But when you consider who is bigger, General Electric (#1) and Exxon-Mobil (#2) I think that the previous poster may have been safe in saying that MSFT is the biggest.
10 PRINT "I DID THAT TOO!" 20 GOTO 10 30 REM I GOT THROWN OUT OF THE BASE EXCHANGE AT MINOT AFB FOR THAT 40 REM AND THEN GOT THE OLIVER WENDALL JONES LECTURE: 50 REM "WHAT A NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY, CLEVER BOY YOU ARE." 60 REM BONUS CREDIT FOR YOU IF YOU KNEW WHO OLIVER WAS OFF THE TOP OF YOUR HEAD WITHOUT LOOKING IT UP!
Doubleclick is paid by the advertiser to get their ad in everybody's face.
Even if you don't ever click through, Doubleclick gets the dough for hosting it.
The company advertising either thinks so little for their customer that they are willing to annoy people to get their ad in your vision (clicked or not)
OR
There are still enough people buying based on pop-ups that this is good business. They MUST make more money on the annoyance than they lose, otherwise it would stop.
Therefore X-10 must be making BANK!
I wonder how many of these are done as a tax writeoff.
In the grand scheme of things, drive capacity issues seem to revolve around lawyers more than consumers.
I wish that the major manufacturers would stop putting 1 BIG drive in the system, and put 2 normal sized ones in and MIRRORED.
As somebody who gets blasted by customers when they failed to do their backup, an out of the box, pre mirrored system would be far better for the consumer than properly labelling those lost 200 MB.
Sorry, that's my partially related rant for this evening.
I have it running in the background on some non-essential machines.
I've got it running in the background on my main box. It has no effect on my use of my machine. I'm listening to MP3s, reading several websites, and have 4 SSH terminals open, etc.
Once every several hours, it grabs 340K.
My machines have to be on, but aren't heavily hit most of the time. While they're not being hit, they're pumping out seti data.
The whole inkjet chip system is there for a reason.
Company X sells printers. They also sell ink. Yes, they make money on those ink cartridges (and lots of it).
But why do they make you replace the cartridge instead of letting you refill it?
Have you ever seen what an improper refill does to the engine of the printer?
So now, Dell, HP, whoever, should have to fully cover your printer replacement when you screw up?
How fair is that? The printer company should only have to cover stuff that's their fault.
Something else you need to remember... Can most Slashdot users refill an ink cartridge? Yes. Can most people that buy their printers at the mall, Wal-Mart, whatever? Um, no.
If we leave out the folks that read Slashdot, we may see that there are a BUNCH of people that are just now buying PCs and playing around with this sort of thing.
Add that to all the people that have bought Wireless Access Points, (no security enabled of course)...
And now you have a bunch of people that may see this on the shelf, and say "That's for me!"
Never underestimate the power of the impulse buyer!:-)
And, keep in mind that this could certainly be a first generation device for this product line.
Who's to say that future models won't come out that don't need the PC. HP used to sell PC-less music systems (they even ran Linux).
Look at the printers, no computer needed for some models. Just plug in flash memory, and away you go. This Mediabox could be the first step in that direction.
Just some random thoughts...
Slashdot Mirror
You're right. They're the 3rd.
But when you consider who is bigger, General Electric (#1) and Exxon-Mobil (#2) I think that the previous poster may have been safe in saying that MSFT is the biggest.
Source: Market Cap data:
GE: $306B
XOM: $282B
MSFT: $278B
Wal-Mart (WMT) $232B
10 PRINT "I DID THAT TOO!"
20 GOTO 10
30 REM I GOT THROWN OUT OF THE BASE EXCHANGE AT MINOT AFB FOR THAT
40 REM AND THEN GOT THE OLIVER WENDALL JONES LECTURE:
50 REM "WHAT A NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY, CLEVER BOY YOU ARE."
60 REM BONUS CREDIT FOR YOU IF YOU KNEW WHO OLIVER WAS OFF THE TOP OF YOUR HEAD WITHOUT LOOKING IT UP!
Bingo. Summer is my Turn off TV time.
I'd say me too, but I still have this gut feeling that they're going to screw up heinously somehow.
Doubleclick is paid by the advertiser to get their ad in everybody's face.
Even if you don't ever click through, Doubleclick gets the dough for hosting it.
The company advertising either thinks so little for their customer that they are willing to annoy people to get their ad in your vision (clicked or not)
OR
There are still enough people buying based on pop-ups that this is good business. They MUST make more money on the annoyance than they lose, otherwise it would stop.
Therefore X-10 must be making BANK!
I wonder how many of these are done as a tax writeoff.
The only problem comes when guests arrive.
Then each pile goes into a box, which is kept in the basement until they leave.
Will the innovations never cease?
In the movie, nobody got to wear the glasses. The signal was broadcast to all.
The glasses were designed by the resistance to avoid being told to BUY, SLEEP, etc.
That said, you're right on the money with the concept.
What a great story, and movie.
I guess it was from a short story named "Three O'Clock in the Morning" or something (this is from memory. Damn I wish I had those glasses)
Why can't I have a very thin PDA with a decent screen?
Put the cellular in that, and then make the microphone/earpiece a seperate, wireless part.
That way, I drive down the road, PDA/phone thingy in pocket. I can put on my earpiece and tell the PDA to dial somebody from there.
Expanding...
Take that capability, and eventually ask the PDA (via your headset) to start reciting directions to a location.
I never have to take the phone/pda out of my pocket, and I have full capability.
When I'm not using it as a phone, I can actually see what I'm doing!
Ok, make that one, and my money's on the way.
Too late, they sued over that a few years ago.
(That's why you know your monitor is 18" viewable image size)
In the grand scheme of things, drive capacity issues seem to revolve around lawyers more than consumers.
I wish that the major manufacturers would stop putting 1 BIG drive in the system, and put 2 normal sized ones in and MIRRORED.
As somebody who gets blasted by customers when they failed to do their backup, an out of the box, pre mirrored system would be far better for the consumer than properly labelling those lost 200 MB.
Sorry, that's my partially related rant for this evening.
Before many of you run amok, and make fun of heavy people, please read the article.
It's in development, and has plans to be used to assist the elderly and those in hospitals.
This is not some way to keep people indoors, or track their TV habits, or any of the other conspiracy baloney that will sure to be brought up soon.
+1 Insightful.
If only I had mod powers today.
Maybe I misunderstand the technology, but I believe that they're never disabled.
I believe they're also smaller than a grain of sand. I don't think that will be very easy to destroy.
They are powered by the radio signal they're sent from a nearby device. (a very short range)
Scanner sends radio signal.
RFID receives it, and then powers the RFID long enough to reply.
Power exhausted, RFID dormant until next radio signal.
I have it running in the background on some non-essential machines.
I've got it running in the background on my main box. It has no effect on my use of my machine. I'm listening to MP3s, reading several websites, and have 4 SSH terminals open, etc.
Once every several hours, it grabs 340K.
My machines have to be on, but aren't heavily hit most of the time. While they're not being hit, they're pumping out seti data.
Hope that helps your curiosity.
Thank you!
I could have dug around, but now I don't need to.
It's good to be lazy.
Oh, wait, probably not this community, eh?
I will say, Issaquah is beautiful. No traffic, and the MS site is very nice.
They give their people free CHOCOLATE MILK at that site.
What is this crap? I'm on the verge of being charged to park in my company parking lot, and they get free chocolate milk.
Bastards.
Stupid illiteracy. That should have been some in the title.
Perhaps when posting something to /. they company could be ready for the slashdot effect.
And since many cannot withstand the hit, they could be proactive and have a couple of mirrors.
Argh, I guess I'll know what moneydance2003 did in 2004.
The whole inkjet chip system is there for a reason.
Company X sells printers. They also sell ink. Yes, they make money on those ink cartridges (and lots of it).
But why do they make you replace the cartridge instead of letting you refill it?
Have you ever seen what an improper refill does to the engine of the printer?
So now, Dell, HP, whoever, should have to fully cover your printer replacement when you screw up?
How fair is that? The printer company should only have to cover stuff that's their fault.
Something else you need to remember... Can most Slashdot users refill an ink cartridge? Yes. Can most people that buy their printers at the mall, Wal-Mart, whatever? Um, no.
Aww, you hate your job?
There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, we meet at the bar.
See you there!
If we leave out the folks that read Slashdot, we may see that there are a BUNCH of people that are just now buying PCs and playing around with this sort of thing. Add that to all the people that have bought Wireless Access Points, (no security enabled of course)... And now you have a bunch of people that may see this on the shelf, and say "That's for me!" Never underestimate the power of the impulse buyer! :-)
And, keep in mind that this could certainly be a first generation device for this product line.
Who's to say that future models won't come out that don't need the PC. HP used to sell PC-less music systems (they even ran Linux).
Look at the printers, no computer needed for some models. Just plug in flash memory, and away you go. This Mediabox could be the first step in that direction.
Just some random thoughts...