I'd think "a schooner's chance in a pub" might be more appropriate. Or perhaps "A Starbucks' chance in Melbourne" as a metaphor for poor survival choices.
After so very many years riding the pre-sales roller coaster, I look back in wonder at how many architectural decisions were made on the golf course. Logic, or proper cultural fit, or platform, seemed to have very little to do with it.
"Oh yeah, I had a customer with that problem. Saved him $x million on the deal, you know how it goes (deliberately hooks shot into the weeds). Fancy a sip? I found an old bottle of Grange in the cellar."
I think to provide enough material to build a Dyson Sphere, you'd need not just conversion of matter, but conversion of energy into matter. Would a single star provide enough energy to do so, if it were possible? If not, the job might involved disassembling neighboring stars.
dBase IV, on the other hand, was picked up by Microsoft and eventually turned into MS Access.
Interesting aside -- much of the work that made dBase IV a usable product was contributed by Tom Rettig, who had an early career as an actor in a TV series about a boy and his dog. Yep, Lassie -- that Tommy Rettig.
So, if you ever consider that your Access application might run like a dog, well, there's a heritage there.
Not only that, but Fist-Of-God Mountain was caused by a similar event. Interestingly, the Ringworld was resilient to what would have been a planet-buster. The Puppeteers were right to worry...
Starbucks certainly *did* fail here in Melbourne, where coffee, and the artistic barrista, are revered. Starbucks coffee tasted like burnt seagull feathers and was roundly ignored by people who know better.
I'm another Silicon Valley expat (Australian now). I don't expect it will affect me. What interests me about it, though, is how this is going to fly in light of the Constitution forbidding ex post facto laws - you can't make a law that penalizes someone for something they did before the law was passed.
What does Microsoft do? "Promote" people who design clunkers like Windows Millennium and Vista into their PR department?
Design? Design, you say? It's clear that all versions of Windows with funny names were "designed" by Marketing, not Engineering. That is, the people who were in control of the release, were not the people who should have been in control of the release.
The two divisions in any company will have radically different interpretations of the word "Quality". If you talk to a Marketeer, "Quality" means "cleverly named feature set". If you talk to an Engineer, "Quality" means that things work as intended.
Think about it. What real Engineer would call an operating system Bob, ME, or Vista?
Oh, hang on, just remembered Karmic Koala. Never mind...
Actually, banks, and such already ran into Y2K problems in the 70s when long term loans starting overflowing them. For them the Y2K scenario had many years to be fixed slowly (mostly a continuous updating thing - as things broke, they fixed it) so there was no big rush for them as they were experienced in such issues.
It's times like this when I really, really miss VMS.
Hear, hear! Good clean social Darwinism. There shouldn't be any kind of "social contract" at all. Our corporations should be sleek, vicious, beautiful monsters, utterly amoral, streamlined of every impulse except a ravening urge to destroy the competition and feast on the juices of sweet, sweet captive markets, the blood and ichor of consumer franchises trickling down their fangs.
You owe me a keyboard, mate, and a fresh cup of tea. I won't charge you for the damage to my nasal mucosa.
You are either a brilliant comic writer, a Republican company harvester or presidential candidate. I'll give you the former.
First impression: Sony will buy it all, and kill it stone, cold dead.
Anyone remember Vanguard, from Sigil? They bought the game, fired the developers, and left it in its buggy, buggy state. Occasional upgrades with horrible art.
Either Sony was amazingly inept at games, or they were amazingly malicious. Given their history (read Groklaw.net if you want a review of their advanced corporate thuggery) I am given to believe it's the latter.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe not Tang, or Velcro, or even pressurised ball-point pens, but there is actually quite a list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies
No true Scotsman is nonbiological.
That sounds like the beginning of an absolutely dynamite syllogism.
Was it Chomsky who first said "Asking whether machines can think is as absurd as asking whether submarines swim." ?
Err... you do know that Australia has alpine areas right?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Alps
I'd think "a schooner's chance in a pub" might be more appropriate. Or perhaps "A Starbucks' chance in Melbourne" as a metaphor for poor survival choices.
After so very many years riding the pre-sales roller coaster, I look back in wonder at how many architectural decisions were made on the golf course. Logic, or proper cultural fit, or platform, seemed to have very little to do with it.
"Oh yeah, I had a customer with that problem. Saved him $x million on the deal, you know how it goes (deliberately hooks shot into the weeds). Fancy a sip? I found an old bottle of Grange in the cellar."
Ahh, Lan Damager. Remember it well (but not altogether fondly).
Making children cry? That's what Microsoft is all about!
"You'd make a grown man cry"
Lyrics from the theme song of Windows 95.
It's just Microsoft marketing. They have no shame.
Don't start me up.
Note the .sig...
You get to be Bill Gates' towel boy.
http://search.dilbert.com/comic/Bill%20Gates%20Towel%20Boy
makes me wonder how many here aren't old enough to know about Thurston...
But on that note, Ginger or Mary Anne?
Definitely.
There is no satellite in orbit that can be refueled with water. And I guess the number of satellites that can even be refueled is rather low ...
Hydrogen Peroxide, on the other hand, is highly useful as a rocket propellant (as an oxidizer). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_peroxide
Throughout the whole of human history, we have only discovered enough gold on Earth to fill three Olympic-sized swimming pools.
All owned by the RIAA.
I think to provide enough material to build a Dyson Sphere, you'd need not just conversion of matter, but conversion of energy into matter. Would a single star provide enough energy to do so, if it were possible? If not, the job might involved disassembling neighboring stars.
dBase IV, on the other hand, was picked up by Microsoft and eventually turned into MS Access.
Interesting aside -- much of the work that made dBase IV a usable product was contributed by Tom Rettig, who had an early career as an actor in a TV series about a boy and his dog. Yep, Lassie -- that Tommy Rettig.
So, if you ever consider that your Access application might run like a dog, well, there's a heritage there.
Not only that, but Fist-Of-God Mountain was caused by a similar event. Interestingly, the Ringworld was resilient to what would have been a planet-buster. The Puppeteers were right to worry...
Starbucks certainly *did* fail here in Melbourne, where coffee, and the artistic barrista, are revered. Starbucks coffee tasted like burnt seagull feathers and was roundly ignored by people who know better.
Copy Gold Leader
I'm another Silicon Valley expat (Australian now). I don't expect it will affect me. What interests me about it, though, is how this is going to fly in light of the Constitution forbidding ex post facto laws - you can't make a law that penalizes someone for something they did before the law was passed.
Can you?
What if delegating everything to machines is a radical and fundamental new change in the course of human history?"
The final question in TFS is an example of a question that's bounced along the periphery of technology and now deserves centre stage. Nicely put!
Now, what are we going to do for a living after everything's been automated?
We need then, of course, is robots that can use hamburgers as fuel.
What does Microsoft do? "Promote" people who design clunkers like Windows Millennium and Vista into their PR department?
Design? Design, you say? It's clear that all versions of Windows with funny names were "designed" by Marketing, not Engineering. That is, the people who were in control of the release, were not the people who should have been in control of the release.
The two divisions in any company will have radically different interpretations of the word "Quality". If you talk to a Marketeer, "Quality" means "cleverly named feature set". If you talk to an Engineer, "Quality" means that things work as intended.
Think about it. What real Engineer would call an operating system Bob, ME, or Vista?
Oh, hang on, just remembered Karmic Koala.
Never mind...
Actually, banks, and such already ran into Y2K problems in the 70s when long term loans starting overflowing them. For them the Y2K scenario had many years to be fixed slowly (mostly a continuous updating thing - as things broke, they fixed it) so there was no big rush for them as they were experienced in such issues.
It's times like this when I really, really miss VMS.
It also contains a split infinitive. I don't care how incisive the analysis is, the author is a cad and a boor and has no place in Forbes.
That will cause serious concern and consternation when it's translated into Latin!
Hear, hear! Good clean social Darwinism. There shouldn't be any kind of "social contract" at all. Our corporations should be sleek, vicious, beautiful monsters, utterly amoral, streamlined of every impulse except a ravening urge to destroy the competition and feast on the juices of sweet, sweet captive markets, the blood and ichor of consumer franchises trickling down their fangs.
You owe me a keyboard, mate, and a fresh cup of tea. I won't charge you for the damage to my nasal mucosa.
You are either a brilliant comic writer, a Republican company harvester or presidential candidate. I'll give you the former.
First impression: Sony will buy it all, and kill it stone, cold dead.
Anyone remember Vanguard, from Sigil? They bought the game, fired the developers, and left it in its buggy, buggy state. Occasional upgrades with horrible art.
Either Sony was amazingly inept at games, or they were amazingly malicious. Given their history (read Groklaw.net if you want a review of their advanced corporate thuggery) I am given to believe it's the latter.