If Matt Damon is typecast, he did it to himself as co-author of Good Will Hunting. He always plays a character who can outthink others. That is the conceit he's adept at carrying to the screen, possibly due to Harvard hubris.
Was Kirk a guy admired for outthinking foes? Not really. Kirk had machismo. The downward spiral of the Trek franchise can be plotted against ballsiness, ending in the pussified soap-opera melodrama all about feeeeelings that has resulted in mass indifference. Kirk had the qualities of a KING, not a politician or counselor. Bring back machismo and people might be interested again.
Matt Damon for the role? Possibly. It was a safer bet to imagine Christian Bale as Batman after his performance in Equilibrium. Damon hasn't done anything really Kirklike yet.
Forget paper investments. Buy underpriced goods and resell them. Sidestep eBay type items, mailable things, and look for "motivated sellers" who need cash fast. Develop an eye for spotting bargains. They're not rare. (Example: giveaway or cheap furniture listed every day on craigslist, always at a premium in college towns first day of school.) People who are moving usually just want a quick sale. Haggle for a lower price when you're buying, refuse to haggle when you're selling.
Do 3 deals a year making 25% profit and you can nearly double your money. What do you think banks and brokers do with your money? They buy and sell and give you a cut.
Slashdot has carried very little news on the deluge of WiMax products announced this year, which make Cringely's article look behind the times by at least 5 years. Normally, he's the first to advocate wireless, so I'm puzzled why he'd pitch this idea now. He ought to look into the spectrum federally allocated to schools, which the schools unwisely license to telcos, and how combined with WiMAX that spectrum could truly liberate communities, without a trip to the bank.
Dailywireless.org is the best source for WiMAX news. Every day is an eye-opener. Sometimes every hour.
Notice that #21 and #28 use Apple XServes still running with G5 dual processors. The Virginia Tech system, #28, has fallen only 8 places, from #20 last year.
It's too bad this list doesn't mention cost. When Virginia Tech built its first cluster, the big news was how absurdly inexpensive it was in relation to other systems. It would be interesting to learn if that still holds true.
The key quote, "give bad reputations to whoever makes" DRMed products, made me wonder about the effects of the Sony rootkit fiasco on its stock. The story broke in the blogosphere in late October, 2005. So what was the effect on Sony stock? A brief, very small drop, followed by a 45-50% increase over the next six months. I can't imagine a worse black eye than what happened to Sony's reputation viz bloggers, so how effective a tool is reputation sullying? Has it ever worked?
A much better collection of accidental discoveries can be found in "Serendipity: Accidental Discoveries in Science" by Royston M. Roberts. Just check out the table of contents on Amazon.
Her blog is a void. One post every 3 to 6 months, and nothing extraordinary in any of it. Just like this interview--devoid of content while taking up space. This kind of exposure will harm her book sales and her draw as a speaker. If she wants to stay on my radar she will have to stop giving away free samples that suck.
From the site: Bruce's central point is that in the 26 states controlled by Verizon and SBC the local phone companies sold new regulatory regimes to the state PUCs. That they promised to build fiber everywhere and deliver symmetrical 45 megabit per second data networks to homes and businesses - for the most part within a decade. The decade and more has now come and gone. The networks were never built. However the LECs continue to charge all customers the higher rates and the state PUCs don't complain. Bruce's 200 billion Broadband Scandal totals the figure that individuals and businesses in those 26 states paid for Broadband networks that were never delivered. He gets $206 billion dollars that they would not have had to pay, had rate-of- return regulation not been over turned.
The RFID topic is usually met with alarmism about privacy, but some applications of cheap RFID ought to be cool. Game pieces that interact with game boards. Keyboards with no circuitry except to read RFID embedded keys. Better snail mail. Any technology can be abused. You're here, now go delete your cookies.
Exactly. Over 10,000 scholarly journals are published every month. When the number exceeded a few hundred, decades ago, overload had already set in. Now there are at least great indexes and searchable databases. This list compiled by Berkeley shows what is available in most university libraries. I especially like Stanford's HighWire Press, a free database of over a million scholarly articles. Things are getting better, not worse.
A must-read overview of WiMax in its present state appears on DailyWireless.org, with a link to Intel's white paper, the state of competition, data on cost and performance, spectrum requirements, the whole ball of Wax.
I'd be happier if there were a one-click method to eliminate from search results every site that wants to sell me something. Getting answers to questions has become akin to wading through spam.
Mark West at the University of Manitoba has created a department specializing in applications of flexible fabric formworks in architecture. Here's an excerpt:
The natural tension geometries given by formwork fabrics simplify the production of lightweight, high efficiency structural shapes. The formworks themselves are extraordinarily light and very inexpensive. The flexibility of a fabric formwork membrane makes it possible to produce a multitude of architectural and structural designs from a single, reusable mold. The use of permeable formwork membrane fabrics produces improved surface finishes and strength as a result of a filtering action allowing air bubbles and excess mix water to bleed through the formwork membrane.
I saw examples at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. last summer and was impressed by the smooth finish of the cement surfaces and also the potential to create very elaborate, beautiful and sturdy structures using really really cheap fabric casings. These new approaches to housing construction are not trivial.
Spymac is great. Nevermind the 1 GB email, the ftp space is very generous too. So along comes an article on Slashdot disparaging security while asking a disingenuous question about ethics. Oh man, this is not a public interest issue. It is trivial to retrieve every AOL profile, for example, just by dictionary guessing of screen names, so how is Spymac any less vigilant against attack, whether vigilante or otherwise?
It is so hard to get a submission accepted by Slashdot, one would think the standards were very very high. Apparently, it is a lot easier if one asks a polarizing question on a topic vaguely connected to OS choice and one that inflames debate.
I could mod you for parts 1 through 5, which are rather insightful, but 6 is insupportable. No one writing damaging software is leet. I hope you're joking. Come back from the dark side. This is a joke, right.
I wondered the same thing as you not long ago, then found this excellent link describing the key difference between amateur and pro video cameras--the YUV sampling rate. (Article needs an editor but is strong on info.)
"4:1:1 is the sampling rate used with the consumer DV format, along with DVCAM and DVCPRO. The 4:2:2 sampling rate is used with Digital-S (from JVC), DVCPRO-50 (from Panasonic), Digital Betacam, D-1 and D-5."
World War II might have gone a different way if not for "operational research," which sought decision-making rules for the precise allocation of resources. I hope that anyone with an MBA has heard at least of the Simplex Algorithm from 1947, and thinks of Game Theory as something absolutely precise about best strategies given well-defined input. Even dumbass Excel comes with a suite of tools, both linear and nonlinear, for performing optimizations, and today's desktops are capable of running what-if scenarios that would have required supercomputers just 10 years ago.
This 2x2 matrix idea seems awfully damned fluffy, considering how much is known about optimizing complex systems. Definitely an "airport book," as another Slashdotter described it.
Bill said Windows has opened up opportunities for computers and chips to be built in Asia.
Asian economists might construe this as a veiled threat. What can Microsoft do politically that would hurt a developing economy? Use its influence to steer factory construction or chip orders to countries that play ball?
How has Windows opened opportunities? Wasn't it IBM's nonexclusive relationship with Microsoft (DOS) that allowed the cloning of personal computers to begin? Microsoft has benefited from the open sourcing of the PC specification but takes credit for it as well. Tremendously ironic.
You do internet while you drive? You can't be referring to airplanes. Perhaps trains, where the niche for execs commuting could be lucrative (premium service).
Okay, I'll do a search on IETF since you don't provide a link. Hmm, at IETF.org, a search on "mobile computing" produces 3249 hits. The "Internet Engineering Task Force" is a very busy body.
I would like to know what demographic will require mobile computing on 3G in comparison to the population that will never require it. I think the citrus fruit would be as rare as bergamot.
I sound sarcastic but I need to know. This is what I do. Enlighten a navel (orange).
I just don't see how 3G can survive as mesh networks spread across the U.S. and as WiMax improves on WiFi. Telcos are unnecessary, the writing is on the wall. Even Michael Powell alleged as much last month: They get mad at me, but I think they should be more scared. For all their size and success and revenue, their cards are not great. Places that 3G reaches but wireless networks don't are shrinking. Shriiiinking. The tons of money going to telcos will soon be going somewhere else, or staying in the typically savvy slashdotters pocket.
Observations that "this has been done before" are really missing an important point, that it's being done in a new way. When there are hundreds of software solutions for everything, all for free, then there will cease to be a market for overpriced proprietary solutions. Not only that, but instead of thinking "where can I buy ___," the first thought to come to mind will be "where can I get this in Open Source."
Slashdot Mirror
If Matt Damon is typecast, he did it to himself as co-author of Good Will Hunting. He always plays a character who can outthink others. That is the conceit he's adept at carrying to the screen, possibly due to Harvard hubris. Was Kirk a guy admired for outthinking foes? Not really. Kirk had machismo. The downward spiral of the Trek franchise can be plotted against ballsiness, ending in the pussified soap-opera melodrama all about feeeeelings that has resulted in mass indifference. Kirk had the qualities of a KING, not a politician or counselor. Bring back machismo and people might be interested again. Matt Damon for the role? Possibly. It was a safer bet to imagine Christian Bale as Batman after his performance in Equilibrium. Damon hasn't done anything really Kirklike yet.
Another great Open Source product is Manhattan (manhattan.sourceforge.net), which was implemented in 1997, and obviously conceived well beforehand.
Forget paper investments. Buy underpriced goods and resell them. Sidestep eBay type items, mailable things, and look for "motivated sellers" who need cash fast. Develop an eye for spotting bargains. They're not rare. (Example: giveaway or cheap furniture listed every day on craigslist, always at a premium in college towns first day of school.) People who are moving usually just want a quick sale. Haggle for a lower price when you're buying, refuse to haggle when you're selling. Do 3 deals a year making 25% profit and you can nearly double your money. What do you think banks and brokers do with your money? They buy and sell and give you a cut.
MS is just anticipating virtual rootkits. Having an image to compare to the installed system will provide a check of subverted files etc.
Slashdot has carried very little news on the deluge of WiMax products announced this year, which make Cringely's article look behind the times by at least 5 years. Normally, he's the first to advocate wireless, so I'm puzzled why he'd pitch this idea now. He ought to look into the spectrum federally allocated to schools, which the schools unwisely license to telcos, and how combined with WiMAX that spectrum could truly liberate communities, without a trip to the bank.
Dailywireless.org is the best source for WiMAX news. Every day is an eye-opener. Sometimes every hour.
Notice that #21 and #28 use Apple XServes still running with G5 dual processors. The Virginia Tech system, #28, has fallen only 8 places, from #20 last year.
It's too bad this list doesn't mention cost. When Virginia Tech built its first cluster, the big news was how absurdly inexpensive it was in relation to other systems. It would be interesting to learn if that still holds true.
The key quote, "give bad reputations to whoever makes" DRMed products, made me wonder about the effects of the Sony rootkit fiasco on its stock. The story broke in the blogosphere in late October, 2005. So what was the effect on Sony stock? A brief, very small drop, followed by a 45-50% increase over the next six months. I can't imagine a worse black eye than what happened to Sony's reputation viz bloggers, so how effective a tool is reputation sullying? Has it ever worked?
A much better collection of accidental discoveries can be found in "Serendipity: Accidental Discoveries in Science" by
Royston M. Roberts. Just check out the table of contents on Amazon.
Let's hear it for Alias's chief technical officer, Marshall Flinkman.
Her blog is a void. One post every 3 to 6 months, and nothing extraordinary in any of it. Just like this interview--devoid of content while taking up space. This kind of exposure will harm her book sales and her draw as a speaker. If she wants to stay on my radar she will have to stop giving away free samples that suck.
Send your congressman a copy of The 200 Billion Dollar Broadband Scandal, by Bruce Kushnick.
From the site: Bruce's central point is that in the 26 states controlled by Verizon and SBC the local phone companies sold new regulatory regimes to the state PUCs. That they promised to build fiber everywhere and deliver symmetrical 45 megabit per second data networks to homes and businesses - for the most part within a decade. The decade and more has now come and gone. The networks were never built. However the LECs continue to charge all customers the higher rates and the state PUCs don't complain. Bruce's 200 billion Broadband Scandal totals the figure that individuals and businesses in those 26 states paid for Broadband networks that were never delivered. He gets $206 billion dollars that they would not have had to pay, had rate-of- return regulation not been over turned.
The RFID topic is usually met with alarmism about privacy, but some applications of cheap RFID ought to be cool. Game pieces that interact with game boards. Keyboards with no circuitry except to read RFID embedded keys. Better snail mail. Any technology can be abused. You're here, now go delete your cookies.
Exactly. Over 10,000 scholarly journals are published every month. When the number exceeded a few hundred, decades ago, overload had already set in. Now there are at least great indexes and searchable databases. This list compiled by Berkeley shows what is available in most university libraries. I especially like Stanford's HighWire Press, a free database of over a million scholarly articles. Things are getting better, not worse.
A must-read overview of WiMax in its present state appears on DailyWireless.org, with a link to Intel's white paper, the state of competition, data on cost and performance, spectrum requirements, the whole ball of Wax.
I'd like to see keywords mapped, especially the word "breakthrough," which I look up on Google News when I'm bored.
I'd be happier if there were a one-click method to eliminate from search results every site that wants to sell me something. Getting answers to questions has become akin to wading through spam.
Mark West at the University of Manitoba has created a department specializing in applications of flexible fabric formworks in architecture. Here's an excerpt:
The natural tension geometries given by formwork fabrics simplify the production of lightweight, high efficiency structural shapes. The formworks themselves are extraordinarily light and very inexpensive. The flexibility of a fabric formwork membrane makes it possible to produce a multitude of architectural and structural designs from a single, reusable mold. The use of permeable formwork membrane fabrics produces improved surface finishes and strength as a result of a filtering action allowing air bubbles and excess mix water to bleed through the formwork membrane.
I saw examples at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. last summer and was impressed by the smooth finish of the cement surfaces and also the potential to create very elaborate, beautiful and sturdy structures using really really cheap fabric casings. These new approaches to housing construction are not trivial.
Spymac is great. Nevermind the 1 GB email, the ftp space is very generous too. So along comes an article on Slashdot disparaging security while asking a disingenuous question about ethics. Oh man, this is not a public interest issue. It is trivial to retrieve every AOL profile, for example, just by dictionary guessing of screen names, so how is Spymac any less vigilant against attack, whether vigilante or otherwise?
It is so hard to get a submission accepted by Slashdot, one would think the standards were very very high. Apparently, it is a lot easier if one asks a polarizing question on a topic vaguely connected to OS choice and one that inflames debate.
I could mod you for parts 1 through 5, which are rather insightful, but 6 is insupportable. No one writing damaging software is leet. I hope you're joking. Come back from the dark side. This is a joke, right.
I wondered the same thing as you not long ago, then found this excellent link describing the key difference between amateur and pro video cameras--the YUV sampling rate. (Article needs an editor but is strong on info.)
"4:1:1 is the sampling rate used with the consumer DV format, along with DVCAM and DVCPRO. The 4:2:2 sampling rate is used with Digital-S (from JVC), DVCPRO-50 (from Panasonic), Digital Betacam, D-1 and D-5."
etc.
World War II might have gone a different way if not for "operational research," which sought decision-making rules for the precise allocation of resources. I hope that anyone with an MBA has heard at least of the Simplex Algorithm from 1947, and thinks of Game Theory as something absolutely precise about best strategies given well-defined input. Even dumbass Excel comes with a suite of tools, both linear and nonlinear, for performing optimizations, and today's desktops are capable of running what-if scenarios that would have required supercomputers just 10 years ago.
This 2x2 matrix idea seems awfully damned fluffy, considering how much is known about optimizing complex systems. Definitely an "airport book," as another Slashdotter described it.
Bill said Windows has opened up opportunities for computers and chips to be built in Asia.
Asian economists might construe this as a veiled threat. What can Microsoft do politically that would hurt a developing economy? Use its influence to steer factory construction or chip orders to countries that play ball?
How has Windows opened opportunities? Wasn't it IBM's nonexclusive relationship with Microsoft (DOS) that allowed the cloning of personal computers to begin? Microsoft has benefited from the open sourcing of the PC specification but takes credit for it as well. Tremendously ironic.
You do internet while you drive? You can't be referring to airplanes. Perhaps trains, where the niche for execs commuting could be lucrative (premium service).
Okay, I'll do a search on IETF since you don't provide a link. Hmm, at IETF.org, a search on "mobile computing" produces 3249 hits. The "Internet Engineering Task Force" is a very busy body.
I would like to know what demographic will require mobile computing on 3G in comparison to the population that will never require it. I think the citrus fruit would be as rare as bergamot.
I sound sarcastic but I need to know. This is what I do. Enlighten a navel (orange).
I just don't see how 3G can survive as mesh networks spread across the U.S. and as WiMax improves on WiFi. Telcos are unnecessary, the writing is on the wall. Even Michael Powell alleged as much last month: They get mad at me, but I think they should be more scared. For all their size and success and revenue, their cards are not great. Places that 3G reaches but wireless networks don't are shrinking. Shriiiinking. The tons of money going to telcos will soon be going somewhere else, or staying in the typically savvy slashdotters pocket.
Observations that "this has been done before" are really missing an important point, that it's being done in a new way. When there are hundreds of software solutions for everything, all for free, then there will cease to be a market for overpriced proprietary solutions. Not only that, but instead of thinking "where can I buy ___," the first thought to come to mind will be "where can I get this in Open Source."