My cellular (AT&T) sees more like 1.2+ Mbps down, regularly. Occasional high latency and dropped packets, but pretty reliable as far as availability and uptime. Uploading is around 400 Kbps. These are similar statistics to EVDO-RevA (Sprint) and WiMax (Clearwire). Many devices being sold now are capable of 3.6 or 7.2 Mbps once the network supports it.
At ~$60/mo. for 'unlimited' computer (not just phone/PDA) access, it may be an option. Note that providers have cut off customers for 'bandwidth abuse' despite being 'unlimited', so take care to choose the provider that best fits your location and situation.
I came into this story wayyyyy too late, hope you can find me amongst all the SQLite arguing...
I use FlatFileSQLDB in many of my production projects. It is written in PHP and is very easy and lightweight. Much is built from PEAR libraries. Send me a message or email if you are interested. The production websites are in my website portfolio. FYI, I have made updates to this DB since its sourceforge release a few years ago, if you are interested.
However, I am no graduate of business school or even college, for that matter. I've been working my balls off for years now in several different jobs (often multiple, as I am now.) I have no need to lie about my services and products, the quality of my work and service speaks for itself. I simply said that sales and service are equally as important as hard work and competence.
I work for myself, and also handle all the IT and design for a few small businesses. I don't berate IT workers because I am one. Please see my website, Double Rebel Design Studio.
The one thing I DON'T do, is allow myself to be undercompensated or treated without respect. There's no amount of money I would take to destroy my self-respect and dignity. People -- bosses, friends, coworkers, and otherwise -- will treat you as you allow yourself to be treated. If you put yourself forth in the best light and refuse to stand for less, while always striving to improve, you can create opportunities for yourself.
There is a huge fallacy in this country that hard work and talent is all you need to get ahead. The management and business (and government) types you hate continue this fallacy so people like you will work themselves into the ground, thinking that's the answer. In the meantime, they are fine-tuning the perception and psychology of others. In this global world, it's personal interactions that make the difference -- people can only judge you on what they know.
That's why you have to use sales techniques to positively sell yourself -- your 'brand'. You have to market your skills and talents in a way that brings you above the crowd. It also prevents misinformation from people who want to keep you down, be it bosses or competitors. You should always have a good product and a good work ethic to stand behind. Nevertheless, no matter how much talent or how good your work, if you can't work with others or communicate well, you are useless to a business, which needs stability and reliability.
It's really disappointing to see rants modded up. IT is a great field, but so much of it is about working with people, not just numbers. I have had over 10 different jobs that did not require computers at all -- but all required working with people. No matter what happens with technology, I will always be employable. I want young hopefuls to know that with a willingness to learn, and good (effort at least) social skills and work ethic, they can always be employed -- but anger brings neither employment nor happiness. I'm certainly not yet rich, but I've found the opportunities to travel across the US and Europe, and I'm never cold nor hungry. I wish the same for all of you.
Charles
P.S. I can't stand cocaine, and have left jobs and friends behind because it was around. I empathize with your frustration.
I grew up programming and working with computers -- but there was something missing. Sales. So (among other sales jobs) I worked my way up through the restaurant industry until I managed bars -- and let me tell you, IT and Sales skills are equally as important. When the house is packed with 2000 drunk people who want to hand over a $40,000 night, you need to be able to bring your computer system online pronto, while at the same time entertaining the customers who want instant gratification.
I tend to develop this explicitly vengeful distaste for the common whiney client. Homicidal fantasies are my way of coping... If you want to not be stuck in a cubicle 'working for the man', or if you're an artist and don't want to be stuck praying to get noticed (and therefore paid), sales and customer service skills are a must. The customer pays your bills, and is paying you because they don't know how to do your job. Don't expect them to.
The pay sucks, job security is a laughing matter, everybody winds up hating you, and you hate all the ones that don't. This is why Sales is so important in life:
Learn to sell yourself (to get a new, pleasant, well-paying job)
Learn to sell your skills (you have to show proficiency in a way that makes the finances justifiable to your bosses)
Learn to direct your emotions. (They have to pay you to be there, that's why it's called work. You might as well try to enjoy it -- your customers will never have interest in a bad mood, and it leaves a lasting impression.)
I recommend some sales-related reading: anything by Zig Ziglar, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Science of Influence... There's a lot available.
Don't get stuck relying on an agent, or wishing for a job referral. Make your own opportunity. Salesmen get a bad rap -- but it's that salesman who ensures your program/product is well-received in the market. Someone has to deal with the non-tech customers to educate them about the importance of your product -- and it's tough not to take the job personally sometimes. Nevertheless, Sales is the highest paid profession worldwide precisely because it bridges that gap between producer and consumer. No matter how much talent you have, if you can't communicate it with the world, it is useless...but I digress.
To summarize: Sell yourself and your product. If you show a happy, well-meaning face to the world, and have patience, you will be well-received wherever you go. If you hide behind fear, anger, and doubt, that's how others will view you too.
Any monitor, even the crappiest imaginable, can be calibrated to show accurate color.
Blatant lie, anonymous.
The relative benefits of CRTs vs. LCDs in terms of color reproduction tend to be more subtle, such as lack of color shift. And you can get very high-end LCDs that beat the pants off of any CRT.
The only real deterrent for this is to spend a lot of money to get a colour accurate [LCD] display.
I suppose you have to spend a lot of money if you're still stuck on LCDs. I've been doing Print Design for a long time, and the natural warmth of a CRT beats an LCD any day. I picked up my current 19" ViewSonic Pro Series color-accurate CRT for < $50 used, and there's more where that came from.
Saving another (perfectly good) monitor from the landfill (I <3 the Earth!)
Fantastic color (& colour) accuracy.
No Dead Pixels. Ever.
Did I mention the price?
Only 2 downsides: It is appropriately large and hot, but that should only be an issue if you live in an incredibly tiny box. However, there's a lot of rent and beer $$$ leftover from buying a used CRT. There's tons available from everyone mindlessly switching to LCDs when there was nothing wrong with their CRT. Save the Earth, drink more beer!
Abuse is not black-and-white, there are many gray areas of abuse where authorities or 'someone who can help' would like to help but cannot -- it can be something minor, like the indifferent or rude way a parent talks to a child, or something major, like micromanaging every second of their child's time so their child can grow up as a little carbon copy. CPS is not going to get involved if parents have a weird fear of technology that prevents children from exploring it to its greatest potential, or if a parent has terrible diet habits and is causing their children to be obese.
Sometimes there are other ways to quietly help the child around the problem without facing the wrath and disapproval of their (unreasonable) family members, and providing a child with a sense of trust and security, even in a small way, can be a big help.
But the term "generous" is not correct... How can giving away millions of dollars not generous? When you have thousands of times that amount and giving it away has zero impact on your ability to live.
It is easy for you to say "zero impact". Perhaps now the difference in his quality of life is imperceptible, but you are completely ignoring the lifestyle he has led to reach this point. Gates has spent countless hours of hard work growing his company, and has been bright enough to (learn and then) make the financial decisions that have sustained him to this point. His entire life has been consumed by Microsoft, and I'm sure he has had to make personal sacrifices in order to get where he is now.
...let's look at what it is in a realistic light.
Exactly. I'm not here to argue about Microsoft's business practices or market value, and am not denying the lavish lifestyle he is able to lead. -- But the idea that the money came free, without hard work and sacrifice, is naive.
What I hear from the vast majority of successful people is that giving and charity, however little, anonymous or not, has always come back around as good karma. Also I have been told that sometimes giving especially when you most feel unable can be the most beneficial, both for your heart and wallet.
It is all a tradeoff. I could donate 10% of my net worth simply by giving up cable and selling my car, instead riding a bus, and perhaps I should. On the other hand, maybe a better sacrifice is working early and late nights, saving and investing so that one day I can give away a huge lump sum. I believe the best choice is somewhere in the middle, and I strive for it, and have begun donating to open-source and freeware programmers, and my local radio station. I can say for sure that I feel better as a result, so in a way my quality of life has improved.
Gates, having been the wealthiest man in the world, donated publicly to great effect, I believe, inspiring at the least Warren Buffett to do the same. Perhaps the best legacy will be an inspiration for others to give. Realizing he could give such a large amount while still enjoying life (and still being able to live well enough to inspire others), is not something done by the majority of the wealthy, and I don't think you or I are in a place to judge him for it.
The oft-quoted comparison here in Seattle is Gates vs. Paul Allen, whose 'charitable' buildings and land development incite much more controversy than Gates supporting local schools or fighting malaria.
I don't aspire to devour companies or create a monopoly (like Microsoft), but to be able to direct so much of the worlds resources towards helping others is certainly commendable.
[Q1] Ron Paul campaign: America should stop subsidizing the defenses of the rest of the world and worry more about its own national security interests, including its interests in a viable space program. As president, I will also work to remove barriers to private space flight.
[Q2]...my commitment to the free-market, limited government philosophy I espouse on the campaign trail.
I too think we should focus on our own country and stop sticking our noses in others business when we have enough issues at home. Removing barriers to private space flight takes the pricy, occasionally controversial R&D budget off the Gov's books and instead puts that money back into the free market, as I understand it.
I wish I had mod points. This is so much of the truth -- *nix OSs are already the craze. See OSX-based iPhone (how could you miss it) and the super-open Android (already running fine on many versions of existing hardware). Symbian has been losing out to Windows Mobile just like Palm did, with WM being so compatible and easy (for amateurs) to develop for (and familiar), everybody flocks to it despite it having a poor touch OS and being a resource hog. Nokia knows it needs a good, established competitor -- so that users have an easy transition between their desktop/laptop and their superphone. The tech is no longer far apart -- look at the processors and features -- and the gap will soon be closed.
Existing [international] laws can't be made to fit the crimes of cyberwarfare without extensive revision.
The world is growing into the tech age at different rates. The issue is that international laws differ greatly on what constitutes a cyber-crime (see: China) -- what one country considers harmless in another country may result in a lifetime sentence in prison. This discourages not only crime, but international espionage, because the consequences could be disastrous. Laws also differ in times of war, or if the citzen is a government agent, making things currently very complicated. Not to mention a [cr|h]acker routing their way through an unknowing 3rd party country. Where does the responsibility lie?
Examples, FTA:
...serious "translation" problems make [the laws] ill-suited to the task. For example, the U.N. Charter clearly prohibits states from using force except in self-defense or with U.N. authorization. So does that ban Russia from computer attacks on Estonia? It might. Or is it a "use of force" only if the target is physically harmed? Or only if it leads to death and destruction? Or simply whenever the target is critical to a nation's security? Similar uncertainties surround rules on neutrality and civilian distinction...states may shy away from cyberattacks entirely if they don't know what's allowed -- even in cases in which those attacks might cause less harm than the bombs they'll use instead.
When the laws of war don't apply -- even by analogy -- an overwhelmingly complex set of other international and foreign laws kicks in. For example, assume the hackers in the Estonia case were indeed operating from Russia but had no ties to the government or military. Under existing rules, Estonia should respond by asking Russia to police its own territory. To counter-attack would violate Russia's sovereignty. With new rules, however, nations could agree to waive sovereignty concerns and permit a direct response in certain cases, such as cyberattacks by terrorists that all nations might want thwarted.
Hope that helps! The article is much more clearly written as a whole than what's just in the summary.
Proof again that we shouldn't need a license to drive, but a license to have kids.
Couldn't let this one go...
Car accidents are the leading cause of death for teenagers. Especially in states like Texas the situation is especially dangerous, where with a 'parent given Driver's Ed course', a 16 year old can receive a license without taking a driving OR written test. Because we don't have any way to license parenting, a rigorous driving test is even more important. The US does not take driving seriously enough, IMO, and overlooks the safety and lives of children in the name of profit. In our times of sensationalist news, killing themselves or a loved one in an automobile is an actual serious concern.
I too fully support teaching kids as much as possible, and teaching them that knowledge really is power, so they have the hunger to learn. I've been very lucky in my life to have many excellent teachers, and we all need to provide these opportunities to others. Although public schooling is no substitute for parenting, we still must educate the less fortunate who aren't able to have parents teach them life skills, and I support serious education reform and better funding across the US.
WiMAX is for reals, the wireless broadband spectrum is about to put the 'only choice' in many markets, cable broadband (which is often abusing its power, I'm looking at you, Comcast!) to some serious competition. The speeds I'm getting on my HSPA (3.5G) AT&T/HTC Tilt are fast enough to rival my Comcast connection on most days, and it's making me reconsider my hardline connection.
WiMAX has been given a bad name here in the States because Clearwire has taken so long to develop a PC Card, leaving them dead in the water. (For almost 2 years their motto has been: Internet Anywhere!....anywhere you want to carry an 8 x 8 brick and plug it into a dedicated power source!)...and $30/mo. for 1.5mbps isn't competitive with $40/mo. 3.6mbps HSPA.
However, very few devices are being sold in the US with HSPA, much less the 3.6mbps flavor -- and HSPA came disabled on my device, I had to tweak the registry to use it! Even though AT&T is rolling out HSUPA (the upload half of HSPA), and I'm going to be enjoying 3.6mbps uploads nationwide, they're sure not advertising it. This is where Clearwire comes in -- they're poised to take the US market: the PC Card was FCC approved in February, 1000s of people already have WiMAX-ready devices in use, and they've been advertising like mad regardless. There's clearly frequency band competition right now (see Google's recent attempted FCC deal) and Clearwire already has it. Once Clearwire starts to look serious, you can bet other providers will jump into the fray. The prices are already low, and for most people mobile broadband speeds will be more than enough.
Personally, I can't wait for real broadband competition, that crazy $50/mo. 100mbps fiber speed Japan has is driving me mad with geek envy.
I agree completely - the world could definitely use an open, affordable, extensible POS system. It has been my dream to write one for a long time - I am currently doing web development and marketing, currently deploying webERP for the small business I work for, but I've also been managing, bartending, and serving for 5 years, often administrating the POS, so I've seen it from all sides. I would put my all behind a F/OSS POS, so please let me know how this comes together (email/.-obfuscated above. Best of luck with the project!
Yes, there is a giant gap between the knowledge of what CAN be done with IT, and what SHOULD be done. I, on the other hand, implemented a great web-based ERP (webERP) over the weekend because my company doesn't yet realize what they need, so it's not yet in the budget!
I now have the reverse of your company: an ERP system that works great, but nobody knows they need yet! You should have your people call my people.
I go to nursing school. I'd like to go caving more often but there's that problem with nursing school. I love my dog. I work on a bamalance. I try not to explode.
We used to call it "DFO" on the bamalance. Ask one of them's auntee "What happened to him" "Awwwwwwwn know, he just done fell out!"
Or, is he from Mississippi? Either way he luvs him sum duck huntin', and apparently is a professional bamalance-riding azz-patcher! From "What Do Ya'll [sic] Do For A Living?":
Uh....Jaydot here.....put out a house fire every now then, go to a plane crash once in awhile, and have been known to patch up a busted up azz in the back of a bamalance........ I currently by Wesley's extra drugs..... Plus....I'm up 3 cases of beer on DIB bets... Two Wires...battin' a.1000
The Bamalance is there to have extra equipment on hand for the EMT's until a transport unit arrives...most fire department has there own first respond unit. Offer them to come out for $500.00 with a unit. All fire department are looking for some type of fund raises. These trucks have all it takes to keep someone stable.
I could not have written it all better myself. Not exactly authoritative sources, but it must be well-known enough to be used without explanation in several contexts. I have spent over 15 years living in the South (mostly southeast, too) but never noticed it at the time. However, the term is usedtwice by Nozzlenut on the centralpafire.com forum so maybe the term is primarily spread through Firefighters, with whom I have little experience.
This has been well known in the Tivo/Windows MCE/Non-Locked-in Cable-Box community for some time, and was blogged on engadget, which has a fantastic summary at Engadget: Cablecard 2.0 is ready . However, knowing most of you won't RTFA:
At this point you should be asking, what is stopping TiVo or Microsoft from creating two-way, multi-stream CableCARD devices? The answer is, some CE companies are not happy with the certification specification that CableLabs has decided on. As we previously discussed, the point of contention is the OCAP requirement...
...to put it in layman's terms, this would cut out the middle man, -- where the middle man is your
cable company. With OCAP, TiVo couldn't deploy their software on a two-way host device without the cable company's approval, so the concept of going to the store and buying a TiVo that works anywhere wouldn't exist unless every cable company agreed to distribute and support TiVo's OCAP software -- this is how the long-awaited Comcast and TiVo agreement is going to work. The same might also be said for Vista Media Center, Microsoft would have to develop an OCAP VM in Vista Media Center and then work with each cable company to get them to deploy their user interface...
...In the end, we hope that the FCC steps in and requires CableLabs to certify two-way devices that do not require OCAP.
It's still there, I was definitely inebriated at TELUS yelling at Rahzel from their outside seating this April. It's a great spot to find, visit the Village before the 2010 games blow everything wide open.
Submitters, enthralled with the idea of having their story ran on Slashdot, dread the inevitable bandwith-monster that in some cases renders the story near-useless (the poor server someone uses to blog melts before the story hits ~70 comments). Therefore, never being able to trust Slashdot with their bandwith and at the same time wanting their news to reach as many as possible, the submitters are starting to make the preperations we all wish the editors cared about.
With a file this size the Bittorrent may be the only feasible way for their news to reach the whole Slashdot community - resulting in the Bittorrent being more important (it decides the fate of the story regardless of content).
I imagine we're going to see this more and more unless Slashdot ever decides some sort of bandwith management (caching, Bittorrent, early-warning) of the stories is profitable, because by this point the editors are clearly not going to do it out of the goodness of their heart (in part because the community will mirror or Bittorrent on its own).
I recently have been looking for that exact same product (I remembered seeing something similar on a late-night infomercial)...the closest thing I can find is CellSocket, but I know there are competing products out there. Hope this helps!
THIS HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE! It's called The Phantom Edit.
I honestly don't know much about it (having never seen it), but it's an amateur edit of The Phantom Menace, circulated mostly through the internet, but there are also VHS tapes and DVDs floating around.
Slashdot Mirror
My cellular (AT&T) sees more like 1.2+ Mbps down, regularly. Occasional high latency and dropped packets, but pretty reliable as far as availability and uptime. Uploading is around 400 Kbps. These are similar statistics to EVDO-RevA (Sprint) and WiMax (Clearwire). Many devices being sold now are capable of 3.6 or 7.2 Mbps once the network supports it.
At ~$60/mo. for 'unlimited' computer (not just phone/PDA) access, it may be an option. Note that providers have cut off customers for 'bandwidth abuse' despite being 'unlimited', so take care to choose the provider that best fits your location and situation.
I came into this story wayyyyy too late, hope you can find me amongst all the SQLite arguing...
I use FlatFileSQLDB in many of my production projects. It is written in PHP and is very easy and lightweight. Much is built from PEAR libraries. Send me a message or email if you are interested. The production websites are in my website portfolio. FYI, I have made updates to this DB since its sourceforge release a few years ago, if you are interested.
Thanks for the compliments.
However, I am no graduate of business school or even college, for that matter. I've been working my balls off for years now in several different jobs (often multiple, as I am now.) I have no need to lie about my services and products, the quality of my work and service speaks for itself. I simply said that sales and service are equally as important as hard work and competence.
I work for myself, and also handle all the IT and design for a few small businesses. I don't berate IT workers because I am one. Please see my website, Double Rebel Design Studio.
The one thing I DON'T do, is allow myself to be undercompensated or treated without respect. There's no amount of money I would take to destroy my self-respect and dignity. People -- bosses, friends, coworkers, and otherwise -- will treat you as you allow yourself to be treated. If you put yourself forth in the best light and refuse to stand for less, while always striving to improve, you can create opportunities for yourself.
There is a huge fallacy in this country that hard work and talent is all you need to get ahead. The management and business (and government) types you hate continue this fallacy so people like you will work themselves into the ground, thinking that's the answer. In the meantime, they are fine-tuning the perception and psychology of others. In this global world, it's personal interactions that make the difference -- people can only judge you on what they know.
That's why you have to use sales techniques to positively sell yourself -- your 'brand'. You have to market your skills and talents in a way that brings you above the crowd. It also prevents misinformation from people who want to keep you down, be it bosses or competitors. You should always have a good product and a good work ethic to stand behind. Nevertheless, no matter how much talent or how good your work, if you can't work with others or communicate well, you are useless to a business, which needs stability and reliability.
It's really disappointing to see rants modded up. IT is a great field, but so much of it is about working with people, not just numbers. I have had over 10 different jobs that did not require computers at all -- but all required working with people. No matter what happens with technology, I will always be employable. I want young hopefuls to know that with a willingness to learn, and good (effort at least) social skills and work ethic, they can always be employed -- but anger brings neither employment nor happiness. I'm certainly not yet rich, but I've found the opportunities to travel across the US and Europe, and I'm never cold nor hungry. I wish the same for all of you.
Charles
P.S. I can't stand cocaine, and have left jobs and friends behind because it was around. I empathize with your frustration.
I grew up programming and working with computers -- but there was something missing. Sales. So (among other sales jobs) I worked my way up through the restaurant industry until I managed bars -- and let me tell you, IT and Sales skills are equally as important. When the house is packed with 2000 drunk people who want to hand over a $40,000 night, you need to be able to bring your computer system online pronto, while at the same time entertaining the customers who want instant gratification. I tend to develop this explicitly vengeful distaste for the common whiney client. Homicidal fantasies are my way of coping... If you want to not be stuck in a cubicle 'working for the man', or if you're an artist and don't want to be stuck praying to get noticed (and therefore paid), sales and customer service skills are a must. The customer pays your bills, and is paying you because they don't know how to do your job. Don't expect them to. The pay sucks, job security is a laughing matter, everybody winds up hating you, and you hate all the ones that don't. This is why Sales is so important in life:
- Learn to sell yourself (to get a new, pleasant, well-paying job)
- Learn to sell your skills (you have to show proficiency in a way that makes the finances justifiable to your bosses)
- Learn to direct your emotions. (They have to pay you to be there, that's why it's called work. You might as well try to enjoy it -- your customers will never have interest in a bad mood, and it leaves a lasting impression.)
I recommend some sales-related reading: anything by Zig Ziglar, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Science of Influence... There's a lot available.Don't get stuck relying on an agent, or wishing for a job referral. Make your own opportunity. Salesmen get a bad rap -- but it's that salesman who ensures your program/product is well-received in the market. Someone has to deal with the non-tech customers to educate them about the importance of your product -- and it's tough not to take the job personally sometimes. Nevertheless, Sales is the highest paid profession worldwide precisely because it bridges that gap between producer and consumer. No matter how much talent you have, if you can't communicate it with the world, it is useless...but I digress.
To summarize: Sell yourself and your product. If you show a happy, well-meaning face to the world, and have patience, you will be well-received wherever you go. If you hide behind fear, anger, and doubt, that's how others will view you too.
Blatant lie, anonymous.
The relative benefits of CRTs vs. LCDs in terms of color reproduction tend to be more subtle, such as lack of color shift. And you can get very high-end LCDs that beat the pants off of any CRT.[citation needed]
The only real deterrent for this is to spend a lot of money to get a colour accurate [LCD] display.
I suppose you have to spend a lot of money if you're still stuck on LCDs. I've been doing Print Design for a long time, and the natural warmth of a CRT beats an LCD any day. I picked up my current 19" ViewSonic Pro Series color-accurate CRT for < $50 used, and there's more where that came from.
Advantages:
Only 2 downsides: It is appropriately large and hot, but that should only be an issue if you live in an incredibly tiny box. However, there's a lot of rent and beer $$$ leftover from buying a used CRT. There's tons available from everyone mindlessly switching to LCDs when there was nothing wrong with their CRT. Save the Earth, drink more beer!
Abuse is not black-and-white, there are many gray areas of abuse where authorities or 'someone who can help' would like to help but cannot -- it can be something minor, like the indifferent or rude way a parent talks to a child, or something major, like micromanaging every second of their child's time so their child can grow up as a little carbon copy. CPS is not going to get involved if parents have a weird fear of technology that prevents children from exploring it to its greatest potential, or if a parent has terrible diet habits and is causing their children to be obese.
Sometimes there are other ways to quietly help the child around the problem without facing the wrath and disapproval of their (unreasonable) family members, and providing a child with a sense of trust and security, even in a small way, can be a big help.
What I hear from the vast majority of successful people is that giving and charity, however little, anonymous or not, has always come back around as good karma. Also I have been told that sometimes giving especially when you most feel unable can be the most beneficial, both for your heart and wallet.
It is all a tradeoff. I could donate 10% of my net worth simply by giving up cable and selling my car, instead riding a bus, and perhaps I should. On the other hand, maybe a better sacrifice is working early and late nights, saving and investing so that one day I can give away a huge lump sum. I believe the best choice is somewhere in the middle, and I strive for it, and have begun donating to open-source and freeware programmers, and my local radio station. I can say for sure that I feel better as a result, so in a way my quality of life has improved.
Gates, having been the wealthiest man in the world, donated publicly to great effect, I believe, inspiring at the least Warren Buffett to do the same. Perhaps the best legacy will be an inspiration for others to give. Realizing he could give such a large amount while still enjoying life (and still being able to live well enough to inspire others), is not something done by the majority of the wealthy, and I don't think you or I are in a place to judge him for it.
The oft-quoted comparison here in Seattle is Gates vs. Paul Allen, whose 'charitable' buildings and land development incite much more controversy than Gates supporting local schools or fighting malaria.
I don't aspire to devour companies or create a monopoly (like Microsoft), but to be able to direct so much of the worlds resources towards helping others is certainly commendable.
Charles
I too think we should focus on our own country and stop sticking our noses in others business when we have enough issues at home. Removing barriers to private space flight takes the pricy, occasionally controversial R&D budget off the Gov's books and instead puts that money back into the free market, as I understand it.
So where's the conflict? Please provide proof.
I wish I had mod points. This is so much of the truth -- *nix OSs are already the craze. See OSX-based iPhone (how could you miss it) and the super-open Android (already running fine on many versions of existing hardware). Symbian has been losing out to Windows Mobile just like Palm did, with WM being so compatible and easy (for amateurs) to develop for (and familiar), everybody flocks to it despite it having a poor touch OS and being a resource hog. Nokia knows it needs a good, established competitor -- so that users have an easy transition between their desktop/laptop and their superphone. The tech is no longer far apart -- look at the processors and features -- and the gap will soon be closed.
Great comment, thank you.
The world is growing into the tech age at different rates. The issue is that international laws differ greatly on what constitutes a cyber-crime (see: China) -- what one country considers harmless in another country may result in a lifetime sentence in prison. This discourages not only crime, but international espionage, because the consequences could be disastrous. Laws also differ in times of war, or if the citzen is a government agent, making things currently very complicated. Not to mention a [cr|h]acker routing their way through an unknowing 3rd party country. Where does the responsibility lie?
Examples, FTA:
Hope that helps! The article is much more clearly written as a whole than what's just in the summary.
This is a dupe!
From Slashdot, August 9th, 2007: Google News Allowing Story Participants To Comment
Ahem, editors still tipsy off the holiday eggnog?
Happy Holidays all!
Couldn't let this one go...
Car accidents are the leading cause of death for teenagers. Especially in states like Texas the situation is especially dangerous, where with a 'parent given Driver's Ed course', a 16 year old can receive a license without taking a driving OR written test. Because we don't have any way to license parenting, a rigorous driving test is even more important. The US does not take driving seriously enough, IMO, and overlooks the safety and lives of children in the name of profit. In our times of sensationalist news, killing themselves or a loved one in an automobile is an actual serious concern.
I too fully support teaching kids as much as possible, and teaching them that knowledge really is power, so they have the hunger to learn. I've been very lucky in my life to have many excellent teachers, and we all need to provide these opportunities to others. Although public schooling is no substitute for parenting, we still must educate the less fortunate who aren't able to have parents teach them life skills, and I support serious education reform and better funding across the US.
Charles
WiMAX is for reals, the wireless broadband spectrum is about to put the 'only choice' in many markets, cable broadband (which is often abusing its power, I'm looking at you, Comcast!) to some serious competition. The speeds I'm getting on my HSPA (3.5G) AT&T/HTC Tilt are fast enough to rival my Comcast connection on most days, and it's making me reconsider my hardline connection.
....anywhere you want to carry an 8 x 8 brick and plug it into a dedicated power source!) ...and $30/mo. for 1.5mbps isn't competitive with $40/mo. 3.6mbps HSPA.
WiMAX has been given a bad name here in the States because Clearwire has taken so long to develop a PC Card, leaving them dead in the water. (For almost 2 years their motto has been: Internet Anywhere!
However, very few devices are being sold in the US with HSPA, much less the 3.6mbps flavor -- and HSPA came disabled on my device, I had to tweak the registry to use it! Even though AT&T is rolling out HSUPA (the upload half of HSPA), and I'm going to be enjoying 3.6mbps uploads nationwide, they're sure not advertising it. This is where Clearwire comes in -- they're poised to take the US market: the PC Card was FCC approved in February, 1000s of people already have WiMAX-ready devices in use, and they've been advertising like mad regardless. There's clearly frequency band competition right now (see Google's recent attempted FCC deal) and Clearwire already has it. Once Clearwire starts to look serious, you can bet other providers will jump into the fray. The prices are already low, and for most people mobile broadband speeds will be more than enough.
Personally, I can't wait for real broadband competition, that crazy $50/mo. 100mbps fiber speed Japan has is driving me mad with geek envy.
I agree completely - the world could definitely use an open, affordable, extensible POS system. It has been my dream to write one for a long time - I am currently doing web development and marketing, currently deploying webERP for the small business I work for, but I've also been managing, bartending, and serving for 5 years, often administrating the POS, so I've seen it from all sides. I would put my all behind a F/OSS POS, so please let me know how this comes together (email /.-obfuscated above. Best of luck with the project!
Charles
Yes, there is a giant gap between the knowledge of what CAN be done with IT, and what SHOULD be done. I, on the other hand, implemented a great web-based ERP (webERP) over the weekend because my company doesn't yet realize what they need, so it's not yet in the budget!
I now have the reverse of your company: an ERP system that works great, but nobody knows they need yet! You should have your people call my people.
Charles
doublerebel.com
I can find several sources to support this definition (I was very curious):
From the only bamalance worker I can find Dade is most likely Florida, which means this could be a southeastern thing. Also used here, from a man claiming to be 'GA Man'
Charles
doublerebel.com
Charles doublerebel.com
It's still there, I was definitely inebriated at TELUS yelling at Rahzel from their outside seating this April. It's a great spot to find, visit the Village before the 2010 games blow everything wide open.
People in cardboard houses get lit and blazed!
...Or if the wind is up...they get blown and lifted!
(Assuming the flexible HDPE tanks aren't full, yes I did RTFA)
Just whatever you do, don't get trashed - this (fun)house is purposefully recyclable!
Submitters, enthralled with the idea of having their story ran on Slashdot, dread the inevitable bandwith-monster that in some cases renders the story near-useless (the poor server someone uses to blog melts before the story hits ~70 comments). Therefore, never being able to trust Slashdot with their bandwith and at the same time wanting their news to reach as many as possible, the submitters are starting to make the preperations we all wish the editors cared about.
With a file this size the Bittorrent may be the only feasible way for their news to reach the whole Slashdot community - resulting in the Bittorrent being more important (it decides the fate of the story regardless of content).
I imagine we're going to see this more and more unless Slashdot ever decides some sort of bandwith management (caching, Bittorrent, early-warning) of the stories is profitable, because by this point the editors are clearly not going to do it out of the goodness of their heart (in part because the community will mirror or Bittorrent on its own).
I recently have been looking for that exact same product (I remembered seeing something similar on a late-night infomercial)...the closest thing I can find is CellSocket, but I know there are competing products out there. Hope this helps!
Article here:
This server is not slashdotted...yet.
mods are smoking something new today...completely missing the joke
It's called The Phantom Edit.
I honestly don't know much about it (having never seen it), but it's an amateur edit of The Phantom Menace, circulated mostly through the internet, but there are also VHS tapes and DVDs floating around.
Here's a message board with information:
A very explanatory Salon Article:
I once saw some semi-official website but now I can't find it...anyway most of the rumors are that it's worth watching, decide for yourself.