For instance, since the Italian government, egged on by the Vatican, today shut down several "blasphemous" web sites written by Italians but hosted in California, I think there is definitely something to worry about.
These stats, of course, are fun but entirely meaningless.
If you are going to take the entire design cost into one copy, ok, so let's also add the cost of the CD (probably five billion or so in development cost) and the cost of the Microprocessor used to beta-test: around 50 billion I am guessing. Quite an expensive copy of RedHat.
The serious point is: to be at all meaningful, "cost" needs to be divided by number of users over the lifetime of the product. I would love to see those stats (and compare them to MS).
I venture Linux would still outvalue MS on that basis (if only because there are fewer users).
There are of course many Linux news sources, and if you run a php-based web server they are easily added (simple drop-in code) to your web server - my private web site at www.mvw.net, for instance, has news from slashdot, the register, and newsforge. The scripts are at:
What makes you think that all CEOs on planes speak English?
Well, as it happens, I've actually met quite a few on planes, flying to Holland, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, San Francisco, Tokyo, you name it, and I am happy to report that in fact most of them DO speak English. English of course is the world's business language. Take me as a typical example if you like: I'm Dutch, but speak pretty good English. It's just one of those business requirements (like spelling).
....and there IS a difference between typos and spelling. Typos (like writing "simple" for "simply", and typing "becuase", when you are in a hurry) are allowed even for CTOs. They are easily differentiated from actually not knowing the spelling.
...but I do think this person absolutely has a point.
As the CTO of in international company, I see a lot of people around me who cannot spell. Some are VERY clever people, but indeed, some of them will probably never grow to become managers (let alone CEOs), simple becuase they cannot write (and that includes spelling).
Now this may not bother you - in which case, that is fine. But if you ever want to become the pointy-haired guy who earns US$150k instead of being the tech who "knows more" but earns $50k, things like spelling, as well as knowledge of geography, politics and current affairs are exactly the things that make a difference.
Being the pointy-haired guy means being able to put together a good presentation, being able to sit next to another CEO on the aiplane and talk intelligently about the state of the industry, and being able to address 100 people confidently.
The good news is: this stuff is learnable. If you can learn C++ or Java, you can certainly learn "English". Advice: this "English" language is as important as those other languages if you want a good resume.
Again, no value expressed here: it is perfectly OK to want to be the guy who makes less but works fewer hours and says what he thinks.:-)
This is a philosophical discussion, but let's also look at the technology.
There are reasons to control. As a licensed radio ham (VA3MVW) I can assure you that if everyone were allowed to broadcast on shortwave ( 30 MHz) we'd have chaos. A kid in Brazil who uses $15 in parts to create a 10W shortwave transmitter can make an entire band unusable in all of Europe. Shortwave covers the world and there is very little bandwith - all of shortwave is only 30 MHz.
The reason things are getting easier now is twofild: technology and physics. Technology, because we can now transmit on GHz frequencies - unheard of just a few years ago. And physics: if you go up in frequency, bandwidth becomes almost infinitely available, antennas become shorter, and range becomes shorter (so less interference).
In other words, good reasons to control low frequencies and good reasons to allow much on wide bands of high frequencies. Which it seems to me is exactly the way it is happening.
Actually, as this article on ZDnet shows, the EU has gone a long way in making software more open. This is of course only a proposal but if any of it passes, the EU will be MUCH more liberal than the US.
...but do not count out big business yet. Seems to me that consumers and their interests do NOT always win. For example:
- I can only choose one cable company, so support phone wait times are up to 6 hours!
- I can only choose one local phone carrier, so I pay rather a lot for that too
- I buy a movie in Hong Kong (where I work often): and I cannot watch it at home. (Okay, I admit, thans to vlc on my Linux box, I can!)
- Living as I do in Camada, I have essentially one option for most air travel (Air Canada), so it is very expensive and service is not good.
- If I want medical care, I get into a political morass... where my patient interests are about last on the list of priorities.
Meaning, while the current P2P sitiation gives rise to some hope, we could otoh very well go back to being controlled by corporate interests, with no freedom to copy music, play it where we want, etc. I would say it's 50-50 right now: will the current free model survive?
Meanwhile I'd better start Morpheus and download what I can while I can.:)
Some good points you raise. I caught myself almost hoping for this holiday disruption to come to an end... we have offices in San Jose, Toronto, London and Hong Kong so you can imagine the work around the clock and the effort keeping track of everyone's holidays. When I just found myself regretting the holiday, that was kind of a wake-up call. I do not really want a coronary at 43 (I'm 42 now).
So... although I do not mind working this day or any other day, I am going to sit back and enjoy a few days off, really off. I shall not even check my email, my blackberry, my cell phone. I'll work on my private web site instead. Happy holidays; everyone!
...but the point is well taken. Nowhere do we go nowadays without being observed. England, once the most liberal country in te world, where cops could not stop you unless they had a good readon to do so, is now the most big brotherish country in the world. Orwell was British - no surprise. My kids here in Canada wil have - no, already have - significantly less freedom that I used to have. "Nothing to fear unless you are a criminal" - that argument is still heard all over the place every day. As it was in Nazi days. Dobn;t want to sound alarmist, but we really have to worry about all this.
I would say just a *little* pushback from all of us would help greatly. Does your bank really need that social insurance number? Perhaps asking "am I really legally oliged to give you this" whenever you are asked to produce ID would be a good step?
Peace,
Michael
...and becoming problematic to handle.
on
Email Turns Thirty
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
It seems to me (CTO of a small multinational company) that we are approaching an email watershed. Let me rehash what may be the obvious, to see if anyone has any ideas.
Up to now it was a matter of getting MORE communicative - "more email is more good". Email started as a mail replacement, but became a telephone replacement. We are now surpised (even annoyed) if an email does not elicit a response in 5 minutes.
I see two reasons why this is changing.
One is a relatively small challence, but annoying nonetheless: SPAM. I get 100 a day now - it is becoming a real challenge to handle. I and will have to change email addresses soon - but with hundreds of real people having my address, this is not easy. We need to see this as a real problem for the first time - tools (filters, "organise" etc) are no longer sufficient.
The second problem is more fundamental still. I get 100 "real" emails a day too - but this drives me towards a purely reactive work model. I have too little time for writing back to them all - let alone for the strategising I am being paid for. I need to do LESS communicating - and with me, many of my colleagues.
I am looking forward to seeing what ideas we come up with to take this to the next level. I know it's not XP and Outlook 2003!
Seems to me Larry Ellison is being rather opportunistic here, plus, this fits in well with his world vision, which has always been centralistic and in favour of control - I remember Oracle giving me a presentation once about their expense system at Oracle: all expense reports worldwide! go to (and are approved in) one central database in the US head office. Not for good database reasons but for control reasons. See also the NIC (thin client)- central control, again.
Having said that, opportunism in the light of Sep 11 is not restricted to Oracle. Companies like Siebel, MS, and many others have also tried to gain market share. I am sure we all see through this.
Personally, I think that when terrorists attack, that is not the time to quickly abandon freedom, judicial process, and other things that make our civilisation what it is: I think on the contrary that this is the time to hold on to these principles extra carefully.
A shame to see that in all the polls I have seen recently on CNN and in newspapers, whenever the question is about abolishing a civil liberty, roughly 80% is in favour. I sure hope we get back to thinking again soon.
First, a divide is important even if there are people worse off. Do I say "go away with your penut allergy because some people have cancer"? Do I say "you should drive a 5 year old chevy and not that Audi, because some people are starving"? Do I say "you cannot have that DVD player becuase people are landless in Zimbabwe"? Of course not. A rather disingenious argument.
Second - it is very easy for the USA (is that where you are) or Europe to tell other nations that they should not care about this becuase there are people starving.
Third: the whole point about that divide is that opening up the new economy to developing nations gives them a chance to do just that, develop, so they won't be hungry. This divide is something to be taken seriously.
It seems to me that you are overreacting. Socialists ^H^H^H^Hliberals? Not sure it's not just ordinary marketing, not politics.
Sure, in the uk a.co.uk domain is not unusual. But that is becuase it's easier and cheaper, not becuase they prefer it that way. The.com domain is preferable for very good marketing reasons.
The browsers default to.com. Are you aware how many people start IE or netscape and type "sears" or whatever and wait for the browser to do the rest?
You are Aceme building and a competitor gets acmebuilding.com - does that make you havepy to have your.co.za domian or whatever? Methinks not.
.com is shorter and hence easier to remember. In marketing terms this is very important.
Unlike in the US, many companies abroad do not market locally. A typical Dutch company, for instance, sells to 5 or 6 countries. Holland is so small you can literally drive across it in 90 minutes. What good is a.nl domain? Think Germans know what that is? No way. But.com they understand.
So, before you (maybe from a luxury position of being American?) tell others they do not need.com domains, perhaps allow them to decide this for themselves. I always thought it odd that some unelected company in Virginia doles out domains, 9-5 EST USA time.
Am I the only one here to think that this is evidently not going to fly? While I have no doubt that big government would be happy to put these limitless restrictions in the way of freedom ("outlawing Linux would be a good thing", "eaveryone gets strip searched daily to stop pedophiles and drug smugglers", etc), in practice these things will simply not fly: they are too far out.
Silly ideas like this are often fielded but seldom fly. In this case for many reasons. IBM likes Linux too. There is a large insatlled base. Software that is open is easily written. And the US is not alone: there's a thriving IT industry in Asia and Europe. The US would lose its leading position, and even the politicos will not let that happen.
The one real danger is that while this will not fly, we will all with a sigh of relief accept lesser evils (like outlawing MP3 and MPEG-2, etc).
First, who says president Bush is behind this? I followed all the links but saw no-one point directly to the president. While I do not dount that the new atmosphere has something to do with this, direct involvement should be proved. Maybe I missed it though, quite possible.
Second, I believe we need a regrouping. This is obviously a major disappointment for the OSS community. I can forget moving the company to MS Office for Linux now. So where do we go from here? MS will be here to stay, we better deal with it.
That means learning marketing lessons from them. You conquer the world by conquering small markets at a time - the "crossing the chasm" idea. It seems to me we need to identify chasms we can cross. Maybe we can become the desktop system for government. Maybe we can emphasise cost svings and ride on the XP cost increase to conquer a market of small broke companies. Maybe the graphics market (remember Apple?) or some other market. The desktop as a whole is out until we do, I think.
So, ideas anyone? I have sysadmins running Linux on the desktop - that's a statr I guess.:)
It is rather a shame that society (North American society) is so obsessed now with risk aversion!
Everything we do has good and bad affects. Coffee makes you feel good but shortens life. Good choice for each to make. Wine lessens cardiovascular degeneration but increases the chance of liver ailments. Flying gets you tere quickly but you can fall. Peanuts are wholesome food but can kill one in a million. In the USA, only the negative part of each of these equations is being seen. Playgrounds have no swigs here anymore becuase they too can be dangerous.
Well, I for one will not worry. I make my own choices. I take calculated risks. I am aware that it all ends in tears anyway: no-one lives over 110 years and anyway, by 80, half of us have Alzheimers. Best enjoy the three score years and ten I'd say.
People say lots of things in e-mail that they (a) did not intend to say (b) did not realize they had said (c) were not authorized to say (d) wish they hadn't said.
You understood exactly what I was trying to say. INdeed, a policy of three months only protects you. Imagine you ever get sued and you then have to hand over a years email - you would scarcely recall it all, less still remember what you meant when you said XYZ back in January. Best avoid the issue.
Also, as a side benefit. it is easier to search through 3 months mail than through a,year's on most current hardware.
Slashdot Mirror
Good point, but alas, there is more to it.
For instance, since the Italian government, egged on by the Vatican, today shut down several "blasphemous" web sites written by Italians but hosted in California, I think there is definitely something to worry about.
These stats, of course, are fun but entirely meaningless.
If you are going to take the entire design cost into one copy, ok, so let's also add the cost of the CD (probably five billion or so in development cost) and the cost of the Microprocessor used to beta-test: around 50 billion I am guessing. Quite an expensive copy of RedHat.
The serious point is: to be at all meaningful, "cost" needs to be divided by number of users over the lifetime of the product. I would love to see those stats (and compare them to MS).
I venture Linux would still outvalue MS on that basis (if only because there are fewer users).
Michael
There are of course many Linux news sources, and if you run a php-based web server they are easily added (simple drop-in code) to your web server - my private web site at www.mvw.net, for instance, has news from slashdot, the register, and newsforge. The scripts are at:
http://swamp.chl.chalmers.se/backends/
He currently has about 40 sources, primarily linux orienteded.
AC,
What makes you think that all CEOs on planes speak English?
Well, as it happens, I've actually met quite a few on planes, flying to Holland, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, San Francisco, Tokyo, you name it, and I am happy to report that in fact most of them DO speak English. English of course is the world's business language. Take me as a typical example if you like: I'm Dutch, but speak pretty good English. It's just one of those business requirements (like spelling).
:)
MW
....and there IS a difference between typos and spelling. Typos (like writing "simple" for "simply", and typing "becuase", when you are in a hurry) are allowed even for CTOs. They are easily differentiated from actually not knowing the spelling.
:-))
Honest.
Michael
...but I do think this person absolutely has a point.
:-)
As the CTO of in international company, I see a lot of people around me who cannot spell. Some are VERY clever people, but indeed, some of them will probably never grow to become managers (let alone CEOs), simple becuase they cannot write (and that includes spelling).
Now this may not bother you - in which case, that is fine. But if you ever want to become the pointy-haired guy who earns US$150k instead of being the tech who "knows more" but earns $50k, things like spelling, as well as knowledge of geography, politics and current affairs are exactly the things that make a difference.
Being the pointy-haired guy means being able to put together a good presentation, being able to sit next to another CEO on the aiplane and talk intelligently about the state of the industry, and being able to address 100 people confidently.
The good news is: this stuff is learnable. If you can learn C++ or Java, you can certainly learn "English". Advice: this "English" language is as important as those other languages if you want a good resume.
Again, no value expressed here: it is perfectly OK to want to be the guy who makes less but works fewer hours and says what he thinks.
Mike
This is a philosophical discussion, but let's also look at the technology.
There are reasons to control. As a licensed radio ham (VA3MVW) I can assure you that if everyone were allowed to broadcast on shortwave ( 30 MHz) we'd have chaos. A kid in Brazil who uses $15 in parts to create a 10W shortwave transmitter can make an entire band unusable in all of Europe. Shortwave covers the world and there is very little bandwith - all of shortwave is only 30 MHz.
The reason things are getting easier now is twofild: technology and physics. Technology, because we can now transmit on GHz frequencies - unheard of just a few years ago. And physics: if you go up in frequency, bandwidth becomes almost infinitely available, antennas become shorter, and range becomes shorter (so less interference).
In other words, good reasons to control low frequencies and good reasons to allow much on wide bands of high frequencies. Which it seems to me is exactly the way it is happening.
Michael
Actually, as this article on ZDnet shows, the EU has gone a long way in making software more open. This is of course only a proposal but if any of it passes, the EU will be MUCH more liberal than the US.
Michael
...but do not count out big business yet. Seems to me that consumers and their interests do NOT always win. For example:
:)
- I can only choose one cable company, so support phone wait times are up to 6 hours!
- I can only choose one local phone carrier, so I pay rather a lot for that too
- I buy a movie in Hong Kong (where I work often): and I cannot watch it at home. (Okay, I admit, thans to vlc on my Linux box, I can!)
- Living as I do in Camada, I have essentially one option for most air travel (Air Canada), so it is very expensive and service is not good.
- If I want medical care, I get into a political morass... where my patient interests are about last on the list of priorities.
Meaning, while the current P2P sitiation gives rise to some hope, we could otoh very well go back to being controlled by corporate interests, with no freedom to copy music, play it where we want, etc. I would say it's 50-50 right now: will the current free model survive?
Meanwhile I'd better start Morpheus and download what I can while I can.
Some good points you raise. I caught myself almost hoping for this holiday disruption to come to an end... we have offices in San Jose, Toronto, London and Hong Kong so you can imagine the work around the clock and the effort keeping track of everyone's holidays. When I just found myself regretting the holiday, that was kind of a wake-up call. I do not really want a coronary at 43 (I'm 42 now).
So... although I do not mind working this day or any other day, I am going to sit back and enjoy a few days off, really off. I shall not even check my email, my blackberry, my cell phone. I'll work on my private web site instead. Happy holidays; everyone!
Mike
My 7 year old son just went through the same. Go to www.cnn.com and follow the "Norad tracks Santa" link. Finally, a use for tracking technology!
...but the point is well taken. Nowhere do we go nowadays without being observed. England, once the most liberal country in te world, where cops could not stop you unless they had a good readon to do so, is now the most big brotherish country in the world. Orwell was British - no surprise. My kids here in Canada wil have - no, already have - significantly less freedom that I used to have. "Nothing to fear unless you are a criminal" - that argument is still heard all over the place every day. As it was in Nazi days. Dobn;t want to sound alarmist, but we really have to worry about all this.
I would say just a *little* pushback from all of us would help greatly. Does your bank really need that social insurance number? Perhaps asking "am I really legally oliged to give you this" whenever you are asked to produce ID would be a good step?
Peace,
Michael
It seems to me (CTO of a small multinational company) that we are approaching an email watershed. Let me rehash what may be the obvious, to see if anyone has any ideas.
Up to now it was a matter of getting MORE communicative - "more email is more good". Email started as a mail replacement, but became a telephone replacement. We are now surpised (even annoyed) if an email does not elicit a response in 5 minutes.
I see two reasons why this is changing.
One is a relatively small challence, but annoying nonetheless: SPAM. I get 100 a day now - it is becoming a real challenge to handle. I and will have to change email addresses soon - but with hundreds of real people having my address, this is not easy. We need to see this as a real problem for the first time - tools (filters, "organise" etc) are no longer sufficient.
The second problem is more fundamental still. I get 100 "real" emails a day too - but this drives me towards a purely reactive work model. I have too little time for writing back to them all - let alone for the strategising I am being paid for. I need to do LESS communicating - and with me, many of my colleagues.
I am looking forward to seeing what ideas we come up with to take this to the next level. I know it's not XP and Outlook 2003!
Mike
Seems to me Larry Ellison is being rather opportunistic here, plus, this fits in well with his world vision, which has always been centralistic and in favour of control - I remember Oracle giving me a presentation once about their expense system at Oracle: all expense reports worldwide! go to (and are approved in) one central database in the US head office. Not for good database reasons but for control reasons. See also the NIC (thin client)- central control, again.
Having said that, opportunism in the light of Sep 11 is not restricted to Oracle. Companies like Siebel, MS, and many others have also tried to gain market share. I am sure we all see through this.
Michael
Personally, I think that when terrorists attack, that is not the time to quickly abandon freedom, judicial process, and other things that make our civilisation what it is: I think on the contrary that this is the time to hold on to these principles extra carefully.
A shame to see that in all the polls I have seen recently on CNN and in newspapers, whenever the question is about abolishing a civil liberty, roughly 80% is in favour. I sure hope we get back to thinking again soon.
Both/neither. His real name is in Arabic, not in our latin alphabet.
Mike
Seems to me 8 months in juvenile detention is not 'getting his wrist slapped'. At 17, 8 months is an eternity. This will n ot be nice for him.
Michael
London evacuating? I have heard that nowhere else.
Michael
Seems this needs answering.
First, a divide is important even if there are people worse off. Do I say "go away with your penut allergy because some people have cancer"? Do I say "you should drive a 5 year old chevy and not that Audi, because some people are starving"? Do I say "you cannot have that DVD player becuase people are landless in Zimbabwe"? Of course not. A rather disingenious argument.
Second - it is very easy for the USA (is that where you are) or Europe to tell other nations that they should not care about this becuase there are people starving.
Third: the whole point about that divide is that opening up the new economy to developing nations gives them a chance to do just that, develop, so they won't be hungry. This divide is something to be taken seriously.
Cheers,
Mike
Sure, in the uk a
So, before you (maybe from a luxury position of being American?) tell others they do not need
Cheers,
Michael
Am I the only one here to think that this is evidently not going to fly? While I have no doubt that big government would be happy to put these limitless restrictions in the way of freedom ("outlawing Linux would be a good thing", "eaveryone gets strip searched daily to stop pedophiles and drug smugglers", etc), in practice these things will simply not fly: they are too far out.
Silly ideas like this are often fielded but seldom fly. In this case for many reasons. IBM likes Linux too. There is a large insatlled base. Software that is open is easily written. And the US is not alone: there's a thriving IT industry in Asia and Europe. The US would lose its leading position, and even the politicos will not let that happen.
The one real danger is that while this will not fly, we will all with a sigh of relief accept lesser evils (like outlawing MP3 and MPEG-2, etc).
Michael
Couple of thoughts.
:)
First, who says president Bush is behind this? I followed all the links but saw no-one point directly to the president. While I do not dount that the new atmosphere has something to do with this, direct involvement should be proved. Maybe I missed it though, quite possible.
Second, I believe we need a regrouping. This is obviously a major disappointment for the OSS community. I can forget moving the company to MS Office for Linux now. So where do we go from here? MS will be here to stay, we better deal with it.
That means learning marketing lessons from them. You conquer the world by conquering small markets at a time - the "crossing the chasm" idea. It seems to me we need to identify chasms we can cross. Maybe we can become the desktop system for government. Maybe we can emphasise cost svings and ride on the XP cost increase to conquer a market of small broke companies. Maybe the graphics market (remember Apple?) or some other market. The desktop as a whole is out until we do, I think.
So, ideas anyone? I have sysadmins running Linux on the desktop - that's a statr I guess.
Eh, of course playgrounds never had "swigs" in the first place. Swings, yes.
It is rather a shame that society (North American society) is so obsessed now with risk aversion!
Everything we do has good and bad affects. Coffee makes you feel good but shortens life. Good choice for each to make. Wine lessens cardiovascular degeneration but increases the chance of liver ailments. Flying gets you tere quickly but you can fall. Peanuts are wholesome food but can kill one in a million. In the USA, only the negative part of each of these equations is being seen. Playgrounds have no swigs here anymore becuase they too can be dangerous.
Well, I for one will not worry. I make my own choices. I take calculated risks. I am aware that it all ends in tears anyway: no-one lives over 110 years and anyway, by 80, half of us have Alzheimers. Best enjoy the three score years and ten I'd say.
Would talk more but must be off for a coffee.
People say lots of things in e-mail that they (a) did not intend to say (b) did not realize they had said (c) were not authorized to say (d) wish they hadn't said.
,year's on most current hardware.
You understood exactly what I was trying to say. INdeed, a policy of three months only protects you. Imagine you ever get sued and you then have to hand over a years email - you would scarcely recall it all, less still remember what you meant when you said XYZ back in January. Best avoid the issue.
Also, as a side benefit. it is easier to search through 3 months mail than through a
Michael