The underlying importance of these recent moves is that a major financial holder who possess a cunning internet prescence is buying up search engines. Google rules now, but if Yahoo or Overture throws enough money at something else, then "it" just might become a contender in the coming months.
Frankly, I think that they still have a lot of catching up to do. I find some of the most remarkable pictures of Jessica Alba and Brintey Spears in 3 seconds of searching on images.google.com - thumbnails and all. Thousands of them. I don't know how Altavista can ever concieve of contending with that.
I have become numb to Microsoft upgrades. There was virtually no difference between Office and Office 97. The differences between Office 97 and 2000 were mostly visual (and the addition of broken compatibilities). The differences between Windows 98 and Windows ME were just pointless. I still consider Windows XP an expensive, restrictively licensed downgrade to Windows 2000.
Lower cost overall....or at least one would hope. We all know that Sun's OS can outperform Linux in many respects. But Sun knows that they cannot compete with the open source crowd (Compete directly that is. I know that Sun contributes to open source, but they are hampered by McNealy who feels the need to keep calling Linux "just a tool", and does not commit to it more), as Linux tends to make huge leaps and bounds in a short time while Sun usually just tweaks a few interest points at a time. This should be expected, since heart felt developers and programmers on the "take" improve Linux daily, and these improvements are widespread since the interests of the many Linux developers vary. On the low end Sun servers cost $250,000 (unless you cut a deal), while IBM Linux servers that can accomplish much of the same tasks as the Sun equivalent run you roughly $4,000 (unless again, you cut a deal). This leaves alot of money left over for support and contracts, including software customization fees.
In any event, the Sun blades aren't in direct competition with commercial Linux offerings (yet), so I don't see how much this will help them. The inclusion of AMD CPUs will only marginally improve costs on the Blades.
Well, many researchers foretold Sun slowly to move to AMD as they enter the x86 market. You would expect that their next move will be low cost (low for Sun) Linux offerings with AMD chips to compete with IBM's $4,000 offerings.
The TCO in this environment should be far lower then a Microsoft equivalent. The operating system is free, there are no licenses, and no fees for the purchase of the renewal of licenses for Windows based development software. The support overhead should be non-existant, as the school district IT staff should just set them all up as terminals, or can have images handy for quick ghosting (if needs be).
It seemed to me like the author did his or her very best top find some amount of good in all of Microsoft's evils and shortcomings. This sounded more like an expansive, carefully crafted PR statement then a real piece of journalism.
So they intend on doing away with the traditional hub/switch/router layout, in which someone administers the network and decides what amount of bandwidth goes where, and instead embed these functions into the wireless devices themselves? Seems a bit ambitious.
And old D&D book got me into RPG video games
on
A 1974 Review of D&D
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· Score: 4, Interesting
When I was a kid, my sister's boyfriend had this weird book about knights and wizards that he duplicated the art work from. It contained all sorts of pictures and descriptions of fantastic monsters and magical weapons and items. The artwork was great. It also had a brief quest that you could play. You were a warrior that had to go into a dungeon and hunt down a rogue wizard (called a "mage", a term that I had never heard at that time). It presented you with a narrative, a story, that asked of you to make decisions on what to do next. It also asked that you roll a dice at certain times and goto a certain page dependant upon the result. I remember dying by this damn giant spider about 8 times. I felt rewarded when I finished it - it was fun.
It was a cool book, a Dungeons and Dragons book. The adults told me that it was bad and made people act out elaborate fantasies and commit violent crimes. So I gave it up before ever actually playing it in the classic sense. But when this game for the Nintendo came out named "Dragon Warrior", I pounced on it. In a way, it a was a video game representation of what I loved about that book. I have since been a avid RPG video game player since.
I agree. Last year, most people would have said that Linux would have never had a chance at gaining any of Sun's market share. And yet, many shops are replacing $250,000 Sun solutions with $4,000 Linux boxes from IBM and HP. In nearly no time at all, IBM and the open source crowd took the Linux kernel and made it compatible with their systems, run thousands of instances of itself, and scale to 4 processors. Imagine what Linux will be in a year.
McNealy keeps talking down Linux, calling it "just another tool". This is understandable, since he has a responsibility to make his product and company look like the corporate provider of real solutions, and Linux "just a tool" for the playful and rebellious.
I give McNealy about another 2 years as Sun's chairman. After that, Sun is going to need some real vision to persevere, because IBM is going to be all over the place with this "tool".
Cool, I can't wait to abandon my clingy android son in the middle of the woods, his eyes tearing and hangs clinging feebily to the bumper, while driving away in my stylish Honda FCX. I can't wait for the future.
Pardon me for being so pessimistic, but with a company like Microsoft implementing such a broad and ambitious security scheme, It sounds more like "Microsoft is threading potential security flaws throughout the Office 2003 suite". Furthermore, the new properties being assigned to the files will likely all but assure that users will either have to upgrade, or face constant patching and updating of their software in order to read the documents. This will in turn make it much more difficult for competitors to insure compatibility.
According to the article, Morgan Stanley is saving roughly $25,000 per server over 5 years by moving to Linux. Since it's a financial firm that knows howto account for evey obscure penny saved, this is most likely highly accurate. I have seen reports of German financial companies saving something like 6 million dollars by switching to Linux (over the course of the usual 4-5 year estimate). CGI shops are enthusiastically promoting open source solutions as a means of cutting costs.
It is amazing that with such astounding real world examples of the cost benefits of open source (not counting all of the other benefits), Microsoft and Sun can still find ways to convince suits that the cost of Linux/open office/etc training outweigh the license and support savings made by dropping Microsoft or Sun. Reports and estimations of rapidly gaining Linux market share always bolster my hopes, but sometimes I just can't see it.
This is a move that will help in limiting child pornography on the internet. The process of legistlation should correct the issues concerning the blocking of valid sites on the same server (at least I hope so). Besides, if my stupg blog has to go offline for a few days while the FBI gags-and-bags one of these sicko's, I'm fine with it.
I understand that people that run businesses online can't afford to be so blase, but hey. I'm just a turd with a website.
I always assumed that the need to reboot the NT servers constantly and the causes of all of those blue screens and crashes were because of bugs in the code. Now I realize that the failures in software operation were actually the indirect effects of my own delusional and psychological problems manifesting themselves in the electrical componets of the systems.
And to think that I actually spent money on a shrink. Thanks for the free mental diagnosis Mr Gates!
"The SEC labeled him a "professional Internet spammer."
They might also want to take a look at Britney_caught_xXx_HOTHOTHOT@hotmail.com as well. This young woman has cunningly persuaded me ( weilding the lure of false information and promises) to spend at least $8,550 on internnet "entertainment" between 1999 and the present. I demand that action be taken.
This is what it all boils down too: cost. They are trying to market this unit to a crowd of highly educated and even technical (Silicon Valley, Research Triangle, etc) people. Highly educated and technical people understand how much it really costs to build such a machine. Since they are targeting corporate America, they should be aware that many of their potential customers know how to sniff out a bad marketing ploy. The overblown price reveals to us how their marketing people are trying for massive profit margins. These little machines are far less complicated and cost far to build then a good motorcycle or even a used Honda Civic, so why do they cost as much as one?
You just can't demand what they're asking, period.
The Google device is actually a terrific tool. It is to intranet searching what Fluke is to network analyzing (at 7k you can't beat it). The Google appliance is very "smart" and adaptive. I want to say "agile", but ugghhh, I am so tired of that marketing term.
The underlying importance of these moves is that major financial holders who possess a cunning internet prescence are buying up search engines (well Yahoo anyways). Google rules now, but if Yahoo or Overture throws enough money at something else, then "it" just might become a contender in the coming months.
Frankly, I think that they still have a lot of catching up to do. I find some of the most remarkable pictures of Jessica Alba and Brintey Spears in 3 seconds of searching on images.google.com - thumbnails and all. Thousands of them. I don't know how Altavista can ever concieve of contending with that.
The "you fail it!" troll is an actual productive, good natured human being. My worldview has just changed somewhat. This is an odd territory for me.
By the way, I agree totally with you fail man. The best thing about being popular in high school are the many good natured relationships that exist long after highschool. It also bagged me the hottest Latin chick in school (who I am still happily with), but that's a different story. =)
I've been working profesionally in the IT field for about 4 years now, so my opinion on your post just might mean something - though no more then anyone else's here.
I understand that as a 16-17 year old student, the only Linux users that you have been exposed to are likely elitist uber geeks that like to berade Windows "just because", so I can understand your viewpoint in some respects. I just want to remind you that the majority of Linux users choose the platform out of a want for freedom and for the basic fact that they control the system and how it works (it's really transparent in many ways), not the other way around. Compiling code and choosing what inane window manager to use really means something to those of us that care and have the knowledge to do so (I am not trying to sound elitist, I'm just pointing out this simple fact). Many of the professors that work at my old job use Linux because they have control over it, and can customize their software (or know scientists that can do it for them). My dentist uses Linux because it is free and doesn't crash on him daily (yes, I moved his entire office over from Windows 2000 and XP to Redhat 7.2). My Russian co-worker is in his 50's, is a two time MCSE, and uses Linux because it is more powerful and practical for his consulting (he is a CCNP that contracts out for "heavy duty" connecting-50-networks-together-from-around-the-wo rld networking). The Windows platform does not offer him the amount of freedom and software choice without a high cost that Linux does.
And again, from the experience of a person that beta tested Windows 2000 on a mission critical system and probably was using Windows XP before most people had even realized that it wasn't going to be named "Whislter" any longer, I can tell you that it is no where near as stable as Linux or BSD (especially BSD). It doesn't take a genious to figure out XP, hell it's amazingly simple running a Windows server (or 10, like I used to). The problem is that you know little about what is going on, and even the software companies that you pay a bundle too are reluctant to "give up the goods" concerning the details of how their software talks to Windows. In such an environment, crashes and downtime are inevitable. I understand that your box doesn't crash when you are using it to play Unreal 2003 or download off Kazaa, but try managing 500 workstations running Windows XP in a corporate setting with Netware servers and a variety of legacy database clients and see how many service tickets are generated just to get people up and running again. It's a lot, if you didn't guess that already. A hell of lot more then our Slackware clients back at my college job ever generated anyways.
My current employment affords me the ability to get in-depth info on just how unstable XP really is to hardware device driver writers. It isn't very pretty.
In closing I just want to say that you are lucky. Everyone I work with (and it's a lot, trust me) have their share of XP horror stories. No one has a Linux horror story to speak of. This is an important reason why I enthusiastically use and promote Linux for personal and business use. I also want to commend you for defending your OS choice, it's not an easy thing to do on Slashdot.
I don't know about all of that. I wasn't unpopular by any means in highschool, and I remember there being plenty of really smart kids that came to all of the parties and stuff. In fact, the top 5 or 6 students of my class (you know, those 5 or 6 girls and guys that are always class president, straight A students without even trying) were very popular. I used to see at least one of them every weekend when I was out. These people, even though they were extremely bright (one, a guy named Scott I think, even works at IBM as a programmer now, so his pal told me the other day) and "geeky" found it easy to integrate socially.
The real geeks were not the extremely bright, but rather the extremely akward. The punk rockers, the goth kids, the vampires (who were usually also homosexual), the over-excited white guy that acted black but had no black friends, the "only thing I'm good at is sports" guy, the group of fat girls that tried to dress provactively, the surfer wannabes, the skater wannabes, et cetera. Most of the geeks weren't very bright at all, and certaingly weren't elitist.
...I wasn't into science or computers until college. I didn't even use a computer to any measurable degree until I was about 18. I didn't know who Carl Sagan was until I was 21. I lived the standard high school template: sports and actual academia in my freshman year, way too much health-hazardous sex and drugs in grades 10 and 11, and a senior year spent mostly at the beach. I basically wasted most of time in various art classes throughout, which were nothing but time sinks that lacked any actual work or effort (traits that I have come to love in the professional world as well).
I then attended college for computer science, landed a part time tech job at the same college within a week (which quickly turned into a full time gig after roughly a month), was introduced to Linux, and now I'm hear on Slashdot. A regular, on Slashdot. Yay Linux, it turned a perfectly normal human being into a geek.
Slashdot Mirror
At this rate, when you query the word "google" on google.com, it will no longer return "google.com" as the number one hit, but rather "slashdot.org"
The underlying importance of these recent moves is that a major financial holder who possess a cunning internet prescence is buying up search engines. Google rules now, but if Yahoo or Overture throws enough money at something else, then "it" just might become a contender in the coming months. Frankly, I think that they still have a lot of catching up to do. I find some of the most remarkable pictures of Jessica Alba and Brintey Spears in 3 seconds of searching on images.google.com - thumbnails and all. Thousands of them. I don't know how Altavista can ever concieve of contending with that.
first post....
This will likewise fail it.
In any event, the Sun blades aren't in direct competition with commercial Linux offerings (yet), so I don't see how much this will help them. The inclusion of AMD CPUs will only marginally improve costs on the Blades.
Well, many researchers foretold Sun slowly to move to AMD as they enter the x86 market. You would expect that their next move will be low cost (low for Sun) Linux offerings with AMD chips to compete with IBM's $4,000 offerings.
The TCO in this environment should be far lower then a Microsoft equivalent. The operating system is free, there are no licenses, and no fees for the purchase of the renewal of licenses for Windows based development software. The support overhead should be non-existant, as the school district IT staff should just set them all up as terminals, or can have images handy for quick ghosting (if needs be).
It seemed to me like the author did his or her very best top find some amount of good in all of Microsoft's evils and shortcomings. This sounded more like an expansive, carefully crafted PR statement then a real piece of journalism.
So they intend on doing away with the traditional hub/switch/router layout, in which someone administers the network and decides what amount of bandwidth goes where, and instead embed these functions into the wireless devices themselves? Seems a bit ambitious.
It was a cool book, a Dungeons and Dragons book. The adults told me that it was bad and made people act out elaborate fantasies and commit violent crimes. So I gave it up before ever actually playing it in the classic sense. But when this game for the Nintendo came out named "Dragon Warrior", I pounced on it. In a way, it a was a video game representation of what I loved about that book. I have since been a avid RPG video game player since.
McNealy keeps talking down Linux, calling it "just another tool". This is understandable, since he has a responsibility to make his product and company look like the corporate provider of real solutions, and Linux "just a tool" for the playful and rebellious.
I give McNealy about another 2 years as Sun's chairman. After that, Sun is going to need some real vision to persevere, because IBM is going to be all over the place with this "tool".
Cool, I can't wait to abandon my clingy android son in the middle of the woods, his eyes tearing and hangs clinging feebily to the bumper, while driving away in my stylish Honda FCX. I can't wait for the future.
Pardon me for being so pessimistic, but with a company like Microsoft implementing such a broad and ambitious security scheme, It sounds more like "Microsoft is threading potential security flaws throughout the Office 2003 suite". Furthermore, the new properties being assigned to the files will likely all but assure that users will either have to upgrade, or face constant patching and updating of their software in order to read the documents. This will in turn make it much more difficult for competitors to insure compatibility.
It is amazing that with such astounding real world examples of the cost benefits of open source (not counting all of the other benefits), Microsoft and Sun can still find ways to convince suits that the cost of Linux/open office/etc training outweigh the license and support savings made by dropping Microsoft or Sun. Reports and estimations of rapidly gaining Linux market share always bolster my hopes, but sometimes I just can't see it.
My lifelong pursuit of first post is over. Yes, that was me, I did not FAIL IT!! YES!
I understand that people that run businesses online can't afford to be so blase, but hey. I'm just a turd with a website.
And to think that I actually spent money on a shrink. Thanks for the free mental diagnosis Mr Gates!
*braces for impact against the ensuing "anti-KDE/Trolltech, pro gtk threads"*
They might also want to take a look at Britney_caught_xXx_HOTHOTHOT@hotmail.com as well. This young woman has cunningly persuaded me ( weilding the lure of false information and promises) to spend at least $8,550 on internnet "entertainment" between 1999 and the present. I demand that action be taken.
You just can't demand what they're asking, period.
The Google device is actually a terrific tool. It is to intranet searching what Fluke is to network analyzing (at 7k you can't beat it). The Google appliance is very "smart" and adaptive. I want to say "agile", but ugghhh, I am so tired of that marketing term.
Frankly, I think that they still have a lot of catching up to do. I find some of the most remarkable pictures of Jessica Alba and Brintey Spears in 3 seconds of searching on images.google.com - thumbnails and all. Thousands of them. I don't know how Altavista can ever concieve of contending with that.
By the way, I agree totally with you fail man. The best thing about being popular in high school are the many good natured relationships that exist long after highschool. It also bagged me the hottest Latin chick in school (who I am still happily with), but that's a different story. =)
I understand that as a 16-17 year old student, the only Linux users that you have been exposed to are likely elitist uber geeks that like to berade Windows "just because", so I can understand your viewpoint in some respects. I just want to remind you that the majority of Linux users choose the platform out of a want for freedom and for the basic fact that they control the system and how it works (it's really transparent in many ways), not the other way around. Compiling code and choosing what inane window manager to use really means something to those of us that care and have the knowledge to do so (I am not trying to sound elitist, I'm just pointing out this simple fact). Many of the professors that work at my old job use Linux because they have control over it, and can customize their software (or know scientists that can do it for them). My dentist uses Linux because it is free and doesn't crash on him daily (yes, I moved his entire office over from Windows 2000 and XP to Redhat 7.2). My Russian co-worker is in his 50's, is a two time MCSE, and uses Linux because it is more powerful and practical for his consulting (he is a CCNP that contracts out for "heavy duty" connecting-50-networks-together-from-around-the-wo rld networking). The Windows platform does not offer him the amount of freedom and software choice without a high cost that Linux does.
And again, from the experience of a person that beta tested Windows 2000 on a mission critical system and probably was using Windows XP before most people had even realized that it wasn't going to be named "Whislter" any longer, I can tell you that it is no where near as stable as Linux or BSD (especially BSD). It doesn't take a genious to figure out XP, hell it's amazingly simple running a Windows server (or 10, like I used to). The problem is that you know little about what is going on, and even the software companies that you pay a bundle too are reluctant to "give up the goods" concerning the details of how their software talks to Windows. In such an environment, crashes and downtime are inevitable. I understand that your box doesn't crash when you are using it to play Unreal 2003 or download off Kazaa, but try managing 500 workstations running Windows XP in a corporate setting with Netware servers and a variety of legacy database clients and see how many service tickets are generated just to get people up and running again. It's a lot, if you didn't guess that already. A hell of lot more then our Slackware clients back at my college job ever generated anyways.
My current employment affords me the ability to get in-depth info on just how unstable XP really is to hardware device driver writers. It isn't very pretty.
In closing I just want to say that you are lucky. Everyone I work with (and it's a lot, trust me) have their share of XP horror stories. No one has a Linux horror story to speak of. This is an important reason why I enthusiastically use and promote Linux for personal and business use. I also want to commend you for defending your OS choice, it's not an easy thing to do on Slashdot.
The real geeks were not the extremely bright, but rather the extremely akward. The punk rockers, the goth kids, the vampires (who were usually also homosexual), the over-excited white guy that acted black but had no black friends, the "only thing I'm good at is sports" guy, the group of fat girls that tried to dress provactively, the surfer wannabes, the skater wannabes, et cetera. Most of the geeks weren't very bright at all, and certaingly weren't elitist.
I then attended college for computer science, landed a part time tech job at the same college within a week (which quickly turned into a full time gig after roughly a month), was introduced to Linux, and now I'm hear on Slashdot. A regular, on Slashdot. Yay Linux, it turned a perfectly normal human being into a geek.