Has anyone ever bought anything from some of the larger online merchants? Most of them do, in fact, collect sales taxes. Many of them book the sales at point of delivery. I.E. if Best Buy ships you a new DVD player and you take delivery of it in NJ, the store closest to you adds the sales to it's numbers and pays the tax, then you are charged the 6% sales tax.
Even if lawmakers decided to impose additional taxes above and beyond traditional sales taxes on internet commerce, it would only drive the business back into traditional retail channels where standard sales taxes apply.
Taxes only increase government revenues when the general economy benefits. All forms of taxes are designed this way; property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes only increase as the underlying economics increase. Lawmakers trying to boost revenues during a recession are delusional about the intended results.
That's all fine and good, but i've got to backup 40 GB of data. Having two weeks worth of tapes is nice. When some student accedentally deletes his home directory, I just pull out a tape and restore his directory.
40GB tapes also alow me to do a backup on one tape. DVD won't let me do that, and i'm not comming in at 3am when our backups run, to switch DVDs.
Remember IBM typewriter ribbons? IBM tried to pull this a long time ago saying 3rd party ribbons would void IBMs warranty. Magnuson-Moss was the result of this.
This warranty act allows for 3rd party consumable replacement parts, and, in the event of a warranty claim, it is the burden of the warranty provider to prove the 3rd party product caused the damage.
I see alot of people here want cheap solar cells that can cover their entire roof for a "few hundred dollars". Are you nuts? Standard roofing materials (made from asphalt) aren't that cheap and all they do is keep water out!
Maybe the price needs to come down to a few THOUSAND dollars...with some government tax credits and utility savings, it might be worth it.
Anyone familiar with the term "critical path"? That is the path in the development cycle that affects all others, and ultimately the deliverablilty of the product. If you delay the critical path, you delay the product.
If you are planning a product that will determine the success of your company, you should make sure that critical path is kept in-house where it can be controlled. Sendo's management obviously didn't get this. (A better buisiness decision might have been to use an open source operating system and hire a bunch of developers to customize it for you.)
This is why many smaller broadband companies went belly up in the ".com roaring 90's". They depended on someone else (telcos and cable companies) to deliver on their critical path. That's just plain stupid.
I've dealt with Microsoft products for a very long time. Dos, Windows 3.1, NT....etc. have served my clients well for a very long time. Later I became a network admin for a school and again, MS products fit the bill very well.
Recently Microsoft has not been happy with billions of dollars in profits (none paid to stockholders as a dividend). And started licensing schemes to ensure continual "subscription" revenue. Consider that their server software (costing thousands of dollars) does not come with ANY support at all; this adds insult to injury. (Server support is a pay-per-incident model.)
These greed driven licensing pracitces are the last straw. Microsoft must realize that treating its customers like dirt will only ensure that the customers look at other offerings. I am currently evaluating OS X and linux as eventual replacements for the total MS environment we now live in.
MS better start treating it's customers nicely if it wants to keep them. They aren't the only game in town any more.
The best anti-virus software can not stop a user from downloading that damn Bonzi-buddy. That crap software has caused more problems for my clients than any so-called virus.
I made a virtual machine in college. It is based on an LL1 type language and the language is compiled into an intermediate byte code, and then executed on a virtual machine that is platform specific. It's a little buggy, and it crashes the machine occasionally, (hey, I only had one semester in my compilers class to finish it!) Maybe I can force Microsoft to carry it....after all it is a competing technology.
-ted
Why Saint Ignuciuis didn't make the cut.
on
Linus Is A Hero
·
· Score: 2
The difference here is that the stem cells are not drawn from the bone marrow to replace bone marrow after chemotherapy. The stem cells are drawn from bone marrow to produce completely different cells in the nervous system.
Scientists have known for many years that some "primary" cells in the body, during fetal development, morph into different cells simply by their location in the fetus. The cells know what they are supposed to become by their surroundings. This technique exploits this trait of stem cells by manually placing them in other areas of the body, and then having them grow into the appropriate cells.
Still $350 Million isn't too bad for that sort of project....Engineering, Launch, post-launch...etc. And when you amortize that over 30 years...well, that's a great deal.
Remember what happened to the last company that "pre-announced" something that was to debut at Macworld?
Let me refresh your memory. A couple of years ago, ATI came out with a spiffy new chip called the Rage 128. The CEO of ATI came out and did the whole PR presentation thing...and WHOOPS! He let out that the new card would be appearing in the new G4s at Macworld.
That pissed off Mr. Jobs and company. So much so that all the G4s we bought after that only came with Nvidia GeForce 2 MX cards...heh, heh.
The lesson learned today is: Don't steal Steve Job's thunder if you know what is good for you.
-ted
Another bad processor decision.
on
Build Your Own Mac
·
· Score: 1, Flamebait
IBM will be making the new Apple super-chip in mid/late 2003 when the 970s roll out
Didn't Apple learn their lesson the first time when they decided to use only one dedicated chip vendor? Apple should just re-compile OS X for x86...then they can choose from a number of chip vendors....VIA, Transmeta, Intel, AMD....etc.
Speed freaks don't buy Macs for one reason right now...the CPU.
The G4 gets pooped on in most benchmarks when compared to mid-line Athlons and P4s. The only reason to buy a Mac right now is for a nice looking case and for OS X....that's it.
The x86 platform will open up avenues for many other types of products....how about a transmeta powered sub-notebook running OS X; or a light, portable, Transmeta powered tablet? Image conscious Mac consumers would flock to a product like that! This would also put a sock into the mouths of all the PC guys who constantly brag about their superior CPUs, memory, and bus technologies.
By switching to the x86 platform, Apple could open it's market to vast numbers of new customers. If Apple decides to go back to one CPU vendor in the next line of products, i'm selling the stock. It's a stupid business move.
Details, details, details.......
on
The New IT Crisis
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
And IT must start taking steps forward, if it wants to be an enabler of growth
Mr. Andreessen,
I must applaud the points you've made in your article: "Welcome to the new IT crisis". I agree completely with everything you've said.
I'm tired of working long hours, hand-holding my users with software they should already know, and applying countless service packs, patches, and firmware upgrades. My staff is over-worked and under paid...but we are happy to have jobs in this economy. I loved the article, but it left me with one question....
Slashdot Mirror
Has anyone ever bought anything from some of the larger online merchants? Most of them do, in fact, collect sales taxes. Many of them book the sales at point of delivery. I.E. if Best Buy ships you a new DVD player and you take delivery of it in NJ, the store closest to you adds the sales to it's numbers and pays the tax, then you are charged the 6% sales tax.
Even if lawmakers decided to impose additional taxes above and beyond traditional sales taxes on internet commerce, it would only drive the business back into traditional retail channels where standard sales taxes apply.
Taxes only increase government revenues when the general economy benefits. All forms of taxes are designed this way; property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes only increase as the underlying economics increase. Lawmakers trying to boost revenues during a recession are delusional about the intended results.
-ted
That's all fine and good, but i've got to backup 40 GB of data. Having two weeks worth of tapes is nice. When some student accedentally deletes his home directory, I just pull out a tape and restore his directory.
40GB tapes also alow me to do a backup on one tape. DVD won't let me do that, and i'm not comming in at 3am when our backups run, to switch DVDs.
-ted
Yet tape drives are still around $30/GB! Who cares about big monster drives if you can't backup the data.
Hard drives still fail, you know.
-ted
Really? I didn't know that?
It is a great movie. They don't make 'em like that any more.
-ted
Slogan seen above entry door:
THERE'S NO FIGHTING IN THE WAR ROOM!
Who knows what movie that's from?
-ted
<sarcasm>
WOW! A wrapper that adds no value for me, and limits what I can do with the content. Gee sign me up!
</sarcasm>
-ted
Remember IBM typewriter ribbons? IBM tried to pull this a long time ago saying 3rd party ribbons would void IBMs warranty. Magnuson-Moss was the result of this.
This warranty act allows for 3rd party consumable replacement parts, and, in the event of a warranty claim, it is the burden of the warranty provider to prove the 3rd party product caused the damage.
-ted
I see alot of people here want cheap solar cells that can cover their entire roof for a "few hundred dollars". Are you nuts? Standard roofing materials (made from asphalt) aren't that cheap and all they do is keep water out!
Maybe the price needs to come down to a few THOUSAND dollars...with some government tax credits and utility savings, it might be worth it.
-ted
While we are giving Microsoft a foothold in the Linux, why don't we give Saddam a nuke?
-ted
Anyone familiar with the term "critical path"? That is the path in the development cycle that affects all others, and ultimately the deliverablilty of the product. If you delay the critical path, you delay the product.
If you are planning a product that will determine the success of your company, you should make sure that critical path is kept in-house where it can be controlled. Sendo's management obviously didn't get this. (A better buisiness decision might have been to use an open source operating system and hire a bunch of developers to customize it for you.)
This is why many smaller broadband companies went belly up in the ".com roaring 90's". They depended on someone else (telcos and cable companies) to deliver on their critical path. That's just plain stupid.
-ted
I've dealt with Microsoft products for a very long time. Dos, Windows 3.1, NT....etc. have served my clients well for a very long time. Later I became a network admin for a school and again, MS products fit the bill very well.
Recently Microsoft has not been happy with billions of dollars in profits (none paid to stockholders as a dividend). And started licensing schemes to ensure continual "subscription" revenue. Consider that their server software (costing thousands of dollars) does not come with ANY support at all; this adds insult to injury. (Server support is a pay-per-incident model.)
These greed driven licensing pracitces are the last straw. Microsoft must realize that treating its customers like dirt will only ensure that the customers look at other offerings. I am currently evaluating OS X and linux as eventual replacements for the total MS environment we now live in.
MS better start treating it's customers nicely if it wants to keep them. They aren't the only game in town any more.
-ted
The best anti-virus software can not stop a user from downloading that damn Bonzi-buddy. That crap software has caused more problems for my clients than any so-called virus.
-ted
I made a virtual machine in college. It is based on an LL1 type language and the language is compiled into an intermediate byte code, and then executed on a virtual machine that is platform specific. It's a little buggy, and it crashes the machine occasionally, (hey, I only had one semester in my compilers class to finish it!) Maybe I can force Microsoft to carry it....after all it is a competing technology.
-ted
No one wanted to listen to him sing this
-ted
DCMA:
Digital
Consumer
Molestation
Act
-ted
My dad also underwent this therapy for Lymphoma.
The difference here is that the stem cells are not drawn from the bone marrow to replace bone marrow after chemotherapy. The stem cells are drawn from bone marrow to produce completely different cells in the nervous system.
Scientists have known for many years that some "primary" cells in the body, during fetal development, morph into different cells simply by their location in the fetus. The cells know what they are supposed to become by their surroundings. This technique exploits this trait of stem cells by manually placing them in other areas of the body, and then having them grow into the appropriate cells.
-ted
Right, I didn't read that.
Still $350 Million isn't too bad for that sort of project....Engineering, Launch, post-launch...etc. And when you amortize that over 30 years...well, that's a great deal.
-ted
From the article:
Electronic Digital Computer
After "an evening of scotch and 100mph car rides"
This might explain alot in the computer industry...
-ted
Remember what happened to the last company that "pre-announced" something that was to debut at Macworld?
Let me refresh your memory. A couple of years ago, ATI came out with a spiffy new chip called the Rage 128. The CEO of ATI came out and did the whole PR presentation thing...and WHOOPS! He let out that the new card would be appearing in the new G4s at Macworld.
That pissed off Mr. Jobs and company. So much so that all the G4s we bought after that only came with Nvidia GeForce 2 MX cards...heh, heh.
The lesson learned today is: Don't steal Steve Job's thunder if you know what is good for you.
-ted
IBM will be making the new Apple super-chip in mid/late 2003 when the 970s roll out
Didn't Apple learn their lesson the first time when they decided to use only one dedicated chip vendor? Apple should just re-compile OS X for x86...then they can choose from a number of chip vendors....VIA, Transmeta, Intel, AMD....etc.
Speed freaks don't buy Macs for one reason right now...the CPU.
The G4 gets pooped on in most benchmarks when compared to mid-line Athlons and P4s. The only reason to buy a Mac right now is for a nice looking case and for OS X....that's it.
The x86 platform will open up avenues for many other types of products....how about a transmeta powered sub-notebook running OS X; or a light, portable, Transmeta powered tablet? Image conscious Mac consumers would flock to a product like that! This would also put a sock into the mouths of all the PC guys who constantly brag about their superior CPUs, memory, and bus technologies.
By switching to the x86 platform, Apple could open it's market to vast numbers of new customers. If Apple decides to go back to one CPU vendor in the next line of products, i'm selling the stock. It's a stupid business move.
-ted
Monopoly shmonopoly.
Buy (or build) a white box without an OS and stop your bitching.
If third world nations can do this why can't you?
-ted
AHHHH! Text web browsing....bad college flashbacks....noooooo!
-ted
I'm assuming this isn't adjusted for inflation in today's dollars?
-ted
SEE!
-ted
And IT must start taking steps forward, if it wants to be an enabler of growth
Mr. Andreessen,
I must applaud the points you've made in your article: "Welcome to the new IT crisis". I agree completely with everything you've said.
I'm tired of working long hours, hand-holding my users with software they should already know, and applying countless service packs, patches, and firmware upgrades. My staff is over-worked and under paid...but we are happy to have jobs in this economy. I loved the article, but it left me with one question....
HOW THE HELL DO WE DO THIS?
-ted