vondiggity writes to tell us that HP is working on several different ways to make an end run around Vista .
Vista doesn't seem to be hurting HP's bottom line:
After the bell, Hewlett-Packard reported a 14.0% increase in third-quarter profits on strong laptop sales and growth in its international markets.
Investors have been worried HP was losing market share to rivals Dell and Apple but so far that has not happened. The company has been helped by cost cuts and strong sales outside the United States.
But nothing in the company's numbers speaks of a downturn. HP reported fiscal third-quarter net earnings of $2.0 billion, or 80 cents a share, up 14% from $1.8 billion, or 66 cents a share, in the prior year.HP Holds Its Own {August 19]
HP seems to showing more interest in European styling:
Instead of building workhorse machines in utilitarian cases, Hewlett-Packard strives to create sleeker, more stylish PCs by looking to the fabrics and shapes in Italy's furniture showrooms, said Stacy Wolff, director of notebook-computer design.
Putting form and function before component costs mirrors a strategy by Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, whose aluminum-clad desktops and notebooks have propelled the company to its highest PC market share in at least a decade.
Hewlett-Packard had 19 percent of worldwide PC shipments in the second quarter, compared with Dell's 16 percent, according to technology researcher IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts. Hewlett- Packard has increased its share every quarter since taking the lead from Dell in 2006. Apple had 3.6 percent.Hewlett-Packard's Cues From Milan Lift PC Profit [Updated August 19]
This means that home customers won't be able to buy a Thinkpad without paying the Microsoft tax. Word has it that the decision to pull the plug on Linux came down from the highest levels of the Chinese company's corporate headquarters. .
News at Eleven: Lenovo pulls the plug on a product that isn't selling well in the North American market.
Of the 99 laptop PCs currently available from Walmart.com only six run Linux and all six are $300 netbooks
- and only one or two of these are to be found "in selected stores."
If the "Microsoft Tax" meant anything in the mass consumer market why does the OEM Linux PC remain firmly anchored among the bottom feeders in big box retail?
Encrypted distributed donated storage sounds a lot like Freenet.:) .
Which suggests that it has all the downsides to Freenet:
You are not a common carrier.
You do not know what traffic is moving through your network or what content is currently resident on your servers.
You do not know who is donating the storage - their numbers or their motives.
How much would it cost the NSA to maintain 1,000 - 10,000 -100,000 nodes and super-nodes on these networks?
Nodes that will never be lacking in bandwidth or storage.
Hold enough pieces of the puzzle and the chances are good they will begin to fit together.
Being drawn into the world of civil or criminal investigation is - at the very least - disturbing and disruptive - even when you are not a "person of interest."
Thats already $93,000/y at @15/month in subscription fees alone. I'm sure that WoW could hire one programmer to work on the linux port + support costs. .
That $93K is gross not net.
That doesn't begin to cover the base salaries of your skeletal Linux support team
Of which the defense simply allowed without showing the substantive quantity of original text following the lifted text? Please. If any lawyer is that incompetent, he deserves to lose. .
In a motion for summary judgment, the court looks at the law and the agreed-upon facts in the light most favorable to the opponent of the motion.
When the deck is stacked your favor and you still hold the losing hand, it is time to cash in what remains of your chips and go home.
The opening sentence is terrible, talk about putting a personal spin on it. Rowling's wealth and success means she can't be a victim? Kdawson is an idiot. .
NewYorkCountryLawyer is also an idiot. Because he knows that kind of rabble rousing nonsense wouldn't be tolerated inside a courtroom.
The defendant lost because it was trivially easy to prove that his Lexicon was simply pasted together from passages in the books.
The thief remains a thief no matter how rich his victim.
Of course society's subjective judgment is important - if you don't make "enough" from your "intellectual property" you can't very well pay the lawyers to defend it, can you? .
You could defend it yourself.
Lawyers have, however, been known work "pro bono" - or for a share of the proceeds.
Just as writers have been known to form unions, guilds and other forms of trade associations to protect their own interests.
Who defends - your - rights under the GPL?
If your only answer is "me, myself, and I" then why have you bothered publishing under a license that you know can be safely ignored?
It maters not what the geek says
on
Review: Spore
·
· Score: 1
Sorry, this is the topic at the forefront of many people's minds when they think about Spore. >
Many - or just the obsessive-compulsives who post their rants to Slashdot - or Amazon.com?
The Top 25 in PC Game Sales at Amazon.com [4 PM ET Sept 9]
Meaning that the train has left the station before the geek can block the tracks:
EA Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning WofW: Rath of the Lich King EA Left4Dead EA Cyris Warhead Civ4: Colonization Fallout 3. The $120 Amazon Survival Edition and the $50 game.
He doesn't have to worry about competing with other auto manufacturers, pressure from Oil companies or ambulance chasers suing him because of some manufacturing flaw. .
Will anyone insure your work?
When the wheels fall off your little red wagon, what is your legal and financial exposure?
but i'm here on planet earth where the spread of "american ideals and values", especially in terms of copyright, has plunged the entire western world into an economic tail-spin .
the last time I looked - copyright had little to do with the price of oil. or housing. or support costs for an aging population.
but media production - books, film, television, video games, et al. - were generating a lot of skilled jobs and export dollars.
Damn all those people slowing down *my* internet by using the bandwidth that they paid for! .
But do they pay for it?
Residential access is typically shared and you are guaranteed nothing more than always on access.
When the price of milk is $5 a gallon don't expect Granny to subsidize the investment in infrastructure needed to fuel your P2P habit - not at 250-500 GB a month.
What are the odds of a WEP network in a suburban area being cracked into over, say, a year? I suppose it all hinges on that. .
But at what distance does this story remain plausible and how often can you play this card and keep it convincing?
In this upper middle class suburb you would have to nose up mighty close to your neighbor to get a decent lock on that signal and hold it for two hours, let alone two months.
Wouldn't leaving ReiserFS because it will supposedly become unsupported at some point in the future become self-fulfilling?
If you find it to be a good filesystem, I say keep using it. If it is a good filesystem, someone will maintain it. If not, then it dies because it deserves to and not because of FUD. .
Hope is not a plan.
It is reasonable to wary of any project so uniquely identified with a single individual.
But a filing system? How many developers have the freedom and the confidence to take on something so elemental?
Now that OLPC has decided to super size their systems to run Windows XP, the $100 price point has slipped beyond their reach. .
OLPC sold less than 700,000 units by May 29th of this year. 80,000 of those sales were give one - get one promos.
--- almost exclusively targeting the Linux Geek.
The third world education minister simply wasn't buying into Linux, Sugar and a constructivist philosophy of education.
The "Give 1 Get 1" donation of $399 had a tax-deductible portion of $200 under US tax code as the XO-1 laptop delivered to the donor was valued at $199 by the OLPC Foundation." One Laptop per Child
If you take OLPC at its word, then they never had a $100 Linux laptop - at least not at the "direct sale" price.
There are enormous economies of scale in the Windows marketplace The cost of the OEM install scarcely matters.
For the better part of a decade, WalMart has been teasing the geek with a merry-go-round of short-lived OEM Linux promotions that always give way to the Windows system with stronger specs and a marginally higher price.
And AOL can ban you for using vulgar language on AIM. Funny, right? .
not if you are marketing a product or service to users who want a family friendly experience. then it is just good business. no goat sex links. no GNAA.
The problem as always is not in finding the "perfect" game engine but in assembling the talent needed to develop the game as a whole: story, dialog, art and animation, music and effects.
It always comes as a shock to the newly surburbanized geek when his neighbors begin insisting that he curb his dog, mow the lawn and replace the siding which hasn't seen a new coat of paint since the Carter Administration.
This isn't 1984. It is - for better or worse - simply the price of admission.
built my own server room by adding two additional layers of insulation on to the existing sheetrock (styrofoam with a plastic vinyl 4x8 sheet paneling .
Two layers of styrofoam on top of the existing sheetrock sounds like a fire waiting to happen.
Foam insulation is relatively hard to ignite but when ignited, it burns readily and emits a dense, black, smoke containing many toxic gases. The combustion characteristics of foam insulation products vary with the combustion temperatures, chemical formulation, and available air.
Because of the dangers described above, foams used for construction require a covering as a fire barrier. One half-inch thick (1.27 cm) gypsum wallboard is one of the most common fire barriers.Foam and foam board insulation
W3C is faced with a question: should they bless Microsoft's EOT for use on the web? Or, should they encourage normal font files on the web and help break Microsoft's forgotten monopoly .
There are thousands of "free" fonts to be found on the web.
But the truth of it is that type design and typography on the professional level is as a ratified a skill as you will find anywhere:
Because if sakusha knows that Linux has approximately one percent desktop penetration, then he should also know that the cost of adopting and supporting Silverlight would be higher that other more open methods. .
This assumes that the distribution of alternative content costs significantly less - or at least no more - than Silverlight, while still reaching the same audience.
Make it fail. Make it fail spectacularly, to the tune of millions of dollars. That will certainly get the CEO's attention, and he will be sure to take measures that will stop such failure in the future. Of course, I can pretty much guarantee that you will not like his solution, but software development will be much more professional afterward. .
His solution begins with you being pushed under a bus - sabotage is never a good career move. You haven't proved that the software sucks, you've only proved that you suck.
The Romans were bitching about the decadence of Greek art not long after they became familiar with it .
The Romans were serious collectors of Greek art - it is not decadence but the idealism of Greek art which distinguishes it from the Romans.
We know instantly what a Roman - or a Romulan - should look like. He will be a warrior born, competent, dangerous, utterly human and showing every scar and blemish of his age.
Video games are the target of choice because, unlike other media which have a long and respectable history to shield them from attack, it is still common "knowledge" that video games are just homicide simulators for pimply geeks.
This simplifies too much.
There is both physical and psychological distance between the audience and the film - and no matter how engaging the story you are only part of it for two hours.
Role-playing is not without risk.
Gene Wolfe explored this territory in an early short story "When I Was Ming The Merciless." There is a difference between Deux Ex and Manhunt 2 and it is a difference which matters.
Slashdot Mirror
.
Vista doesn't seem to be hurting HP's bottom line:
After the bell, Hewlett-Packard reported a 14.0% increase in third-quarter profits on strong laptop sales and growth in its international markets.
Investors have been worried HP was losing market share to rivals Dell and Apple but so far that has not happened. The company has been helped by cost cuts and strong sales outside the United States.
But nothing in the company's numbers speaks of a downturn. HP reported fiscal third-quarter net earnings of $2.0 billion, or 80 cents a share, up 14% from $1.8 billion, or 66 cents a share, in the prior year. HP Holds Its Own {August 19]
HP seems to showing more interest in European styling:
Instead of building workhorse machines in utilitarian cases, Hewlett-Packard strives to create sleeker, more stylish PCs by looking to the fabrics and shapes in Italy's furniture showrooms, said Stacy Wolff, director of notebook-computer design.
Putting form and function before component costs mirrors a strategy by Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, whose aluminum-clad desktops and notebooks have propelled the company to its highest PC market share in at least a decade.
Hewlett-Packard had 19 percent of worldwide PC shipments in the second quarter, compared with Dell's 16 percent, according to technology researcher IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts. Hewlett- Packard has increased its share every quarter since taking the lead from Dell in 2006. Apple had 3.6 percent. Hewlett-Packard's Cues From Milan Lift PC Profit [Updated August 19]
.
News at Eleven: Lenovo pulls the plug on a product that isn't selling well in the North American market.
Of the 99 laptop PCs currently available from Walmart.com only six run Linux and all six are $300 netbooks
- and only one or two of these are to be found "in selected stores."
If the "Microsoft Tax" meant anything in the mass consumer market
why does the OEM Linux PC remain firmly anchored among the bottom feeders in big box retail?
.
Which suggests that it has all the downsides to Freenet:
You are not a common carrier.
You do not know what traffic is moving through your network or what content is currently resident on your servers.
You do not know who is donating the storage - their numbers or their motives.
How much would it cost the NSA to maintain 1,000 - 10,000 -100,000 nodes and super-nodes on these networks?
Nodes that will never be lacking in bandwidth or storage.
Hold enough pieces of the puzzle and the chances are good they will begin to fit together.
Being drawn into the world of civil or criminal investigation is - at the very least - disturbing and disruptive - even when you are not a "person of interest."
.
That $93K is gross not net.
That doesn't begin to cover the base salaries of your skeletal Linux support team
.
In a motion for summary judgment, the court looks at the law and the agreed-upon facts in the light most favorable to the opponent of the motion.
When the deck is stacked your favor and you still hold the losing hand, it is time to cash in what remains of your chips and go home.
.
What Disney copyrights is its own interpretation of the story:
Rogers & Hammerstein didn't need Disney's permission to produce their own Cinderella. - and neither do you.
.
NewYorkCountryLawyer is also an idiot. Because he knows that kind of rabble rousing nonsense wouldn't be tolerated inside a courtroom.
The defendant lost because it was trivially easy to prove that his Lexicon was simply pasted together from passages in the books.
The thief remains a thief no matter how rich his victim.
.
You could defend it yourself.
Lawyers have, however, been known work "pro bono" - or for a share of the proceeds.
Just as writers have been known to form unions, guilds and other forms of trade associations to protect their own interests.
Who defends - your - rights under the GPL?
If your only answer is "me, myself, and I" then why have you bothered publishing under a license that you know can be safely ignored?
>
Many - or just the obsessive-compulsives who post their rants to Slashdot - or Amazon.com?
The Top 25 in PC Game Sales at Amazon.com [4 PM ET Sept 9]
1 Spore
4 Spore Galactic Edition
5 Spore Creature Creator
11 of the top 25 slots are held by EA games.
6 slots are pre-release.
Meaning that the train has left the station before the geek can block the tracks:
EA Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
WofW: Rath of the Lich King
EA Left4Dead
EA Cyris Warhead
Civ4: Colonization
Fallout 3. The $120 Amazon Survival Edition and the $50 game.
.
Will anyone insure your work?
When the wheels fall off your little red wagon, what is your legal and financial exposure?
.
the last time I looked - copyright had little to do with the price of oil. or housing. or support costs for an aging population.
but media production - books, film, television, video games, et al. - were generating a lot of skilled jobs and export dollars.
.
But do they pay for it?
Residential access is typically shared and you are guaranteed nothing more than always on access.
When the price of milk is $5 a gallon don't expect Granny to subsidize the investment in infrastructure needed to fuel your P2P habit - not at 250-500 GB a month.
Ten to twenty times her own requirements.
.
But at what distance does this story remain plausible
and how often can you play this card and keep it convincing?
In this upper middle class suburb you would have to nose up mighty close to your neighbor to get a decent lock on that signal and hold it for two hours, let alone two months.
If you find it to be a good filesystem, I say keep using it. If it is a good filesystem, someone will maintain it. If not, then it dies because it deserves to and not because of FUD.
.
Hope is not a plan.
It is reasonable to wary of any project so uniquely identified with a single individual.
But a filing system? How many developers have the freedom and the confidence to take on something so elemental?
.
I am asking you to look at Dell's costs as a whole --- production. marketing. service and support.
--- and I am asking you to look at how Dell is positioning the netbook as a $99 accessory for your new Windows PC.
This is a new product category and Linux a new OS for essentially 100% of Dell's home and SOHO customers.
.
OLPC sold less than 700,000 units by May 29th of this year. 80,000 of those sales were give one - get one promos.
--- almost exclusively targeting the Linux Geek.
The third world education minister simply wasn't buying into Linux, Sugar and a constructivist philosophy of education.
The "Give 1 Get 1" donation of $399 had a tax-deductible portion of $200 under US tax code as the XO-1 laptop delivered to the donor was valued at $199 by the OLPC Foundation."
One Laptop per Child
If you take OLPC at its word, then they never had a $100 Linux laptop - at least not at the "direct sale" price.
.
Linux has 1% of the global market. Top Operating System Share Trend
There are enormous economies of scale in the Windows marketplace The cost of the OEM install scarcely matters.
For the better part of a decade, WalMart has been teasing the geek with a merry-go-round of short-lived OEM Linux promotions that always give way to the Windows system with stronger specs and a marginally higher price.
.
not if you are marketing a product or service to users who want a family friendly experience. then it is just good business. no goat sex links. no GNAA.
.
None better perhaps than the LucasFan remake Maniac Mansion Deluxe
The problem as always is not in finding the "perfect" game engine but in assembling the talent needed to develop the game as a whole: story, dialog, art and animation, music and effects.
It always comes as a shock to the newly surburbanized geek when his neighbors begin insisting that he curb his dog, mow the lawn and replace the siding which hasn't seen a new coat of paint since the Carter Administration.
This isn't 1984. It is - for better or worse - simply the price of admission.
.
Two layers of styrofoam on top of the existing sheetrock sounds like a fire waiting to happen.
Foam insulation is relatively hard to ignite but when ignited, it burns readily and emits a dense, black, smoke containing many toxic gases. The combustion characteristics of foam insulation products vary with the combustion temperatures, chemical formulation, and available air. Because of the dangers described above, foams used for construction require a covering as a fire barrier. One half-inch thick (1.27 cm) gypsum wallboard is one of the most common fire barriers. Foam and foam board insulation
.
There are thousands of "free" fonts to be found on the web.
But the truth of it is that type design and typography on the professional level is as a ratified a skill as you will find anywhere:
Times New Roman dates from 1931. Baskerville from 1757. Bruce Rogers and His Centaur
Expecting the first-tier foundries like Monotype to make a free gift of their most artful and significant designs is simply not realistic.
.
This assumes that the distribution of alternative content costs significantly less - or at least no more - than Silverlight, while still reaching the same audience.
.
His solution begins with you being pushed under a bus - sabotage is never a good career move. You haven't proved that the software sucks, you've only proved that you suck.
.
The Romans were serious collectors of Greek art - it is not decadence but the idealism of Greek art which distinguishes it from the Romans.
We know instantly what a Roman - or a Romulan - should look like. He will be a warrior born, competent, dangerous, utterly human and showing every scar and blemish of his age.
Video games are the target of choice because, unlike other media which have a long and respectable history to shield them from attack, it is still common "knowledge" that video games are just homicide simulators for pimply geeks.
This simplifies too much.
There is both physical and psychological distance between the audience and the film - and no matter how engaging the story you are only part of it for two hours.
Role-playing is not without risk.
Gene Wolfe explored this territory in an early short story "When I Was Ming The Merciless." There is a difference between Deux Ex and Manhunt 2 and it is a difference which matters.