What matters far more is standardising the way the distros handle other things so that HowTos, installation scripts/instructions for printers etc can be written once without a whole lot of "On Ubuntu do this, on Fedora do that" stuff. Things that would help a lot: *Pick one printer handling mechanism. *Pick one package manager. *Standardise one one usb/udev/pam. *Pick one wireless management policy. Hide madwifi/ndiswrapper etc.
Is it really that they think their job is great and that they think their kids should so it or is it the ego effect?
Father-to-son bonding and passing a trade down has been something that people have been doing for ages. Apart from keeping the job in the family (not really an issue any more), it really allows the parents to boast to their colleagues about their children. Fathers also like it that their kids take interest in their work as it gives the father a good feeling that his son admires him. Then there's always the hope that your kid will do great and you can get some of the ego-shine.
There is a fallacy that putting a ntaural language on something will make it easy. There are many specialised languages that people use every day.
1 + 1 = 2 is a special notation/langauge that is both more consise and easier than writing "add one and one to make two". So is music score, which is far easier than reading make a high note for a bit then wait a bit and make a low note". Same with C, C++, SQL or Python: the hard bit in programming is algorithm design, not understanding the actual language itself.
Is Natural language really a barrier to entry in using Google? I doubt it. My untechy wife and her friends find everything they need. Plugging natural language into Google gives reasonable results moset of the time.
Flash itself is all one chip. The equivalent of a hard disk controller failure would be a failure in the read/write circuitry in the flash chip. Unless you're thinking of flash chip microsurgery, you're SOL.
Of course if only the USB interface chips are broken, you could potentially unsolder the flash part off the bad unit and onto a good unit and recover it.
The vast bulk of computers in the world are embedded systems and the vast bulk of these are very small micontrollers in appliances like rice cookers etc.
Some of these micros have no RAM - just registers. The need for frugal computing will continue forever.
Yes, it is true theat Moores Law also applies, to an extent, to these micros: you get faster and bigger devices for the same price. But Moore's Law works the other way too. A fixed capability device gets cheaper and cheaper. If a rice cooker manufacturer has a 50c controller in their rice cooker and can bring that cost down to 40c they'll do the software development needed to achieve this.
Quite often the userbase is not aware of the programmer shortage.
If you have a user list then quite often a plea for programmers/testers will achieve results. I have done this a few times for my major project and it has always worked.
I also disagree wiht parent that you should have posted the url on slashdot. You would have been slashdotted, for sure, the chances of finding interested developers is low. Most would have just been idle browsers.
A post on your own user list is far more likely to give results since the users have a vested interest in the software and are far more likely to be open to being "recruited".
is the SmileyMicro stuff: http://www.smileymicros.com/ It is basically a simplified course in a book, covering microcontroller programming, interrupts, interfacing, control etc using 8-bit micros. No special equipment needed beyond a soldering iron + PC (if you buy the kit with the book).
Once you get through that you'll have a reasonable understanding of the field.
I have the Art of Electronics and a wide range of other books. AoE is great for introductory EE, but is overkill for the level you are talking about and does not cover practical stuff.
I would suggest looking at the various hobby robotics books in a good bookshop. Most of these will cover stuff like how to solder, how a transistor/FET work and how to wire up configurations like H bridges etc.
I did not RTFA, but there is no need to. Wind is great, but it does not blow 100% of the time in an area the size of a town/city. Therefore they are relying on other power sources some of the time.
They might be a net generator of power, but they are ultimately using other power sources some of the time.
From a user's perspective, one large search engine is better than three small ones. If you're selling bicycles or other product then normal market conditions apply, but with free-to-use search, bigger is better. Would you rather have to hit three or four smaller search sites to find something or just one site?
Thus, minor players make no sense in search.
All searching is free to the user, so the only place where the there is any competition is in the cost to advertisers and this is self regulating because there is still competition from other media. If Google charge too much for their search ads, then the advertisers will just go spend their advertising dollars in glossy magazines or on CNN.com and other places.
It is part of the licensing. The license is an agreement and may have conditions in it.
For example, the old Borland licenses, and some others, state that you may not use the product in the development of a competing product. eg: you were not allowed to use the Borland compilers+libraries to make a competing IDE. If someone wanted to release software on the condition that it was not used on Sundays, or that you eat a burrito every day, that you use the software, or that it is not used in medical products, they can impose these conditions. Don't like them? Don't use their software.
Liability is also typically part of the agreement too. Don't like the conditions then don't buy the software.
That's part of why GPL has the "for whatever purpose" clauses ase well as the "no liability" clauses.
The whole Yahoo deal was to make fight with Google. There is no "synergy" between MS and Yahoo. The deal makes no sense beyond trying to buy eyeballs to be temporarily bigger than Google. But that would not have lasted long: Most Yahoo and MSN are going south and Google is going north.
Buying Danger Inc http://www.danger.com/ was to make fight with Google Android (Danger was founded by the Google Android guys). Again, no synergy with MS's current mobile offerings.
Most folk working at Yahoo and Danger would probably rather quit than get Borged, so trying to acquire skills is pointless (and neither Danger nor Yahoo use Windows so would really not help anyway).
Slashdot Mirror
What matters far more is standardising the way the distros handle other things so that HowTos, installation scripts/instructions for printers etc can be written once without a whole lot of "On Ubuntu do this, on Fedora do that" stuff. Things that would help a lot:
*Pick one printer handling mechanism.
*Pick one package manager.
*Standardise one one usb/udev/pam.
*Pick one wireless management policy. Hide madwifi/ndiswrapper etc.
He won't until he kills himself.
Don't try to erase the HDD. Remove it and throw it away.
Father-to-son bonding and passing a trade down has been something that people have been doing for ages. Apart from keeping the job in the family (not really an issue any more), it really allows the parents to boast to their colleagues about their children. Fathers also like it that their kids take interest in their work as it gives the father a good feeling that his son admires him. Then there's always the hope that your kid will do great and you can get some of the ego-shine.
Quantum stuff is so illogical to us mortals that you'd expect attempting to break it would just make it stronger.
1 + 1 = 2 is a special notation/langauge that is both more consise and easier than writing "add one and one to make two". So is music score, which is far easier than reading make a high note for a bit then wait a bit and make a low note". Same with C, C++, SQL or Python: the hard bit in programming is algorithm design, not understanding the actual language itself.
Is Natural language really a barrier to entry in using Google? I doubt it. My untechy wife and her friends find everything they need. Plugging natural language into Google gives reasonable results moset of the time.
Of course if only the USB interface chips are broken, you could potentially unsolder the flash part off the bad unit and onto a good unit and recover it.
Here in NZ, texting is used a lot and the phone companies do really good deals that work out at 1c per text or so.
The article is a crock too. If you buy text messages in bulk they cost almost nothing.
Disputes between citizens of different countries are already resolved on the high seas by maritime law. Dumping too.
Space law just sounds like a degree cooked up by one of those internet universities that send you a pdf degree.
Some of these micros have no RAM - just registers. The need for frugal computing will continue forever.
Yes, it is true theat Moores Law also applies, to an extent, to these micros: you get faster and bigger devices for the same price. But Moore's Law works the other way too. A fixed capability device gets cheaper and cheaper. If a rice cooker manufacturer has a 50c controller in their rice cooker and can bring that cost down to 40c they'll do the software development needed to achieve this.
If you have a user list then quite often a plea for programmers/testers will achieve results. I have done this a few times for my major project and it has always worked.
I also disagree wiht parent that you should have posted the url on slashdot. You would have been slashdotted, for sure, the chances of finding interested developers is low. Most would have just been idle browsers.
A post on your own user list is far more likely to give results since the users have a vested interest in the software and are far more likely to be open to being "recruited".
If they're on a game or simulator there is no risk of death, then otherwise cautious people will screw around more than they would on a real road.
Simulator derived stats are BS.
And while we're at it, a British dog would never be so crass as to poop. Shit crap, defecate, but never poop!
you could hook it up to Google Earth. That would allow Google to do all the pan/joom heavy lifting.
but perhaps not a sustainable environmental model.
Bamboo rots. Gives off methane and CO2. Methane is almost 30x as bad a greenhouse gas as CO2.
Remember Bill Clinton claiming $4 rebate for each pair of used underpants he donated to charity?
On both shipped Zunes!
Once you get through that you'll have a reasonable understanding of the field.
I would suggest looking at the various hobby robotics books in a good bookshop. Most of these will cover stuff like how to solder, how a transistor/FET work and how to wire up configurations like H bridges etc.
wtf?
They might be a net generator of power, but they are ultimately using other power sources some of the time.
Thus, minor players make no sense in search.
All searching is free to the user, so the only place where the there is any competition is in the cost to advertisers and this is self regulating because there is still competition from other media. If Google charge too much for their search ads, then the advertisers will just go spend their advertising dollars in glossy magazines or on CNN.com and other places.
For example, the old Borland licenses, and some others, state that you may not use the product in the development of a competing product. eg: you were not allowed to use the Borland compilers+libraries to make a competing IDE. If someone wanted to release software on the condition that it was not used on Sundays, or that you eat a burrito every day, that you use the software, or that it is not used in medical products, they can impose these conditions. Don't like them? Don't use their software.
Liability is also typically part of the agreement too. Don't like the conditions then don't buy the software.
That's part of why GPL has the "for whatever purpose" clauses ase well as the "no liability" clauses.
Buying Danger Inc http://www.danger.com/ was to make fight with Google Android (Danger was founded by the Google Android guys). Again, no synergy with MS's current mobile offerings.
Most folk working at Yahoo and Danger would probably rather quit than get Borged, so trying to acquire skills is pointless (and neither Danger nor Yahoo use Windows so would really not help anyway).