My second-generation handheld unit gets a reasonable signal inside a car, unless I am driving through tall forest or downtown Chicago. Electronics have improved 1000% since I bought that thing, but OTOH a watch would have a much smaller antenna, so that probably balances out.
Not that I think this would actually work, mind you.
Until you are 25 perhaps. Or if you are Chuck Yeager. For 99.99% of all human beings eyesight starts going downhill at 18 and that decline accelerates at 25.
Of course, in the early days of PCs a lot of companies put eager young engineer on hardware selection projects, where they chose 14" monitors as standards. Works real well if you are 50 y.o....
And what about Active Directory? LDAP isn't as cohesive a solution if you are running Windows clients.
Forgotten about Novell eDirectory (NDS) have we? Microsoft does like to forget where it stole its best ideas from as well...
Last time I checked eDirectory was nominally available for Linux, and I am sure with a big contract from Wall Street Novell would get to work polishing it up for that platform.
And I'd feel safer having some sort of reliable mainframe or embedded system running air traffic control than Linux. Don't get me wrong; I love Linux and all that, but I'm rather glad that ATC systems are largely mainframe-based still. (I could be wrong about that, I suppose.)
As we used to say when I worked at the grocery store: there are some things it is better not to know. Do a little Google'ing on the existing ATC system and you may never fly in the US again. Don't get me wrong: there is plenty of reliable IBM 1401 assembly code out there. It's just the age of the people who understand that environment tends to keep going up...
From this article, I have to think that Merrill Lynch and others are changing their external server infrastructure, not their internal IT infrastructure.
The big financial companies actually use Unix applications on the desktop. Developed in-house in the days when the choice was between a Sun workstation and a 486 PC, these applications represent the core of their competitive advantage (or so they believe anyway). I have talked to a few financial guys about what happened when they tried to port these apps to NT: nothing doing.
They still use lots of Wintel for office applications, but the databases and the core apps run on Unix. So they are probably getting tired of paying the Sun tax, and don't relish replacing it with a Microsoft tax.
Architecturally flawed: the product still bears a legacy of client server, or better, outdated client application (i.e. Desktop client) and so-and-so server.
Um, there was nothing wrong with the client/server model, and desktop clients often provide far superior functionality to the alternatives. You go into this yourself farther down when you discuss the move to "webify" the product in question. Web browsers are great for browsing; not so great for other things.
As we're all experts here, I should point out that content management seems to be just a new buzzword for boring old configuration management with bells and whistles on.
Sometimes it is used that way, but I would consider content managment (which seems linked to web site management) a subset of document management. Document management historically integrated storage, access control, and revision control for various types of documents ("objects" now I guess)
Why not? Why wouldn't you want all your company's documents viewable at any time from any where from any web browser?
Well, the word Enron comes to mind... Less dramatically, every business has plenty of plain old spreadsheets and memos that should never appear on any web or Web. Yeah, I know, appropriate security...
Also, in general documents can be formatted to be usable (or just look good) in only one medium. Something formatted to print on a 1200 dpi laser printer looks like crap on a web browser. And often the other way around too. So there is no need to get a web browser involved when it is not needed or wanted.
For small companies/small needs (not a lot of servers/content) I use simple Lotus Notes applications. For larger needs, I step up to Domino.Doc.
Agreed, but don't you know it is a violation of the Slashdot Code of Posting to suggest that Lotus Notes might be a viable solution to anything;-) [Novell products too!].
Back in 1994 I worked on a very large document management project. We surveyed 15 products then in the market. The project didn't go through for other reasons, but I thought at the time several of the products (particularly SoftSolutions) were pretty close to what was needed to sort out the chaotic nightmare of subdirectories and files scattered across dozens of file servers (Novell at that time - at least with Netware you had some access control and mapping functions you could use effectively - oops, wrong rant).
Fast forward to 2002. Most of the document managment vendors from 1996 are gone. Now we have "content management", which seems fine as far as it goes but also seems (IMHO) to make the basic assumption that everything is, or will soon be, a web page. Management of plain old documents on plain old file servers (SANs now I guess) has been forgotten.
Hello! Not everything is content! Not everything will eventually become a web page!! Would the "content management" vendors please remember plain old business documents?
The Real A/V formats may not have been the best thing in the world, but they did work and were very widely distributed. With the final release of RealOne, the standard Real Player seems to have disappeared from the Real download site.
So now I have to pay a fee per month so that Real can track my usage of (bona fide) free A/V material? Yeah, right.
They then told me that they couldn't install the hard drive if I wanted a computer without a MS OS. I said that that was OK. It's a simple matter to screw in a hard drive, after all.
Then you pulled out your identification as a representative of the BSA and said, "would you prefer to pay $250,000? Or spend 10 years in federal prison? Or both?".
Microsoft (and all large software houses) operates on the same principle as the IRS: They don't have to catch everyone violating their licensing agreements. They just have to catch enough, and punish them harshly enough, to keep the rest scared.
sPh
Re:Seems like torts galore...
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is a good idea in principle, but the lawyers don't give a shit about good ideas, and neither does the DMCA.
No, but tort lawyers do care about making a lot of money!
I don't think your example holds. To file a counterclaim, the writer of the virus would have to admit who they were and what they had done, which I don't think they would care to do!. And generally, the writer of a virus does not have permission to install the virus on your system.
If the system belongs to you, and the spyware is installed without your permission, then you have every right to go after who did it.
sPh
Seems like torts galore...
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If WinWhatWhere is actually corrupting the DLL's of other applications on install, it would seem that the developers of those applications would have cause for action against the seller for WhWhWh for interference with contract, DMCA violations, and possibly racketeering as well. Sounds like a field day for the tort lawyers.
I have always liked Gateway (nee Gateway 2000), but I have to wonder if they have decided to commit corporate suicide with this testimony. Any business punishes distributors who cross it, but Gates and Ballmer are known to be Soprano-like in the length of their memory and the degree to which they will go to exact revenge.
Perhaps Gateway has concluded that they can't compete with Dell, and their plan is to be driven out of business by Microsoft, then sue for $20 billion to distribute to the stockholders?
After I found out about their 'MS on all machines' issue, I just stopped buying from them all togather.
And how did you manage to find a vendor that did not do this? A local mom-n-pop shop once showed me their contract with Microsoft. It was full of restrictions and penalties of this nature. Probably more so than Gateway's, since the local shop had zero clout. It was strictly pay to play, and if we catch you breaking the agreement, you are out of business.
Now, M$ never audited any of the mom-n-pops I dealt with, but the threat of an audit was more than enough to keep them in line.
The ramifications? Well, people are going to, like have to, like, train for the new environment! Quick, call the cops!
Wish I had some mod points - this comment nails it (so to speak).
My thought is that there must be an amazingly powerful adaptive learning mechanism built into the brain if it can reprogram itself to compensate for zero G (no, I won't say "microgravity". Nor "Shuttle" without an article, nor "liftoff" instead of "blastoff". Take that NASA!) trajectories in 15 days. I started playing catch with my boys when they were 8 months old or so - something burned in that deep and the brain can still adapt. Amazing.
However, they are, like, you know, sovereign states. As the representatives of the law of those states, if those 9 attorneys general just keep holding out, as long as they feel MS has violated the fair business practice laws of their states, they have it perfectly within their rights to (they can at LEAST do this much) block MS from selling software in that state..
The states are intervening in a federal case. If the federal case is dismissed, they would then be free to file their own individual anti-trust cases under either state or federal law. And be free to see those efforts crushed by a Microsoft legal team with enough cash to buy some of the smaller states lock, stock, and barrel (and here I don't mean buy the politicans - I mean buy the entire state). Or to see their efforts disappear when Congress passes a bill forbidding states to interfere with "operating system software needed for national security purposes", which bill would take effect retroactively.
As for forbidding the sale of Microsoft products in state X, yeah, right. I don't think Micrsoft would even bother suing the states for the $20 billion or so they could collect. No, they would just withdraw all Microsoft products from the shelves in one of the states, and send in the BSA to claw back the licenses from all their customers. That state administration would last about 3 days after that.
Microsoft is a convicted monopolist; that conviction has been upheld on appeal, and the Supreme Court has declined to review the case, so the current judgement stands
The Supremes declined to hear Microsoft's request for expdited appeal. Microsoft has not yet exhausted the appeals available to it, and given the current climate in Wash DC it is pretty clear that Microsoft's appeal will be accepted.
So as the governmental party bringing the case, if the Justice Dept. agrees to accept a consent decree and terminate the case, it can. And that consent decree can even include items such as (a) this consent decree cannot be used as evidence in civil lawsuits [hint: it does] (b) the consent decree can be used to prevent Microsoft's competitors from taking certain actions under the threat of DMCA prosecution [hint: it does].
Damn it when will CTO's realize that IT is a SERVICE, and a very costly one. IT is not the damn ruler of the computer!! It is IT's job to keep people productive, not dictate their whim's to every client. I realize that standardization is meant to minimize counterproductive downtime, but it sounds like your companies policy is way over-restrictive
To quote Richard Feynman, concerning the first head of computing for the Manhatten Project (note that this involved the use of both human computers and mechanical computing devices): "but he succumbed to the disease which has since become well-known: the desire to play with the machine rather than doing useful work".
I have had the misfortune to specify and install about 10,000 personal computing devices in three different corporations of different sizes since 1986. Of the 1000 or so requests for non-standard configurations that passed my way, about 3 were justifed based on business analysis. The same analysis that the requestors would demand be done on any project presented to them for budget approval.
When you get a company car, if you are high enough in the organization you get to specify the color and seat coverings. You don't get to pull the engine out and replace it with a new one at your whim. Somehow people manage to get from place to place in those "crippled" vehicles.
You neglect to mention that it was, in fact, an economist who first "discovered" that preferences aren't always transitive.
Sorry, I structured that paragraph badly. Either I should have put the example in ()'s or broken it up into three paragraphs with additional explanation. Unfortunately my employer does ask that I do some work from time to time;-).
Since the winner of the "Nobel Price in Economics" (not actually granted by the original Nobel Prize committee BTW) is determined by experts in formal economics, I am afraid I do not find your argument overly pursuasive.
The person you are referring to is Lee Iaccoca. I read his biography. He was not their best enginee and was quickly moved to sales shortly after joining the company - where he had a natural talent.
In other words, he had no formal training in sales, but used his general knowledge of the world, his overall educational background, and his innate traits to figure out how to succeed in a new environment. Just what was claimed couldn't be done.
Very few poeple end up doing anything related to what they studied in school by 15 years after graduation. Engineering => Sales, Engineering => Economics, and Engineering => Law are very common paths. Now I grant you Sociology => Electrical Engineering, particularly in self-taught mode, is unlikely, but I have seen it happen.
what determines whether it is a good thing or not is a matter of economics. Yet someone who has a background not in economics but software development is considered to be insightful and wise when commenting on a very complex matter outside of his field.
People with training in formal economics believe that all interaction among intelligent life forms can be explained by the "laws" of economics, particularly classical microeconomics and utility theory. They have convinced some of the academy and a good portion of Western government of this as well.
Many others, including very smart people, disagree with economists that this is so. To cite just one minor problem: preferences of real humans are not transitive. This is a non-resolvable argument, since the economists say "you don't understand economics", the non-economist replies "I am questioning the basis of your argument, not its conclusions", and the economist trumps with "since you haven't stated your argument in terms of economics, it is by definition invalid".
However, in an open discussion forum please don't assume that everyone agrees that everything is explained by "economics" without defining and justifing your argument. Thanks.
compared it to a "flying garbage can". It really was awful, there were analog gauges and whatnot littering the interior
Analog gauges are superior to digital readouts for many applications - particularly when it is necessary to scan many data inputs rapidly to detect deviations from expected. Note that most automobile cockpits have been re-re-designed since the 1980's to remove the digital gauges and put the analog needles back.
Of course, today those needles are mostly driven by D/A converters from the control computer, rather than being direct "analog" instruments, but that is another discussion.
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Not that I think this would actually work, mind you.
sPh
Of course, in the early days of PCs a lot of companies put eager young engineer on hardware selection projects, where they chose 14" monitors as standards. Works real well if you are 50 y.o. ...
sPh
Last time I checked eDirectory was nominally available for Linux, and I am sure with a big contract from Wall Street Novell would get to work polishing it up for that platform.
sPh
sPh
They still use lots of Wintel for office applications, but the databases and the core apps run on Unix. So they are probably getting tired of paying the Sun tax, and don't relish replacing it with a Microsoft tax.
sPh
sPh
sPh
sPh
Also, in general documents can be formatted to be usable (or just look good) in only one medium. Something formatted to print on a 1200 dpi laser printer looks like crap on a web browser. And often the other way around too. So there is no need to get a web browser involved when it is not needed or wanted.
sPh
sPh
Fast forward to 2002. Most of the document managment vendors from 1996 are gone. Now we have "content management", which seems fine as far as it goes but also seems (IMHO) to make the basic assumption that everything is, or will soon be, a web page. Management of plain old documents on plain old file servers (SANs now I guess) has been forgotten.
Hello! Not everything is content! Not everything will eventually become a web page!! Would the "content management" vendors please remember plain old business documents?
Thanks.
sPh
So now I have to pay a fee per month so that Real can track my usage of (bona fide) free A/V material? Yeah, right.
sPh
Microsoft (and all large software houses) operates on the same principle as the IRS: They don't have to catch everyone violating their licensing agreements. They just have to catch enough, and punish them harshly enough, to keep the rest scared.
sPh
I don't think your example holds. To file a counterclaim, the writer of the virus would have to admit who they were and what they had done, which I don't think they would care to do!. And generally, the writer of a virus does not have permission to install the virus on your system.
If the system belongs to you, and the spyware is installed without your permission, then you have every right to go after who did it.
sPh
sPh
Perhaps Gateway has concluded that they can't compete with Dell, and their plan is to be driven out of business by Microsoft, then sue for $20 billion to distribute to the stockholders?
sPh
Now, M$ never audited any of the mom-n-pops I dealt with, but the threat of an audit was more than enough to keep them in line.
sPh
My thought is that there must be an amazingly powerful adaptive learning mechanism built into the brain if it can reprogram itself to compensate for zero G (no, I won't say "microgravity". Nor "Shuttle" without an article, nor "liftoff" instead of "blastoff". Take that NASA!) trajectories in 15 days. I started playing catch with my boys when they were 8 months old or so - something burned in that deep and the brain can still adapt. Amazing.
sPh
As for forbidding the sale of Microsoft products in state X, yeah, right. I don't think Micrsoft would even bother suing the states for the $20 billion or so they could collect. No, they would just withdraw all Microsoft products from the shelves in one of the states, and send in the BSA to claw back the licenses from all their customers. That state administration would last about 3 days after that.
sPh
So as the governmental party bringing the case, if the Justice Dept. agrees to accept a consent decree and terminate the case, it can. And that consent decree can even include items such as (a) this consent decree cannot be used as evidence in civil lawsuits [hint: it does] (b) the consent decree can be used to prevent Microsoft's competitors from taking certain actions under the threat of DMCA prosecution [hint: it does].
So much for being "convicted".
sPh
I have had the misfortune to specify and install about 10,000 personal computing devices in three different corporations of different sizes since 1986. Of the 1000 or so requests for non-standard configurations that passed my way, about 3 were justifed based on business analysis. The same analysis that the requestors would demand be done on any project presented to them for budget approval.
When you get a company car, if you are high enough in the organization you get to specify the color and seat coverings. You don't get to pull the engine out and replace it with a new one at your whim. Somehow people manage to get from place to place in those "crippled" vehicles.
sPh
Since the winner of the "Nobel Price in Economics" (not actually granted by the original Nobel Prize committee BTW) is determined by experts in formal economics, I am afraid I do not find your argument overly pursuasive.
sPh
Very few poeple end up doing anything related to what they studied in school by 15 years after graduation. Engineering => Sales, Engineering => Economics, and Engineering => Law are very common paths. Now I grant you Sociology => Electrical Engineering, particularly in self-taught mode, is unlikely, but I have seen it happen.
sPh
Many others, including very smart people, disagree with economists that this is so. To cite just one minor problem: preferences of real humans are not transitive. This is a non-resolvable argument, since the economists say "you don't understand economics", the non-economist replies "I am questioning the basis of your argument, not its conclusions", and the economist trumps with "since you haven't stated your argument in terms of economics, it is by definition invalid".
However, in an open discussion forum please don't assume that everyone agrees that everything is explained by "economics" without defining and justifing your argument. Thanks.
sPh
Of course, today those needles are mostly driven by D/A converters from the control computer, rather than being direct "analog" instruments, but that is another discussion.
sPh