The problem with Cloud is you're selling the customer the _potential_ to use a service in the future usually. Knowing when to book that as an actual sale seems to be hard with this model.
Erm.. this is the basis for accrual accounting. Quoting from nolo, we see:
Under the accrual method, transactions are counted when the order is made, the item is delivered, or the services occur, regardless of when the money for them (receivables) is actually received or paid. In other words, income is counted when the sale occurs, and expenses are counted when you receive the goods or services. You don't have to wait until you see the money, or actually pay money out of your checking account, to record a transaction
It's pretty straightforward. Think of it like a gift card. The customer buys a gift card from Oracle, who then books the accrued income. As the customer uses the services, Oracle sends the customer a monthly invoice and deducts the invoice amount from the gift card. At this point, we can count the income.
What seems to have happened here is that Oracle looked for a way to fudge the figures. They figured that ErichTheRed was probably going to buy a couple of million in Oracle gift cards and booked that. Once on the books, it's simply a matter of choosing the right language so that the actual revenue is never mentioned but the projected accrued revenue magically becomes the number released. Then up goes the stock price, people cash out, and when the accrued revenue fails to materialize the excuse is that it was a projected amount, that the market changed, customers didn't follow through etc etc.
I mean, I can project my monthly income will rise in three months by several thousand dollars, can't I? It's hardly my fault if the company sees a dip and can't follow through on what they projected, which in turn hits my projections. And nobody was actually hurt in all of this, were they?
It's also why MS doesn't compete with FB (the only software market which MS does not try to overtake... because FB plays ball with MS).
Seriously?
Microsoft enters markets in which it believes it can make money. Lot of money. Microsoft also enters markets where it believes it can win. Every single hair-brained scheme they tried under Ballmer's reign to capture niche retail and consumer markets ended badly. Today, Microsoft is into the big enterprise systems where they can win, so long as they play the long game. For example, originally SharePoint was a bit of a joke. Today, it's almost mission critical. Dynamics CRM was a toy, today it's giving Salesforce a run for it's money. ERP. The list goes on.
I guess you missed the bit where Microsoft grew tired of competing with Quicken after almost 20 years, and threw in the towel. They tried to take over that market and failed. Portable music players tied to an online store? Zune was a flameout. Enterprise and consumer smartphones? They bought Nokia and still cratered. Don't forget there were plenty of companies that "played ball" with Microsoft over the years and got bitten bad (Cringely's Accidental Empires had a good list, go read that).
No, my friend, the Ballmer era Microsoft wanted it all and ended up stalling the company for years. The "new" Microsoft (the one who plays nice with Red Hat on Azure; the one bringing Ubuntu into your Windows 10; the one bringing SQL Server to Linux) knows it can't overtake markets anymore, and instead is trying to learn to place nice(er).
Facebook isn't safe because of Ballmer. Facebook is safe because they are the 100lb gorilla in a very small niche that Microsoft knows they could not dislodge. Funny, Myspace thought they were that, too...
I think the global issue of diminishing work due to replacement by robots will more likely be solved when production and consumption happen in the same country, so politicians can see "both sides of the medal" - cause and effect. Producing in country A and selling in country B on the contrary makes it less likely the problems of unemployment are solved.
You raise a very interesting point about onshoring manufacturing, although you didn't specifically say it: quality.
With robotic production, production quality can become almost a constant. So what differentiates a good made in Country A vs. Country B? We could go for tariff protections, but I hate the idea of rent-seeking governments inserting themselves into transactions merely to soak up money. The quality of the good is ultimately going to be determined by the precision of the robot; meaning how well maintained is that machine (bearing, sensors, hydraulics etc).
So the competitive advantage is going to go to the countries who are investing in training (essentially) mechanics. I don't think drag'n'drop programmers (see another/. story) are going to cut it in that world...
The low-paid workers in China were not really buying expensive Adidas shoes before, anyway.
But the low-paid workers in China had a job. Now they don't.
Hooray for the SJW campaign against exploiting low-paid workers! No longer are those poor souls being exploited! Rejoice that the SJW elite's enlightened ways have scored a victory against capitalist exploitation of developing countries!
So how are those people expected to feed themselves and their families now? Western handouts?
What's next, suing Samsung and Toshiba because their televisions "show moving images"?
Watch it, buddy.
I've a patent on the concept of pounding on buttons to make letters appear on a screen. I'm thinking of allowing people to licensing this concept so they can do things like communicate with computers; maybe at a trivial cost of a cent per character. I'll take that in advance, please.
I know, this is stupid. Making calls? Making video calls? Ever see 2001: A space odyssey? Im sure there are older examples of video calling. Isn't that prior art?
Try Dick Tracey. Look at his fancy wristwatch that he could make video calls with - back in the '30's!
Not going to happen. Microsoft even removed VB6 from MSDN downloads years ago citing expired licenses as a reason and said that it's ok to use it as long as you have the license and got it for an example on MSDN CD set, but no downloads any more. If they can't even keep the thing downloadable for their paying customers I bet it is going to be "a little bit" far fetched to think that they would go through the trouble of open-sourcing it.
Microsoft removed Visual Studio 6 from MSDN ages ago. Visual Basic 6 is still there.
Now if someone would just upgrade that ERP (painful as that might be) it would be possible to integrate stuff like the website and all those webservices the suppliers are exposing to re-order and what not quickly. They could probably automate more take on more clients or cut staffing costs considerable. Someone just needs to be willing to sign that 200k check and get some new technology in the door.
I do ERP systems for a living: Microsoft Dynamics AX, and I work for one of the top Microsoft partners in AX space.
$200K is pretty much your consulting fee for what you propose. $2 million is probably the implementation cost for a replacement ERP system. But that's only the beginning of it. Since ERP is so fundamental o an organization, replacing an ERP system with something totally different (and be it SAP, AX, or any of the other solutions out there) to what runs on an AS/400 is going to require a complete rethink of the organizational processes.
You replace an ERP (or even just upgrade your existing one) when your business demands it, and for no other reason. It's simply too costly in terms of money, time, retraining, and the inevitable go-live issues that happen.
Heck; I've been assigned a new client to sort out their database because the go-live went so bad: the initial data load was bad data, and there are bugs throughout the system because the client never tested but pushed for a go-live before they were ready. For the last 9 months they can't run an AP aging report!
Replacing an ERP system is not like replacing Word Perfect with Word. It takes a serious commitment of time, money, and most importantly of all client buy-in: if the client's employees haven't bought in for the need for change, your ERP project is dead in the water.
PM: I told them that I hadn't found any evidence Bernard: That's because you haven't been looking Sir Humphry: And we haven't shown you any PM: Yes, well done!
So if I work for a business that uses SAP, is there a way for me to find out if it's patched and if my personal information is safe?
Maybe. Send Another Payment and we'll open a support case with your partner. Once we have the signed work order, we get agrement on the scope of the work and begin.
Did you read that website? The claims and timeline are completely totally wrong for DOS; why would you trust it for Quicktime?
From the page:
Course 1: the Desktop OS Monopoly Microsoft snared CP/M code to sell as DOS, then blocked Digital Research from competing with its own product. Microsoft partnered with IBM to use it as a vehicle for establishing its purloined MS-DOS as a standard. After Compaq cloned IBM's hardware, Microsoft dumped IBM to court PC clone makers. Microsoft used its remaining charms to get IBM to develop OS/2 as its DOS replacement. After hiring away VMS engineers, Microsoft used that company's technology in NT, and dumped IBM's OS/2. NeXTSTEP, Solaris/Intel, and BeOS were all prevented from competing through exclusive OEM contracts.
The first point is wrong; the second point occurred before the first AND was the other way around; the third point never happened, the fourth point is the wrong way around; the fifth point has seeds of truth, and the sixth point only has seeds of truth. You can refute all of the above with just two books "Hard Drive" and "Showstopper!".
Parts of Quicktime may have indeed been "stolen" from Apple, but I wouldn't trust that site to supply meaningful facts.
Creating a new account on Windows 10 REQUIRES an e-mail address at Outlook.com
Utter nonsense. You can create a local account on Windows 10 that is NOT tied to an email address or Microsoft account. Admittedly, it's not easy to find, but it it available during the initial user setup.
I can definitely see DJI getting all hot under the collar about the SteadyGrip: it's practically the same thing.
But the tracking? The Phantom 4 does a very nice image recognition system. The Yuneec needs a GPS signal from the ST-10 (or Wizard Wand) to lock onto so it can track. I don't know about the ST-16 / Typhoon H in that regard.
The optical avoidance system of the P4 (and the Typhoon H): surely DJI isn't going to claim that is their invention? I see car ads every day offering the same thing.
Carl, we talked to you about missing the point.... Come to my office and bring everything in your desk with you.. Stan from security will be assisting you.
One week later: "I'm sorry, I never saw that email"
I would moderate you as insightful, but that means I'm agreeing with your position and thus inviting the government to monitor me more closely to see what other heretical beliefs I may have...
Were they wearing brown shirts when they "declared war" on a candidate exercising his right to free speech? Have they forgotten why free speech is a good thing in the first place or are we just going straight to "thought police" mode?
No, they wear masks. Guy Fawkes masks, to be precise. I wonder if they appreciate the irony of that position?
Slashdot Mirror
The problem with Cloud is you're selling the customer the _potential_ to use a service in the future usually. Knowing when to book that as an actual sale seems to be hard with this model.
Erm.. this is the basis for accrual accounting. Quoting from nolo, we see:
Under the accrual method, transactions are counted when the order is made, the item is delivered, or the services occur, regardless of when the money for them (receivables) is actually received or paid. In other words, income is counted when the sale occurs, and expenses are counted when you receive the goods or services. You don't have to wait until you see the money, or actually pay money out of your checking account, to record a transaction
It's pretty straightforward. Think of it like a gift card. The customer buys a gift card from Oracle, who then books the accrued income. As the customer uses the services, Oracle sends the customer a monthly invoice and deducts the invoice amount from the gift card. At this point, we can count the income.
What seems to have happened here is that Oracle looked for a way to fudge the figures. They figured that ErichTheRed was probably going to buy a couple of million in Oracle gift cards and booked that. Once on the books, it's simply a matter of choosing the right language so that the actual revenue is never mentioned but the projected accrued revenue magically becomes the number released. Then up goes the stock price, people cash out, and when the accrued revenue fails to materialize the excuse is that it was a projected amount, that the market changed, customers didn't follow through etc etc.
I mean, I can project my monthly income will rise in three months by several thousand dollars, can't I? It's hardly my fault if the company sees a dip and can't follow through on what they projected, which in turn hits my projections. And nobody was actually hurt in all of this, were they?
It's also why MS doesn't compete with FB (the only software market which MS does not try to overtake... because FB plays ball with MS).
Seriously?
Microsoft enters markets in which it believes it can make money. Lot of money. Microsoft also enters markets where it believes it can win. Every single hair-brained scheme they tried under Ballmer's reign to capture niche retail and consumer markets ended badly. Today, Microsoft is into the big enterprise systems where they can win, so long as they play the long game. For example, originally SharePoint was a bit of a joke. Today, it's almost mission critical. Dynamics CRM was a toy, today it's giving Salesforce a run for it's money. ERP. The list goes on.
I guess you missed the bit where Microsoft grew tired of competing with Quicken after almost 20 years, and threw in the towel. They tried to take over that market and failed. Portable music players tied to an online store? Zune was a flameout. Enterprise and consumer smartphones? They bought Nokia and still cratered. Don't forget there were plenty of companies that "played ball" with Microsoft over the years and got bitten bad (Cringely's Accidental Empires had a good list, go read that).
No, my friend, the Ballmer era Microsoft wanted it all and ended up stalling the company for years. The "new" Microsoft (the one who plays nice with Red Hat on Azure; the one bringing Ubuntu into your Windows 10; the one bringing SQL Server to Linux) knows it can't overtake markets anymore, and instead is trying to learn to place nice(er).
Facebook isn't safe because of Ballmer. Facebook is safe because they are the 100lb gorilla in a very small niche that Microsoft knows they could not dislodge. Funny, Myspace thought they were that, too...
Do you like:
... which can be turned off with relative ease.
I think the global issue of diminishing work due to replacement by robots will more likely be solved when production and consumption happen in the same country, so politicians can see "both sides of the medal" - cause and effect. Producing in country A and selling in country B on the contrary makes it less likely the problems of unemployment are solved.
You raise a very interesting point about onshoring manufacturing, although you didn't specifically say it: quality.
With robotic production, production quality can become almost a constant. So what differentiates a good made in Country A vs. Country B? We could go for tariff protections, but I hate the idea of rent-seeking governments inserting themselves into transactions merely to soak up money. The quality of the good is ultimately going to be determined by the precision of the robot; meaning how well maintained is that machine (bearing, sensors, hydraulics etc).
So the competitive advantage is going to go to the countries who are investing in training (essentially) mechanics. I don't think drag'n'drop programmers (see another /. story) are going to cut it in that world...
The low-paid workers in China were not really buying expensive Adidas shoes before, anyway.
But the low-paid workers in China had a job. Now they don't.
Hooray for the SJW campaign against exploiting low-paid workers! No longer are those poor souls being exploited! Rejoice that the SJW elite's enlightened ways have scored a victory against capitalist exploitation of developing countries!
So how are those people expected to feed themselves and their families now? Western handouts?
What's next, suing Samsung and Toshiba because their televisions "show moving images"?
Watch it, buddy.
I've a patent on the concept of pounding on buttons to make letters appear on a screen. I'm thinking of allowing people to licensing this concept so they can do things like communicate with computers; maybe at a trivial cost of a cent per character. I'll take that in advance, please.
I know, this is stupid. Making calls? Making video calls? Ever see 2001: A space odyssey? Im sure there are older examples of video calling. Isn't that prior art?
Try Dick Tracey. Look at his fancy wristwatch that he could make video calls with - back in the '30's!
Not going to happen. Microsoft even removed VB6 from MSDN downloads years ago citing expired licenses as a reason and said that it's ok to use it as long as you have the license and got it for an example on MSDN CD set, but no downloads any more. If they can't even keep the thing downloadable for their paying customers I bet it is going to be "a little bit" far fetched to think that they would go through the trouble of open-sourcing it.
Microsoft removed Visual Studio 6 from MSDN ages ago. Visual Basic 6 is still there.
Now if someone would just upgrade that ERP (painful as that might be) it would be possible to integrate stuff like the website and all those webservices the suppliers are exposing to re-order and what not quickly. They could probably automate more take on more clients or cut staffing costs considerable. Someone just needs to be willing to sign that 200k check and get some new technology in the door.
I do ERP systems for a living: Microsoft Dynamics AX, and I work for one of the top Microsoft partners in AX space.
$200K is pretty much your consulting fee for what you propose. $2 million is probably the implementation cost for a replacement ERP system. But that's only the beginning of it. Since ERP is so fundamental o an organization, replacing an ERP system with something totally different (and be it SAP, AX, or any of the other solutions out there) to what runs on an AS/400 is going to require a complete rethink of the organizational processes.
You replace an ERP (or even just upgrade your existing one) when your business demands it, and for no other reason. It's simply too costly in terms of money, time, retraining, and the inevitable go-live issues that happen.
Heck; I've been assigned a new client to sort out their database because the go-live went so bad: the initial data load was bad data, and there are bugs throughout the system because the client never tested but pushed for a go-live before they were ready. For the last 9 months they can't run an AP aging report!
Replacing an ERP system is not like replacing Word Perfect with Word. It takes a serious commitment of time, money, and most importantly of all client buy-in: if the client's employees haven't bought in for the need for change, your ERP project is dead in the water.
How about an Etch-A-Sketch movie? That sounds just about as exciting.
It worked in Toy Story...
+1 insightful, my AC friend...
Yes, Prime Minister: https://youtu.be/vKer_nMOIZ8?t...
PM: I told them that I hadn't found any evidence
Bernard: That's because you haven't been looking
Sir Humphry: And we haven't shown you any
PM: Yes, well done!
So if I work for a business that uses SAP, is there a way for me to find out if it's patched and if my personal information is safe?
Maybe. Send Another Payment and we'll open a support case with your partner. Once we have the signed work order, we get agrement on the scope of the work and begin.
And remember: Send Another Payment.
I'm truly baffled at who he thinks he's fooling.
Himself.
As others have pointed out, he's crying "victim" because he doesn't want to back up an extraordinary claim with some seemingly simple evidence.
Rather than own his issue, he is crying "victim" and blaming it on everyone else. Reasonably typical behavior of a narcissistic braggart.
And don't forget, Microsoft's video standards and players were originally based on STOLEN QuickTime Source Code
Did you read that website? The claims and timeline are completely totally wrong for DOS; why would you trust it for Quicktime?
From the page:
Course 1: the Desktop OS Monopoly
Microsoft snared CP/M code to sell as DOS, then blocked Digital Research from competing with its own product.
Microsoft partnered with IBM to use it as a vehicle for establishing its purloined MS-DOS as a standard.
After Compaq cloned IBM's hardware, Microsoft dumped IBM to court PC clone makers.
Microsoft used its remaining charms to get IBM to develop OS/2 as its DOS replacement.
After hiring away VMS engineers, Microsoft used that company's technology in NT, and dumped IBM's OS/2.
NeXTSTEP, Solaris/Intel, and BeOS were all prevented from competing through exclusive OEM contracts.
The first point is wrong; the second point occurred before the first AND was the other way around; the third point never happened, the fourth point is the wrong way around; the fifth point has seeds of truth, and the sixth point only has seeds of truth. You can refute all of the above with just two books "Hard Drive" and "Showstopper!".
Parts of Quicktime may have indeed been "stolen" from Apple, but I wouldn't trust that site to supply meaningful facts.
Creating a new account on Windows 10 REQUIRES an e-mail address at Outlook.com
Utter nonsense. You can create a local account on Windows 10 that is NOT tied to an email address or Microsoft account. Admittedly, it's not easy to find, but it it available during the initial user setup.
Well... taking the gimbal + camera off the Inspire 1 and mounting on the grip was very new.
Yes, I'm sure gimbal-stabilized cameras have been hand-held mounted before, but this was an innovation.
I can definitely see DJI getting all hot under the collar about the SteadyGrip: it's practically the same thing.
But the tracking? The Phantom 4 does a very nice image recognition system. The Yuneec needs a GPS signal from the ST-10 (or Wizard Wand) to lock onto so it can track. I don't know about the ST-16 / Typhoon H in that regard.
The optical avoidance system of the P4 (and the Typhoon H): surely DJI isn't going to claim that is their invention? I see car ads every day offering the same thing.
This will be an interesting battle.
I'm right there with them. Shut it down, shut it *all* down. Until April 2nd anyway.
"Dark City" in more ways than one, then...
Carl, we talked to you about missing the point.... Come to my office and bring everything in your desk with you.. Stan from security will be assisting you.
One week later: "I'm sorry, I never saw that email"
I would moderate you as insightful, but that means I'm agreeing with your position and thus inviting the government to monitor me more closely to see what other heretical beliefs I may have...
>> taking his election websites offline
Were they wearing brown shirts when they "declared war" on a candidate exercising his right to free speech? Have they forgotten why free speech is a good thing in the first place or are we just going straight to "thought police" mode?
No, they wear masks. Guy Fawkes masks, to be precise. I wonder if they appreciate the irony of that position?
Vote.
Taking down servers, defacing websites... all petty vandalism. Vote on election day; the one day when your voice is heard and counts.
Without that feature these 'drones' are just remote controlled copters.
And?
Without the plethora of onboard computers and sensors, the Google self-driving car is just another crappy Prius.
I don't see the point you're trying to make.
Hey! I haven't had a ComCast outage for at least a week! They must be getting better... Either that, or @comcastcares actually makes things better...