It fascinated me that in the revenge of the nerds, it was pointed out that IBM was paying Microsoft based on K-LOCs (thousands of lines of code). I think it was Ballmer who pointed out that it was hardly an incentive to code something tight and efficiently...
Also, IBM got wind that MS was developing Windows in parallel. That's when that 'partnership' started to unravel. I believe there was meant to be a fundamental difference about supporting older DOS applications. With earlier incarnations of OS/2, you had to be lucky to have a program work in the DOS box. With Windows, you had to be a lot more unlucky...
That is a very interesting point. If you check out the Semantic Web activity there is a move to semantic definitions . DAML + OIL and several other efforts are all looking at defining the spoken/written language for computers.
I wonder if the number 1 ranked page will always end up being a single document - the ontology.?
Media type (disk, tape, etc) and size of data is the least of the issues with storing data for long periods of time.
Think of the Library of Congress who want to be able to store data forever. Let's think just 50 years from now. Even if they had the appropriate hardware, do you think they would have a copy of Microsoft Word 2000 handy? MS sure as hell won't be for sale and won't be supported. Would it run on any of the hardware available in 2052?
"Oh yeah. There was this guy called Shakespeare who was supposed to be pretty good, but we just can't get to any of his works anymore".
And ASCII?? That's (largely) fine for English/European, but there are other languages out there that can't be represented in ASCII at all.
I was looking at how to wirelessly connect a satellite dish to a satellite receiver. Nothing on that, but came across lots of wireless retransmission that seemed to go down in price every week
None of these are 802.x as far as I could tell. Then again, maybe it was just the xmas/holiday price spikes.
Disclosure:
No, i don't work for any of these companies. If i have any financial interest it would only be indirectly through a mutual fund because they are DJIA or S&P.
You may say that it would be wicked that a man of Cringely's integrity would have any financial interest in knownow, either directly or indirectly via say a venture fund, while he disclosed that he didn't own stock in Cisco.
There are some analogies between Windows and OS/2. OS/2 was more expensive. It touted security. The reason Windows won at my workplace was not because it was cheaper, but because of compatibility. Yeah, we had some DOS based apps that OS/2 ignored (at least until it was too late). Were they good? Easy to use? Nope, didn't matter. But everyone needed them to get their job done.
Windows didn't ignore compatibility (well mostly), and won. We're really talking TCO of the entire software base, including training, etc, rather than cost of the OS.
So if it is about "cost and freedom vs compatibility", don't underestimate the cost inherent in that compatibility card. MS is playing it in Office apps, and everywhere they can.
Appreciate, inflate, depreciate...
on
The Euro
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
The biggest thing that will happen initially will be that the Euro will appreciate. This is simply because of supply and demand. And initial euphoria of a happy new year!
But the bigger threat is inflation. It's simple and happens anytime there are changes to standard pricing schemes, be that a GST/VAT, exchange rate, whatever.
Manufacturers don't want to receive less than what they've previously been getting. So they round up.
Distributors don't want to receive less than what they've previously been getting. So they round up.
Retailers don't want receive less than what they've previously been getting. So they round up.
It all gets passed on to the consumer (me). Now I need more money to pay for this, so I ask for a raise....That's the classic price/wages spiral.
Economics 101 says that inflation is inversely related to the exchange rate. So that means if inflation goes up, then the exchange rate will go down.
As Germany (the driver of EU commerce), has just officially gone into recession, this inflation pressure is going to be a serious confidence issue in the Euro. As the currency depreciates, there will be the "I told you so" bleating...
Britain, by not taking part of the Euro, is best placed to benefit in the short/medium term. Short term means less than 2 years. Medium term means 2-5 years in financial circles - IT has different time lines.
The only thing that concerns me is the effect this has on the German economy. If there is serious inflation over short/medium term, this could all come undone. If there's not, and the German economy kicks in during this period, then the Euro will take off.
I recently installed some firewall software, and have been checking the logs.
So I thought I should do the right thing and let the owner of the offending source domain/IP know. Sent an email with details of the source IP date/time etc. The common ones were coming off bigname companies.
Response? I got one return email asking for my logs.
Just out of interest, I did the same thing with some spam recently - notifying the webmaster/abuse and the owner of the source IP from whois. I sent the relevant details, date/time content of the message.
Very similar result. One reply. Telling me to send the same info to another abuse address at a different domain that is run by the same company.
What frustrates the hell out of me is that they expect me to do their goddam job for them. I gave them THEIR source IP/host/mailing details and dates/times! I'm trying to do the right thing, but do they really expect me to get the name and phone number of the offender?
Obviously, they're not interested. In their eyes, it's not the black hats, or spammers, but *I* am the problem.
Frankly, after going out of my way to help these clowns, makes me want to join the script kiddies...
It's a fact of life that you need cash to survive, unless you barter, which seems to have gone out of vogue in the last 1,000 years or so. However evil it is, money is necessary.
If you program for nothing, then I assume you're working doing something else. How would you feel if I came along and did your job for free?
Think like this:
- I make my living from programming
- I don't know what else I could do but programming
- if all software is free, how do I make my living??
The thing is, when you're messing with someone's livelihood, you're screwing with their lives - cars, mortgages, kids education etc.
I agree with all your points here, except that I don't think that the number of shareholders matters. Let me raise the specter of another think tank report.
Re wealth distribution, the Economic Policy Institute that reported (Working America 2000-1)the following:
- 50% of people own stocks (this includes indirectly via mutual funds etc)
- top 1% owns 48% of stocks and 86% of all assets (includes property etc)
- top 20% owns 96% of all assets
- top 34% owns 99.5% of all assets
- There has been no substantial change in wealth or asset distribution over the last 10 years (despite some improvements in the late 90's). That says the rich aren't getting richer, but no-one else is either.
Of course, there's probably another agenda think tank agenda here...
Slashdot Mirror
This Mars society has obviously never seen the Australian outback. Eg this site . Sorry for slashdotting.
It fascinated me that in the revenge of the nerds, it was pointed out that IBM was paying Microsoft based on K-LOCs (thousands of lines of code). I think it was Ballmer who pointed out that it was hardly an incentive to code something tight and efficiently...
Also, IBM got wind that MS was developing Windows in parallel. That's when that 'partnership' started to unravel. I believe there was meant to be a fundamental difference about supporting older DOS applications. With earlier incarnations of OS/2, you had to be lucky to have a program work in the DOS box. With Windows, you had to be a lot more unlucky...
I wonder if the number 1 ranked page will always end up being a single document - the ontology.?
Think of the Library of Congress who want to be able to store data forever. Let's think just 50 years from now. Even if they had the appropriate hardware, do you think they would have a copy of Microsoft Word 2000 handy? MS sure as hell won't be for sale and won't be supported. Would it run on any of the hardware available in 2052?
"Oh yeah. There was this guy called Shakespeare who was supposed to be pretty good, but we just can't get to any of his works anymore".
And ASCII?? That's (largely) fine for English/European, but there are other languages out there that can't be represented in ASCII at all.
Think MS, the patent/copyright debacle at W3C....the list goes on.
Sure, I'm worried about Big Brother. But I'm more worried about the corporations. Maybe having government in there is a good thing.
Mmmm. Guess that would bring the premium down as I'm an 8 hours a night man. Bring it on!
...those type of things come in really handy when you have to fight off those nasty aliens
I wonder if these guys are getting scared....
I was looking at how to wirelessly connect a satellite dish to a satellite receiver. Nothing on that, but came across lots of wireless retransmission that seemed to go down in price every week
None of these are 802.x as far as I could tell. Then again, maybe it was just the xmas/holiday price spikes.
Disclosure:
No, i don't work for any of these companies. If i have any financial interest it would only be indirectly through a mutual fund because they are DJIA or S&P.
You find all the answers for me.
You may say that it would be wicked that a man of Cringely's integrity would have any financial interest in knownow, either directly or indirectly via say a venture fund, while he disclosed that he didn't own stock in Cisco.
You may say that. I wouldn't ever say that.
There are some analogies between Windows and OS/2. OS/2 was more expensive. It touted security. The reason Windows won at my workplace was not because it was cheaper, but because of compatibility. Yeah, we had some DOS based apps that OS/2 ignored (at least until it was too late). Were they good? Easy to use? Nope, didn't matter. But everyone needed them to get their job done.
Windows didn't ignore compatibility (well mostly), and won. We're really talking TCO of the entire software base, including training, etc, rather than cost of the OS.
So if it is about "cost and freedom vs compatibility", don't underestimate the cost inherent in that compatibility card. MS is playing it in Office apps, and everywhere they can.
But the bigger threat is inflation. It's simple and happens anytime there are changes to standard pricing schemes, be that a GST/VAT, exchange rate, whatever.
- Manufacturers don't want to receive less than what they've previously been getting. So they round up.
- Distributors don't want to receive less than what they've previously been getting. So they round up.
- Retailers don't want receive less than what they've previously been getting. So they round up.
It all gets passed on to the consumer (me). Now I need more money to pay for this, so I ask for a raise....That's the classic price/wages spiral.Economics 101 says that inflation is inversely related to the exchange rate. So that means if inflation goes up, then the exchange rate will go down.
As Germany (the driver of EU commerce), has just officially gone into recession, this inflation pressure is going to be a serious confidence issue in the Euro. As the currency depreciates, there will be the "I told you so" bleating...
Britain, by not taking part of the Euro, is best placed to benefit in the short/medium term. Short term means less than 2 years. Medium term means 2-5 years in financial circles - IT has different time lines.
The only thing that concerns me is the effect this has on the German economy. If there is serious inflation over short/medium term, this could all come undone. If there's not, and the German economy kicks in during this period, then the Euro will take off.
So I thought I should do the right thing and let the owner of the offending source domain/IP know. Sent an email with details of the source IP date/time etc. The common ones were coming off big name companies.
Response? I got one return email asking for my logs.
Just out of interest, I did the same thing with some spam recently - notifying the webmaster/abuse and the owner of the source IP from whois. I sent the relevant details, date/time content of the message.
Very similar result. One reply. Telling me to send the same info to another abuse address at a different domain that is run by the same company.
What frustrates the hell out of me is that they expect me to do their goddam job for them. I gave them THEIR source IP/host/mailing details and dates/times! I'm trying to do the right thing, but do they really expect me to get the name and phone number of the offender?
Obviously, they're not interested. In their eyes, it's not the black hats, or spammers, but *I* am the problem.
Frankly, after going out of my way to help these clowns, makes me want to join the script kiddies...
Was Little Joe and Hoss responsible for this?
It's a fact of life that you need cash to survive, unless you barter, which seems to have gone out of vogue in the last 1,000 years or so. However evil it is, money is necessary.
If you program for nothing, then I assume you're working doing something else. How would you feel if I came along and did your job for free?
Think like this:
- I make my living from programming
- I don't know what else I could do but programming
- if all software is free, how do I make my living??
The thing is, when you're messing with someone's livelihood, you're screwing with their lives - cars, mortgages, kids education etc.
Don't expect them to say that it's OK.
I agree with all your points here, except that I don't think that the number of shareholders matters. Let me raise the specter of another think tank report. Re wealth distribution, the Economic Policy Institute that reported (Working America 2000-1)the following: - 50% of people own stocks (this includes indirectly via mutual funds etc) - top 1% owns 48% of stocks and 86% of all assets (includes property etc) - top 20% owns 96% of all assets - top 34% owns 99.5% of all assets - There has been no substantial change in wealth or asset distribution over the last 10 years (despite some improvements in the late 90's). That says the rich aren't getting richer, but no-one else is either. Of course, there's probably another agenda think tank agenda here...