You're assuming that the initial subscription will have a cost. Offering a free subscription (for a month, year, whatever) may bring in enough people. It then becomes a issue of retention when it comes to charging. He may even initially charge a small amount (less than the price of a paper edition) and scale it up slowly.
I also have a Psion Netbook and have been using mine every day for years. What it lacks in connectivity it makes up for in speed, battery life and applications that do what they should and carry no bloat. The Agenda is still the best calendar app I've used. For example, you can create an entry and then add a (Psion) Word document containing information about the entry, including images, etc.
It turns on instantly. That alone puts it above any of the subnotebooks that are currently calling themselves netbooks. You can pop the CF cards in and out without causing the OS any confusion. You can even get a Windows like front end.
Wireless network cards can be got from eBay without too much difficulty (I've got a couple). You normally get an RS232 cable with the Netbook but it's easier to copy all of the files on the C: drive to a CF card and then copy the CF card to a PC.
Oh, and infrared works fine here - can use it to connect to the internet through my mobile phone and send and receive files.
And the Psion 5 (or 5MX) is completely compatible with these, so you can carry all of this around in your pocket if you don't want to lug around the Netbook.
Stunning machine at the time, still brilliant now (if you accept it's limitations) and a name well worth defending IMHO.
Hmm, ok, I'll bite. What you are saying is just FUD. The examples you give serve no real purpose in this discussion and just demonstrate your bias towards Perl.
1) CPAN is great, no doubt about it. But VB/VBScript can use DLLs and ActiveX controls. In a corporate environment the cost may not be an issue, esp. when when considering support issues.
2) String interpolation
Similar effects can be achieved with string concatenation
Symbolic references
Can't do it. Again, why is this a common function? Isn't it just overly complex programming?
3) Agreed, but consideration must be given to the given environment. In a big organsation which has made a commitment to MS products, Perls portability is moot.
4) Start of with ASP and if you need speed later use VB, MTS, C++, C#, Java, JSP...
5) No changes to IIS needed.
The advantages of ASP? It simple, readable, understandable. With a bit of care and understanding, legible, fast and scalable code can be written. Abstraction of functions to DLLs in VB/C++ is simple and efficient, and can be scaled through MTS.
I'm not a Perl developer, so I can't give examples of where VB provides more functionality than Perl - oh yes I can.
' Instantiate corporate wide security module
Set objSecModule = CreateObject("Company.SecPolicyModule")
If objSecModule.CheckCredentials (MyUserCredentials) = True Then ...
Else ...
End If
OK, I know thats cheating a little (before you shout, I am aware that ActivePerl can use VB DLLs) but if you have ever tried to get changes past the security team in a large corporation you will understand why the above is not possible in any flavour of Perl.
Slashdot Mirror
You're assuming that the initial subscription will have a cost. Offering a free subscription (for a month, year, whatever) may bring in enough people. It then becomes a issue of retention when it comes to charging. He may even initially charge a small amount (less than the price of a paper edition) and scale it up slowly.
Who says it has to be profitable immediately?
The Psion Netbook is ARM
I also have a Psion Netbook and have been using mine every day for years. What it lacks in connectivity it makes up for in speed, battery life and applications that do what they should and carry no bloat. The Agenda is still the best calendar app I've used. For example, you can create an entry and then add a (Psion) Word document containing information about the entry, including images, etc.
It turns on instantly. That alone puts it above any of the subnotebooks that are currently calling themselves netbooks. You can pop the CF cards in and out without causing the OS any confusion. You can even get a Windows like front end.
Wireless network cards can be got from eBay without too much difficulty (I've got a couple). You normally get an RS232 cable with the Netbook but it's easier to copy all of the files on the C: drive to a CF card and then copy the CF card to a PC.
Oh, and infrared works fine here - can use it to connect to the internet through my mobile phone and send and receive files.
And the Psion 5 (or 5MX) is completely compatible with these, so you can carry all of this around in your pocket if you don't want to lug around the Netbook.
Stunning machine at the time, still brilliant now (if you accept it's limitations) and a name well worth defending IMHO.
heh heh heh - you said cracks
I use vi key sequences. Then, rather than type the password on a post-it, I say what the key sequence does.
For example, clear file and force write.
There is more than 1 way of doing this (I always do it the same way) but its obscure enough where I work to be effective.
Man Nancy1@hotmail.com is going to be pissed with you.
1) CPAN is great, no doubt about it. But VB/VBScript can use DLLs and ActiveX controls. In a corporate environment the cost may not be an issue, esp. when when considering support issues.
2)
String interpolation
Similar effects can be achieved with string concatenation
Pattern matching
illiad_book = replace (illiad_book, "Hector", "Gates")
Remove duplicate words from input
No easy way, would write a function for this task. I would dispute that this is a common function, however.
Sort array
No easy way - definitely needed for VB/VBScript
Filter directory listing for text files
txtfile = Dir ("*.txt")
Loop
txtfile = Dir
until txtfile = ""
Break up sentences
sentences = Split(long_speech, ".")
Reverse operation
long_speech = Join(sentences, ".")
Symbolic references
Can't do it. Again, why is this a common function? Isn't it just overly complex programming?
3) Agreed, but consideration must be given to the given environment. In a big organsation which has made a commitment to MS products, Perls portability is moot.
4) Start of with ASP and if you need speed later use VB, MTS, C++, C#, Java, JSP ...
5) No changes to IIS needed.
The advantages of ASP? It simple, readable, understandable. With a bit of care and understanding, legible, fast and scalable code can be written. Abstraction of functions to DLLs in VB/C++ is simple and efficient, and can be scaled through MTS.
I'm not a Perl developer, so I can't give examples of where VB provides more functionality than Perl - oh yes I can.
' Instantiate corporate wide security module
...
...
Set objSecModule = CreateObject("Company.SecPolicyModule")
If objSecModule.CheckCredentials (MyUserCredentials) = True Then
Else
End If
OK, I know thats cheating a little (before you shout, I am aware that ActivePerl can use VB DLLs) but if you have ever tried to get changes past the security team in a large corporation you will understand why the above is not possible in any flavour of Perl.