of course the WHOLE PC market is down 20-30% since last year. Apple is suffering LESS than guys like Dell and HP, let alone all the companies in the "other" category. And Apple sells the most expensive SKUs with the highest profit margin.
How many $2000 computers is Apple selling? How many is Dell selling? What the margin on those $399 specials Dell has? What about all the margin Microsoft has lost selling XP on netbooks?
Apple needs to correct their pricing, but not as much as people think. People buy Macs to buy into "Apple". Macs are perceived as something worth "saving" for and they hold their resale value better should you need to ebay it.
Microsoft's whole argument falls apart for one reason.. they don't sell hardware, the argument falls apart for Dell and HP because they don't write their own Operating Systems and PC software. Only Apple does BOTH things, so as a company and as a product it's not the same as M$ + OEM. After some of the netbook issues one would argue Wintel OEMS have almost no experience making software other than getting MS Windows just barely running with drivers supplied by chip makers. There's no differentiation between OEMS anymore because people want "Microsoft" computers, I'd argue that the PC market is a "race to the bottom" is not exactly what Microsoft should be selling on TV!
and software patents with out code are not INVENTIONS they are algorithms... they are math. Which is NOT PATENTABLE. You write a book, and get protection for 150 years.
The purpose of patents is to divulge the discovery.. the WHOLE discovery. Software patents don't do that as implemented. It's double-protecting something.
on the other hand "Anonymous Coward" is a pretty prolific poster and says some scary shit! I'm sure law enforcement has freaked-the-hell-out when a group with the same name appeared on the street protesting. Ack! AC is leaving the tubes... AC is everywhere!!!!
but at a certain point the tax man isn't going to care what a TOS says if real people are exchanging real dollars for in-game goods.
I think gold was a design cop-out anyway. They weren't clever enough to think of a non-money way of to build an economy in the game with things people want. I found the crafting and trades to be not-that-great because the items aren't really useful in the game compared with what you buy. The game should have a tangible limit of monsters and goods... gold should be an item that takes spaces in your pack... and monsters should take the gold away from you! Only things like mining should create NEW gold, and only so much would be available per player. It's a drastic change to the style of play, but they could nix much of the outside trading if they tweaked the economy a bit.
The issue with Free Software is that companies don't like paying for SUPPORT and updates that somebody else might get too. They have no problem paying for a "product" when everybody + dog buys the same thing (creating little licensing kings), and they have less problem with software "assurance" or "maintenance" to keep up-to-date with patches. But for some reason raw SUPPORT for something free like Ubuntu companies just won't do.
Of course many businesses skip upgrades all the time because they are disruptive to business processes, that didn't exist when the original software was written. IBM makes a killing on their AS400/iSeries/i5 for this very reason. Of course companies pay big money to update out-of-support iSeries software... and they pay license fees too! I think that enterprise software at that level has "always" come with the code, or at least a consultant who can get the code. The issue is convincing them that Free Software is just like what they have now...without the periodic hold-up for license fees.
Ultimately, most companies do not have software upgrade or life-cycle plans in place at all. That makes every new Windows update a painful lesson, and they never collect data, or make plans to learn from those lessons. Departments aren't taught to manage their own software requests and training. Users aren't expected to contribute to software and actively resist changes to even small things until "IT" forces it on everybody. Microsoft's let this go for 7 years, it's what people are "paying" for.
the problem is that paying for things in an MMORPG is a legal mess right now. Right now the rules are strict.. your character and items are just "score points" as far as Blizzard and the lawyers are concerned, they have no "value" beyond your fun. Once they start taking real money for Gold it becomes "property" and the things you buy become "property" as well. Second Life has problems with these suits and the courts are pretty fickle right now as the case law is constantly shifting.
After the property rights issues then they would have to deal with gambling, and taxes, not to mention reporting stolen accounts to law enforcement... see how this gets nasty.
the point of auctions is that stuff is worth different play value to different people playing the game. Somebody new can have a bag full of something valuable, but are too low in the game to use it, or it may be more beneficial to sell at a loss to get the one thing they need to continue right now.
The difference between auctions and gold farming is that in auctions people are selling what they played for. Sure other people are "gaming the market" but they are 1)spending their TIME doing that and 2)providing value carrying the objects between auction houses finding people willing to pay. A gold farmer isn't advancing the game play, in fact causing gold inflation for all the newbies and making it take longer to get needed items, making the game less fun.
because the small things still have gravitational force between them. Which at the point is exactly zero. So as long as the small objects don't move around much THEIR center of gravity stays on the point and they'd orbit it.
now that dissenting ANY church publicly is a "hate crime" organizing protests makes you "terrorists".
the biggest problem with Anonymous is that they organize "flash mobs" quite effectively... and effectively organizing large numbers of people in secret scares the HELL out of law enforcement, especially in places where they can effectively control protesters and political speech. what's really funny is that the biggest law broken by Anonymous is "protesting with out a permit" the violence and death threats have all come from the other sides (CoS,police, etc) yet it's "their" fault for protesting and brining up trouble.
That's my problem with software patents also. I look at software like cookbooks, many people might have their own take on Apple pie.. but we have trademarks and copyright for that. Patents are for inventions... the big problem in case law is that the court assumes you can "choose" not to infringe because one of the key functions of patent is full disclosure. But software patents allow the company to only "describe" the process but not show the code. So the net effect is exactly like patenting "hammering devices" because the courts can't see inside the box to test patents because of copyright and trade secret that includes software.
unfortunately, you're at the mercy of whatever low-paid operator they have looking at those.
Other posters are correct though, the DMCA is too broad by miles, but Google couldn't run YouTube without the compliance laws. As long as Google continues to take down THEY stay out of court.
I think Google might be planning a coup soon though. Remember things like ContentID are designed for studios to police there own works because Google wasn't doing "enough". Google's making it dead easy to identify copyrighted works, but on the other hand they're setting the content publishers up to take a big fall. They say 37% of the DMCA notices are inappropriate or incorrect... the CONTENT OWNER is expected to know fair use rules too. Once Google can demonstrate a clear pattern that publishers aren't respecting fair uses they can take that mountain of data to court with them... with all those companies names on it and put some feet to the fire to get the laws changed.
There was more than that, like the racist remarks, but the clincher for the jury (and media) was that damning evidence was stated on the record as discovered in two different places on two different days by different detectives. I was being generous in that at LEAST they were trigger happy and sloppy in their collection. At worst they were racist, evidence-planting and trying to get an easy "black man done it" conviction.
Personally, I think they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. They had real evidence, but they didn't do their job in collecting and documenting it and tried to lie/make up the missing data points when the defense started poking holes. The racist comments added a "malice" factor to the incompetence and the jury had no choice but to cut him loose.
election doesn't matter, that's just a career choice. Lots of innocent people get accused of crimes and go thru the whole process, losing their profession and contacts, public standing, house, spouse, children and end up bankrupt and suicidal even though they got found clearly not guilty, and maybe even the prosecution gets a nasty letter on their "permanent record" and sometimes even have to say "sorry". The state doesn't typically worry about fixing those things for anybody else.. it's just a "cost of exercising your rights".
For middle class folk, the public accusation and costs of going to court ARE the punishment... look how the *AA handle things.
this is one of my big problems with the system. The investigation of the prosecutors should be done as part of the same case, not a new case. The case shouldn't be "closed" until all avenues of investigation are completed. This was discovered in court proceedings so it should stay "in play" until the judge makes a sentencing or dismissal ruling... the idea that the prosecutor can decide to pursue or not pursue the case against lawyers is wrong. The case is in court, all the same evidence submitted against the suspect is now turned on the bad lawyers.
This change would allow judges to sentence BOTH parties breaking the law to jail. Particularly in the OJ case, he probably did do it, rather than let him off they should have locked up the detectives for making the case harder but not necessarily thrown out the whole case. Just keep throwing people from BOTH sides in jail until the matter is settled to the judges satisfaction.
multiple detectives were forced to "plead the fifth" because evidence was not found EXACTLY where or when their testimony said it was could not back that up with paperwork because department collection and preservation policies weren't followed to the letter, yet that was not disclosed by the prosecutors.
At a minimum they screwed up and tried to cover for it in court. They didn't follow the rules, dot the i's and cross the t's and somebody got away with it... or it could be worse.. we just can't know, because they tried to lie about following the little rules.
but that's why PLAYERS pay for LIVE Gold status at $$ per month. Supposedly, all the game servers run on Microsoft's farm and player fees keep up the farm, so companies only have to develop.. it's very Apple-like.
The real reason is to curb the used market. This way every body who buys a used copy still pays their $5 to play online and your $5 is tied to your account, so you can't "get rid" of it.
why would anybody invite him to any more movie previews if he can't wait his turn? How would movie directors feel if they offered to let him put up an early review but found out he already viewed a pirate copy and based his opinion on unreleased work?
He's not somebody of the "unwashed masses" he puts food on his table from his copyrights. He makes his living as a reporter selling his work under copyright laws AND he happens to draw a paycheck from the very same company being wronged yet had no problem seeking out the "forbidden fruit" himself because "it didn't hurt anybody".
I'd also add that he is a MOVIE REVIEWER! He gets PAID to get special early releases, screeners, and premiere invitations by the movie companies. Hawking their products is his job. Yet he couldn't wait for them to offer up an official answer or maybe scam an official sneak peak. He went behind the industry's back and pirated content... how many reviews have been tainted by previous un-released movies he's seen online first? His JOB is to review the work when the artist presents it to the public, but often he gets to see it first!! It's a serious breach of ethics for him to be going behind their backs. He should never be invited to another pre-release ever again... essentially his career should be over.
I think the current *AA suits are ridiculous but THIS is not. He's an insider, somebody who should know and respect how much work they do to make movies. He makes his living reviewing movies and gets a good deal of special perks because the movie companies want him to like their movies. IF people stop seeing movies, they stop making movies... he can't REVIEW movies.
HE is a symptom of the piracy problem! These leaks are from insiders, people that are contracted, and paid big bucks, and trusted with media to do their jobs. It's the gaffers and union tradesmen and second line editors...but THEY are not taking it seriously because THEY get paid by the Union if the movie does good or not. They lend the movies to friends, or leave other people's property where the illegal immigrant housekeeper can steal it.
This guy isn't innocent, he should know way better than to behave this way. He should be a news item on every station. Publish all the movies and music he's downloaded, find and sue the seeders he got them from and put their faces on TV too. Stop harassing moms and grandmas and little girls and clean some house!
He needs to be punished harshly, he's not some random welfare mom, or grandma letting her teenager use the internet. He's an EMPLOYEE of FOX and needs to be taken to the cleaners. There are leaks because the MOVIE companies won't buckle down and eat their OWN EMPLOYEES. This is somebody that should be made an example of in the harshest way possible. His house needs to be raided, IP logs pulled and used by the FBI to find out where he downloaded each and every movie...cause you know he's got more... and then they need to publicly go after every person on his sharing list.
He's an employee of a "media" company.. how would he feel if his articles were ripped off? I'd bet he'd want himself fired too. (except this time) Even the online rags that brag about how much content they pirate weren't stupid enough to touch this movie with a 10 foot pole... not even admitting to DOWNLOADING it publicly for fear of the Hammer. EVERYBODY knew not to touch this movie... the HAMMER should come down very, very hard simply because even the pirates knew better than to brag about this one! The result is expected... and it's a symptom of the whole problem.. that hollywood doesn't really take piracy seriously when they give out screeners to their housekeepers, babysitters, etc. and they inevitably end up on the internet but the studios do nothing.
Besides, he's worthless as an employee now anyway. Nobody in the movie business should be sending him ANY movies to review, or inviting him to ANY pre-screenings for lack of professional ethics. If he can't go to movies, then he can't review them and he's not useful anymore!
It doesn't have to be "illegal" to get fired, just against company policy. I'm pretty sure downloading movies from anyplace except Hulu (so they can feed the aliens) is against company policy.
we run 3 plants (in two states) from one iSeries. It's phone-home ability is super slick. I've come in to the CE on the phone at 8 am monday on the way to replace a failed RAID disk. The upgrade process is super-slick usually involving just one backup tape to move entire systems.
The support contract is great, the iSeries people really know their stuff. But it don't come cheap... it's very expensive compared to the cost of the hardware and software.
That said, I think IBM - SUN would have been really cool. We've upgraded to the POWER 6 Blades and they're pretty slick for running iSeries OS. It would have been neat to have a Sparc blade added to the Power, Intel, and AMD options to mix in our blade center.
Exactly, these windmills will be far apart and designed to withstand hurricanes and swells in the deep ocean. It would take a lot of work and sizable force to disable a significant number without being noticed.
this isn't even close because it has nothing to do with CRIMINAL charges. This is just a purchasing directive... states pass them all the time when some manager wants a "standard" PC build. This is just denying upgrades, not denying buying more XP licenses even.
but how much MORE effective would you be if you could talk to real people like you talk to slashdotters? How much more could you contribute if you could function in "management" type discussions... that we all avoid to live in mom's basement.
Slashdot Mirror
of course the WHOLE PC market is down 20-30% since last year. Apple is suffering LESS than guys like Dell and HP, let alone all the companies in the "other" category. And Apple sells the most expensive SKUs with the highest profit margin.
How many $2000 computers is Apple selling? How many is Dell selling? What the margin on those $399 specials Dell has? What about all the margin Microsoft has lost selling XP on netbooks?
Apple needs to correct their pricing, but not as much as people think. People buy Macs to buy into "Apple". Macs are perceived as something worth "saving" for and they hold their resale value better should you need to ebay it.
Microsoft's whole argument falls apart for one reason.. they don't sell hardware, the argument falls apart for Dell and HP because they don't write their own Operating Systems and PC software. Only Apple does BOTH things, so as a company and as a product it's not the same as M$ + OEM. After some of the netbook issues one would argue Wintel OEMS have almost no experience making software other than getting MS Windows just barely running with drivers supplied by chip makers. There's no differentiation between OEMS anymore because people want "Microsoft" computers, I'd argue that the PC market is a "race to the bottom" is not exactly what Microsoft should be selling on TV!
and software patents with out code are not INVENTIONS they are algorithms... they are math. Which is NOT PATENTABLE. You write a book, and get protection for 150 years.
The purpose of patents is to divulge the discovery.. the WHOLE discovery. Software patents don't do that as implemented. It's double-protecting something.
on the other hand "Anonymous Coward" is a pretty prolific poster and says some scary shit! I'm sure law enforcement has freaked-the-hell-out when a group with the same name appeared on the street protesting. Ack! AC is leaving the tubes... AC is everywhere!!!!
but at a certain point the tax man isn't going to care what a TOS says if real people are exchanging real dollars for in-game goods.
I think gold was a design cop-out anyway. They weren't clever enough to think of a non-money way of to build an economy in the game with things people want. I found the crafting and trades to be not-that-great because the items aren't really useful in the game compared with what you buy. The game should have a tangible limit of monsters and goods... gold should be an item that takes spaces in your pack... and monsters should take the gold away from you! Only things like mining should create NEW gold, and only so much would be available per player. It's a drastic change to the style of play, but they could nix much of the outside trading if they tweaked the economy a bit.
The issue with Free Software is that companies don't like paying for SUPPORT and updates that somebody else might get too. They have no problem paying for a "product" when everybody + dog buys the same thing (creating little licensing kings), and they have less problem with software "assurance" or "maintenance" to keep up-to-date with patches. But for some reason raw SUPPORT for something free like Ubuntu companies just won't do.
Of course many businesses skip upgrades all the time because they are disruptive to business processes, that didn't exist when the original software was written. IBM makes a killing on their AS400/iSeries/i5 for this very reason. Of course companies pay big money to update out-of-support iSeries software ... and they pay license fees too! I think that enterprise software at that level has "always" come with the code, or at least a consultant who can get the code. The issue is convincing them that Free Software is just like what they have now...without the periodic hold-up for license fees.
Ultimately, most companies do not have software upgrade or life-cycle plans in place at all. That makes every new Windows update a painful lesson, and they never collect data, or make plans to learn from those lessons. Departments aren't taught to manage their own software requests and training. Users aren't expected to contribute to software and actively resist changes to even small things until "IT" forces it on everybody. Microsoft's let this go for 7 years, it's what people are "paying" for.
the problem is that paying for things in an MMORPG is a legal mess right now. Right now the rules are strict.. your character and items are just "score points" as far as Blizzard and the lawyers are concerned, they have no "value" beyond your fun. Once they start taking real money for Gold it becomes "property" and the things you buy become "property" as well. Second Life has problems with these suits and the courts are pretty fickle right now as the case law is constantly shifting.
After the property rights issues then they would have to deal with gambling, and taxes, not to mention reporting stolen accounts to law enforcement... see how this gets nasty.
the point of auctions is that stuff is worth different play value to different people playing the game. Somebody new can have a bag full of something valuable, but are too low in the game to use it, or it may be more beneficial to sell at a loss to get the one thing they need to continue right now.
The difference between auctions and gold farming is that in auctions people are selling what they played for. Sure other people are "gaming the market" but they are 1)spending their TIME doing that and 2)providing value carrying the objects between auction houses finding people willing to pay. A gold farmer isn't advancing the game play, in fact causing gold inflation for all the newbies and making it take longer to get needed items, making the game less fun.
it's OK, we have a backup.
because the small things still have gravitational force between them. Which at the point is exactly zero. So as long as the small objects don't move around much THEIR center of gravity stays on the point and they'd orbit it.
Church of Scientology?
now that dissenting ANY church publicly is a "hate crime" organizing protests makes you "terrorists".
the biggest problem with Anonymous is that they organize "flash mobs" quite effectively ... and effectively organizing large numbers of people in secret scares the HELL out of law enforcement, especially in places where they can effectively control protesters and political speech. what's really funny is that the biggest law broken by Anonymous is "protesting with out a permit" the violence and death threats have all come from the other sides (CoS,police, etc) yet it's "their" fault for protesting and brining up trouble.
That's my problem with software patents also. I look at software like cookbooks, many people might have their own take on Apple pie.. but we have trademarks and copyright for that. Patents are for inventions... the big problem in case law is that the court assumes you can "choose" not to infringe because one of the key functions of patent is full disclosure. But software patents allow the company to only "describe" the process but not show the code. So the net effect is exactly like patenting "hammering devices" because the courts can't see inside the box to test patents because of copyright and trade secret that includes software.
unfortunately, you're at the mercy of whatever low-paid operator they have looking at those.
Other posters are correct though, the DMCA is too broad by miles, but Google couldn't run YouTube without the compliance laws. As long as Google continues to take down THEY stay out of court.
I think Google might be planning a coup soon though. Remember things like ContentID are designed for studios to police there own works because Google wasn't doing "enough". Google's making it dead easy to identify copyrighted works, but on the other hand they're setting the content publishers up to take a big fall. They say 37% of the DMCA notices are inappropriate or incorrect... the CONTENT OWNER is expected to know fair use rules too. Once Google can demonstrate a clear pattern that publishers aren't respecting fair uses they can take that mountain of data to court with them... with all those companies names on it and put some feet to the fire to get the laws changed.
There was more than that, like the racist remarks, but the clincher for the jury (and media) was that damning evidence was stated on the record as discovered in two different places on two different days by different detectives. I was being generous in that at LEAST they were trigger happy and sloppy in their collection. At worst they were racist, evidence-planting and trying to get an easy "black man done it" conviction.
Personally, I think they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. They had real evidence, but they didn't do their job in collecting and documenting it and tried to lie/make up the missing data points when the defense started poking holes. The racist comments added a "malice" factor to the incompetence and the jury had no choice but to cut him loose.
election doesn't matter, that's just a career choice. Lots of innocent people get accused of crimes and go thru the whole process, losing their profession and contacts, public standing, house, spouse, children and end up bankrupt and suicidal even though they got found clearly not guilty, and maybe even the prosecution gets a nasty letter on their "permanent record" and sometimes even have to say "sorry". The state doesn't typically worry about fixing those things for anybody else.. it's just a "cost of exercising your rights".
For middle class folk, the public accusation and costs of going to court ARE the punishment... look how the *AA handle things.
this is one of my big problems with the system. The investigation of the prosecutors should be done as part of the same case, not a new case. The case shouldn't be "closed" until all avenues of investigation are completed. This was discovered in court proceedings so it should stay "in play" until the judge makes a sentencing or dismissal ruling... the idea that the prosecutor can decide to pursue or not pursue the case against lawyers is wrong. The case is in court, all the same evidence submitted against the suspect is now turned on the bad lawyers.
This change would allow judges to sentence BOTH parties breaking the law to jail. Particularly in the OJ case, he probably did do it, rather than let him off they should have locked up the detectives for making the case harder but not necessarily thrown out the whole case. Just keep throwing people from BOTH sides in jail until the matter is settled to the judges satisfaction.
multiple detectives were forced to "plead the fifth" because evidence was not found EXACTLY where or when their testimony said it was could not back that up with paperwork because department collection and preservation policies weren't followed to the letter, yet that was not disclosed by the prosecutors.
At a minimum they screwed up and tried to cover for it in court. They didn't follow the rules, dot the i's and cross the t's and somebody got away with it... or it could be worse.. we just can't know, because they tried to lie about following the little rules.
but that's why PLAYERS pay for LIVE Gold status at $$ per month. Supposedly, all the game servers run on Microsoft's farm and player fees keep up the farm, so companies only have to develop.. it's very Apple-like.
The real reason is to curb the used market. This way every body who buys a used copy still pays their $5 to play online and your $5 is tied to your account, so you can't "get rid" of it.
why would anybody invite him to any more movie previews if he can't wait his turn? How would movie directors feel if they offered to let him put up an early review but found out he already viewed a pirate copy and based his opinion on unreleased work?
He's not somebody of the "unwashed masses" he puts food on his table from his copyrights. He makes his living as a reporter selling his work under copyright laws AND he happens to draw a paycheck from the very same company being wronged yet had no problem seeking out the "forbidden fruit" himself because "it didn't hurt anybody".
I'd also add that he is a MOVIE REVIEWER! He gets PAID to get special early releases, screeners, and premiere invitations by the movie companies. Hawking their products is his job. Yet he couldn't wait for them to offer up an official answer or maybe scam an official sneak peak. He went behind the industry's back and pirated content... how many reviews have been tainted by previous un-released movies he's seen online first? His JOB is to review the work when the artist presents it to the public, but often he gets to see it first!! It's a serious breach of ethics for him to be going behind their backs. He should never be invited to another pre-release ever again ... essentially his career should be over.
I think the current *AA suits are ridiculous but THIS is not. He's an insider, somebody who should know and respect how much work they do to make movies. He makes his living reviewing movies and gets a good deal of special perks because the movie companies want him to like their movies. IF people stop seeing movies, they stop making movies... he can't REVIEW movies.
HE is a symptom of the piracy problem! These leaks are from insiders, people that are contracted, and paid big bucks, and trusted with media to do their jobs. It's the gaffers and union tradesmen and second line editors...but THEY are not taking it seriously because THEY get paid by the Union if the movie does good or not. They lend the movies to friends, or leave other people's property where the illegal immigrant housekeeper can steal it.
This guy isn't innocent, he should know way better than to behave this way. He should be a news item on every station. Publish all the movies and music he's downloaded, find and sue the seeders he got them from and put their faces on TV too. Stop harassing moms and grandmas and little girls and clean some house!
He needs to be punished harshly, he's not some random welfare mom, or grandma letting her teenager use the internet. He's an EMPLOYEE of FOX and needs to be taken to the cleaners. There are leaks because the MOVIE companies won't buckle down and eat their OWN EMPLOYEES. This is somebody that should be made an example of in the harshest way possible. His house needs to be raided, IP logs pulled and used by the FBI to find out where he downloaded each and every movie...cause you know he's got more... and then they need to publicly go after every person on his sharing list.
He's an employee of a "media" company.. how would he feel if his articles were ripped off? I'd bet he'd want himself fired too. (except this time) Even the online rags that brag about how much content they pirate weren't stupid enough to touch this movie with a 10 foot pole... not even admitting to DOWNLOADING it publicly for fear of the Hammer. EVERYBODY knew not to touch this movie... the HAMMER should come down very, very hard simply because even the pirates knew better than to brag about this one! The result is expected... and it's a symptom of the whole problem.. that hollywood doesn't really take piracy seriously when they give out screeners to their housekeepers, babysitters, etc. and they inevitably end up on the internet but the studios do nothing.
Besides, he's worthless as an employee now anyway. Nobody in the movie business should be sending him ANY movies to review, or inviting him to ANY pre-screenings for lack of professional ethics. If he can't go to movies, then he can't review them and he's not useful anymore!
It doesn't have to be "illegal" to get fired, just against company policy. I'm pretty sure downloading movies from anyplace except Hulu (so they can feed the aliens) is against company policy.
we run 3 plants (in two states) from one iSeries. It's phone-home ability is super slick. I've come in to the CE on the phone at 8 am monday on the way to replace a failed RAID disk. The upgrade process is super-slick usually involving just one backup tape to move entire systems.
The support contract is great, the iSeries people really know their stuff. But it don't come cheap... it's very expensive compared to the cost of the hardware and software.
That said, I think IBM - SUN would have been really cool. We've upgraded to the POWER 6 Blades and they're pretty slick for running iSeries OS. It would have been neat to have a Sparc blade added to the Power, Intel, and AMD options to mix in our blade center.
Exactly, these windmills will be far apart and designed to withstand hurricanes and swells in the deep ocean. It would take a lot of work and sizable force to disable a significant number without being noticed.
this isn't even close because it has nothing to do with CRIMINAL charges. This is just a purchasing directive... states pass them all the time when some manager wants a "standard" PC build. This is just denying upgrades, not denying buying more XP licenses even.
but how much MORE effective would you be if you could talk to real people like you talk to slashdotters? How much more could you contribute if you could function in "management" type discussions... that we all avoid to live in mom's basement.