Mind you, "expected" is relative given how many users regard their frequent crashes as normal operation for a PC.
Seriously, are we still living back in the windows 95-98 days? I run an network with hundreds of windows servers and clients and day to day operations are relatively smooth. Windows 2000/XP is really not bad in terms of reliablility.
Would it be fair to the Linux community to claim "Linux is nice, but a pain in the ass to setup - a soundcard and video card took 3 hours to configure....but that's OK because i'm used to it"?
That used to be true 6 years ago, but no longer. While not perfect, hardware support in Linux has gotten tremendously better over the last few years.
Whatever happened to IT guys (and gals) without and agenda? I only hire people that are willing to use the right tool for the job - without any religous prejudices.
I have a fairly expensive NAD unit. Sure, it produces a nice picture; but the hardware is far from exotic.
The unit consists of a DVD drive assembly, a power supply, a stamped chassis, and a very small circuit board with readily identifiable (and inexpensive) parts.
I've even looked at the internals of some Rotel units. Sure, the mechanicals look like they can take a bullet, but the digital heavy-lifiting is done in some very cheap, off the shelf, components.
It's not suprising that a PC with a good video card does a better job.
Bittorent is increasingly being used for legitimate purposes. Warner Bros. is looking at bittorent to legally distribute movies.
Cable companies also provide a similar service in the form of on-demand movies and pay-per-view programing.
By throttling bandwidth to bittorent clients, under the guise of "network performance", they effectively eliminate a competitor's service in the market.
You know what behavior is called? It's called abusing a monopoly, and anti-trust laws exist to prevent just that sort of behavior.
I won't be long for lawyers to start licking their chops.
Maybe, just maybe, the FBI needs to hire a software development manager - and 20-30 software developers and testers. Maybe this whole government contract thing just doesn't work any more.
Look at huge projects like the Big Dig, and this FBI software upgrade. Outside companies collect the cash and hand over a botched project.
I'll bet that if these developers and PMs worked for the government on this project and risked losing their jobs, this project would have turned out differently.
My sister just bought a new Macbook for college in the fall. I asked why she bought a Macbook over a Dell, and she said she liked "the way it looked" and she new that it could run windows if she didn't like OS X.
She gets the new Macbook and loves the design. She booted into OS X and after a few days of trying to do all the things she was familiar with in windows, she handed me the Macbook and said "put windows on this thing, I'm tired of trying to re-learn everything".
So I put windows on it, and showed her how to switch between each OS. She said "I don't care, I'll never use OS X".
I suspect a lot of Mac hardware will never run OS X. Don't get me wrong - I love OS X. Frankly, it is what Linux should be. But many "style conscious" users will pay Jobs and Co. for a cool looking machine just to run windows. I think the public is going to "get" the Mac, but only in a superficial way.
We recently bought a bunch of Dells - P4 2.8Ghz, 512 MB ram, 80 GB hard drives, DVD-CD burner, with a 19" LCD monitor for $450.00. I could buy two of those for the price of the iMac. Yeah, I know....windows....Mac OS X, windows blah blah blah.
OK, so the Dell has a separate tower VS the all in one design of the iMac....but the Dell costs HALF what the Mac costs.
My wife and I both bought VWs at the same time. She bought a 2000 Jetta GLS 2.0L and I bought a 2000 Golf 1.8T. We loved the fact that we could get great fit and finish in cars that cost less than $21,000.00.
Both cars had very similar problems. The problems that were not similar were related to different engines.
A friend of mine also owns a 2002 Jetta 1.8T.
All of us have had similar problems. These are not one-off, outlying statistic, type stuff. These are repeated, widespread, design failures. So much so, that most of the issues were acknowledged and paid for by VW post warranty. That's a good move by VW, but I expect the design work and testing to be done on their nickel....not mine.
No one paid me for the time and effort to deal with these problems (monthly trips to the dealer, time without a car or rental fees...etc).
I still drive the Golf, and to VWs credit, the 6 year old car runs well and still feels "tight". That said, I won't buy another VW.
I don't expect cars to be perfect, but our 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee has 60,000 miles and it has been in the shop only twice for unscheduled maintenance. The Jeep is not as fun to drive, but it has given us a lot less grief than the VWs.
Why should the public be expected to police this sort of behavior? Doesn't the USPTO have a responsibility to refuse patent applications for things like public-domain/prior-art?
Saying the public should police patent activity is like saying that I should have my own tanks, soldiers, guns, and bombs instead of letting the US military do its job.
There needs to be accountability at the USPTO. Rubber-stamping every patent application that crosses the door is no way to run the patent office.
As cable and DSL speeds increase, i'm starting to see lots of old Netgear routers that can't keep up. Old RT311's and RT314's seem to have a tough time delivering 10 Mbps throughput. Some older firewalls with stateful packet inspection also seem to have performance problems.
If you suspect that your router / firewall is limiting your broadband performance, bite the bullet and spend $59.00 on a new Linksys (or whatever brand you like). Most new firewalls have faster processors and can handle a 10 Mbps link.
How would a One Time Pad user comply with this law? Do you give the authorities every possible key in the keyspace? That could be a very large document.
Agreed. These concepts were just an illustration of CS related material.
Game theory and AI are also CS fields, but it seems that the industry is more interested in visual wow, than actually developing better AI.
I get annoyed when I see ads for "coding schools" where you write code for 2 years and get out with a "CS-lite degree".
Most of the really smart Computer Scientists I know are working in industry and don't really have time for contests. I wouldn't worry about the US - there are plenty of geeks here who love science and math.
I have a CS degree, and I can tell you that what I do on a day to day basis is not Computer Science. (I am employed as a Network Manager for a bank - also not CS).
Computer Science is Math and Algorithms - figuring out optimal ways to search, sort, navigate fully connected networks....etc. Computer science is the science of solving complex math problems and creating the code to do the work.
Figuring out how to solve the towers of hanoi problem is computer science. Coding the result of that work is "production" work. Much like the artist and the press operator - one job is art, the other is production.
Repeat after me: CS is not administering a network or coding and these contests do not prove anything.
Cable companies must negotiate with local municipalities to provide service to a designated area. Cable companies ask for a time-limited monopoly in an area in exchange for a specified level of service.
In my township, Cablevision gets a 5 year contract. That contract guarantees Cablevision a monopoly for that time period. The contract also guarantees that all subscribers will have access to high-speed data service, digital video service with High Definition programing, local broadcast feeds, and reasonably priced access for township schools.
It's time for local governments to enforce network neutrality in their agreements with cable companies. Either be net neutral, or prohibit them from servicing an area.
Common carrier status, in the telco world, affords some protections to carriers regarding the use of their networks. Carriers can not be held responsible for the content that crosses their networks, but in exchange, they must carry each other's content.
Law makers should allow carriers to decide if they want to be "net neutral". After all, businesses don't like to be told what to do, so let businesses decide.
Lawmakers should offer a choice to carriers:
1. Claim common carrier status, and carry all traffic equally.
2. Refuse common carrier status, carry any traffic you like, in any manner you choose, - but be held responsible for all illegal traffic and use of the network.
You can't have it both ways. You can't pick and choose the data that crosses your network, but claim you know nothing about the data.
On-demand movies are here to stay - they are more convenient than rentals, and as the selection gets better, a nice way to watch older movies that your local video store may not stock. Hard drive space is cheap, and soon it will be possible for cable companies to warehouse thousands of titles that you can watch whenever you want.
Content providers aren't too thrilled with this setup since the carriers (cable companies) get a cut of every viewing.....but it is a deal with the devil they must make - why you ask?
Piracy. Physical media is bad for the war on piracy. Everyone I know makes copies of their Blockbuster and Netflix rentals. Shipping physical media around the world is no way to control the duplication of that content.
The RIAA and the MPAA want to make this an on-demand world - one where you don't possess physical media. You consume the content streamed to you in a protected, DRM'ed out the wazoo, format.
The final nail in the coffin for physical media will be wireless - once wireless speeds are up to the challenge, you'll be able to stream music and movies to your portable devices and the car. It will only be a matter of time before the "lazy" media-consuming public stops collecting physical media and streams everything.
Then the issue of piracy via "media copying" almost completely goes away. Sure it might take 10 years, but it will happen. The hardcore guys will still figure out a way to capture the streams, but if the streaming world is easy enough, available enough, and cheap enough, most people won't bother.
Businesses that operate in the US must obey US law. Businesses that operate in China must obey Chinese laws.
If you or your company finds local laws and customs distasteful or inhumane, then you should pack your bags and go home. It is not the responsibility of companies, or even a foreign government to dictate to a nation what laws are right and wrong.
If the citizens of China feel their government's behavior is heavy-handed, then the people of that nation should force change. Power is derived from the people - not from foreign companies or governments.
Many people argue that the citizens of China could never rise against the well-armed military machine of the Chinese government. I say bull - a solitary assassin's bullet is very effective and does not require a military machine to implement; I didn't say it was going to be easy. After a few key leaders get capped the rest might notice....
Americans seem to feel that every other nation should be like America. There may actually be parts of the world that don't want Wal-Mart, GM cars, women's rights, free-speech, representative government, capitalism....etc. If these things are not wanted, why should we force them?
Right....I'm sure my department won't get any calls from users trying to figure out where their documents are, or where the right-mouse button is, or where Outlook is for email. Oh, yeah, our core application - that only runs on windows - i'm sure no users will call asking why they can't run our core banking application.
That's great! We layoff our IT staff, but we quadruple our training department - only to tell our users they can't do the things they used to do on windows.
As much as Mac users hate to hear it - there are some things that only work on Windows.
I see lots of comments that look like: "Apples are only $400 more than Dell/HP/Compaq/Gateway...but it is worth it."
To a one-off buyer, that might not be a significant amount of money, but when the president of my company tells me to buy 300 machines I will not be the one to recommend Apple. Do the math - the difference in price will be $120,000. I don't care who you are - that's real money.
That's why Dell gets our business - and their servers/SANs are nice too.
C'mon....our "intelligence" agencies (in the US) couldn't even reliably tell whether or not Saddam had any serious weapons. Do you think these guys will be able to really crack systems that are set up by reasonably smart people? Can these agencies crack 1024 bit encryption? Can they break into systems that meet D.O.D. levels of security? What exactly do these guys think they will accomplish?
It's a waste of time and money. Terrorists want one thing - BODY COUNT - you don't get that from DOS'ing a bank's web site, or even by breaking into a bank's web site. Terrorists like the idea of disrupting our economy and lifestyle, but that isn't the primary goal, that goal is a byproduct of the act of terrorism.
The goal on 9-11 was to kill as many people as possible. The economic fall-out was just gravy as far as the terrorists are concerned.
Even if we hardened our networks, and we preemptively attacked the IT infrastructure of the bad guys, do you think it would have prevented 9-11? The first think Osama did after 9-11 was stop using his satellite phone. He found much lower-tech ways to communicate (and we still can't catch the bastard).
It's a waste of time and money, and another excuse to bug the law-abiding world.
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Mind you, "expected" is relative given how many users regard their frequent crashes as normal operation for a PC.
Seriously, are we still living back in the windows 95-98 days? I run an network with hundreds of windows servers and clients and day to day operations are relatively smooth. Windows 2000/XP is really not bad in terms of reliablility.
Would it be fair to the Linux community to claim "Linux is nice, but a pain in the ass to setup - a soundcard and video card took 3 hours to configure....but that's OK because i'm used to it"?
That used to be true 6 years ago, but no longer. While not perfect, hardware support in Linux has gotten tremendously better over the last few years.
Whatever happened to IT guys (and gals) without and agenda? I only hire people that are willing to use the right tool for the job - without any religous prejudices.
-ted
Its a joke - really.
I have a fairly expensive NAD unit. Sure, it produces a nice picture; but the hardware is far from exotic.
The unit consists of a DVD drive assembly, a power supply, a stamped chassis, and a very small circuit board with readily identifiable (and inexpensive) parts.
I've even looked at the internals of some Rotel units. Sure, the mechanicals look like they can take a bullet, but the digital heavy-lifiting is done in some very cheap, off the shelf, components.
It's not suprising that a PC with a good video card does a better job.
-ted
Bittorent is increasingly being used for legitimate purposes. Warner Bros. is looking at bittorent to legally distribute movies.
Cable companies also provide a similar service in the form of on-demand movies and pay-per-view programing.
By throttling bandwidth to bittorent clients, under the guise of "network performance", they effectively eliminate a competitor's service in the market.
You know what behavior is called? It's called abusing a monopoly, and anti-trust laws exist to prevent just that sort of behavior.
I won't be long for lawyers to start licking their chops.
-ted
Vectorvest has been doing this for years. -ted
Maybe, just maybe, the FBI needs to hire a software development manager - and 20-30 software developers and testers. Maybe this whole government contract thing just doesn't work any more.
Look at huge projects like the Big Dig, and this FBI software upgrade. Outside companies collect the cash and hand over a botched project.
I'll bet that if these developers and PMs worked for the government on this project and risked losing their jobs, this project would have turned out differently.
-ted
My sister just bought a new Macbook for college in the fall. I asked why she bought a Macbook over a Dell, and she said she liked "the way it looked" and she new that it could run windows if she didn't like OS X.
She gets the new Macbook and loves the design. She booted into OS X and after a few days of trying to do all the things she was familiar with in windows, she handed me the Macbook and said "put windows on this thing, I'm tired of trying to re-learn everything".
So I put windows on it, and showed her how to switch between each OS. She said "I don't care, I'll never use OS X".
I suspect a lot of Mac hardware will never run OS X. Don't get me wrong - I love OS X. Frankly, it is what Linux should be. But many "style conscious" users will pay Jobs and Co. for a cool looking machine just to run windows. I think the public is going to "get" the Mac, but only in a superficial way.
-ted
We recently bought a bunch of Dells - P4 2.8Ghz, 512 MB ram, 80 GB hard drives, DVD-CD burner, with a 19" LCD monitor for $450.00. I could buy two of those for the price of the iMac. Yeah, I know....windows....Mac OS X, windows blah blah blah.
OK, so the Dell has a separate tower VS the all in one design of the iMac....but the Dell costs HALF what the Mac costs.
-ted
My wife and I both bought VWs at the same time. She bought a 2000 Jetta GLS 2.0L and I bought a 2000 Golf 1.8T. We loved the fact that we could get great fit and finish in cars that cost less than $21,000.00.
Both cars had very similar problems. The problems that were not similar were related to different engines.
A friend of mine also owns a 2002 Jetta 1.8T.
All of us have had similar problems. These are not one-off, outlying statistic, type stuff. These are repeated, widespread, design failures. So much so, that most of the issues were acknowledged and paid for by VW post warranty. That's a good move by VW, but I expect the design work and testing to be done on their nickel....not mine.
No one paid me for the time and effort to deal with these problems (monthly trips to the dealer, time without a car or rental fees...etc).
I still drive the Golf, and to VWs credit, the 6 year old car runs well and still feels "tight". That said, I won't buy another VW.
I don't expect cars to be perfect, but our 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee has 60,000 miles and it has been in the shop only twice for unscheduled maintenance. The Jeep is not as fun to drive, but it has given us a lot less grief than the VWs.
-ted
Self-driving is nice, but how about the basics like:
Fixing glove box doors that break at the hinge constantly.
Making window regulator clamps out of metal instead of plastic so the window doesn't fall into the door.
Using MAF sensors that last longer than 30,000 miles.
Using O2 sensors that last longer than the previously mentioned MAF sensors.
Engineering sunvisors with built-in lights that stay working (wires too short so they break in the headliner).
Assembling 2.0L engines so they don't use 3 quarts of oil every 3,000 miles.
Re-engineering a 1.8t turbo overboost valve out of metal so it lasts as long as the turbo.
Re-engineering combi-valves so they also last as long as the turbo.
Making all oil pans out of steel so oil change technicians don't strip the pan threads after 10 oil changes.
Making interior rubber coated plastic parts that don't peel after 2 years.
Making brake light switches right on the first try - not the 4th or 5th revision.
Let's get the basics of autos right first before we make them drive themselves....
-ted
Why should the public be expected to police this sort of behavior? Doesn't the USPTO have a responsibility to refuse patent applications for things like public-domain/prior-art?
Saying the public should police patent activity is like saying that I should have my own tanks, soldiers, guns, and bombs instead of letting the US military do its job.
There needs to be accountability at the USPTO. Rubber-stamping every patent application that crosses the door is no way to run the patent office.
-ted
How do you expect to live this lifestyle when you can no longer work? "No savings anywhere" means you will never be able to be without income.
-ted
As cable and DSL speeds increase, i'm starting to see lots of old Netgear routers that can't keep up. Old RT311's and RT314's seem to have a tough time delivering 10 Mbps throughput. Some older firewalls with stateful packet inspection also seem to have performance problems.
If you suspect that your router / firewall is limiting your broadband performance, bite the bullet and spend $59.00 on a new Linksys (or whatever brand you like). Most new firewalls have faster processors and can handle a 10 Mbps link.
-ted
Heisenberg's principle describes oberservation, not prediction.
That leads to an interesting problem - if you can't observe it, how can you ever know enough about it to predict it?
-ted
My philosophy professor in college once said that if you know enough about any environment, everything in that environment is predictable.
-ted
How would a One Time Pad user comply with this law? Do you give the authorities every possible key in the keyspace? That could be a very large document.
-ted
Agreed. These concepts were just an illustration of CS related material.
Game theory and AI are also CS fields, but it seems that the industry is more interested in visual wow, than actually developing better AI.
I get annoyed when I see ads for "coding schools" where you write code for 2 years and get out with a "CS-lite degree".
Most of the really smart Computer Scientists I know are working in industry and don't really have time for contests. I wouldn't worry about the US - there are plenty of geeks here who love science and math.
-ted
I have a CS degree, and I can tell you that what I do on a day to day basis is not Computer Science. (I am employed as a Network Manager for a bank - also not CS).
Computer Science is Math and Algorithms - figuring out optimal ways to search, sort, navigate fully connected networks....etc. Computer science is the science of solving complex math problems and creating the code to do the work.
Figuring out how to solve the towers of hanoi problem is computer science. Coding the result of that work is "production" work. Much like the artist and the press operator - one job is art, the other is production.
Repeat after me: CS is not administering a network or coding and these contests do not prove anything.
Cable companies must negotiate with local municipalities to provide service to a designated area. Cable companies ask for a time-limited monopoly in an area in exchange for a specified level of service.
In my township, Cablevision gets a 5 year contract. That contract guarantees Cablevision a monopoly for that time period. The contract also guarantees that all subscribers will have access to high-speed data service, digital video service with High Definition programing, local broadcast feeds, and reasonably priced access for township schools.
It's time for local governments to enforce network neutrality in their agreements with cable companies. Either be net neutral, or prohibit them from servicing an area.
-ted
Common carrier status, in the telco world, affords some protections to carriers regarding the use of their networks. Carriers can not be held responsible for the content that crosses their networks, but in exchange, they must carry each other's content.
Law makers should allow carriers to decide if they want to be "net neutral". After all, businesses don't like to be told what to do, so let businesses decide.
Lawmakers should offer a choice to carriers:
1. Claim common carrier status, and carry all traffic equally.
2. Refuse common carrier status, carry any traffic you like, in any manner you choose, - but be held responsible for all illegal traffic and use of the network.
You can't have it both ways. You can't pick and choose the data that crosses your network, but claim you know nothing about the data.
-ted
On-demand movies are here to stay - they are more convenient than rentals, and as the selection gets better, a nice way to watch older movies that your local video store may not stock. Hard drive space is cheap, and soon it will be possible for cable companies to warehouse thousands of titles that you can watch whenever you want.
Content providers aren't too thrilled with this setup since the carriers (cable companies) get a cut of every viewing.....but it is a deal with the devil they must make - why you ask?
Piracy. Physical media is bad for the war on piracy. Everyone I know makes copies of their Blockbuster and Netflix rentals. Shipping physical media around the world is no way to control the duplication of that content.
The RIAA and the MPAA want to make this an on-demand world - one where you don't possess physical media. You consume the content streamed to you in a protected, DRM'ed out the wazoo, format.
The final nail in the coffin for physical media will be wireless - once wireless speeds are up to the challenge, you'll be able to stream music and movies to your portable devices and the car. It will only be a matter of time before the "lazy" media-consuming public stops collecting physical media and streams everything.
Then the issue of piracy via "media copying" almost completely goes away. Sure it might take 10 years, but it will happen. The hardcore guys will still figure out a way to capture the streams, but if the streaming world is easy enough, available enough, and cheap enough, most people won't bother.
-ted
Businesses that operate in the US must obey US law. Businesses that operate in China must obey Chinese laws.
If you or your company finds local laws and customs distasteful or inhumane, then you should pack your bags and go home. It is not the responsibility of companies, or even a foreign government to dictate to a nation what laws are right and wrong.
If the citizens of China feel their government's behavior is heavy-handed, then the people of that nation should force change. Power is derived from the people - not from foreign companies or governments.
Many people argue that the citizens of China could never rise against the well-armed military machine of the Chinese government. I say bull - a solitary assassin's bullet is very effective and does not require a military machine to implement; I didn't say it was going to be easy. After a few key leaders get capped the rest might notice....
Americans seem to feel that every other nation should be like America. There may actually be parts of the world that don't want Wal-Mart, GM cars, women's rights, free-speech, representative government, capitalism....etc. If these things are not wanted, why should we force them?
-ted
Right....I'm sure my department won't get any calls from users trying to figure out where their documents are, or where the right-mouse button is, or where Outlook is for email. Oh, yeah, our core application - that only runs on windows - i'm sure no users will call asking why they can't run our core banking application.
That's great! We layoff our IT staff, but we quadruple our training department - only to tell our users they can't do the things they used to do on windows.
As much as Mac users hate to hear it - there are some things that only work on Windows.
-ted
I see lots of comments that look like: "Apples are only $400 more than Dell/HP/Compaq/Gateway...but it is worth it."
To a one-off buyer, that might not be a significant amount of money, but when the president of my company tells me to buy 300 machines I will not be the one to recommend Apple. Do the math - the difference in price will be $120,000. I don't care who you are - that's real money.
That's why Dell gets our business - and their servers/SANs are nice too.
-ted
You can now register domain names for 100 years. Is it possible to inherit a domain name?
I can picture it now:
"Being of sound mind and body, I do herby bequeath MutantGoat.com to my heirs....."
-ted
C'mon....our "intelligence" agencies (in the US) couldn't even reliably tell whether or not Saddam had any serious weapons. Do you think these guys will be able to really crack systems that are set up by reasonably smart people? Can these agencies crack 1024 bit encryption? Can they break into systems that meet D.O.D. levels of security? What exactly do these guys think they will accomplish?
It's a waste of time and money. Terrorists want one thing - BODY COUNT - you don't get that from DOS'ing a bank's web site, or even by breaking into a bank's web site. Terrorists like the idea of disrupting our economy and lifestyle, but that isn't the primary goal, that goal is a byproduct of the act of terrorism.
The goal on 9-11 was to kill as many people as possible. The economic fall-out was just gravy as far as the terrorists are concerned.
Even if we hardened our networks, and we preemptively attacked the IT infrastructure of the bad guys, do you think it would have prevented 9-11? The first think Osama did after 9-11 was stop using his satellite phone. He found much lower-tech ways to communicate (and we still can't catch the bastard).
It's a waste of time and money, and another excuse to bug the law-abiding world.
-ted