I think the current boom is in the iPod Addon market. I can't go into a store these days without finding something that I can plug my iPod into e.g. (Radio Transmitter, Boom Box, Alarm Clock, Tennis Shoe, Pants, Remote control armband, bookbag).
The growth area is in the Pimp-My-IPOD arena and also in software to replace iTunes like Anapod or MediaMonkey.
As humans brains develop, they go through many developmental phases along the way. Piaget came up with a developmental stage theory. The most important thing to remember is that primary kids are in the "Concrete Operational Stage" and can do well with concrete ideas like numbers, colors, linear procedures, and facts. However, kids at this age (especially boys, who typically develop slower than girls) can not handle abstract concepts. An abstract concept would be something like the equation 'X + Y = 4' or 'if x+5 > y+10 then'. As long as your programming languages don't get too abstract the kids should be able to process it fine. I find that HTML doesn't really process in kids minds until 7th or 8th grade.
Also, you have to apply the 80/20 rule. We are all different and our brains develop differently. But Piaget's theory applies to 80% of kids. I like to use the Lego Mindstorms Robots. The robotics invention system supports big blocks e.g "Turn Left" or small blocks e.g. "Turn on Motor A, Turn off Motor B, Wait 5 Secs, Turn on Motor B". The Legos give kids the change to try to work with abstract problems, but they can drop back to the concrete stage very easily by using the cause and effect process.
I believe that someone mentioned Logo. That is a great 'cause and effect' type of programming language in which kids can create a small abstract program and then see concrete results. Allowing the young brains to move back and forth easily between concrete and abstract is the key to teaching programming at this age.
Speaking of exciting vs. boring.. I find FC5 on my wireless laptop to be incredibly exciting. I can develop, develop, develop using LAMP all on one machine while listening to my tunes. I would guess that the average user would find development BORING.
However, to impress my friends I was wondering if GNOME had a fisheye application menu like OSX. I realize it is just eye candy, but it's cool! Also, for those of you wishing to add to the anemic Redhat FC5 distro, Stanton has a great guide. Next release, someone should script adding all the plugins and media players:)
I agree... plus the Home Depot self-checkout isn't intuitive, it has slots all over the place, it doesn't scan ROUND items like copper fittings, and it's SLOW because of the voice synth that reads each price. It is a pile o'crap.
However, I have found that you can take your pile-o-stuff to the lady that monitors the self checkouts and she will scan everything for you with the wireless scanner just like a real checkout. That works great and is much less frustrating.
This is interesting from the standpoint that Xen is a hypervisor. So what does exactly does "between Xen(TM)-enabled Linux and the new Microsoft® Windows® hypervisor technology-based Windows Server® virtualization". Does this mean that the Xen hypervisor will boot a MS hypervisor or am I missing something? Shouldn't MS strive to make Longhorn a proper Xen-aware guest O/S? Maybe this is just marketing speak, but it doesn't sound correct.
Are there any OSS virtualization software suites in development right now (besides Wine)?
WINE is not virtualization software. WINE is more of a hack that maps API calls. If you are looking for OSS virtualization software, check out XEN aka The XEN Hypervisor. It works great. Xen is the reason that VMWARE and Virtual PC are now free. Xen smokes both VMWARE and Virtual PC in terms of performance.
Once again an elegant technological solution has emerged. Unfortunately a device that is encumbered with the licensing of both DRMs (Bluray/HD-DVD) would be cost prohibitive to the consumer. Anyone have an idea on how much it would cost a manufacturer to license both Bluray and HD-DVD, assuming this was politically possible, which it probably isn't.
In other news, Dell has customer support!?! Wow, I had no idea. Where do I get the number for this customer support, instead of the number for the prescripted question answer line?
I think a story title, "Planning the future of Piracy at Microsoft" would be far more interesting. Don't we all want to know how many illegal MP3's Ballmer has on his IPOD.
MS purposely sabotaged VIA chipset support by not including drivers in the O/S or in hardware updates. How is it that MS can include drivers for all the junk hardware that HPaq, Dell and Gateway pump out but not put in drivers for VIA chipsets?
I believe that MS simply wants to discourage enthusiasts from building their own home PCs with parts of Newegg. Everybody's junk should be treated equally.
Big surprise... The ISPs encouraged the unwashed masses to upgrade from dialup to DSL/Broadband. Next the unwashed masses were encouraged to upgrade their old spyware laden PCs to new shiny PCs.
Now the simple masses want to use what they paid for and the ISPs are panicing because they have way oversold their bandwidth. Maybe the ISPs should have considered that before they sold my dad a 5MB/s connection and encouraged him to go watch videos.
As a ex-SysAdmin/DBA I know that users will eventually consume all CPU, disk space, and network bandwidth. I think the ISPs need to quit whining and UPGRADE! This is what the rest of us do.
Citizens, there is no need for panic. Microsoft is about to unveil the most secure O/S that mankind has ever known. No longer will script kiddes or nefarious software authors be able to take over your grandma's computer. This priveledge will be reserved exclusively by the NSA, however that is another story.
Good citiens, upgrade as soon as Vista with TPM (Trusted Computing), and DRM (Digital Restrictions) are available and the only thing left to do will be to destroy your old computer so it will never trouble anyone again. If we can get rid of passwords and rely exclusively on biometrics for user authentication the world will be even safer. Come on MS, hurry up and get Vista shipped so you can save mankind from these techno criminals!
These has been a common tactic for years. I have trained all my higher-ups to ignore any offers to review licenses. Companies will call the higherups and tell them they can potentially save money by reviewing their licenses and getting into a new type of license program. Vendors are constantly switching license schemes e.g. network connections, to MIPS, to number of processors, to number of dual core processors, to number of instances.
Database vendors like Oracle also like to come in and do reviews/audits so they can help you save money and (sic) purchase the optimal license agreement. In reality, you already have the best license deal and the vendor wants to kill it and replace it with one that costs more.
We learned long ago that these sales weenies are just fishing for anyone who will talk to them. If you ignore them, they will go bug someone naive enough to talk with them. They have no legal authority and are, dare I say sharks, trying to rewrite your license agreement to get you to fork over more cash.
Stay legal on all your licensing and simply factor licenses into the purchase price of every machine. If you know that you purchase licenses with every machine and keep your license count current for upgrades and maintenance, the matter will take care of itself.
Note, young inexperienced managers will fall for the "cost savings" sales pitch quite often since they want to be perceived as doing something for the business. If they are foolish enough to start licensing conversations, make sure that you explain how much time and cost the audit process with take. Ask who is going to pay for the labor to install auditing software. Explain that vendors are not allowed access to servers and PCs. Ask them who is going to assume the security risk for any audit software and who will take responsibility if it causes problems in your production environment. After all, I am sure that all audit software is bulletproof and well written. Itemize all the costs and risks then make sure your manager's manager and/or customer see this risk/cost assessment.
My advice: Just ignore them and they will go away AND put your grumpiest and savviest technical manager in charge of any license renewals.
I am more interested in "quantum entanglement" which Einstein referred to as "Spooky Action at a Distance." Assuming one could entangle particles, then manipulate and observe them, one could be theoretically build the ultimate secure communications device. Additionally, this device might possibly work at superluminal speeds. Imagine controlling a space probe on Mars without the 7 minute delay. Who knows what is possible, sub-space communication anyone?:)
As for your "Consider the world" argument. In my brief life, I have observed the world doing quite a few things which do not make sense. If I had to normalize my beliefs and observations with my perceptions of the world with the assumption that the world was always right, I would be in serious trouble.
Additionally, I have studied quantum physics and can even do the math required to derive the Schrodinger wave equations, however I think our theory on how the quantum world operates is flawed. Mankind may learn more (if the ages continue to roll on) and future physicists will look back and laugh at what we believed, just as we look back and laugh at those who believed that space was filled with "ether", that the world was flat, and that there was such a concept as absolute position and velocity in space and time. Relativitely is another concept with hurts my brain, but it appears to be true.
If you have some time, expand upon your "Consider the world..." argument.
First-generation products will be for very secure transmission of secure datasets, like a bank's daily offsite backup, but could serve the commodity networking market in about 20 years, Huntington said. It's a low transfer rate but idea is not to send data [this way] but the encryption key so you don't need the same transfer rate. One of the consortium's goals is to enhance that as much as possible. If you can securely transfer the key you can transfer the rest of that data over a standard telco line, he said.
So let me get this straight. The article implies: 1) I can build a secure fiber line between two points and to transfer a key, one photon at a time; and 2) once the key is transferred, I can then use standard telco lines. If I am going to the trouble to build a custom fiber optic network between two points that works with diamond lasers, why would I use telco lines? Conversely, if I don't build my own point to point fiber for key transmission then I run the risk of man-in-the-middle stealing my keys since the middle will have repeaters which can regenerate these 'secure photons'.
I say to you, this makes no sense. Why not just put 52 keys on a thumb drive or CD (one for each week of the year) and send it via a secure courier and then use telco lines for transmission? This looks like yet another ruse to get research money under the guise of quantum cryptography.
Scott did his best. He brought Sun back from nothing in the 90's with the Ultrasparc, gave the world Java, and was a true industry visionary. Remember, he coined the phrase, "The network is the computer." It is sad that he couldn't find a successful business model for Sun, but he will be missed.
Cell phones have low power transmitters in the.5W to 3W of power range. A digital transmitter using a CDMA/TDMA scheme sends a transmission pulse every 6ms (or so), thus the power consumption is not continuous but works out to about 50% on, 50% off. I would have to look at my cell, but 20W of power consumption while transmitting seems very high and it seems like your head would definately notice the heat being generated by the phone, not to mention that the efficiency of the phones electronics would be a mere 10% (2W/20W = 10%).
This new 5-transistor frequency divison technique looks interesting, but it still relies on averaging and rounding which sounds like it will lead to imprecise clocking. I am still bitter that my PCs CMOS clock (RTC) can't keep decent time when running off battery. Maybe Wu's new method could help out there too.:)
IT is fast becoming a commodity which is broken into various specialties e.g. (Desktop Support, Mobile Computing Support, Help Desk, Database Administration, Server/Datacenter Support, Network Support, Installation/Migration, and Application Development). The suits now seem to have a pretty good idea what's inside the black-box known as IT and are willing to outsource any piece they feel can save money.
The trick to longevity in IT is get good at a variety of things and keep moving around. If you can avoid being pigeonholed and avoid anyone really understanding what you do, then you will provide a certain value to the organization, which can not be outsourced. I suppose what I am saying is become a knowledge worker. Understand the business you support and show the suits how to use technology to their competitive advantage. If you get pigenholed as a DBA, Programmer, Helpdesk etc... then you run the longterm risk of getting outsourced. It is good to work through all the groups so you understand a bit about each piece. However, your goal after 10-years should be to report to someone important (senior management) and not be part of a traditional IT group. To put it another way, you want to be senior managements insurance policy so when they do a risky outsource, they feel you are there to bail them out if anything goes terribly wrong.:)
Another growing IT speciality is outsourcing consultant or outsourcing migration manager. These guys will be around for quite some time while companies outsource to try and save a buck. When the pendeulum swings the other way, you can then switch to an insourcing consultant.
My advice to you is do what you love and the money will follow. Compotency is a rare commodity in this day and time.
Here's another interesting example of where basic research can help change quality of life or provide practical applications for people. The government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the Ipod. I tune into the Ipod occasionally, you know?
It finally all makes sense. George Bush has publically admitted that the U.S. Government is responsible for the death of the music and movie industry. To compensate for the sins of the US Government in unleashing this horrific technology, they are now compensating and giving a nod to the RIAA and MPAA with the DMCA, DRM, and of course the new chick at the FCC who wants to copyprotect everything and make citizens register their DVD burners (just like a handgun). How could I have been so blind?! It all makes sense now!
Not all damage to DNA from radiation is harmful. Cells have repair systems and can quickly repair breaks in DNA, with no long-term cellular consequence. Alternatively, the repair may not return the DNA to its original form, but may retain its integrity. If cellular damage is not repaired, it may prevent the cell from surviving or reproducing, or it may result in a viable but modified cell. These two outcomes have different results, leading either to deterministic or stochastic effects [Court of Appeals, 1999, pp. 37, 38].
Wasn't Microsoft mumbling something about how hardware in the future would be free and we would only pay for software. Looks like the opposite might be true instead. We will pay IBM/Intel/AMD for the hardware and get the virtualization software FREE.
Sony has not released any audio devices that use ATRAC in over a year.
Imagine that... early adopters CONTROLLED by Sony. You made my point for me. When Sony first released their iPOD killer, they put their users through a long cumbersome conversion process which resulted in proprietary DRM'ed music filed. Sony then realized that their users wanted more. SONY seemed to get the message that as long as they were shoving the proprietary Sony music and DRM format down the throats of the consumer that sales were suffering.
Why didn't Sony allow MP3 playback from the beginning? Why did it take a year? Thankfully, you can update your firmware on the music player, but again it was a year of aggravation and frustration for the early adopters. For me, it is better not to buy Sony and I am much happier with my iPOD.
No idea what I am talking about? I pulled this out of one of my previous slashdot postings.
Sony... the guys who brought us very expensive DVD players that wouldn't read CD-R/DVD+-R media (on purpose of course). This one really upset me. I couldn't play my DVD's slideshows and movies that I made on my computer on my Sony player.
Sony, the guys who brought us the Sony Memory Stick and Magic Gate copy protection aka "Slow and Lame."
Sony, the guys who just released the "iPOD Killer" that can't even play MP3's and requires converting them to Sony's proprietary format (because it's better right?).
Sony, the guys who make TV's that enforce macrovision so strictly that they sometimes don't work with DVD players and legal DVDs. Can anyone say, RF adaptor? Should one really need to purchase an RF adaptor just to get the Sony DVD player and Sony TV to work together? Jeez....
First and second generation HDTVs which won't play at full resolution with new devices because of what they call the "ANALOG HOLE".
Sony the guys who make video cameras that shutoff if accidentally pointed towards a TV screen playing a DVD (say during your child's birthday party).
Sony is capable of making a good product, but don't expect it to be flexible. If you use your Sony product as they deem you should use it (strictly buying their content), then you're fine. Stray outside the lines slightly and it will become a source of aggravation. I realize Sony has become more flexible lately because their electronics division has been suffering, but I will not forgive the sins of the past 4-5 years so easily due to the amount of hard earned cash that I feel was wasted. I will never buy into another proprietary Sony standard just because they want CONTROL nor will I buy another Sony device that doesn't allow what I consider "fair use". I really feel sorry for the people who have been buying with the Sony credit cards and now have accumulated Sony points.
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I think the current boom is in the iPod Addon market. I can't go into a store these days without finding something that I can plug my iPod into e.g. (Radio Transmitter, Boom Box, Alarm Clock, Tennis Shoe, Pants, Remote control armband, bookbag).
The growth area is in the Pimp-My-IPOD arena and also in software to replace iTunes like Anapod or MediaMonkey.
As humans brains develop, they go through many developmental phases along the way. Piaget came up with a developmental stage theory. The most important thing to remember is that primary kids are in the "Concrete Operational Stage" and can do well with concrete ideas like numbers, colors, linear procedures, and facts. However, kids at this age (especially boys, who typically develop slower than girls) can not handle abstract concepts. An abstract concept would be something like the equation 'X + Y = 4' or 'if x+5 > y+10 then'. As long as your programming languages don't get too abstract the kids should be able to process it fine. I find that HTML doesn't really process in kids minds until 7th or 8th grade.
Also, you have to apply the 80/20 rule. We are all different and our brains develop differently. But Piaget's theory applies to 80% of kids. I like to use the Lego Mindstorms Robots. The robotics invention system supports big blocks e.g "Turn Left" or small blocks e.g. "Turn on Motor A, Turn off Motor B, Wait 5 Secs, Turn on Motor B". The Legos give kids the change to try to work with abstract problems, but they can drop back to the concrete stage very easily by using the cause and effect process.
I believe that someone mentioned Logo. That is a great 'cause and effect' type of programming language in which kids can create a small abstract program and then see concrete results. Allowing the young brains to move back and forth easily between concrete and abstract is the key to teaching programming at this age.
Hope that helped.
Speaking of exciting vs. boring.. I find FC5 on my wireless laptop to be incredibly exciting. I can develop, develop, develop using LAMP all on one machine while listening to my tunes. I would guess that the average user would find development BORING.
:)
However, to impress my friends I was wondering if GNOME had a fisheye application menu like OSX. I realize it is just eye candy, but it's cool! Also, for those of you wishing to add to the anemic Redhat FC5 distro, Stanton has a great guide. Next release, someone should script adding all the plugins and media players
I agree... plus the Home Depot self-checkout isn't intuitive, it has slots all over the place, it doesn't scan ROUND items like copper fittings, and it's SLOW because of the voice synth that reads each price. It is a pile o'crap.
However, I have found that you can take your pile-o-stuff to the lady that monitors the self checkouts and she will scan everything for you with the wireless scanner just like a real checkout. That works great and is much less frustrating.
So you still need a Windows license :) Brilliant move!
This is interesting from the standpoint that Xen is a hypervisor. So what does exactly does "between Xen(TM)-enabled Linux and the new Microsoft® Windows® hypervisor technology-based Windows Server® virtualization". Does this mean that the Xen hypervisor will boot a MS hypervisor or am I missing something? Shouldn't MS strive to make Longhorn a proper Xen-aware guest O/S? Maybe this is just marketing speak, but it doesn't sound correct.
Are there any OSS virtualization software suites in development right now (besides Wine)?
WINE is not virtualization software. WINE is more of a hack that maps API calls. If you are looking for OSS virtualization software, check out XEN aka The XEN Hypervisor. It works great. Xen is the reason that VMWARE and Virtual PC are now free. Xen smokes both VMWARE and Virtual PC in terms of performance.
Once again an elegant technological solution has emerged. Unfortunately a device that is encumbered with the licensing of both DRMs (Bluray/HD-DVD) would be cost prohibitive to the consumer. Anyone have an idea on how much it would cost a manufacturer to license both Bluray and HD-DVD, assuming this was politically possible, which it probably isn't.
In other news, Dell has customer support!?! Wow, I had no idea. Where do I get the number for this customer support, instead of the number for the prescripted question answer line?
I think a story title, "Planning the future of Piracy at Microsoft" would be far more interesting. Don't we all want to know how many illegal MP3's Ballmer has on his IPOD.
MS purposely sabotaged VIA chipset support by not including drivers in the O/S or in hardware updates. How is it that MS can include drivers for all the junk hardware that HPaq, Dell and Gateway pump out but not put in drivers for VIA chipsets?
I believe that MS simply wants to discourage enthusiasts from building their own home PCs with parts of Newegg. Everybody's junk should be treated equally.
FTA: The only snag with the new device is its long focusing time of about three minutes.
Big surprise... The ISPs encouraged the unwashed masses to upgrade from dialup to DSL/Broadband. Next the unwashed masses were encouraged to upgrade their old spyware laden PCs to new shiny PCs.
Now the simple masses want to use what they paid for and the ISPs are panicing because they have way oversold their bandwidth. Maybe the ISPs should have considered that before they sold my dad a 5MB/s connection and encouraged him to go watch videos.
As a ex-SysAdmin/DBA I know that users will eventually consume all CPU, disk space, and network bandwidth. I think the ISPs need to quit whining and UPGRADE! This is what the rest of us do.
Citizens, there is no need for panic. Microsoft is about to unveil the most secure O/S that mankind has ever known. No longer will script kiddes or nefarious software authors be able to take over your grandma's computer. This priveledge will be reserved exclusively by the NSA, however that is another story.
Good citiens, upgrade as soon as Vista with TPM (Trusted Computing), and DRM (Digital Restrictions) are available and the only thing left to do will be to destroy your old computer so it will never trouble anyone again. If we can get rid of passwords and rely exclusively on biometrics for user authentication the world will be even safer. Come on MS, hurry up and get Vista shipped so you can save mankind from these techno criminals!
Laugh, it's funny.....
These has been a common tactic for years. I have trained all my higher-ups to ignore any offers to review licenses. Companies will call the higherups and tell them they can potentially save money by reviewing their licenses and getting into a new type of license program. Vendors are constantly switching license schemes e.g. network connections, to MIPS, to number of processors, to number of dual core processors, to number of instances.
Database vendors like Oracle also like to come in and do reviews/audits so they can help you save money and (sic) purchase the optimal license agreement. In reality, you already have the best license deal and the vendor wants to kill it and replace it with one that costs more.
We learned long ago that these sales weenies are just fishing for anyone who will talk to them. If you ignore them, they will go bug someone naive enough to talk with them. They have no legal authority and are, dare I say sharks, trying to rewrite your license agreement to get you to fork over more cash.
Stay legal on all your licensing and simply factor licenses into the purchase price of every machine. If you know that you purchase licenses with every machine and keep your license count current for upgrades and maintenance, the matter will take care of itself.
Note, young inexperienced managers will fall for the "cost savings" sales pitch quite often since they want to be perceived as doing something for the business. If they are foolish enough to start licensing conversations, make sure that you explain how much time and cost the audit process with take. Ask who is going to pay for the labor to install auditing software. Explain that vendors are not allowed access to servers and PCs. Ask them who is going to assume the security risk for any audit software and who will take responsibility if it causes problems in your production environment. After all, I am sure that all audit software is bulletproof and well written. Itemize all the costs and risks then make sure your manager's manager and/or customer see this risk/cost assessment.
My advice: Just ignore them and they will go away AND put your grumpiest and savviest technical manager in charge of any license renewals.
I am more interested in "quantum entanglement" which Einstein referred to as "Spooky Action at a Distance." Assuming one could entangle particles, then manipulate and observe them, one could be theoretically build the ultimate secure communications device. Additionally, this device might possibly work at superluminal speeds. Imagine controlling a space probe on Mars without the 7 minute delay. Who knows what is possible, sub-space communication anyone? :)
As for your "Consider the world" argument. In my brief life, I have observed the world doing quite a few things which do not make sense. If I had to normalize my beliefs and observations with my perceptions of the world with the assumption that the world was always right, I would be in serious trouble.
Additionally, I have studied quantum physics and can even do the math required to derive the Schrodinger wave equations, however I think our theory on how the quantum world operates is flawed. Mankind may learn more (if the ages continue to roll on) and future physicists will look back and laugh at what we believed, just as we look back and laugh at those who believed that space was filled with "ether", that the world was flat, and that there was such a concept as absolute position and velocity in space and time. Relativitely is another concept with hurts my brain, but it appears to be true.
If you have some time, expand upon your "Consider the world..." argument.
First-generation products will be for very secure transmission of secure datasets, like a bank's daily offsite backup, but could serve the commodity networking market in about 20 years, Huntington said. It's a low transfer rate but idea is not to send data [this way] but the encryption key so you don't need the same transfer rate. One of the consortium's goals is to enhance that as much as possible. If you can securely transfer the key you can transfer the rest of that data over a standard telco line, he said.
So let me get this straight. The article implies: 1) I can build a secure fiber line between two points and to transfer a key, one photon at a time; and 2) once the key is transferred, I can then use standard telco lines. If I am going to the trouble to build a custom fiber optic network between two points that works with diamond lasers, why would I use telco lines? Conversely, if I don't build my own point to point fiber for key transmission then I run the risk of man-in-the-middle stealing my keys since the middle will have repeaters which can regenerate these 'secure photons'.
I say to you, this makes no sense. Why not just put 52 keys on a thumb drive or CD (one for each week of the year) and send it via a secure courier and then use telco lines for transmission? This looks like yet another ruse to get research money under the guise of quantum cryptography.
Scott did his best. He brought Sun back from nothing in the 90's with the Ultrasparc, gave the world Java, and was a true industry visionary. Remember, he coined the phrase, "The network is the computer." It is sad that he couldn't find a successful business model for Sun, but he will be missed.
Cell phones have low power transmitters in the .5W to 3W of power range. A digital transmitter using a CDMA/TDMA scheme sends a transmission pulse every 6ms (or so), thus the power consumption is not continuous but works out to about 50% on, 50% off. I would have to look at my cell, but 20W of power consumption while transmitting seems very high and it seems like your head would definately notice the heat being generated by the phone, not to mention that the efficiency of the phones electronics would be a mere 10% (2W/20W = 10%).
:)
This new 5-transistor frequency divison technique looks interesting, but it still relies on averaging and rounding which sounds like it will lead to imprecise clocking. I am still bitter that my PCs CMOS clock (RTC) can't keep decent time when running off battery. Maybe Wu's new method could help out there too.
IT is fast becoming a commodity which is broken into various specialties e.g. (Desktop Support, Mobile Computing Support, Help Desk, Database Administration, Server/Datacenter Support, Network Support, Installation/Migration, and Application Development). The suits now seem to have a pretty good idea what's inside the black-box known as IT and are willing to outsource any piece they feel can save money.
:)
The trick to longevity in IT is get good at a variety of things and keep moving around. If you can avoid being pigeonholed and avoid anyone really understanding what you do, then you will provide a certain value to the organization, which can not be outsourced. I suppose what I am saying is become a knowledge worker. Understand the business you support and show the suits how to use technology to their competitive advantage. If you get pigenholed as a DBA, Programmer, Helpdesk etc... then you run the longterm risk of getting outsourced. It is good to work through all the groups so you understand a bit about each piece. However, your goal after 10-years should be to report to someone important (senior management) and not be part of a traditional IT group. To put it another way, you want to be senior managements insurance policy so when they do a risky outsource, they feel you are there to bail them out if anything goes terribly wrong.
Another growing IT speciality is outsourcing consultant or outsourcing migration manager. These guys will be around for quite some time while companies outsource to try and save a buck. When the pendeulum swings the other way, you can then switch to an insourcing consultant.
My advice to you is do what you love and the money will follow. Compotency is a rare commodity in this day and time.
Here's another interesting example of where basic research can help change quality of life or provide practical applications for people. The government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the Ipod. I tune into the Ipod occasionally, you know?
It finally all makes sense. George Bush has publically admitted that the U.S. Government is responsible for the death of the music and movie industry. To compensate for the sins of the US Government in unleashing this horrific technology, they are now compensating and giving a nod to the RIAA and MPAA with the DMCA, DRM, and of course the new chick at the FCC who wants to copyprotect everything and make citizens register their DVD burners (just like a handgun). How could I have been so blind?! It all makes sense now!
Not all damage to DNA from radiation is harmful. Cells have repair systems and can quickly repair breaks in DNA, with no long-term cellular consequence. Alternatively, the repair may not return the DNA to its original form, but may retain its integrity. If cellular damage is not repaired, it may prevent the cell from surviving or reproducing, or it may result in a viable but modified cell. These two outcomes have different results, leading either to deterministic or stochastic effects [Court of Appeals, 1999, pp. 37, 38].
Source: http://www.yuccamountain.org/price003.htm
Wasn't Microsoft mumbling something about how hardware in the future would be free and we would only pay for software. Looks like the opposite might be true instead. We will pay IBM/Intel/AMD for the hardware and get the virtualization software FREE.
Sony has not released any audio devices that use ATRAC in over a year.
Imagine that... early adopters CONTROLLED by Sony. You made my point for me. When Sony first released their iPOD killer, they put their users through a long cumbersome conversion process which resulted in proprietary DRM'ed music filed. Sony then realized that their users wanted more. SONY seemed to get the message that as long as they were shoving the proprietary Sony music and DRM format down the throats of the consumer that sales were suffering.
Why didn't Sony allow MP3 playback from the beginning? Why did it take a year? Thankfully, you can update your firmware on the music player, but again it was a year of aggravation and frustration for the early adopters. For me, it is better not to buy Sony and I am much happier with my iPOD.
No idea what I am talking about? I pulled this out of one of my previous slashdot postings.
Sony... the guys who brought us very expensive DVD players that wouldn't read CD-R/DVD+-R media (on purpose of course). This one really upset me. I couldn't play my DVD's slideshows and movies that I made on my computer on my Sony player.
Sony, the guys who brought us the Sony Memory Stick and Magic Gate copy protection aka "Slow and Lame."
Sony, the guys who just released the "iPOD Killer" that can't even play MP3's and requires converting them to Sony's proprietary format (because it's better right?).
Sony, the guys who make TV's that enforce macrovision so strictly that they sometimes don't work with DVD players and legal DVDs. Can anyone say, RF adaptor? Should one really need to purchase an RF adaptor just to get the Sony DVD player and Sony TV to work together? Jeez....
First and second generation HDTVs which won't play at full resolution with new devices because of what they call the "ANALOG HOLE".
Sony the guys who make video cameras that shutoff if accidentally pointed towards a TV screen playing a DVD (say during your child's birthday party).
Sony is capable of making a good product, but don't expect it to be flexible. If you use your Sony product as they deem you should use it (strictly buying their content), then you're fine. Stray outside the lines slightly and it will become a source of aggravation. I realize Sony has become more flexible lately because their electronics division has been suffering, but I will not forgive the sins of the past 4-5 years so easily due to the amount of hard earned cash that I feel was wasted. I will never buy into another proprietary Sony standard just because they want CONTROL nor will I buy another Sony device that doesn't allow what I consider "fair use". I really feel sorry for the people who have been buying with the Sony credit cards and now have accumulated Sony points.