The problem is that the profitability metrics tend to be on the 3-6 month timeframe. Consider dealing with people that live on that timeframe and can't be imprisoned or executed.
Some business leaders are so greedy they won't be happy until we're all working down in the coal mine for nothing No,as we are reminded regularly on slashdot, all business leaders are required to maximize (short term) shareholder value as their sole motivation. As a result all business leaders must see to it that we're all working down in the coal mine for nothing. Anything less would be a perversion of capitalism.
Always a trade-off, yeah sure! One of the fundamental aims of engineering and technology has been to increase efficiency, do more with less, and reduce waste. Today's computers perform many orders of magnitude more work that a 360 or a difference engine for the same power consumption. Modern engines operate with much greater efficiency than those of a hundred years ago. Technical solutions do allow for a cheaper lunch.
Increased transistor count can be used for higher volumes, greater performance, or bigger cache.
Up until a few years ago, more performance and memory resulted in a distinct return on investment. Right now, most machines are "good enough" for present apps. I predict a shift to system on a chip designs driving small reasonably powerful systems like the OLPC.
The problem is the industry adapting to this new model.
Quite a few pundits have proclaimed that the victims were at fault in not trying to disarm the shooter, and instead being to passive and submissive. Others have claimed that all of the victims should have been packing heat.
If we were to follow this line of reasoning, we should heavily promote violent gaming so that potential victims would default to violent and foolhardy actions such as rushing heavily armed gunmen.
'Piracy' will occur for commodity items, or rather production will no longer be centralized. More along the line of trying to patent horseshoes when any blacksmith could make one. Or trying to police dress patterns on the web as a path to profitability. Stopping "pirates" from trading last years fashion sounds laughable doesn't it? Of course, the trick is introducing new dress fashions so fast that pirates are always out of vogue. How would you do this? Custom fabrication systems!
The trick is that 3D printers and their ilk allow for a much higher level of customization than is possible in mass production. Just as most bulk items got very curvy in the 80's-90's due to advances in CAD software, in the near future items will be increasingly tailored to the specific customer. My friends won't want a shoe precisely matched to my foot, for example. And while they might want a copy of one of my anime figurines, they would probably pay for one in a different unique pose or the like.
The real money will be in the software necessary to mediate the customization, or the fully detailed 3d CAD models. Also, expect proprietary/open source battles to erupt as well.
The problem is that Madison avenue is focused on push advertising rather than pull.
Look at all the ads that are on YouTube as content and actively downloaded. Even on my PVR I rewind and watch again good commercials. The problem with advertising and IPTV is that they force stupid, annoying, and pointless ads in a shotgun fashion assuming a captive audience. Run creative ads and use search terms and the like to target them. I figure Google is going to clean up big time on this on YouTube very soon.
I'm a single guy who doesn't drive but loves anime. If they would kill all the car ads, and the tampon ads and run anime and asian film ads I'd be as happy as a clam, toss in a link to the online store or ticket purchase and I'd be even happier. My democracy player downloads these ads automatically.
In the same fashion NewType magazine runs a DVD in every issue which has about three single anime episodes and a pile of trailers. While it's effectively pure advertising, its one of the most popular features, and when they discontinued it, readers made them bring it back. I've ended up buying many entire series based on the previews on those disks. That's focused and effective advertising.
The most effective email advertising I've ever encountered is the favorites search option on eBay. I get emails on a regular basis for stuff I'm actively seeking. I read every email and end up purchasing a reasonable percentage of items.
Just as well the RIAA isn't a real person, in that if it were, it would probably resemble a combination of Satan, Freddie Kruger, Pinhead, Jason Voorhees and Jack Thompson, and when it wasn't suing dead people, children, and the paralyzed, it would be eating live kittens while mating with it's twin sibling the MPAA, in public.
Sinbad is the problem. By staying alive after Wikipedia pronounced him dead he was clearly defacing Wikipedia. To solve this problem I'm starting DeathNote.org which will have the following verification standards:
* The human whose name is written in this wiki shall die.
* If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the subject's name, it will happen.
* If the cause of death is not specified, the subject will simply die of a heart attack.
* After writing the cause of death, the details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds....
Show of hands: who actually believes that it is impossible for George W Bush in Country USA to buy a natural resource in Country B unless Country USA has a military presence in B or has defeated it in a war?
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Populism A political doctrine or philosophy that proposes that the rights and powers of ordinary people are exploited by a privileged elite, and supports their struggle to overcome this
Um, populist politicians arguing for price floors as a bread and circuses measure? Oh yeah, which popular constituency asks for higher prices and rewards politicians for them? This is a massive dilution of anti-trust law a cornerstone of populist doctrine in favor of large monopolies and oglipolies. This directly serves 'malefactors of great wealth' as Teddy Roosevelt, the most notable populist of his time, would say.
Amen, I won't touch a smartphone due to the contracts and the insane data policies of cell companies. I carry a Palm TX and a basic prepaid virgin phone. On the other hand, the TX has killed my mp3 players, It gives me the features of an iPhone (same resolution video playback) etc. without the software lock-in or dealing with the evil incarnate which is Cingular (the new ATT!).
a.) The US is a damn nice place to live because we have a large middle class and labor protections that men fought and died for (the 8 hour day and having weekends off didn't just happen, and they won't stay around if we don't fight for them). Generating an underclass of scab labor slowly destroys what makes this country a great place.
b.) Companies which renounce their US citizenships should be treated as such, no government contracts, no tax breaks, no protection military or legal. Microsoft doesn't want to hire Americans? How about all government agencies (federal to municipal) require ODF XML format and ban submissions in Word for any official business, and require strict conformance with standard WWW formats for web pages, and POSIX compliance for all APIs in use? How about revisiting antitrust?
This stuff is handy for avoiding LIDAR on glinty surfaces like windows. But the trick is making a surface which resists dirt, and water and can handle wear and tear. Of course, it's useless for radar, but similar principles are easy at radar frequencies (pretty much subwavelength anechoic tile) but not aerodynamic.
What utter bullshit! Having personally developed and packed a six axis MEMS inertial sensor (x,y,z acceleration, roll, pitch, yaw rate of rotation)into a 25x25x13mm cube (With my bare hands!!)potted in epoxy, with a rubber lining and a kevlar reinforced cord, and run 2 of these units for several hours at kilohertz rates logging onto a SD card, I can attest that 30mm cube MEMS sensors already do exist and have existed for over 5 years. Hell you can buy them in quantities of one from sparkfun: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?cP ath=23_85 (while the sparkfun units are 51x51x23mm thats because they're avoiding many layer multilayer boards and low pin count microprocessors) Note that 3 axis compasses are readily available as well: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?cP ath=23_83
Now the devil in the details. MEMS accelerometers are noisy, and so are the MEMS rate gyros. They're about as good as your inner ear which operates on somewhat similar principles. As a result they track reasonably well for short periods of time but exhibit considerable drift over longer periods of time, just like you can guess your path over a short distance but end up going in circles in total darkness. A compass helps, but they get scrambled by magnetic fields from electric currents or pieces of ferromagnetic material. Inertial sensors (other than missile grade units which are orders of magnitude more sensitive and complex) only complement GPS and other absolute measurement systems. That's why the Wii has the optical sensor integrated in it as well.
I was on a program that built flash based flight recorders. Far from trivial. The problem is even if you use flash, the wirebonding on the chips rip off at high impact. Doing things right involves minimizing the mass of the survivable component and then putting it in a lot of squishy insulating nonflammable material, and then putting that in a titanium box, and then putting that in more squishy insulating nonflammable material. If you think an iPod could handle that put it in a standard paper envelope and post it to yourself. If it survives that, we'll get to the hard part.
The last thing Sony needs is ill will from the people who were still loyal enough to have already bought a PS3. I don't think they'd worry about such a small number of people.
Gates a "good liberal"? The richest man on the planet, malefactor of great wealth, robber baron incarnate, a convicted monopolist, begging for more scab labor, a liberal? Just because he spends a fraction of his income on charity for PR purposes. The guy who overwhelmingly gives to republican candidates and PACs including George "macaca" Allen? The one who got the federal monopoly lawsuit thrown out by the incoming Bush administration?
The curious thing about Amman was how poorly he dealt with life. A man of his genius should not have ended up at the post office. Yeah, that would be like ending up a patent clerk.
Slashdot Mirror
...for not deifying Jobs these days.
The problem is that the profitability metrics tend to be on the 3-6 month timeframe. Consider dealing with people that live on that timeframe and can't be imprisoned or executed.
Some business leaders are so greedy they won't be happy until we're all working down in the coal mine for nothing
No,as we are reminded regularly on slashdot, all business leaders are required to maximize (short term) shareholder value as their sole motivation. As a result all business leaders must see to it that we're all working down in the coal mine for nothing. Anything less would be a perversion of capitalism.
Always a trade-off, yeah sure!
One of the fundamental aims of engineering and technology has been to increase efficiency, do more with less, and reduce waste. Today's computers perform many orders of magnitude more work that a 360 or a difference engine for the same power consumption. Modern engines operate with much greater efficiency than those of a hundred years ago. Technical solutions do allow for a cheaper lunch.
Increased transistor count can be used for higher volumes, greater performance, or bigger cache.
Up until a few years ago, more performance and memory resulted in a distinct return on investment. Right now, most machines are "good enough" for present apps. I predict a shift to system on a chip designs driving small reasonably powerful systems like the OLPC.
The problem is the industry adapting to this new model.
Quite a few pundits have proclaimed that the victims were at fault in not trying to disarm the shooter, and instead being to passive and submissive. Others have claimed that all of the victims should have been packing heat.
If we were to follow this line of reasoning, we should heavily promote violent gaming so that potential victims would default to violent and foolhardy actions such as rushing heavily armed gunmen.
It says right here http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/19/155321 9 if Windows cost any more Microsoft would be engaged in dumping and abuse of monopoly power!!
'Piracy' will occur for commodity items, or rather production will no longer be centralized. More along the line of trying to patent horseshoes when any blacksmith could make one. Or trying to police dress patterns on the web as a path to profitability. Stopping "pirates" from trading last years fashion sounds laughable doesn't it? Of course, the trick is introducing new dress fashions so fast that pirates are always out of vogue. How would you do this? Custom fabrication systems!
The trick is that 3D printers and their ilk allow for a much higher level of customization than is possible in mass production. Just as most bulk items got very curvy in the 80's-90's due to advances in CAD software, in the near future items will be increasingly tailored to the specific customer. My friends won't want a shoe precisely matched to my foot, for example. And while they might want a copy of one of my anime figurines, they would probably pay for one in a different unique pose or the like.
The real money will be in the software necessary to mediate the customization, or the fully detailed 3d CAD models. Also, expect proprietary/open source battles to erupt as well.
The problem is that Madison avenue is focused on push advertising rather than pull.
Look at all the ads that are on YouTube as content and actively downloaded. Even on my PVR I rewind and watch again good commercials. The problem with advertising and IPTV is that they force stupid, annoying, and pointless ads in a shotgun fashion assuming a captive audience. Run creative ads and use search terms and the like to target them. I figure Google is going to clean up big time on this on YouTube very soon.
I'm a single guy who doesn't drive but loves anime. If they would kill all the car ads, and the tampon ads and run anime and asian film ads I'd be as happy as a clam, toss in a link to the online store or ticket purchase and I'd be even happier. My democracy player downloads these ads automatically.
In the same fashion NewType magazine runs a DVD in every issue which has about three single anime episodes and a pile of trailers. While it's effectively pure advertising, its one of the most popular features, and when they discontinued it, readers made them bring it back. I've ended up buying many entire series based on the previews on those disks. That's focused and effective advertising.
The most effective email advertising I've ever encountered is the favorites search option on eBay. I get emails on a regular basis for stuff I'm actively seeking. I read every email and end up purchasing a reasonable percentage of items.
Just as well the RIAA isn't a real person, in that if it were, it would probably resemble a combination of Satan, Freddie Kruger, Pinhead, Jason Voorhees and Jack Thompson, and when it wasn't suing dead people, children, and the paralyzed, it would be eating live kittens while mating with it's twin sibling the MPAA, in public.
Sinbad is the problem. By staying alive after Wikipedia pronounced him dead he was clearly defacing Wikipedia. To solve this problem I'm starting DeathNote.org which will have the following verification standards: ...
* The human whose name is written in this wiki shall die.
* If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the subject's name, it will happen.
* If the cause of death is not specified, the subject will simply die of a heart attack.
* After writing the cause of death, the details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
Show of hands: who actually believes that it is impossible for George W Bush in Country USA to buy a natural resource in Country B unless Country USA has a military presence in B or has defeated it in a war?
More like a pimply teenager begging his lifer cell mate to be gentle.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Populism A political doctrine or philosophy that proposes that the rights and powers of ordinary people are exploited by a privileged elite, and supports their struggle to overcome this
Um, populist politicians arguing for price floors as a bread and circuses measure? Oh yeah, which popular constituency asks for higher prices and rewards politicians for them? This is a massive dilution of anti-trust law a cornerstone of populist doctrine in favor of large monopolies and oglipolies. This directly serves 'malefactors of great wealth' as Teddy Roosevelt, the most notable populist of his time, would say.
Hey, if it has wires and LEDs, the Boston bomb squad will probably come over and blow it up!
Amen, I won't touch a smartphone due to the contracts and the insane data policies of cell companies. I carry a Palm TX and a basic prepaid virgin phone. On the other hand, the TX has killed my mp3 players, It gives me the features of an iPhone (same resolution video playback) etc. without the software lock-in or dealing with the evil incarnate which is Cingular (the new ATT!).
The fun bit with the Hubble missions is that, if I remember correctly, they cost as much as launching 10 Hubble replacements.
a.) The US is a damn nice place to live because we have a large middle class and labor protections that men fought and died for (the 8 hour day and having weekends off didn't just happen, and they won't stay around if we don't fight for them). Generating an underclass of scab labor slowly destroys what makes this country a great place.
b.) Companies which renounce their US citizenships should be treated as such, no government contracts, no tax breaks, no protection military or legal. Microsoft doesn't want to hire Americans? How about all government agencies (federal to municipal) require ODF XML format and ban submissions in Word for any official business, and require strict conformance with standard WWW formats for web pages, and POSIX compliance for all APIs in use? How about revisiting antitrust?
This stuff is handy for avoiding LIDAR on glinty surfaces like windows. But the trick is making a surface which resists dirt, and water and can handle wear and tear.
Of course, it's useless for radar, but similar principles are easy at radar frequencies (pretty much subwavelength anechoic tile) but not aerodynamic.
What utter bullshit!P ath=23_85P ath=23_83
Having personally developed and packed a six axis MEMS inertial sensor (x,y,z acceleration, roll, pitch, yaw rate of rotation)into a 25x25x13mm cube (With my bare hands!!)potted in epoxy, with a rubber lining and a kevlar reinforced cord, and run 2 of these units for several hours at kilohertz rates logging onto a SD card, I can attest that 30mm cube MEMS sensors already do exist and have existed for over 5 years. Hell you can buy them in quantities of one from sparkfun:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?c
(while the sparkfun units are 51x51x23mm thats because they're avoiding many layer multilayer boards and low pin count microprocessors)
Note that 3 axis compasses are readily available as well:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php?c
Now the devil in the details. MEMS accelerometers are noisy, and so are the MEMS rate gyros. They're about as good as your inner ear which operates on somewhat similar principles. As a result they track reasonably well for short periods of time but exhibit considerable drift over longer periods of time, just like you can guess your path over a short distance but end up going in circles in total darkness. A compass helps, but they get scrambled by magnetic fields from electric currents or pieces of ferromagnetic material. Inertial sensors (other than missile grade units which are orders of magnitude more sensitive and complex) only complement GPS and other absolute measurement systems. That's why the Wii has the optical sensor integrated in it as well.
I was on a program that built flash based flight recorders. Far from trivial. The problem is even if you use flash, the wirebonding on the chips rip off at high impact. Doing things right involves minimizing the mass of the survivable component and then putting it in a lot of squishy insulating nonflammable material, and then putting that in a titanium box, and then putting that in more squishy insulating nonflammable material. If you think an iPod could handle that put it in a standard paper envelope and post it to yourself. If it survives that, we'll get to the hard part.
The last thing Sony needs is ill will from the people who were still loyal enough to have already bought a PS3.
I don't think they'd worry about such a small number of people.
There's going to be a problem with cat overpopulation then.
Gates a "good liberal"? The richest man on the planet, malefactor of great wealth, robber baron incarnate, a convicted monopolist, begging for more scab labor, a liberal? Just because he spends a fraction of his income on charity for PR purposes. The guy who overwhelmingly gives to republican candidates and PACs including George "macaca" Allen? The one who got the federal monopoly lawsuit thrown out by the incoming Bush administration?
If he's a good liberal...
The curious thing about Amman was how poorly he dealt with life. A man of his genius should not have ended up at the post office.
Yeah, that would be like ending up a patent clerk.