I agree that they once were a bitch to land, however, I believe that there is enough brain power and processing power out there now to tackle this issue...an issue that really hasn't had a lot of brain-time put into it since...1940 -1950?
One of the primary advantages of Lighter Than Air Vehicles is that the surveillance packages and load outs can be changed almost on a whim. Try doing that with a satellite.
Although such vehicles are not very fast, they can be deployed very rapidly with electronics and crew that are mission specific, and can be very beneficial as remote command and information gathering/relay centers that can stay aloft for long periods of time. Not only that, but such vehicles could remain over an area for an indefinite amount of time conducting surveillance and intelligence gathering activities that satellites may not be able to do without interruption.
No one can guess what will happen next, but floating an extra set of eyes, ears and mouths up into the sky can be a very good thing.
The result of one of these flying into a building would be similar to me bouncing a marshmallow off of your forehead.
It might catch you off guard at first, then piss you off as the shock and abject fright wore off, but no real harm would come to your forehead. The fate of the marshmallow wouldn't be the same, however, and this is to be expected.
Although I love the idea of alternative means of obtaining energy, I do not cherish the idea of my nuclear powered cell phone failing a SCRAM shutdown and going critical while I'm using it.
Of course, some dubious hacker could also send illegitimate SCRAM routines to force a reactor critical state, which is a great big can o worms in terms of personal safety, IMHO.
And then there's the whole OS issue, too. Would you use an 18.1.2.5 kernel or an 18.0.2.4 kernel? Who would do the development and QA on such devices? Also, would an FO bug in hardware prove to be a mere mathematical nuisance, or the world's next 3 Micrometer Island?
Who would use a Microsoft OS on such devices? System up time would take on a whole new meaning in the age of nuclear powering silicon devices.
Then there would be the issue of the subversive cadre of hardware enthusiasts that try to get 10% more out of their AMD's Nucleon XP 24.4(TM) core by over clocking them, whilst taking the risk of drastically reducing their life spans as well as those of their neighbors.
In conclusion, I will retain my Chicken Little viewpoint on this technology. The sky may indeed never fall down, but it doesn't hurt running around in circles believing that It Just Might.
Prostitution in Las Vegas is illegal. Refer to Nevada State Law, Chapter 244, Counties: Government General Provisions, section 8 for more info (NRS 244,345):
8. In a county whose population is 400,000 or more, the license board shall not grant any license to a petitioner for the purpose of operating a house of ill fame or repute or any other business employing any person for the purpose of prostitution.
Since Las Vegas is in Clark County, a county that has a population that is indeed over 400k, we can plainly see that prostitution is illegal in the area. Laws won't stop the average criminal from committing crimes, so we must assume that there is a fairly profitable business in LV selling flesh for pleasure.
As far as I know, police would derive a greater benefit from simply arresting people who were breaking the law, other than jumping through some serious hoops to stealthily put people who derive their livelihood, directly or indirectly, upon the sale or aiding in the sale of illegal activities.
It's far more likely that some people with money are paying people with some knowledge to put some technological legerdemain on their competition.
Is this is some type of surprise? Hell, if I were a cop, I'd let the small fish get eaten by all the big fish, so I could catch and mount the big ones later.
...much later, it would seem.
And someone named Escobar is in charge of the Utilities Cartel. Er, commission.
The article is interesting, but it has several mistakes. First of all, T-Buffer tech was introduced on the V5, and the article mistakenly stated that the V4 came prior to the V5, when they were released at the same time. These are somewhat minor quibbles, to be certain.
If any of you remember, the purchase of STB befuddled everyone, and for good reason; STB's products were a mix of Nvidia and 3dfx chips, and OEM's had the freedom to pick and choose what they wanted to buy. Furthermore, 3dfx had great co-branding with companies such as STB, Creative Labs and Diamond (I still get all twittery when I remember waiting to get my hands on a Diamond Monster Voodoo II). In one fell swoop, 3dfx destroyed what was best about STB, and it's co-branding with other manufacturers.
The smart money left shortly thereafter.
The ensuing fiscal mayhem following the purchase of Gigapixel was a financial blow (coupled with late product releases) that they simply would be unable to recover from.
Had the Voodoo 4 and 5 been released on time, they simply would have crushed the TNT 2 Ultra and put them in a much better position to pay off all that enormous debt. But, the card was late, and it had to compete against a far superior offering from Nvidia, which was the Geforce.
And the smart money that left a long time ago was not wondering if, but when.
So, not any single decision led to the downfall of the once dominant player, but many. Not listening to the market (we don't have 32-bit support for color in games since people don't really need it...take 16-bit or else!). Excess execute hubris such as the purchase of STB and Gigapixel and the foundering on product release dates. Trusting on name brand and uncompetitive products all eroded the company to nothing.
In terms of Nvidia, their executive staff has always been able to seize on opportunities, and possess a remarkably clear vision of where they want their company to go in the marketplace. Their purchase of 3dfx's IP (which also included Gigapixel's IP) for only 70 million was absolutely brilliant, as was the absorption of 100 of 3dfx's top engineers ensures that Nvidia will be able to utilize all the fantastic goodies 3dfx had sitting in the R & D lab.
It's also really great that ATI is able to mount such a good force of competition in this arena; along with maybe-will-runs such as Matrox and 3D Labs...all this competition keeps em on their toes.
Have the Bit Boys ever gone into tape-out? Or did they soak up the former executive staff from 3dfx?
I live in Anchorage, Alaska, which is known for having an earthquake from time to time.:)
My parents were attending university at the time (Alaska Methodist University, now Alaska Pacific University) when the Really Freaking Big 1964 earthquake hit.
It was the second largest earthquake recorded in the 20th Century at 9.2. The 1960 quake in Chile was 9.5.
The duration of the main quake was 4 minutes.
It hit March 27 at 5:36 P.M. AST. The epicenter was some 75 miles East of Anchorage with a depth at 14 miles.
It was felt as far north as the Yukon, as well as in Canada and Washington State.
131 People died as a result of the earthquake, 122 of which died in the tsunami generated by the quake. Of these deaths, 115 were in Alaska (106 tsunami related deaths, 9 deaths in the city), and others as far south as California.
The largest recorded height of the tsunami was 67 meters (!) in Shoup Bay, AK. The tsunami also destroyed some small boats and an oyster harvest in Japan. Tide gauges in Puerto Rico and Cuba (!) registered the event. Tsunami warnings were issued in the former Soviet Union. Tsunamis associated with the earthquake were estimated to travel at 447 MPH (!).
52 aftershocks followed the main quake, the largest at magnitude 6.7. 11 other aftershocks registered at 6.0 or above. These aftershocks continued for more than a year after the main quake.
Microsoft has tenacity, Sony has market share. Sony also has tenacity, a better games library and hugely more
market share in the console market, so MS has its work cut out for it.
Microsoft also has a controller that sucks. I like it, but I have large hands.
Not everyone does.
I purchased two SNES systems and two N64 systems. One game each. The SNES and
Street Fighter II was for my nephew to play at home and at my house, and the N64
was for my niece to play Diddy Kong racing here and at home. Oddly enough, they
never wanted more games for them, which I thought was odd.
If I ever have a kid of my own, Nintendo will be the console to buy.
IBM has been reclaiming control of its destiny since Lou took the reigns a while back. IBM's recent profit warning notwithstanding (who isn't issuing these things right now?), they've been on a road towards success that most other companies can only dream about. They have a strong business and a strong idea of the business that they are in, and I don't currently see them jumping into their longboats to embark on a campaign of Executive Hubris that is threatening the roots of Compaq and HP at this very moment.
Now they are facing a merger between Compaq and HP, and they could probably not be happier with the impending disaster that will arise from it. Sure, the merged company might rival theirs on paper, but such rearward looking statements does little to ensure the financial viability of such a company years down the road. And keen IBM Execs are sure to see this.
I struggle with the article numerous ways, not the least of which is that it is buzzy and hypey and that it utterly disregards the fact that IBM is already a massively dominant force in the industry.
Maybe the fellow is working for Sun, and hopes that some buzz and hype will inflate Sun's stock value and therefore his own.
First and foremost this is about the marketability of new IP. Forget all the inadequate comparisons to car dealerships or RIAA or anything in the same vein.
Publishers depend upon revenue from sales of new IP. Authors of such IP depend upon such sales to do things like feed themselves and their families and forge out a future for themselves. Without publishers of new IP, the authors of such have no way to earn a living and vice-versa.
No publisher really cares nor do authors care about the sales of old IP. A year or so out and its old hat anyways.
The beef here is about Amazon selling used but new IP that returns no profit to them but competes against the sales of that which does turn a profit.
As an author, I do not wish to see my efforts undermined by a retailer in such a fashion. This is a really good step that benefits both sides of the new IP chain.
On to reality.
Publishers don't back the Authors Guild. It isn't a national association of publishers; it's a central point of information for authors (hence the name). It operates independently from publishers, so any comparison to RIAA or such is incorrect. While RIAA acts in its own best interests as a collection of business entities, the AG is not self-serving in this respect.
Here's the letter written by AG to Amazon (OLD NEWS):
December 11, 2000
Mr. Jeffrey P. Bezos Chief Executive Officer Amazon.com 1200 12th Avenue S., Suite 1200 Seattle, WA 98144
Dear Mr. Bezos:
We are writing on behalf of the more than 8000 members of the Authors Guild and the 278 member companies of the Association of American Publishers to express our grave concern that Amazon's new method of marketing used copies of recently published titles will significantly harm sales of new copies of those titles.
At the moment, when customers view information about a title on the Amazon Web site, a blue box links users to a screen where they may buy or sell used copies of that title. To encourage them to click on the blue-box link, Amazon informs them of the number of used copies of the work available for sale and of the lowest price available for those copies. With one mouse click, customers depart the new book's screen and enter the used book Marketplace.
Some of the used books now available through Amazon Marketplace Sellers are very recently published titles. A quick review of the site reveals that used copies of the following works (among what appears to be thousands of others) are available: Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver (published October 17), Drowning Ruth by Christina Swartz (published September 27), Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (published May); The River King by Alice Hoffman (published July 13), The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (published September 5), The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (published October 10), and Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan (published November 7). For every title not yet available in used form, the blue-box link allows a reader to list it for sale "in 60 seconds."
As you know, these Marketplace sales earn no payment for the authors and publishers of the books in question. Only the seller and Amazon are paid. These sales are excluded when calculating sales figures for various bestsellers lists, as well as from the publishers' own sales records of their authors' titles. In addition, Amazon does not appear to have taken any precautions to prevent Marketplace users from selling review copies or other promotional copies not intended for resale.
We understand that Amazon wishes to provide customers with all manner of services including the ability to buy and sell used books. However, as a leader in the bookselling industry, Amazon's sales practices can have a significantly deleterious effect on new book sales. If your aggressive promotion of used book sales becomes popular among Amazon's customers, this service will cut significantly into sales of new titles, directly harming authors and publishers.
We're all in this business together. Without talented authors producing a large number of new titles every year, Amazon's sales will certainly suffer. If book authors and publishers aren't adequately compensated for their work, however, then more and more writers will be compelled to pursue other creative outlets and professions. For the sake of authors, publishers, readers and Amazon, a compromise must be found that will not discourage writers from writing or consumers from buying new books.
We believe the compromise is simple and straightforward: restrict the blue-box link to out-of-print and collectible books and list all used book offerings after all new versions of a title are listed. Our members want nothing more than a fair opportunity to earn royalties for their book sales whatever the sales outlet. We hope that Amazon will respect this very reasonable professional goal.
We are encouraged by your publicly stated commitment not to hurt authors or publishers with your new Marketplace. We welcome the opportunity to discuss other ways to meet that commitment and would be happy to meet with you or your representatives regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Letty Cottin Pogrebin President, Authors Guild Patricia S. Schroeder President, Assoc. of American Publishers
I bet that Michael Dell is having a wonderful day because of this news.
HP and Compaq have a great products in some areas, poor in others. They have to merge not only their product lines, but the companies and corporate cultures as well. On top of that, they are doing this during a resession, too.
What they will end up with is a company that has, at best, an amalgam of the best products and services that in no way resembles the best that each company currently offers.
This thing has smacked of a hack-job waiting to happen since I first heard rumors of the merger a while ago. IBM and DELL are probably rabid and foaming at the mouths and chomping at the bit for this opportunity to absolutely eat the new company alive in the marketplace.
Anyone want to bet that they will rename the new company to something trite yet hopelessly inane, like Intricity?
AOL purchases RH = RH talent leaves, RH distro turns to garbage, looses $marketshare. 200 million homes will receive AOL v7 and Linux disks in the mail. RH fades into history like Netscape.
MS won't purchase RH...Linux is open source, so it can't be stolen or summarily driven out of business, so they have no interest in it.
Alan Cox founds a new company, and calls it Crimson Fedora.
"The machine bears an uncanny resemblance to Luxo Jr.-the fun-loving, computer-animated swing-arm lamp that starred in a short film by Pixar, the fabled computer-animation studio that Jobs runs."
Yeah, it does look like Luxo Jr.
...I know that the 3rd generation iMac will look like, it'll look like Mike Wazowski (any relation to Woz??), the little green one-eye from Monsters, Inc.
Interesting to note that the concept sketch took only a day, but to squeeze the hardware into the small untit took almost two years.
"He had a good working sketch of the new design within a day. But engineering the machine-squeezing all the gear into the little box that Jobs wanted-took nearly two years."
But, it costs a LOT...even with a gee-whiz flat-screen.
"You can buy a PC with a flat-panel display and a built-in DVD burner for around $1,800, the same as the equivalent iMac."
also...
" Still, at $1,299 for the entry-level iMac, the product could be priced too dearly to attract many converts from the PC world."
So...$1200 - $1800 for an iMac? Don't get me wrong, I'm a PC user, but I do like Apple's hardware, and Mac OS X is OK, but $400 for an iPod, $1,800 for an iMac? Apple prices its products to high to make a convert out of me.
Plus, it looks like a lamp. It lacks the OOH AAH factor that the original IMac had at launch.
Slashdot Mirror
Then again I'll be pretty happy when they come up with a sever that can single handedly handle the /. effect!
You might find that magical server Here
I agree that they once were a bitch to land, however, I believe that there is enough brain power and processing power out there now to tackle this issue...an issue that really hasn't had a lot of brain-time put into it since...1940 -1950?
One of the primary advantages of Lighter Than Air Vehicles is that the surveillance packages and load outs can be changed almost on a whim. Try doing that with a satellite.
Although such vehicles are not very fast, they can be deployed very rapidly with electronics and crew that are mission specific, and can be very beneficial as remote command and information gathering/relay centers that can stay aloft for long periods of time. Not only that, but such vehicles could remain over an area for an indefinite amount of time conducting surveillance and intelligence gathering activities that satellites may not be able to do without interruption.
No one can guess what will happen next, but floating an extra set of eyes, ears and mouths up into the sky can be a very good thing.
The result of one of these flying into a building would be similar to me bouncing a marshmallow off of your forehead.
It might catch you off guard at first, then piss you off as the shock and abject fright wore off, but no real harm would come to your forehead. The fate of the marshmallow wouldn't be the same, however, and this is to be expected.
I'm a Chicken Little.
Although I love the idea of alternative means of obtaining energy, I do not cherish the idea of my nuclear powered cell phone failing a SCRAM shutdown and going critical while I'm using it.
Of course, some dubious hacker could also send illegitimate SCRAM routines to force a reactor critical state, which is a great big can o worms in terms of personal safety, IMHO.
And then there's the whole OS issue, too. Would you use an 18.1.2.5 kernel or an 18.0.2.4 kernel? Who would do the development and QA on such devices? Also, would an FO bug in hardware prove to be a mere mathematical nuisance, or the world's next 3 Micrometer Island?
Who would use a Microsoft OS on such devices? System up time would take on a whole new meaning in the age of nuclear powering silicon devices.
Then there would be the issue of the subversive cadre of hardware enthusiasts that try to get 10% more out of their AMD's Nucleon XP 24.4(TM) core by over clocking them, whilst taking the risk of drastically reducing their life spans as well as those of their neighbors.
In conclusion, I will retain my Chicken Little viewpoint on this technology. The sky may indeed never fall down, but it doesn't hurt running around in circles believing that It Just Might.
Prostitution in Las Vegas is illegal. Refer to Nevada State Law, Chapter 244, Counties: Government General Provisions, section 8 for more info (NRS 244,345):
8. In a county whose population is 400,000 or more, the license board shall not grant any license to a petitioner for the purpose of operating a house of ill fame or repute or any other business employing any person for the purpose of prostitution.
Since Las Vegas is in Clark County, a county that has a population that is indeed over 400k, we can plainly see that prostitution is illegal in the area. Laws won't stop the average criminal from committing crimes, so we must assume that there is a fairly profitable business in LV selling flesh for pleasure.
As far as I know, police would derive a greater benefit from simply arresting people who were breaking the law, other than jumping through some serious hoops to stealthily put people who derive their livelihood, directly or indirectly, upon the sale or aiding in the sale of illegal activities.
It's far more likely that some people with money are paying people with some knowledge to put some technological legerdemain on their competition.
Is this is some type of surprise? Hell, if I were a cop, I'd let the small fish get eaten by all the big fish, so I could catch and mount the big ones later.
...much later, it would seem.
And someone named Escobar is in charge of the Utilities Cartel. Er, commission.
The article is interesting, but it has several mistakes. First of all, T-Buffer tech was introduced on the V5, and the article mistakenly stated that the V4 came prior to the V5, when they were released at the same time. These are somewhat minor quibbles, to be certain.
If any of you remember, the purchase of STB befuddled everyone, and for good reason; STB's products were a mix of Nvidia and 3dfx chips, and OEM's had the freedom to pick and choose what they wanted to buy. Furthermore, 3dfx had great co-branding with companies such as STB, Creative Labs and Diamond (I still get all twittery when I remember waiting to get my hands on a Diamond Monster Voodoo II). In one fell swoop, 3dfx destroyed what was best about STB, and it's co-branding with other manufacturers.
The smart money left shortly thereafter.
The ensuing fiscal mayhem following the purchase of Gigapixel was a financial blow (coupled with late product releases) that they simply would be unable to recover from.
Had the Voodoo 4 and 5 been released on time, they simply would have crushed the TNT 2 Ultra and put them in a much better position to pay off all that enormous debt. But, the card was late, and it had to compete against a far superior offering from Nvidia, which was the Geforce.
And the smart money that left a long time ago was not wondering if, but when.
So, not any single decision led to the downfall of the once dominant player, but many. Not listening to the market (we don't have 32-bit support for color in games since people don't really need it...take 16-bit or else!). Excess execute hubris such as the purchase of STB and Gigapixel and the foundering on product release dates. Trusting on name brand and uncompetitive products all eroded the company to nothing.
In terms of Nvidia, their executive staff has always been able to seize on opportunities, and possess a remarkably clear vision of where they want their company to go in the marketplace. Their purchase of 3dfx's IP (which also included Gigapixel's IP) for only 70 million was absolutely brilliant, as was the absorption of 100 of 3dfx's top engineers ensures that Nvidia will be able to utilize all the fantastic goodies 3dfx had sitting in the R & D lab.
It's also really great that ATI is able to mount such a good force of competition in this arena; along with maybe-will-runs such as Matrox and 3D Labs...all this competition keeps em on their toes.
Have the Bit Boys ever gone into tape-out? Or did they soak up the former executive staff from 3dfx?
I live in Anchorage, Alaska, which is known for having an earthquake from time to time. :)
My parents were attending university at the time (Alaska Methodist University, now Alaska Pacific University) when the Really Freaking Big 1964 earthquake hit.
It was the second largest earthquake recorded in the 20th Century at 9.2. The 1960 quake in Chile was 9.5.
The duration of the main quake was 4 minutes.
It hit March 27 at 5:36 P.M. AST. The epicenter was some 75 miles East of Anchorage with a depth at 14 miles.
It was felt as far north as the Yukon, as well as in Canada and Washington State.
131 People died as a result of the earthquake, 122 of which died in the tsunami generated by the quake. Of these deaths, 115 were in Alaska (106 tsunami related deaths, 9 deaths in the city), and others as far south as California.
The largest recorded height of the tsunami was 67 meters (!) in Shoup Bay, AK. The tsunami also destroyed some small boats and an oyster harvest in Japan. Tide gauges in Puerto Rico and Cuba (!) registered the event. Tsunami warnings were issued in the former Soviet Union. Tsunamis associated with the earthquake were estimated to travel at 447 MPH (!).
52 aftershocks followed the main quake, the largest at magnitude 6.7. 11 other aftershocks registered at 6.0 or above. These aftershocks continued for more than a year after the main quake.
This explains what happened to my cat :o
That would be the Opticon, not the Opteron.
Microsoft also has a controller that sucks. I like it, but I have large hands. Not everyone does.
I purchased two SNES systems and two N64 systems. One game each. The SNES and Street Fighter II was for my nephew to play at home and at my house, and the N64 was for my niece to play Diddy Kong racing here and at home. Oddly enough, they never wanted more games for them, which I thought was odd.
If I ever have a kid of my own, Nintendo will be the console to buy.
Plus, his site is a classic.
IBM has been reclaiming control of its destiny since Lou took the reigns a while back. IBM's recent profit warning notwithstanding (who isn't issuing these things right now?), they've been on a road towards success that most other companies can only dream about. They have a strong business and a strong idea of the business that they are in, and I don't currently see them jumping into their longboats to embark on a campaign of Executive Hubris that is threatening the roots of Compaq and HP at this very moment.
Now they are facing a merger between Compaq and HP, and they could probably not be happier with the impending disaster that will arise from it. Sure, the merged company might rival theirs on paper, but such rearward looking statements does little to ensure the financial viability of such a company years down the road. And keen IBM Execs are sure to see this.
I struggle with the article numerous ways, not the least of which is that it is buzzy and hypey and that it utterly disregards the fact that IBM is already a massively dominant force in the industry.
Maybe the fellow is working for Sun, and hopes that some buzz and hype will inflate Sun's stock value and therefore his own.
Like Sun's stock, I ain't buying it.
Couple of things.
First and foremost this is about the marketability of new IP. Forget all the inadequate comparisons to car dealerships or RIAA or anything in the same vein.
Publishers depend upon revenue from sales of new IP. Authors of such IP depend upon such sales to do things like feed themselves and their families and forge out a future for themselves. Without publishers of new IP, the authors of such have no way to earn a living and vice-versa.
No publisher really cares nor do authors care about the sales of old IP. A year or so out and its old hat anyways.
The beef here is about Amazon selling used but new IP that returns no profit to them but competes against the sales of that which does turn a profit.
As an author, I do not wish to see my efforts undermined by a retailer in such a fashion. This is a really good step that benefits both sides of the new IP chain.
On to reality.
Publishers don't back the Authors Guild. It isn't a national association of publishers; it's a central point of information for authors (hence the name). It operates independently from publishers, so any comparison to RIAA or such is incorrect. While RIAA acts in its own best interests as a collection of business entities, the AG is not self-serving in this respect.
Here's the letter written by AG to Amazon (OLD NEWS):
December 11, 2000
Mr. Jeffrey P. Bezos
Chief Executive Officer
Amazon.com
1200 12th Avenue S., Suite 1200
Seattle, WA 98144
Dear Mr. Bezos:
We are writing on behalf of the more than 8000 members of the Authors Guild and the 278 member companies of the Association of American Publishers to express our grave concern that Amazon's new method of marketing used copies of recently published titles will significantly harm sales of new copies of those titles.
At the moment, when customers view information about a title on the Amazon Web site, a blue box links users to a screen where they may buy or sell used copies of that title. To encourage them to click on the blue-box link, Amazon informs them of the number of used copies of the work available for sale and of the lowest price available for those copies. With one mouse click, customers depart the new book's screen and enter the used book Marketplace.
Some of the used books now available through Amazon Marketplace Sellers are very recently published titles. A quick review of the site reveals that used copies of the following works (among what appears to be thousands of others) are available: Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver (published October 17), Drowning Ruth by Christina Swartz (published September 27), Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (published May); The River King by Alice Hoffman (published July 13), The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (published September 5), The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (published October 10), and Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan (published November 7). For every title not yet available in used form, the blue-box link allows a reader to list it for sale "in 60 seconds."
As you know, these Marketplace sales earn no payment for the authors and publishers of the books in question. Only the seller and Amazon are paid. These sales are excluded when calculating sales figures for various bestsellers lists, as well as from the publishers' own sales records of their authors' titles. In addition, Amazon does not appear to have taken any precautions to prevent Marketplace users from selling review copies or other promotional copies not intended for resale.
We understand that Amazon wishes to provide customers with all manner of services including the ability to buy and sell used books. However, as a leader in the bookselling industry, Amazon's sales practices can have a significantly deleterious effect on new book sales. If your aggressive promotion of used book sales becomes popular among Amazon's customers, this service will cut significantly into sales of new titles, directly harming authors and publishers.
We're all in this business together. Without talented authors producing a large number of new titles every year, Amazon's sales will certainly suffer. If book authors and publishers aren't adequately compensated for their work, however, then more and more writers will be compelled to pursue other creative outlets and professions. For the sake of authors, publishers, readers and Amazon, a compromise must be found that will not discourage writers from writing or consumers from buying new books.
We believe the compromise is simple and straightforward: restrict the blue-box link to out-of-print and collectible books and list all used book offerings after all new versions of a title are listed. Our members want nothing more than a fair opportunity to earn royalties for their book sales whatever the sales outlet. We hope that Amazon will respect this very reasonable professional goal.
We are encouraged by your publicly stated commitment not to hurt authors or publishers with your new Marketplace. We welcome the opportunity to discuss other ways to meet that commitment and would be happy to meet with you or your representatives regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Letty Cottin Pogrebin
President, Authors Guild Patricia S. Schroeder
President, Assoc. of American Publishers
FreeBSD is what the article is referring to, not OpenBSD. FreeBSD does in fact support SMP
I bet that Michael Dell is having a wonderful day because of this news.
HP and Compaq have a great products in some areas, poor in others. They have to merge not only their product lines, but the companies and corporate cultures as well. On top of that, they are doing this during a resession, too.
What they will end up with is a company that has, at best, an amalgam of the best products and services that in no way resembles the best that each company currently offers.
This thing has smacked of a hack-job waiting to happen since I first heard rumors of the merger a while ago. IBM and DELL are probably rabid and foaming at the mouths and chomping at the bit for this opportunity to absolutely eat the new company alive in the marketplace.
Anyone want to bet that they will rename the new company to something trite yet hopelessly inane, like Intricity?
/gag.
The Chinese government would use this technology in ways that would benefit everyone.
Many years ago, I received a Win 98 demo with a magazine. I thought, wow, free OS!
Well, it was a _movie_ of Windows 98 in action; a demonstration of the product and not the actual product itself.
Which is probably what this will be.
Gah, my bad. Go here http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/dualduron/ for info running two Durons.
DDR will run at 1 Hz if you want it to.
Support for DDR at 100 MHz FSB is included in most motherboards with SiS/Via/AMD chipsets.
Durons cannot be run in SMP systems. Neither can Athlon XPs. To run two Athlons, you need the Athlon MP.
It's bad enough that I'm a dork. Now I have to look like one, too?
$1500 bucks for an embedded processor, Windows CE driven headgear that will scare away potential mates and attract the law enforcement?
Thanks, but I'll pass.
AOL purchases RH = RH talent leaves, RH distro turns to garbage, looses $marketshare. 200 million homes will receive AOL v7 and Linux disks in the mail. RH fades into history like Netscape.
MS won't purchase RH...Linux is open source, so it can't be stolen or summarily driven out of business, so they have no interest in it.
Alan Cox founds a new company, and calls it Crimson Fedora.
Life goes on.
"The machine bears an uncanny resemblance to Luxo Jr.-the fun-loving, computer-animated swing-arm lamp that starred in a short film by Pixar, the fabled computer-animation studio that Jobs runs."
Yeah, it does look like Luxo Jr.
...I know that the 3rd generation iMac will look like, it'll look like Mike Wazowski (any relation to Woz??), the little green one-eye from Monsters, Inc.
Interesting to note that the concept sketch took only a day, but to squeeze the hardware into the small untit took almost two years. "He had a good working sketch of the new design within a day. But engineering the machine-squeezing all the gear into the little box that Jobs wanted-took nearly two years." But, it costs a LOT...even with a gee-whiz flat-screen. "You can buy a PC with a flat-panel display and a built-in DVD burner for around $1,800, the same as the equivalent iMac." also... " Still, at $1,299 for the entry-level iMac, the product could be priced too dearly to attract many converts from the PC world." So...$1200 - $1800 for an iMac? Don't get me wrong, I'm a PC user, but I do like Apple's hardware, and Mac OS X is OK, but $400 for an iPod, $1,800 for an iMac? Apple prices its products to high to make a convert out of me. Plus, it looks like a lamp. It lacks the OOH AAH factor that the original IMac had at launch.