Well, it's pretty hard to get below one atom, but I'm sure there's a clever and brilliant scientist out there somewhere who will figure out an ingenious way to up the ante even more. Stay tuned for further details on the next greatest invention on monday.
Perhaps next we'll enjoy the single-quark transistor.
Why can't companys stick with an idea or two and make it better?
Because these companies hire on big blowhard executives who want to surround themselves with sycophant junior executives and those sycophant junior execs all want to justify their jobs so they spend all their time coming up with as many bullshit ideas as they can pull out of their butt and the CEO wants to go public and make millions of dollars so he starts blowing out all kinds of bullshit to the banks and investors about how bloating their site out with all kinds of useless crap will somehow equate to a larger consumer audience and thus infinite amounts of revenue and then they go public and the stakes are raised even higher now that you have a bunch of whiney stockholders to please etc etc..
I too have often asked myself this question, esp. now that I am in the process of starting my own gig. I have done many searches on the web comparing Oracle to MySQL and PostgreSQL both in terms of functionality and scalability.
You do get a lot of what you pay for with Oracle on both ends. As a developer, after working with Oracle exclusively for many years, I have certain 'expectations' out of a database. MySQL and PostgreSQL are both excellent databases and I will likely go with MySQL as a starting point to my own business, but once the $$$ can support it, I will likely upgrade to Oracle because by then my business requirements will be significant in my RDBMS back-end. I will require the scalability, reliability, and support available from going the high-cost route with Oracle.
I found some rather interesting numbers when looking at MySQL vs PostgreSQL, esp. around the total number of concurrent connections both can handle before dying. From this chart, there was a certain point at which MySQL core-dumped and died. This may be different now, but the article did reveal that MySQL while a great GPL DB engine, is not qualified for a true "enterprise-grade" database solution.
My advice would be go with what you can afford, like MySQL, and just practice the proper application development techniques to decouple your app as much as possible from the db on the back-end.
My top 3 wish-list items for MySQL would be sequences (not auto-increment columns.. i hate those), stored procedures and stored functions.
Who cares about a frozen ball of methane, anyway? We should focus on gradually working our way out.. I think Nasa should be sending rovers to Mercury and Venus within the next 10 years.. Pluto has value, but I'd be more excited to see through a rover's eyes the surface of our neighbors.
Of course, I'm not a scientist, and am just looking for good content on TV.
Wireless networking is already out.. but it's so expensive that I've never really given it much consideration.
Sounds wonderful and nifty but if it costs me $500 to hook up my three home computers, then thanks but no thanks I'll stick with good ol' cheap cables.
<texan>Heck, I ain't even done bought me a wireless mouse yet, what with all them batteries and all that I'd have to be worryin about! Plus, I hear tell that the GOVERNMENT listens in on your mouse movements and can tell what you're doing!!!</texan>
I strongly recommend consulting with an intellectual property attorney as soon as you can. This could be a sticky situation for you if you don't cover your legal bases with this.
By your client, I assume you mean your employer's client?
According to my mother, Mars used to be inhabited by two major tribes which are the ancestors of the Jews and the Germans and they had a big battle which destroyed the atmosphere on Mars and then migrated to Earth on big spaceships and thus this explains why the Germans hate the Jews so much.
She also has quite a bit to say about the lizard people following the Hale-Bopp comet in UFO's.
Hasn't anyone been paying attention these past few years? Micropayments have been talked about since the very first commercial interest in the 'Net started bubbling four years ago.
First off, companies learned rather quickly that you simply cannot charge for content to consumers unless that content is porn.
Ad revenue will continue being the driving force in producing income for a content-based consumer dot-com company.
What we're seeing right now with the dot-coms dropping like flies is a good thing. There are (were) thousands of companies that really had nothing even remotely realistic in terms of a business model and plan. Silly venture capitalists were infusing ungodly amounts of money in these flimsy companies, everyone hoping to 'get rich quick' (or get richer in terms of the silly VC's), and now when reality is starting to catch up with everybody, everyone is running around saying the sky is falling.
Maybe ad revenue will not continue being a viable revenue stream for dot-coms. My personal opinion is that it will, but let's say it isn't.
Okay, so we've seen from past observations that not a single company has been successful in charging for content (except for porn) to consumers. There were notable attempts, such as by Britannica and such, but all have abandoned this and went to the ad model. They did this because competition demanded it. If Yahoo began charging micropayments for using their service, then why would anyone in their right mind use them with there's dozens of other web directories that would offer as much value but be for free?
The only way micropayments would conceivably function would be for something like Napster, online gaming, or other sorts of things we're you're delivering something of unique value -- not just content.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps next we'll enjoy the single-quark transistor.
Because these companies hire on big blowhard executives who want to surround themselves with sycophant junior executives and those sycophant junior execs all want to justify their jobs so they spend all their time coming up with as many bullshit ideas as they can pull out of their butt and the CEO wants to go public and make millions of dollars so he starts blowing out all kinds of bullshit to the banks and investors about how bloating their site out with all kinds of useless crap will somehow equate to a larger consumer audience and thus infinite amounts of revenue and then they go public and the stakes are raised even higher now that you have a bunch of whiney stockholders to please etc etc..
Haven't ever worked in corporate America?
You do get a lot of what you pay for with Oracle on both ends. As a developer, after working with Oracle exclusively for many years, I have certain 'expectations' out of a database. MySQL and PostgreSQL are both excellent databases and I will likely go with MySQL as a starting point to my own business, but once the $$$ can support it, I will likely upgrade to Oracle because by then my business requirements will be significant in my RDBMS back-end. I will require the scalability, reliability, and support available from going the high-cost route with Oracle.
I found some rather interesting numbers when looking at MySQL vs PostgreSQL, esp. around the total number of concurrent connections both can handle before dying. From this chart, there was a certain point at which MySQL core-dumped and died. This may be different now, but the article did reveal that MySQL while a great GPL DB engine, is not qualified for a true "enterprise-grade" database solution.
My advice would be go with what you can afford, like MySQL, and just practice the proper application development techniques to decouple your app as much as possible from the db on the back-end.
My top 3 wish-list items for MySQL would be sequences (not auto-increment columns.. i hate those), stored procedures and stored functions.
-Azzy
Of course, I'm not a scientist, and am just looking for good content on TV.
Thanksokbye
Sounds wonderful and nifty but if it costs me $500 to hook up my three home computers, then thanks but no thanks I'll stick with good ol' cheap cables.
<texan>Heck, I ain't even done bought me a wireless mouse yet, what with all them batteries and all that I'd have to be worryin about! Plus, I hear tell that the GOVERNMENT listens in on your mouse movements and can tell what you're doing!!!</texan>
By your client, I assume you mean your employer's client?
A satellite phone w/ an IP adapter coupled with a PDA that has USB (like the Jornada) and a lot of spare batteries should cure what ails ya!
Having a kick-ass-beyond-all-comprehension electric train set has always been one of those dreams from childhood that I'd do when I was grown up.
This would be so ultimately kick ass.
If only I had a basement.... (sigh)
According to my mother, Mars used to be inhabited by two major tribes which are the ancestors of the Jews and the Germans and they had a big battle which destroyed the atmosphere on Mars and then migrated to Earth on big spaceships and thus this explains why the Germans hate the Jews so much.
She also has quite a bit to say about the lizard people following the Hale-Bopp comet in UFO's.
God bless ol' mom.
Hasn't anyone been paying attention these past few years? Micropayments have been talked about since the very first commercial interest in the 'Net started bubbling four years ago.
First off, companies learned rather quickly that you simply cannot charge for content to consumers unless that content is porn.
Ad revenue will continue being the driving force in producing income for a content-based consumer dot-com company.
What we're seeing right now with the dot-coms dropping like flies is a good thing. There are (were) thousands of companies that really had nothing even remotely realistic in terms of a business model and plan. Silly venture capitalists were infusing ungodly amounts of money in these flimsy companies, everyone hoping to 'get rich quick' (or get richer in terms of the silly VC's), and now when reality is starting to catch up with everybody, everyone is running around saying the sky is falling.
Maybe ad revenue will not continue being a viable revenue stream for dot-coms. My personal opinion is that it will, but let's say it isn't.
Okay, so we've seen from past observations that not a single company has been successful in charging for content (except for porn) to consumers. There were notable attempts, such as by Britannica and such, but all have abandoned this and went to the ad model. They did this because competition demanded it. If Yahoo began charging micropayments for using their service, then why would anyone in their right mind use them with there's dozens of other web directories that would offer as much value but be for free?
The only way micropayments would conceivably function would be for something like Napster, online gaming, or other sorts of things we're you're delivering something of unique value -- not just content.