you do have to admit. Within the first week they had his password, and him sitting in jail and confiscated all his "hacking tools" at home. So by sitting in Jail 2 years it's guaranteed that he really DIDN'T mess ANYTHING up.
Had he given the password and walked, they'd have been calling him for months and months later leading to him being threatened to help or "go to jail" and ending up with 20 years in charges after 2 years trying to "help".
Anyway, now that the jury is done he's only got one charge. If the judge is reasonable, the guy will be out for "time served" (by sentencing it will be nearly 2 full minimum years!) and given probation for another year or two. It's not like he's a threat to the situation now having been locked away from computers for two years. There's probably a host of stuff Child's can appeal on from, evidence, circumstances of firing, to DA's behavior, etc... the key is it can't really get worse from here out.
Re:It should read 'stoopid people hath spoken'
on
Terry Childs Found Guilty
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
except they pulled the POLICE in before even offering such a deal. That was the ENTIRE problem. They perp walked him out the door, then went to his house days later expecting to get the passwords. He's got enough for wrongful termination for all the crap they pulled.
Basically you could be accused of his "crime" for nailing boards over the computer room. I think at sentencing, more of the truth will come out. The judge feels the need to get some kind of "serious verdict" because of the dog-n-pony-show but it's obvious even the judge isn't really on board with the charges either. I see him getting another year or two probation and "time served" because he's been sitting in jail for just about 2 years now,. I think the judge will throw out the "damage" claims as well as the malicious intent... the guy has been sitting in jail since a week after being fired with no access to the computers since he left his job.... he was set up and NOTHING HAPPENED. So all the money spent is the CITY'S fault for not properly running the department, Child's made no THREATS to cause damage, there was no valid reason for such an extensive audit. They have had nearly 2 years to fix their problems, I can't see a judge granting anymore arguments from the DA.
Weird Al is still part of the "system" and doesn't have anything to do with Fair Use... He's on a big label and can get rights to whatever he wants. Remember MOST performers on the radio DON'T write their songs, and the "company" often owns them anyway. The company can license to whoever they want..."NOW", Kidz Bop, etc. The "performer" has nothing to say because they signed over ownership. What company executive is going to pass up easy money if Weird Al wants to riff on a song!
get the certification.... and add it to the resumes you'll be sending out!
When companies pay for certifications, usually they guarantee your employment (by expecting you to stay for a length of time). If they just want you to get it on your own time and dime.... might as well comply. Then use the cert to get a better job!!! What can they really say?
You mean like Adobe software versions for Mac OS are late, and feature poor compared to Windows versions now? In spite of the fact that OSX offers better (than windows) hardware accelerated features for graphics that work on every recent machine little shops like Pixelmator are keeping up. Adobe enjoyed a long near-monopoly of their apps being featured on Macs for decades... and in the last 5 years as Apple improves its software Adobe has consistently been the one company holding Mac users back from new OS adoption, and trying to price gouge them at every chance.
I wouldn't say Apple is "sticking up" for its customers (it's still a company after all) but Adobe Software used to be the premiere apps on Mac and the life-blood of selling them. Since the switch to Intel hardware Adobe hasn't done Apple any favors... why would Apple do them any?
shopping meccas and office complexes are not the problem. That layout reduces crime because it's very easy to patrol empty spaces after hours. The problem is suburbs and poorly built apartment complexes. Everybody wants to live "out of sight" of the nearest neighbors, then complain about the long drive in. We have Office and Shopping well centralized, we need manufacturing and housing more centralized. Manufacturing is the big problem right now. Nearly every new factory in my area the last 20 years is built 15 minutes outside town in a corn field next to the highway. There's absolutely no possibility of anything BUT a car. Bus and Taxi refuse to go out that far, walking is flat out dangerous on two lane country roads.
The issue is do people want to spend 25%-30% of their income just to get around... think how much you pay for car insurance, tags, gas, maintenance.... that's before your choice of payment for vehicle! Changing who is responsible changes everything. On pubic transport you can read a book, phone home, check email, etc... because YOU are not operating. It's still "travel time" but YOU can use it even if it's just to take a nap. That's exactly what American's need is to be forced to slow down... buy better things less often and have time to pursue other interests.
The main stream media is not "left" by any remote measure. The guys like Murdoc sensor their editors more than you think.
More importantly, Main Stream Media became focused on "social" issues rather than real right-vs-left issues a long time ago. Discussing Gays is MORAL Conservative versus Moral liberal.... it's just a great big distraction. That's why Fox or Rush or Springer pull out crazy morality stuff... You rarely see them have "equal" parties discussing anything. Capitalism is "Donald Trump" Socialism is a drunk blonde at Marti Gras....
This gives you the illusion BBC or NPR is "liberal" because they invite guests of similar social and educational level from both sides to politely DISCUSS an issue and let the LISTENER decide... MSM has already made the choice for you... don't trust the "stupid" guy.
Bush/Cheney made it a matter of "unofficial" policy specifically KNOWING they were skirting the law, and still continued doing it until the day they left as far as we know. In this case an executive is using his "normal" tools, and mostly to communicate WITH the public but outside FOIA-approved methods. Business executives even at SOX-paranoid companies don't have as many silly document restrictions as government does. I'd chalk this one up to not fully grasping all the technicalities... and in Politics you're "wrong" on the front page until proven "right" on page 8.
and there's a simple formula to calculate the light time. Take the safe stopping distance of a LARGE vehicle to stop safely, multiply by feet per second at what traffic is measured to move (note, this about SAFETY not the arbitrary speed limit) and you get a nice stopping line about 50-75 feet back. The time at the speed limit to get from that line through the light is the safe yellow light timing. Most lights are several seconds short to begin with this is something you can walk out and measure with a stopwatch!
OF course we SHOULD be pushing to operate FEWER motor vehicles. The fact that a person today spends considerably more time from 20 years ago on the road daily should really be fixed. More mass transit is the way to go... then you have that 30-60 minute commute to read news, a book, music... all markets that are suffering because all people (in the US) is work and drive turning an "8 hour" work day into 11 or more... before they have to do home duties like run kids, etc.
The whole US needs to be slowed down a bit anyway. We're running around faster doing less. I thought the $4 gas was a great thing. People started driving less and companies started considering other options for workers like more VPN access and adjusted work schedules (4x10 instead of 5x8). This whole "work just a little longer" problem in our US business ethic was finally starting to crack a little...When people have to carpool or catch a train, they actually work to get their jobs done "on time" more consistently. Work on work time, home on home time... what a concept! then the crisis went away and it was back to normal.
No, we need somebody from the "moral majority" action group to act as Federal CIO... preventing moral foibles and preventing federal offices from looking at "bad things" is much more important than somebody that was part of setting up one of the fastest growing companies in the US right now. That would be like appointing radio engineers or broadcast owners to the FCC... instead of a lobby for "moral content". (Oh wait... that was the last guy)
Exactly, we didn't have these arguments in the Bush years because Cheney ruled the party with an Iron Fist. Republicans that spoke out were replaced... even Democrats that spoke out had their districts targeted for Republican PR during elections. Bush enjoyed a majority in both houses for 6 years... and used flag waving/soft on terrorist to constantly push a few Democrats to their side simply because they weren't going to win, and why burn the bridges.
Obama did exactly what he said he would... pushed through health care. It was mean and nasty but unlike the Clinton attempt Obama was able to flip a few Republicans to get it through. I often wonder if the Patriot act (and the massive Homeland security cabinet seat and department created) would have gotten this much scrutiny the rest of the press would be saying much worse about Bush.
You mean like Bush/Cheney advocated in their administration? It was a matter of "official" unwritten policy that much of the behind the scenes work was "off the books". The guys in the White House now are kids compared to the last administration with many non-elected "administrators" that served every republican since Nixon.
not really, the media is at least reporting on the matter... because Obama isn't putting out weekly "scripts" like the last guy was. The Bush Administration was the peak of lobby shops being officially part of the cabinet.... and if the President didn't like the department, he simply didn't appoint anybody to it... or worse somebody to "neuter" it... as a matter of policy..... the media NEVER QUESTIONED it in 8 years.
Except that any company big enough to have a CIO is thinking of "software as a service"... not some buzzword like borrowing something over the internet, but setting up the entire data center under a service level agreement. If they want Oracle... they want Oracle and don't CARE about the HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE to get it.... They want to pay for solutions not "products". My company is pushing everything to IBM at the corporate level. Our equipment will sit in IBM's data centers and the factories will just connect.
Once we do that OS, CPU, RAM, all stops mattering. Oracle sees this trend and wants appliances, like you said they will have "drop in" redundant parts because you will be paying for an SLA, not some random bits and pieces and hope your people can make it go.
This trend makes hardware and software the OEM's PROBLEM... and "owning" the stack is the only way to compete. This is how Oracle & IBM are going to make Microsoft irrelevant... There's no way Microsoft would "own" Windows at an SLA level.. guarantee uptime, performance, and fix bugs the way IBM does.. when the equipment is at THEIR facility then they can't blame the admin for power, configuration, etc.
Sure, you don't want to give up control of the equipment as an Admin, but as a CEO is your "business" tending computers and software budgets, or producing your company's products? Companies don't keep their own Auto mechanics, plumbers, electricians, or construction workers on the payroll, "just in case" they want to build something... the same thing will be happening to computing.. it's becoming a "utility". The money is in accomplishing the task needed right now.
They're proving both quotes that 'real men build hardware" and that "real software lovers build hardware" from IBM and Apple.
Both IBM and Apple design Software and Hardware to complement each other. Compare an iSeries or iPad to the typical Oracle setup where they are at the mercy of Intel, AMD, Microsoft, IBM, etc to get their Database to work. Defining a basic Schema is full of so many tips and tricks compared to any other database. Sure, it's nice to choose the "optimum" setting for every single block of data... but wouldn't it be BETTER to simply format the hard drive the way you want it in the first place and to build the most critical functions directly into firmware? IBM stuff can do really neat things like split database writes in the disk controller and keep track of multiple copies at once on redundant systems. You just can't do that level of stuff with the tools Oracle or Microsoft has now. Microsoft's sole existence is based on separation of hardware and software... so everybody squabbles between Intel/AMD, ATI/Nvidia, Oracle/MySQL, etc... and Microsoft gets rich playing "middleman" being the only party the others can legally talk to.
There is already a company that makes a Sparc based blade for IBM BladeCenter chassis, drop it in an IBM Blade and share your SAN and have backplane-level network between the other hardware and OSes....this is what Oracle is after. Rather than keep playing games with other vendors, simply sell "Oracle" like IBM sells System i (iSeries). You would by an Oracle blade and simply connect that to your network. There's no point in loading multiple apps on hardware... it's so cheap now versus the time to make it work. Much better will be the "appliance" approach... plug and go. Weather you want a single blade for your own storage solution, or a whole rack as a HA/DR Cluster/Cloud you'll buy "Oracle" for your needs. Remember they also own lots of other enterprise apps, JDEdwards, Peoplesoft, Java, etc. this is million-dollar level installs... bickering about "hardware" if Oracle provides a solution that works (like Apple) out-of-the-box is a non-issue.
Re:Web Research right at the Store
on
The Apple Two
·
· Score: 1
I like iPad because I won't buy an iPhone until the monthly bill comes way down. I have a "stick" nokia... I can snap some low res pics, and answer or dial numbers one handed! I could use all the bluetooth toys, syncing, music, radio.... but tell the truth it's a waste of time.
My iPod touch made the perfect companion. I'd like the iPad because for what the Touch does the screen is too small. I'm usually carrying around a paper notebook or folder anyway, so the iPad is "just right". I have the Acer Netbook and it's great... but it's windows... takes a long time to boot, have to virus scan, etc. It can run "any" app & Linux too. But the screen is too small for comfortable web surfing (pages and PC apps (even windows and Linux OS screens) fall off the edges because they don't understand small screens anymore) It's slightly more volume than an iPad so carrying around one or both is about the same.
Re:The iPad is original Apple Redux
on
The Apple Two
·
· Score: 1
Because the other manufacturers aren't building from an existing platform of iPhone and iPod Touch software, and they are not tied to the bozos in IT that expect everything new to run 10 year old software all the time.
The biggest failure of tablet PCs was the failure of Microsoft to rebuild the standard office suite for the touch format. The vast majority of tablet PC apps are just nicely laid out VB programs that use the "touch" feature instead of a mouse. Compare what Apple is doing with Numbers and Pages with Word and Excel on a tablet PC. My local doctors offices tried using the touch PCs for a while. Then replaced them all with cheaper laptops.... running the same software... because clicking and typing was faster. very few Tablet PC apps address that fact and Windows OS does NOTHING to help the situation.
it's more like tamaguci + sims. Smart folks limit their time to working for a bit, then planting longer items for when they come back tomorrow.
This addresses a bigger issue though... people being on laptop and blackberries during meetings in the first place! The guy wasn't fired for playing farmville..... he was fired for playing a game during council meetings! My bosses made a point of taking pencil and paper to meetings or using the in-room projector. They also turned off their phones and held off the emails until after the meeting.... meetings get done on time 90% of the time now! Since we started this, phone users and email watchers are REALLY annoying. it's distracting as hell to have somebody on a keyboard clacking away while the boss is talking, or to hear somebody answer their phone email every 5 minutes.
This is why pencil & paper really shines. you have spare pages to scribble if you need too, and it forces the presenters to bring materials to share and take notes on. People can go back to their cubes and download the updated documents after the meeting.
The problem is not "the contract" it is that you the customer don't always know the correct doodads that you need to ask for to meet YOUR needs and not the SALESMANS... and figuring THAT out is the hard part. A contract is not "simple" when you only get a "pass/fail" option on it and can't see all the options.
I would agree software contracts aren't that complicated once they're written... it's getting a fair one in the first place... being "told" one thing and "sold" another that is the real problem.... and it always costs "just a bit more" to straighten it out...(since you are already in "violation" if you felt the need to ask for changes!)
the problem is that nobody really uses DX10 hardware effectively... mostly to do things that SHOULD have worked properly in DX9. More importantly 75% of PCs CAN NEVER use DX10 or DX11 features... they're laptops that can't be upgraded or desktops with "integrated" graphics. To replace an Xbox is $199 now. Just to upgrade to a DX11 capable card is considerably more than that. Not to mention CPU and RAM needs. A $500 PC is shit for gaming.... that's more expensive than a fully loaded PS3 with extra controllers.... and in 9 months that PC won't be "good enough" for the next big game.
If you want to pass blame, place it squarely on Intel for their non-competitive practices that split the PC market into "productivity" and "gaming" segments with a high premium on the gaming parts. It's a big joke when games that are wildly popular like Sims 2 or WoW literally have to have disclaimers on the box that "Your Mileage May Very" and the game may not be playable on your laptop with integrated graphics.... literally 50% or better of NEW Core2Duo-based PCs on the shelf at BigBox right now cannot play those "aged" games with a "console" level of quality experience. Even Apple fell into Intel's "Extreme Graphics" trap because a 700MHz iBook plays certain games like Wow better than a Core2Duo entry level Macbook.... That's seriously insulting.
PC gaming IS revived.... It's just not what traditional gamers want.... the big games are things like plants vs zombies, Dinner Dash, Farm Town.... things specifically excluded from Console (and apple) platforms. I'd venture the number of hours on Facebook or Myspace games dwarfs Xbox Live and the demographic spread is much wider.
A very good portion of those come from retail systems and EDI logistics... things that are very tightly controlled on both ends by developers, not the "wild west" format of something like Facebook.
I think the argument is much like mainframe vs. PC, MaBell vs. TCP/IP, and HTML vs. MS Word, or Akamati vs Bittorrent. You can gain super duper efficiencies if you can tightly control inputs, outputs, and growth.... and be willing to pay big bucks for it. This is a similar argument... trying to use "enterprise" tools versus distributed types of access of different types of data.
After being at several small/medium companies, the problem I see is that most older databases really don't use much more technology than MySQL offers... especially when you get into the old RPG/COBOL mainframes.
The problem I see is that "pulling forward" data is ridiculously time consuming and expensive.. and that limits growing and merging businesses. I think this argument goes back to TBL's idea of the semantic web with XML as the base. Interesting data is not in SQL databases right now. Think about stuff that's stuffed in Word or Excel documents from 1995 versus HTML pages from 1995.... which is easier to mine 15 years later. More importantly, we have to stop the need to convert everything to new formats every 3-5 years!
From a business standpoint does having orderly tables even matter? The critical documents to my business are still mostly discrete pieces of paper that represent business actions.... invoices, purchase orders, labor entries, payroll stubs, etc. If I could just keep the originals in a "digital shoebox" would all the complex relational stuff really matter? More importantly, something like rifling through a million XML pages is really easy for modern computers.... why try to keep massive "house of cards" of relations and not just work from source.... rebuild the "house of cards" as needed.
Slashdot Mirror
you do have to admit. Within the first week they had his password, and him sitting in jail and confiscated all his "hacking tools" at home. So by sitting in Jail 2 years it's guaranteed that he really DIDN'T mess ANYTHING up.
Had he given the password and walked, they'd have been calling him for months and months later leading to him being threatened to help or "go to jail" and ending up with 20 years in charges after 2 years trying to "help".
Anyway, now that the jury is done he's only got one charge. If the judge is reasonable, the guy will be out for "time served" (by sentencing it will be nearly 2 full minimum years!) and given probation for another year or two. It's not like he's a threat to the situation now having been locked away from computers for two years. There's probably a host of stuff Child's can appeal on from, evidence, circumstances of firing, to DA's behavior, etc... the key is it can't really get worse from here out.
except they pulled the POLICE in before even offering such a deal. That was the ENTIRE problem. They perp walked him out the door, then went to his house days later expecting to get the passwords. He's got enough for wrongful termination for all the crap they pulled.
Basically you could be accused of his "crime" for nailing boards over the computer room. I think at sentencing, more of the truth will come out. The judge feels the need to get some kind of "serious verdict" because of the dog-n-pony-show but it's obvious even the judge isn't really on board with the charges either. I see him getting another year or two probation and "time served" because he's been sitting in jail for just about 2 years now,. I think the judge will throw out the "damage" claims as well as the malicious intent... the guy has been sitting in jail since a week after being fired with no access to the computers since he left his job.... he was set up and NOTHING HAPPENED. So all the money spent is the CITY'S fault for not properly running the department, Child's made no THREATS to cause damage, there was no valid reason for such an extensive audit. They have had nearly 2 years to fix their problems, I can't see a judge granting anymore arguments from the DA.
Weird Al is still part of the "system" and doesn't have anything to do with Fair Use... He's on a big label and can get rights to whatever he wants. Remember MOST performers on the radio DON'T write their songs, and the "company" often owns them anyway. The company can license to whoever they want..."NOW", Kidz Bop, etc. The "performer" has nothing to say because they signed over ownership. What company executive is going to pass up easy money if Weird Al wants to riff on a song!
get the certification.... and add it to the resumes you'll be sending out!
When companies pay for certifications, usually they guarantee your employment (by expecting you to stay for a length of time). If they just want you to get it on your own time and dime.... might as well comply. Then use the cert to get a better job!!! What can they really say?
You mean like Adobe software versions for Mac OS are late, and feature poor compared to Windows versions now? In spite of the fact that OSX offers better (than windows) hardware accelerated features for graphics that work on every recent machine little shops like Pixelmator are keeping up. Adobe enjoyed a long near-monopoly of their apps being featured on Macs for decades... and in the last 5 years as Apple improves its software Adobe has consistently been the one company holding Mac users back from new OS adoption, and trying to price gouge them at every chance.
I wouldn't say Apple is "sticking up" for its customers (it's still a company after all) but Adobe Software used to be the premiere apps on Mac and the life-blood of selling them. Since the switch to Intel hardware Adobe hasn't done Apple any favors... why would Apple do them any?
which ever has the best free popcorn!
shopping meccas and office complexes are not the problem. That layout reduces crime because it's very easy to patrol empty spaces after hours. The problem is suburbs and poorly built apartment complexes. Everybody wants to live "out of sight" of the nearest neighbors, then complain about the long drive in. We have Office and Shopping well centralized, we need manufacturing and housing more centralized. Manufacturing is the big problem right now. Nearly every new factory in my area the last 20 years is built 15 minutes outside town in a corn field next to the highway. There's absolutely no possibility of anything BUT a car. Bus and Taxi refuse to go out that far, walking is flat out dangerous on two lane country roads.
The issue is do people want to spend 25%-30% of their income just to get around... think how much you pay for car insurance, tags, gas, maintenance.... that's before your choice of payment for vehicle! Changing who is responsible changes everything. On pubic transport you can read a book, phone home, check email, etc... because YOU are not operating. It's still "travel time" but YOU can use it even if it's just to take a nap. That's exactly what American's need is to be forced to slow down... buy better things less often and have time to pursue other interests.
The main stream media is not "left" by any remote measure. The guys like Murdoc sensor their editors more than you think.
More importantly, Main Stream Media became focused on "social" issues rather than real right-vs-left issues a long time ago. Discussing Gays is MORAL Conservative versus Moral liberal.... it's just a great big distraction. That's why Fox or Rush or Springer pull out crazy morality stuff... You rarely see them have "equal" parties discussing anything. Capitalism is "Donald Trump" Socialism is a drunk blonde at Marti Gras....
This gives you the illusion BBC or NPR is "liberal" because they invite guests of similar social and educational level from both sides to politely DISCUSS an issue and let the LISTENER decide... MSM has already made the choice for you... don't trust the "stupid" guy.
Bush/Cheney made it a matter of "unofficial" policy specifically KNOWING they were skirting the law, and still continued doing it until the day they left as far as we know. In this case an executive is using his "normal" tools, and mostly to communicate WITH the public but outside FOIA-approved methods. Business executives even at SOX-paranoid companies don't have as many silly document restrictions as government does. I'd chalk this one up to not fully grasping all the technicalities... and in Politics you're "wrong" on the front page until proven "right" on page 8.
and there's a simple formula to calculate the light time. Take the safe stopping distance of a LARGE vehicle to stop safely, multiply by feet per second at what traffic is measured to move (note, this about SAFETY not the arbitrary speed limit) and you get a nice stopping line about 50-75 feet back. The time at the speed limit to get from that line through the light is the safe yellow light timing. Most lights are several seconds short to begin with this is something you can walk out and measure with a stopwatch!
OF course we SHOULD be pushing to operate FEWER motor vehicles. The fact that a person today spends considerably more time from 20 years ago on the road daily should really be fixed. More mass transit is the way to go... then you have that 30-60 minute commute to read news, a book, music... all markets that are suffering because all people (in the US) is work and drive turning an "8 hour" work day into 11 or more... before they have to do home duties like run kids, etc.
The whole US needs to be slowed down a bit anyway. We're running around faster doing less. I thought the $4 gas was a great thing. People started driving less and companies started considering other options for workers like more VPN access and adjusted work schedules (4x10 instead of 5x8). This whole "work just a little longer" problem in our US business ethic was finally starting to crack a little...When people have to carpool or catch a train, they actually work to get their jobs done "on time" more consistently. Work on work time, home on home time... what a concept! then the crisis went away and it was back to normal.
No, we need somebody from the "moral majority" action group to act as Federal CIO... preventing moral foibles and preventing federal offices from looking at "bad things" is much more important than somebody that was part of setting up one of the fastest growing companies in the US right now. That would be like appointing radio engineers or broadcast owners to the FCC... instead of a lobby for "moral content". (Oh wait... that was the last guy)
Exactly, we didn't have these arguments in the Bush years because Cheney ruled the party with an Iron Fist. Republicans that spoke out were replaced... even Democrats that spoke out had their districts targeted for Republican PR during elections. Bush enjoyed a majority in both houses for 6 years... and used flag waving/soft on terrorist to constantly push a few Democrats to their side simply because they weren't going to win, and why burn the bridges.
Obama did exactly what he said he would... pushed through health care. It was mean and nasty but unlike the Clinton attempt Obama was able to flip a few Republicans to get it through. I often wonder if the Patriot act (and the massive Homeland security cabinet seat and department created) would have gotten this much scrutiny the rest of the press would be saying much worse about Bush.
You mean like Bush/Cheney advocated in their administration? It was a matter of "official" unwritten policy that much of the behind the scenes work was "off the books". The guys in the White House now are kids compared to the last administration with many non-elected "administrators" that served every republican since Nixon.
not really, the media is at least reporting on the matter... because Obama isn't putting out weekly "scripts" like the last guy was. The Bush Administration was the peak of lobby shops being officially part of the cabinet.... and if the President didn't like the department, he simply didn't appoint anybody to it... or worse somebody to "neuter" it... as a matter of policy..... the media NEVER QUESTIONED it in 8 years.
Except that any company big enough to have a CIO is thinking of "software as a service"... not some buzzword like borrowing something over the internet, but setting up the entire data center under a service level agreement. If they want Oracle... they want Oracle and don't CARE about the HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE to get it.... They want to pay for solutions not "products". My company is pushing everything to IBM at the corporate level. Our equipment will sit in IBM's data centers and the factories will just connect.
Once we do that OS, CPU, RAM, all stops mattering. Oracle sees this trend and wants appliances, like you said they will have "drop in" redundant parts because you will be paying for an SLA, not some random bits and pieces and hope your people can make it go.
This trend makes hardware and software the OEM's PROBLEM... and "owning" the stack is the only way to compete. This is how Oracle & IBM are going to make Microsoft irrelevant... There's no way Microsoft would "own" Windows at an SLA level.. guarantee uptime, performance, and fix bugs the way IBM does.. when the equipment is at THEIR facility then they can't blame the admin for power, configuration, etc.
Sure, you don't want to give up control of the equipment as an Admin, but as a CEO is your "business" tending computers and software budgets, or producing your company's products? Companies don't keep their own Auto mechanics, plumbers, electricians, or construction workers on the payroll, "just in case" they want to build something... the same thing will be happening to computing.. it's becoming a "utility". The money is in accomplishing the task needed right now.
They're proving both quotes that 'real men build hardware" and that "real software lovers build hardware" from IBM and Apple.
Both IBM and Apple design Software and Hardware to complement each other. Compare an iSeries or iPad to the typical Oracle setup where they are at the mercy of Intel, AMD, Microsoft, IBM, etc to get their Database to work. Defining a basic Schema is full of so many tips and tricks compared to any other database. Sure, it's nice to choose the "optimum" setting for every single block of data... but wouldn't it be BETTER to simply format the hard drive the way you want it in the first place and to build the most critical functions directly into firmware? IBM stuff can do really neat things like split database writes in the disk controller and keep track of multiple copies at once on redundant systems. You just can't do that level of stuff with the tools Oracle or Microsoft has now. Microsoft's sole existence is based on separation of hardware and software... so everybody squabbles between Intel/AMD, ATI/Nvidia, Oracle/MySQL, etc... and Microsoft gets rich playing "middleman" being the only party the others can legally talk to.
There is already a company that makes a Sparc based blade for IBM BladeCenter chassis, drop it in an IBM Blade and share your SAN and have backplane-level network between the other hardware and OSes....this is what Oracle is after. Rather than keep playing games with other vendors, simply sell "Oracle" like IBM sells System i (iSeries). You would by an Oracle blade and simply connect that to your network. There's no point in loading multiple apps on hardware... it's so cheap now versus the time to make it work. Much better will be the "appliance" approach... plug and go. Weather you want a single blade for your own storage solution, or a whole rack as a HA/DR Cluster/Cloud you'll buy "Oracle" for your needs. Remember they also own lots of other enterprise apps, JDEdwards, Peoplesoft, Java, etc. this is million-dollar level installs... bickering about "hardware" if Oracle provides a solution that works (like Apple) out-of-the-box is a non-issue.
I like iPad because I won't buy an iPhone until the monthly bill comes way down. I have a "stick" nokia... I can snap some low res pics, and answer or dial numbers one handed! I could use all the bluetooth toys, syncing, music, radio.... but tell the truth it's a waste of time.
My iPod touch made the perfect companion. I'd like the iPad because for what the Touch does the screen is too small. I'm usually carrying around a paper notebook or folder anyway, so the iPad is "just right". I have the Acer Netbook and it's great... but it's windows... takes a long time to boot, have to virus scan, etc. It can run "any" app & Linux too. But the screen is too small for comfortable web surfing (pages and PC apps (even windows and Linux OS screens) fall off the edges because they don't understand small screens anymore) It's slightly more volume than an iPad so carrying around one or both is about the same.
Because the other manufacturers aren't building from an existing platform of iPhone and iPod Touch software, and they are not tied to the bozos in IT that expect everything new to run 10 year old software all the time.
The biggest failure of tablet PCs was the failure of Microsoft to rebuild the standard office suite for the touch format. The vast majority of tablet PC apps are just nicely laid out VB programs that use the "touch" feature instead of a mouse. Compare what Apple is doing with Numbers and Pages with Word and Excel on a tablet PC. My local doctors offices tried using the touch PCs for a while. Then replaced them all with cheaper laptops.... running the same software... because clicking and typing was faster. very few Tablet PC apps address that fact and Windows OS does NOTHING to help the situation.
it's more like tamaguci + sims. Smart folks limit their time to working for a bit, then planting longer items for when they come back tomorrow.
This addresses a bigger issue though... people being on laptop and blackberries during meetings in the first place! The guy wasn't fired for playing farmville..... he was fired for playing a game during council meetings! My bosses made a point of taking pencil and paper to meetings or using the in-room projector. They also turned off their phones and held off the emails until after the meeting.... meetings get done on time 90% of the time now! Since we started this, phone users and email watchers are REALLY annoying. it's distracting as hell to have somebody on a keyboard clacking away while the boss is talking, or to hear somebody answer their phone email every 5 minutes.
This is why pencil & paper really shines. you have spare pages to scribble if you need too, and it forces the presenters to bring materials to share and take notes on. People can go back to their cubes and download the updated documents after the meeting.
The problem is not "the contract" it is that you the customer don't always know the correct doodads that you need to ask for to meet YOUR needs and not the SALESMANS... and figuring THAT out is the hard part. A contract is not "simple" when you only get a "pass/fail" option on it and can't see all the options.
I would agree software contracts aren't that complicated once they're written... it's getting a fair one in the first place... being "told" one thing and "sold" another that is the real problem.... and it always costs "just a bit more" to straighten it out...(since you are already in "violation" if you felt the need to ask for changes!)
the problem is that nobody really uses DX10 hardware effectively... mostly to do things that SHOULD have worked properly in DX9. More importantly 75% of PCs CAN NEVER use DX10 or DX11 features... they're laptops that can't be upgraded or desktops with "integrated" graphics. To replace an Xbox is $199 now. Just to upgrade to a DX11 capable card is considerably more than that. Not to mention CPU and RAM needs. A $500 PC is shit for gaming.... that's more expensive than a fully loaded PS3 with extra controllers.... and in 9 months that PC won't be "good enough" for the next big game.
If you want to pass blame, place it squarely on Intel for their non-competitive practices that split the PC market into "productivity" and "gaming" segments with a high premium on the gaming parts. It's a big joke when games that are wildly popular like Sims 2 or WoW literally have to have disclaimers on the box that "Your Mileage May Very" and the game may not be playable on your laptop with integrated graphics.... literally 50% or better of NEW Core2Duo-based PCs on the shelf at BigBox right now cannot play those "aged" games with a "console" level of quality experience. Even Apple fell into Intel's "Extreme Graphics" trap because a 700MHz iBook plays certain games like Wow better than a Core2Duo entry level Macbook.... That's seriously insulting.
PC gaming IS revived.... It's just not what traditional gamers want.... the big games are things like plants vs zombies, Dinner Dash, Farm Town.... things specifically excluded from Console (and apple) platforms. I'd venture the number of hours on Facebook or Myspace games dwarfs Xbox Live and the demographic spread is much wider.
A very good portion of those come from retail systems and EDI logistics... things that are very tightly controlled on both ends by developers, not the "wild west" format of something like Facebook.
I think the argument is much like mainframe vs. PC, MaBell vs. TCP/IP, and HTML vs. MS Word, or Akamati vs Bittorrent. You can gain super duper efficiencies if you can tightly control inputs, outputs, and growth.... and be willing to pay big bucks for it. This is a similar argument... trying to use "enterprise" tools versus distributed types of access of different types of data.
After being at several small/medium companies, the problem I see is that most older databases really don't use much more technology than MySQL offers... especially when you get into the old RPG/COBOL mainframes.
The problem I see is that "pulling forward" data is ridiculously time consuming and expensive.. and that limits growing and merging businesses. I think this argument goes back to TBL's idea of the semantic web with XML as the base. Interesting data is not in SQL databases right now. Think about stuff that's stuffed in Word or Excel documents from 1995 versus HTML pages from 1995.... which is easier to mine 15 years later. More importantly, we have to stop the need to convert everything to new formats every 3-5 years!
From a business standpoint does having orderly tables even matter? The critical documents to my business are still mostly discrete pieces of paper that represent business actions.... invoices, purchase orders, labor entries, payroll stubs, etc. If I could just keep the originals in a "digital shoebox" would all the complex relational stuff really matter? More importantly, something like rifling through a million XML pages is really easy for modern computers.... why try to keep massive "house of cards" of relations and not just work from source.... rebuild the "house of cards" as needed.