Well, lets see, we could do a long long long analysis of why they're so successful, or we could just state the obvious.
They are the most successful GPU company because they make the best, highest-quality, fastest GPU's,....
Damn right!
All you ever need to succeed is to have the best product - and that's it. Nothing else matters in comparison.
By the way, I don't suppose you know any good video rental stores? for some reason, I can't find anywhere to rent Beta format videos - buggered if I know why, after all they are a superior format....
my main assistant -- a young boy, eight years old, the son of a local betel-nut seller ... was stunned because I didn't know that the character map existed -- and I have a PhD
Which just goes to show what I've seen many times over, outside their area of expertise, the average PhD knows less than an 8 year old.
I lived for a short time in the US, and there seems to be one big difference between us Aussies and the yanks. The US has alot on people and things in to compared to Oz. There are alot of different things to do within and experince within the US. Not so much down under - if you've been to one part of the bush, you've been to all of it.
This tends to make the Americans more inward looking, while alot of Aussies feel the need to explore the world. The majority of my firends and relatives have travelled around Europe (or South-America aand Africa for the more trendy ones). It's probably the same for you. As a counter example, GW hadn't left his own country until he was elected (Canada and Mexico don't count).
Hey benphegan, if you're ever in Brussels, you're welcome to drop by and we'll go out for a beer. It's always nice to bump in to other expats from home. (You know, the strange thing about living OS is there are so many foreigners everywhere:-)
Re:CmdrTaco, you idiot, you're missing the point!
on
April Fools Wrap Up
·
· Score: 2
No, I agree that Taco was operating as a troll, and maybe he'll get enough income from it to keep everything running for a little longer - good for him!
My point was that he wasn't a very amusing troll, nor very original (as he did it last year as well).
Re:CmdrTaco, you idiot, you're missing the point!
on
April Fools Wrap Up
·
· Score: 2
Ok, I can accept that it was the comments and reactions which were meant to be the joke, making it a bit more subtle.
But, if that's the case, then why did they do the exact same thing last year? Remember, also last year, almost every story was an attempt at a joke, and it generated the same sort of comments last year as well.
So, if they did it once, I'd agree it was well done, but doing it every year makes it a bit tired, and not very funny.
Apply Occum's razor to this - funny, creative and very subtle manipulation ot slahsdot by Taco, or lameless excuse due to the majority of comments being so negative?
You know, I've read through all of these comments (well, alot at a level of +2), and one thing has struck me....
... I mean, something must have struck me, as my brain hurts. I mean really hurts. I don't like thinking about anything I've read, as waves of nausea wash over me.
Now, why would I want to pay for something which causes me pain?!? This is why./ subscripions won't work.
Would someone like to explain, in layman's terms, the unification of all of the string theories, and there being 11 dimensions, and how relates to this?
And could someone please explain if and how Einstien got it wrong with his general theory.
for all of you calling him stupid, let's not forget that he was employed by Los Alamos while most of you probably sit alone in mother's basement all day long dishing out hate on forums.
Ok, let me see, who's more stupid..... slashdotters ranting and laughing in their posts...
... or someone sitting in a jail cell and finding they now have a 400-lb boyfriend because they couldn't keep their mouth shut?
So, is there something in the Canadian constitution against that?
Article XVII, subsection C, Clause 256 - Any person deemed to be a jackass, as defined by Slashdot shall be subjected to physical harm and have any mobile computing devices damaged by persons of low intelligence, authority and wages.
European airports know what the fuck they are doing. They can kill a terrorist within seconds
That's great news. Anyone thinking of hijacking an airport terminal and flying it into a building is going to think twice now.
Or would you hijack a terminal and fly it into a plane? I don't know...
The main reason the security is the way it is in quite a few European airports is to fight terrorism, but is not specifically against someone trying to hi-jack a plane. It more targeted against someone wanting to cause terror inside the airport itself.
For example, if you leave a bag unattended anywhere in London Heathrow, it will be noticed, and if no owner if found, then there's a good chance the immediate area will be evacuated and the bag will be blown up.
This security has existed throught out Europe many years before Sept 11th - which also explains why the Europeans are better currently that US airports.
If I had a mod point today, I'd give you a +1 insightful.
... and maybe a : +1 Ah, Those were the days.
I discovered Usenet in '86. I joined in the C&S greencard flamewars.
I remember the never-ending September, and how it was before hand.
I agree with almost everything you say, including:
We have lost the Internet...
You are right my friend, we have lost the internet. It is too late. It was too late many years ago.
There is no going back. It will never be the same again. The best we can do is accept what has happened and try to go forward. It this means the days of open-relays and anonymous emailers are gone. We can't being back the past, so we shouldn't keep trying to live in it. We should move forward, and do what we can to make our old values reflect in the new world (wide web:) order.
Close all the open relays, let the traffic be controlled. Instead, be a freenet node, and set up web-based email with at least a little security. Try new ways to create the old community.
I understand the most probable reasons: lack of time
You meant to say 'lack of integrity', didn't you?
Confusing 'time' with 'integrity' is something that happens quite often to over generous slashdot posters, as well as corrupt hacks which can be bought by as little as saving an hour by using a press release as their review.
I wonder if that would work for my MSc thesis?.... "of course professor, I didn't really have time to do all of the work myself, but I found a press release telling me it was true....."
It was possible for a customer to arrange to have a support person available on site or on call. They could have someone on site 24 hours/day if they wanted. If they were on-site, then they would basically have to pay the same cost as a having an Oracle consultant on site full time. Having someone on 24-hour call was cheaper, about 1/4 or the cost.
I did both 24-hour on call, as well as being on site.
Oracle can and does provide this service, it is just something special you have to arrange directly with them, and as I said, costs alot - usually more than it's worth.
Really, there is no reason to get rude and childish.
I'm sorry if you think that I don't exist, and that I didn't work there.
If you're willing to put you're money where your mouth is, I can provide you with a jpeg of my Oracle badge, my real name which can be used to query up any old bugs and tars I logged. I can even provide the details of the other people who I worked with who shared the shifts with me.
So, I gather that gather that you probably are working for a company with a GOLD support level. Well, let me tell you, that it is possible to get a higher level of support past GOLD. You're calling into one of the worldwide support centres, right? Well, of couse you're going to get sucky support - that all they offer there. You're not going to get someone one site or connecting right away from one of the WWS centres.
I am amazed that, just because you don't know something, you assume that it doesn't exist.
one has to prove that he/she has a bug before they will even spend five minutes with you
Now, we both know that that is not true. Ok, you're never going to get a problem passed through to the development groups with out the support person jumping through hoops, but to say that no-one will ever spend 5 minutes with you unless it's a bug is downright dishonest.
No. You're wrong. You can get it. Of course, you have to pay for it. My guess is that you just weren't paying enough.
I spend 6 years working for Oracle working in their support division. I did work all through the night, many times. I even carried a pager and got beeped by the customers at any time 24 hours a day.
This did cost the customers alot of money. I got a standby fee, plus time and a half for any hours I worked. Oracle in turn would charge the customer about 10 times that amount they paid me.
Small customers never even hear that this sort of service is available.
A $25 000 car costs about two grand to make. The usual costs for making a car is a bit below 10% of the sale price.
What? I'm sorry, but I'd like to know where you got your figures.
I'm currently working for one of the biggest car manufactures in the world, and right at this point in time, I'm sitting in one of their main global offices. I help maintain their accounting system, which contains the costs of everything - R&D, prices of parts, the cost of each car, the price thy are sold to the distirubtors.
I can tell you, that each car is nowhere near 90% profit. In fact, it would be closer to the other way around. This is before the R&D cost is taken into account. There are some cars on which money is actually lost. Most of the profit made in the entire industry is on spare parts and service.
Of course, you're an anonymous coward, so I suppose you're allowed to make up facts. After all, never let the facts get in th eway of a good story.
Re:Because its venal or stupid-which do you believ
on
Borland Backs Down
·
· Score: 1
Finally, and on the VERY off possibility this was an honest mistake then what kind of organization lets something this important "slip through"?
Maybe they get their legal advice from Andersen?
"Sure, it's fine to invaid peoples home - just make sure you shred your documents before you're caught."
Just imagine what all of these other big companies are getting away with that we don't hear about!
The problem is that here, there are a very large number of people illegally in this country - which means no identity card and therefore don't officially exist.
These people are often exploited, and as alot come from either North Africa or Eastern Europe, are also subject to racial abuse (alot of people here think that they're all thieves).
The numbers of people like this is huge, many thousands (if not tens of thousands). For a small country like Belgium, it is a significant porportion of the population.
Getting back on topic, I dare say that there would be alot of these people who would benefit from having a computer, but would not be able to afford it.
Ok, I see lots of people here telling me all of the wonderful things I can do. But really, if my household is going to get one, then I'd rather have something that we'll be happy with, which may not match what people here want.
For starters, I want everything installed, or very easy to install. One of the more silly comments I saw was they we could all have boot floppies and download the install. Sheesh, as local calls cost money, I'm not going to spend the cost of Win XP on telephone charges to download redhat or SuSE at 28-56K by phone.
It's also got to be in French.
It has to have useful applications which my wife knows - she doesn't have the time to spend learning different things - if you don't believe me, please ask HER.
If it was only my wife's decision, then she would ONLY want to use MS products. She would never bother to use the computer if it was Linux.
I recently helped my neighbour next door choose a second had computer. Her main requirement - something which matched what the her children in school were using - again, MS wins.
I'm sorry, but if we all end up with Linux, then I'm usre alot of the boxes will go unused.
I'm in Belgium, and I even have personal experience with such a person.
I had a cleaner who would come around for 1/2 day each week. She didn't charge much, but my wife usually gave her more than what she was charged. This woman has a child who she has to support. She was not getting any help from the government, as she was not legally in the country. She came over from south-east Asia to care for her mother who was living here and was very ill. For some reason, she couldn't get the paperwork to stay and work while caring for her mother, so she had to work in black.
The Belgian government decided that a whole lot of illegal immigrants could stay, if they could prove that they had enough ties to the community for a number of yerars. She applied, and wanted to get some computer skills to get a good job, and to help her child for school.
She could just afford to live, let alone afford even a couple of hundred US dollars worth of second hand computer.
One of her other clients had given her a computer, but it wasn't working, and my wife said that I could have a look at it. It was a old Amstrad '286, totally useless. So, feeling rich and gulity, I went out, bought a new case, motherboard, processor and used other bits I had around and put together a fairly good system and gave it to her. If she had to have paid for just the bits I bought new, she would have had to have cleaned my house for a year.
And there are thousands of people like her in Brussels alone.
Re:Issues with the euro in day-to-day life
on
The Euro
·
· Score: 1
There's no 25 cents coin. Someone tell me why, because I don't understand it.
Why are you confused?
Of all of the currencies I've used, only the US had a 25 cent coin. France, Belgium, Luxemburg,
Switzerland, Austria don't have one. Not even does the UK, Australia or NZ.
If it that you're use to a 25 cent piece, and you assue that everyone else should think the same as you? (Are you American and your own bias is showing through?)
If most of the other countries in the EURO zone don't have a 25 cent piece, then why should it even be considered for the EURO?
Slashdot Mirror
Well, lets see, we could do a long long long analysis of why they're so successful, or we could just state the obvious.
....
They are the most successful GPU company because they make the best, highest-quality, fastest GPU's,
Damn right!
All you ever need to succeed is to have the best product - and that's it. Nothing else matters in comparison.
By the way, I don't suppose you know any good video rental stores? for some reason, I can't find anywhere to rent Beta format videos - buggered if I know why, after all they are a superior format....
my main assistant -- a young boy, eight years old, the son of a local betel-nut seller
...
was stunned because I didn't know that the character map existed -- and I have a PhD
Which just goes to show what I've seen many times over, outside their area of expertise, the average PhD knows less than an 8 year old.
Ok, I recommend everyone to read this parent, and the rest of this thread.
Now go and read the previous Katz article.
Right, now hands up anyone who doesn't understand why some people around the world do not like or even fear the US?
I lived for a short time in the US, and there seems to be one big difference between us Aussies and the yanks. The US has alot on people and things in to compared to Oz. There are alot of different things to do within and experince within the US. Not so much down under - if you've been to one part of the bush, you've been to all of it.
:-)
This tends to make the Americans more inward looking, while alot of Aussies feel the need to explore the world. The majority of my firends and relatives have travelled around Europe (or South-America aand Africa for the more trendy ones). It's probably the same for you. As a counter example, GW hadn't left his own country until he was elected (Canada and Mexico don't count).
Hey benphegan, if you're ever in Brussels, you're welcome to drop by and we'll go out for a beer. It's always nice to bump in to other expats from home. (You know, the strange thing about living OS is there are so many foreigners everywhere
No, I agree that Taco was operating as a troll, and maybe he'll get enough income from it to keep everything running for a little longer - good for him!
My point was that he wasn't a very amusing troll, nor very original (as he did it last year as well).
Ok, I can accept that it was the comments and reactions which were meant to be the joke, making it a bit more subtle.
But, if that's the case, then why did they do the exact same thing last year? Remember, also last year, almost every story was an attempt at a joke, and it generated the same sort of comments last year as well.
So, if they did it once, I'd agree it was well done, but doing it every year makes it a bit tired, and not very funny.
Apply Occum's razor to this - funny, creative and very subtle manipulation ot slahsdot by Taco, or lameless excuse due to the majority of comments being so negative?
You know, I've read through all of these comments (well, alot at a level of +2), and one thing has struck me....
./ subscripions won't work.
... I mean, something must have struck me, as my brain hurts. I mean really hurts. I don't like thinking about anything I've read, as waves of nausea wash over me.
Now, why would I want to pay for something which causes me pain?!? This is why
Would someone like to explain, in layman's terms, the unification of all of the string theories, and there being 11 dimensions, and how relates to this?
And could someone please explain if and how Einstien got it wrong with his general theory.
Small words only, please.
for all of you calling him stupid, let's not forget that he was employed by Los Alamos while most of you probably sit alone in mother's basement all day long dishing out hate on forums.
Ok, let me see, who's more stupid..... slashdotters ranting and laughing in their posts...
... or someone sitting in a jail cell and finding they now have a 400-lb boyfriend because they couldn't keep their mouth shut?
Agreed. Mann may well be a jackass.
So, is there something in the Canadian constitution against that?
Article XVII, subsection C, Clause 256 -
Any person deemed to be a jackass, as defined by Slashdot shall be subjected to physical harm and have any mobile computing devices damaged by persons of low intelligence, authority and wages.
European airports know what the fuck they are doing. They can kill a terrorist within seconds
That's great news. Anyone thinking of hijacking an airport terminal and flying it into a building is going to think twice now.
Or would you hijack a terminal and fly it into a plane? I don't know...
The main reason the security is the way it is in quite a few European airports is to fight terrorism, but is not specifically against someone trying to hi-jack a plane. It more targeted against someone wanting to cause terror inside the airport itself.
For example, if you leave a bag unattended anywhere in London Heathrow, it will be noticed, and if no owner if found, then there's a good chance the immediate area will be evacuated and the bag will be blown up.
This security has existed throught out Europe many years before Sept 11th - which also explains why the Europeans are better currently that US airports.
Ok, refusing to hand over the messages can be contempt of court....
.. BUT, this assumes that the mail is known to exist.
What if I deleted everything which I didn't want seen, then supplied the rest.
How would you know if I handed over everything or not?
If you can't see any advantages, you're not thinking evil enough - you'd never make a CEO of Enron!
If I had a mod point today, I'd give you a +1 insightful.
:
...
... and maybe a : +1 Ah, Those were the days.
I discovered Usenet in '86. I joined in the C&S greencard flamewars.
I remember the never-ending September, and how it was before hand.
I agree with almost everything you say, including
We have lost the Internet
You are right my friend, we have lost the internet. It is too late. It was too late many years ago.
There is no going back. It will never be the same again. The best we can do is accept what has happened and try to go forward. It this means the days of open-relays and anonymous emailers are gone. We can't being back the past, so we shouldn't keep trying to live in it. We should move forward, and do what we can to make our old values reflect in the new world (wide web:) order.
Close all the open relays, let the traffic be controlled. Instead, be a freenet node, and set up web-based email with at least a little security. Try new ways to create the old community.
I understand the most probable reasons: lack of time
.... "of course professor, I didn't really have time to do all of the work myself, but I found a press release telling me it was true....."
You meant to say 'lack of integrity', didn't you?
Confusing 'time' with 'integrity' is something that happens quite often to over generous slashdot posters, as well as corrupt hacks which can be bought by as little as saving an hour by using a press release as their review.
I wonder if that would work for my MSc thesis?
Right, I just dare anyone to moderate the above down as -1 Offtopic !
Go on, what are you waiting for, it's a first post post, after all.
p.s. Congrats to both Taco and Kathleen. I wish you many happy years together.
Ok, this is the way it would work.
It was possible for a customer to arrange to have a support person available on site or on call. They could have someone on site 24 hours/day if they wanted. If they were on-site, then they would basically have to pay the same cost as a having an Oracle consultant on site full time. Having someone on 24-hour call was cheaper, about 1/4 or the cost.
I did both 24-hour on call, as well as being on site.
Oracle can and does provide this service, it is just something special you have to arrange directly with them, and as I said, costs alot - usually more than it's worth.
Really, there is no reason to get rude and childish.
I'm sorry if you think that I don't exist, and that I didn't work there.
If you're willing to put you're money where your mouth is, I can provide you with a jpeg of my Oracle badge, my real name which can be used to query up any old bugs and tars I logged. I can even provide the details of the other people who I worked with who shared the shifts with me.
So, I gather that gather that you probably are working for a company with a GOLD support level. Well, let me tell you, that it is possible to get a higher level of support past GOLD. You're calling into one of the worldwide support centres, right? Well, of couse you're going to get sucky support - that all they offer there. You're not going to get someone one site or connecting right away from one of the WWS centres.
I am amazed that, just because you don't know something, you assume that it doesn't exist.
one has to prove that he/she has a bug before they will even spend five minutes with you
Now, we both know that that is not true. Ok, you're never going to get a problem passed through to the development groups with out the support person jumping through hoops, but to say that no-one will ever spend 5 minutes with you unless it's a bug is downright dishonest.
No. You're wrong. You can get it. Of course, you have to pay for it. My guess is that you just weren't paying enough.
I spend 6 years working for Oracle working in their support division. I did work all through the night, many times. I even carried a pager and got beeped by the customers at any time 24 hours a day.
This did cost the customers alot of money. I got a standby fee, plus time and a half for any hours I worked. Oracle in turn would charge the customer about 10 times that amount they paid me.
Small customers never even hear that this sort of service is available.
A $25 000 car costs about two grand to make. The usual costs for making a car is a bit below 10% of the sale price.
What? I'm sorry, but I'd like to know where you got your figures.
I'm currently working for one of the biggest car manufactures in the world, and right at this point in time, I'm sitting in one of their main global offices. I help maintain their accounting system, which contains the costs of everything - R&D, prices of parts, the cost of each car, the price thy are sold to the distirubtors.
I can tell you, that each car is nowhere near 90% profit. In fact, it would be closer to the other way around. This is before the R&D cost is taken into account. There are some cars on which money is actually lost. Most of the profit made in the entire industry is on spare parts and service.
Of course, you're an anonymous coward, so I suppose you're allowed to make up facts. After all, never let the facts get in th eway of a good story.
Finally, and on the VERY off possibility this was an honest mistake then what kind of organization lets something this important "slip through"?
Maybe they get their legal advice from Andersen?
"Sure, it's fine to invaid peoples home - just make sure you shred your documents before you're caught."
Just imagine what all of these other big companies are getting away with that we don't hear about!
I would also say that you are correct, and the other poster was making an assumption that at least some of their activity was illegal.
....but... if I had to make a bet on it, I'd wager a large sum that illegal activities were occuring.
You know, it is possible that there are virgins working in a whore house, but I wouldn't like the odds that everyone working in there are virgins.
The problem is that here, there are a very large number of people illegally in this country - which means no identity card and therefore don't officially exist.
These people are often exploited, and as alot come from either North Africa or Eastern Europe, are also subject to racial abuse (alot of people here think that they're all thieves).
The numbers of people like this is huge, many thousands (if not tens of thousands). For a small country like Belgium, it is a significant porportion of the population.
Getting back on topic, I dare say that there would be alot of these people who would benefit from having a computer, but would not be able to afford it.
Ok, I see lots of people here telling me all of the wonderful things I can do. But really, if my household is going to get one, then I'd rather have something that we'll be happy with, which may not match what people here want.
For starters, I want everything installed, or very easy to install. One of the more silly comments I saw was they we could all have boot floppies and download the install. Sheesh, as local calls cost money, I'm not going to spend the cost of Win XP on telephone charges to download redhat or SuSE at 28-56K by phone.
It's also got to be in French.
It has to have useful applications which my wife knows - she doesn't have the time to spend learning different things - if you don't believe me, please ask HER.
If it was only my wife's decision, then she would ONLY want to use MS products. She would never bother to use the computer if it was Linux.
I recently helped my neighbour next door choose a second had computer. Her main requirement - something which matched what the her children in school were using - again, MS wins.
I'm sorry, but if we all end up with Linux, then I'm usre alot of the boxes will go unused.
I'm sorry, but you're wrong.
I'm in Belgium, and I even have personal experience with such a person.
I had a cleaner who would come around for 1/2 day each week. She didn't charge much, but my wife usually gave her more than what she was charged. This woman has a child who she has to support. She was not getting any help from the government, as she was not legally in the country. She came over from south-east Asia to care for her mother who was living here and was very ill. For some reason, she couldn't get the paperwork to stay and work while caring for her mother, so she had to work in black.
The Belgian government decided that a whole lot of illegal immigrants could stay, if they could prove that they had enough ties to the community for a number of yerars. She applied, and wanted to get some computer skills to get a good job, and to help her child for school.
She could just afford to live, let alone afford even a couple of hundred US dollars worth of second hand computer.
One of her other clients had given her a computer, but it wasn't working, and my wife said that I could have a look at it. It was a old Amstrad '286, totally useless. So, feeling rich and gulity, I went out, bought a new case, motherboard, processor and used other bits I had around and put together a fairly good system and gave it to her. If she had to have paid for just the bits I bought new, she would have had to have cleaned my house for a year.
And there are thousands of people like her in Brussels alone.
There's no 25 cents coin. Someone tell me why, because I don't understand it.
Why are you confused?
Of all of the currencies I've used, only the US had a 25 cent coin. France, Belgium, Luxemburg,
Switzerland, Austria don't have one. Not even does the UK, Australia or NZ.
If it that you're use to a 25 cent piece, and you assue that everyone else should think the same as you? (Are you American and your own bias is showing through?)
If most of the other countries in the EURO zone don't have a 25 cent piece, then why should it even be considered for the EURO?
Moderation Totals: Troll=1, Insightful=3, Underrated=1, Total=5.
Hmm, troll? No, that's not right.
Bilbo is *way* too small to be a troll.
Really, what's happening to the quality of moderators these days, when they can't tell the difference between a halfling and a troll.