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User: Zamfir

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Comments · 34

  1. The necessary results of a fragmented system on Delving Into Google Health's Privacy Concerns · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The real problem here is that your health care data is scattered across many processing and medical records systems from all the insurers and care givers that you have ever been involved with. This results in doctors not having the needed information, costly redundant care, misdiagnoses, etc. Couple that with the growing trend to have people/patients manage their health care costs, and it becomes clear that solutions like Microsoft's and Google's are necessary and the potential benefit outweighs the privacy risk (trust me: no one cares about your anal fissures) This is far less of a problem in more centralized models where a longitudinal view of a patient is much more readily available (kind of like how the IRS has your tax history).

  2. This is the *NEW* user cost, not *UPGRADE* on What a Vista Upgrade Will Really Cost You · · Score: 1

    and even then.
    if i have a new widgets company, employees hired, but NO computing in place, then, yes, the cost of vista may be in the range suggested in the article.
    no company is in that boat. the *true* cost is incremental, and even then it has to be adjusted for the 2-3 years out before companies actually consider upgrading. most enterprises still have plenty of windows 2000, 6 years later. so, sure, required hardware for vista is expensive now, but by the time companies get around to rolling it out the extravagent requirements will be standard, business class hardware?
    how do i know? oh, well it was the same with windows xp, windows 2000, windows 95, windows nt, windows 3.1, etc. windows 95 recommended 8 MB of RAM. RAM cost $50/MB then. microsoft OS releases always drives hardware down, which will be a nice side effect of vista's release.

  3. Re:How about illegal pictures? on Zune's Wireless Almost Totally Worthless · · Score: 1

    if zunes become so ubiquitous that rampant sharing of rogue mp3s really become an issue, apple is really in trouble!

  4. Re:The Zune Itself Is Worthless on Zune's Wireless Almost Totally Worthless · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I see. So the well-review product that you have never seen is "second rate" and the music store that no one has ever seen is not easy to use. No anti-MS bias here!

  5. Bah. Would have bought one otherwise. on Zune's Wireless Almost Totally Worthless · · Score: 1

    Especially when you start talking about video, 30 GB is not all that big anymore. Not big enough for my complete "media library." I would have definitely picked one of these up if I could pick it up and grab new files from my pc wirelessly.



    people here are focused too much on the sharing/DRM thing. the functionality is not meant for you anyways. its meant for kids who might actually use/enjoy it. people who actually think myspace is cool and who send far more text messages than email. if you are not in this audience then your opinion is rather pointless.

  6. Re:peer to peer only? on Why Microsoft's Zune Scares Apple to the Core · · Score: 1

    perhaps, but this is going to create a lot of confusion. lots of people with wireless networks are going to see that this thing "has wireless", bring it home, and find it's a useless feature.

  7. peer to peer only? on Why Microsoft's Zune Scares Apple to the Core · · Score: 1

    i am in the market for a new player and was actually considering this, until


    "At least in the initial release, Zune's Wi-Fi won't connect to a network. It's peer-to-peer only." would they really ship this thing with 802.11 but not allow me to manage the music on it using that connection?

  8. Grumpy old men.. on Zune — $249.99 On Nov. 14 · · Score: 1

    In my day, we didn't have any fancy wi-fi, and we LIKED IT!!! seriously, i know you guys hate microsoft, but this looks like a nice player. i purchased a zen micro 2 years ago, in part because it had an FM tuner. its on the fritz and i will seriously consider buying this. why? wireless transfer pc to mp3 player. that is worth money to me. DRM is a non-issue to me. i'm not sharing any music, don't know care what kind of player anybody around me has. also, don't underestimate the market for devices like this. many people are on their 3rd iPod or more. people like toys, they like to upgrade. this is NOT a saturated market by any means.

  9. Re:Database encryption hasn't been important... on Cryptography in the Database · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Both specify, more or less, that sensitive information must be encrypted within the database. That means the data at rest on disk must be encrypted.
    no, HIPAA most certainly does not specificy that sensitive data within a database must be encrypted. such a very, very strict interpretation is something vendors looking to make a dime off of HIPAA would make you believe. if this was really true, you really would not be able to do data warehousing and decision support (which happens to be my meal ticket) in the healthcare market without rolling your own. NONE of the big insurers do this. by the way, you cannot specify something "more or less."
  10. such silliness on Why Microsoft Should Fear Bandwidth · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Most users have no desire to be the system administrators of their machines, and would gladly turn that task over to someone else for a nominal fee."

    MOST users dont know what a system administrator IS to begin with - and those who do know that function enough to understand the value of it are the people who are going to be self sufficient.

  11. Re:My Dell PDA is an Axim and it doesn't have CF on Sony Exits US Handheld Market · · Score: 1

    the newer X3s dont have CF, but the older X5s do.

  12. Apologies anyone? on Microsoft Drops Next-Generation Security Project [updated] · · Score: -1, Redundant

    For the last two years, there has been a mountain of FUD posts on slashdot about palladium. i'm sure we'll see lots of retractions and apologies for unnecessary overreaction now that they have canned it.

  13. "Average System" "Requirements" on Projected 'Average' Longhorn System Is A Whopper · · Score: 1

    you people are so blinded by your hatred of microsoft that it clouds your common sense. i am completely serious when i way this inability to look at issues like this objectively will stunt your careers. these are not going to be system requirements. why the hell would a wireless connection by an OS requirement? or Gigabit as a requirement? nonsense. rather, microsoft if planning on releasing the next release of the worlds most popular consumer OS in about 2 years. figure a good 5 years shelf life. MS has to gamble on their interpretation on trends of how people use their PCs, trends in hardware availability, other industry changes, etc. i can honestly see the average system having these kinds of specs in a few years, and i can see people using them. i'm also certain that the OS requirements will be much less, although the memory requirements will be shocking. if you honestly think microsoft is going to require a TB of disk and the latest and greatest graphics card for business users, you need to get a clue.

  14. More than just a database server on New SQL Server Release Slips to 2005 · · Score: 1

    most of these comparisons, especially MySQL are silly. SQL Server is more than a database engine. Yukons makes this even more so, with a set of tools separate from - though licensed with - the database engine.

    This includes....

    Analysis Services OLAP- market leading and most scalable MOLAP engine on the planet. Can use any relational database as source. This is a HUGE release for analysis services

    Analysis Services Data Mining - tons of new algorithms in Yukon.

    Reporting Services - v1 just shipped for SQL Server 2000. Server side managed reporting engine. Can be used on top of any database

    Data Transformation Services - ETL tool completely rewritten for Yukon. Completely rewritten. Can use other databases as source/target


    microsoft is trying to make these tools stand on their own merits. thus, even if you are an oracle shop, you may want to license SQL Server too just for these other tools.

  15. Great use for pocket pc, but AVI's are better on Ripping DVDs to Handhelds = Fair Use? · · Score: 1

    i've been watching movies on my pocket pc for over a year. this is great for travel, and i can watch a movie or two on 1 battery charge. AVI's are much better than WMVs for this. instructions for encoding are here: http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?s=f8 02bcc475d16f49ea57aee37454c9da&threadid=3970&highl ight=avi+encode of course you can take the easy way out and find movies available for download, pre-encoded. the best player (with source) is here: http://home.adelphia.net/~mdukette/downloads.html movies weigh in around 100 MB and hour. with a 512 card, thats a couple movies and couple hundred MB left over for MP3/WMA!

  16. New record for most cynical thread! on Bill Gates to be Knighted · · Score: 1

    even for this place....this is the most shameful thread ever.
    bill gates is the greatest philanthropist of all time. period. try and think of a better reason to be knighted.
    reading through this crap, here seems to be the general attitude:

    1. its not that much money when compared to his overall wealth - thats obviously a load of shit. we are talking about 10s of billions of dollars. how many other billionaires do you see donating the majority of their fortunes away? thats because its an extraordinary gesture 2. its for tax purposes! - as if donating the majority of your fortune is going to put you ahead of the game somehow. 3. the horror of a fucking $100 windows license and ms's clearly anti-trust behavior OUTWEIGHS potentially saving millions of lives. the level of zealotry has risen to new heights (depths?). congratulations. btw - this inability to think rationally whenever microsoft is involved is going to prevent linux from winning. that is all.

  17. On campus atmosphere on Microsoft in the Mirror · · Score: 3, Informative

    i had the pleasure of spending a week on the main redmond campus this year. some of the more publicized elements of the culture were evident from the start: refreshments, flip flops, ping pong, late hours.... the people i met (dozens of mid-managers and developers) had an obvioulsy honest passion for what they were working on. development, not sales people, would routeintly take an hour out of their day to expound of the virtues of release X, or ask about the problems my company was facing and what we would like to see change in product X. /.ers like to generalize MS to windows, office and their monopoly as if that makes everything easy. MS has many, many products that have to compete directly with competitors. the people building these products are behind them with an almost fanatic, cult like zeal. would kill for that kind of allegience.

  18. Re:How can it be cheaper? on Windows Cheaper When Studied by MSFT Analysts · · Score: 2, Insightful

    its really not that complicated. you can get a subscription to ms dev tools for around $1000/year per developer. if a developer can gain a weeks more productivity in VS.NET than a competitive suite of products, the productivity pays for the software. if 2 weeks productivity is gained, then VOILA! your .NET solution is now cheaper to develop. /.ers seem to forget that peoples time more often than not costs way more in the long run than actual software licenses.

  19. Re:those who used SQL server analysis service on SQL Server Developers Face Huge Royalties · · Score: 0

    you are a moron. analysis services is a separate install from sql server (though it is licensed the same). so, all of your examples are invalid. ms analysis services is the most scalable MOLAP server in existance. dumbasses

  20. Its Official: .NET kicks ass on Yahoo Moving to PHP · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    J2EE proponents have given up! http://www2.theserverside.com/home/thread.jsp?thre ad_id=16149&article_count=227

  21. Let's hear some apologies! on Lik-Sang Back Online, Minus Modchips · · Score: 1

    How may posts were there in the previous Lik-Sang threads that talked about MS being unfair, and that nintendo and sony would NEVER stoop to this level, blah blah blah?

    Where are these people now?

  22. Only on slashdot! on Indian Government Goes For Free Software · · Score: 1

    imagine another industry where the craftsmen would celebrate their colleagues giving away they work instead of having it paid for!

    imagine mechanics getting together to celebrate that more and more people are fixing their cars themselves. sure, we're obsolete, but the world is better place without people being dependent on us, the evil mechanics! thank GOODNESS i am not able to work for nothing instead of getting paid!

    why would anyone encourage the demise of their industry?

    open source may be good for business but it is NOT good for developers. just think, if open source really takes off, that'll mean more talented developers can lose their job, making them available to work on new open source projects, which will cause more developers to lose their jobs, making them available to work on new open source projects.....

  23. Re:Abuse of power? on Microsoft Shuts Down Lik Sang · · Score: 1

    what a bunch of alarmist anti-ms zealots! i wonder how many people who are pro-P2P are crying fould because MS got a mod chip distributor out of business. when it comes to this sort of thing, there is nothing about different about MS than nintendo, or sony or RIAA. you are all a bunch of sheep!

  24. Re:.Net Charge is Absurd on Competitors Cry Foul At Windows XP, 2K Service Packs · · Score: 1

    as told otherwise, this isn't true. i dont expect anyone here to care about false info about ms though.

  25. Slashdot is pathetic on Microsoft To Make Wireless Networking Hardware · · Score: 0, Troll

    canned response #1: lame remark about ms (sorry, i mean M$) not making their own hardware canned response #2: lame remark about security, particularly talking about the security concerns about mice and keyboards - har dee har har canned response #3: beware!!! DANGER!!! EULA!!! big brother!!!! do you guys ever get sick of posting the same crap over and over and over again? this place if a friggen joke!