And, of course, there are plenty of tolls if you want to drive through.
But it's just not a tunnel... it's a series of tunnels and bridges, maybe 30 in all. It replaces the core highways in the downtown area. The project also includes upgrades to the subway system, surface streets, and much improved airport access. In addition, a lot of the old city's infrastructure (telephone, sewer, water, electric) were upgraded.
But in any case, it's a waste of your money and mine - with that kind of money you could get a new nuclear sub, a B2 bomber, AND an aircraft carrier (sans aircraft)!
why not let your programmers work from home for 50-80% of their current in-office pay?
Sorry to say, 50% - 80% of a $50,000 salary is not cost effective. Overseas rates can be as low as $9 an hour with ALL benefits and expenses included. And that could be someone with PhD in computer science who speaks good English.
Haha, I hear this a lot from my friends who live in places where it snows less than an inch a year.
In general, lines are painted on the road. There are few (if any) in-the-road reflectors or other "more" physical devices.
That's due to snow plows. You see, snow plows scrape off any in-the-road markers. Plus, add studded snow tires, and then the markers last for about, um, 3 weeks.
Now, on to painting lines. Boston has very high traffic volumes, and so the paint only stays clear for a year or so. And painting new lines in the winter generally doesn't work. Furthermore, some side roads are so narrow that lines just don't make sense.
So! When visiting a place where there is some significant snow and very high traffic volumes, you'll find very few road markers.
That's the tough life we have here. We just suck it up and simply sense where the lanes should be.
And put an inch of snow on the road, and then even the paint seems to disappear!
1. Parking sucks in Boston. I take the subway every day - it's very effective. Boston's subway isn't as big as NYC's subway, but then again Boston is a smaller city - maybe the 12th most populus metro area in the US (versus the 1st). Traffic in Boston is relatively easy, even with the Big Dig, but it isn't a grid city like new cities. People visiting LinuxWorld should have an easy time with traffic - they won't be driving thru the North End.
2. It's reasonably safe in Boston and NYC. I hear about a few people being killed in each city. But since I'm not a drug dealer, I feel pretty safe in either place.
3. Both cities have their share of nice people and assholes. NYC is a bit more overwhelming to many visitors because it is very large, and public transit is large and complex.
4. There are plenty of high quality museums for most people in either city.
5. If you visit, you won't care much about the mayor, because you won't be meeting with him.
6. The Yankees are a better baseball team. I long for the 80's when the Celtics kicked ass. Still, Fenway is a treat for all baseball fans.
7. Weather in January in NYC and Boston ain't the best. They should hold it between April and October. Then again, I bet conference facility rates are must more pricey during the summer months.
And remember, the so-called "Chinatown bus lines" run between Boston and NYC for $10 a seat (one way). Pretty good if you live in NYC and want to go to Boston for LinuxWorld, but you don't have big $. It's a 4 to 5 hour trip depending on traffic.
The real problem is that Steve Jobs mentioned that Apple isn't making any money on the iTunes venture; that they only see profit through the sales of iPods.
Money is being made on iTunes through the sales of iPods and Macs. Apple has long recovered the initial investment costs of the iPod - and an iPod sale some times leads to a Mac sale. Good strategy, and overall, profitable.
People who sell retail don't mind if they sell products at a loss IF they make an overall profit.
Just look at Google - searching on Google is FREE. Shouldn't they charge everyone per-search? No! Instead, they use their search technology to sell advertising space. Charging for each search (or a subscription for searching) will simply break their business model.
Read my statement again. Contractual obligations - ever hear of them? Ever sign up for such a thing? I have. And let me tell you, they have a lot of control.
Don't get me wrong - given the current business model, a contract with an RIAA member company is almost necessary for success.
However, it by NO MEANS is a ticket to success. I have friends who landed a contract and quit their day jobs. They then recorded a new album and the company decided that it wasn't worth releasing it.
So! What do you think happened from there? Think the record company let them have their work? Hell no! And do you think they got royalties given zero sales? Hell no! Basically, NOTHING came out of the deal.
By rights, the band could have sued the record company for their work - after all, the contract resulted in zero benefit for the band, so the contract way, IMHO, invalid. But in any case, the cards are almost always held by The Company.
So don't tell me that having a record contract is a great thing. Being locked into a losing proposition is not a great thing. At first it sure does FEEL like a great thing. But quitting your day job isn't the smartest thing to do. Especially if it pays the bills.
Right now, like it or not, most popular artists are under contract with RIAA member companies. So they just can't say "see ya" and start producing and distributing music indepentently of the RIAA. It sucks, but of course the artists did sign the contract, so here we are now.
Happily, over time, it is possible for people to sell their product without the RIAA. It will take both time and sales to make it happen.
The best way to encourage that model is to buy music on-line from your favorite independent artist! But remember, don't blame the artists who aren't independent - they're likely just as depressed with their contractual obligations as you are!
Yeah, but I can't wait until more and more musicians who are snubbed by RIAA companies find a MARKET on iTunes (and iTunes competitors), resulting in the RIAA getting ZERO of those cents.
Yay! The world can get better... too bad it had to take Apple to make it legitimate.
Jobs' bet on digital music is a hugely risky move in many ways, not only because powerhouses such as Dell and Wal-Mart are gunning for Apple (and Microsoft will be soon, as well), but because success may depend on how well Jobs, a forty-eight-year-old billionaire, is able to understand and respond to the fickle music-listening habits of eighteen-year-olds in their college dorms.
I have always used the term gunning for meaning in support of, or, in other words, manning a gun in the support of Apple.
However, in this context it implies "shooting at".
Does anyone have support or documentation for either interpretation?
I signed up for the Target credit card and got an instant 10% off. That saved me $30 right there.
Then they gave me a smart card reader, and another 10% off my next credit card purchase, plus another 10% off any on-line purchase.
Wow. I'm done. It was easy, and to be honest I haven't used their card since. Maybe I'll start using it if my current "favorite" card continues to screw me with their crazy rules.
This is why unions are just misuse of power, they extort companies and get more money than actual work worth. And people wonder why jobs get outsourced. Demand to be paid for what your work is worth! Not for more more more, it causes inflation and spreads the classes far
This isn't a union... these are outsourced jobs... outsourced mostly to small companies. My Uncle owns one of these outfits - basically, he owns 5 trucks and hires 4 drivers (plus himself).
The trucks are pretty huge - they cost well over $70,000 and require a lot of insurance and maintenence and tons of fuel.
I'd love $300/hour too. Then again, there aren't too many hours a year to use the equipment. If you plow for 250 hours in a year, and your truck costs $270/hour to own and operate and depreciate, that's not much additional income.
That's why virtually all plowboys have day jobs too. It's a crappy job. If you think it's such an incredibly high profit opportunity, then you should buy a truck and get a contract.
You said it! The company that I work for hires drivers from a contracting firm.
The fact is that we don't know if we're being ripped off or not. The itemization of monthly services is weak at best.
I've recommended that we put GPS tracking into the contract, but what do you know, the company that we contract with is refusing, saying that it would add "undo burden and lower reliability"!
Funny, since my company would PAY for the equipment, and if errors are reported we'll work with the contracting firm to settle the differences.
That's OK that they don't want to play - we'll find someone who'll be willing to play our game and drop these guys like a rock. Thats what contracts are all about.
Comcast is actually raising the rate yet again, so I've decided "what the hell" and decided to drop them.
I can get DSL for much less than cable now, and to be honest I hope to see a reliability improve dramatically. Only time will tell. In addition, performance with Comcast has been spotty, and the fact that I had to change my email address numerous times over the past 3 years means that I don't really care about having to change it again, especially since changing providers will save me signifacant amounts of money.
I don't feel like piecing a machine together for her, and she needs internet service anyhow... and she needs something EASY to use, not a crap service provider.
Seems like a good deal. It's either this or a cheap PC and something like MSN or AOL. This seems like the easiest (if not the cheapest) way to go.
Alas, Digital did have amazing products and technologies during it's (independent) life.
It was only a lack of management vision at the top tiers of the company that made it fail.
It's a shame that the all the genius and all the innovation that happened at Digital is now claimed by non-innovative companies like Compaq, HP, Dell, and Microsoft.
Most PCs are an evolution of this machine. It was an open architecture, very flexible, and built like a truck.
2. Apple Macintosh
Most of what you see in modern PCs were first made available in this machine and it's successors.
3. Apple II
This made personal computers popular, leading to the IBM PC. A complete open architecture, it was the favorite among a new breed of hackers.
4. Osborne I. The first luggable, leading to the laptop marketplace of today.
5. Tandy TRS-80 Models I & III.
This was the first inexpensive, mass marketed PC. Many small businesses loved the Model III, despite it's flaws.
6. C64 This was the most popular mass marketed PC. Simple yet technically better than the Apple II. But a more closed platform means that the hackers never looked at in in the same light as the Apple II.
--- There is a lot of love for the following machines, but they didn't change the world as much as the computers above the line. ---
7. Sinclair ZX-80. This was an inexpensive, mass marketed PC, extremely popular in Europe.
8. Atari ST series. Very popular, especially in Europe, but it was the last of the breed. It could have been a mac killer if it was more refined and not associated via a game company.
9. Amiga series. Very popular with hackers, but it just couldn't get into the mainstream. It wasn't as popular as the Atari ST series, but technically it was a "better Macintosh". But Apple could afford a long-term development strategy that Commodore could not.
10. TI-99/4A. Very popular and inexpensive. But since it was a very closed platform, it never had the chance to grow significantly beyond the grip of TI.
---
Of course, all these machines had important precursors... those earlier machines, including the Altair and (later) the Apple I and countless others led to the industry we have today. They were the seeds to get things started.
Slashdot Mirror
And, of course, there are plenty of tolls if you want to drive through.
... it's a series of tunnels and bridges, maybe 30 in all. It replaces the core highways in the downtown area. The project also includes upgrades to the subway system, surface streets, and much improved airport access. In addition, a lot of the old city's infrastructure (telephone, sewer, water, electric) were upgraded.
But it's just not a tunnel
But in any case, it's a waste of your money and mine - with that kind of money you could get a new nuclear sub, a B2 bomber, AND an aircraft carrier (sans aircraft)!
Haha, exactly my point!
why not let your programmers work from home for 50-80% of their current in-office pay?
Sorry to say, 50% - 80% of a $50,000 salary is not cost effective. Overseas rates can be as low as $9 an hour with ALL benefits and expenses included. And that could be someone with PhD in computer science who speaks good English.
there weren't any lane markers on half the roads.
Haha, I hear this a lot from my friends who live in places where it snows less than an inch a year.
In general, lines are painted on the road. There are few (if any) in-the-road reflectors or other "more" physical devices.
That's due to snow plows. You see, snow plows scrape off any in-the-road markers. Plus, add studded snow tires, and then the markers last for about, um, 3 weeks.
Now, on to painting lines. Boston has very high traffic volumes, and so the paint only stays clear for a year or so. And painting new lines in the winter generally doesn't work. Furthermore, some side roads are so narrow that lines just don't make sense.
So! When visiting a place where there is some significant snow and very high traffic volumes, you'll find very few road markers.
That's the tough life we have here. We just suck it up and simply sense where the lanes should be.
And put an inch of snow on the road, and then even the paint seems to disappear!
OK, I have to reply, living in Boston:
1. Parking sucks in Boston. I take the subway every day - it's very effective. Boston's subway isn't as big as NYC's subway, but then again Boston is a smaller city - maybe the 12th most populus metro area in the US (versus the 1st). Traffic in Boston is relatively easy, even with the Big Dig, but it isn't a grid city like new cities. People visiting LinuxWorld should have an easy time with traffic - they won't be driving thru the North End.
2. It's reasonably safe in Boston and NYC. I hear about a few people being killed in each city. But since I'm not a drug dealer, I feel pretty safe in either place.
3. Both cities have their share of nice people and assholes. NYC is a bit more overwhelming to many visitors because it is very large, and public transit is large and complex.
4. There are plenty of high quality museums for most people in either city.
5. If you visit, you won't care much about the mayor, because you won't be meeting with him.
6. The Yankees are a better baseball team. I long for the 80's when the Celtics kicked ass. Still, Fenway is a treat for all baseball fans.
7. Weather in January in NYC and Boston ain't the best. They should hold it between April and October. Then again, I bet conference facility rates are must more pricey during the summer months.
See you in 2005!
And remember, the so-called "Chinatown bus lines" run between Boston and NYC for $10 a seat (one way). Pretty good if you live in NYC and want to go to Boston for LinuxWorld, but you don't have big $. It's a 4 to 5 hour trip depending on traffic.
The real problem is that Steve Jobs mentioned that Apple isn't making any money on the iTunes venture; that they only see profit through the sales of iPods.
Money is being made on iTunes through the sales of iPods and Macs. Apple has long recovered the initial investment costs of the iPod - and an iPod sale some times leads to a Mac sale. Good strategy, and overall, profitable.
People who sell retail don't mind if they sell products at a loss IF they make an overall profit.
Just look at Google - searching on Google is FREE. Shouldn't they charge everyone per-search? No! Instead, they use their search technology to sell advertising space. Charging for each search (or a subscription for searching) will simply break their business model.
Read my statement again. Contractual obligations - ever hear of them? Ever sign up for such a thing? I have. And let me tell you, they have a lot of control.
Don't get me wrong - given the current business model, a contract with an RIAA member company is almost necessary for success.
However, it by NO MEANS is a ticket to success. I have friends who landed a contract and quit their day jobs. They then recorded a new album and the company decided that it wasn't worth releasing it.
So! What do you think happened from there? Think the record company let them have their work? Hell no! And do you think they got royalties given zero sales? Hell no! Basically, NOTHING came out of the deal.
By rights, the band could have sued the record company for their work - after all, the contract resulted in zero benefit for the band, so the contract way, IMHO, invalid. But in any case, the cards are almost always held by The Company.
So don't tell me that having a record contract is a great thing. Being locked into a losing proposition is not a great thing. At first it sure does FEEL like a great thing. But quitting your day job isn't the smartest thing to do. Especially if it pays the bills.
Right now, like it or not, most popular artists are under contract with RIAA member companies. So they just can't say "see ya" and start producing and distributing music indepentently of the RIAA. It sucks, but of course the artists did sign the contract, so here we are now.
Happily, over time, it is possible for people to sell their product without the RIAA. It will take both time and sales to make it happen.
The best way to encourage that model is to buy music on-line from your favorite independent artist! But remember, don't blame the artists who aren't independent - they're likely just as depressed with their contractual obligations as you are!
Yeah, but I can't wait until more and more musicians who are snubbed by RIAA companies find a MARKET on iTunes (and iTunes competitors), resulting in the RIAA getting ZERO of those cents.
Yay! The world can get better... too bad it had to take Apple to make it legitimate.
My PC runs at 90 watts at idle, with HDD spinning.
I assume that it's be slightly lower with HDD not spinning.
Under load (high CPU), it might run at 115 watts.
Jobs' bet on digital music is a hugely risky move in many ways, not only because powerhouses such as Dell and Wal-Mart are gunning for Apple (and Microsoft will be soon, as well), but because success may depend on how well Jobs, a forty-eight-year-old billionaire, is able to understand and respond to the fickle music-listening habits of eighteen-year-olds in their college dorms.
I have always used the term gunning for meaning in support of, or, in other words, manning a gun in the support of Apple.
However, in this context it implies "shooting at".
Does anyone have support or documentation for either interpretation?
Um, I don't think that you can combine the 10% offers together.
You can try... but of course it might not work!
Hell, an iPod is just metal and oil and other stuff than you can just dig up from the ground.
Sounds like $269 PROFIT to me!
I bought a 10gb model at Target.
I signed up for the Target credit card and got an instant 10% off. That saved me $30 right there.
Then they gave me a smart card reader, and another 10% off my next credit card purchase, plus another 10% off any on-line purchase.
Wow. I'm done. It was easy, and to be honest I haven't used their card since. Maybe I'll start using it if my current "favorite" card continues to screw me with their crazy rules.
A lot of the guys who work for my Uncle do it because they need a little extra income to pay the bills.
This isn't a union... these are outsourced jobs... outsourced mostly to small companies. My Uncle owns one of these outfits - basically, he owns 5 trucks and hires 4 drivers (plus himself).
The trucks are pretty huge - they cost well over $70,000 and require a lot of insurance and maintenence and tons of fuel.
I'd love $300/hour too. Then again, there aren't too many hours a year to use the equipment. If you plow for 250 hours in a year, and your truck costs $270/hour to own and operate and depreciate, that's not much additional income.
That's why virtually all plowboys have day jobs too. It's a crappy job. If you think it's such an incredibly high profit opportunity, then you should buy a truck and get a contract.
You said it! The company that I work for hires drivers from a contracting firm.
The fact is that we don't know if we're being ripped off or not. The itemization of monthly services is weak at best.
I've recommended that we put GPS tracking into the contract, but what do you know, the company that we contract with is refusing, saying that it would add "undo burden and lower reliability"!
Funny, since my company would PAY for the equipment, and if errors are reported we'll work with the contracting firm to settle the differences.
That's OK that they don't want to play - we'll find someone who'll be willing to play our game and drop these guys like a rock. Thats what contracts are all about.
I live in MA am changing providers to DSL.
Comcast is actually raising the rate yet again, so I've decided "what the hell" and decided to drop them.
I can get DSL for much less than cable now, and to be honest I hope to see a reliability improve dramatically. Only time will tell. In addition, performance with Comcast has been spotty, and the fact that I had to change my email address numerous times over the past 3 years means that I don't really care about having to change it again, especially since changing providers will save me signifacant amounts of money.
I might get one of these for my Mom.
I don't feel like piecing a machine together for her, and she needs internet service anyhow... and she needs something EASY to use, not a crap service provider.
Seems like a good deal. It's either this or a cheap PC and something like MSN or AOL. This seems like the easiest (if not the cheapest) way to go.
Alas, Digital did have amazing products and technologies during it's (independent) life.
It was only a lack of management vision at the top tiers of the company that made it fail.
It's a shame that the all the genius and all the innovation that happened at Digital is now claimed by non-innovative companies like Compaq, HP, Dell, and Microsoft.
Damn, I wish -I- was project manager for Microsoft Bob.
1. IBM PC.
Most PCs are an evolution of this machine. It was an open architecture, very flexible, and built like a truck.
2. Apple Macintosh
Most of what you see in modern PCs were first made available in this machine and it's successors.
3. Apple II
This made personal computers popular, leading to the IBM PC. A complete open architecture, it was the favorite among a new breed of hackers.
4. Osborne I. The first luggable, leading to the laptop marketplace of today.
5. Tandy TRS-80 Models I & III.
This was the first inexpensive, mass marketed PC. Many small businesses loved the Model III, despite it's flaws.
6. C64
This was the most popular mass marketed PC. Simple yet technically better than the Apple II. But a more closed platform means that the hackers never looked at in in the same light as the Apple II.
--- There is a lot of love for the following machines, but they didn't change the world as much as the computers above the line. ---
7. Sinclair ZX-80. This was an inexpensive, mass marketed PC, extremely popular in Europe.
8. Atari ST series. Very popular, especially in Europe, but it was the last of the breed. It could have been a mac killer if it was more refined and not associated via a game company.
9. Amiga series. Very popular with hackers, but it just couldn't get into the mainstream. It wasn't as popular as the Atari ST series, but technically it was a "better Macintosh". But Apple could afford a long-term development strategy that Commodore could not.
10. TI-99/4A. Very popular and inexpensive. But since it was a very closed platform, it never had the chance to grow significantly beyond the grip of TI.
---
Of course, all these machines had important precursors... those earlier machines, including the Altair and (later) the Apple I and countless others led to the industry we have today. They were the seeds to get things started.
I agree. Happily, my Dad's company does have their (full time) patent lawyers involved.
They located the German researcher and he mentioned an application where the patented technology was used - in some time like 1973.
Although it isn't a done deal yet, it looks like the important claims of the patent are on very shakey ground.
I agree with Knuckles. This isn't troll... I find it funny/insightful.
yours truly,
the poster of the parent, ljavelin.