In order to out-take Google, Microsoft would have to adopt it's strictly logical, scientific modus operandi.
Actually, you generally don't win in business by doing it the way your competition does. You win by doing it in a way that has more value. That could be more effecient, more useful,etc...
Google was better results, less crap. Now it's better results surrounded with crap. When it comes to search, the faster your user finds what they want, you win. Could MSN improve on Google - sure. All you have to do is reduce the crap and present better results. Eliminate SEO gaming. Is google's format the best? For now.
Star Trek is supposed to be SciFi though and drama is only a part of that. The producers lost sight of this and their show is going away as a result.
Add to that that it looks so high tech compared to TOS that you can't really buy the timeline. It had potential but the producer failed to create something that had the sense of adventure and wild-eyed amazement you would expect from a first trip into the unknown. The show actually turned out a lot like the Nemesis movie - you actually felt embarrased you were walking out of the theater.
Those are the ones now working the help desk in their late 20's/early 30's or doing crap work for a 5 PC shop (assuming they're still working in the geek biz)
Not all helpdesk jobs are entry level. Then again, if you want your company's users or your customers supported by the least experienced people possible, maybe the helpdesk is an appriate place for your crap jobs.
Oh - and the "crap work" for a 5PC shop can and does turn into an IT manager job with 100-200 PCs if your employer grows.
When a student shows tallent, develop the tallent into something useful for society and for the student.
If a student is interested in computer security (crackers usually have a fascination or obsession with it), instead of processing the student for being a common criminal, perhaps you should consider getting that student into an appropriate program where his or her skills can be developed and ethics can be taught (and their actioins can be watched).
Why do you say this? It seems like you are basing it on hardware compatibility. Perhaps a "Penguin Approved" sticker would be helpful. I think Desktop Linux is ready when you run a simple distribution like Ubunu or Xandros. In Ubuntu's case it's just plain easy. And Xandros is showing up on many low end $300-$500 boxes these days (here's the penguin box). An easy desktop, open office, Koffice or Abiword/Gnumeric, Firefox, Evolution or Thunderbird, toss in a few games and you are done.
For "power users" Ubuntu and Xandros fall down because they don't have all the gadgets we like and the software avaialable by default is limited compared to the usual pile of experimental debs and rpms that we tend to gravitate to. In Ubuntu's case user rights are not implemented in a way that someone used to administering a unix system is used to (you use sudo to do everything)
It's not just canned questions and answers; it has an inference engine. It can do "if A is B and B is C, then A is C". But only if all the right predicates match perfectly.
Sounds like someone took that prolog course to an extreme:) Seriously - in 1994 the AI craze was starting to slow down a little. Expert Systems, Neural Nets and fuzzy logic were all really hot issues. The technology wasn't bad, but so much was wrapped up in trying to have a somewhat natural language interface (and those were usually really bad)that I think a lot of projects failed just on the user interface alone.
This articles reminded me of spending hours in high school using Turbo Prolog to "teach" a computer to identify shapes drawn on the screen. Hmmm... Incidentally, much like other expert systems of the day, my high school computer vision project was a success - when I finally coded a corner matching algorithm that wasn't very AIsh that after the AI gave up, the program would try as a last resort and nail about 75 of 77 shapes (that it knew). The AI would get about six in of the 77 and the corner match just worked better.
If any AI can independently come up with such solution strategies (rather than just "applying" a strategy devised by humans), only then it would be able to quench all criticisms.
I'd be surprised if a human could solve many problems if you eliminated the transfer of experential knowledge acquired from other humans through books, school, family and friends.
I think the election is a better indicator than a snap poll of 805 Iraqi adults actuall living in -gasp- Iraq. I'm sure that your all for the US pulling out and the local Jihadists taking over. That is a fantasy and the Iraqi people will not let it happen. Why trade in your friendly neighborhood evil oppressive Baathist dictator who simply wants to be in charge for a friendly neighborhood jihadi oppressive dictator that want your sons to go die doing their bidding?
I realize that Slashdot is Google country, but diversity in search engines is very good for the internet. MSNs new engine is useful because it uses a different method than Google to index content - and it presents different results.
I wonder if MS has fully sized up the impact of the bad press and user response they *will* get when the first exploit that uses trusted computing emerges.
It *will* happen and it *will* be a cataclysm for MS.
A mass national resistance will without question have the capability of totaling defeating the US forces there within six months. Merely cutting off the flow of supplies to US bases - a process which is already being done to some degree by the few resistance fighters presently involved - would insure total US defeat.
And there are no Americans in Baghdad, right Mr. information minister? This isn't a war between the US and the Iraqi people. that's why the elections were a success. That's also why this mass resistance isn't going to materialize. If anything, Iraqis have to be waking up to the fact that the current crop of insurgents are killing them and trying to prevent the people of Iraq from taking power. Repeating Jihadist lies just doesn't work in the face of the violence.
Incidentally, there eventually will be a timetable for withdrawl -- but it will be worked out with the new Iraqi government and will likely take a couple of years. All Bush has said is now isn't the time, and the US will not leave until asked.
The reason the US doesn't like him is because he refuses to fudge evidence that Iran has nuclear weapons and he has pointed out that Israel needs to be inspected for its nuclear arsenal.
There is truth to what you are saying. There is also truth to the fact the proliferation situation is downright scary and ElBaradei has presided over the worst expansion in proliferation. I wonder how much power the IAEA really has - and if the real problem is that it is beholden to too many masters (the US included) with too many diverse agendas to be effective, regardless of leadership.
All this is preparatory to an Israel-sponsored attack on Iran This is tinfoil hat material at best. No one wants an expansion of war in the middle east, especially the Isrellis. Not the US. Not the EU. Not the middle eastern countries. No one, save the Jihadis who want to turn an overgrown border dispute, a failed dictatorship and several civil wars (or attempts to start them) into the world vs. Islam.
Fortunately, this may not occur - because before the US gets involved in Iran, the Iraqis are likely to send the US fleeing from Iraq with its tail between its legs.
You sound a lot like the former Iraqi Information Minister than a credible expert or even lay person with an opinion here. All you need to add is "God Willing. Death to the imperilist zionist infidel American dogs" to the end and you have it down pat. Iraq is not Viet Nam. It is not a proxy war between the US and communist block gone terribly wrong.
Kids really don't come out of school with a real understanding of their rights. Here are a couple of reasons why:
* Government interventions: the govt intervenes in situations that were formerly handled by teachers and principals. 10 years ago a kid would not get locked up by the police for drawing a picture of someone getting stabbed. Cops would not show up in uniform for in school detention.
* Students don't loose their rights, they never have them. Back in the day, no one inspected your locker, processed your for saying something, asked you to pee in a bottle, metal detectored you or profiled you for deviant behavior unless you gave them a real reason. And then rights were lost until you earned them back.
* School rules are often litanies of "no student may" and "is not permitted on school properties".
* Zero Tollerance policies have eliminated discression in enforcing rules. The result: student rights are trampled by an almost boolean intrepetation of rules. This happened to my neice: she had genuine flat tire within 1/4 mile of the school on the way in. No one could stop to help her because they would automatically loose a letter grade under the zero tollerence for tardiness policy - so she had to wait by the side of the highway for help. When the tire was fixed, and she got to school, she recieved after school detention and lost a letter grade and worse yet, a further tardy would result in an F for the entire semester.
It would be very cool and useful if there was a voluntary "student's bill of rights" type of program that would help students learn what constitutional freedoms are, but also gave the school a framework for dealing with the irresponsible use or infringing on another student's rights that didn't require court involvement.
I would of disagreed with you until I watched the DVD version of Battlestar Galactica then tried to watch it on SCIFI. The show really is better without the ads. So to do sporting events. Seeing the commercial free feed of an NFL football is a real eye opener - there's a lot that goes on.
Second, Intergraph was screwed by Intel in much the way that SCO was screwed by IBM. In Intergraph's case, Intel engineers were up against a wall circa the late 486/early 586 timeframe, and came to Intergraph for help. Intergraph opened their IP portfolio to Intel, taught the Intel engineers how to design a modern CPU, and Intel proceeded to steal the entirety of that IP portfolio - hook, line, and sinker.
First, IBM already had a viable Unix product since the AT&T days. Second, Montery was no where near release ready when the project was discontinued (because the market would be very tight for it). Third, the IBM suit appears to be a fishing expedition where SCO is searching for where IBM did something wrong and has yet to find it. Ulitmately the SCO case is a contract dispute and copyright infringement case.
The Intergraph case is a classic case of patent infringement. one is a duck and the other is a submarine.
are that Bush still wants to get rid of ElBaradei in order to pull off another pile of bullshit about Iran's "WMDs".
Fortunately the rest of the world - including the "Bush poodle" Blair - aren't going along with it.
Reality check. No one is exactly happy with El Baradei, and no one is happy with the current WMD proliferation situation. No one really has a good answer on how to stop proliferation because once a nation has nuclear weapons, they have the only real protection against foreign military powers that really works.
Has been predicted before. It's still going. Loosing AOL will hurt... a little. I'm willing to bet any Usenet users on AOL will change ISPs to maintain access to their groups. It will take a long time for usenet to die - especially groups getting 10's of thousands of text posts per day.
Google is OK... but it's payouts aren't the best and the ads are often off topic. Some of the smaller, independent networks really have some neat ideas out there - and they get clicks and have better payouts. Some can handle big traffic others cant. If you are publishing billions of impressions, the the big guys are it.
There's adbrite (www.adbrite.com) who does onsite ads on a lot of blogs and consumer sites, indyclicks (www.indyclicks.com)that focuses on running ads in a single US state (Indiana) and impressionz (www.impressionz.com)- specializes in banners.
When someone steals, they take your stuff and you can't use it until you get it back or pay to replace it. If someone physically steals your masters, ok... it's theft. When someone makes an unauthorized copy, you still can make copies of your material. Most of the time an unauthorized copy doesn't even cause economic harm. For that to happen, the copy I make would have to be sold in a market where you are selling or give your product away to someone who would have bought.
The emergence of MP3 players has been built on the availability of terrabytes of stolen material being circulated.
This is bull. First, MP3 players were successful because they were simple and open. Convert audio to MP3, download, press play. Utilities are simple file level tools. No DRM validation that doesn't work right. No encryption. No chance that in 10 years I can't listen to my collection of fine Pantera music.
Sony made some of the most complicated uncompatible junk ever. SONY SHOULD KNOW BETTER: Beta, Minidisk, that bizarre DAT format they tried and memory stick have been dismal failures (unless you ask the marketing department for the product). Sony's open products such as 3.5" floppy drives (they were one of the original sources), Mavica Cameras (that used floppy disks when everyone else was using early and expensive flash cards), CD ROM, 8MM Video have all been wildly successful. Consumers like stuff that works.
Slashdot Mirror
This one rants right up there w/ midnight basketball.
In order to out-take Google, Microsoft would have to adopt it's strictly logical, scientific modus operandi.
Actually, you generally don't win in business by doing it the way your competition does. You win by doing it in a way that has more value. That could be more effecient, more useful,etc...
Google was better results, less crap. Now it's better results surrounded with crap. When it comes to search, the faster your user finds what they want, you win. Could MSN improve on Google - sure. All you have to do is reduce the crap and present better results. Eliminate SEO gaming. Is google's format the best? For now.
Star Trek is supposed to be SciFi though and drama is only a part of that. The producers lost sight of this and their show is going away as a result.
Add to that that it looks so high tech compared to TOS that you can't really buy the timeline. It had potential but the producer failed to create something that had the sense of adventure and wild-eyed amazement you would expect from a first trip into the unknown. The show actually turned out a lot like the Nemesis movie - you actually felt embarrased you were walking out of the theater.
RIP ST.
Those are the ones now working the help desk in their late 20's/early 30's or doing crap work for a 5 PC shop (assuming they're still working in the geek biz)
Not all helpdesk jobs are entry level. Then again, if you want your company's users or your customers supported by the least experienced people possible, maybe the helpdesk is an appriate place for your crap jobs.
Oh - and the "crap work" for a 5PC shop can and does turn into an IT manager job with 100-200 PCs if your employer grows.
Jobs are what you make of them.
When a student shows tallent, develop the tallent into something useful for society and for the student.
If a student is interested in computer security (crackers usually have a fascination or obsession with it), instead of processing the student for being a common criminal, perhaps you should consider getting that student into an appropriate program where his or her skills can be developed and ethics can be taught (and their actioins can be watched).
Linux is still not ready for Joe User.
Why do you say this? It seems like you are basing it on hardware compatibility. Perhaps a "Penguin Approved" sticker would be helpful. I think Desktop Linux is ready when you run a simple distribution like Ubunu or Xandros. In Ubuntu's case it's just plain easy. And Xandros is showing up on many low end $300-$500 boxes these days (here's the penguin box). An easy desktop, open office, Koffice or Abiword/Gnumeric, Firefox, Evolution or Thunderbird, toss in a few games and you are done.
For "power users" Ubuntu and Xandros fall down because they don't have all the gadgets we like and the software avaialable by default is limited compared to the usual pile of experimental debs and rpms that we tend to gravitate to. In Ubuntu's case user rights are not implemented in a way that someone used to administering a unix system is used to (you use sudo to do everything)
It's not just canned questions and answers; it has an inference engine. It can do "if A is B and B is C, then A is C". But only if all the right predicates match perfectly.
:) Seriously - in 1994 the AI craze was starting to slow down a little. Expert Systems, Neural Nets and fuzzy logic were all really hot issues. The technology wasn't bad, but so much was wrapped up in trying to have a somewhat natural language interface (and those were usually really bad)that I think a lot of projects failed just on the user interface alone.
Sounds like someone took that prolog course to an extreme
This articles reminded me of spending hours in high school using Turbo Prolog to "teach" a computer to identify shapes drawn on the screen. Hmmm... Incidentally, much like other expert systems of the day, my high school computer vision project was a success - when I finally coded a corner matching algorithm that wasn't very AIsh that after the AI gave up, the program would try as a last resort and nail about 75 of 77 shapes (that it knew). The AI would get about six in of the 77 and the corner match just worked better.
If any AI can independently come up with such solution strategies (rather than just "applying" a strategy devised by humans), only then it would be able to quench all criticisms.
I'd be surprised if a human could solve many problems if you eliminated the transfer of experential knowledge acquired from other humans through books, school, family and friends.
I think the election is a better indicator than a snap poll of 805 Iraqi adults actuall living in -gasp- Iraq. I'm sure that your all for the US pulling out and the local Jihadists taking over. That is a fantasy and the Iraqi people will not let it happen. Why trade in your friendly neighborhood evil oppressive Baathist dictator who simply wants to be in charge for a friendly neighborhood jihadi oppressive dictator that want your sons to go die doing their bidding?
Do we really need Taliban part II?
I realize that Slashdot is Google country, but diversity in search engines is very good for the internet. MSNs new engine is useful because it uses a different method than Google to index content - and it presents different results.
I wonder if MS has fully sized up the impact of the bad press and user response they *will* get when the first exploit that uses trusted computing emerges.
It *will* happen and it *will* be a cataclysm for MS.
A mass national resistance will without question have the capability of totaling defeating the US forces there within six months. Merely cutting off the flow of supplies to US bases - a process which is already being done to some degree by the few resistance fighters presently involved - would insure total US defeat.
And there are no Americans in Baghdad, right Mr. information minister? This isn't a war between the US and the Iraqi people. that's why the elections were a success. That's also why this mass resistance isn't going to materialize. If anything, Iraqis have to be waking up to the fact that the current crop of insurgents are killing them and trying to prevent the people of Iraq from taking power. Repeating Jihadist lies just doesn't work in the face of the violence.
Incidentally, there eventually will be a timetable for withdrawl -- but it will be worked out with the new Iraqi government and will likely take a couple of years. All Bush has said is now isn't the time, and the US will not leave until asked.
The reason the US doesn't like him is because he refuses to fudge evidence that Iran has nuclear weapons and he has pointed out that Israel needs to be inspected for its nuclear arsenal.
There is truth to what you are saying. There is also truth to the fact the proliferation situation is downright scary and ElBaradei has presided over the worst expansion in proliferation. I wonder how much power the IAEA really has - and if the real problem is that it is beholden to too many masters (the US included) with too many diverse agendas to be effective, regardless of leadership.
All this is preparatory to an Israel-sponsored attack on Iran
This is tinfoil hat material at best. No one wants an expansion of war in the middle east, especially the Isrellis. Not the US. Not the EU. Not the middle eastern countries. No one, save the Jihadis who want to turn an overgrown border dispute, a failed dictatorship and several civil wars (or attempts to start them) into the world vs. Islam.
Fortunately, this may not occur - because before the US gets involved in Iran, the Iraqis are likely to send the US fleeing from Iraq with its tail between its legs.
You sound a lot like the former Iraqi Information Minister than a credible expert or even lay person with an opinion here. All you need to add is "God Willing. Death to the imperilist zionist infidel American dogs" to the end and you have it down pat. Iraq is not Viet Nam. It is not a proxy war between the US and communist block gone terribly wrong.
Kids really don't come out of school with a real understanding of their rights. Here are a couple of reasons why:
* Government interventions: the govt intervenes in situations that were formerly handled by teachers and principals. 10 years ago a kid would not get locked up by the police for drawing a picture of someone getting stabbed. Cops would not show up in uniform for in school detention.
* Students don't loose their rights, they never have them. Back in the day, no one inspected your locker, processed your for saying something, asked you to pee in a bottle, metal detectored you or profiled you for deviant behavior unless you gave them a real reason. And then rights were lost until you earned them back.
* School rules are often litanies of "no student may" and "is not permitted on school properties".
* Zero Tollerance policies have eliminated discression in enforcing rules. The result: student rights are trampled by an almost boolean intrepetation of rules. This happened to my neice: she had genuine flat tire within 1/4 mile of the school on the way in. No one could stop to help her because they would automatically loose a letter grade under the zero tollerence for tardiness policy - so she had to wait by the side of the highway for help. When the tire was fixed, and she got to school, she recieved after school detention and lost a letter grade and worse yet, a further tardy would result in an F for the entire semester.
It would be very cool and useful if there was a voluntary "student's bill of rights" type of program that would help students learn what constitutional freedoms are, but also gave the school a framework for dealing with the irresponsible use or infringing on another student's rights that didn't require court involvement.
* People are SICK AND TIRED of advertising.
I would of disagreed with you until I watched the DVD version of Battlestar Galactica then tried to watch it on SCIFI. The show really is better without the ads. So to do sporting events. Seeing the commercial free feed of an NFL football is a real eye opener - there's a lot that goes on.
Second, Intergraph was screwed by Intel in much the way that SCO was screwed by IBM. In Intergraph's case, Intel engineers were up against a wall circa the late 486/early 586 timeframe, and came to Intergraph for help. Intergraph opened their IP portfolio to Intel, taught the Intel engineers how to design a modern CPU, and Intel proceeded to steal the entirety of that IP portfolio - hook, line, and sinker.
First, IBM already had a viable Unix product since the AT&T days. Second, Montery was no where near release ready when the project was discontinued (because the market would be very tight for it). Third, the IBM suit appears to be a fishing expedition where SCO is searching for where IBM did something wrong and has yet to find it. Ulitmately the SCO case is a contract dispute and copyright infringement case.
The Intergraph case is a classic case of patent infringement. one is a duck and the other is a submarine.
are that Bush still wants to get rid of ElBaradei in order to pull off another pile of bullshit about Iran's "WMDs".
Fortunately the rest of the world - including the "Bush poodle" Blair - aren't going along with it.
Reality check. No one is exactly happy with El Baradei, and no one is happy with the current WMD proliferation situation. No one really has a good answer on how to stop proliferation because once a nation has nuclear weapons, they have the only real protection against foreign military powers that really works.
Patents involving making computers more secure seem to be patently not in the public interest.
So we can vote articles like this one:
Argument leads to better ideas.
Obvious -1
"I have an MBA, and I wanna write video games."
And that is precicely why you should not.
Wow. My killfile will shrink!
Has been predicted before. It's still going. Loosing AOL will hurt... a little. I'm willing to bet any Usenet users on AOL will change ISPs to maintain access to their groups. It will take a long time for usenet to die - especially groups getting 10's of thousands of text posts per day.
Google is OK... but it's payouts aren't the best and the ads are often off topic. Some of the smaller, independent networks really have some neat ideas out there - and they get clicks and have better payouts. Some can handle big traffic others cant. If you are publishing billions of impressions, the the big guys are it.
There's adbrite (www.adbrite.com) who does onsite ads on a lot of blogs and consumer sites, indyclicks (www.indyclicks.com)that focuses on running ads in a single US state (Indiana) and impressionz (www.impressionz.com)- specializes in banners.
terrabytes of stolen material
When someone steals, they take your stuff and you can't use it until you get it back or pay to replace it. If someone physically steals your masters, ok... it's theft. When someone makes an unauthorized copy, you still can make copies of your material. Most of the time an unauthorized copy doesn't even cause economic harm. For that to happen, the copy I make would have to be sold in a market where you are selling or give your product away to someone who would have bought.
Use the right language. Words mean things.
I can apprecaite that Sony wants to enforce copyright, etc for its music units.
While I appreciate this, you don't have to buy a device that restricts your rights in order to protect their overbroad definition of their rights.
The emergence of MP3 players has been built on the availability of terrabytes of stolen material being circulated.
This is bull. First, MP3 players were successful because they were simple and open. Convert audio to MP3, download, press play. Utilities are simple file level tools. No DRM validation that doesn't work right. No encryption. No chance that in 10 years I can't listen to my collection of fine Pantera music.
Sony made some of the most complicated uncompatible junk ever. SONY SHOULD KNOW BETTER: Beta, Minidisk, that bizarre DAT format they tried and memory stick have been dismal failures (unless you ask the marketing department for the product). Sony's open products such as 3.5" floppy drives (they were one of the original sources), Mavica Cameras (that used floppy disks when everyone else was using early and expensive flash cards), CD ROM, 8MM Video have all been wildly successful. Consumers like stuff that works.