Things are different here in the US. Ground shipping at "regular speed" is pretty slow and can take up to 5 business days to arrive from the warehouses (which are not in major centres for obvious reasons) to a major destination like Seattle.
It's a big country, and it sucks if you are in logistics.
consider what other people think of him? Not readers of slashdot but other governmental heads or industry leaders. If Tenet calls up the president of the USA he is quite a bit more likely to get a sit down with him than any of us are.
He is just a human being with an opinion just like everyone else, but unlike everyone else his opinions are taken more seriously by those with the power and control.
What he says today could be made into law in 10 years. Watch out.
So NBC will have redundancy - so you won't miss a minute of your favourite American competitor! Most people I know joke about NBC's coverage of the Olympics - its laughable. They'll show an event, then when the American loses they'll cut to a new event.
Contrast this with CBC and BBC which cover entire events regardless of who wins or loses.
So those who get cable, time to watch CBC for _full_ coverage of the Olympics!
What did the contract say exactly? "Exclusive" can mean several things. Apparently the deal was to maintain exclusivity in SKU, not product line. I guess Amazon's defense is that they didn't have someone else sell the same SKU, but was in the same category.
You imply that commercial software _is_ well documented and well understood. That is not always the case. Maybe if you're talking about Oracle, yes, well documented, but even windows is not always well documented and well understood. Especially with the more obscure features of windows.
While the creators of Kazaa may not be in immediate legal danger, it's American users will most certainly be. I have not read the proposed law, but it will most definately close that loophole.
Someone already has re-written a CVS-alike which has a very similiar command set but uses a completely new backend technology. Its called SVN (website link).
The command set does have differences, which would be natural since SVN offers quite a few enhancements over CVS.
Speaking from someone who has used SVN, CVS and perforce, I must way that the branch mechanism of CVS and the whole idea of 'tags' is the most annoying, even more annoying than non-atomic changesets.
Re:Why hard to run something like Amazon as busine
on
Mighty Amazon
·
· Score: 1
I said before and I'll say again - Amazon carries inventory. Its obvious to any regular user of their system.
Even if your database is accurate with the physical inventory count, there are other issues... like how much inventory to hold, when is it appropriate to sell inventory, etc, etc. Lots of analysis that needs to be done, its not extremely trivial.
Its called 'supply-chain software' or 'enterprise resource planning'. Lots of companies make a zillion dollars doing this software, including IBM.
Re:Why hard to run something like Amazon as busine
on
Mighty Amazon
·
· Score: 1
No great technnical expertise necessary?!
You make it sound like almost no work was put into Amazon. That is clearly incorrect.
If creating a competitor to Amazon was so easy, why hasn't there actually been one? I highly doubt the success of Amazon had anything to do with their patents. One click really isnt what Amazon is known for.
Anyways, I think you're underestimating how difficult it is to run Amazon's business. Additionally Amazon actually carries inventory (evidenced by the single item detail page which shows '24 hour availability' - kind of hard to do that if you have to have everything shipped in).
Yet another opinion, but since you expressed yours freely, I shall express mine freely as well.
First, I'm sort of confused, you claim that the word 'Firebird' is hereby permanently owned by the 'Firebird SQL' project for all Software projects? Even if you had a trademark on 'Firebird' in the US, the trademark office would probably still grant Mozilla/AOL the ability to use that word to describe their product. Why? Databases and Browsers don't compete, they aren't in the same functional area by far, and there is no way a 'reasonable person' would confuse a database and a web browser.
Most of your arguments seem to rely on "we wont be #1 in google anymore" complaints. You seem to be fixated that by naming their browser the Mozilla Firebird browser this somehow dilutes the FirebirdSQL project. I don't see how, and I think a reasonable person would either.
I read this in Discover - it is most assuredly not a joke. And FYI, discover stopped running april fools articles in 1998. Another poster pointed this out.
Again, your rapid fire 'judgement' is not quite correct here.
Its actually 10 days. 10 days to get a new job and file for a H1B or leave the country. Not much time at all.
Being a H1B is a form of indentured servitude. It's not pretty. H1Bs aren't subject to the same rights americans are - they are taxed by the US, but can't vote (taxation without representation, sound familiar?), they dont have freedom of speech (the ins can revoke your H1B without much fuss), and so on.
Re: finding another job in 30 days - obviously you've never looked for a tech job lately - even if you are excellently qualified it can take significantly longer than 30 days just to land 1 interview, let alone get an offer that you take. Try to do that in 10 days - no way jose!
In reference to H1Bs - most of us them have advanced degrees. To get a H1B job you basically have to have at minimum a Bachelors, and many others have Masters and even some PhDs. H1Bs aren't rubber stamped by some fly by night technical institute.
it happens, i work for a major company, and due to a wiring error and a mistake made by power techs, major switches and about 20 servers went down, taking out some major production systems.
So no matter what happens, your database will eventually fail and lose power. Even if the power is 100%, the db software and/or OS will crash.
And yes, oracle crashes:-) And hard. But it comes back up cleanly, which is the important part.
I personally like to use root@requestingdomain.com
So for the real stuff I'd put root@real.com and leave all the spam options on. I bet they get annoyed with all the spam. Another option is postmaster@ or any other administrative address.
Interesting post, but a little misleading. IIRC Amazon alao faught against releasing purchasing records of their customers, and won too. Amazon has a history of refusing to bow to right wing groups which want objectionable material removed. Recently there was a little thing regarding a certain book and B&N delisted it (for other reasons so they say...) but amazon didn't.
So provide some proof that amazon is doing "everything in their power to relieve you of choice".
YES! I recently noticed that I have low level tinnitus. I recently moved to the US. Concidence? In the US there is much more caffeine in Cola beverages than in Canada. I have been intaking probably 2x more caffeine than I used to. I have noticed in the last few months that I have low low level tinnitus. Any noise is louder than it, including the sound of blood rushing thru my ears. I have yet to quit caffeine, but I think it will help significantly.
I listen to headphones at resonable volumes, I don't work in industries which have hearing-loss danger, and I don't go to bars or concerts or other loud events very often. My hearing is still great. But this low tinnitus only when its completely and utterly quiet.
So to respond to the original article: Do you drink cola drinks? Coffee? Try quitting caffeine and maybe your tinnitus will go away. And you can still listen to mp3s.
PS: If you read medical sites and other tinnitus support sites, they all say that caffeine aggrivates tinnitus because it constricts blood vessels in the ear. Quit caffine!!
I knew someone who worked at a small shop up in Vancouver which was responsible for maintaining the old version of rational rose. The unix version is actually the windows version "ported" using some toolkit that helps port win32 apps to unix. Its basically a MFC/win32 port to unix. So now you have the bug prone and complex win32 api, then reimplemented ontop of a different platform, so you have several sources of bugs.
Now how crappy is the unix version? probably pretty crappy and heavy on the system requirements.
Michael I think you don't quite know what you're talking about. First you say a recognized expert is kinda right, but lo and behold, if only we had open source, that would be the end of our woes.
You have to remember that most open source software doesn't provide any degrees of assurance other than "it's been used by alot of people". This really isn't an option for vertically integrated solutions such as digital voting. Just how many hobbests are going to "hack on" the GNU Vote system ?
The track record on contribution by the general public to OSS projects is pretty poor. Look at Mozilla, emacs, linux kernel, etc. Most of the significant contribution has been done by a relatively small number of persons. While lots of useful bug reports and patches have been submitted, I think for electronic voting we need a bit more than "lots of people have submitted bug patches."
What she is talking about here is engineered assurance. OSS is a source code policy, not an engineering style.
So far all the replies to this story have been "we already knew that" and "duh". I find those comments idiotic. In that spirit, when cigarette execs admitted they knew their products were bad for people, there should have been no story.
This event is significant, because from the mouth of someone significantly important in MSFTs power structure, there is an admission of failing.
Maybe the exec just wanted to confess his (their) sins?
Slashdot Mirror
Things are different here in the US. Ground shipping at "regular speed" is pretty slow and can take up to 5 business days to arrive from the warehouses (which are not in major centres for obvious reasons) to a major destination like Seattle.
It's a big country, and it sucks if you are in logistics.
consider what other people think of him? Not readers of slashdot but other governmental heads or industry leaders. If Tenet calls up the president of the USA he is quite a bit more likely to get a sit down with him than any of us are.
He is just a human being with an opinion just like everyone else, but unlike everyone else his opinions are taken more seriously by those with the power and control.
What he says today could be made into law in 10 years. Watch out.
his opinions are worth watching because other people think they are important, not because they necessairly have any inherent value themselves.
As for the CIA - all the sophistication and size didnt buy them much in the last 4 years....
So NBC will have redundancy - so you won't miss a minute of your favourite American competitor! Most people I know joke about NBC's coverage of the Olympics - its laughable. They'll show an event, then when the American loses they'll cut to a new event.
Contrast this with CBC and BBC which cover entire events regardless of who wins or loses.
So those who get cable, time to watch CBC for _full_ coverage of the Olympics!
What did the contract say exactly? "Exclusive" can mean several things. Apparently the deal was to maintain exclusivity in SKU, not product line. I guess Amazon's defense is that they didn't have someone else sell the same SKU, but was in the same category.
You imply that commercial software _is_ well documented and well understood. That is not always the case. Maybe if you're talking about Oracle, yes, well documented, but even windows is not always well documented and well understood. Especially with the more obscure features of windows.
Apple sells a different product called 'Mac OS X server' which comes with all the 'usuals'. Which includes "forever support" and whatnot.
The assumption and heresay behind the story is pretty lame.
While the creators of Kazaa may not be in immediate legal danger, it's American users will most certainly be. I have not read the proposed law, but it will most definately close that loophole.
The command set does have differences, which would be natural since SVN offers quite a few enhancements over CVS.
Speaking from someone who has used SVN, CVS and perforce, I must way that the branch mechanism of CVS and the whole idea of 'tags' is the most annoying, even more annoying than non-atomic changesets.
I said before and I'll say again - Amazon carries inventory. Its obvious to any regular user of their system.
Even if your database is accurate with the physical inventory count, there are other issues... like how much inventory to hold, when is it appropriate to sell inventory, etc, etc. Lots of analysis that needs to be done, its not extremely trivial.
Its called 'supply-chain software' or 'enterprise resource planning'. Lots of companies make a zillion dollars doing this software, including IBM.
No great technnical expertise necessary?!
You make it sound like almost no work was put into Amazon. That is clearly incorrect.
If creating a competitor to Amazon was so easy, why hasn't there actually been one? I highly doubt the success of Amazon had anything to do with their patents. One click really isnt what Amazon is known for.
Anyways, I think you're underestimating how difficult it is to run Amazon's business. Additionally Amazon actually carries inventory (evidenced by the single item detail page which shows '24 hour availability' - kind of hard to do that if you have to have everything shipped in).
Hi,
Yet another opinion, but since you expressed yours freely, I shall express mine freely as well.
First, I'm sort of confused, you claim that the word 'Firebird' is hereby permanently owned by the 'Firebird SQL' project for all Software projects? Even if you had a trademark on 'Firebird' in the US, the trademark office would probably still grant Mozilla/AOL the ability to use that word to describe their product. Why? Databases and Browsers don't compete, they aren't in the same functional area by far, and there is no way a 'reasonable person' would confuse a database and a web browser.
Most of your arguments seem to rely on "we wont be #1 in google anymore" complaints. You seem to be fixated that by naming their browser the Mozilla Firebird browser this somehow dilutes the FirebirdSQL project. I don't see how, and I think a reasonable person would either.
I think there is something deeper here.
I also noticed that as well. What's up here?
I read this in Discover - it is most assuredly not a joke. And FYI, discover stopped running april fools articles in 1998. Another poster pointed this out.
Again, your rapid fire 'judgement' is not quite correct here.
-ryan
sprintf is dangerous, you shouldn't use it, even if you need to do what you described.
What you want is snprintf(). Buffer overflows are impossible with snprintf(). Hell snprintf is what sprintf should have been from the very start.
I guess you also like 'gets()' as well, no doubt?
re: 30 days....
Its actually 10 days. 10 days to get a new job and file for a H1B or leave the country. Not much time at all.
Being a H1B is a form of indentured servitude. It's not pretty. H1Bs aren't subject to the same rights americans are - they are taxed by the US, but can't vote (taxation without representation, sound familiar?), they dont have freedom of speech (the ins can revoke your H1B without much fuss), and so on.
Re: finding another job in 30 days - obviously you've never looked for a tech job lately - even if you are excellently qualified it can take significantly longer than 30 days just to land 1 interview, let alone get an offer that you take. Try to do that in 10 days - no way jose!
In reference to H1Bs - most of us them have advanced degrees. To get a H1B job you basically have to have at minimum a Bachelors, and many others have Masters and even some PhDs. H1Bs aren't rubber stamped by some fly by night technical institute.
just fyi.
it happens, i work for a major company, and due to a wiring error and a mistake made by power techs, major switches and about 20 servers went down, taking out some major production systems.
:-) And hard. But it comes back up cleanly, which is the important part.
So no matter what happens, your database will eventually fail and lose power. Even if the power is 100%, the db software and/or OS will crash.
And yes, oracle crashes
I personally like to use root@requestingdomain.com
So for the real stuff I'd put root@real.com and leave all the spam options on. I bet they get annoyed with all the spam. Another option is postmaster@ or any other administrative address.
Interesting post, but a little misleading. IIRC Amazon alao faught against releasing purchasing records of their customers, and won too. Amazon has a history of refusing to bow to right wing groups which want objectionable material removed. Recently there was a little thing regarding a certain book and B&N delisted it (for other reasons so they say...) but amazon didn't.
So provide some proof that amazon is doing "everything in their power to relieve you of choice".
So, lets see some proof!
YES! I recently noticed that I have low level tinnitus. I recently moved to the US. Concidence? In the US there is much more caffeine in Cola beverages than in Canada. I have been intaking probably 2x more caffeine than I used to. I have noticed in the last few months that I have low low level tinnitus. Any noise is louder than it, including the sound of blood rushing thru my ears. I have yet to quit caffeine, but I think it will help significantly.
I listen to headphones at resonable volumes, I don't work in industries which have hearing-loss danger, and I don't go to bars or concerts or other loud events very often. My hearing is still great. But this low tinnitus only when its completely and utterly quiet.
So to respond to the original article: Do you drink cola drinks? Coffee? Try quitting caffeine and maybe your tinnitus will go away. And you can still listen to mp3s.
PS: If you read medical sites and other tinnitus support sites, they all say that caffeine aggrivates tinnitus because it constricts blood vessels in the ear. Quit caffine!!
The main site is down, and I cannot seem to find any good mirrors with the newest version.
-ryan
I knew someone who worked at a small shop up in Vancouver which was responsible for maintaining the old version of rational rose. The unix version is actually the windows version "ported" using some toolkit that helps port win32 apps to unix. Its basically a MFC/win32 port to unix. So now you have the bug prone and complex win32 api, then reimplemented ontop of a different platform, so you have several sources of bugs.
Now how crappy is the unix version? probably pretty crappy and heavy on the system requirements.
Precisely! This is what I mean when I say "engineered assurance."
Obviously there has to be extensive QA, but the traditional open source development style is "throw lots of people at it, trusting their data to it."
In any case, I still refuse the slashdot editor's claim.
Michael I think you don't quite know what you're talking about. First you say a recognized expert is kinda right, but lo and behold, if only we had open source, that would be the end of our woes.
You have to remember that most open source software doesn't provide any degrees of assurance other than "it's been used by alot of people". This really isn't an option for vertically integrated solutions such as digital voting. Just how many hobbests are going to "hack on" the GNU Vote system ?
The track record on contribution by the general public to OSS projects is pretty poor. Look at Mozilla, emacs, linux kernel, etc. Most of the significant contribution has been done by a relatively small number of persons. While lots of useful bug reports and patches have been submitted, I think for electronic voting we need a bit more than "lots of people have submitted bug patches."
What she is talking about here is engineered assurance. OSS is a source code policy, not an engineering style.
So far all the replies to this story have been "we already knew that" and "duh". I find those comments idiotic. In that spirit, when cigarette execs admitted they knew their products were bad for people, there should have been no story.
This event is significant, because from the mouth of someone significantly important in MSFTs power structure, there is an admission of failing.
Maybe the exec just wanted to confess his (their) sins?