I'm not sure why, but a couple of links were removed from the edited post. I haven't yet used MS Office 2003, so I'm not in a position to say whether or not the PC World review 'sums things up pretty well' (not my words) or not. Some of the other edits do clarify, however. As for the "spectacular-conglomeration dept.", if that referred to this post, a tip of the hat to simoniker.
For anyone who cares, here's how it looked as submitted, with an additional Google link for PC Pro article to bypass their registration page. The interesting thing is that PC Pro changed the headline which was definitive about shutting out Macs to something less than absolute.
To call it a sleeper is pushing it a little. Even casual gamers were aware of the Crimson Skies franchise because of Microsoft's marketing campaign for the original PC game and it's clear there is a core of support for the franchise. The PC version obviously had enough success for Microsoft to invest in and complete an Xbox version, otherwise the project would have been killed long ago if the original Xbox game was as bad as described.
We'll reserve final judgment until we get a look at the gold/release version.
MAME Article in October 2003 Scientific American
on
The Ultimate MAME Box
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I can't fairly make any recommendation at this point. It's one thing to look at the specs of a particular device. It's entirely another matter to do a hands-on test. I haven't used either the BlackBerry 7230 or the Treo 600 so, until I do, no recommendations.
I suggest that you decide what features you absolutely need and which ones are just nice-to-have/not essential. Then rank them from most important features to least important. After you have done that, THEN look at which devices best match your list.
a company spokesman. No real average human being would have that many links of a product except a company man.
Survey says.... BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!
Sorry, but I have never had anything to do with RIM beyond meeting some of their staff at trade shows.
By your logic I work for Handspring and Sony too. If you look at my previous posts I always try to include a variety of sources.
I'm considering getting an all-in-one phone/PDA-type device and I was looking at the relative merits of a BlackBerry vs. some of the other more phone-like devices. Since I'd already done the work trying to find out about it, I thought it might make a useful Slashdot post.
The original headline on this story was:
U.S. Postal Service to Develop 'Intelligent Mail' Tracking Technology
OK, it was admittedly a little long but I've seen longer, and the edited headline changes the meaning and tone with which one reads the post. The term 'Intelligent Mail' is a euphemism for TRACKING - which is why I added the phrase 'Tracking Technology.' I can live without the 'Technology' part but the word TRACKING adds important context to the headline. The tracking part is what makes it a privacy issue.
Many people have written words to the effect of, 'Who cares? UPS and Fedex and DHL already do this anyway.' The difference is that when you opt to use those services, you specifically choose and pay for the tracing and auditability features of their services. Those are private databases. It is your choice.
This scheme would have the government track and store identifying information about the sender and receiver of every piece of mail whether you want it to be tracked or not. You would have no choice.
While the government agencies may not misuse this information, what's to prevent abuses by USPS or other employees who have authorized access? It already happens with private databases.
I found the following portion of the article interesting:
Ron Quartel, chairman and CEO of FreightDesk Technologies Inc., a Dunn Loring, Va.-based firm that develops technologies for the shipping industry, said intelligent mail would be unlikely to have much effect on commercial mailers since most commercial transactions are already semipublic. It would, however, have a "huge dampening effect" on the personal use of mail, he said.
"There are no obvious technological barriers to the postal commission suggestion," said Quartel. "But is that what we want? Do Americans really want every facet of their lives inventoried by a federal bureaucrat? I don't."
One example of online content that people pay for is the Wall Street Journal. I remember reading a news feature a couple of years ago about profitable companies on the Internet. The Wall Street Journal was one of the few online operations that were making money from the online business, and was one of the few non-porn sites to do so.
The question is this: can you provide high-quality, exclusive information that people are willing to pay for?
The Economist and Jane's Information Group are also examples of profitable online businesses.
Usually the content that profitable information-based sites provide includes information that people can use to make or save money, or otherwise has some direct and valuable application to their own business.
One other thing to note is the culture of information in a particular audience. The type of information that sites like Jane's and the WSJ provide is in areas where people are used to paying for extremely timely and hard-to-find information and analysis.
Because some people here apparently cannot read English, I will quote, verbatim, the relevant section of the IDG article, which is the FIRST PARAGRAPH of the story:
SAN FRANCISCO - Having called Linux and open-source software a cancer, un-American and bankrupt, Microsoft Corp. now plans to focus on facts instead of emotions, the company's competitive strategist said last week.
As you can quite plainly see, the section quoted does NOT include any reference to Eric Raymond's comments - his remarks are buried at the bottom of the article - but is from the text of the first paragraph of the IDG story.
One should also note that the use of quotation marks usually denotes that the words contained therein do not belong to the author of the text currently being read. For a site where copyright and intellectual property issues are often discussed, it seems only proper that I should appropriately acknowledge the words of other authors in the customary manner.
I would hope that it is quite clear to English readers everywhere that I have not misquoted or misattributed comments to anyone, unlike the commentator above. As I have previously written, I can see how one would misread or misunderstand the post but, if one bothers to read the articles, one would plainly see that those articles are the sources of all quoted passages.
A number of people have written that they clearly understand the comments were not attributed to Taylor, so it is puzzling why some have such difficulty with the type of basic reading comprehension that is taught in elementary schools. This confusion would surely be resolved if the confused parties would simply read the articles.
I would hope that this was an honest mistake, that the commentator is not intentionally being utterly obtuse.
I would suggest that, since he seems to care so much about the quality of Slashdot, he should spend more time submitting posts and interesting articles instead of criticizing others for his own misreading of conspicuously evident statements and quotations.
THAT should be how he spends his time - a far more effective and productive use of time - assuming the commentator wants to be regarded as something other than Slashdot's self-appointed, self-aggrandizing, pseudo-intellectual grammar police.
I can see how you (kylef, thebatlab et al.) would misread and misunderstand the post, but if you bothered to read the articles - the IDG article in particular - you would plainly see they are the sources of the quoted sections.
Tough cookies? - Re:full article text, no pass req
on
Software Archaeology
·
· Score: 1
You know, my first response to this is "tough cookies." I don't see any other popular sites using this forced-ad-viewing method.
Wrong. You see "free registration required" which lets high-quality content sites such as the New York Times and many others track your online patterns over the long-term and develop a user profile that will ultimately serve ads based on your interests.
Any entity that begins to implement anti-consumer actions in order to stay afloat are doomed to begin with (RIAA, SCO, etc.)
Anti-consumer? Technical issues aside, the FREE DAY PASS model among the most pro-consumer models since the Internet bubble burst. The advertising business and ad-supported media have been hit hard, along with the workers who have been laid off as a result. Would you prefer to go through a tedious registration process that asks for all kinds of demographic details to gain access or click a link, wait 30 seconds and then read the entire site's content at no charge to you. It is a WIN-WIN-WIN proposition for all involved. Salon gets much-needed revenue for what you presumably believe are valuable and interesting articles, the advertiser gets to expose you to its products and you get a thought-provoking feature. The extra 30 seconds for the ad is trivial compared to the time you take to read the entire article.
If you can't stay out of the red by simply providing your service with a *reasonable* amount of revenue-generating methods, then that should tell you that either:
a) You need better revenue-generating methods or
b) Your service isn't profitable
You forgot:
C) I don't value the work of others so I am unwilling to use your Day Pass system.
Your definition of ''reasonable'' seems to be that Salon's writers should work for free so that you can reap the benefits. Believe it or not, you aren't entitled to get everything at no cost. It is obvious that Salon is not profitable and this is public knowledge - it is a public company. The Day Pass system is a reasonable compromise between you accessing Salon's features at no monetary cost, and Salon being able to pay its staff and freelance writers.
Like most online entities in trouble, you assume (a) and look for alternate ways to get paid. Unfortunatly, instead of finding better "quality" services, you sacrifice your customer's resources (time, effort, patience, etc) instead. Eventually, you cross that fine line between mild-nuisance and "not worth the effort."
Like many of us who have been on the Internet for years, you would like to access information freely and at no charge. This could have been maintained if the online population stayed relatively low. But it hasn't. If not for the boom, online magazines like Salon never would have appeared. Someone has to pay the costs of the burgeoning infrastructure and remunerate the efforts of people who create the content. Most costs are transparent to the average user, but don't be fooled, someone ultimately does have to pay. It is unreasonable to expect Salon's writers to give you their work for free because you refuse to use the Day Pass.
I find your recent actions "not worth the effort" and will not be visiting your site. But hey, that's just one netizen. What harm can that do, right?
It's your right to vote with your feet but nowhere in your criticism of Salon did I find anything that said you found the content to be poor or lacking.
I'm in favor of keeping Internet content freely accessible to readers/users. People write (in part) so that others can read their articles. But ultimately people need to make a living.
Does this mean that TIA will be built through the back door with many much smaller projects instead of one massive project? The smaller projects could be linked and analyzed via a separate piece of analysis software. Commercial business intelligence and data-mining tools could probably do the job with a little modification.
It sounds a little like the title of that old Don Henley song, Building the Perfect Beast.
Even senators thought this was a joke so you can be excused for thinking so. See the bold text from the rejected submission below - it's from the NY Times article.
The best lecturers will factor time into their lectures for questions and interruptions on difficult points or particularly relevant tangents. Lectures are intended not only to impart knowledge but to solicit interaction from the class, engender debate, encourage learning from peers and to allow interaction with the material.
FYI, American programmers are making USD25K per MONTH(!!!) in Saudi Arabia.
That makes my point about highly educated and skilled workers being in demand. Grossing $600K in two years? Not bad at all. I don't know how much of that (if any) goes in taxes but that's still a fair bit of cash. I understand that relocation costs, vacations back home etc are all handled by the Saudis, but it may depend on the outfit you are with.
Who knows... down the road you may not even have to leave the comfort of your own home to have a contract of that nature. It's certainly technically feasible today to work remotely. Indians and other offshore workers could get into the same game, but for countries like Saudi Arabia there is a strong preference for American, Canadian and European workers.
You may be right but the MSN article isn't aimed at you or other technologically literate readers. It's aimed at the average MSN user and Internet user. These users are very much like the average AOL user: they are relatively new to the Internet and may not have the skills or understanding of how to best use a search engine that you or I might have. Gene Spafford says that at any given time `the majority of Internet users have been online less than a year'.
Internet users, like any other consumer, are likely to stick with whatever service and set of sites that they are initially exposed to. This is the same in any consumer goods and services business. Why else would McDonald's, car companies, credit card companies and all the rest spend millions of dollars on getting young people (children and college students) to use their products? They want to instill brand loyalty early on.
People are comfortable and familiar with the Microsoft brand, naturally trust it, and what its media properties say. If you were a new, non-technical user like most Internet users I have little doubt that you would believe this article is fair and authoritative.
This looks oddly familiar, minus the links about the comparably priced Palms. No, I'm not complaining. It's just weird. But I do hope for a little more consistency in the future, especially considering that Amazon taking orders for this watch was considered front-pageworthy.
It's not really a handheld, but in today's Personal Technology column Walt Mossberg reviews Fossil's Palm-based PDA wristwatch that was announced at Comdex 2002. Not surprisingly, he finds it difficult to input data with the micro-stylus [insert your own joke here] it comes with, but thinks it's fine if you just want to view your to-do list, calendar or contact list. On the upside, he likes the black and white screen quality and the display features. You can see the Fossil Tech watches at Fossil's site. For the $275-$295 price tag you could get a real, usable Palm such as the color m515 or the Zire 71 with a camera, or if you prefer an even lower price, the $199 m130 - but then price isn't as much of a consideration as the geek-cred.
Adding a robots.txt file won't necessarily work. Google's bots do follow the instructions in the robots.txt file but there are lots of sites that don't. Following the instructions in the file is a common convention, not a hard and fast rule/requirement.
Robots.txt is ignored by the more unscrupulous sites and bots so other measures have to be taken in those cases.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not sure why, but a couple of links were removed from the edited post. I haven't yet used MS Office 2003, so I'm not in a position to say whether or not the PC World review 'sums things up pretty well' (not my words) or not. Some of the other edits do clarify, however. As for the "spectacular-conglomeration dept.", if that referred to this post, a tip of the hat to simoniker.
For anyone who cares, here's how it looked as submitted, with an additional Google link for PC Pro article to bypass their registration page. The interesting thing is that PC Pro changed the headline which was definitive about shutting out Macs to something less than absolute.
We spent some hands-on time with a pre-release build of Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge a few weeks back and although the multiplayer/Xbox Live play wasn't up at the time, the single-player game wasn't bad. We'll be publishing more detailed impressions of some of the pre-release builds of games coming out this fall as part of our X03 feature (more coming soon), but in the meantime you can look at some screenshots of Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge and a few other new games.
To call it a sleeper is pushing it a little. Even casual gamers were aware of the Crimson Skies franchise because of Microsoft's marketing campaign for the original PC game and it's clear there is a core of support for the franchise. The PC version obviously had enough success for Microsoft to invest in and complete an Xbox version, otherwise the project would have been killed long ago if the original Xbox game was as bad as described.
We'll reserve final judgment until we get a look at the gold/release version.
Aaron Mahler's MAME setup was featured as The Infinite Arcade Machine: Building the world's largest video arcade--in your family room (page 2) in the October 2003 issue of Scientific American. Printer-friendly version.
We published several Xbox wireless adapter MN-740 images. Besides the standard photo that you are seeing all over the Web, we also published several close-ups of the internals of Microsoft's 802.11 access point, something that's sure to pique the interest of geeks everywhere.
I can't fairly make any recommendation at this point. It's one thing to look at the specs of a particular device. It's entirely another matter to do a hands-on test. I haven't used either the BlackBerry 7230 or the Treo 600 so, until I do, no recommendations.
I suggest that you decide what features you absolutely need and which ones are just nice-to-have/not essential. Then rank them from most important features to least important. After you have done that, THEN look at which devices best match your list.
You are CORRRECT, sir! :)
The 7210 is DUAL-band. The 7230 is TRI-band. It makes a difference to some people.
a company spokesman. No real average human being would have that many links of a product except a company man.
Survey says.... BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!
Sorry, but I have never had anything to do with RIM beyond meeting some of their staff at trade shows.
By your logic I work for Handspring and Sony too. If you look at my previous posts I always try to include a variety of sources.
I'm considering getting an all-in-one phone/PDA-type device and I was looking at the relative merits of a BlackBerry vs. some of the other more phone-like devices. Since I'd already done the work trying to find out about it, I thought it might make a useful Slashdot post.
The original headline on this story was: U.S. Postal Service to Develop 'Intelligent Mail' Tracking Technology
OK, it was admittedly a little long but I've seen longer, and the edited headline changes the meaning and tone with which one reads the post. The term 'Intelligent Mail' is a euphemism for TRACKING - which is why I added the phrase 'Tracking Technology.' I can live without the 'Technology' part but the word TRACKING adds important context to the headline. The tracking part is what makes it a privacy issue.
Many people have written words to the effect of, 'Who cares? UPS and Fedex and DHL already do this anyway.' The difference is that when you opt to use those services, you specifically choose and pay for the tracing and auditability features of their services. Those are private databases. It is your choice.
This scheme would have the government track and store identifying information about the sender and receiver of every piece of mail whether you want it to be tracked or not. You would have no choice.
While the government agencies may not misuse this information, what's to prevent abuses by USPS or other employees who have authorized access? It already happens with private databases.
I found the following portion of the article interesting:
This sounds like yet another component of Total Information Awareness being reconstituted piece by piece since it had its funds cut by Congress. Maybe they will call this the Intelligent Mail MATRIX ('Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information eXchange).
I don't know that it is, but it sure sounds like another step towards a surveillance society.
One example of online content that people pay for is the Wall Street Journal. I remember reading a news feature a couple of years ago about profitable companies on the Internet. The Wall Street Journal was one of the few online operations that were making money from the online business, and was one of the few non-porn sites to do so.
The question is this: can you provide high-quality, exclusive information that people are willing to pay for?
The Economist and Jane's Information Group are also examples of profitable online businesses.
Usually the content that profitable information-based sites provide includes information that people can use to make or save money, or otherwise has some direct and valuable application to their own business.
One other thing to note is the culture of information in a particular audience. The type of information that sites like Jane's and the WSJ provide is in areas where people are used to paying for extremely timely and hard-to-find information and analysis.
kylef:
Because some people here apparently cannot read English, I will quote, verbatim, the relevant section of the IDG article, which is the FIRST PARAGRAPH of the story:
As you can quite plainly see, the section quoted does NOT include any reference to Eric Raymond's comments - his remarks are buried at the bottom of the article - but is from the text of the first paragraph of the IDG story.
One should also note that the use of quotation marks usually denotes that the words contained therein do not belong to the author of the text currently being read. For a site where copyright and intellectual property issues are often discussed, it seems only proper that I should appropriately acknowledge the words of other authors in the customary manner.
I would hope that it is quite clear to English readers everywhere that I have not misquoted or misattributed comments to anyone, unlike the commentator above. As I have previously written, I can see how one would misread or misunderstand the post but, if one bothers to read the articles, one would plainly see that those articles are the sources of all quoted passages.
A number of people have written that they clearly understand the comments were not attributed to Taylor, so it is puzzling why some have such difficulty with the type of basic reading comprehension that is taught in elementary schools. This confusion would surely be resolved if the confused parties would simply read the articles.
I would hope that this was an honest mistake, that the commentator is not intentionally being utterly obtuse.
I would suggest that, since he seems to care so much about the quality of Slashdot, he should spend more time submitting posts and interesting articles instead of criticizing others for his own misreading of conspicuously evident statements and quotations.
THAT should be how he spends his time - a far more effective and productive use of time - assuming the commentator wants to be regarded as something other than Slashdot's self-appointed, self-aggrandizing, pseudo-intellectual grammar police.
I can see how you (kylef, thebatlab et al.) would misread and misunderstand the post, but if you bothered to read the articles - the IDG article in particular - you would plainly see they are the sources of the quoted sections.
Choose your edition.
It seems that you're the only one here putting words in someone's mouth.
You can read lots more about this by choosing from the links in the rejected post below. Also, it's important to note that EAL2 is NOT the highest Common Criteria certification level. The Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation v2.1 describes the security assurance requirements and EALs in detail. For a look at the details read about the Evaluation Assurance Levels at NIST.
IBM, SuSE Linux Get Common Criteria Security Certification
Linux has reached a new milestone: IBM and SuSE Linux have received the Common Criteria Security Certification from the U.S. government (mirror), specifically from the Defense Information Security Agency (DISA) arm of the Pentagon. 'Right now it is the only Linux distribution available that has this. This certification is used as a standard by 14 countries including the U.S. and Canada,' says the SuSE U.S. general manager. Linux Enterprise Server 8 is certified at Evaluation Assurance Level 2+ EAL2 with the companies jointly pursuing a Controlled Access Protection Profile EAL3 certification by year-end, then on to EAL4. More details at CNet, AP via Detnews/CNN and Reuters/Forbes. It looks like they beat Red Hat to the punch.
You know, my first response to this is "tough cookies." I don't see any other popular sites using this forced-ad-viewing method.
Wrong. You see "free registration required" which lets high-quality content sites such as the New York Times and many others track your online patterns over the long-term and develop a user profile that will ultimately serve ads based on your interests.
Any entity that begins to implement anti-consumer actions in order to stay afloat are doomed to begin with (RIAA, SCO, etc.)
Anti-consumer? Technical issues aside, the FREE DAY PASS model among the most pro-consumer models since the Internet bubble burst. The advertising business and ad-supported media have been hit hard, along with the workers who have been laid off as a result. Would you prefer to go through a tedious registration process that asks for all kinds of demographic details to gain access or click a link, wait 30 seconds and then read the entire site's content at no charge to you. It is a WIN-WIN-WIN proposition for all involved. Salon gets much-needed revenue for what you presumably believe are valuable and interesting articles, the advertiser gets to expose you to its products and you get a thought-provoking feature. The extra 30 seconds for the ad is trivial compared to the time you take to read the entire article.
If you can't stay out of the red by simply providing your service with a *reasonable* amount of revenue-generating methods, then that should tell you that either:
a) You need better revenue-generating methods or
b) Your service isn't profitable
You forgot:
C) I don't value the work of others so I am unwilling to use your Day Pass system.
Your definition of ''reasonable'' seems to be that Salon's writers should work for free so that you can reap the benefits. Believe it or not, you aren't entitled to get everything at no cost. It is obvious that Salon is not profitable and this is public knowledge - it is a public company. The Day Pass system is a reasonable compromise between you accessing Salon's features at no monetary cost, and Salon being able to pay its staff and freelance writers.
Like most online entities in trouble, you assume (a) and look for alternate ways to get paid. Unfortunatly, instead of finding better "quality" services, you sacrifice your customer's resources (time, effort, patience, etc) instead. Eventually, you cross that fine line between mild-nuisance and "not worth the effort."
Like many of us who have been on the Internet for years, you would like to access information freely and at no charge. This could have been maintained if the online population stayed relatively low. But it hasn't. If not for the boom, online magazines like Salon never would have appeared. Someone has to pay the costs of the burgeoning infrastructure and remunerate the efforts of people who create the content. Most costs are transparent to the average user, but don't be fooled, someone ultimately does have to pay. It is unreasonable to expect Salon's writers to give you their work for free because you refuse to use the Day Pass.
I find your recent actions "not worth the effort" and will not be visiting your site. But hey, that's just one netizen. What harm can that do, right?
It's your right to vote with your feet but nowhere in your criticism of Salon did I find anything that said you found the content to be poor or lacking.
I'm in favor of keeping Internet content freely accessible to readers/users. People write (in part) so that others can read their articles. But ultimately people need to make a living.
Consider that.
it was originally slated to become a piece of TIA.
This is interesting if only because funding for the TIA was cut by Congress in the 2004 Defense Appropriations Act and killed by the Senate's 2004 defense appropriations bill recently.
Does this mean that TIA will be built through the back door with many much smaller projects instead of one massive project? The smaller projects could be linked and analyzed via a separate piece of analysis software. Commercial business intelligence and data-mining tools could probably do the job with a little modification.
It sounds a little like the title of that old Don Henley song, Building the Perfect Beast.
I really, really hope this is a joke...
Even senators thought this was a joke so you can be excused for thinking so. See the bold text from the rejected submission below - it's from the NY Times article.
Poindexter's Middle East Terror Bookie Scheme
2003-07-29 08:16:21 Poindexter's Middle East Terror Bookie Scheme The NY Times reports on DARPA's latest scheme: an options and futures trading market where you can bet on assassinations, toppling governments, instability and war in the Middle East (Google). The $8 million program is under the control of Admiral John Poindexter who brought us Total Information Awareness. The Policy Analysis Market starts taking registrants this week and betting/trading begins in October. Senator Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, said the idea seemed so preposterous that he had trouble persuading people it was not a hoax.
Isn't the Doc supposed to be in the next Spiderman movie?
Why not stick a 2gb drive or something small in there just for the OS?
Can you tell me where one would find such a creature?
Read the story at the Atlanta Journal Constitiution or the NY Times.
What is the sound of 1000 freshmen failing?
p tap-click-click-click... :)
Clickety-click-click-click-tap-tappety-click-ta
The best lecturers will factor time into their lectures for questions and interruptions on difficult points or particularly relevant tangents. Lectures are intended not only to impart knowledge but to solicit interaction from the class, engender debate, encourage learning from peers and to allow interaction with the material.
FYI, American programmers are making USD25K per MONTH(!!!) in Saudi Arabia.
That makes my point about highly educated and skilled workers being in demand. Grossing $600K in two years? Not bad at all. I don't know how much of that (if any) goes in taxes but that's still a fair bit of cash. I understand that relocation costs, vacations back home etc are all handled by the Saudis, but it may depend on the outfit you are with.
Who knows... down the road you may not even have to leave the comfort of your own home to have a contract of that nature. It's certainly technically feasible today to work remotely. Indians and other offshore workers could get into the same game, but for countries like Saudi Arabia there is a strong preference for American, Canadian and European workers.
Maybe your grandkids will be lucky and get into the India's future version of the H1B program to encourage tech workers to move and work there.
Seriously, there will always be a need for a highly skilled and highly educated workforce.
In case you're interested, here are some more links about this and other related issues that we have seen before.
Leaked: IBM Execs Urge Moving Jobs Offshore in Internal Teleconference
An internal recording of an IBM teleconference about moving jobs offshore was leaked (Google) to the New York Times by an upset employee. From the article: '...under increasing pressure to cut costs and build global supply networks... I.B.M. needed to accelerate its efforts to move white-collar, often high-paying, jobs overseas even though that might create a backlash among politicians and its own employees. "Our competitors are doing it and we have to do it," said Tom Lynch, I.B.M.'s director for global employee relations. He also said that 3 million service jobs were expected to shift to foreign workers by 2015 (based on a Forrester Research report, which represents about 2 percent of all American jobs) and that I.B.M. should move some of its jobs now done in the United States, including software design jobs, to India and other countries. Oracle plans to increase its jobs in India to 6,000 from 3,200, while Microsoft plans to double the size of its software development operation in India to 500 by late this year. Accenture has 4,400 workers in India, China, Russia and the Philippines.' Critics say 'schools will stop producing the computer engineers and programmers we need for the future' as a result of these moves. Listen to the IBM recording in Real format (direct link at pnm://audio.nytimes.com/audiosrc/2003/07/21/busine ss/20030722jobs.audio.rm). More at the SJMN, Inquirer, and CNN/Reuters. Slashdot has discussed Global competition, offshore outsourcing, lower cost replacement workers and the ensuing legal turmoil before.
To paraphrase from the movie Jerry Maguire:
It's not technology friends, It's technology business.
You may be right but the MSN article isn't aimed at you or other technologically literate readers. It's aimed at the average MSN user and Internet user. These users are very much like the average AOL user: they are relatively new to the Internet and may not have the skills or understanding of how to best use a search engine that you or I might have. Gene Spafford says that at any given time `the majority of Internet users have been online less than a year'.
Internet users, like any other consumer, are likely to stick with whatever service and set of sites that they are initially exposed to. This is the same in any consumer goods and services business. Why else would McDonald's, car companies, credit card companies and all the rest spend millions of dollars on getting young people (children and college students) to use their products? They want to instill brand loyalty early on.
People are comfortable and familiar with the Microsoft brand, naturally trust it, and what its media properties say. If you were a new, non-technical user like most Internet users I have little doubt that you would believe this article is fair and authoritative.
This looks oddly familiar, minus the links about the comparably priced Palms. No, I'm not complaining. It's just weird. But I do hope for a little more consistency in the future, especially considering that Amazon taking orders for this watch was considered front-pageworthy.
* 2003-07-17 14:15:56 Mossberg Reviews Fossil's Palm PDA Wristwatch (articles,pilot) (rejected)
It's not really a handheld, but in today's Personal Technology column Walt Mossberg reviews Fossil's Palm-based PDA wristwatch that was announced at Comdex 2002. Not surprisingly, he finds it difficult to input data with the micro-stylus [insert your own joke here] it comes with, but thinks it's fine if you just want to view your to-do list, calendar or contact list. On the upside, he likes the black and white screen quality and the display features. You can see the Fossil Tech watches at Fossil's site. For the $275-$295 price tag you could get a real, usable Palm such as the color m515 or the Zire 71 with a camera, or if you prefer an even lower price, the $199 m130 - but then price isn't as much of a consideration as the geek-cred.
Adding a robots.txt file won't necessarily work. Google's bots do follow the instructions in the robots.txt file but there are lots of sites that don't. Following the instructions in the file is a common convention, not a hard and fast rule/requirement.
Robots.txt is ignored by the more unscrupulous sites and bots so other measures have to be taken in those cases.