AlGore hasn't seemed too excited over the other ecological disasters in China. Merely making it rain is trivial in comparison to some. So I'm guessing he's going to ignore it, but will have some pedestrian answer prepared if he's ambushed.
I think the reason is, these laws are "feel good" in purpose and nobody, not even the drafters, think they're going to be enforced other than selectively.
...you can still grope around under the seat for CDs in traffic but you can't use a voice dialer / hands free setup to tell wife you're stuck in traffic. Your tax dollars at work.
I think part of the reason for that is that the vendors in turn have outsourced routine support to offshore organizations, and one offshore organization can handle support for several vendors. Then, all you need is a call mis-routed, and suddenly you're talking to people who are not familiar with the product you're calling about, and might even be in an entirely different business.
I agree, it *is* amazing that they don't see it. But I think it's part and parcel of not seeing the value of the original organization or the risk involved in outsourcing your IT organization to very junior offshore personnel who only know how to follow written procedures. Once you've reached that point, not understanding why uptime is worse and development is at a standstill, and the willingness to believe the vendor's excuses, is a natural progression.
It may be as simple as not wanting to pay Apple's premium on dirt cheap commodity products, or having to replace the entire device when it's time to upgrade something as trivial as storage.
It doesn't matter why. I'm not going to get into an argument over why Jobs' vision is so much better than mine. It's not up to Apple to decide what I need, and I have no reason to lower the bar to what Apple wants to sell.
Not so far. The vendor keeps telling us that huge savings are just around the corner. Frankly it's starting to sound like "jam every other day". As in, Jam yesterday, Jam tomorrow, but no Jam today.
It's not necessarily the application, it's the system management. The vendor in our case manages the exact same applications that we used to manage in-house, only a *lot* slower and with hilarious communication issues.
I'm pretty sure the article is talking about infrastructure (partly because the summary *says* "shift the burden of maintaining and troubleshooting large parts of their IT infrastructure on to the vendors") which doesn't at all mean, to me, that the IT admins were writing their own database and the IT manager wanted to use Oracle instead.
Some things *are* generic, like most email requirements, and can be managed in a generic way. But even then, you have to be careful of bait-and-switch, where the vendor parades first class IT engineers in the discovery phase and then what you actually get are former Hyundai assemblers in Sriperumbudur.
There are IT gurus out there with free time. Some of them are working in environments that have completely outsourced to vendors, and the gurus end up educating the vendor's minions, sometimes on the most basic operations. Personally I find it easier when I open a ticket with the vendor to copy/paste the exact commands for them to run on servers on which I no longer have root. It saves time.
...and the biggest things we've lost are agility, performance and stability. It takes easily an order of magnitude longer to get anything done, and downtime numbers ratchet upwards. But the company is grimly determined to stick it out, because the vendor has "mature processes" which we supposedly didn't have before.
> The best selling tablet doesn't have an SD card, so no, that's not one of the problems.
The missing SD card slot is the top one of three missing features that prevents me from buying an iPad, so I'd say yes, the missing SD card slot is an issue for some people. Also, the missing Android marketplace. ("amazon market"? It is to laugh.)
iPad fanbois are not the only marketplace. Besides, they have already chosen their product. There's no point in trying to entice them away. What's needed is a viable product for those of us with non-Jobsian requirements.
No kidding. Although the argument could be made that even a moderately used BMW will be substantially more than a new Kia. Parenthetically, even a used beemer will probably last longer, so there is price per mile to consider. But more to the point, I've never understood the stigma of buying used vehicles, if they're in good repair. We tend to keep cars throughout their useful life, but we usually start with lease returns. Only 13K or so miles, and usually in nearly new shape, for substantially less than new, and still under warranty.
To the original point, I suspect one could make a reasonable profit acquiring i-castoffs (broken screen or headset jacks, (the most common failures) or just people replacing their device with the next incremental improvement) refurbishing, and reselling. I've done the refubishing part, it's fairly easy with the right tools, but never had an interest in seeing if I could make a living at it.
I'm conflicted here because the Kindle Fire is not for me; the form factor and CPU are good but I'm going to wait for a 7" pad with an SD card slot. (Other than the overpriced Galaxy.) On the other hand, I used an iPad for a week and gave it back; clearly that overpriced and overhyped device is not for me either. I guess I'm not a fanboi.
I followed some of the links, trying to find where Amazon has called the Fire an "ipod killer", and the only place I can find that phrase used is by various media pundits. (For instance, one PCMag article cites an earlier PCMag article. Wow, we're not CREATING news, are we?)
It appears that Amazon was trying to create a reader on a code base that they don't have to maintain themselves, that was compatible with Kindle content and also had some browsing capability. (Someone will surely correct me if I'm wrong.) I personally think it doesn't have enough memory or expandability to be a serious contender in the tablet marketplace, but that isn't important.
The Nook Color has some issues too. If we had the processor of the Fire and the features of the Color running full Android 3+ including Marketplace instead of dinking around with crippled versions of the OS, at that price point, or even a little more, well, I'd buy one. Some day it'll happen.
The Fire will either succeed (with a much needed firmware update) or it will fail. It doesn't really matter, as there will be alternatives. Some day, someone will take Amazon's idea of not trying to compete with the iPad as a boutique item but actually make a usable tablet for a reasonable price, and it'll really take off. But it'll have to be, you know, usable.
But I'm uncomfortable with "X will be a Y killer" especially when "Y" has a near-hysterically devoted fanbase. Rather, I think there is room in the marketplace for multiple products, including ones for people who are looking for a certain set of capabilities, and ones for people looking for a certain logo engraved on the trendy stainless back.
(And yes, I'm being intentionally provocative, as I found the tone of the parent article irritating and fanboi-ish.)
Answer: An ebook reader with some browsing capability. There, fixed it for you. Good thing, too; as a general tablet, it kinda sucks. Good thing it wasn't intended as that.
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> the less lethal they are the more quickly they get pulled out.
More correctly the less lethal they are perceived to be the more quickly they get pulled out.
AlGore hasn't seemed too excited over the other ecological disasters in China. Merely making it rain is trivial in comparison to some. So I'm guessing he's going to ignore it, but will have some pedestrian answer prepared if he's ambushed.
Um, no offense, but that seems to be really reaching.
I think the reason is, these laws are "feel good" in purpose and nobody, not even the drafters, think they're going to be enforced other than selectively.
I think part of the reason for that is that the vendors in turn have outsourced routine support to offshore organizations, and one offshore organization can handle support for several vendors. Then, all you need is a call mis-routed, and suddenly you're talking to people who are not familiar with the product you're calling about, and might even be in an entirely different business.
I agree, it *is* amazing that they don't see it. But I think it's part and parcel of not seeing the value of the original organization or the risk involved in outsourcing your IT organization to very junior offshore personnel who only know how to follow written procedures. Once you've reached that point, not understanding why uptime is worse and development is at a standstill, and the willingness to believe the vendor's excuses, is a natural progression.
> What would you like to see slowed down to such a degree?
Sofía Vergara, jumping rope, in the nude.
It may be as simple as not wanting to pay Apple's premium on dirt cheap commodity products, or having to replace the entire device when it's time to upgrade something as trivial as storage.
It doesn't matter why. I'm not going to get into an argument over why Jobs' vision is so much better than mine. It's not up to Apple to decide what I need, and I have no reason to lower the bar to what Apple wants to sell.
Because I require it.
Not so far. The vendor keeps telling us that huge savings are just around the corner. Frankly it's starting to sound like "jam every other day". As in, Jam yesterday, Jam tomorrow, but no Jam today.
Someone has issues.
It's not necessarily the application, it's the system management. The vendor in our case manages the exact same applications that we used to manage in-house, only a *lot* slower and with hilarious communication issues.
I'm pretty sure the article is talking about infrastructure (partly because the summary *says* "shift the burden of maintaining and troubleshooting large parts of their IT infrastructure on to the vendors") which doesn't at all mean, to me, that the IT admins were writing their own database and the IT manager wanted to use Oracle instead.
Some things *are* generic, like most email requirements, and can be managed in a generic way. But even then, you have to be careful of bait-and-switch, where the vendor parades first class IT engineers in the discovery phase and then what you actually get are former Hyundai assemblers in Sriperumbudur.
There are IT gurus out there with free time. Some of them are working in environments that have completely outsourced to vendors, and the gurus end up educating the vendor's minions, sometimes on the most basic operations. Personally I find it easier when I open a ticket with the vendor to copy/paste the exact commands for them to run on servers on which I no longer have root. It saves time.
> The best selling tablet doesn't have an SD card, so no, that's not one of the problems.
The missing SD card slot is the top one of three missing features that prevents me from buying an iPad, so I'd say yes, the missing SD card slot is an issue for some people. Also, the missing Android marketplace. ("amazon market"? It is to laugh.)
iPad fanbois are not the only marketplace. Besides, they have already chosen their product. There's no point in trying to entice them away. What's needed is a viable product for those of us with non-Jobsian requirements.
That doesn't make it a "general tablet". That makes it a ereader on steroids. As a general use tablet it's always been kinda anemic.
Wow, where did THAT come from?
> Or just buy a used BMW.
No kidding. Although the argument could be made that even a moderately used BMW will be substantially more than a new Kia. Parenthetically, even a used beemer will probably last longer, so there is price per mile to consider. But more to the point, I've never understood the stigma of buying used vehicles, if they're in good repair. We tend to keep cars throughout their useful life, but we usually start with lease returns. Only 13K or so miles, and usually in nearly new shape, for substantially less than new, and still under warranty.
To the original point, I suspect one could make a reasonable profit acquiring i-castoffs (broken screen or headset jacks, (the most common failures) or just people replacing their device with the next incremental improvement) refurbishing, and reselling. I've done the refubishing part, it's fairly easy with the right tools, but never had an interest in seeing if I could make a living at it.
I'm conflicted here because the Kindle Fire is not for me; the form factor and CPU are good but I'm going to wait for a 7" pad with an SD card slot. (Other than the overpriced Galaxy.) On the other hand, I used an iPad for a week and gave it back; clearly that overpriced and overhyped device is not for me either. I guess I'm not a fanboi.
I followed some of the links, trying to find where Amazon has called the Fire an "ipod killer", and the only place I can find that phrase used is by various media pundits. (For instance, one PCMag article cites an earlier PCMag article. Wow, we're not CREATING news, are we?)
It appears that Amazon was trying to create a reader on a code base that they don't have to maintain themselves, that was compatible with Kindle content and also had some browsing capability. (Someone will surely correct me if I'm wrong.) I personally think it doesn't have enough memory or expandability to be a serious contender in the tablet marketplace, but that isn't important.
The Nook Color has some issues too. If we had the processor of the Fire and the features of the Color running full Android 3+ including Marketplace instead of dinking around with crippled versions of the OS, at that price point, or even a little more, well, I'd buy one. Some day it'll happen.
The Fire will either succeed (with a much needed firmware update) or it will fail. It doesn't really matter, as there will be alternatives. Some day, someone will take Amazon's idea of not trying to compete with the iPad as a boutique item but actually make a usable tablet for a reasonable price, and it'll really take off. But it'll have to be, you know, usable.
But I'm uncomfortable with "X will be a Y killer" especially when "Y" has a near-hysterically devoted fanbase. Rather, I think there is room in the marketplace for multiple products, including ones for people who are looking for a certain set of capabilities, and ones for people looking for a certain logo engraved on the trendy stainless back.
(And yes, I'm being intentionally provocative, as I found the tone of the parent article irritating and fanboi-ish.)
> Answer: general tablet usage.
Answer: An ebook reader with some browsing capability. There, fixed it for you. Good thing, too; as a general tablet, it kinda sucks. Good thing it wasn't intended as that.
I'm gonna go with "none of them".
Were it awesome (at least comparatively) just across the border, why wouldn't they say so?