wow - Nick Reid.. I googled for him a year or so ago in case he was anywhere - I recall doing stuff at his place in the Eastern Suburbs.
Didn't meet John McG but of course I used ASM3 and subscribed to Melbourne notes religiously.
I got a couple of articles published in Richard Nelson's journal - writing to display using PRPH SLCT if I recall.
My ID was 10282 if you care to look up..
Good to see Richard alive and well.
And yes, sigh, programming efficiency is a very expensive commodity
I use all the lessons of hardcore 80's machine coding and like to think our cross platform desktop apps are a lean and flexible design internally yet still takes advantage of readability and lego-clock assembly into new variations reliably and quickly.
(quickly did some neat car GPS based competitive dist/timing version for a recent car rally I drove in based on our "express" car tracking app for example).
Alex.
Actual overclocking rate varied in actual speedup vs reliability. (nothing new under the sun!)
2x was rock solid across several models and I recall other members getting 2.something before straying into areas of unreliability above that.
Of course we "only" had air cooled models so perhaps some mad scandinavian with -40c temps managed 4x but with the thick gloves necessary perhaps was never able to actually press the little black buttons to use at that speed!;-)
Alex.
did in 80's with HP-41CV/X - anyone remember club?
on
Overclocking Calculators?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Overclocking was done with switch which added capacitance when in parallel to get 2X.
Switch was flipped with magnetic rubbed down side of case and reed switch flipped accordingly.
Worked well on several modaseels (C/CV/CX) I had for internal calcs but not for card reader though which was rate dependent though!
Speaking of which also did internal 10 bit machine code using EPROMS - anyone remember the really neat "microcode" listings "published" within the PPC club based in US?
We had some members in Sydney and Melbourne etc who did the hardware mods as well as providing some neat software and by combining overclocking with machine code exec I managed translation of FORTRAN programme running on VAX with parallel processor and made into just 8K (2 x 4K ROMS) of machine code steps and could do some (very) heavy duty calculations when doing field geophysics in the early 80's - all battery powered and pocketable!
Telstra in Australia - semi private corp built out of public/gov body has done just this.. and put other publishers out of business as they just can't sustain the high legal costs.
I believe the legal argument was based on "copyright" and they put "copyright" on every page which are just plain lists of names and numbers.
I don't believe anywhere has this been achieved?
Of course with the competition now eliminated the next step is to market your directories to your "exclusive" market.
*of course* they have been very slow to do anything much with it in 12 months since court win so perhaps with no competition they don't have much reason to?
Our gov likes to call this the "clever country" bu realistically (most) of our political leaders are one extreme or another - either "no idea" of stupid waste on "incubators" and such.
I have 5 kids aged from 14 down to 7 year old twins and its a LOT of work with domestic stuff and sport taking up 7 days.
I have ALSO been using 6-7 days a week for past 10 years running own software business.
If there's one thing about running your own business it's that it takes the same amount of dev time as anywhere else + extra work + overhead = big hours.
By placing well equipped home office in building on our property next to the house I can be ready for dinner/homework rush hour and STILL do effective evenings and multiple sessions on weekends between family commitments.
By removing the travel component alone this gives me the quality hours that DO make a difference to the family because of the WHEN it's done.
For example better to spend 2 hours from 5-7 or 6-8 at home than it is to come home at 9pm when all the hair has been pulled out.
I do a lot of regular domestic duty and the home life runs along just fine.. yet I STILL am then able to meet the regular 60+hr work week easily.
You CAN do both if you can arrange for every hour or part thereof to be effective as I find it needs approx 100 hours per week EFFECTIVELY spent spread between both for such a large family and business..
ps: even doing all that I STILL can get away for a different break from both to be able to keep this up year in and year out - check out the car pages at www.findmap.com.au/alexm/cars for example..
It actually makes the business even *more* valuable because of the particular nature of doing it as I attempted to point out..
Their involvement, along with other trends long moving in this direction, will drive demand when people inevitably find the holes and look for local providers who really know their local content to do the "last mile".
It won't actually hurt you to have a couple of handy URL's up your sleeve - universal is nice but don't get blinded by it. The details *are* important.
And I won't even get *started* on mobile handset delivery and all the dynamic things you need to wrap around content as well..
There's a HUGE thing they're getting into..
I foresee a need where we will licence our content and applications out to such organisations (as we have already), rather than us fear the other way around.
As much as I love Google this is a VERY different type of area to do searching in..
We develop and provide detailed location content and in just one Sydney city street alone there are 400+ locations just at street level alone..
How many have a web presence - perhaps 10-15% which means Google actually misses 80-90% of actual locations people could be looking for.
This will vary from country to country but that's my point - this is the "line in the sand" where their universal ability breaks down..
Just bear that in mind.. and that's why you will see a whole branch of other search content and engines that will deliver content..
I guess if Google buys a heap of *other* directories/yellow pages et then that's different - but then that just means they are changing their business - a lot of this information COSTS - and not a freely available web crawl..
If they want/are getting into it then they are changing their whole service and cost structures.. unless they are content with offering a fragmented database and with-geographic-qualifications (eg US addresses only etc..).
There are very real costs and very real barriers to entry to deliver quality and completeness.
Alex.
.. using handset independent cell method in Australia using national Carrier.
Our applications gave total control to user with global on/off and selective sharing of generated PIN with friends on list.
Even now in 2004 network based positioning systems not precise enough to beep door-by-door for that available single right next to you so can stop worrying about that.
Also here in Australia there must be a different assumption as to marketing and ads fears expressed - everyone from telco to providers to businesses here realise big time spamming will kill such services cold.
We did 80 categories of content too and they were really popular to pull up relevant locations at any time, near you or somewhere else.
Our latest generation services allows for free text searches as well so users are again in total control in roaming through our content with or without positioning.
We provided just such commercial GSM services using cellID starting Sept 2000 Australia wide.
This proved "good enough" to provide a wide range of useful options and services which proved very popular in a core group.
In the meantime Nokia & Ericsson have created purpose built systems which you can query to get lat/long. The *accuracy* is still variable but useful and now from a "proper" system to base a whole range of new applications.
We've had talks with potential UK partners for MONTHS and they are soooo sloooow that in the meantime all these competitor services get launched..
Alex.
In MS own hometown The Seattle times doesn't use any MS products to host..
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=seattlet imes.nwsource.com
Don't worry - they will find a way not to pay...
on
Taxing Text Messages?
·
· Score: 1
Based on our experience last year in providing SMS services to one of the 2 main providers there they are quite happy to reneg on any written agreement and leave you flapping in the breeze.
Wealth and power is concentrated in handful of connected familiies with connections - indescribably corrupt is the means by which a tax will be diverted into the same hands and the poor people I see in the street will not get a peso mean for them.
I was only warned of this corrupt regime by out European business partners AFTER our small Australian company was screwed after we delivered the product.
Slashdot Mirror
wow - Nick Reid.. I googled for him a year or so ago in case he was anywhere - I recall doing stuff at his place in the Eastern Suburbs. Didn't meet John McG but of course I used ASM3 and subscribed to Melbourne notes religiously. I got a couple of articles published in Richard Nelson's journal - writing to display using PRPH SLCT if I recall. My ID was 10282 if you care to look up.. Good to see Richard alive and well. And yes, sigh, programming efficiency is a very expensive commodity I use all the lessons of hardcore 80's machine coding and like to think our cross platform desktop apps are a lean and flexible design internally yet still takes advantage of readability and lego-clock assembly into new variations reliably and quickly. (quickly did some neat car GPS based competitive dist/timing version for a recent car rally I drove in based on our "express" car tracking app for example). Alex.
Actual overclocking rate varied in actual speedup vs reliability. (nothing new under the sun!)
;-)
2x was rock solid across several models and I recall other members getting 2.something before straying into areas of unreliability above that.
Of course we "only" had air cooled models so perhaps some mad scandinavian with -40c temps managed 4x but with the thick gloves necessary perhaps was never able to actually press the little black buttons to use at that speed!
Alex.
Overclocking was done with switch which added capacitance when in parallel to get 2X.
Switch was flipped with magnetic rubbed down side of case and reed switch flipped accordingly.
Worked well on several modaseels (C/CV/CX) I had for internal calcs but not for card reader though which was rate dependent though!
Speaking of which also did internal 10 bit machine code using EPROMS - anyone remember the really neat "microcode" listings "published" within the PPC club based in US?
We had some members in Sydney and Melbourne etc who did the hardware mods as well as providing some neat software and by combining overclocking with machine code exec I managed translation of FORTRAN programme running on VAX with parallel processor and made into just 8K (2 x 4K ROMS) of machine code steps and could do some (very) heavy duty calculations when doing field geophysics in the early 80's - all battery powered and pocketable!
Alex.
Telstra in Australia - semi private corp built out of public/gov body has done just this.. and put other publishers out of business as they just can't sustain the high legal costs.
I believe the legal argument was based on "copyright" and they put "copyright" on every page which are just plain lists of names and numbers.
I don't believe anywhere has this been achieved?
Of course with the competition now eliminated the next step is to market your directories to your "exclusive" market.
*of course* they have been very slow to do anything much with it in 12 months since court win so perhaps with no competition they don't have much reason to?
Our gov likes to call this the "clever country" bu realistically (most) of our political leaders are one extreme or another - either "no idea" of stupid waste on "incubators" and such.
Alex.
I have 5 kids aged from 14 down to 7 year old twins and its a LOT of work with domestic stuff and sport taking up 7 days.
I have ALSO been using 6-7 days a week for past 10 years running own software business.
If there's one thing about running your own business it's that it takes the same amount of dev time as anywhere else + extra work + overhead = big hours.
By placing well equipped home office in building on our property next to the house I can be ready for dinner/homework rush hour and STILL do effective evenings and multiple sessions on weekends between family commitments.
By removing the travel component alone this gives me the quality hours that DO make a difference to the family because of the WHEN it's done.
For example better to spend 2 hours from 5-7 or 6-8 at home than it is to come home at 9pm when all the hair has been pulled out.
I do a lot of regular domestic duty and the home life runs along just fine.. yet I STILL am then able to meet the regular 60+hr work week easily.
You CAN do both if you can arrange for every hour or part thereof to be effective as I find it needs approx 100 hours per week EFFECTIVELY spent spread between both for such a large family and business..
ps: even doing all that I STILL can get away for a different break from both to be able to keep this up year in and year out - check out the car pages at www.findmap.com.au/alexm/cars for example..
cheers,
Alex.
..with respect "au contraire".
It actually makes the business even *more* valuable because of the particular nature of doing it as I attempted to point out..
Their involvement, along with other trends long moving in this direction, will drive demand when people inevitably find the holes and look for local providers who really know their local content to do the "last mile".
It won't actually hurt you to have a couple of handy URL's up your sleeve - universal is nice but don't get blinded by it. The details *are* important.
And I won't even get *started* on mobile handset delivery and all the dynamic things you need to wrap around content as well..
There's a HUGE thing they're getting into..
I foresee a need where we will licence our content and applications out to such organisations (as we have already), rather than us fear the other way around.
Alex.
As much as I love Google this is a VERY different type of area to do searching in.. We develop and provide detailed location content and in just one Sydney city street alone there are 400+ locations just at street level alone.. How many have a web presence - perhaps 10-15% which means Google actually misses 80-90% of actual locations people could be looking for. This will vary from country to country but that's my point - this is the "line in the sand" where their universal ability breaks down.. Just bear that in mind.. and that's why you will see a whole branch of other search content and engines that will deliver content.. I guess if Google buys a heap of *other* directories/yellow pages et then that's different - but then that just means they are changing their business - a lot of this information COSTS - and not a freely available web crawl.. If they want/are getting into it then they are changing their whole service and cost structures.. unless they are content with offering a fragmented database and with-geographic-qualifications (eg US addresses only etc..). There are very real costs and very real barriers to entry to deliver quality and completeness. Alex.
.. using handset independent cell method in Australia using national Carrier.
Our applications gave total control to user with global on/off and selective sharing of generated PIN with friends on list.
Even now in 2004 network based positioning systems not precise enough to beep door-by-door for that available single right next to you so can stop worrying about that.
Also here in Australia there must be a different assumption as to marketing and ads fears expressed - everyone from telco to providers to businesses here realise big time spamming will kill such services cold.
We did 80 categories of content too and they were really popular to pull up relevant locations at any time, near you or somewhere else.
Our latest generation services allows for free text searches as well so users are again in total control in roaming through our content with or without positioning.
Alex.
www.findmap.com.au
We provided just such commercial GSM services using cellID starting Sept 2000 Australia wide. This proved "good enough" to provide a wide range of useful options and services which proved very popular in a core group. In the meantime Nokia & Ericsson have created purpose built systems which you can query to get lat/long. The *accuracy* is still variable but useful and now from a "proper" system to base a whole range of new applications. We've had talks with potential UK partners for MONTHS and they are soooo sloooow that in the meantime all these competitor services get launched.. Alex.
In MS own hometown The Seattle times doesn't use any MS products to host.. http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=seattlet imes.nwsource.com
Based on our experience last year in providing SMS services to one of the 2 main providers there they are quite happy to reneg on any written agreement and leave you flapping in the breeze. Wealth and power is concentrated in handful of connected familiies with connections - indescribably corrupt is the means by which a tax will be diverted into the same hands and the poor people I see in the street will not get a peso mean for them. I was only warned of this corrupt regime by out European business partners AFTER our small Australian company was screwed after we delivered the product.