I don't think that this would work as well as it seems at first glance. In order for bittorrent to be effective you need to have enough people with active connections to download from. When downloading a web page you would have many smaller connections that would not be active for very long. Also, you would still need a server that can handle all of the connections so that the software knows where it can go to get the files it needs. It might be possible but it would have to significantly different than bittorrent if it was to work effectively.
I've never had any real problems with my Dells (I've had 3 due to upgrades) One of my laptop keyboards started misbehaving slightly and it was repaired the next day at no cost to me or the company I work for.
Plus, I know that some universities are now "official" Dell repair/warranty shops and will perform any maintenance required on any student computers. This combined with educational discounts offered to students of some schools actually works out quite well.
I've not (yet) lived in both countries but this is something I am researching for a move that is coming up. I have talked to more than a few people within my company that have been relocated to/from Canada and the US. Most all of them were software developer/systems analyst/project management types and they all had pretty much had the same opinion. While obviously this was not a sceintific study it did cover people who lived in at least 4 provinces and at least 6 states. For me, that is enough of a sample to make my decision.
I also grew up not more than 20 miles from the Canada/US border and I know of many people who went to the US for treatment so that they could avoid the waiting lists for treatment in Canada. In terms of the quality of the actual treatment there may not be that much difference. From what I can tell the US facilities generally have newer equipment to work with but the deciding factor for me is not having to wait 6-8 months to find out exactly what is wrong with you because there is a waiting list.
Wages are on par when you take into consideration the health insurance an American pays (after tax) that is rolled into our socialized medicare system (pre-tax).
I would have to disagree with this. If I would take the difference in the taxes in Canada and the US and use it to purchase health care/health insurance I would get much higher level of care in the US. Now, if I was working for minimum wage it would probably be a completely different story altogether.
I agree with your point of view on patents but having the upper limits on software patents set to 3 years would be much too small.
For example, let's say you come up with a brilliant idea that makes sense but either takes more computing power than you have access to or takes a very long time to actually implement so you try to find someone to bankroll your project but can't because BigCompanyX got wind of your idea and did everything in it's power to kill your funding and delay your project. It then starts it's own project witha release date of exactly 3 years after the date on the patent. It is not inconceivable that a big company could delay a project to the point where your patent/first-mover advantage would be small by the time that your software hits the market that it wouldn't pay to actually go through the patent process.
IMHO, software patents shoudl be treated similarly to drug patents since the development process is very similar in many respects. I'll admit that the current system is not perfect but I think it is better than no system at all.
I think that autoracing in general is borderline but I would still call it a sport as long as there is a non-subjective winner to the competition and it is physical. (i.e. pro wrestling is not a sport) I know for a fact that, just like I would not be able to play linebacker in the NFL, I would not be able to physically handle racing an F1 car. The G-forces the driver experiences are amazing and their reflexes are very, very quick in spite of this. Not to mention the physical torture of LeMans or rally racing. While the physical requirements of NASCAR may be borderline, I would disagree with you and is a sport. A better example of a "sport" that is not really a sport would be boxing.
If you are referring to the entertainment value of NASCAR I would definately agree with you:)
While this would certainly help initially it is only a matter of time before some other species that has a complimentary strength will develop a symbiotic relationship that will allow these new plants to thrive in the wild. This certainly wouldn't happen right away and maybe wouldn't even happen with the first 1000 modified palnts but eventually it will happen.
I admit that this all sounds like a nice Michael Crighton novel. That being said, I think that it is important to draw the line somewhere. Unless there is a huge, and I mean on the scale of cold fusion, benefit we should be very careful whe progressing down this slippery slope.
I am a cable subscriber in Canada and I don't even think that we could get the satellite service that is in question and we still saw the messages. The first time it was amusing but after that it got downright annoying. I can't imagine who would've thought this was a good idea in the first place.
I would much rather hire the person that helped to fix the schools computer network thatn the person who said they were a network consultant for the city. Fixing the school computers is not glamorous work but it is good, honest work. I feel that someone who fixed the schools computers is more likely to help out when things get outside their job description and will be more likely to stay with a good company and not just chase the biggest paycheck. Now, if they had a contract from the city to fix the schools computer then maybe the network consultant title is appropriate but it may not be the image that you want to project to the kind of company you want to work for.
1. Paper processes are very expensive, in the long run solution number 2 can actually be cheaper and would certainly be more productive, even with the extra consulting fees.
2. The access database created is not lost time and money, it provides productivity gains to the user whic hcan save significant amounts of money and has many benefits: - Short time before "product" is useful (potential revenues/savings) - Cheap prototyping means that the user can create some features, start using them and then add things slowly. This could go on for years before they outgrow this solution which allows them time to grow and save up for the expensive app dev project that provides a "better" solution - Provide an initial specification to give to the consultants that is probably is less painful to the user than a traditional requirements gathering phase . Users often have problems reading specifications because they can't relate the specification to their real world needs. Crappy access programs at least allow them to see it and try it/resolve some potential issues.
3. While hiring a DBA out of college may make your data architecture better I don't know very many College grads that would be able to correctly implement requirements from a user that is unsure what type of system will really meet their needs.
I recently rented a move (don't remember which one) that had previews on it along with a brief little instruction in the corner telling you that you can press menu to skip or something like that.
I thought it was a good compromise, I can watch the good previews and skip the dumb ones.
Do you make this commute every day? What would justify a daily commute like this? Are housing prices that rediculous in the area? I can't imagine any long term job that would want to make me drive this far to work every day. I currently live about 10 miles or so from work and it usually takes long enough to get home. I get frustrated enough when it takes me 40 minutes to get home after a huge snow storm when people forget how to drive a car (gotta love those Canadian winters).
The payoff might not be immediately known. Even one good scientific discovery on a trip to mars could produce enough of a benefit for everyone to justify one expense. Of course, one mars trip may lay the groundwork for more trips, more advances and bigger payoffs.
That is an interesting thought. If someone steals my card/pin number I can go get a new one relatively easily and cheaply. What happens when someone figures out how to beat the iris scanner (you know it will happen eventually) there isn't just a store where you can get a new eye.
I disagree, if I was in their position I would be looking at changing the business model so that one side of the company could leverage the other. If it would work they would be the only company in their market. Once their compatitors would figure out how to compete again they would already be learning from their mistakes and ready for round two.
I have thought about this before and actually is almost seems like it would work but you run into a few small problems that kill the idea very quickly. Two big ones that I have thought of are: 1) huge bandwidth requirements, you may be able to design around this somehow. 2) What do you do if you get conflicting entries? Who do you trust if there is no "higher level"
I can definitely understand where you are coming from but I tend to think that government should stay out of private business because legislating something like this can only lead to hand holding and unnecessary costs.
Now, after I say that, I would not be comfortable walking into any old shop and getting them to work on my computer without either having a recommendation or very visible credentials. This applies even more strongly if I was to blow 20K, 30K or more on computers for my business.
I was very disappointed with the results of this experiment... It is one thing to solve a problem that is presented to you and is your only goal for the lifetime of your existence. It is something completely different to not be presented with any goals and then figure out both "I need to fly" and "This is how I can fly".
Now, whether the butterfly was given specific goals when it was created or whether it had to come up with it's own is a different debate altogether:)
If you provide decent free tools or documentation (like HOWTO's or samples) for developers to easily get started you are more likely to get people to take a look at what your product can do and try out different things. Once they have started and are interested then they will be looking for more advanced materials and resources. You also get the advantage of having more developers familiar with your product(s)
I have built quite a few PC's that Just Work as soon as I install an OS. The only trick is to buy *only* quality/brand name parts. It is also useful to know exactly what parts are in the machine so that if something does not work it is very easy to select the correct drivers. The only time I have had problems is when I've used cheap or off-brand hardware.
Since MS is not actually selling their libraries and VM I doubt that they will be making significant piles of cash by releasing a new version. What they do sell is the development environment. Many people don't realize that the.Net framework is completely seperate and a free download.
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I don't think that this would work as well as it seems at first glance. In order for bittorrent to be effective you need to have enough people with active connections to download from. When downloading a web page you would have many smaller connections that would not be active for very long. Also, you would still need a server that can handle all of the connections so that the software knows where it can go to get the files it needs.
It might be possible but it would have to significantly different than bittorrent if it was to work effectively.
I've never had any real problems with my Dells (I've had 3 due to upgrades) One of my laptop keyboards started misbehaving slightly and it was repaired the next day at no cost to me or the company I work for.
Plus, I know that some universities are now "official" Dell repair/warranty shops and will perform any maintenance required on any student computers. This combined with educational discounts offered to students of some schools actually works out quite well.
I've not (yet) lived in both countries but this is something I am researching for a move that is coming up.
I have talked to more than a few people within my company that have been relocated to/from Canada and the US. Most all of them were software developer/systems analyst/project management types and they all had pretty much had the same opinion. While obviously this was not a sceintific study it did cover people who lived in at least 4 provinces and at least 6 states. For me, that is enough of a sample to make my decision.
I also grew up not more than 20 miles from the Canada/US border and I know of many people who went to the US for treatment so that they could avoid the waiting lists for treatment in Canada. In terms of the quality of the actual treatment there may not be that much difference. From what I can tell the US facilities generally have newer equipment to work with but the deciding factor for me is not having to wait 6-8 months to find out exactly what is wrong with you because there is a waiting list.
Wages are on par when you take into consideration the health insurance an American pays (after tax) that is rolled into our socialized medicare system (pre-tax). I would have to disagree with this. If I would take the difference in the taxes in Canada and the US and use it to purchase health care/health insurance I would get much higher level of care in the US. Now, if I was working for minimum wage it would probably be a completely different story altogether.
I agree with your point of view on patents but having the upper limits on software patents set to 3 years would be much too small.
For example, let's say you come up with a brilliant idea that makes sense but either takes more computing power than you have access to or takes a very long time to actually implement so you try to find someone to bankroll your project but can't because BigCompanyX got wind of your idea and did everything in it's power to kill your funding and delay your project. It then starts it's own project witha release date of exactly 3 years after the date on the patent. It is not inconceivable that a big company could delay a project to the point where your patent/first-mover advantage would be small by the time that your software hits the market that it wouldn't pay to actually go through the patent process.
IMHO, software patents shoudl be treated similarly to drug patents since the development process is very similar in many respects. I'll admit that the current system is not perfect but I think it is better than no system at all.
If that were true then why would Cain have been a shepherd?
what did the carnivores eat?
Maybe they were seasick and didn't feel like eating.
I think that autoracing in general is borderline but I would still call it a sport as long as there is a non-subjective winner to the competition and it is physical. (i.e. pro wrestling is not a sport)
:)
I know for a fact that, just like I would not be able to play linebacker in the NFL, I would not be able to physically handle racing an F1 car. The G-forces the driver experiences are amazing and their reflexes are very, very quick in spite of this. Not to mention the physical torture of LeMans or rally racing.
While the physical requirements of NASCAR may be borderline, I would disagree with you and is a sport. A better example of a "sport" that is not really a sport would be boxing.
If you are referring to the entertainment value of NASCAR I would definately agree with you
While this would certainly help initially it is only a matter of time before some other species that has a complimentary strength will develop a symbiotic relationship that will allow these new plants to thrive in the wild. This certainly wouldn't happen right away and maybe wouldn't even happen with the first 1000 modified palnts but eventually it will happen.
I admit that this all sounds like a nice Michael Crighton novel. That being said, I think that it is important to draw the line somewhere. Unless there is a huge, and I mean on the scale of cold fusion, benefit we should be very careful whe progressing down this slippery slope.
I am a cable subscriber in Canada and I don't even think that we could get the satellite service that is in question and we still saw the messages. The first time it was amusing but after that it got downright annoying. I can't imagine who would've thought this was a good idea in the first place.
It's not a race to the bottom. Maybe it is a race to the middle but in no way is it a race to the bottom
I would much rather hire the person that helped to fix the schools computer network thatn the person who said they were a network consultant for the city. Fixing the school computers is not glamorous work but it is good, honest work. I feel that someone who fixed the schools computers is more likely to help out when things get outside their job description and will be more likely to stay with a good company and not just chase the biggest paycheck.
Now, if they had a contract from the city to fix the schools computer then maybe the network consultant title is appropriate but it may not be the image that you want to project to the kind of company you want to work for.
1. Paper processes are very expensive, in the long run solution number 2 can actually be cheaper and would certainly be more productive, even with the extra consulting fees.
2. The access database created is not lost time and money, it provides productivity gains to the user whic hcan save significant amounts of money and has many benefits:
- Short time before "product" is useful (potential revenues/savings)
- Cheap prototyping means that the user can create some features, start using them and then add things slowly. This could go on for years before they outgrow this solution which allows them time to grow and save up for the expensive app dev project that provides a "better" solution
- Provide an initial specification to give to the consultants that is probably is less painful to the user than a traditional requirements gathering phase . Users often have problems reading specifications because they can't relate the specification to their real world needs. Crappy access programs at least allow them to see it and try it/resolve some potential issues.
3. While hiring a DBA out of college may make your data architecture better I don't know very many College grads that would be able to correctly implement requirements from a user that is unsure what type of system will really meet their needs.
I recently rented a move (don't remember which one) that had previews on it along with a brief little instruction in the corner telling you that you can press menu to skip or something like that. I thought it was a good compromise, I can watch the good previews and skip the dumb ones.
Do you make this commute every day? What would justify a daily commute like this? Are housing prices that rediculous in the area?
I can't imagine any long term job that would want to make me drive this far to work every day. I currently live about 10 miles or so from work and it usually takes long enough to get home. I get frustrated enough when it takes me 40 minutes to get home after a huge snow storm when people forget how to drive a car (gotta love those Canadian winters).
The payoff might not be immediately known. Even one good scientific discovery on a trip to mars could produce enough of a benefit for everyone to justify one expense.
Of course, one mars trip may lay the groundwork for more trips, more advances and bigger payoffs.
That is an interesting thought. If someone steals my card/pin number I can go get a new one relatively easily and cheaply. What happens when someone figures out how to beat the iris scanner (you know it will happen eventually) there isn't just a store where you can get a new eye.
I disagree, if I was in their position I would be looking at changing the business model so that one side of the company could leverage the other. If it would work they would be the only company in their market. Once their compatitors would figure out how to compete again they would already be learning from their mistakes and ready for round two.
I have thought about this before and actually is almost seems like it would work but you run into a few small problems that kill the idea very quickly. Two big ones that I have thought of are:
1) huge bandwidth requirements, you may be able to design around this somehow.
2) What do you do if you get conflicting entries? Who do you trust if there is no "higher level"
I can definitely understand where you are coming from but I tend to think that government should stay out of private business because legislating something like this can only lead to hand holding and unnecessary costs.
Now, after I say that, I would not be comfortable walking into any old shop and getting them to work on my computer without either having a recommendation or very visible credentials. This applies even more strongly if I was to blow 20K, 30K or more on computers for my business.
They are called Microsizers in the US. Same manufacturer, different label.
I was very disappointed with the results of this experiment... It is one thing to solve a problem that is presented to you and is your only goal for the lifetime of your existence. It is something completely different to not be presented with any goals and then figure out both "I need to fly" and "This is how I can fly".
:)
Now, whether the butterfly was given specific goals when it was created or whether it had to come up with it's own is a different debate altogether
If you provide decent free tools or documentation (like HOWTO's or samples) for developers to easily get started you are more likely to get people to take a look at what your product can do and try out different things. Once they have started and are interested then they will be looking for more advanced materials and resources. You also get the advantage of having more developers familiar with your product(s)
I have built quite a few PC's that Just Work as soon as I install an OS. The only trick is to buy *only* quality/brand name parts. It is also useful to know exactly what parts are in the machine so that if something does not work it is very easy to select the correct drivers.
The only time I have had problems is when I've used cheap or off-brand hardware.
Since MS is not actually selling their libraries and VM I doubt that they will be making significant piles of cash by releasing a new version. What they do sell is the development environment. Many people don't realize that the .Net framework is completely seperate and a free download.