Do you have any data to support the argument that most computers running today are not business computers?
My mistake, I wasn't clear enough. When I posted "downtime is lost money and that adds up fast", I was talking about servers and enterprise class hardware. The things you'd actually need Tier 1 support for. Not a PC on a desk. If my PC goes down, my company does not lose much. If our website or code server goes down - different story.
But I'm happy to discuss your points anyways.
Future product development. Businesses look for software that is actively be invested in. It allows them to know that revisions will be on the way to support new technologies, support their existing business functions, and add efficiency.
True enough, but Open Source vs. Proprietary is no guarantee at all. Plenty of proprietary business software has gone the way of the dodo. I remember when every single business guy I knew used Act. Now, they all seem to use Salesforce. Proprietary software has no guarantees on it being invested in for the future, even if it looks that way.
And as for Open Source - we have a Darwinism at work for that. If it's a good piece of software, if it's used a lot - it will naturally attract developers. And if not and you still like the software, that's easy to fix too. Hire a programmer. Just head on over to Sologig and post your job. "Hey, I'd like someone out there to add feature X to Open Source project Y. Best of both worlds, there.
Integration is key, additionally the IT departments can apply pressure through the sales staff to the commercial software provider for feature requests.
Again, see the above point. If it's a good piece of software those features will just happen. Study the evolution of GnuCash for a good example of that. And if not...you're already committed to spending money on an IT staff. Why not have them add the feature for you? You don't have to wait for some company to do a financial analysis or any of that. You have the code already, and you already have the staff.
Consistency, consistency, consistency. This is a reiteration of 1 and backwards compatibility in a way, but a business that is not software centric, should remain unfocused of software. It should only be a tool to enable them in providing services or products more efficiently and quickly. Business choose to pay for software that provides them with this consistency, and if it's not provided, they'll quickly take their money elsewhere.
If things really were consistent in proprietary software, about 90% of the IT staff in the whole world would become unemployed today. Things are never consistent. A good example is Windows. The API changes with every single release. XP had a migration guide. Vista has one.
The reason why you think things are so consistent and transparent is that apparently you have good IT people on your staff.
These same IT guys could make open source software just as consistent. Probably have an easier time of it too, since there are no proprietary file formats or any of that. The code is right there, you can see what the *exact* differences are between version 4.1 and 4.2 of some Open Source software. The solution is always only a text editor away.
I hear Dvorak keyboards are more efficient. But I don't use one. Why? I already have the qwerty keypad memorized. Not only would I have to learn the Dvorak layout, but I'd have to somehow forget the qwerty one.
So yeah, this might be a great idea - if you've never used a keypad before.
Most people, when referring to the support needed, are talking about Companies, not Individuals.
You make a valid point about business. Downtime is lost money and that adds up fast. But - the original poster's point is the following:
I don't know of much free software that is really competitive because truly free software doesn't have the support that it needs to compete with software that does have support.
Most of the computers running today are not business computers. They are end-users. To apply a business metric to these users is incorrect, IMHO. Your average user doesn't need tier-1 24/7 support.
Using this as an argument against open source is misleading.
I don't know of much free software that is really competitive because truly free software doesn't have the support that it needs to compete with software that does have support.
For most people it's email, office applications, web browser, solitaire. I keep seeing this support argument tossed around and every time I ask myself - honestly, how much support does someone actually need?
I used to do end-user support for a living (think Geek Squad-like work). And 99% of the time, it was getting rid of spyware/viruses. Most people really don't need more than that, in my experience.
In a paper published in the May 2004 issue of Physical Review Letters a team from Los Alamos National Laboratory found that quantum dots produce as many as three electrons from one high energy photon of sunlight. When today's photovoltaic solar cells absorb a photon of sunlight, the energy gets converted to at most one electron, and the rest is lost as heat. This could boost the efficiency of panels produced in research labs from today's 20-30% to 42%. This work was reproduced one year later by an NREL team.
Poke around the net some looking for quantum dot solar panels. Lots more stuff out there, and it's all pretty exciting. The end result may be a quantum dot paint you simply slop on your roof every couple of years.
YouTube or its partners must locate parties ranging from studios to actors, and from music composers to the owners of venues, and get them to sign off.
Why?
I'm sure if anyone has a problem with something on YouTube, they'll contact YouTube about it. That's when you get them to sign off or take the video down.
Internet Explorer 7 was finally released this morning and is available via automatic update
If anyone has ever wondered how MS gets those fantastic browser numbers, here's your answer. Just you watch - here in a few months MS will be crowing about how there are more IE7 users than Firefox 2.0 users. As if anyone with a windows box has a choice in the matter.
This is kernel source, which will be the same for every CE6 device. The interesting bits would be the drivers and they would be in a devices BSP. I'm pretty sure MS won't be releasing the BSP for the Zune. For that very reason.
If these sites do wind up phishing sites, at least sedo.com will know who owns them. So what you do is to contact the Internet Crime Complaint Center. Give them the address of the phishing site - and be sure to let them know that sedo.com sold them the domain, so they'll have the customer contact info.
Firefox 2 has, we estimate, between 3-4 times the number of fixes than FF 1.5 did. And that doesn't just include fixes and bugs, but all of the feature work as well as memory, stability and security issues.
There ya go. Better engine under the hood. This is not so much of an eye-candy upgrade as a "let's make it work better" upgrade. Unlike some other browser authors I could mention.
If DVD Jon was smart, he'd write software that would unlock FairPlay, allow the user to copy it to another device, and then lock it down again
And what of the copy to another device? How exactly do you dictate what happens to it?
Look. Jon is simply giving people The Tools to do whatever they would wish to do with their purchases. If you do something illegal with the tools, that's your problem. Same could be said of owning a car. Or a gun. Or a freaking two by four for that matter.
Slashdot Mirror
Nothing to add really, just wanted to say thanks for all you're doing.
What if you can't get a job in the games industry?
With a CS degree you can get a wide variety of jobs, including jobs in the game industry. Not so with the games degree. You'd be a one-trick pony.
Do you have any data to support the argument that most computers running today are not business computers?
My mistake, I wasn't clear enough. When I posted "downtime is lost money and that adds up fast", I was talking about servers and enterprise class hardware. The things you'd actually need Tier 1 support for. Not a PC on a desk. If my PC goes down, my company does not lose much. If our website or code server goes down - different story.
But I'm happy to discuss your points anyways.
Future product development. Businesses look for software that is actively be invested in. It allows them to know that revisions will be on the way to support new technologies, support their existing business functions, and add efficiency.
True enough, but Open Source vs. Proprietary is no guarantee at all. Plenty of proprietary business software has gone the way of the dodo. I remember when every single business guy I knew used Act. Now, they all seem to use Salesforce. Proprietary software has no guarantees on it being invested in for the future, even if it looks that way.
And as for Open Source - we have a Darwinism at work for that. If it's a good piece of software, if it's used a lot - it will naturally attract developers. And if not and you still like the software, that's easy to fix too. Hire a programmer. Just head on over to Sologig and post your job. "Hey, I'd like someone out there to add feature X to Open Source project Y. Best of both worlds, there.
Integration is key, additionally the IT departments can apply pressure through the sales staff to the commercial software provider for feature requests.
Again, see the above point. If it's a good piece of software those features will just happen. Study the evolution of GnuCash for a good example of that. And if not...you're already committed to spending money on an IT staff. Why not have them add the feature for you? You don't have to wait for some company to do a financial analysis or any of that. You have the code already, and you already have the staff.
Consistency, consistency, consistency. This is a reiteration of 1 and backwards compatibility in a way, but a business that is not software centric, should remain unfocused of software. It should only be a tool to enable them in providing services or products more efficiently and quickly. Business choose to pay for software that provides them with this consistency, and if it's not provided, they'll quickly take their money elsewhere.
If things really were consistent in proprietary software, about 90% of the IT staff in the whole world would become unemployed today. Things are never consistent. A good example is Windows. The API changes with every single release. XP had a migration guide. Vista has one.
The reason why you think things are so consistent and transparent is that apparently you have good IT people on your staff.
These same IT guys could make open source software just as consistent. Probably have an easier time of it too, since there are no proprietary file formats or any of that. The code is right there, you can see what the *exact* differences are between version 4.1 and 4.2 of some Open Source software. The solution is always only a text editor away.
I hear Dvorak keyboards are more efficient. But I don't use one. Why? I already have the qwerty keypad memorized. Not only would I have to learn the Dvorak layout, but I'd have to somehow forget the qwerty one.
So yeah, this might be a great idea - if you've never used a keypad before.
The other side came back with an argument that copyright law didn't apply, simply because they software was 'being given away for free.
Copyright is not a guarantee of a revenue stream, or even an implication of one. It's about ownership.
What you choose to do with that ownership is your own business. Make a fortune, or not. Your copyright, your choice.
Most people, when referring to the support needed, are talking about Companies, not Individuals.
You make a valid point about business. Downtime is lost money and that adds up fast. But - the original poster's point is the following:
I don't know of much free software that is really competitive because truly free software doesn't have the support that it needs to compete with software that does have support.
Most of the computers running today are not business computers. They are end-users. To apply a business metric to these users is incorrect, IMHO. Your average user doesn't need tier-1 24/7 support.
Using this as an argument against open source is misleading.
I don't know of much free software that is really competitive because truly free software doesn't have the support that it needs to compete with software that does have support.
For most people it's email, office applications, web browser, solitaire. I keep seeing this support argument tossed around and every time I ask myself - honestly, how much support does someone actually need?
I used to do end-user support for a living (think Geek Squad-like work). And 99% of the time, it was getting rid of spyware/viruses. Most people really don't need more than that, in my experience.
How 'bout getting DX9 working, or maybe allowing the virtual machine direct access to the graphics card so it can use DX natively?
See Quantum Dots.
In a paper published in the May 2004 issue of Physical Review Letters a team from Los Alamos National Laboratory found that quantum dots produce as many as three electrons from one high energy photon of sunlight. When today's photovoltaic solar cells absorb a photon of sunlight, the energy gets converted to at most one electron, and the rest is lost as heat. This could boost the efficiency of panels produced in research labs from today's 20-30% to 42%. This work was reproduced one year later by an NREL team.
Poke around the net some looking for quantum dot solar panels. Lots more stuff out there, and it's all pretty exciting. The end result may be a quantum dot paint you simply slop on your roof every couple of years.
The same way a humpback whale is interested in plankton.
I knew the GOP would offer up a sacrifical lamb for their thrashing yesterday, but damn - that was fast.
YouTube or its partners must locate parties ranging from studios to actors, and from music composers to the owners of venues, and get them to sign off.
Why?
I'm sure if anyone has a problem with something on YouTube, they'll contact YouTube about it. That's when you get them to sign off or take the video down.
Seems...almost too easy, doesn't it?
I hold the patent for online peer-review of patents. I beat Jeff Bezos to it by maybe a day or two.
Internet Explorer 7 was finally released this morning and is available via automatic update
If anyone has ever wondered how MS gets those fantastic browser numbers, here's your answer. Just you watch - here in a few months MS will be crowing about how there are more IE7 users than Firefox 2.0 users. As if anyone with a windows box has a choice in the matter.
This is kernel source, which will be the same for every CE6 device. The interesting bits would be the drivers and they would be in a devices BSP. I'm pretty sure MS won't be releasing the BSP for the Zune. For that very reason.
If these sites do wind up phishing sites, at least sedo.com will know who owns them. So what you do is to contact the Internet Crime Complaint Center. Give them the address of the phishing site - and be sure to let them know that sedo.com sold them the domain, so they'll have the customer contact info.
I make a post, and get modded -1, Troll. You agree with me, and get Insightful.
Ah well, enjoy it my friend! Such are the fortunes of Slashdot karma.
Excellent article, with a lot of historical detail. Good find.
Embrace and extend. This is phase one, "Embrace".
Just wait for phase two.
...pray I don't alter it any further.
Same way it would have been reckless to point out the iceberg to the captain of the Titanic.
www.autopatcher.com
Hmmm, "Lovecraft" a new MMORPG where you build a custom avatar (male, female, andro, or herma), dress it from our selection of fashionable apparel...
...and then blow your first d100 roll and have your new character run screaming into the night to be devoured in a pit of Dark Young.
Thanks for playing!
From TFB:
Firefox 2 has, we estimate, between 3-4 times the number of fixes than FF 1.5 did. And that doesn't just include fixes and bugs, but all of the feature work as well as memory, stability and security issues.
There ya go. Better engine under the hood. This is not so much of an eye-candy upgrade as a "let's make it work better" upgrade. Unlike some other browser authors I could mention.
If DVD Jon was smart, he'd write software that would unlock FairPlay, allow the user to copy it to another device, and then lock it down again
And what of the copy to another device? How exactly do you dictate what happens to it?
Look. Jon is simply giving people The Tools to do whatever they would wish to do with their purchases. If you do something illegal with the tools, that's your problem. Same could be said of owning a car. Or a gun. Or a freaking two by four for that matter.