Accounting rules are so complicated, it's hard NOT to violate them at some point: even if you're the most honest person in the world. Especially, in an organization as large as IBM. Any one of their divisions could be on the Fortune 500 by itself.
It's the same with Federal Taxes. You can have all your ducks in a row and the IRS will STILL find something wrong with your taxes. I know of someone who accidently OVERPAID his taxes. The IRS FINED him for over paying!
In today's Wall Street Journal, there was an article about SCO claiming that Linux is using UNIX (SCO's) code. By the way, SCO just signed a licensing deal with M$. Now, we have this caucus assailing Linux amoung other things.
Is M$ starting some sort of a campaign against Linux?
Or, is it just other's paranoia about U.S. security?
Many companies are deciding to buy systems off the shelf ( SAP, Peoplesoft, etc.. ) instead of rolling their own. It's because they find that, in their situation at least, it is the most cost effective way of implementing the system they need. What does this mean for us coders? There will less of a demand for programmers. Yes, there will always be a need for programmers, but not for as many as there were in the late 90's.
This happened to the chip designers. NCR, for one, decided that it was cheaper to buy processors from Intel than to make their own. They canned all their chipped designers. Some actually got hired by Intel or Motorola: the rest became programmers. That's just way the economy works.
Me, I'm going to the dark side. Where power really exists. Come with me to the dark side! We will rule the business world together. Come! Get your MBA!! Go into Management! I am your father!
from clarkhoward.com - an Atlanta based consumer advocate -
" Depending on who you sign up with, fees range from free to $10 a month.
Use a service that stands behind its electronic payment, such as paying late fees and handling problems with vendors if you made the payment several days before the due date.
When you figure the cost of the check, stamp and envelope for every transaction, a small monthly fee is worth it.
"
I, on the other hand, don't trust anyone. I have to put my signature on everything - even if it takes more time out of my life! It's the same when you use a debit card. If you want to dispute the charges, for whatever reason, the cash is gone from your account until the dispute is resolved - if ever. This is unlike a credit card where the credit card company takes the risk. With online bill paying or debit cards, you take all the risk. So, if someone rips you off, well, you eat it!!
In short you're risking, although unlikely,an event of having a very bad situation of having too much cash taken out of your account, or having a bogus charge against your account and having limited recourse to get the money back.
Yes! Amen!! The Shuttle is 70's technology ( yes, there have been upgrades, but it's still basically a 70's creation.)
OUR(tax payer's) money should be spent on projects that will actually yield something valuable; such as, scientific discoveries... hmmmm - or even for (gasp) commercial or military reasons. The space station....what a worthless pile of shit! Spend the money on probes at least! We'll learn something from them!!! Even if its something like - there's no life on Pluto or something - anything that we can learn something from. It seems to me that the current program is just to give business to to certain companies to keep these certain companies' congressmen happy so that these certain congressmen will keep funding NASA, so that they can keep buying from these certain companies. - Get it!
if you don't like mu spelling - become an Inglush Teechur!!
When I had to take marketing, we were told that marketing was to: inform the consumer about our product, let the consumer know that our product exists, and show the consumer how it can solve their problem - if they have one. Not force them to buy something that they don't need nor want!
Unfortunately, marketing is turning into a field where it's used to force/convince people to buy something - whether they need it or not. It sickens me! It's the same with salespeople. They get so aggressive trying to "convince" you that you need their product - even leaving out some details that you really need to know - just to make a sale.
If your product is so good, you won't need to sell it, it'll sell itself. I just wish firms woudl get this through their head!
You raise an excellent point which has been argued intensely by the Economics geeks - to no avail either.
Here's an argument that says that MS WOULD keep their prices the same.
If they did raise their proces to what ever they wanted - no one could afford or they would refuse to buy their software. By keeping their prices where they are, they would, beleive it or not, maximize their profits. Monopolies do not have as much power as some would have you beleive. If MS, assuming complete monopoly, raised their prices, we would find substitutes.
This of course is assuming a perfect monopoly
But, the fact is they have significant long-run competition. Anything they have now is obsolete in a few years.
Some of the economists have even argued that monopolies actually inovate MORE than competitive firms - ATT Bell labs anyone.:-)
I'm going to get moderated as a Troll for this, but what the hell!
Remember when a decent PC cost at least $4000 (US)? Then came the clones and we were able to get a PC for about $2000. After the clones came into their own, the prices just started free-falling. The reason was that IBM couldn't keep their own monopoly on PCs and charge whatever THEY wanted too - and you can bet that they wanted too! Look at Apple. They had control of everything to do with their machines and they insisted on gouging their customers. It wasn't until recently that they decided to price their machines in line with the rest of their (PC) market. Yes, they have a superior design, blah, blah, blah,... But when it comes down to it, their design wasn't worth the premium that they used to charge - sorry Mac folks.
MS turned the PC market into a commodity market. Since MS wanted to grow/keep their monopoly, they charged pretty damned cheap in my book.
What I'm trying to say is... here it comes... that if it weren't for MS, we would still be paying an arm and a leg for PCs.
For the record, I'm a Linux Luver
Re:Since the author didnt mention it...
on
Design Patterns
·
· Score: 1
Yes, it's worth it. Not only did it help me understand OOP better, but it also helped me understand the STL's design and how to use it more effectively. It helped make me a better designer too.
You virologists/MDs out there, please educate me on this. I realy curious.
From what I understand, the humans who were exposed to HIV and didn't get sick were able to acheive this because their lymph nodes in their rectum "grabbed" the virus and kept it from really infecting them. Whereas people who didn't have this ability got sick.
So maybe a few centuries from now, the humans alive will have this "immunity" from AIDS too?
The US Constitution needs to be taught more ..
on
Want Freedom?
·
· Score: 1
A friend of mine teaches Constutional Law and Governement for a high school here in Atlanta. Unfortunately, it's an AP class. If a class like this was mandatory for EVERYONE, maybe we would see less of the populace willing to give away THEIR rights to politicians whose only goal is to keep their cushy jobs and promote their backer's agenda.
to be modified to produce human organs. Think of the possibilities for the penis enlargement industry. Think about the spam...
"Get a Donkey Dick! Send $99.99 to www.donkeydick.ru..
I thought it was funny:(
On the PBS show Small Business School (http://smallbusinessschool.org/webapp/sbs/sbs/ind ex-ie.jsp?Size=800&Speed=250&page=/webapp/sbs/prof iles/228/home.jsp), there was an episode about this guy who bought a chain of failing art supply stores (The Art Store). He used IT (AS/400s) to monitor his inventory, sales, costs, etc... He ended up turning the store around with a well implemented solution using technology that works. Not some new product/technology that's still being BETA'd.
I'm sure the/. crowd could come up with many more instances of similar situations.
Unfortunately, most people want to use the newest stuff out there and they don't consider if the tech. has been proven or not. I see it time and time again, somebody in management says something ridiculous like, "We need an Internet, Java, XML messaging, scalable, IT solution!" Of course, it's not allowed to ask, "Why do we need that when we could use a(n)."
P.S. Sorry about the link. You can find the transcript of the show at smallbusinessschool.org and look for "The Art Store"
You're absolutely right! I didn't even think of this. Even though it's an obvious argument (in hindsight), I bet most people haven't thought of it either. I suggest that you write an editorial to the magazine stating exactly what you stated above. Actually, maybe ALL of us should. Let me see that link...
It's important to protect your rights: even if the software is under the GPL - I wouldn't want a big bad corporation to claim my creation is their work and to patent my software and start charging for my work. I hope that, due to leagal necessity, open software developers will never have to have a team of lawyers to protect themselves and subsequently have to charge for the software to pay the lawyers. We'll all suffer for this. Sometimes, I get so angry at our(US) legal system and its unfairness.
I know what you're saying, but what I think they're trying to do is eliminate a lot of the logging infrastructure that's needed to log. You need to cut roads into the forest to move all the heavy equipment into the area - even it's just to remove only a portion of the trees. With this, you could walk in and grab just the trees you want - hopefully, without cutting down a shitload just to get your trucks in. The question is: can it do it and still be profitable? Otherwise, the logging companies will just keep using their VERY destructive ways. IMHO.
It's nice to see someone trying to lower the impact on forests, but if this machine costs too much to opperate, it won't sell. Margins are EXTREMELY important to logging companies. That's why they have to low ball the Fed. Gov. to harvest in public forests and why the US logging companies lobbied our Government to impose those protectionist tarriffs on the Canadians.
If this company wants to make a go of this, they're going to have to make a military version. I don't know about you, but if I saw one of these things comming at me, I'd run for the hills!
Slashdot Mirror
Accounting rules are so complicated, it's hard NOT to violate them at some point: even if you're the most honest person in the world. Especially, in an organization as large as IBM. Any one of their divisions could be on the Fortune 500 by itself.
It's the same with Federal Taxes. You can have all your ducks in a row and the IRS will STILL find something wrong with your taxes. I know of someone who accidently OVERPAID his taxes. The IRS FINED him for over paying!
Is M$ starting some sort of a campaign against Linux?
Or, is it just other's paranoia about U.S. security?Me, I'm going to the dark side. Where power really exists. Come with me to the dark side! We will rule the business world together. Come! Get your MBA!! Go into Management! I am your father!
" Depending on who you sign up with, fees range from free to $10 a month. Use a service that stands behind its electronic payment, such as paying late fees and handling problems with vendors if you made the payment several days before the due date. When you figure the cost of the check, stamp and envelope for every transaction, a small monthly fee is worth it. "
I, on the other hand, don't trust anyone. I have to put my signature on everything - even if it takes more time out of my life! It's the same when you use a debit card. If you want to dispute the charges, for whatever reason, the cash is gone from your account until the dispute is resolved - if ever. This is unlike a credit card where the credit card company takes the risk. With online bill paying or debit cards, you take all the risk. So, if someone rips you off, well, you eat it!!
In short you're risking, although unlikely,an event of having a very bad situation of having too much cash taken out of your account, or having a bogus charge against your account and having limited recourse to get the money back.OUR(tax payer's) money should be spent on projects that will actually yield something valuable; such as, scientific discoveries ... hmmmm - or even for (gasp) commercial or military reasons. The space station....what a worthless pile of shit! Spend the money on probes at least! We'll learn something from them!!! Even if its something like - there's no life on Pluto or something - anything that we can learn something from. It seems to me that the current program is just to give business to to certain companies to keep these certain companies' congressmen happy so that these certain congressmen will keep funding NASA, so that they can keep buying from these certain companies. - Get it!
if you don't like mu spelling - become an Inglush Teechur!!The Economists call this the "Tragedy of the Commons." Talk amongst yourselves.
Unfortunately, marketing is turning into a field where it's used to force/convince people to buy something - whether they need it or not. It sickens me! It's the same with salespeople. They get so aggressive trying to "convince" you that you need their product - even leaving out some details that you really need to know - just to make a sale.
If your product is so good, you won't need to sell it, it'll sell itself. I just wish firms woudl get this through their head!
Here's an argument that says that MS WOULD keep their prices the same.
If they did raise their proces to what ever they wanted - no one could afford or they would refuse to buy their software. By keeping their prices where they are, they would, beleive it or not, maximize their profits. Monopolies do not have as much power as some would have you beleive. If MS, assuming complete monopoly, raised their prices, we would find substitutes. This of course is assuming a perfect monopoly
But, the fact is they have significant long-run competition. Anything they have now is obsolete in a few years.
Some of the economists have even argued that monopolies actually inovate MORE than competitive firms - ATT Bell labs anyone. :-)
Remember when a decent PC cost at least $4000 (US)? Then came the clones and we were able to get a PC for about $2000. After the clones came into their own, the prices just started free-falling. The reason was that IBM couldn't keep their own monopoly on PCs and charge whatever THEY wanted too - and you can bet that they wanted too! Look at Apple. They had control of everything to do with their machines and they insisted on gouging their customers. It wasn't until recently that they decided to price their machines in line with the rest of their (PC) market. Yes, they have a superior design, blah, blah, blah,... But when it comes down to it, their design wasn't worth the premium that they used to charge - sorry Mac folks.
MS turned the PC market into a commodity market. Since MS wanted to grow/keep their monopoly, they charged pretty damned cheap in my book.
What I'm trying to say is ... here it comes ... that if it weren't for MS, we would still be paying an arm and a leg for PCs.
For the record, I'm a Linux Luver
Yes, it's worth it. Not only did it help me understand OOP better, but it also helped me understand the STL's design and how to use it more effectively. It helped make me a better designer too.
From what I understand, the humans who were exposed to HIV and didn't get sick were able to acheive this because their lymph nodes in their rectum "grabbed" the virus and kept it from really infecting them. Whereas people who didn't have this ability got sick.
So maybe a few centuries from now, the humans alive will have this "immunity" from AIDS too?A friend of mine teaches Constutional Law and Governement for a high school here in Atlanta. Unfortunately, it's an AP class. If a class like this was mandatory for EVERYONE, maybe we would see less of the populace willing to give away THEIR rights to politicians whose only goal is to keep their cushy jobs and promote their backer's agenda.
to be modified to produce human organs. Think of the possibilities for the penis enlargement industry. Think about the spam ...
"Get a Donkey Dick! Send $99.99 to www.donkeydick.ru ..
I thought it was funny :(
On the PBS show Small Business School (http://smallbusinessschool.org/webapp/sbs/sbs/ind ex-ie.jsp?Size=800&Speed=250&page=/webapp/sbs/prof iles/228/home.jsp), there was an episode about this guy who bought a chain of failing art supply stores (The Art Store). He used IT (AS/400s) to monitor his inventory, sales, costs, etc... He ended up turning the store around with a well implemented solution using technology that works. Not some new product/technology that's still being BETA'd.
I'm sure the /. crowd could come up with many more instances of similar situations.
Unfortunately, most people want to use the newest stuff out there and they don't consider if the tech. has been proven or not. I see it time and time again, somebody in management says something ridiculous like, "We need an Internet, Java, XML messaging, scalable, IT solution!" Of course, it's not allowed to ask, "Why do we need that when we could use a(n) ."
P.S. Sorry about the link. You can find the transcript of the show at smallbusinessschool.org and look for "The Art Store"
Only a "4". Mod him up to a five! My God!, he speak'th the truth!
You're absolutely right! I didn't even think of this. Even though it's an obvious argument (in hindsight), I bet most people haven't thought of it either. I suggest that you write an editorial to the magazine stating exactly what you stated above. Actually, maybe ALL of us should. Let me see that link ...
It's important to protect your rights: even if the software is under the GPL - I wouldn't want a big bad corporation to claim my creation is their work and to patent my software and start charging for my work. I hope that, due to leagal necessity, open software developers will never have to have a team of lawyers to protect themselves and subsequently have to charge for the software to pay the lawyers. We'll all suffer for this. Sometimes, I get so angry at our(US) legal system and its unfairness.
Anyone out there in the business to add to this?
If this company wants to make a go of this, they're going to have to make a military version. I don't know about you, but if I saw one of these things comming at me, I'd run for the hills!