, I was interested to see how many of the vendors took extra trouble to
explain that their data was not compatible with forensic AFIS systems.
Slashdot Mirror
"IBM is much, much bigger than Microsoft."
Um, by what measure?
Microsoft's market cap (probably the most relevant top-level measure when discussing acquisitions) is nearly twice that of IBM. $315.3B vs. $176.9B.
IBM revenue is larger (89B vs 25B), but with MSFT's 30.5% profit margin versus IBM's 9.1%, MSFT's EBITDA is 2/3rds that of IBM's.
MSFT has $31.6B cash on hand, versus IBM's $4B.
IBM might be a little bigger, or half the size, depending on your form of measurement -- but in no way is it "much, much bigger". Please, folks; don't just pop off -- do your research.
(Examining Sony as an acquisition target is left as an exercise for those who care about facts: with a market cap of $36.3B, MSFT could purchase all outstanding shares of Sony before lunch without even blinking. (I speculate that it's unlikely this would give them control, as Japanese companies typically have complex and interlocking control arrangements, but that's a whole 'nother topic.))
--Laird
"Uh, no." It is necessary that the invention be publicly shown. It is insufficient (clear, black letter law) that you did it. You must have also shown it publicly, either demonstrating the invention (make one and offer it for sale, etc. etc.) or publishing in some written form that is publicly available.
("written": that's paper, folks; dead trees.)
--Laird
(Svartalf: like your sig, though.)
Taco even mentioned the issue: "Much of the functionality I've described already exists in various forms, but writing a consistant, well designed UI requires rare skills in the open source world. And a device like this is almost entirely about the UI. Many Slashdot readers could build this box, but its going to take special people to actually make the UI friendly enough to gain mass acceptance."
Until is is usable, it does not exist.
Sony's skill, or TiVo's, or any other "evil corporate entity" is not in putting he technology together, it's in making it usable. If you can't see past the technical issues to the adoption and use issues, then... then you're a perfect example of why open source efforts fail so regularly.
--
lairdb
--
lairdb
Because the United States (by the way, Mr.Global, you just insulted a lot of people by labeling it America) produces most of the civilization?
--
lairdb
Possibly -- our testing didn't extend to that.
--
lairdb
When I evaluated several OEM fingerprint readers, some of them included mention that they tested for seeing the thermal rhythm associated with a pulse, so that a severed finger could not be used.
--
lairdb
Can't quite tell, either from the CNN story, or from the vendor's page at www.foodserve.com which technology they're using, though it's clearly an optical acquisition.
[later]
Food Service provides a pointer to a document describing the process here (wouldn't you like some facts to throw at each other?) including specific discussion of how the data is manipulated in ways that would make it approach zero utility for statist uses. These statements are included:
However, it is interesting to note that the apparent OEM, Groupe SAGEM of France, is indeed in the forensic AFIS business.
Incidental note: when my work involved evaluating several of these fingerprint readers for identification, I was interested to see how many of the vendors took extra trouble to explain that their data was not compatible with forensic AFIS systems.
--
lairdb
There are several studies available that try to reduce this question to science; the best I've found are:
e con_free_2000/.
Freedom House (political rights and civil liberties): http://freedomhouse.org/ratings/index.htm.
Fraser Institute (economic focus): http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/publications/books/
Also, the U.S. State Department does on on religious freedom: http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/i rf_rpt/index.html.
When looking at these, do not neglect the methodology sections; you may or may not agree with the measurements and criteria.--
lairdb
There are several studies available that try to reduce this question to science; the best I've found are:
e con_free_2000/.
Freedom House (political rights and civil liberties): http://freedomhouse.org/ratings/index.htm.
Fraser Institute (economic focus): http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/publications/books/
Also, the U.S. State Department does on on religious freedom: http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/i rf_rpt/index.html.
When looking at these, do not neglect the methodology sections; you may or may not agree with the measurements and criteria.--
lairdb