I've been a degreed software engineer since 1990. "Back in the day" software engineers/software developers where those wizards that knew how to talk the "Crazy moon language" of computers.
Now everyone and his brother can develop and maintain computers, and so can there kids. Add to that the fact that industry caught on and has created a number of technologies that allow for cookie-cut software development.
Most software problems are VERY simple. Get info from DB, Present to user, allow input, perform calculation, put info back into DB. This describes 90% of the software solutions out there. This is EASY. If it's hard to you, you're in the wrong industry.
Most of the SW jobs out there are for maintaining and small incremental features on the above type of software. This is where the commodity programmers live. If this is all you are qualified to do, life is going to suck for you until there is a greater need for that kind of work. This work does not pay very well (It used to, during the boom, but no longer).
The remaining 10% of the work has to do with innovation or Very Hard Problems. Innovation is where you get paid to think up new things. This describes 50% of what I've been working on for the last 6 years (VOIP for me, there are plenty of other innovations out there).
This is HARD work. Enjoyable, but not easy. You get asked daily, "What's today's bright idea, smart guy?" or "Do you have the prototype complete for your GREAT IDEA?" If you can't keep 'em coming, you're out the door. The pay can be very good.
The other 50% I've worked is the pure "Hard Problem" stuff. Multi-Treaded debugging (deadlocks, data corruption, etc...) Performance, Reliability (5-9's), etc and the testing/verification of all these. These are problems that "regular programmers" can't solve. They are HARD. Most projects today created so that these don't happen and the regular programmers don't need to debug them. The projects that need these type of SW engineers are willing to pay for them and respect the capabilities of those engineers. These jobs pay well.
If you're a commodity engineer in today's market, life is not good. If you are a seasoned engineer with a proven track record, finding a job may take a little time, but won't be that hard. But then, if you're a seasoned engineer, you probably already know this and aren't too worried...
I have Time Warner Cable (yes, I'm sorry too) I was forced to subscribe when trees grew up through my DishNetwork line of sight (that and my TV addiction, never forget, TV is not a necessity!)
Anyway. Time Warner has started offering iControl, which has a huge potential IMO. It's real VOD with pause, play, FF, RW. We've seen the occational bug, but it's mostly stable. The real potential is the increasing library of movies.
I watched Michael J. Fox in "The Frightners" the other night. I missed the movie when it came out many years ago and I always seem to find it in the middle when it shows up on a super-station. So the other night I wasn't interested in any of the new releases for $4.00 (less than BBuster) but I saw "The Frightners". It was priced at $1.75! That is totally cool! An old movie, cheap, no driving, right now. They had "African Queen", "Singing in the Rain" and a bunch of other oldies, all for $1.75.
Now I hear that they are going to include iControl stuff from DIY, FoodTV, HGTV... for NO CHARGE. This is what VOD is all about. Now if the networks/sci-fi/original movie crowd would jump on the band wagon, I could watch whatever I wanted when I wanted.
So, Time Warner still sucks, but at least they have a product I can enjoy...
I'm software developer (currently medical practice management software - bleh). I read Slashdot at 4+, -2 for funny and there are still a bunch of stupid comments.
The only time I/. at a lower threashold is when I'm moderating, then I go at 1+ (I used to try -1+, but I just can't take it)
Unfilterd slashdot is not recommended, it can cause blindness, anti-social behavior and general stupidness.
I hate this guy for the same reason I hate my (ex-)office-mate and (still-)best friend.
Because he no-doubt got his X-10 cam by clicking on one of those annoying pop up ads, thereby encouraging more pop-ups!
A while back my friend got a puppy. He and his wife worked so they wanted to keep an eye on him during the day. One easy click on an X-10 ad and POOF! the dog-cam was born. It was really cool to, the only downside was...
HE CLICKED THE POPUP! Not only that by $$$ were actually generated by the popup. EVIL! EVIL! EVIL!
Anyway... Dog-cam, simple but cool. Train-cam, simple but cool.
MS is required to post a financial report by the SEC. The SEC defines how often this has to occur (2 times a year I think). If your business plan lasts longer than this period you are going to post short term losses and gains that have no meaning outside the larger context.
If I open a new comic book store, I have to pay 1st months and last months rent (2x rent), Buy shelves, inventory, register, computer, business license, phone installation, internet installation, website setup costs...
Now I start to sell comic books at the going rate. Can the comic book store up the street call foul because I'm operating in the red at this very moment? I won't have all that start up stuff paid off within the next 6 months (when a public company would have to file a financial report). I won't have it paid off in a 12 months. I'll be lucky to be operating in the black in 18-24 months. I'm not cheating, I just have a business plan that lasts longer than the SEC filing period.
Him: I'll sell you this car for $1000000 Me: That's outrageous! I'll take it for $1 Him: That's nuts! Me: Maybe we should find a middle ground.
For the current topic:
Their congressman: If we think someone is pirating, we get to burn down their house and roast their children over the embers! Our congressman: You're loopy. Anyone can copy, modify, distribute and profit from anything anywhere anytime for any reason and needs no permission whatsoever from anyone. Their congressman: Gak! Anarchist! Our congressman: Maybe we should find a middle ground.
I picked up a Lexmark laser printer at Office Depot for around $100 after rebate (can't remember the details). It's nice and fast and uses a USB connector (we had some problems with the parallel cable, but it was probably our setup.)
I did notice that toner cartridge refills were rated to last for around 2000 pages while the manual said the toner cartridge that was packed with the printer was only rated for 1000 pages.
Microsoft as architected the OS so that it IS difficult to remove the browser technology from the OS. If you open a folder in windows, you get the nifty file browser. Near the top is an "Address" field that probably has a folder icon and the name of the directory your looking at. Try pasting "http://www.slashdot.org" in there and POOF! You're now looking at the Slashdot homepage.
So you see, MS has integrated "browser technology" in even the most fundamental operations of the GUI. To remove it would be quite a bit more that just deleting the IE icon off the desktop.
The difference between this and the Clipper chip was that the clipper chip was going to be backed by a law that required ALL encryption in the US (personal, corperate, government, whatever...) be done under key escrow. It made it illegal to use any encryption that did not support key escrow and you had to get your keys from a federal agency (so they could insure that they had a key in escrow). The Clipper proposal took encryption out of the hands of the common man (no PGP or anything else, only government sanctioned encryption)
The Dartmouth proposal is key escrow, but not as wide ranged as the Clipper proposal. This proposal does not state that you can't use PGP( or ROT-13 or some other encryption technology) for personal reasons, or that you can't create a private encrypted (VPN) digital voice channel between you and your friend (or partner in crime).
The proposal is that if ISPs are forced to provide a standard mechanism for government agencies to snoop transmissions (ala CALEA for telco) then make the mechanism encrypt the data in a way that forces a process to be followed (even if a portion of that process is illegal, such as stealing escrowed keys)
Currently the data is available with no auditing at all. Anyone who has the capability (agencies) can force there way into an ISP and take the info, even threaten the ISP to remain silent that the event even occured. With technology of this nature, the event could be logged and audited later (even reporting which key was used so it could be invalidated)
This proposal needs lots of peer review; however it's not the Clipper Chip revisited.
I work for a company developing a SIP based VoIP application server. I can tell you from experience that most companies (particularly the service providers) interested in deploying a VoIP solution are targeting business customers, not residential.
Residential customers are hard to reach since they are strung out all over the place. Only 2 lines to each building and hardly any services are requested. Any service provider will tell you that basic service offers very little margin. All the money is in services (call forwarding, voice mail, Caller ID...). It costs the service provider next to nothing to provision your account with a service and tacks another $4/mo on the bill (Sweet!)
Business customers are a much better. They always want call forwarding, conference, voice mail etc... For the service provider some of this is lost to businesses that use a PBX. VoIP is potentially a way for the service provider to lure the customer back. Offer a service or set of services that a PBX can't and you may regain a customer. The business already has to worry about UPS backup for the PBX and other network equipment so it's no biggie to continue to maintain it for VoIP service.
Bottom line, don't expect advanced VoIP services to push out to the residential market until there is wide spread adoption in the business market.
I bought an Apex 1500 and a friend bought an Apex 1000 over X-mas. Both are firmware upgradeable (Insert a CD-ROM with the firmware image and it's all automatic). With a minimal search you can find firmware images with macrovision and region codeing turned off (no menu required) You can even put in your own image for the screen saver. Forget knock-offs, just hack the valid ones.
I found the analysis on the "Play-Nice Rule" statistic interesting:
The majority (67.7%, N=1702) of players feel that the Play-Nice Rules either made no difference or actually made things worse.
The spread was:
12.5 % - Made Worse
55.5 % - No Change
31.4 % - Made Better
So a significant majority (86.9%) thought that the Play-Nice rules made things as good or better than before. I wonder what the opinion of the analyzer was;-) It also makes me wonder if any bias was introduced into the methodology.
I managed to convince my (at the time) employer to cover the cost of DSL (Bell South FastAccess in NC). They had been paying $80/mo for my ISDN connection into the corperate switch and DSL only cost about $50/mo.
I quit and started working for a VoIP startup who promised to cover the DSL costs but it never materialized. I'm still on DSL and my wife and I talk about it on every budget review (quarterly at least) But it survives.
It's not so much the connection speed, which is nice. It's the "always on" aspect. The computer gets turned on during the day some time and stays on. When you need to check on something (news, weather, movies...) you just sit down and hit the URL. No dialup, no waiting, just info.
The author argues that when the MS Monopoly falls the successor (Open Source?) will be the next adopted monopoly. This is a fallacy.
It's like calling VHS a monopoly because there is no viable competetion (like betamax.) The VHS standard is the PREFERED technology of the consumer. There is no single vendor (monopoly) of VHS.
Right now Windows is the technology of preference for most computer users (business and consumer) and Microsoft is the only legal vendor for that technology.
If Linux or some other open source technology becomes the technology of choice then no monopoly could exist since anyone could distribute the desired technology.
All technology has to pass the "Wife Test"(tm) even if it's Open Source.
True Story:
[Wife is in office finishing up finances with Quicken]
[Enter Husband with "great" idea]
Husband: Hey, hon! Look at this stupid thing I just got from Wired. I found some software on the internet that will let us hack it to scan stuff and record the UPC codes.
[Wife's productive work preempted by husband interrupt. Wife visibly reworking priority tables while "listening"]
Wife: So?
Husband: Well, when we go grocery shopping we can scan all the stuff before we put it away and maintain an inventory so we know how much stuff we have and.... nevermind.
I would LOVE for my PVR to track my viewing habits for the networks/ cable syndicates. I would love for my grocery store to have a profile of how I buy my groceries. In return it would be nice if I could get a discount for allowing by personal habits to be tracked, but I'd settle for just not haveing the information linked to me personally.
I love the idea of easly aggregated data. Maybe then someone will figure out that there are untapped "micro" markets outside the mainstream.
I don't buy most of the crap that is sold and most of the crap that is sold isn't aimed at me. But that doesn't mean that there aren't 100K just like me out there (maybe more!) And I'm sure there is someone out there that would love to provide the services I am interested in so I'll part with my cash!
How about asking for a "layoff package"
on
Morals and Layoffs
·
· Score: 1
In the salad days, when you signed on to a company, you made sure your contract had vacation, salary, bonus etc... in writing. Maybe you still do, but your negotiation leverage is crap right now. If technical demand regains parity and the corperations still want to be able to layoff at a moments notice, I'll be asking for a severance clause in my next contract. Say... remaining vacation + 4 weeks + 1 week for every year of service. Maybe something like 8 weeks min if they've layed off in the last 3-6 months.
It should be effective at time of signing, not 1st day on the job; they could cancel after you've quit but before you've started!
Each month I take out $100 at the begining of the month and another $100 in the middle (both in cash, my wife does the same). This is MY money. No one tracks it (except me) and no questions are asked on how it's spent. If I want to buy porno or beer or comic books, I do it.
In our house we track finances very carefully. This cash allowance is required to keep the budget sane and to keep me/wife sane. Since every transaction is entered into the computer, there is no household privacy WRT credit cards and checks. Cash is the only way to manage "personal" money. It's also usefull for tracking when it's time to stop spending.
When you're holding on to the last little green thingie, this is the last round.
I wouldn't mind paying for Slashdot. I used to pay $12/year for Wired and it was pretty watery. I'd pay anywhere from $10-$20 per year for Slashdot (including ads!)
"What!" The editors say, "only $10/year for Slashdot! But we provide new content every day! Think of our operating expenses. Think of the CHILDREN!"
Well print magazines have made money on that amount for quite a while; that and advertizing. Remember I said I'd let you keep your stupid banner ads.
Besides, Slashdot doesn't provide any real content. They rehash news other organizations produce. They don't even do most of the leg work. The readership provides most of the heavy lifting by submitting articles for a few useless K points.
Now the editorial staff does a pretty good job (most of the time) of seperating the wheat from the chaff so they should get a shilling or two. However the majority of content is provided by the Slashdot responders who write trite or flip messages in response to the articles (like this one)
So I guess Slashdot only deserves to make enough cash to keep the servers warm and serving and keep the editors fed (with Ramin noodles.) And I'd put that price at around $10-20/year.
The problem is it's just not cost effective to recycle parts from consumer grade machines. The companies that actually turn a profit in recycling old computers focus on old mainframes that actually have gold contacts for connectors. There is enough gold in the old mainframes to be worth digging it out. PCs and such have VERY little gold in them and the effort of removing it from within the package casings is not worth it for 0.10 thimblefull of thin gold wires.
As for recycling of parts, I already see that going on at computer shows, but I don't think it can be done profitably at the scale required to reclaim all the old computer junk out there. Most parts are already manufactured on razor thin margins. Reclaimed parts have to be removed and tested. They still can't be sold as new, so would need to be heavely discounted. I doubt there's any profit in it. The most valuable parts would be surface mount and you pretty much can't remove them without making them unusable.
The Phone is NOT p2p it is a client to a server. The Switch at the Central Office (CO) is the server and it serves both media and directory services.
You pick up the phone which "logs you in"
You hear dial-tone which is served by the CO switch media server (Tone Generator)
You dial a number which sends a request to "directory services" for routing. Potentially handing you off to another service provider (Sprint, MCI...)
The call is connected and the media (your voice) is digitized and un-digitized by the CO switch (You don't directly communicate with the other phone)
IP Phones are P2P (or can be). SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) can be sent from one IP phone to another and the media will also be sent directly to the other phone. Directory services can also be used; the media still is sent directly.
=MikeT
Nor does it require a perfect digital copy. If I want to use part of a printed document within the confines of fair use I just re-type it in. If it takes me a while, maybe I'll paraphrase instead. If I want to re-record music or other audio, I'll just patch the analog out from my CD player to my tape player and make a copy. None of this is prevented by any of the technology being introduced.
We complain that the laws and techniques used by law enforcement are out of date and risk our privacy because so much can now be automated and survelance equipment is cheap. Well that blade cuts both ways. The fair use laws as written make sense when it took major effort to reproduce a work or there was a degradation per generation. Now we can make 100s - 1000s of perfect digital copies with the press of a button. I can see how this would make publishers nervous.
I'm not saying that the direction that the publishers want is the correct one or that the DMCA is manna from heaven, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that the current laws are "perfect" just because they are easily exploited.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been a degreed software engineer since 1990. "Back in the day" software engineers/software developers where those wizards that knew how to talk the "Crazy moon language" of computers.
Now everyone and his brother can develop and maintain computers, and so can there kids. Add to that the fact that industry caught on and has created a number of technologies that allow for cookie-cut software development.
Most software problems are VERY simple. Get info from DB, Present to user, allow input, perform calculation, put info back into DB. This describes 90% of the software solutions out there. This is EASY. If it's hard to you, you're in the wrong industry.
Most of the SW jobs out there are for maintaining and small incremental features on the above type of software. This is where the commodity programmers live. If this is all you are qualified to do, life is going to suck for you until there is a greater need for that kind of work. This work does not pay very well (It used to, during the boom, but no longer).
The remaining 10% of the work has to do with innovation or Very Hard Problems. Innovation is where you get paid to think up new things. This describes 50% of what I've been working on for the last 6 years (VOIP for me, there are plenty of other innovations out there).
This is HARD work. Enjoyable, but not easy. You get asked daily, "What's today's bright idea, smart guy?" or "Do you have the prototype complete for your GREAT IDEA?" If you can't keep 'em coming, you're out the door. The pay can be very good.
The other 50% I've worked is the pure "Hard Problem" stuff. Multi-Treaded debugging (deadlocks, data corruption, etc...) Performance, Reliability (5-9's), etc and the testing/verification of all these. These are problems that "regular programmers" can't solve. They are HARD. Most projects today created so that these don't happen and the regular programmers don't need to debug them. The projects that need these type of SW engineers are willing to pay for them and respect the capabilities of those engineers. These jobs pay well.
If you're a commodity engineer in today's market, life is not good. If you are a seasoned engineer with a proven track record, finding a job may take a little time, but won't be that hard. But then, if you're a seasoned engineer, you probably already know this and aren't too worried...
=Shreak
I have Time Warner Cable (yes, I'm sorry too) I was forced to subscribe when trees grew up through my DishNetwork line of sight (that and my TV addiction, never forget, TV is not a necessity!)
Anyway. Time Warner has started offering iControl, which has a huge potential IMO. It's real VOD with pause, play, FF, RW. We've seen the occational bug, but it's mostly stable. The real potential is the increasing library of movies.
I watched Michael J. Fox in "The Frightners" the other night. I missed the movie when it came out many years ago and I always seem to find it in the middle when it shows up on a super-station. So the other night I wasn't interested in any of the new releases for $4.00 (less than BBuster) but I saw "The Frightners". It was priced at $1.75! That is totally cool! An old movie, cheap, no driving, right now. They had "African Queen", "Singing in the Rain" and a bunch of other oldies, all for $1.75.
Now I hear that they are going to include iControl stuff from DIY, FoodTV, HGTV... for NO CHARGE. This is what VOD is all about. Now if the networks/sci-fi/original movie crowd would jump on the band wagon, I could watch whatever I wanted when I wanted.
So, Time Warner still sucks, but at least they have a product I can enjoy...
Later
=MikeT
Hear! Hear!
/. at a lower threashold is when I'm moderating, then I go at 1+ (I used to try -1+, but I just can't take it)
I'm software developer (currently medical practice management software - bleh). I read Slashdot at 4+, -2 for funny and there are still a bunch of stupid comments.
The only time I
Unfilterd slashdot is not recommended, it can cause blindness, anti-social behavior and general stupidness.
=Shreak
I hate this guy for the same reason I hate my (ex-)office-mate and (still-)best friend.
Because he no-doubt got his X-10 cam by clicking on one of those annoying pop up ads, thereby encouraging more pop-ups!
A while back my friend got a puppy. He and his wife worked so they wanted to keep an eye on him during the day. One easy click on an X-10 ad and POOF! the dog-cam was born. It was really cool to, the only downside was...
HE CLICKED THE POPUP! Not only that by $$$ were actually generated by the popup. EVIL! EVIL! EVIL!
Anyway...
Dog-cam, simple but cool.
Train-cam, simple but cool.
Shreak
MS is required to post a financial report by the SEC. The SEC defines how often this has to occur (2 times a year I think). If your business plan lasts longer than this period you are going to post short term losses and gains that have no meaning outside the larger context.
If I open a new comic book store, I have to pay 1st months and last months rent (2x rent), Buy shelves, inventory, register, computer, business license, phone installation, internet installation, website setup costs...
Now I start to sell comic books at the going rate. Can the comic book store up the street call foul because I'm operating in the red at this very moment? I won't have all that start up stuff paid off within the next 6 months (when a public company would have to file a financial report). I won't have it paid off in a 12 months. I'll be lucky to be operating in the black in 18-24 months. I'm not cheating, I just have a business plan that lasts longer than the SEC filing period.
=Shreak
That's not corruption or ego or anything else.
Him: I'll sell you this car for $1000000
Me: That's outrageous! I'll take it for $1
Him: That's nuts!
Me: Maybe we should find a middle ground.
For the current topic:
Their congressman: If we think someone is pirating, we get to burn down their house and roast their children over the embers!
Our congressman: You're loopy. Anyone can copy, modify, distribute and profit from anything anywhere anytime for any reason and needs no permission whatsoever from anyone.
Their congressman: Gak! Anarchist!
Our congressman: Maybe we should find a middle ground.
http://www.imagemagick.org/
Not sure if it's GNU but the download is free.
Software for modifying graphic files. Resizing, changing formats, displaying, morphing...
A GUI interface as well as a rich command line interface (great for scripting resizes on multiple scans!)
Also APIs for Java, Perl, MS COM...
I downloaded it 3 days ago and I'm already in love with it!
=Shreak
I think it's sad that now whenever Y2K comes up, it's commented on as "The Y2K hoax".
I salute the heros of Y2K who worked to make sure that critical systems kept working. Yes, some were paid upwards of $100/hr, and thank goodness!
We should remember that Y2K went off without a hitch because of the work that was done, not because it was unnecessary.
=Shreak
I picked up a Lexmark laser printer at Office Depot for around $100 after rebate (can't remember the details). It's nice and fast and uses a USB connector (we had some problems with the parallel cable, but it was probably our setup.)
I did notice that toner cartridge refills were rated to last for around 2000 pages while the manual said the toner cartridge that was packed with the printer was only rated for 1000 pages.
=Shreak
Microsoft as architected the OS so that it IS difficult to remove the browser technology from the OS. If you open a folder in windows, you get the nifty file browser. Near the top is an "Address" field that probably has a folder icon and the name of the directory your looking at. Try pasting "http://www.slashdot.org" in there and POOF! You're now looking at the Slashdot homepage.
So you see, MS has integrated "browser technology" in even the most fundamental operations of the GUI. To remove it would be quite a bit more that just deleting the IE icon off the desktop.
=Shreak
The difference between this and the Clipper chip was that the clipper chip was going to be backed by a law that required ALL encryption in the US (personal, corperate, government, whatever...) be done under key escrow. It made it illegal to use any encryption that did not support key escrow and you had to get your keys from a federal agency (so they could insure that they had a key in escrow). The Clipper proposal took encryption out of the hands of the common man (no PGP or anything else, only government sanctioned encryption)
The Dartmouth proposal is key escrow, but not as wide ranged as the Clipper proposal. This proposal does not state that you can't use PGP( or ROT-13 or some other encryption technology) for personal reasons, or that you can't create a private encrypted (VPN) digital voice channel between you and your friend (or partner in crime).
The proposal is that if ISPs are forced to provide a standard mechanism for government agencies to snoop transmissions (ala CALEA for telco) then make the mechanism encrypt the data in a way that forces a process to be followed (even if a portion of that process is illegal, such as stealing escrowed keys)
Currently the data is available with no auditing at all. Anyone who has the capability (agencies) can force there way into an ISP and take the info, even threaten the ISP to remain silent that the event even occured. With technology of this nature, the event could be logged and audited later (even reporting which key was used so it could be invalidated)
This proposal needs lots of peer review; however it's not the Clipper Chip revisited.
=Shreak
I work for a company developing a SIP based VoIP application server. I can tell you from experience that most companies (particularly the service providers) interested in deploying a VoIP solution are targeting business customers, not residential.
Residential customers are hard to reach since they are strung out all over the place. Only 2 lines to each building and hardly any services are requested. Any service provider will tell you that basic service offers very little margin. All the money is in services (call forwarding, voice mail, Caller ID...). It costs the service provider next to nothing to provision your account with a service and tacks another $4/mo on the bill (Sweet!)
Business customers are a much better. They always want call forwarding, conference, voice mail etc... For the service provider some of this is lost to businesses that use a PBX. VoIP is potentially a way for the service provider to lure the customer back. Offer a service or set of services that a PBX can't and you may regain a customer. The business already has to worry about UPS backup for the PBX and other network equipment so it's no biggie to continue to maintain it for VoIP service.
Bottom line, don't expect advanced VoIP services to push out to the residential market until there is wide spread adoption in the business market.
=Shreak
I bought an Apex 1500 and a friend bought an Apex 1000 over X-mas. Both are firmware upgradeable (Insert a CD-ROM with the firmware image and it's all automatic). With a minimal search you can find firmware images with macrovision and region codeing turned off (no menu required) You can even put in your own image for the screen saver. Forget knock-offs, just hack the valid ones.
12.5 % - Made Worse
55.5 % - No Change
31.4 % - Made Better
So a significant majority (86.9%) thought that the Play-Nice rules made things as good or better than before. I wonder what the opinion of the analyzer was
=Shreak
I managed to convince my (at the time) employer to cover the cost of DSL (Bell South FastAccess in NC). They had been paying $80/mo for my ISDN connection into the corperate switch and DSL only cost about $50/mo.
I quit and started working for a VoIP startup who promised to cover the DSL costs but it never materialized. I'm still on DSL and my wife and I talk about it on every budget review (quarterly at least) But it survives.
It's not so much the connection speed, which is nice. It's the "always on" aspect. The computer gets turned on during the day some time and stays on. When you need to check on something (news, weather, movies...) you just sit down and hit the URL. No dialup, no waiting, just info.
Going back to dialup would be awful.
The author argues that when the MS Monopoly falls the successor (Open Source?) will be the next adopted monopoly. This is a fallacy.
It's like calling VHS a monopoly because there is no viable competetion (like betamax.) The VHS standard is the PREFERED technology of the consumer. There is no single vendor (monopoly) of VHS.
Right now Windows is the technology of preference for most computer users (business and consumer) and Microsoft is the only legal vendor for that technology.
If Linux or some other open source technology becomes the technology of choice then no monopoly could exist since anyone could distribute the desired technology.
All technology has to pass the "Wife Test"(tm) even if it's Open Source.
.... nevermind.
True Story:
[Wife is in office finishing up finances with Quicken]
[Enter Husband with "great" idea]
Husband: Hey, hon! Look at this stupid thing I just got from Wired. I found some software on the internet that will let us hack it to scan stuff and record the UPC codes.
[Wife's productive work preempted by husband interrupt. Wife visibly reworking priority tables while "listening"]
Wife: So?
Husband: Well, when we go grocery shopping we can scan all the stuff before we put it away and maintain an inventory so we know how much stuff we have and
I would LOVE for my PVR to track my viewing habits for the networks/ cable syndicates. I would love for my grocery store to have a profile of how I buy my groceries. In return it would be nice if I could get a discount for allowing by personal habits to be tracked, but I'd settle for just not haveing the information linked to me personally.
I love the idea of easly aggregated data. Maybe then someone will figure out that there are untapped "micro" markets outside the mainstream.
I don't buy most of the crap that is sold and most of the crap that is sold isn't aimed at me. But that doesn't mean that there aren't 100K just like me out there (maybe more!) And I'm sure there is someone out there that would love to provide the services I am interested in so I'll part with my cash!
In the salad days, when you signed on to a company, you made sure your contract had vacation, salary, bonus etc... in writing. Maybe you still do, but your negotiation leverage is crap right now. If technical demand regains parity and the corperations still want to be able to layoff at a moments notice, I'll be asking for a severance clause in my next contract. Say ... remaining vacation + 4 weeks + 1 week for every year of service. Maybe something like 8 weeks min if they've layed off in the last 3-6 months.
It should be effective at time of signing, not 1st day on the job; they could cancel after you've quit but before you've started!
I'm married with two kids (setting context)
Each month I take out $100 at the begining of the month and another $100 in the middle (both in cash, my wife does the same). This is MY money. No one tracks it (except me) and no questions are asked on how it's spent. If I want to buy porno or beer or comic books, I do it.
In our house we track finances very carefully. This cash allowance is required to keep the budget sane and to keep me/wife sane. Since every transaction is entered into the computer, there is no household privacy WRT credit cards and checks. Cash is the only way to manage "personal" money. It's also usefull for tracking when it's time to stop spending.
When you're holding on to the last little green thingie, this is the last round.
"What!" The editors say, "only $10/year for Slashdot! But we provide new content every day! Think of our operating expenses. Think of the CHILDREN!"
Well print magazines have made money on that amount for quite a while; that and advertizing. Remember I said I'd let you keep your stupid banner ads.
Besides, Slashdot doesn't provide any real content. They rehash news other organizations produce. They don't even do most of the leg work. The readership provides most of the heavy lifting by submitting articles for a few useless K points.
Now the editorial staff does a pretty good job (most of the time) of seperating the wheat from the chaff so they should get a shilling or two. However the majority of content is provided by the Slashdot responders who write trite or flip messages in response to the articles (like this one)
So I guess Slashdot only deserves to make enough cash to keep the servers warm and serving and keep the editors fed (with Ramin noodles.) And I'd put that price at around $10-20/year.
As for recycling of parts, I already see that going on at computer shows, but I don't think it can be done profitably at the scale required to reclaim all the old computer junk out there. Most parts are already manufactured on razor thin margins. Reclaimed parts have to be removed and tested. They still can't be sold as new, so would need to be heavely discounted. I doubt there's any profit in it. The most valuable parts would be surface mount and you pretty much can't remove them without making them unusable.
You pick up the phone which "logs you in"
You hear dial-tone which is served by the CO switch media server (Tone Generator)
You dial a number which sends a request to "directory services" for routing. Potentially handing you off to another service provider (Sprint, MCI...)
The call is connected and the media (your voice) is digitized and un-digitized by the CO switch (You don't directly communicate with the other phone)
IP Phones are P2P (or can be). SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) can be sent from one IP phone to another and the media will also be sent directly to the other phone. Directory services can also be used; the media still is sent directly. =MikeT
No news links. No real detailed info. Just anecdote. Nice story and I'm sure stuff like this occurs, but I'll wait for the real thing, thanks.
We complain that the laws and techniques used by law enforcement are out of date and risk our privacy because so much can now be automated and survelance equipment is cheap. Well that blade cuts both ways. The fair use laws as written make sense when it took major effort to reproduce a work or there was a degradation per generation. Now we can make 100s - 1000s of perfect digital copies with the press of a button. I can see how this would make publishers nervous.
I'm not saying that the direction that the publishers want is the correct one or that the DMCA is manna from heaven, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that the current laws are "perfect" just because they are easily exploited.