It doesn't matter if the code is available from somewhere "out there", from inside your company, or even from inside your group. The reality is that developers in general don't play well with others. Why? For a number of reasons.
First, it is no fun to use someone elses code. This is why at one time Apple computer (many years ago) had 13 different (yes, I counted them) memory managers being written. It was fun to write a memory manager, to solve the problems involved, etc.
Second, people don't trust one another. How do I know that you have implemented this code correctly? How do I know that you will deliver the modifications that I need? That you will deliver them on time? I can't, so it is better to do it myself.
Bottom line, we don't play well with one another, because we want all the fun for ourselves and because we don't trust the other folks (called flipping the bozo bit in some corners).
Last time I checked, over the air use of TV was between 10-15%, with cable penetration being close to 90%. It appears that folks highly value clear TV signals. The folks I know that don't have cable are folks that could afford it, but don't choose to have it.
That said, if we are truly worried about folks having TV access, it might be better to charge a monthly rental fee for the use of this spectrum and then use a portion of this rental income to fund "lifeline" access to cable and/or satellite TV. This would allow folks - on a sliding scale - to receive cable and/or satellite TV at a subsidized price depending on their adjusted gross income.
Let's be honest, neither you nor I can figure out the all of the wonderful ways that this spectrum might be used and then decide among them what is the best way it should be used.
Rather than setup a command economy for spectrum, let's put it out there as a common that people can use for various ideas with relatively low barriers to entry. For example, we have for the last several years been discussing how intelligent tuning, spreadspectrum, etc., make a myth of spectrum shortages. If this is the case, then let's put it to the test.
I propose that we let any "service provider" use this spectrum for a small registration fee and a small monthly rental payment (say on the order of 5% of revenues, which could be used for a number of purposes, including giving poor people cable if we decided that is the best way to spend it) for use of the spectrum, as long as they use a technology that 1) doesn't interfer with any other use of the spectrum using "intelligent tuning" technologies and 2) that doesn't demand exclusive use of the specturm in question.
What would this achieve? Well, it would give us a commons (where multiple service providers might exist) for creative us of this spectrum at the same that the people get to share in the benefits. By running multiple different applications of the spectrum, we would be able to determine what is the best use - in terms of demand - without looking out other miniority uses of the spectrum. Another cool thing about this plan, is that it could be rolled out over time. We could start by taking channels 3 and 4 off the air across the country (moving existing broadcasters to open holes that are no longer needed due to the improvments in transmission equipment since the advent of TV), see how it works. If over-the-air TV continues to be less and less important, then we could roll up more and more of the spectrum available for the "spectrum commons".
The question I would ask, is how is this different from what you see (or don't see in any class? Socrates defined a school as a log with a student at one end and a teacher at the other end. A online school is just providing a high tech log to bridge the distance (in time and space) between the student and the teacher. If the teacher or the student doesn't put in the effort and hold up their end of the teaching contract, then the log will be out of balance and things won't be good.
It sounds like your are holding up your end of the bargin and putting in the effort required. It sounds like the teacher isn't (sounds like the last extension course which I took, where the prof was a flake and came to class unprepared and unfocused). I would complain up the management chain, starting with the teacher. Since most online schools are pay-for-play, you should have some clout. If that doesn't work, then walk and request a refund.
First, I don't find this speech all that surprising. India since Gandhi and his spinning wheel has had a focus on independnce as a people and a country. Nehru - first prime minister of India - and others pushed for the formation of IIT to help India grow their own crop of engineering professionals. In this they have been extremely successful, but the unexpected consequence is that that engineering talent has been exported to other countries. And well it should, for it is top-notch (here I speak as someone who has two IIT grads in my chain-of-command and work closely with a passel of them and am hiring three to work for me in India).
On the other hand, this speech is not all that significant. Dr Kalam's influence is extremely limited. Remember that in India the president is the head of the state, with little - if any - power or authority. This speech is roughly equivalent to Queen Elizabeth coming out in favor of OSS. Would it make the news? Yes. Would it influence British business or political decisions in a significant way? Probably not. The equivalent in power and authority to the US President in India is the Prime Minister.
Dr Kalam hold the larger ceremonial position of president because of his work as the "rocket man". He is the person that gave India ballistic missiles and his naming to this position by the BJP (the leading, Hindu Nationalist party that runs the current Indian goverment) was at the point where tensions were at their highest with Pakistian last year. It is widely thought it was to send a message to Pakistian that India was serious about Kashmiar and would not back-down.
Bottom line, I don't think that IIT grads will be focusing their energies on OSS work. It is their desire to land a job with a Microsoft, Adobe, InfoSys, Tata Consulting Group, or Wipo. These companies are focuing on building and delivering non-OSS software.
While the average income in India is quite low, this is due in large part to the disparities in the Indian economy at larget. While you have a family that makes $30 dollars a year, you have folks that make $30,000 a year. The Indian middle class is 50 to 100 million folks out of a population of 1 billion. They have the income and the desire to embrace cellular service.
I just returned from India - on a business trip for my company - of the 200 people at our facility in India, I would estimate that 95% had cellular phones. When I went visiting, I saw people in the middle-class who had cell phones everywhere. Even my driver - who would be considered lower, middle-class, had a cell phone.
Another factor to be considered is the quality - or lack - of landlines in India. It can take 3 or more months to get a phone line installed by the PTT. And just as long to get a service call. And you thought dealing with your cable company was hard? Wait until you hear some of the horrow stories that were shared with me.
Finally, I think GSM has this market locked up. Folks in India go to Europe and the US frequently. They want one phone to meet their needs throughout the world. For them - and me - Triband GSM is the way to go.
Bottom line: beware the averages, they lie! Look at the size of the "middle-class" and the income of this middle-class. These are the folks that will adopt cellular service.
Why are you going DSL? This doesn't make sense to me. Rathe than DSL you should be looking at getting a T3 (forget a T1 it is puny) and then split that bandwidth among folks.
Here is what I would do: I would get the T3 and drop it into your switch room. I would then have a primary switch with 1000 Base-T. I would then divide the complex into zones such that a single switch can service all of the units in that zone. I would then run connections to each and every unit from the zone switch.
Of course, you want management in the switches, so that you can control how much bandwidth folks have. This would allow you to charge different rates based on the bandwidth allowance. For example, you could have a basic level of service built into the homeowner association dues, but let folk with a bigger appettite purchase more and more bandwidth. You will also want a firewall (I would look at the Netscreen) at your head-end to protect the whole thing.
Of course, this assumes that you are able to run lines into folks houses - it might not be as expensive as you think. But if that is a big cost, replace the switches with wireless base stations and it looks about the same. In fact, going wireless would have a lot of advantages and you might want to consider it. Of course, build it secure.
I am the parent of two boys 5 1/2 and 2 1/2, and will be adopting a daughter from China this fall. My wife and I have struggled over the choice of school and final settled on what we think is an excellent choice, the Children's International School, soon to be renamed Bowman International School, in Palo Alto, CA. The watch word at Bowman International School is "freedom within limits". Let me give you a sense of how things are handled...
Bowman Internaional School is a year-round school with only 10 school holidays a year. Families schedule vacations outside of these school holidays much as they would at work. Each quarter the teacher, parents, and the student (degree of involvement depending on their age, ability, and interest) develop a "plan". Think of these like the quarterly goals that many companies have in place. At the beginning of each week, the teacher and the student review these goals and develop a weekly plan. Each day the student and teacher review the progress for the week and make sure that things are on track. within these limits of accountability, the student is free to tackle the work in front of them in their preferred order and pace. Each day the teacher makes available a status report with a summary at the end of the end of the week, which the parents can check. This is available offline, but I believe they have considered putting it online. At the end of teh quarter, the progess against plan is reviewed and the plan for the next quarter is set.
We were attracted to this school for a lot of reasons. One was the ability for our children to work through materials at the appropriate pace and for them to be involved in and responsible for their education. I want my children to learn how to be responsible in big things by being responsible for small things. To do this means that I have to give them autonomy in small things and over time grow that autonomy in a series of concentric circles of authority, responsibility, and accountability.
To the young person that started this discussion, I would say, have you proven yourself responsibile to your parents? Have you demonstrated that they don't have to ride you to insure that you are engaged in your schooling? Have you demonstrated that you are responsible in your use of the freedom within the limits you have been given? Based on your description, it sounds like you haven't. Remember, the flip-side of responsibility and freedom is accountabiilty. If you don't act in a responsible way in the use of your freedom, then you will be held accountable. Of course, this is painful for you, because this technology has shortend the feedback loop. All of a sudden, the accountablity that would come at the middle or end of the term is happening on a daily basis and you are having to confront the consequences of your actions. My word to you, focus on execution, have your homework done first, prior to doing anything else, attend class, and make sure that you are behaving in an appropriate manner. Once you are clean here, discuss with them how you would like to structure things within the limits of doing well in school. Earn their trust. With their trust will come freedom within the limits that they rightfully impose.
Of course, the starter of this thread won't want to hear it, but Bowman International School in general doesn't have homework. They run a 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM school day, and it is their expectation that students will finish their homework during the school day. If they don't, then it is homework. In many ways, like how things are at work. It is only when I can't clear things (too often unfortunately) that I have to take them home.
Let me get this right: it has been purified three different ways, is pristine and clean, and people are still worried about it?!? One can only imagine what Freud could make of these "potty fetishes"!
We really have to think about what these "potty fetishes" are costing us. Here in the SF Bay Area, we are dumping literally millions of gallons of fresh, pure, clean water (cleaner than the the input sources)a day into the SF Bay. We are spending millions to try and protect the brakish marsh and watelands of the SF Bay from this invaison of fresh water. The open loop water economies that we practice through out the world are costing us a untold price economically and ecologically. Southern California, due to its cut off of Colorado River water by the Federal Government, will be setting up desilenation plants. If they wanted to do it cheaper, and with less ecologoical impact, they would start water recycling.
My call for economic and ecological reason is "Close the Loop! Drink Recycled Water!"
Lois McMaster Bujold for those looking for pure "romp" space opera. Strong characters and plotting.
Harry Turtledove for fantastic alternate history and great science fiction. His War World series is incredible science fiction (WW II meets alien invasion).
Catherine Asaro for strong science fiction and strongly drawn characters. She is a cross-over author (SF and Romance), so don't let the garish covers turn you off. It is solid SF within the covers.
Orson Scott Card for some great stories. His continuation of the End series has been fantastic.
Vernor Vinge for some of the best hard, hard science fiction. Remember that he is the daddy of "Cyber Space" and that his famous novella, True Names is back in print.
No points off for using a non-Adobe tool. And I would know, since I will look at the information in the PDF around how you created it the application in which you authored it.
In fact, I would ask you in the interview how you created the file, why you decided to use this tool, and to compare and contrast against the Adobe's standard tools.
Actually, this is what is proposed by Steven McConnell in his book After the Gold Rush: Creating a True Profession of Software Engineering . Am I the only on tha sees a problem with this approach? Restraint of trade perhaps? I can't create software professionally, unless I pay a fee, pass your test, and belong to your assocation? I am sure that this would give a whole new meaining to the free software movement - am I free to create software or not?!?
Ok, so it is patting myself (and my company on the back), but Adobe is truly a great place to work. It is a challenging, highly ethical environment, which provides a great place to create fantastic products. I have been in the industry for 20+ years and worked for a number of "icon" companies, and I have to say Adobe is the best place at which i have worked.
As for being a semi-startup, I can say that is only in spirit. In terms of employees (almost 3K), revenues (1.2 billion, second largest desktop software company), longevity (20 years and counting), and presence("Everywhere you look", refers to the fact that every piece of media you see has been touched by one or more Adobe products), we are a well established company.
It is a great company and we owe that fact to the culture established by John and Chuck when they founded the company. Think about the kind of company that has someone like Bob Sedgewick on its Board of Directors.
Well, I am a manager at Adobe Systems, and I won't accept resumes in anything except PDF. If you want to get in the door, show me that you can figure out how to use our tools to reach me. And for those that don't have a full copy of Acrobat, we have an online service (free for sample use) that allows you to create a PDF. And I have been know to give copies of Acrobat to high-quality candidates to see what they would do with it. Think of it as an aptitude test.
Well, maybe we should get away from how to get more participation in the electorial process to the real issue here. That issue is weather science is being made "conservative" (whatever that means) for political ends? First, we should note that everyone brings their biases to bear when looking at any field of knowledge. The question that must be asked, is how do they deal with this fact. I have to say that over the last 20 years I have seen a lot of "liberal science" in terms of biases exhibited by the researchers. Does this mean that the science was bad? Not necessarily, but it does mean that it was biased. For example, the social biologist that told me that they didn't want to look at "nature" vs. "nurture" in terms of sexual orientation. Why? Because they didn't want to know if it was a "choice" instead of how people were born.
Given the biases of the New York Times, and you have to admit it has biases that are decidely "liberal" (whatever that means), you have to ask what is motivating this article. With that said, let's look at the issues that were raised in the "teaser" for this area.
What is the impact of abortion on breast cancer? Given that breast cancer was known for many years as "the nun's disease", due to the fact that postponing child bearing and failing to nurse have a negative impact on breast cancer risk, is it possible that abortion has impacts on it? Yes, it is possible. Should we look at this risk? I would argue yes. And how about research into the potential risks of abortion in fertility? How widely had this been funded or looked at? The few - and I stress few, because there aren't many - studies I have seen show a significant increase in the risk of being unable to carry a child to term if you have had an abortion. Of course, this isn't "acceptable" science in some quarters and hasn't been looked at in depth.
How about condom availability vs. sexual activity. I think the results are of interest. Also, given the change in social dynamics, I would argue that this is research that should be conducted on a regular basis. What is wrong with asking these questions? Why are we afraid of the results being they for, againist, or neutral?
This is exactly what I thought about when I read this thread. The story is,Let There Be Light, and it featured two scientists (a man and woman) working to create and implement this technology ahead of those from the "power cratels" that wanted to stop them.
This is one of the "earliest" stories in his future history series and forms the basis for much of that history. His story The Roads Must Roll builds on this technology as the power source for his "rolling roads". For a full listing of his short fiction and how it fits together, check out this great site , which appears to be the best Heinlein site on the web.
While a bit pricey - consider it a capital expense - this system is fantastic. It was originally developed for testing medical devices and systems, where the FDA requires that what you test is what you ship exactly .
I think we are suffering from a lack of understanding of the.NET architecture here. At the bottom of the.NET architecture stack, are Windows (i.e. the "NT" operating system and the Win32 API) and COM+. With out these the.NET dog "won't hunt".
While the CLR and the rest of the stack above it could easily be ported to another platform, without these two lower levels of the stack,.NET isn't all that interesting.
Instead of trying to figure out what to run and what not to run to particular rooms, it is better to run conduit to your specific rooms. This will give you the flexibility to pull CAT-5, Fiber, phone cable, etc. into a particular room without going behind the drywall.
Therefore, to give yourself the greatest flexibility, I would run conduit down each of the walls in your house. In addition, conduit will protect any cables that you run in the future. One of the problems I have seen with running "naked" cables - of any kind - is that nails or screws used to secure the drywall often end up breaking them. A conduit will protect your cables and "clothe" them.
In addition, if I was building out a new house, I would put in a few additional items that will make your life easier over the long-term. First, I would build a "wire closet" to which I would run all of my conduits. Second, I would create places in the roof to receive wireless points of presence, so that you can get full coverage over your whole house. Make sure that these wireless access points are appropriately wired for power and have a conduit with CAT-5 running to them. Depending on the size of your house you will need two to four. Position them by looking for a coverage zone of 75 feet (yes, I know that they claim they can hit 150 feet, but this will give you strong coverage). And third, I would look at running a home automation network that would allow you to control lighting, heating, etc. throughout your house.
Finally, if you haven't put up the roof yet, look at going with solar shingles with a grid tie power system. This will cost more than a standard roof, but with the buy-down that you can get in many states and the zero electric bill you will see, it will the same as a standard roof in the short-term and will cost less within 5 to 10 years.
In bankruptacy proceddings, there is a big difference between creditors and "owners" (which includes shareholders). AT&T only owned 25% of Excite@Home, but had a 75% voting interest in Excite@Home (due to difference classes of stock). What they wanted to do, was to purchases the assets of Excite@Home for $305M plus the assumption of a some of the debits (essentially the leases).
Of course, what the bond holders - the creditors - have gotten out of this deal is a lot less than what AT&T offered. Yes, they are getting $320M for keeping the service up for three months, but they will easily burn through much of this money keeping the service running. In addition, the leases are still in place and take precedence over the bond holders. In the end, they will probably get little, if anything when Excite@Home gets liquidity at the end of three months.
The bondholders bet that AT&T would blink, that they couldn't get a network up and running in the short amount of time in which they have done it. They have taken what was an asset that could have brought in $305M and reduced it to something that will probably get picked up by someone - who knows, maybe AT&T - for maybe $25M (remember high bid gets it, no questions about fairness) at the liquidition auction. These guys screwed themselves and how.
And AT&T has done a good job of under promising and overdelivering. They were telling us that it would be two weeks to get the service transferred. Well, here it is four days later (Saturday-Sunday-Monday-Tuesday) and we have our service back up. Yes, we were inconveniced; yes, it wasn't fun; but they have the service back up and runnning in a very short amount of time.
This is exactly the point I made in a well reasonsed note sent to the reporters from CNet that "broke" this story about a week ago. I felt that they had failed to give an insightful analysis of the story and the issues.
Linux isn't a threat to Microsoft on the server side. It is a threat to Sun, HP, and others that have high-margin server hardware business that is driven by the value add of a powerful server operating system. Microsoft is already on the "commodity" Intel hardware platform. The idea that Linux is "free" is a myth. To mis-quote Richard Stallman, "Free doesn't mean now cost." The Linux installation that Amazon put in place is based on server OS offerings that are in the same price range as comparable offerings from Microsoft.
Another issue that I don't feel anyone is really addressing, is that this is old news! This change-over happened a year ago. We are only hearing about it now, because of Amazon's SEC filing that cite the benefit of this change-over and lower telecommunications costs in saving multi-millions in the last year. Of course, they didn't break out how much was due to the Linux change over and how much was driven by telecommunication savings. It would be interesting to see the balance between the two!
Another disturbing data point for those that want to see Linux overtake Microsoft server OS sales, is that according to IDC studies, Linux market share has been flat, while Microsoft has grown at the expense of the the various Linux/Unix platforms.
The reality is that 4th Amendment protections against "unreasonable search and seizure" apply against the Federal Government - and, via the 14th Amendment which incorporated these protections, against the states.
In addition, it could be argued that in searching those attempting to access a public facility during a state of war (which, don't kid yourselves, is the state in which we currently find ourselves) that the Federal Government is not acting unreasonable, but rather appropriately to meet its obligations to "provide for the common defense and insure the general welfare".
As others have noted, you are free to not be searched. Of course, this will mean terminating your employment with this agency and agreeing not to attempt to access this building. Freedom, doesn't mean the unfettered right to do whatever you want. Choosing to exercise certain rights can mean paying certain costs.
In the real world, the way you become immune to diseases is to get them or get vacinated. Maybe we need to take this model and apply it to computer security.
How about forming a company, call it WormCo, that will take standard distribution of various flavors of Unix and Linux, let a group of hackers have at them, and then have a second team that creates the vacine - i.e. patch(s) - for that worm or virus.
This company will be funded by subscriptions from the folks that want to keep there servers safe and secure. The staffing will come from a crew of permanents (who will try to break systems and create the patches for the worms and viruses that they and others discover), and by crew of virus writers that get to play in the sandbox and get a bounty for every worm or virus they create.
I wouldn't say he is an ex-CIA agent, but I would agree that we funded and supported him in Afghanistan in an attempt to destabilize Soviet efforts there.
As a country, the United States, has funded and supported some dispecable people over time. Bin Ladin is one of them.
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Depends. What if we get the feeds direct (I have that on my satellite) rather than off the air?
Remember, just because things are currently X, it doesn't mean that they have to stay that way!
It doesn't matter if the code is available from somewhere "out there", from inside your company, or even from inside your group. The reality is that developers in general don't play well with others. Why? For a number of reasons.
First, it is no fun to use someone elses code. This is why at one time Apple computer (many years ago) had 13 different (yes, I counted them) memory managers being written. It was fun to write a memory manager, to solve the problems involved, etc.
Second, people don't trust one another. How do I know that you have implemented this code correctly? How do I know that you will deliver the modifications that I need? That you will deliver them on time? I can't, so it is better to do it myself.
Bottom line, we don't play well with one another, because we want all the fun for ourselves and because we don't trust the other folks (called flipping the bozo bit in some corners).
Last time I checked, over the air use of TV was between 10-15%, with cable penetration being close to 90%. It appears that folks highly value clear TV signals. The folks I know that don't have cable are folks that could afford it, but don't choose to have it.
That said, if we are truly worried about folks having TV access, it might be better to charge a monthly rental fee for the use of this spectrum and then use a portion of this rental income to fund "lifeline" access to cable and/or satellite TV. This would allow folks - on a sliding scale - to receive cable and/or satellite TV at a subsidized price depending on their adjusted gross income.
Let's be honest, neither you nor I can figure out the all of the wonderful ways that this spectrum might be used and then decide among them what is the best way it should be used.
Rather than setup a command economy for spectrum, let's put it out there as a common that people can use for various ideas with relatively low barriers to entry. For example, we have for the last several years been discussing how intelligent tuning, spreadspectrum, etc., make a myth of spectrum shortages. If this is the case, then let's put it to the test.
I propose that we let any "service provider" use this spectrum for a small registration fee and a small monthly rental payment (say on the order of 5% of revenues, which could be used for a number of purposes, including giving poor people cable if we decided that is the best way to spend it) for use of the spectrum, as long as they use a technology that 1) doesn't interfer with any other use of the spectrum using "intelligent tuning" technologies and 2) that doesn't demand exclusive use of the specturm in question.
What would this achieve? Well, it would give us a commons (where multiple service providers might exist) for creative us of this spectrum at the same that the people get to share in the benefits. By running multiple different applications of the spectrum, we would be able to determine what is the best use - in terms of demand - without looking out other miniority uses of the spectrum. Another cool thing about this plan, is that it could be rolled out over time. We could start by taking channels 3 and 4 off the air across the country (moving existing broadcasters to open holes that are no longer needed due to the improvments in transmission equipment since the advent of TV), see how it works. If over-the-air TV continues to be less and less important, then we could roll up more and more of the spectrum available for the "spectrum commons".
The question I would ask, is how is this different from what you see (or don't see in any class? Socrates defined a school as a log with a student at one end and a teacher at the other end. A online school is just providing a high tech log to bridge the distance (in time and space) between the student and the teacher. If the teacher or the student doesn't put in the effort and hold up their end of the teaching contract, then the log will be out of balance and things won't be good.
It sounds like your are holding up your end of the bargin and putting in the effort required. It sounds like the teacher isn't (sounds like the last extension course which I took, where the prof was a flake and came to class unprepared and unfocused). I would complain up the management chain, starting with the teacher. Since most online schools are pay-for-play, you should have some clout. If that doesn't work, then walk and request a refund.
First, I don't find this speech all that surprising. India since Gandhi and his spinning wheel has had a focus on independnce as a people and a country. Nehru - first prime minister of India - and others pushed for the formation of IIT to help India grow their own crop of engineering professionals. In this they have been extremely successful, but the unexpected consequence is that that engineering talent has been exported to other countries. And well it should, for it is top-notch (here I speak as someone who has two IIT grads in my chain-of-command and work closely with a passel of them and am hiring three to work for me in India).
On the other hand, this speech is not all that significant. Dr Kalam's influence is extremely limited. Remember that in India the president is the head of the state, with little - if any - power or authority. This speech is roughly equivalent to Queen Elizabeth coming out in favor of OSS. Would it make the news? Yes. Would it influence British business or political decisions in a significant way? Probably not. The equivalent in power and authority to the US President in India is the Prime Minister.
Dr Kalam hold the larger ceremonial position of president because of his work as the "rocket man". He is the person that gave India ballistic missiles and his naming to this position by the BJP (the leading, Hindu Nationalist party that runs the current Indian goverment) was at the point where tensions were at their highest with Pakistian last year. It is widely thought it was to send a message to Pakistian that India was serious about Kashmiar and would not back-down.
Bottom line, I don't think that IIT grads will be focusing their energies on OSS work. It is their desire to land a job with a Microsoft, Adobe, InfoSys, Tata Consulting Group, or Wipo. These companies are focuing on building and delivering non-OSS software.
While the average income in India is quite low, this is due in large part to the disparities in the Indian economy at larget. While you have a family that makes $30 dollars a year, you have folks that make $30,000 a year. The Indian middle class is 50 to 100 million folks out of a population of 1 billion. They have the income and the desire to embrace cellular service.
I just returned from India - on a business trip for my company - of the 200 people at our facility in India, I would estimate that 95% had cellular phones. When I went visiting, I saw people in the middle-class who had cell phones everywhere. Even my driver - who would be considered lower, middle-class, had a cell phone.
Another factor to be considered is the quality - or lack - of landlines in India. It can take 3 or more months to get a phone line installed by the PTT. And just as long to get a service call. And you thought dealing with your cable company was hard? Wait until you hear some of the horrow stories that were shared with me.
Finally, I think GSM has this market locked up. Folks in India go to Europe and the US frequently. They want one phone to meet their needs throughout the world. For them - and me - Triband GSM is the way to go.
Bottom line: beware the averages, they lie! Look at the size of the "middle-class" and the income of this middle-class. These are the folks that will adopt cellular service.
Why are you going DSL? This doesn't make sense to me. Rathe than DSL you should be looking at getting a T3 (forget a T1 it is puny) and then split that bandwidth among folks.
Here is what I would do: I would get the T3 and drop it into your switch room. I would then have a primary switch with 1000 Base-T. I would then divide the complex into zones such that a single switch can service all of the units in that zone. I would then run connections to each and every unit from the zone switch.
Of course, you want management in the switches, so that you can control how much bandwidth folks have. This would allow you to charge different rates based on the bandwidth allowance. For example, you could have a basic level of service built into the homeowner association dues, but let folk with a bigger appettite purchase more and more bandwidth. You will also want a firewall (I would look at the Netscreen) at your head-end to protect the whole thing.
Of course, this assumes that you are able to run lines into folks houses - it might not be as expensive as you think. But if that is a big cost, replace the switches with wireless base stations and it looks about the same. In fact, going wireless would have a lot of advantages and you might want to consider it. Of course, build it secure.
I am the parent of two boys 5 1/2 and 2 1/2, and will be adopting a daughter from China this fall. My wife and I have struggled over the choice of school and final settled on what we think is an excellent choice, the Children's International School, soon to be renamed Bowman International School, in Palo Alto, CA. The watch word at Bowman International School is "freedom within limits". Let me give you a sense of how things are handled...
Bowman Internaional School is a year-round school with only 10 school holidays a year. Families schedule vacations outside of these school holidays much as they would at work. Each quarter the teacher, parents, and the student (degree of involvement depending on their age, ability, and interest) develop a "plan". Think of these like the quarterly goals that many companies have in place. At the beginning of each week, the teacher and the student review these goals and develop a weekly plan. Each day the student and teacher review the progress for the week and make sure that things are on track. within these limits of accountability, the student is free to tackle the work in front of them in their preferred order and pace. Each day the teacher makes available a status report with a summary at the end of the end of the week, which the parents can check. This is available offline, but I believe they have considered putting it online. At the end of teh quarter, the progess against plan is reviewed and the plan for the next quarter is set.
We were attracted to this school for a lot of reasons. One was the ability for our children to work through materials at the appropriate pace and for them to be involved in and responsible for their education. I want my children to learn how to be responsible in big things by being responsible for small things. To do this means that I have to give them autonomy in small things and over time grow that autonomy in a series of concentric circles of authority, responsibility, and accountability.
To the young person that started this discussion, I would say, have you proven yourself responsibile to your parents? Have you demonstrated that they don't have to ride you to insure that you are engaged in your schooling? Have you demonstrated that you are responsible in your use of the freedom within the limits you have been given? Based on your description, it sounds like you haven't. Remember, the flip-side of responsibility and freedom is accountabiilty. If you don't act in a responsible way in the use of your freedom, then you will be held accountable. Of course, this is painful for you, because this technology has shortend the feedback loop. All of a sudden, the accountablity that would come at the middle or end of the term is happening on a daily basis and you are having to confront the consequences of your actions. My word to you, focus on execution, have your homework done first, prior to doing anything else, attend class, and make sure that you are behaving in an appropriate manner. Once you are clean here, discuss with them how you would like to structure things within the limits of doing well in school. Earn their trust. With their trust will come freedom within the limits that they rightfully impose.
Of course, the starter of this thread won't want to hear it, but Bowman International School in general doesn't have homework. They run a 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM school day, and it is their expectation that students will finish their homework during the school day. If they don't, then it is homework. In many ways, like how things are at work. It is only when I can't clear things (too often unfortunately) that I have to take them home.
Let me get this right: it has been purified three different ways, is pristine and clean, and people are still worried about it?!? One can only imagine what Freud could make of these "potty fetishes"!
We really have to think about what these "potty fetishes" are costing us. Here in the SF Bay Area, we are dumping literally millions of gallons of fresh, pure, clean water (cleaner than the the input sources)a day into the SF Bay. We are spending millions to try and protect the brakish marsh and watelands of the SF Bay from this invaison of fresh water. The open loop water economies that we practice through out the world are costing us a untold price economically and ecologically. Southern California, due to its cut off of Colorado River water by the Federal Government, will be setting up desilenation plants. If they wanted to do it cheaper, and with less ecologoical impact, they would start water recycling.
My call for economic and ecological reason is "Close the Loop! Drink Recycled Water!"
Lois McMaster Bujold for those looking for pure "romp" space opera. Strong characters and plotting.
Harry Turtledove for fantastic alternate history and great science fiction. His War World series is incredible science fiction (WW II meets alien invasion).
Catherine Asaro for strong science fiction and strongly drawn characters. She is a cross-over author (SF and Romance), so don't let the garish covers turn you off. It is solid SF within the covers.
Orson Scott Card for some great stories. His continuation of the End series has been fantastic.
Vernor Vinge for some of the best hard, hard science fiction. Remember that he is the daddy of "Cyber Space" and that his famous novella, True Names is back in print.
No points off for using a non-Adobe tool. And I would know, since I will look at the information in the PDF around how you created it the application in which you authored it.
In fact, I would ask you in the interview how you created the file, why you decided to use this tool, and to compare and contrast against the Adobe's standard tools.
Actually, this is what is proposed by Steven McConnell in his book After the Gold Rush: Creating a True Profession of Software Engineering . Am I the only on tha sees a problem with this approach? Restraint of trade perhaps? I can't create software professionally, unless I pay a fee, pass your test, and belong to your assocation? I am sure that this would give a whole new meaining to the free software movement - am I free to create software or not?!?
Ok, so it is patting myself (and my company on the back), but Adobe is truly a great place to work. It is a challenging, highly ethical environment, which provides a great place to create fantastic products. I have been in the industry for 20+ years and worked for a number of "icon" companies, and I have to say Adobe is the best place at which i have worked.
As for being a semi-startup, I can say that is only in spirit. In terms of employees (almost 3K), revenues (1.2 billion, second largest desktop software company), longevity (20 years and counting), and presence("Everywhere you look", refers to the fact that every piece of media you see has been touched by one or more Adobe products), we are a well established company.
It is a great company and we owe that fact to the culture established by John and Chuck when they founded the company. Think about the kind of company that has someone like Bob Sedgewick on its Board of Directors.
Well, I am a manager at Adobe Systems, and I won't accept resumes in anything except PDF. If you want to get in the door, show me that you can figure out how to use our tools to reach me. And for those that don't have a full copy of Acrobat, we have an online service (free for sample use) that allows you to create a PDF. And I have been know to give copies of Acrobat to high-quality candidates to see what they would do with it. Think of it as an aptitude test.
Well, maybe we should get away from how to get more participation in the electorial process to the real issue here. That issue is weather science is being made "conservative" (whatever that means) for political ends? First, we should note that everyone brings their biases to bear when looking at any field of knowledge. The question that must be asked, is how do they deal with this fact. I have to say that over the last 20 years I have seen a lot of "liberal science" in terms of biases exhibited by the researchers. Does this mean that the science was bad? Not necessarily, but it does mean that it was biased. For example, the social biologist that told me that they didn't want to look at "nature" vs. "nurture" in terms of sexual orientation. Why? Because they didn't want to know if it was a "choice" instead of how people were born.
Given the biases of the New York Times, and you have to admit it has biases that are decidely "liberal" (whatever that means), you have to ask what is motivating this article. With that said, let's look at the issues that were raised in the "teaser" for this area.
What is the impact of abortion on breast cancer? Given that breast cancer was known for many years as "the nun's disease", due to the fact that postponing child bearing and failing to nurse have a negative impact on breast cancer risk, is it possible that abortion has impacts on it? Yes, it is possible. Should we look at this risk? I would argue yes. And how about research into the potential risks of abortion in fertility? How widely had this been funded or looked at? The few - and I stress few, because there aren't many - studies I have seen show a significant increase in the risk of being unable to carry a child to term if you have had an abortion. Of course, this isn't "acceptable" science in some quarters and hasn't been looked at in depth.
How about condom availability vs. sexual activity. I think the results are of interest. Also, given the change in social dynamics, I would argue that this is research that should be conducted on a regular basis. What is wrong with asking these questions? Why are we afraid of the results being they for, againist, or neutral?
This is exactly what I thought about when I read this thread. The story is,Let There Be Light, and it featured two scientists (a man and woman) working to create and implement this technology ahead of those from the "power cratels" that wanted to stop them.
This is one of the "earliest" stories in his future history series and forms the basis for much of that history. His story The Roads Must Roll builds on this technology as the power source for his "rolling roads". For a full listing of his short fiction and how it fits together, check out this great site , which appears to be the best Heinlein site on the web.
If you want a cross-platform automated testing tool that is:
1. Localizable
2. Non-Intrusive (tests the environment on which the user runs).
Then check out TestQuest .
While a bit pricey - consider it a capital expense - this system is fantastic. It was originally developed for testing medical devices and systems, where the FDA requires that what you test is what you ship exactly .
All -
I think we are suffering from a lack of understanding of the
While the CLR and the rest of the stack above it could easily be ported to another platform, without these two lower levels of the stack,
All
Instead of trying to figure out what to run and what not to run to particular rooms, it is better to run conduit to your specific rooms. This will give you the flexibility to pull CAT-5, Fiber, phone cable, etc. into a particular room without going behind the drywall.
Therefore, to give yourself the greatest flexibility, I would run conduit down each of the walls in your house. In addition, conduit will protect any cables that you run in the future. One of the problems I have seen with running "naked" cables - of any kind - is that nails or screws used to secure the drywall often end up breaking them. A conduit will protect your cables and "clothe" them.
In addition, if I was building out a new house, I would put in a few additional items that will make your life easier over the long-term. First, I would build a "wire closet" to which I would run all of my conduits. Second, I would create places in the roof to receive wireless points of presence, so that you can get full coverage over your whole house. Make sure that these wireless access points are appropriately wired for power and have a conduit with CAT-5 running to them. Depending on the size of your house you will need two to four. Position them by looking for a coverage zone of 75 feet (yes, I know that they claim they can hit 150 feet, but this will give you strong coverage). And third, I would look at running a home automation network that would allow you to control lighting, heating, etc. throughout your house.
Finally, if you haven't put up the roof yet, look at going with solar shingles with a grid tie power system. This will cost more than a standard roof, but with the buy-down that you can get in many states and the zero electric bill you will see, it will the same as a standard roof in the short-term and will cost less within 5 to 10 years.
In bankruptacy proceddings, there is a big difference between creditors and "owners" (which includes shareholders). AT&T only owned 25% of Excite@Home, but had a 75% voting interest in Excite@Home (due to difference classes of stock). What they wanted to do, was to purchases the assets of Excite@Home for $305M plus the assumption of a some of the debits (essentially the leases).
Of course, what the bond holders - the creditors - have gotten out of this deal is a lot less than what AT&T offered. Yes, they are getting $320M for keeping the service up for three months, but they will easily burn through much of this money keeping the service running. In addition, the leases are still in place and take precedence over the bond holders. In the end, they will probably get little, if anything when Excite@Home gets liquidity at the end of three months.
The bondholders bet that AT&T would blink, that they couldn't get a network up and running in the short amount of time in which they have done it. They have taken what was an asset that could have brought in $305M and reduced it to something that will probably get picked up by someone - who knows, maybe AT&T - for maybe $25M (remember high bid gets it, no questions about fairness) at the liquidition auction. These guys screwed themselves and how.
And AT&T has done a good job of under promising and overdelivering. They were telling us that it would be two weeks to get the service transferred. Well, here it is four days later (Saturday-Sunday-Monday-Tuesday) and we have our service back up. Yes, we were inconveniced; yes, it wasn't fun; but they have the service back up and runnning in a very short amount of time.
This is exactly the point I made in a well reasonsed note sent to the reporters from CNet that "broke" this story about a week ago. I felt that they had failed to give an insightful analysis of the story and the issues.
Linux isn't a threat to Microsoft on the server side. It is a threat to Sun, HP, and others that have high-margin server hardware business that is driven by the value add of a powerful server operating system. Microsoft is already on the "commodity" Intel hardware platform. The idea that Linux is "free" is a myth. To mis-quote Richard Stallman, "Free doesn't mean now cost." The Linux installation that Amazon put in place is based on server OS offerings that are in the same price range as comparable offerings from Microsoft.
Another issue that I don't feel anyone is really addressing, is that this is old news! This change-over happened a year ago. We are only hearing about it now, because of Amazon's SEC filing that cite the benefit of this change-over and lower telecommunications costs in saving multi-millions in the last year. Of course, they didn't break out how much was due to the Linux change over and how much was driven by telecommunication savings. It would be interesting to see the balance between the two!
Another disturbing data point for those that want to see Linux overtake Microsoft server OS sales, is that according to IDC studies, Linux market share has been flat, while Microsoft has grown at the expense of the the various Linux/Unix platforms.
The reality is that 4th Amendment protections against "unreasonable search and seizure" apply against the Federal Government - and, via the 14th Amendment which incorporated these protections, against the states.
In addition, it could be argued that in searching those attempting to access a public facility during a state of war (which, don't kid yourselves, is the state in which we currently find ourselves) that the Federal Government is not acting unreasonable, but rather appropriately to meet its obligations to "provide for the common defense and insure the general welfare".
As others have noted, you are free to not be searched. Of course, this will mean terminating your employment with this agency and agreeing not to attempt to access this building. Freedom, doesn't mean the unfettered right to do whatever you want. Choosing to exercise certain rights can mean paying certain costs.
In the real world, the way you become immune to diseases is to get them or get vacinated. Maybe we need to take this model and apply it to computer security.
How about forming a company, call it WormCo, that will take standard distribution of various flavors of Unix and Linux, let a group of hackers have at them, and then have a second team that creates the vacine - i.e. patch(s) - for that worm or virus.
This company will be funded by subscriptions from the folks that want to keep there servers safe and secure. The staffing will come from a crew of permanents (who will try to break systems and create the patches for the worms and viruses that they and others discover), and by crew of virus writers that get to play in the sandbox and get a bounty for every worm or virus they create.
I wouldn't say he is an ex-CIA agent, but I would agree that we funded and supported him in Afghanistan in an attempt to destabilize Soviet efforts there.
As a country, the United States, has funded and supported some dispecable people over time. Bin Ladin is one of them.