Powell spoke before congress, detailing that the complaints are up from 14,000 in 2002, to nearly 240,000 in 2003. There were only 350 complaints during 2000 and 2001. Powell failed to mention however that 99.8% of those complaints came from PTC (Parents Television Council). The article does mention he [Powell] may have been unaware of this fact.
Powell was unaware that a single politically-minded group was driving a campaign leading to the huge increase in complaints?
If the story is true, Powell is irresponsible, or he's being dishonest with congress. There are no other options.
"There is a portion of the population that think that casinos are stupid waste of time because the odds say that the players CAN'T win.
"Well... time to put a stop to that! Let's tell these smarties that very smart people that study the roulette wheel a lot can predict where the ball will land with some kind of accuracy. We'll suggest that people can tilt the odds in their favor! Haha!
"But we all know that the steps to winning are:
1. Get out casino mentioned in the news and in faux "cheating vegas" documentaries. 2. Encourage these smarties to get themselves to the casino and play some roulette. Those smarties will think they are "honing their predictive capabilities." 3. Profit!
Heck, it worked for Blackjack... let's get them into roulette too!
By the way, those credit reports are (and have been) 100% free in Massachusetts as well.
I get mine every year and see how many errors in my address, SSN, and name they have. It's interesting in the least.
Of course, there are some scammers that will try to charge you for them. But if you call Equifax, etc, directly, they are obligated to give them to Massachusetts residents for free.
the well-recognized undergraduate computer science distinguish themselves from the programs at the College of Upper Podunk. A good university will teach computer science [...] a bad university will teach you how to program
I agree about your "good" and "bad", but I disagree with your suggestion that a well-known computer science program will teach better computer science than a computer science program from a less-well-known institution.
I got a CS degree from a small college. I was taught computer science. My degree was not about programming, it was about computer science. It was a great CS program.
Later, I got an MS degree from a very well-known & highly recognized CS program.
My master's program wasn't nearly as high quality as I hoped, with a couple merely average faculty instructors.
Pick your program based on the quality of the program first. Then go for the well-recognized brand name stuff second.
(Sadly, one of my instructors from my undergraduate program passed away recently. Given the size of the institution, such an event could have a negative impact on the CS program there.)
Does anyone else think he just got burned out and decided to be done?
Nah. Ken did well during the last round, and he looked a little sad to go. Ken missed two daily doubles (they were tough), plus the final jeapordy answer didn't come to him. Ken wasn't obliterated during the match in any way, but missing both daily doubles PLUS the final jeapordy question did him in.
That being said, the woman who won clearly played a great game. She deserved to win this one. She didn't answer many questions, but when she did they were the high-value questions.
Ken can go home with all that money and the pride that comes with being such an incredible champion.
Congrats to "today's" new champion. She outplayed Ken on today's match.
Almost everybody agrees that 911 service is necessary, but it is far from obvious why this cannot be paid for by properly visible government spending, rather then trying to sneak it in like a backdoor tax on a specific service.
The 911 service tax is VERY visible on my telephone bill. In fact, it's a line item. It's much more visible than the amount of money taxes I spend on nuclear submarine building, for example.
It seems reasonable to fund 911 services per phone number. It seems more fair and visible than taxing everyone's wage income by another $3 per year. I think this kind of use fee is fair and reasonable and should be encouraged because it does bring visibility to real expenses.
Now, on the flip side, the bogus "regulatory fees" line item that the phone companies make up based on mostly on their marketing expenditures, now THEY are a problem!
Hey, I use Perl and MySQL under Apache 1.3 every day. I'm not being troll - the simple fact is that Perl and MySQL are great for some things, and other systems are great at some other things.
Can you run payroll for a 20,000 person operation using Python, PHP, Perl and MySQL? Yes. Do people use Perl, PHP, Python, and MySQL at the core of a payroll system in a 20,000 person organization? Not that I know of (give me examples, please!).
Is Perl, PHP, Python, and MySQL the BEST solution for the core of a payroll system? I don't know. Am I going to bet my career on it? No.
A software program, or collection of software programs, that is is (1) specific to the business of the organization, and (2) is critical to the operation of a business or organiztion, and (3) which touches many aspects of the organization.
For example, an insurance company may have an application where it tracks all of its policies. Without that system up and running, the company may not be able to perform ANY business functions (like adjustment, answering customer questions, filing a claim, etc).
Another example: an aerospace company may have a system where it houses all of it's technical drawings. Engineering and manufacturaing may not be able to do their job if the system is down. (can't make a part without a drawing, can't look up a tolerance, can't see how part A and part B are related).
Another example: a hospital may keep all of it's patient's medical records on an on-line system. That hosital may not be able to operate without that system (which patient is at Radiology at 10 AM, and what needs to be done?)
Check out this blog entry in Loosely Coupled about ActiveGrid's new open source Grid Application Server based on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl) stack.
I love marketing hype like this.
One sure sign of marketing hype is to quote a venture capitalist on technology. That's why we all don't own a Segway, despite its claimed "future".
Second of all, a technical paper shouldn't be based around a press release that quotes the same venture capitalist. Not too many technologists will take that seriously.
Next, don't bring the NetDynamics CTO near me. Maybe he's a good guy and all, but in my experience, NetDynamics was one fucked up product. And this was before AND after Sun gobbled them up. It was like the Marketeers and Experimentationalists got into it, forgot that it was supposed to be an enterprise product, and screwed it to hell.
Finally, a combination of Perl, PHP, and Python for a complicated enterprise app isn't going to win any awards - damn, how many specialists does one need?
Finally, I'm not going to be running my payroll on a core of MySQL, PHP, Python, and Perl. And which version of Apache? 1.3 or 2.0? Perl 6? Why isn't ksh in there?
I love people that seamingly have ZERO large, enterprise-class application experience telling those who do how to do it.
We know that, for internal development reasons, Apple has a version of Mac OSX that runs on Intel/AMD hardware. (It's been widely discussed in the past, both on Slashdot and elsewhere.)
We do? Sorry, there's a huge difference between an interesting prototype and production quality software. In any case, a popular rumor is still a rumor.
We know that the longer Apple uses the PowerPC platform, the less likely the possibility of it switching to an Intel/AMD platform becomes.
Why? They switched to PPC from 68000 after about 10 years. They could switch regardless of the length of time. You're implying that more software would be available after a longer length of time - implying a growing market.
We know that an Intel/AMD platform Apple Mac would probably cost less than a PowerPC platform Mac currently does, and run faster too.
We do? How do we know this? Just because one chip runs at 1.2 Ghz and the other runs at 2 Ghz? Because the P4 runs at 3+ Ghz? Because of bus speeds?
We know that if they could upgrade their Windows PCs to Apple Macs - say, by installing an Apple upgrade card that contained any necessary Apple ROMs, etc and then installing the new OS - millions of users would be tempted to abandon Windows and convert to the Mac OS.
Really????? Wow, that's a leap. And how much would people pay? I know I'd pay just about $0.
Might as well just have a software licensing key scheme - as Mac Plus ROMs don't go to far these days;-)
We know that this Intel/AMD platform Apple Mac would get much better support from hardware and software manufacturers.
Really? Just because OS2 ran on Intel didn't help it.
An Apple Mac running the newest hardware would never be significantly disadvantaged performance-wise, and Apple would attract a lot of users who previously considered Macs bad value for money.
Using a particular chipset does not guarentee great performance or value.
We know that this would make Apple a force to be reckoned with once more, make Microsoft very anxious and millions of customers delighted.
I think Apple has already achieved that. Throwing a couple "ROMs" into an Intel box just doesn't fit the big picture.
OK, if anyone is interested in experimenting to replace their worn-out Strombergs with something like this, let me know - I'd be happy to work on it too.
OK, it's clear to me (and most analyists) that this SCO/Linux, Sco/Microsoft, SCO/IBM, SCO/Anything is just a sophisticated "marketing" scheme designed to fool everyone in order to capture headlines, money, and marketshare.
I am convinced that SCO, failing to release any evidence what-so-ever of any claim, is merely attempting to manipulate the market. Microsoft, who admits to be fearful of Linux, is looking for anything to confuse potential Linux customers.
NONE of this is news. SCO hasn't been able to show if there has been any violations, likely because there are none. Microsoft has not been able to specify which code they were in violation of, if any, or what code they "licensed".
Therefore, I believe that SCO is just making this all up. I believe that Microsoft is helping them. I believe they are doing this because the executives at SCO want to make money by damaging the reputation of Linux. I believe it is in Microsoft's best interest to help them, because Microsoft's data center business is being bashed by Linux.
My belief and speculation should be the headlines. I suggest
"SCO's new illegitimate business model?"
Because given all the previous "press releases" by SCO, it is is the most likely truth. Maybe I'm wrong... but just lok at the evidence provided so far.
Apple would have to capitalize on Sun's strength - the data center.
In addition, they'd have to save some serious operating $$$. To me, that means heading in the same direction in terms of OS and in terms of CPU architecture.
I'm not saying it's not doable. But doing so would mean BIG changes to the customers (either of Apple, or of Sun, or both).
And customers just don't like big change.
Both companies are leaders in terms of technology, and Jobs is pretty darn good at marketing. He is a good desktop visionary. But can he understand the datacenter?
SCO can release this information now... if they want. The fact that they aren't releasing it immediately suggests that the violation (if true) isn't significant to their business.
It seems to me that they're just looking to make sure that this stays in the press for as long as possible. This is a fairly common business strategy.
After all, if they released the information, they know they'll have a few zillion people looking to prove them wrong. And if they're proven wrong, well, then they look incompetent. So it's better to lay low and let the press have a field day with it.
You bet. if you look on EBay, you can find MP3 players selling for really really low money - like under $20. I bet it's because most people want the cheap ($300) iPod!
He has clearly mentioned the disadvantages of the service (as have many others). However, he completely failed to mention the major disadvantages of his own failed service, and how the Apple service attempts to form a balance.
Clearly he has not learned from his own failures. Not a good businessman.
There are consumers and there are copyright owners. The goal is to be fair and reasonable to both. MP3.com failed in this mission. Napster also failed. Gnutella fails.
We all see the advantages and disadvantages. Now it's time to see if this is merely a step (or a leap) closer to a workable solution.
Slashdot Mirror
The best thing that can happen to patent law is to have a big player like MS get screwed by it.
Then MS can start putting their lobbying bucks into fixing patent law.
The only problem is that MS (with congress) will likely fix it in a way that only benefits MS.
So I guess it's moot.
Powell spoke before congress, detailing that the complaints are up from 14,000 in 2002, to nearly 240,000 in 2003. There were only 350 complaints during 2000 and 2001. Powell failed to mention however that 99.8% of those complaints came from PTC (Parents Television Council). The article does mention he [Powell] may have been unaware of this fact.
Powell was unaware that a single politically-minded group was driving a campaign leading to the huge increase in complaints?
If the story is true, Powell is irresponsible, or he's being dishonest with congress. There are no other options.
Casino marketing manager:
"There is a portion of the population that think that casinos are stupid waste of time because the odds say that the players CAN'T win.
"Well... time to put a stop to that! Let's tell these smarties that very smart people that study the roulette wheel a lot can predict where the ball will land with some kind of accuracy. We'll suggest that people can tilt the odds in their favor! Haha!
"But we all know that the steps to winning are:
1. Get out casino mentioned in the news and in faux "cheating vegas" documentaries.
2. Encourage these smarties to get themselves to the casino and play some roulette. Those smarties will think they are "honing their predictive capabilities."
3. Profit!
Heck, it worked for Blackjack... let's get them into roulette too!
By the way, those credit reports are (and have been) 100% free in Massachusetts as well.
I get mine every year and see how many errors in my address, SSN, and name they have. It's interesting in the least.
Of course, there are some scammers that will try to charge you for them. But if you call Equifax, etc, directly, they are obligated to give them to Massachusetts residents for free.
I don't think so.
He was unlucky, and she played well, but she wasn't in total command of the game. I don't see her winning more than once or twice.
the well-recognized undergraduate computer science distinguish themselves from the programs at the College of Upper Podunk. A good university will teach computer science [...] a bad university will teach you how to program
I agree about your "good" and "bad", but I disagree with your suggestion that a well-known computer science program will teach better computer science than a computer science program from a less-well-known institution.
I got a CS degree from a small college. I was taught computer science. My degree was not about programming, it was about computer science. It was a great CS program.
Later, I got an MS degree from a very well-known & highly recognized CS program.
My master's program wasn't nearly as high quality as I hoped, with a couple merely average faculty instructors.
Pick your program based on the quality of the program first. Then go for the well-recognized brand name stuff second.
(Sadly, one of my instructors from my undergraduate program passed away recently. Given the size of the institution, such an event could have a negative impact on the CS program there.)
Does anyone else think he just got burned out and decided to be done?
Nah. Ken did well during the last round, and he looked a little sad to go. Ken missed two daily doubles (they were tough), plus the final jeapordy answer didn't come to him. Ken wasn't obliterated during the match in any way, but missing both daily doubles PLUS the final jeapordy question did him in.
That being said, the woman who won clearly played a great game. She deserved to win this one. She didn't answer many questions, but when she did they were the high-value questions.
Ken can go home with all that money and the pride that comes with being such an incredible champion.
Congrats to "today's" new champion. She outplayed Ken on today's match.
Almost everybody agrees that 911 service is necessary, but it is far from obvious why this cannot be paid for by properly visible government spending, rather then trying to sneak it in like a backdoor tax on a specific service.
The 911 service tax is VERY visible on my telephone bill. In fact, it's a line item. It's much more visible than the amount of money taxes I spend on nuclear submarine building, for example.
It seems reasonable to fund 911 services per phone number. It seems more fair and visible than taxing everyone's wage income by another $3 per year. I think this kind of use fee is fair and reasonable and should be encouraged because it does bring visibility to real expenses.
Now, on the flip side, the bogus "regulatory fees" line item that the phone companies make up based on mostly on their marketing expenditures, now THEY are a problem!
Ah! That's the problem!
He has a "ROBOTS.TXT" file... it should be "robots.txt".
Correction for the grammar weenies: I mistakenly used the contraction "it's" in place of the possesive "its".
Why do I smell a troll?
Because you want to smell troll.
Hey, I use Perl and MySQL under Apache 1.3 every day. I'm not being troll - the simple fact is that Perl and MySQL are great for some things, and other systems are great at some other things.
Can you run payroll for a 20,000 person operation using Python, PHP, Perl and MySQL? Yes. Do people use Perl, PHP, Python, and MySQL at the core of a payroll system in a 20,000 person organization? Not that I know of (give me examples, please!).
Is Perl, PHP, Python, and MySQL the BEST solution for the core of a payroll system? I don't know. Am I going to bet my career on it? No.
An enterprise-class application is:
A software program, or collection of software programs, that is is (1) specific to the business of the organization, and (2) is critical to the operation of a business or organiztion, and (3) which touches many aspects of the organization.
For example, an insurance company may have an application where it tracks all of its policies. Without that system up and running, the company may not be able to perform ANY business functions (like adjustment, answering customer questions, filing a claim, etc).
Another example: an aerospace company may have a system where it houses all of it's technical drawings. Engineering and manufacturaing may not be able to do their job if the system is down. (can't make a part without a drawing, can't look up a tolerance, can't see how part A and part B are related).
Another example: a hospital may keep all of it's patient's medical records on an on-line system. That hosital may not be able to operate without that system (which patient is at Radiology at 10 AM, and what needs to be done?)
Check out this blog entry in Loosely Coupled about ActiveGrid's new open source Grid Application Server based on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl) stack.
I love marketing hype like this.
One sure sign of marketing hype is to quote a venture capitalist on technology. That's why we all don't own a Segway, despite its claimed "future".
Second of all, a technical paper shouldn't be based around a press release that quotes the same venture capitalist. Not too many technologists will take that seriously.
Next, don't bring the NetDynamics CTO near me. Maybe he's a good guy and all, but in my experience, NetDynamics was one fucked up product. And this was before AND after Sun gobbled them up. It was like the Marketeers and Experimentationalists got into it, forgot that it was supposed to be an enterprise product, and screwed it to hell.
Finally, a combination of Perl, PHP, and Python for a complicated enterprise app isn't going to win any awards - damn, how many specialists does one need?
Finally, I'm not going to be running my payroll on a core of MySQL, PHP, Python, and Perl. And which version of Apache? 1.3 or 2.0? Perl 6? Why isn't ksh in there?
I love people that seamingly have ZERO large, enterprise-class application experience telling those who do how to do it.
We know that, for internal development reasons, Apple has a version of Mac OSX that runs on Intel/AMD hardware. (It's been widely discussed in the past, both on Slashdot and elsewhere.)
;-)
We do? Sorry, there's a huge difference between an interesting prototype and production quality software. In any case, a popular rumor is still a rumor.
We know that the longer Apple uses the PowerPC platform, the less likely the possibility of it switching to an Intel/AMD platform becomes.
Why? They switched to PPC from 68000 after about 10 years. They could switch regardless of the length of time. You're implying that more software would be available after a longer length of time - implying a growing market.
We know that an Intel/AMD platform Apple Mac would probably cost less than a PowerPC platform Mac currently does, and run faster too.
We do? How do we know this? Just because one chip runs at 1.2 Ghz and the other runs at 2 Ghz? Because the P4 runs at 3+ Ghz? Because of bus speeds?
We know that if they could upgrade their Windows PCs to Apple Macs - say, by installing an Apple upgrade card that contained any necessary Apple ROMs, etc and then installing the new OS - millions of users would be tempted to abandon Windows and convert to the Mac OS.
Really????? Wow, that's a leap. And how much would people pay? I know I'd pay just about $0.
Might as well just have a software licensing key scheme - as Mac Plus ROMs don't go to far these days
We know that this Intel/AMD platform Apple Mac would get much better support from hardware and software manufacturers.
Really? Just because OS2 ran on Intel didn't help it.
An Apple Mac running the newest hardware would never be significantly disadvantaged performance-wise, and Apple would attract a lot of users who previously considered Macs bad value for money.
Using a particular chipset does not guarentee great performance or value.
We know that this would make Apple a force to be reckoned with once more, make Microsoft very anxious and millions of customers delighted.
I think Apple has already achieved that. Throwing a couple "ROMs" into an Intel box just doesn't fit the big picture.
OK, if anyone is interested in experimenting to replace their worn-out Strombergs with something like this, let me know - I'd be happy to work on it too.
OK, it's clear to me (and most analyists) that this SCO/Linux, Sco/Microsoft, SCO/IBM, SCO/Anything is just a sophisticated "marketing" scheme designed to fool everyone in order to capture headlines, money, and marketshare.
I am convinced that SCO, failing to release any evidence what-so-ever of any claim, is merely attempting to manipulate the market. Microsoft, who admits to be fearful of Linux, is looking for anything to confuse potential Linux customers.
NONE of this is news. SCO hasn't been able to show if there has been any violations, likely because there are none. Microsoft has not been able to specify which code they were in violation of, if any, or what code they "licensed".
Therefore, I believe that SCO is just making this all up. I believe that Microsoft is helping them. I believe they are doing this because the executives at SCO want to make money by damaging the reputation of Linux. I believe it is in Microsoft's best interest to help them, because Microsoft's data center business is being bashed by Linux.
My belief and speculation should be the headlines. I suggest
"SCO's new illegitimate business model?"
Because given all the previous "press releases" by SCO, it is is the most likely truth. Maybe I'm wrong... but just lok at the evidence provided so far.
I dunno... does Apple really want to buy Sun?
Apple would have to capitalize on Sun's strength - the data center.
In addition, they'd have to save some serious operating $$$. To me, that means heading in the same direction in terms of OS and in terms of CPU architecture.
I'm not saying it's not doable. But doing so would mean BIG changes to the customers (either of Apple, or of Sun, or both).
And customers just don't like big change.
Both companies are leaders in terms of technology, and Jobs is pretty darn good at marketing. He is a good desktop visionary. But can he understand the datacenter?
I don't know who has noticed, but I'm quite sure that IE for the Mac is a completely different codebase than IE for Windows.
In fact, IE for the Mac may be slow, but it seems to be much more standards-compliant than IE for Windows.
I have never been able to recreate an IE for Windows bug in IE for the Mac.
Then again, I agree with the parent post - there are lots of nice browsers for the Mac, and IE is my last choice.
The problem is that there will be a class of weed that this thing won't be able to "see"... and that weed will thrive.
THEN you'll have to hire a worker to go pluck them out. Or get a software upgrade. Or both.
Falacy. Past infringement is still infringement.
SCO can release this information now... if they want. The fact that they aren't releasing it immediately suggests that the violation (if true) isn't significant to their business.
It seems to me that they're just looking to make sure that this stays in the press for as long as possible. This is a fairly common business strategy.
After all, if they released the information, they know they'll have a few zillion people looking to prove them wrong. And if they're proven wrong, well, then they look incompetent. So it's better to lay low and let the press have a field day with it.
Kernel patch, and problem solved!
Obviously, the artists should get $0, because of RIAA legal fees.
To be fair, the RIAA should be charging the artists for copyright protection.
Hmmm, kind of like "protection money", eh?
You bet. if you look on EBay, you can find MP3 players selling for really really low money - like under $20. I bet it's because most people want the cheap ($300) iPod!
Gee, this guy sounds like a sore loser.
He has clearly mentioned the disadvantages of the service (as have many others). However, he completely failed to mention the major disadvantages of his own failed service, and how the Apple service attempts to form a balance.
Clearly he has not learned from his own failures. Not a good businessman.
There are consumers and there are copyright owners. The goal is to be fair and reasonable to both. MP3.com failed in this mission. Napster also failed. Gnutella fails.
We all see the advantages and disadvantages. Now it's time to see if this is merely a step (or a leap) closer to a workable solution.
Well, it isn't THAT new. I remember watching an episode of That's Incredible, featuring barstool racing. (gasp! shame!)
When was that on... 1982 or something?