Touching on the fingerprinting idea, this could be a great tool for setting up some kind of napster-like/micropayment system. Just before you're about to download from someone's computer, a fractal fingerprint (as described in the above post) can be taken of the file and compared to a central (but possibly mirrored) database of fingerprints. A match in the database would initiate a micropayment to take place. So instead of generating micropayments based upon filename (which could be fscked by calling a file Metallika instead of Metallica), you're doing it by the information actually contained in the file.
This assumes that the fingerprints would be unique for each song. To get around making matches, however, a clever fellow might add some noise to the end of the file which would prevent a match/micropayment from being made. To counter this, the artist or a representative of the artist would have to scour this napster-like system for such files and add the fingerprints of those files to the database.
Parts of the Real World are staged. I know people who have been in the area when the show is being taped outdoors. From what I hear, they essentially direct when people make entrances into a scene to smoothen out the action. If you've ever seen WWF Smackdown you'll know what I mean...the phoniness is more blatant there.
IMO, if one iota of the show is directed in any way, it's not a "reality" show. I agree with the poster below, Cops is probably the closest thing to a reality show.
It was really getting on my nerves when Yahoo used to push Playboy banner ads in my face. Not only was I offended by having ads for pornography put in my face, but this was happening on my office computer...that's all I needed...a female coworker walks by and sees "PLAYBOY" and that fscking rabbit on my screen.
I sent a very pissed-off sounding letter to Yahoo telling them that to me having Playboy banners on my computer is no different than having hardcore XXX banners on my screen, especially at the office. I've never seen a Playboy banner since then on my Yahoo mail screen.
I heard about that in my high school physics class several years ago. As usual, I came up with a witty reply *after* the class had ended. I am glad to re-encounter this idea after all these years, because now I may expouse my witty reply:
I don't have Office 2000 on my computer, just Office 97, but I do have Outlook 2000 and I agree that those menus are damn annoying and inefficient. Some of my cow-orkers with Office 2000 are always confused by the Intellisense (that's what it's called) menus. Since it hides the options that you don't always use, how are you supposed to be creative and try something new? Talk about hindering the innovation of the users.
When you think about it, you really don't need the menu system to only show you recent and frequently used options. That's what all the buttons (ie save, open, print) on the toolbars do! When I access the menu system, I go into it to use options that I use *infrequently*. Thank you MS for forcing your ass-backwards logic on us.
/me takes deep breath...ok, here is how to turn off Intellisense...at least for Outlook 2000...I'm sure it's similar for Word & Excel.
1. Click on the "Tools" menu 2. Choose "Customize" 3. Go to the "Options" tab 4. De-select the check box for "Menus show recently used commands first" 5. Close out the menu and that should do it
I'd just like to add that I like using Office, especially Excel. Some people complain about the bloat, but that's only a state of mind. In my company, we end up using all of the nitty gritty features of Word and Excel that others may find unnecessary. In terms of getting things done in a timely manner, it works ok. The real problem IMO is Windows (9x and NT). All of our problems with crashes and other problems always seem to stem from the OS. When MS is broken up, I think the apps company will be the winner, while the OS company burns in hell for all eternity when the apps get ported to other OSes.
I used to work for the CoreStates Bank PC banking department before they were bought by First Union. So I had to know both Quicken & Money from the inside-out. Unfortunately, that was over 2.5 years ago so I can't quite remember it all. But here are some basic similarities and differences:
Similarities:
Both of them let you create accounts, enter transactions, transfer funds and pay bills. Both of them let you set up various reports to track expenses and investments. Although the programs looked different, the functionality was pretty much the same and you could use either one comfortably given enough time.
Differences:
IMO Quicken is much easier to install and set up. Setting things up in Money (ie new accounts, internet connection) depends a lot upon using wizards even if you have enough experience to do something without them. Quicken uses some "step through" menus like wizards, but they're avoidable. Again, this is a personal preference.
The best thing about Quicken is that it doesn't delete your npclog, which is a text file that gets concatenated (by Quicken) with your upload/download data. If you understand the codes in the npclog (which aren't too tough to understand), you can see what payment/transfer instructions you sent out and what cleared check #'s and stuff you received. If there is a discrepancy between your records and the bank's records, the npclog can easily clear up who made the mistake. I once saved my mom $120 in erroneous overdraft charges by printing out the npclog and showing the local friendly banker how she transferred money before the cutoff time of 3pm even though the bank didn't recognize it in time.
Money (as of Money 98 anyway, but probably Money 2K, too) deletes your npclog after a short while. There is a trick to catch it before it gets deleted, but try explaining the procedure to "Joe AOL" to get him to send you a copy of it.
The only sucky thing about Quicken is that it prefers IE over Netscape for its internet functionality. It has something to do with using IE's DLLs. If it wasn't for Quicken, I wouldn't have IE installed.
So, to summarize....buy Quicken and fsck Micro$oft.
Maybe....or how about a scan of the ATF agent and the guy that was holding Elian in the picture? Hmm...or how about some type of capture the flag where Elian is the flag?
I think building a computer case out of these things is on a lot of people's minds. However, what material can we line the inside with to provide RF shielding? The material should be something very lightweight and undistracting.
Hmmm...would sheets of the material that anti-static bags are made of provide adequate shielding? We could, of course, put holes in certain places for the ventillation ass....the implication being that instead of "tearing a new one," you'd be "tearing the first one." *uneasy chuckle* Joking aside, what do you think?
I bought a few shares of MSFT today hoping there would be a breakup. I'm rather excited to see what the two new companies will produce (and earn) in the future now that they can develop independently of one another. IMO, the applications company is going to be the real winner since they'll have some incentive to port to other platforms.
Over the last few weeks MSFT stock has been revolving around $60 to $70 roughly. So it's sort of bottomed out for now and may even be undervalued. Tomorrow, quite a few people may start buying up lots of shares in hopes of MS-A and MS-B performing well in the future.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but in the US, the analogue TV xmitter shutdown will be mandatory. The freed-up frequencies will be allocated to some other purposes.
Well, the whole idea behind Gargoyles was that they were supposed to protect people. So tearing people apart might present a *small* conflict of interest.
If people exhibited some control and kept it in their pants and didn't share needles, HIV wouldn't be as contagious. HIV can't spread if you've got a little willpower.
Re:But is this really for the better?
on
Microsoft Loses
·
· Score: 1
(Note: The following is not investment advice.)
Problem? Whenever the market takes a dip for reasons like this (as opposed to real "corrections" to the market as a whole), it may become undervalued. In such a case, value investors would jump in since in the long run the market will recover.
Re:Slightly tangential question
on
BeOS For Linux!
·
· Score: 1
I've got a BeBox dual 66 right here. The "buffering" circuitry includes three big-ass electric fuses to prevent your device from accidentally frying the mobo. Inside on the mobo itself is a "diagnostics" port, with pin-ins (sp?) shaped roughly in the shape of a CPU. The diagnostic port was for use by Be only and they do not support its use.
(Disclaimer: The following information is not investment advice and should in no way be construed as such.)
Well, using the "income approach," fair market value is the present value of all future benefits. There is a direct relationship between the amount of income a property will earn and its value.
The basic idea behind the income approach is that
V= Be/(r-g)
V= value of the business Be= expected future benefits r= required rate of return g= long term expected growth r-g= capitalization rate
The first thing that you'll notice here is that even with a "formula," you still don't have an answer, because you must then figure out what your expected benefit stream is, the required rate of return and the long term expected growth rate. There is a lot of quantitative and *qualitative* factors to consider.
Although many people here are offering you several rules of thumb, you should realize that rules of thumb do not take into consideration all of the unique qualities of your business. Call me biased if you must, but I, too, recommend engaging the services of a business appraisal firm. One common idea I see floating around here is correct...valuation is by no means an exact science.
By hiring a professional and experienced business valuation firm, you'll hopefully get a value based upon evidence and analysis which is comprehensive, unbiased and pertinent.
If you want to get into the "nitty gritty" of important considerations, I refer you to the following 8 salient points from Revenue Ruling 59-60, which set the groundwork for modern business valuation:
The nature of the business and the history of the enterprise from its inception.
The economic outlook in general and the condition and outlook of the specific industry in particular.
The book value of the stock and the financial condition of the business.
The earnings capacity of the company.
The dividend paying capacity.
Whether or not the enterprise has goodwill or other intangible value.
Sales of the stock and the size of the block of stock to be valued.
The market price of stocks of corporations engaged in the same or similar line of business having their stocks actively traded in a free and open market, either on and exchange or over the counter.
Depending upon the capital structure of your company (C-corp, S-corp, LLC, limited partnership, etc.), there may be some other considerations.
Let me point you in the direction of the American Society of Appraisers, the industry association to which I belong. There, you will find some helpful articles and info on business appraisers who may be able to help you. Email me at the address above (after removing the appropriate words) if you have any questions. Good luck!
Just one note on that 60 meg download...it will uncompress into 500 megs of "file space" for BeOS and its apps.
But yeah, I would definitely recommend BeOS, too, if you're into audio-intense computing. A lot of major players in the high-end of the audio production industry are porting their apps to BeOS. Have a look at Be's page to see who they are (b/c I have enough research to do already and I still need to go get my hair cut).
"Second of all, it's very hard to quantify the value of something like that"
The number is probably based upon the sales that are generated from those clients. The number was probably derived by the accounting firm that audits their financial statements. A customer list is an intangible item, but is nonetheless a valuable asset for a service-based company.
"It can take a company a lot of time and effort to cultivate a clientele, but if someone else knows all thier names, it does not cost that company 2.5 million dollars. If someone were to get all of a company's clients to switch to another company, maybe it would cost that much."
Well, there you go. They don't want to introduce the possibility that someone could switch their clients over. Because it could cost them $2.5MM.
"But in reality, getting someone's clients to jump to another company, even if their names are known, is not easy to do."
How do you know? The situation varies from company to company. There are many instances (especially in service-based relationships where there is no factory equipment or hardware) where it is very easy to jump to another company. Hell, my company's salesmen are very good at getting people to switch to my company's service (using honest, legal means).
If they're changing email addresses, too, that might require new business cards. Maybe everyone has personalized company stationary with their email addresses on them. Do we even know how big this company is? That could affect the cost, too. $12,500 seems a lot more reasonable than the grossly misstated figures in other well-known cracking cases.
There is definitely no Active X going on as far as I can tell. My first instinct was to change my user-agent setting and for some reason I thought I could do this within my netscape prefs.js file. But, ok...Junkbuster it is:)
Note - This may be a little offtopic, but it does involve my desire to use GNUcash in conjunction with my bank. Maybe some of you share this same situation...
I'm doing my best to switch over all of my home computing tasks to Linux from NT 4.0. So far I can do in Linux all I did in NT, except for downloading my daily banking transactions, which was done with Quicken. I've got an extra computer with an NT 4.0 install just to handle this.
So what I'd like to do is run GNUcash under Linux and go to First Union's (the bank I use) web site and simply *look* at what's cleared and then match it up with the transactions I enter in GNUcash. It's not as convenient as doing automatic downloads with Quicken, but it's good enough for my purposes.
However, First Union's web site will only let me go as far as looking at a summary of all my accounts using Netscape (w/128 bit crypto) under Linux. They won't let me access the "Interim Statement" page which tells me the specific transactions that cleared. I have a feeling this is similar to the problem Fox had with Linux users accessing their web site <a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/99/12/10/221424 7.shtml">(refer to this slashdot article).</a>
I was able to contact a guy in First Union's online banking department (Ken Stewart in Richmond) who might be able to do something about it. I explained how online banking and the web in general should be about open standards that do not depend on using one or two popular operating systems (you know which ones). I told Ken that a First Union cust. svc. rep. even told me that I'm not the first one with this problem and that other Linux users have been complaining (which is true). To bring the point home, I then explained how their web based bill pay system (which is handled by www.mybills.com, a third party) works perfectly under Linux.
Maybe this guy will get some wheels turning to fix this problem, maybe not. If there are any other First Union customers out there having this problem, be vocal and get your call escalated above front-line customer service. Thanks for your time.
Slashdot Mirror
Touching on the fingerprinting idea, this could be a great tool for setting up some kind of napster-like/micropayment system. Just before you're about to download from someone's computer, a fractal fingerprint (as described in the above post) can be taken of the file and compared to a central (but possibly mirrored) database of fingerprints. A match in the database would initiate a micropayment to take place. So instead of generating micropayments based upon filename (which could be fscked by calling a file Metallika instead of Metallica), you're doing it by the information actually contained in the file.
This assumes that the fingerprints would be unique for each song. To get around making matches, however, a clever fellow might add some noise to the end of the file which would prevent a match/micropayment from being made. To counter this, the artist or a representative of the artist would have to scour this napster-like system for such files and add the fingerprints of those files to the database.
Parts of the Real World are staged. I know people who have been in the area when the show is being taped outdoors. From what I hear, they essentially direct when people make entrances into a scene to smoothen out the action. If you've ever seen WWF Smackdown you'll know what I mean...the phoniness is more blatant there.
IMO, if one iota of the show is directed in any way, it's not a "reality" show. I agree with the poster below, Cops is probably the closest thing to a reality show.
It was really getting on my nerves when Yahoo used to push Playboy banner ads in my face. Not only was I offended by having ads for pornography put in my face, but this was happening on my office computer...that's all I needed...a female coworker walks by and sees "PLAYBOY" and that fscking rabbit on my screen.
I sent a very pissed-off sounding letter to Yahoo telling them that to me having Playboy banners on my computer is no different than having hardcore XXX banners on my screen, especially at the office. I've never seen a Playboy banner since then on my Yahoo mail screen.
I heard about that in my high school physics class several years ago. As usual, I came up with a witty reply *after* the class had ended. I am glad to re-encounter this idea after all these years, because now I may expouse my witty reply:
"Jim Jones would sure be proud!"
And what player would this be???
I don't have Office 2000 on my computer, just Office 97, but I do have Outlook 2000 and I agree that those menus are damn annoying and inefficient. Some of my cow-orkers with Office 2000 are always confused by the Intellisense (that's what it's called) menus. Since it hides the options that you don't always use, how are you supposed to be creative and try something new? Talk about hindering the innovation of the users.
When you think about it, you really don't need the menu system to only show you recent and frequently used options. That's what all the buttons (ie save, open, print) on the toolbars do!
When I access the menu system, I go into it to use options that I use *infrequently*. Thank you MS for forcing your ass-backwards logic on us.
/me takes deep breath...ok, here is how to turn off Intellisense...at least for Outlook 2000...I'm sure it's similar for Word & Excel.
1. Click on the "Tools" menu
2. Choose "Customize"
3. Go to the "Options" tab
4. De-select the check box for "Menus show recently used commands first"
5. Close out the menu and that should do it
I'd just like to add that I like using Office, especially Excel. Some people complain about the bloat, but that's only a state of mind. In my company, we end up using all of the nitty gritty features of Word and Excel that others may find unnecessary. In terms of getting things done in a timely manner, it works ok. The real problem IMO is Windows (9x and NT). All of our problems with crashes and other problems always seem to stem from the OS. When MS is broken up, I think the apps company will be the winner, while the OS company burns in hell for all eternity when the apps get ported to other OSes.
The cure for 1984 is 1917.
Now my Highlander
Fantasies can come true - Swoosh
Whoops, where'd my ear go
So I wrote you a haiku instead!!!
Hemos is married
Maybe his wife will henpeck
About his spelling
I used to work for the CoreStates Bank PC banking department before they were bought by First Union. So I had to know both Quicken & Money from the inside-out. Unfortunately, that was over 2.5 years ago so I can't quite remember it all. But here are some basic similarities and differences:
Similarities:
Both of them let you create accounts, enter transactions, transfer funds and pay bills. Both of them let you set up various reports to track expenses and investments. Although the programs looked different, the functionality was pretty much the same and you could use either one comfortably given enough time.
Differences:
IMO Quicken is much easier to install and set up. Setting things up in Money (ie new accounts, internet connection) depends a lot upon using wizards even if you have enough experience to do something without them. Quicken uses some "step through" menus like wizards, but they're avoidable. Again, this is a personal preference.
The best thing about Quicken is that it doesn't delete your npclog, which is a text file that gets concatenated (by Quicken) with your upload/download data. If you understand the codes in the npclog (which aren't too tough to understand), you can see what payment/transfer instructions you sent out and what cleared check #'s and stuff you received. If there is a discrepancy between your records and the bank's records, the npclog can easily clear up who made the mistake. I once saved my mom $120 in erroneous overdraft charges by printing out the npclog and showing the local friendly banker how she transferred money before the cutoff time of 3pm even though the bank didn't recognize it in time.
Money (as of Money 98 anyway, but probably Money 2K, too) deletes your npclog after a short while. There is a trick to catch it before it gets deleted, but try explaining the procedure to "Joe AOL" to get him to send you a copy of it.
The only sucky thing about Quicken is that it prefers IE over Netscape for its internet functionality. It has something to do with using IE's DLLs. If it wasn't for Quicken, I wouldn't have IE installed.
So, to summarize....buy Quicken and fsck Micro$oft.
Maybe....or how about a scan of the ATF agent and the guy that was holding Elian in the picture? Hmm...or how about some type of capture the flag where Elian is the flag?
I think building a computer case out of these things is on a lot of people's minds. However, what material can we line the inside with to provide RF shielding? The material should be something very lightweight and undistracting.
Hmmm...would sheets of the material that anti-static bags are made of provide adequate shielding? We could, of course, put holes in certain places for the ventillation ass....the implication being that instead of "tearing a new one," you'd be "tearing the first one." *uneasy chuckle* Joking aside, what do you think?
The cure for 1984 is 1917.
(*The following is not investment advice*)
I bought a few shares of MSFT today hoping there would be a breakup. I'm rather excited to see what the two new companies will produce (and earn) in the future now that they can develop independently of one another. IMO, the applications company is going to be the real winner since they'll have some incentive to port to other platforms.
Over the last few weeks MSFT stock has been revolving around $60 to $70 roughly. So it's sort of bottomed out for now and may even be undervalued. Tomorrow, quite a few people may start buying up lots of shares in hopes of MS-A and MS-B performing well in the future.
The cure for 1984 is 1917.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but in the US, the analogue TV xmitter shutdown will be mandatory. The freed-up frequencies will be allocated to some other purposes.
"I'm ditching my TV when they switch off the analogue transmitters in 10 years time."
I thought they were going to do that much sooner...either 2003 or 2006. No big loss for me, I only watch TV about 5 hours a week anyway.
The cure for 1984 is 1917.
Well, the whole idea behind Gargoyles was that they were supposed to protect people. So tearing people apart might present a *small* conflict of interest.
If people exhibited some control and kept it in their pants and didn't share needles, HIV wouldn't be as contagious. HIV can't spread if you've got a little willpower.
(Note: The following is not investment advice.)
Problem? Whenever the market takes a dip for reasons like this (as opposed to real "corrections" to the market as a whole), it may become undervalued. In such a case, value investors would jump in since in the long run the market will recover.
I've got a BeBox dual 66 right here. The "buffering" circuitry includes three big-ass electric fuses to prevent your device from accidentally frying the mobo. Inside on the mobo itself is a "diagnostics" port, with pin-ins (sp?) shaped roughly in the shape of a CPU. The diagnostic port was for use by Be only and they do not support its use.
(Disclaimer: The following information is not investment advice and should in no way be construed as such.)
/(r-g)
Well, using the "income approach," fair market value is the present value of all future benefits. There is a direct relationship between the amount of income a property will earn and its value.
The basic idea behind the income approach is that
V= Be
V= value of the business
Be= expected future benefits
r= required rate of return
g= long term expected growth
r-g= capitalization rate
The first thing that you'll notice here is that even with a "formula," you still don't have an answer, because you must then figure out what your expected benefit stream is, the required rate of return and the long term expected growth rate. There is a lot of quantitative and *qualitative* factors to consider.
FYI: V/Be = the P/E ratio
Although many people here are offering you several rules of thumb, you should realize that rules of thumb do not take into consideration all of the unique qualities of your business. Call me biased if you must, but I, too, recommend engaging the services of a business appraisal firm. One common idea I see floating around here is correct...valuation is by no means an exact science.
By hiring a professional and experienced business valuation firm, you'll hopefully get a value based upon evidence and analysis which is comprehensive, unbiased and pertinent.
If you want to get into the "nitty gritty" of important considerations, I refer you to the following 8 salient points from Revenue Ruling 59-60, which set the groundwork for modern business valuation:
Depending upon the capital structure of your company (C-corp, S-corp, LLC, limited partnership, etc.), there may be some other considerations.
Let me point you in the direction of the American Society of Appraisers, the industry association to which I belong. There, you will find some helpful articles and info on business appraisers who may be able to help you. Email me at the address above (after removing the appropriate words) if you have any questions. Good luck!
Just one note on that 60 meg download...it will uncompress into 500 megs of "file space" for BeOS and its apps.
But yeah, I would definitely recommend BeOS, too, if you're into audio-intense computing. A lot of major players in the high-end of the audio production industry are porting their apps to BeOS. Have a look at Be's page to see who they are (b/c I have enough research to do already and I still need to go get my hair cut).
"Second of all, it's very hard to quantify the value of something like that"
The number is probably based upon the sales that are generated from those clients. The number was probably derived by the accounting firm that audits their financial statements. A customer list is an intangible item, but is nonetheless a valuable asset for a service-based company.
"It can take a company a lot of time and effort to cultivate a clientele, but if someone else knows all thier names, it does not cost that company 2.5 million dollars. If someone were to get all of a company's clients to switch to another company, maybe it would cost that much."
Well, there you go. They don't want to introduce the possibility that someone could switch their clients over. Because it could cost them $2.5MM.
"But in reality, getting someone's clients to jump to another company, even if their names are known, is not easy to do."
How do you know? The situation varies from company to company. There are many instances (especially in service-based relationships where there is no factory equipment or hardware) where it is very easy to jump to another company. Hell, my company's salesmen are very good at getting people to switch to my company's service (using honest, legal means).
If they're changing email addresses, too, that might require new business cards. Maybe everyone has personalized company stationary with their email addresses on them. Do we even know how big this company is? That could affect the cost, too. $12,500 seems a lot more reasonable than the grossly misstated figures in other well-known cracking cases.
The cure for 1984 is 1917.
There is definitely no Active X going on as far as I can tell. My first instinct was to change my user-agent setting and for some reason I thought I could do this within my netscape prefs.js file. But, ok...Junkbuster it is :)
Note - This may be a little offtopic, but it does involve my desire to use GNUcash in conjunction with my bank. Maybe some of you share this same situation...
4 7.shtml">(refer to this slashdot article).</a>
I'm doing my best to switch over all of my home computing tasks to Linux from NT 4.0. So far I can do in Linux all I did in NT, except for downloading my daily banking transactions, which was done with Quicken. I've got an extra computer with an NT 4.0 install just to handle this.
So what I'd like to do is run GNUcash under Linux and go to First Union's (the bank I use) web site and simply *look* at what's cleared and then match it up with the transactions I enter in GNUcash. It's not as convenient as doing automatic downloads with Quicken, but it's good enough for my purposes.
However, First Union's web site will only let me go as far as looking at a summary of all my accounts using Netscape (w/128 bit crypto) under Linux. They won't let me access the "Interim Statement" page which tells me the specific transactions that cleared. I have a feeling this is similar to the problem Fox had with Linux users accessing their web site <a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/99/12/10/22142
I was able to contact a guy in First Union's online banking department (Ken Stewart in Richmond) who might be able to do something about it. I explained how online banking and the web in general should be about open standards that do not depend on using one or two popular operating systems (you know which ones). I told Ken that a First Union cust. svc. rep. even told me that I'm not the first one with this problem and that other Linux users have been complaining (which is true). To bring the point home, I then explained how their web based bill pay system (which is handled by www.mybills.com, a third party) works perfectly under Linux.
Maybe this guy will get some wheels turning to fix this problem, maybe not. If there are any other First Union customers out there having this problem, be vocal and get your call escalated above front-line customer service. Thanks for your time.