Dell's success is a result of innovation in business process. In that regard they are like wal-mart, their success is based on truly ingenious business systems that allow them to sell at consistently low prices. Both companies also face the risks inherent in this model. Their margins are by definition razor thin and revenue comes from volume.
Apple's success comes from selling high margin products (for the tech industry). They do this through innovative products and marketing. If Dell has set trends in supply-chain management, apple is consistently ahead of the pack in marketing and product innovation. The ipod and the Mac are sold and priced as premium products. The margins reflect that. These are very different models. Michael Dell was right in 1997. But no one thought that apple would turn around then. My parents bought me $2000 in stock for a graduation present. They asked if I wanted Apple or Sun. I chose Sun. (whoops) I guess I can thank my lucky stars I didn't go with SGI...
The "microsoft bashing" bashing is getting pretty bad on slashdot lately. I got modded troll for saying that Windows XP was basically shit. Which I guess is fair. But I still think it sucks. Microsoft really needs to tear that thing down and start over, so I think this sounds good to me. Windows NT was never intended to be what it is today. It was written as a single user desktop operating system. UNIX and friends were intended to be multi-user server operating systems, which coincidentaly is very useful on the desktop these days. Microsoft has done a commendable job bolting security, multiple users, real memory management, etc onto an os that wasn't designed with those things in mind. That said, at a certain point its never going to get better without starting from scratch.
Windows is still a piece of shit. Period. If have five memory hogging applications open the sixth one won't launch. That is fucking unacceptable. (why do I have a swap file? swap inactive apps please!) Install and uninstall a few applications and after a while the os will start to die. Why can't I write a script that creates a user in active directory and a mail box in exchange without having to start guessing how it works?
I will not grow up because office is not great. It is just what everyone uses. The only office app that I have no complaints about is excel. Powerpoint is trash. I cannot for the life of my figure out why people are so attached to word. What, exactly, is so great about msword? I don't have to like ms crap because everyone uses it. I hate windows. I can't stand it. People can use whatever they want, its their perogative. But I don't have to like it. I'm not a hippie green peace whatever. I just can't stand the shit microsoft puts out. Windows is not a good operating system. It is an acceptable operating system. Office is just fine. But I don't like it and I don't have to justify it. And frankly, I'm sure.net is wonderful in every way. But I don't want to run things on windows servers. So I won't use it. That doesn't make me closed minded. I work with windows every day. I know asp and I'm learning asp.net. But I don't have to like them.
That said, Microsoft's web development tools seriously suck. I am a web designer and I have been known to write small php/asp scripts where it makes sense. I find visual studio useful for the editor, but I can do without the WYSIWYG tools for creating web forms, etc. They suffer from front page "lets fuck everything up" disease. Stop adding tags! Don't add an there! Do what I tell you! I tend to mix and match visual studio, php designer and dreamweaver. None of them are the perfect solution for web development.
Yes, and this story is bullshit. Its like saying "Kids, go into acting! The starting salary for a movie star is $500k a year!" Which is true. But there are probably 50,000 aspiring actors for every movie star. Games/special effects/etc is a field that is totally hosed by the glamour factor. I started out as a 3d artist (in LA) and I realized real quickly that they EXPLOIT people because of the glamour factor. My advices is to never take a job where the people tell you that there are "thousands of kids who would do this job for free". It isn't worth the suffering just to have a glamorous job.
The first offer I got at an effects company was at a movie trailer house. I knew all the softs, I had a reel and a film production degree from USC. They wanted me to start as a junior artist--for $8.50 an hour, no overtime, no benefits. they fed me the "people would do this for free" line. I got a job at a hotel front desk instead that paid $10.50/hour, plus insurance and vacation.
Further, in games and effects people will tell you its an amazing industry to get into. I'm sure it can be very fun. But there are very few oppurtunities to move up for most coders and artists. That's why most coders and artists in that industry are
But, well, if you REALLY want to do it, go for it.
Get a digital rebel. I've been shooting mostly velvia/provia on 35mm and the digital rebel really is great for me (hobbyist). I got mine for $500 used and I can use all my old EOS lenses. When I get desperate for really high quality I have a 4x5 view camera as well.
The thing is that these people are totally missing the point of religion. It is not supposed to be about facts. The bible was never intended to be a science book. It is supposed to be a book of stories that help people understand their place in the universe.
Modern people tend to equate "myth" with fake. Which is completely missing the point. It isn't supposed to be real, it is supposed to be True. Augustine himself wrote that the biblical tale of creation could not possibly be taken literally. So you can't prove the bible false, because it isn't something that was intented to contain facts. It contains myths, which are what religion is all about.
Be that as it may some us make a living making small quick web apps. I am a web designer/developer, and most of what I do is for small businesses that need very simple apps for the sites. Real estate companies need to post listing, funeral homes need to post obits, everyone needs a simple cms, etc. I develop in PHP/mysql and a little bit of asp.net. RoR sounds interesting to me, because if I can make it faster I can make more money. I am not writing large enterprise apps. Lord know I wouldn't be able to if I had to...
To seperate VCs from their money. I think confusing the VCs with vague statements somehow lowers their defenses and causes them to shell out cash without asking why it is a good investment.
I don't think web apps will fail. They make A LOT of sense in a corporate environment. A lot of companies already require their users to use Citrix to centralize administration. For a company if all internal apps could run on a browser it would a godsend. No more desktop apps to support. Everything managable from a central server, etc, etc. I think that oddly what has made web apps practical now is that cheap client desktops are now fast enough to run javascript and whatnot at a speed that is useable.
I just sold my car and took a job that paid about $7k less. Its two miles from home. I am biking to work, and strangely I'm saving more money somehow. Simplification is nice.
I think you need to consider that you may be wrong about this. They did not prevent a major war, because when we invaded Iraq they didn't really have anything to fight back with. Now they have a class A clusterfuck that is costing the US taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars and achieving...perhaps a vassal state of Iran? Who knows, but it doesn't look a lot like a beacon of democracy. I want my money back.
Now in a city like New York or London, mass transit does work: they both have very dense packed downtown areas, so generally the destination is near where you want to go. You still will need a car if you don't live in the dense business districts or downtown districts: drive your car from your home in New Jersey to a "park and ride" parking lot, hop the subway, and take it into Manhattan. The same goes for London, though I did encounter many people on the fringes of London who have never taken the London Underground because they live in the suburbs that most tourists without cars never see.
In Los Angeles, there are no centralized districts where people either start or wind up at. So often, such as in my case, the nearest metrostation is a good mile and a half away from where I live in Glendale, and five miles from where I work in Santa Monica. Now if the destination station was (say) a quarter mile from where I work, I could just drive to the metrostation and walk--God knows I could use the exercise. But to drive to the park and ride, tthen hop the yellow like, transfer to the red line, then to the blue line, then to the Green--then take a bus from the end of that ride and then transfer to a second bus--I'm sorry, but that doesn't make any sense. It's not because the light rail and bus systems are poorly designed: it's that Los Angeles is a sprawling metropolitan region of many smaller towns which grew into one mass (like most south-western and western cities in the United States), and people desire to own in their own home rather than live in a cramped apartment--so convincing people to change their living patterns would be impossible.
Do you see the connection here? Cities like Seattle and Denver are growing now and the people that support expanding transit want to make sure that it doesn't turn in to Los angeles. London and NY are alsosprawling metropolitan regions of many smaller towns which grew into one mass. But because the transit was there they didn't grow like LA. Los Angeles is like it is not because of some culture of home ownership. Its because a dependance on cars made the city sprawl. People drive to the grocery, drive to restaurants, etc. There was not reason for an urban experience to grow. So it didn't.
Why does mass transit have to be a magic bullet? We just voted to massively expand mass transit in denver. The critics said what you do, why don't you retime the lights? Why don't change the bus lines? Of course, that is part of the plan. But fixed guideway is also a part of the plan to create effective intermodal transit. Traffic is not the problem. Its a symptom of inefficient transit options. Adding other modes improves the efficiency of the system. We don't build fixed guideway to get people off the roads, we build it to make moving people around the city more efficient by giving people tranportation choices. A city that allows people to get where they are going by bus, fixed guideway, car and bicycle is basically a better proposition.
"given that a fixed rail mass transit project must be done hand-in-hand with long-term rezoning projects that create massive business districts rather than overlayed onto a sprawling mess, I'd say that the best thing for Seattle (and Los Angeles, for that matter) to do is scrap their current multi-billion dollar transit projects and start rethinking what they're doing."
Why can we do all of these things? Its like lucky charms, mass transit is part of a complete breakfast.
The issue here is that many "fundementalist" christians have a lot of trouble making religion work with a thoroughly modern mind set. They approach the bible and religion as if it is supposed to be logical. It isn't. Religion isn't about logic. But most modern americans lack the tools to deal with something that really is purely spiritual. Clearly this state is pretty weak faith. I think someone who's faith is weak and their belief relies on christianity being based entirely on fact and logic is going to do some crazy things. Like insist that evolution doesn't happen because it isn't in the bible. In that state they really do spread the word because its the only way they can keep from doubting.
It isn't a law code, its a religion. Many christians today seem to be confused about that. It isn't supposed to be a list of things you can and can't do, it is meant to be a book of stories (and a series of rituals) that bring meaning to life. The bible is not a guide on how to make society. It is a guide to the inner lives of the practicants. Augustine is very lucid about this issue. He actually thought that sex was always bad for the soul, but it if you couldn't control yourself marriage was better. But it wasn't about what society should do. It was about what you, as a follower should do. Its not about changing the world, but about the spirtual path of the follower...
Oh, and since I already flamed you once, I'll do it again. Are you proposing that we abandon all small towns in the great plains? Those places are just asking to get wiped out by a tornado...
Hey, i have karma to burn, so FUCK YOU. How did you end up where you live? Did you carefully check the risk factors first to make sure it wasn't in any danger? People live in New Orleans mostly because they where born there. Its one of those kind of places. Other people ended up there for various reasons. Are people that live in the bay area also stupid? Should we just evacuate the Bay area because it is earthquake prone? And we should just let the people of new orleans starve and die? Oh my god fuck you man. So you want new orleans to just be gone. No history there, nothing important about the city, its just a place that wastes your tax dollars. I can't form an argument really, I can't get my mind around how you and others that are outraged that we are spending tax dollars to help people. What the fuck is that about? People living in new orleans wasn't a mistake. It just was how it was. People don't make careful decisions about where the live. I have no idea what the risk factors are for where I live (denver), but I know that I live here because I grew up here and got a job here....oh fuck you people. Libertarians by and large have taken selfishness and turned it into a political philosophy. Maybe there are worse things than paying taxes?
i think you mean late 19th and early 20th centuries, unless there was a plane flying in 1806. I think the economic situation was a prime move for american innovation at the end of the industrial revolution. The revolution started in britain with plenty of french and german contributions, but there was a massive amount of r&d investment in the US at the turn of the century that drove that period. A booming us economy in the "gilded age" and extremely lax immigration policies brought boatloads of people to the states...well I think you could write a book about the factors that made the US the center of technological innovation during most of the 20th century. But momentum definetly is shifting, hard to say which way.
That bike is insane. An 8.2 litre engine? On a bike? That is madness. 502hp...to move 1300lbs. $40,000...why why why. I guess I admire the audacity of an engine that big on a motorcycle, someone had to do it. Still, a hayabusa can do 190mph, costs $11k and has a 1 liter engine. Power to weight and all that.
Slashdot Mirror
Film in a cinema is 24 fps. Interlaced is not an artistic or stylistic decision, it was made as a result of technical limits of the technology.
Dell's success is a result of innovation in business process. In that regard they are like wal-mart, their success is based on truly ingenious business systems that allow them to sell at consistently low prices. Both companies also face the risks inherent in this model. Their margins are by definition razor thin and revenue comes from volume.
Apple's success comes from selling high margin products (for the tech industry). They do this through innovative products and marketing. If Dell has set trends in supply-chain management, apple is consistently ahead of the pack in marketing and product innovation. The ipod and the Mac are sold and priced as premium products. The margins reflect that. These are very different models. Michael Dell was right in 1997. But no one thought that apple would turn around then. My parents bought me $2000 in stock for a graduation present. They asked if I wanted Apple or Sun. I chose Sun. (whoops) I guess I can thank my lucky stars I didn't go with SGI...
Are you calling me a tool?
The "microsoft bashing" bashing is getting pretty bad on slashdot lately. I got modded troll for saying that Windows XP was basically shit. Which I guess is fair. But I still think it sucks. Microsoft really needs to tear that thing down and start over, so I think this sounds good to me. Windows NT was never intended to be what it is today. It was written as a single user desktop operating system. UNIX and friends were intended to be multi-user server operating systems, which coincidentaly is very useful on the desktop these days. Microsoft has done a commendable job bolting security, multiple users, real memory management, etc onto an os that wasn't designed with those things in mind. That said, at a certain point its never going to get better without starting from scratch.
Windows is still a piece of shit. Period. If have five memory hogging applications open the sixth one won't launch. That is fucking unacceptable. (why do I have a swap file? swap inactive apps please!) Install and uninstall a few applications and after a while the os will start to die. Why can't I write a script that creates a user in active directory and a mail box in exchange without having to start guessing how it works?
.net is wonderful in every way. But I don't want to run things on windows servers. So I won't use it. That doesn't make me closed minded. I work with windows every day. I know asp and I'm learning asp.net. But I don't have to like them.
I will not grow up because office is not great. It is just what everyone uses. The only office app that I have no complaints about is excel. Powerpoint is trash. I cannot for the life of my figure out why people are so attached to word. What, exactly, is so great about msword? I don't have to like ms crap because everyone uses it. I hate windows. I can't stand it. People can use whatever they want, its their perogative. But I don't have to like it. I'm not a hippie green peace whatever. I just can't stand the shit microsoft puts out. Windows is not a good operating system. It is an acceptable operating system. Office is just fine. But I don't like it and I don't have to justify it. And frankly, I'm sure
That said, Microsoft's web development tools seriously suck. I am a web designer and I have been known to write small php/asp scripts where it makes sense. I find visual studio useful for the editor, but I can do without the WYSIWYG tools for creating web forms, etc. They suffer from front page "lets fuck everything up" disease. Stop adding tags! Don't add an there! Do what I tell you! I tend to mix and match visual studio, php designer and dreamweaver. None of them are the perfect solution for web development.
Yes, and this story is bullshit. Its like saying "Kids, go into acting! The starting salary for a movie star is $500k a year!" Which is true. But there are probably 50,000 aspiring actors for every movie star. Games/special effects/etc is a field that is totally hosed by the glamour factor. I started out as a 3d artist (in LA) and I realized real quickly that they EXPLOIT people because of the glamour factor. My advices is to never take a job where the people tell you that there are "thousands of kids who would do this job for free". It isn't worth the suffering just to have a glamorous job.
The first offer I got at an effects company was at a movie trailer house. I knew all the softs, I had a reel and a film production degree from USC. They wanted me to start as a junior artist--for $8.50 an hour, no overtime, no benefits. they fed me the "people would do this for free" line. I got a job at a hotel front desk instead that paid $10.50/hour, plus insurance and vacation.
Further, in games and effects people will tell you its an amazing industry to get into. I'm sure it can be very fun. But there are very few oppurtunities to move up for most coders and artists. That's why most coders and artists in that industry are
But, well, if you REALLY want to do it, go for it.
Get a digital rebel. I've been shooting mostly velvia/provia on 35mm and the digital rebel really is great for me (hobbyist). I got mine for $500 used and I can use all my old EOS lenses. When I get desperate for really high quality I have a 4x5 view camera as well.
Well, to be perfectly honest, I am getting married this summer to an american. But I met her in France...So draw your own conclusions.
Speaking french will not get you laid by french women. At least, that was my experience. Its not like japan. French women actually prefer french men.
The thing is that these people are totally missing the point of religion. It is not supposed to be about facts. The bible was never intended to be a science book. It is supposed to be a book of stories that help people understand their place in the universe. Modern people tend to equate "myth" with fake. Which is completely missing the point. It isn't supposed to be real, it is supposed to be True. Augustine himself wrote that the biblical tale of creation could not possibly be taken literally. So you can't prove the bible false, because it isn't something that was intented to contain facts. It contains myths, which are what religion is all about.
Be that as it may some us make a living making small quick web apps. I am a web designer/developer, and most of what I do is for small businesses that need very simple apps for the sites. Real estate companies need to post listing, funeral homes need to post obits, everyone needs a simple cms, etc. I develop in PHP/mysql and a little bit of asp.net. RoR sounds interesting to me, because if I can make it faster I can make more money. I am not writing large enterprise apps. Lord know I wouldn't be able to if I had to...
To seperate VCs from their money. I think confusing the VCs with vague statements somehow lowers their defenses and causes them to shell out cash without asking why it is a good investment.
I don't think web apps will fail. They make A LOT of sense in a corporate environment. A lot of companies already require their users to use Citrix to centralize administration. For a company if all internal apps could run on a browser it would a godsend. No more desktop apps to support. Everything managable from a central server, etc, etc. I think that oddly what has made web apps practical now is that cheap client desktops are now fast enough to run javascript and whatnot at a speed that is useable.
I just sold my car and took a job that paid about $7k less. Its two miles from home. I am biking to work, and strangely I'm saving more money somehow. Simplification is nice.
Dearest Steve,
I think you need to consider that you may be wrong about this. They did not prevent a major war, because when we invaded Iraq they didn't really have anything to fight back with. Now they have a class A clusterfuck that is costing the US taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars and achieving...perhaps a vassal state of Iran? Who knows, but it doesn't look a lot like a beacon of democracy. I want my money back.
regards,
Stephen
Do you see the connection here? Cities like Seattle and Denver are growing now and the people that support expanding transit want to make sure that it doesn't turn in to Los angeles. London and NY are alsosprawling metropolitan regions of many smaller towns which grew into one mass. But because the transit was there they didn't grow like LA. Los Angeles is like it is not because of some culture of home ownership. Its because a dependance on cars made the city sprawl. People drive to the grocery, drive to restaurants, etc. There was not reason for an urban experience to grow. So it didn't.
The issue here is that many "fundementalist" christians have a lot of trouble making religion work with a thoroughly modern mind set. They approach the bible and religion as if it is supposed to be logical. It isn't. Religion isn't about logic. But most modern americans lack the tools to deal with something that really is purely spiritual. Clearly this state is pretty weak faith. I think someone who's faith is weak and their belief relies on christianity being based entirely on fact and logic is going to do some crazy things. Like insist that evolution doesn't happen because it isn't in the bible. In that state they really do spread the word because its the only way they can keep from doubting.
It isn't a law code, its a religion. Many christians today seem to be confused about that. It isn't supposed to be a list of things you can and can't do, it is meant to be a book of stories (and a series of rituals) that bring meaning to life. The bible is not a guide on how to make society. It is a guide to the inner lives of the practicants. Augustine is very lucid about this issue. He actually thought that sex was always bad for the soul, but it if you couldn't control yourself marriage was better. But it wasn't about what society should do. It was about what you, as a follower should do. Its not about changing the world, but about the spirtual path of the follower...
Oh, and since I already flamed you once, I'll do it again. Are you proposing that we abandon all small towns in the great plains? Those places are just asking to get wiped out by a tornado...
Hey, i have karma to burn, so FUCK YOU. How did you end up where you live? Did you carefully check the risk factors first to make sure it wasn't in any danger? People live in New Orleans mostly because they where born there. Its one of those kind of places. Other people ended up there for various reasons. Are people that live in the bay area also stupid? Should we just evacuate the Bay area because it is earthquake prone? And we should just let the people of new orleans starve and die? Oh my god fuck you man. So you want new orleans to just be gone. No history there, nothing important about the city, its just a place that wastes your tax dollars. I can't form an argument really, I can't get my mind around how you and others that are outraged that we are spending tax dollars to help people. What the fuck is that about? People living in new orleans wasn't a mistake. It just was how it was. People don't make careful decisions about where the live. I have no idea what the risk factors are for where I live (denver), but I know that I live here because I grew up here and got a job here....oh fuck you people. Libertarians by and large have taken selfishness and turned it into a political philosophy. Maybe there are worse things than paying taxes?
I'm not convinced this happens very often. I think most crap papers are reviewed as such. Can you show me an example of this happening?
i think you mean late 19th and early 20th centuries, unless there was a plane flying in 1806. I think the economic situation was a prime move for american innovation at the end of the industrial revolution. The revolution started in britain with plenty of french and german contributions, but there was a massive amount of r&d investment in the US at the turn of the century that drove that period. A booming us economy in the "gilded age" and extremely lax immigration policies brought boatloads of people to the states...well I think you could write a book about the factors that made the US the center of technological innovation during most of the 20th century. But momentum definetly is shifting, hard to say which way.
That bike is insane. An 8.2 litre engine? On a bike? That is madness. 502hp...to move 1300lbs. $40,000...why why why. I guess I admire the audacity of an engine that big on a motorcycle, someone had to do it. Still, a hayabusa can do 190mph, costs $11k and has a 1 liter engine. Power to weight and all that.