Long term studies on this topic are pretty useless. In the past 10 years, the cell phone business has changed drastically.
Remember bag phones and the motorola brick phone? Those suckers had a full 3-watt transmitter. Due to cell tower density, you can be sure those things were broadcasting at a full 3-watts most of the time. They also broadcast around 800-900 MHz.
Today's phones still broadcast at around 800-900 MHz, as well as the 1800-1900 Mhz frequencies. They also use alot less power, around.6 watts, thanks to cell tower density and digital transmission.
Even if there is a link between non-ionizing radiation and cancer, is the risk still present with modern cell phones?
If you can prove this, there is a nobel prize waiting for you.
IBM turned themselves around by cutting out low-margin commodity businesses - PCs, hard drives, and more recently, laptops.
And what did they replace these low-margin businesses with? You guessed it! High-margin consulting (with consultants dressed in suits). The strategy shift could not have happened at a better time - Sarbanes/Oxley almost tripled the need for these types of services in the US.
Sure, IBM still sells a lot of "Big Iron" products, but they pay make a lot of money by selling billable consultant hours.
Dress code had very little to do with IBM's success.
how many would buy some lousy pen device costing thousands when something costing a tenth could do all they need?
How many would buy a $40,000 car when a $20,000 car will do just fine?
How about Apple's entire existence? Sure, some people believe that OS X justifies a huge hardware premium, but most, just like the way Apple's computers look.
Lot's of people do not want a hand-crank $200 device because it doesn't look cool, and it won't do EVERYTHING their $600 laptop can do.
These devices, while noble in spirit, won't do anything to get basic medical attention, clean water, food, and shelter to the poorest of the world. Don't even get me started on oppressive/corrupt governments. These issues need to be solved before a $200 computing device will become useful to the target user.
Linux will never get a large presence on the corporate desktop until the "big-brother" tools are there. Thanks to SOX and GLBA, we have auditors in our department twice a quarter. Due to the standardness of windows and active directory, we can be sure that we are in full compliance by implementing standard operating procedures. There are no such widely accepted procedures for the Linux world. By introducing Linux, you introduce audit and regulatory scrutiny. No one in business wants to draw unnecessary audit and regulatory attention to IT - it costs money, time, and causes headaches while distracting you from your business.
Ironically, I run many linux based tools to audit my windows machines for SOX and GLBA.
The discovery of oil was probably the worst thing that could have happened to the middle east. Instead of relying on a educated populace to produce innovations that benefit their societies and the world, the middle east pumped oil out of the ground and not done anything significant since then.
An educated populace probably would lessen the impact of radical religious fundamentalists, and this could have resulted in a more peaceful/stable middle east.
Education breeds innovation and peaceful stability. Oil seems to have killed the need for education in that part of the world.
I've taken a hit from the on-demand home theater crack pipe and i'm hooked. I no longer want to sit in a room with noisy people and sticky floors eating an $8.00 bucket of stale popcorn. Now I enjoy movies on-demand on my 56" DLP with my Boston Acoustics system, comfy couches, and a $1.00 bag of popcorn that isn't stale.
Why would I pay 4 to 6 times as much to sit in that hell-hole called a movie theater?
After years of job/cost cutting and low-quality outsourcing, companies are finally starting to realize that the brain drain of the.com bubble burst is now hurting their product pipelines.
If you have Exchange server 2003 and a Palm Treo 650, you can now receive all your data stored in Outlook/Exchange without the need of a middle tier like Goodlink or Blackberry.
Our company plans to roll out Verizon based Treo 700w units later this year connected to Exchange without a Blackberry or Goodlink server.
I predicted (the demise of Blackberry and Goodlink) a year ago when we first connected a Treo to our Exchange server. Why would we continue to pay Goodlink when we get similar functionality without the per-seat cost of Goodlink or Blackberry?
Lovely little device....learned basic on that machine at 12 years old. I hated rekeying programs every time I wanted to use them, so I got my parents to break down and buy me a tape drive. That was cool.
My parents probably had no idea they were shaping my carrer in CS/IT. They just thought they were buying me a video game system that was a little more useful than a dedicated gaming console.
This action by the USPTO will have HUGE implications for anyone that has a patent on anything.
A patent is supposed to secure, for a limited time, exclusive use of the patented item for the inventor. What the USPTO has effectively done here is said:
"We rubber stamp almost everything. You shouldn't build a business on a patent until it has been tried in the courts."
Of course, most patents will not be tried in courts until there is money (and a big business) at stake....catch 22.
A patent is supposed to be a guarantee - the due diligence should have been done before the patent was granted. Now, no business based on a patent has any reason to believe that their business is safe, or that they will recoup the costs of their investment until the courts decide so.
The patents granted by the USPTO are effectively paper tigers and not worthy of investment trust.
I agree in a world of perfect information and no barriers to entry, that theory would work. You can't build a large area wireless nework overnight. The incumbent wireless providers have an advantage, and they can use that advantage to dictate the terms of your wireless service. Would IPv6 really be the "killer app" that causes a bunch of investors to pony up billions of dollars to build another wireless network? Do doctors, lawyers, and businessmen really care what transport protocol carries their data? I doubt it.
-ted
Private networks and the business case.
on
IPv6 Readiness Report
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
It has been said many times here on Slashdot, but it bears repeating.
There is no business case (yet) for IPv6. The internet was designed for resilient point to point connectivity, but the business world does not want that.
Today's security paranoid businesses want to keep their internet exposure to a minimum. Look at most companies - lots of computers behind one or two public IP addresses. Most internal hosts are firewalled, proxied, and natted INTENTIONALLY.
Sure, this creates some problems, but there are workarounds for most issues.
I keep hearing about handhelds and that millions of them will need their own IP addresses. I don't see why. I'm sure most of the wireless providers want to control the content that their subscribers can send or receive - that business model does not want a wide open network with each host directly connected to the internet.
In this type of business environment, I can't see why any business would want to throw away thousands if not millions of dollars in their existing IPv4 investment.
If you can explain a bulletproof business case for IPv6, then Mr. Chambers at Cisco may have a nice sales job for you.
-ted
Admin permissions required in windows? Hogwash...
on
Antispyware Shootout
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Time and time again I see people claiming that Windows REQUIRES admin permissions to be useful. I say baloney.
At our bank we have over 200 users running many different types of software. Not one needs to be "administrator" - heck, no one even needs anything above "power user".
Sure, some people will claim that in order to install software, and maintain the machine, you'll need admin permissions......but that is true on any system! Last time I checked, I needed to be root to install patches on my Linux machines.
The bottom line is that most users (non-computer savy) want to be able to install anything they like...and they don't want to log out, and log back in as admin to do it. This is true of ANY platform - not just windows. It is a human behavioral thing - not a systems design thing.
Some people will claim that "OS X prompts you for a root password when performing an install, you don't need to log out and log in". Sure, that's useful - but most of the OS X users i've seen blindly type in the root/admin password whenever the dialog box pops up. They never even read the box to see what is going on! Often times they ask if there is any way to get rid of that box.
So, in summary, as long as users can install anything they want on their boxes, there will be a spyware problem. Windows, Linux, OS X, solaris - it does not matter.
How many companies have lost their strategic edge by placing more emphasis on "business" rather than engineering.
Intel - the king of silicon - once an engineering powerhouse, is losing its edge in the CPU business - why? By putting marketing ahead of engineering talent, it designed an architecture that would sell well based on GHz ratings. Now, the corporate market (the most profitable market for CPUs) is taking a hard look at opteron. Why? It's a better performing design with less power consumption than Intel's offerings. The day Dell starts selling 2 CPU opteron boxes is the day Intel starts regretting the GHz marketing decision.
HP - once run by engineers that flew coach instead of by private Lear jet. HP used to be the king of "technology must-haves" from medical equipment, to scientific and engineering tools. HP was the standard in many industries. Thanks to Carly and most of her management staff they decided to exit those niche (but highly profitable) markets for what???? The PC business? God - if that isn't a marketing driven decision, I don't know what is.
SGI - don't even get me started about this shell of a company. This company had some pretty impressive hardware and 3D rendering products that were way ahead of everyone else in the industry. This was another company that decided selling Windows boxes was the way to go.
You can always count on non-technical managers to screw up these types of companies. They don't understand the high-end niche technologies, so they focus on stuff they do understand - the commodity garbage you can purchase at Best Buy.
Let Engineers run tech companies - the money and success will follow.
I've been a Verizon customer for 8 years until one month ago. I purposely avoided Verizon this time around due to the Bluetooth fiasco.
I suspect the Bluetooth hacks also hurt other bluetooth functions....bluetooth headsets on Verizon phones never seem to have enough volume, and car-kit compatibility was never quite right.
I bought a spiffy new Black Motorola Razr from Cingular. The phone and the service have been great.
Verizon's "business decision" to hack bluetooth cost them at least one customer.
Limiting usability tests to people that have no experience with windows is a pointless waste of time.
It would be like GM testing their vehicles with people that don't have a drivers license. Why would GM develop and test a product with a market that won't use their product? That makes no sense.
Linux developers and vendors need to understand, inter-operate with, and mimic the windows way.....for now. That is necessary to win the trust of business and personal users. After Linux has a monster market share, then the developers and distributors have free license to move that user-base in any direction that makes sense.
Microsoft sort of did this with Novell. Their desktop OS worked well as a Netware client, and when it came time to replace the Netware stuff, NT4 server was an easy choice - it was designed to work with all those windows 95/98 desktops that were deployed on Novell networks.
People don't want something new....they want something that works with the stuff they already have.
Maybe Cisco wants to push their wireless VOIP to the next level. It makes sense. Imagine every Nokia product being 802.11 VOIP capable right out of the box.
My Volkswagen produces ice cold AC and does not use freon. It can get the car cold enough to condense water on the outside of the car's windows.
Most BMWs, Mercedes Benzs, Audis, and Porsches also have powerful AC units. Just because GM and Ford can't design AC units correctly does not mean that it cannot be done.
I can tell you how many Macs running OS X i've seen with people logged in as essentially "root". Sure OS X prompts you for an admin password when critical things happen, but everyone I've seen blindly enters the root password. Most times, the user does not even read the dialog box.
The "least privileges" problem happens on all operating systems....most users of personal computers want to be "root". Until users become more security savvy, this will be a problem on all systems.
The credit card industry could eliminate 90% of the fraud that occurs simply by requiring a PIN number for every transaction. Bank cards have required this for years - so the infrastructure is already in place.
The bottom line is that credit card companies don't have any reason to change the status quo - the costs of fraud are usually pushed onto insurance companies and customers. The "bad-debt" numbers that credit card companies publish really do not hurt them as much as you think (until this week, bankruptcy hurt them worse than fraud).
Slashdot Mirror
Long term studies on this topic are pretty useless. In the past 10 years, the cell phone business has changed drastically.
.6 watts, thanks to cell tower density and digital transmission.
Remember bag phones and the motorola brick phone? Those suckers had a full 3-watt transmitter. Due to cell tower density, you can be sure those things were broadcasting at a full 3-watts most of the time. They also broadcast around 800-900 MHz.
Today's phones still broadcast at around 800-900 MHz, as well as the 1800-1900 Mhz frequencies. They also use alot less power, around
Even if there is a link between non-ionizing radiation and cancer, is the risk still present with modern cell phones?
If you can prove this, there is a nobel prize waiting for you.
-ted
IBM turned themselves around by cutting out low-margin commodity businesses - PCs, hard drives, and more recently, laptops.
And what did they replace these low-margin businesses with? You guessed it! High-margin consulting (with consultants dressed in suits). The strategy shift could not have happened at a better time - Sarbanes/Oxley almost tripled the need for these types of services in the US.
Sure, IBM still sells a lot of "Big Iron" products, but they pay make a lot of money by selling billable consultant hours.
Dress code had very little to do with IBM's success.
-ted
how many would buy some lousy pen device costing thousands when something costing a tenth could do all they need?
How many would buy a $40,000 car when a $20,000 car will do just fine?
How about Apple's entire existence? Sure, some people believe that OS X justifies a huge hardware premium, but most, just like the way Apple's computers look.
Lot's of people do not want a hand-crank $200 device because it doesn't look cool, and it won't do EVERYTHING their $600 laptop can do.
These devices, while noble in spirit, won't do anything to get basic medical attention, clean water, food, and shelter to the poorest of the world. Don't even get me started on oppressive/corrupt governments. These issues need to be solved before a $200 computing device will become useful to the target user.
-ted
Linux will never get a large presence on the corporate desktop until the "big-brother" tools are there. Thanks to SOX and GLBA, we have auditors in our department twice a quarter. Due to the standardness of windows and active directory, we can be sure that we are in full compliance by implementing standard operating procedures. There are no such widely accepted procedures for the Linux world. By introducing Linux, you introduce audit and regulatory scrutiny. No one in business wants to draw unnecessary audit and regulatory attention to IT - it costs money, time, and causes headaches while distracting you from your business.
Ironically, I run many linux based tools to audit my windows machines for SOX and GLBA.
-ted
The discovery of oil was probably the worst thing that could have happened to the middle east. Instead of relying on a educated populace to produce innovations that benefit their societies and the world, the middle east pumped oil out of the ground and not done anything significant since then.
An educated populace probably would lessen the impact of radical religious fundamentalists, and this could have resulted in a more peaceful/stable middle east.
Education breeds innovation and peaceful stability. Oil seems to have killed the need for education in that part of the world.
-ted
This partnership hurts no one and helps fund the development of a better browser.
Good for them.
-ted
I've taken a hit from the on-demand home theater crack pipe and i'm hooked. I no longer want to sit in a room with noisy people and sticky floors eating an $8.00 bucket of stale popcorn. Now I enjoy movies on-demand on my 56" DLP with my Boston Acoustics system, comfy couches, and a $1.00 bag of popcorn that isn't stale.
Why would I pay 4 to 6 times as much to sit in that hell-hole called a movie theater?
-ted
DEAD CAT BOUNCE
.com bubble burst is now hurting their product pipelines.
After years of job/cost cutting and low-quality outsourcing, companies are finally starting to realize that the brain drain of the
-ted
If you have Exchange server 2003 and a Palm Treo 650, you can now receive all your data stored in Outlook/Exchange without the need of a middle tier like Goodlink or Blackberry.
Our company plans to roll out Verizon based Treo 700w units later this year connected to Exchange without a Blackberry or Goodlink server.
I predicted (the demise of Blackberry and Goodlink) a year ago when we first connected a Treo to our Exchange server. Why would we continue to pay Goodlink when we get similar functionality without the per-seat cost of Goodlink or Blackberry?
-ted
Lovely little device....learned basic on that machine at 12 years old. I hated rekeying programs every time I wanted to use them, so I got my parents to break down and buy me a tape drive. That was cool.
My parents probably had no idea they were shaping my carrer in CS/IT. They just thought they were buying me a video game system that was a little more useful than a dedicated gaming console.
-ted
This action by the USPTO will have HUGE implications for anyone that has a patent on anything.
A patent is supposed to secure, for a limited time, exclusive use of the patented item for the inventor. What the USPTO has effectively done here is said:
"We rubber stamp almost everything. You shouldn't build a business on a patent until it has been tried in the courts."
Of course, most patents will not be tried in courts until there is money (and a big business) at stake....catch 22.
A patent is supposed to be a guarantee - the due diligence should have been done before the patent was granted. Now, no business based on a patent has any reason to believe that their business is safe, or that they will recoup the costs of their investment until the courts decide so.
The patents granted by the USPTO are effectively paper tigers and not worthy of investment trust.
-ted
I agree in a world of perfect information and no barriers to entry, that theory would work. You can't build a large area wireless nework overnight. The incumbent wireless providers have an advantage, and they can use that advantage to dictate the terms of your wireless service. Would IPv6 really be the "killer app" that causes a bunch of investors to pony up billions of dollars to build another wireless network? Do doctors, lawyers, and businessmen really care what transport protocol carries their data? I doubt it.
-ted
It has been said many times here on Slashdot, but it bears repeating.
There is no business case (yet) for IPv6. The internet was designed for resilient point to point connectivity, but the business world does not want that.
Today's security paranoid businesses want to keep their internet exposure to a minimum. Look at most companies - lots of computers behind one or two public IP addresses. Most internal hosts are firewalled, proxied, and natted INTENTIONALLY.
Sure, this creates some problems, but there are workarounds for most issues.
I keep hearing about handhelds and that millions of them will need their own IP addresses. I don't see why. I'm sure most of the wireless providers want to control the content that their subscribers can send or receive - that business model does not want a wide open network with each host directly connected to the internet.
In this type of business environment, I can't see why any business would want to throw away thousands if not millions of dollars in their existing IPv4 investment.
If you can explain a bulletproof business case for IPv6, then Mr. Chambers at Cisco may have a nice sales job for you.
-ted
Time and time again I see people claiming that Windows REQUIRES admin permissions to be useful. I say baloney.
At our bank we have over 200 users running many different types of software. Not one needs to be "administrator" - heck, no one even needs anything above "power user".
Sure, some people will claim that in order to install software, and maintain the machine, you'll need admin permissions......but that is true on any system! Last time I checked, I needed to be root to install patches on my Linux machines.
The bottom line is that most users (non-computer savy) want to be able to install anything they like...and they don't want to log out, and log back in as admin to do it. This is true of ANY platform - not just windows. It is a human behavioral thing - not a systems design thing.
Some people will claim that "OS X prompts you for a root password when performing an install, you don't need to log out and log in". Sure, that's useful - but most of the OS X users i've seen blindly type in the root/admin password whenever the dialog box pops up. They never even read the box to see what is going on! Often times they ask if there is any way to get rid of that box.
So, in summary, as long as users can install anything they want on their boxes, there will be a spyware problem. Windows, Linux, OS X, solaris - it does not matter.
-ted
How many companies have lost their strategic edge by placing more emphasis on "business" rather than engineering.
Intel - the king of silicon - once an engineering powerhouse, is losing its edge in the CPU business - why? By putting marketing ahead of engineering talent, it designed an architecture that would sell well based on GHz ratings. Now, the corporate market (the most profitable market for CPUs) is taking a hard look at opteron. Why? It's a better performing design with less power consumption than Intel's offerings. The day Dell starts selling 2 CPU opteron boxes is the day Intel starts regretting the GHz marketing decision.
HP - once run by engineers that flew coach instead of by private Lear jet. HP used to be the king of "technology must-haves" from medical equipment, to scientific and engineering tools. HP was the standard in many industries. Thanks to Carly and most of her management staff they decided to exit those niche (but highly profitable) markets for what???? The PC business? God - if that isn't a marketing driven decision, I don't know what is.
SGI - don't even get me started about this shell of a company. This company had some pretty impressive hardware and 3D rendering products that were way ahead of everyone else in the industry. This was another company that decided selling Windows boxes was the way to go.
You can always count on non-technical managers to screw up these types of companies. They don't understand the high-end niche technologies, so they focus on stuff they do understand - the commodity garbage you can purchase at Best Buy.
Let Engineers run tech companies - the money and success will follow.
-ted
Wasn't this in the movie Die Hard?
-ted
I've been a Verizon customer for 8 years until one month ago. I purposely avoided Verizon this time around due to the Bluetooth fiasco.
I suspect the Bluetooth hacks also hurt other bluetooth functions....bluetooth headsets on Verizon phones never seem to have enough volume, and car-kit compatibility was never quite right.
I bought a spiffy new Black Motorola Razr from Cingular. The phone and the service have been great.
Verizon's "business decision" to hack bluetooth cost them at least one customer.
-ted
Limiting usability tests to people that have no experience with windows is a pointless waste of time.
It would be like GM testing their vehicles with people that don't have a drivers license. Why would GM develop and test a product with a market that won't use their product? That makes no sense.
Linux developers and vendors need to understand, inter-operate with, and mimic the windows way.....for now. That is necessary to win the trust of business and personal users. After Linux has a monster market share, then the developers and distributors have free license to move that user-base in any direction that makes sense.
Microsoft sort of did this with Novell. Their desktop OS worked well as a Netware client, and when it came time to replace the Netware stuff, NT4 server was an easy choice - it was designed to work with all those windows 95/98 desktops that were deployed on Novell networks.
People don't want something new....they want something that works with the stuff they already have.
-ted
ISPs want common carrier status when the RIAA sues them, but they don't want it when it means they must carry traffic from all other networks.
These guys suck. May capitalistic pressure force them out of business.
-ted
Virus writers are now trying to harvest data for monetary gain; one would assume that this would create a traceable path back to the virus creator.
In the past, virus writers just wanted notoriety among other virus writers - not much of a trail left behind to follow.
Now, hopefully, law enforcement will start catching some of these people.
-ted
I'm willing to bet that the 7920 wireless phones we use in our office are made by Nokia:
Check them out here.
Maybe Cisco wants to push their wireless VOIP to the next level. It makes sense. Imagine every Nokia product being 802.11 VOIP capable right out of the box.
-ted
My Volkswagen produces ice cold AC and does not use freon. It can get the car cold enough to condense water on the outside of the car's windows.
Most BMWs, Mercedes Benzs, Audis, and Porsches also have powerful AC units. Just because GM and Ford can't design AC units correctly does not mean that it cannot be done.
-ted
I can tell you how many Macs running OS X i've seen with people logged in as essentially "root". Sure OS X prompts you for an admin password when critical things happen, but everyone I've seen blindly enters the root password. Most times, the user does not even read the dialog box.
The "least privileges" problem happens on all operating systems....most users of personal computers want to be "root". Until users become more security savvy, this will be a problem on all systems.
-ted
Not a bad idea, but probably still too complicated for "joe-sixpack".
A static PIN that is changeable via the web (when the user needs to) is probably good enough.
-ted
The credit card industry could eliminate 90% of the fraud that occurs simply by requiring a PIN number for every transaction. Bank cards have required this for years - so the infrastructure is already in place.
The bottom line is that credit card companies don't have any reason to change the status quo - the costs of fraud are usually pushed onto insurance companies and customers. The "bad-debt" numbers that credit card companies publish really do not hurt them as much as you think (until this week, bankruptcy hurt them worse than fraud).
-ted