The good news is that it is very likely that your competition sucks. The vast majority of businesses are not run very well. They make shoddy products. They treat their customers and their employees like shit.
So true. At my previous employer we spent years waiting for the competition to blow us away, because our product sucked and we treated our customers like shit. But the customers didn't have any place to go, because every vendor in the market sucked.
It's one thing for a search engine to link to a published work. Google is defending the practice of caching copies of published works and linking to the cache. But in this case the students never published the papers on the Internet, so I don't see it the same at all (but IANAL).
As long as the school publishes original papers (with students' permission of course), turnin.com should be able to link to them (or cached copies).
The survey gives the percent of cheaters who admit the cheat?
Does that mean the business students are the most honest in admitting they cheat, and the other students (**cough** law students **cough**) both cheat and lie more?
Yea, last time I checked, zero was less than 10e-11.
But I disagree with your sig too. In a democracy, if you didn't participate in the democratic process, you fully share the blame.
You're correct that there's a high barrier to competing with the major players in the gaming industry. But that's true of pretty much every industry. Big business is big business.
Stuart Witt, manager of the Mojave Airport, was clearly pleased... "It's been good to see synergistic tests springboard off previous successes and capitalize on national assets like the White Knight for other uses," Witt said.
This guy must've managed a dotbomb company before taking a job at the airport.
My experience with employee suggestion systems or quality circles is exactly what the executives at this company are trying to avoid. An idea comes in, some big shot decides it's not worth pursuing, and the whole suggestion system/quality circle/whatever falls apart because employees get discouraged.
These guys are willing to let their decisions be driven by internal market forces (the employees). Sounds like a pretty good process to me.
By settling, RIM now has a license to "patented" technology. So their competitors still have to worry about patents claimed by NTP (and RIM). If RIM had kept fighting to the end and actually won they (and their competitors) would have no IP claim to the technology.
"I'm not sure I want my professional qualifications trumped by whether or not the interviewer agrees with my sense of humour"
Sorry, but it's always been that way. How you look, what your voice sounds like, whether the interviewer likes your school, and your sense of humor are all major factors in whether you get the job (you wouldn't have gotten the interview if your professional qualifications weren't adequate).
From TFA: In particular they maintain that search results will remain unbiased..."We're going to work with the webmasters at AOL -- just as we work with webmasters all over the world -- to help them understand how the Google crawler works...so we don't inadvertently overlook their content."
It sounds to me that they're going to make darn sure AOL's content is properly indexed. That will have to change the results of a search from what it is today; helping AOL get better placement isn't bias?
Yes, they also work with other webmasters. And I suppose they do have to protect themselves from getting hit with a chair...
IMHO the real reason vendors like Microsoft and IBM offer the no/low cost versions of their database engines is for vendor lock-in. You write a small app, you're not going to buy an enterprise license right away. But by the time you need one you're locked into that DBMS. Or even if you need a big server dbms right away you might need to have part of the app run on laptops that aren't connected to the main server all the time, so of course you will want to use the engine your developers are comfortable using and administering.
In that context this review makes a lot of sense. I think the low cost offerings, albeit slightly crippled, are excellent marketing by the big guys. Eventually a percentage of applications will grow into the big money licenses.
FTFA "As a Phase I clinical trial, the project's first emphasis is to establish the safety of the procedure, with a secondary goal of observing possible therapeutic effects."
A couple of days ago people were freaking because experimental drugs were being used on India's poor.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/1 9/1838223&tid=191&tid=219
So how come nobody's up in arms about this experimental procedure being used on children in Texas? Presumably the Indian subjects were in need of treatment too.
From TFA: "The concept is an ingenious one, inspired by the northern and southern aurorae...led to a patent on a promising new electric propulsion device called an Electronegative Plasma Thruster"
Obligatory gripe about patenting basic science. Geez, they patented the aurorae borealis! It does point out the gray area between a basic physical property of matter and something patentable though. This seems to me like a reasonable idea to protect, although I'm not sure what the ESA is going to do with the intellectual property rights here. Do they license this technology to Klingons or something?
Get your head out of the sand. Today, companies like the one I work for and our customers are locked into Windows if we want any web based apps. But with a good alternative browser, we will have a choice. Some might still choose Windows, some might not.
On the other hand, inhouse applications used by companies on their intranets should be something Microsoft pays attention to.
Once those apps run on another browser, the workstations used by company employees don't need to run Windows anymore. That can add up to a lot of cash in a hurry.
Keep in mind that these kids have been around computers and game consoles all of their lives. It will be very difficult to impress them by showing them something on the screen, they've seen it all. What impressed you wasn't running a program; it was having the ability to change the instructions so the computer does something it didn't do before.
On a slightly related note, I knew a kid who, after watching a man drive a big truck up to his parents' house and operate a bunch of complicated machinery, told everyone that he wanted to pump out septic tanks for a living.
The "plaintiffs" in this case stand to get a couple of dollars at most, the lawyers stand to make tens or hundreds of millions. I really wonder if this guy took the time to call a lawyer because he thinks we was screwed out of $1.50.
I work for a company that has a cross-licensing agreement with Microsoft. One of our lawyers explained that if we write code that infringes on a Microsoft patent, we're covered. But Microsoft insisted on an exclusion for Open Source. If we use an OS product that infringes, the cross-license agreement does not apply; they can come after us and our customers.
Has anyone considered the possibility that an advanced civilization could appear on our doorstep through a wormhole from another universe at any time? What if they're weirdos or something?
I for one would welcome them.
Slashdot Mirror
So true. At my previous employer we spent years waiting for the competition to blow us away, because our product sucked and we treated our customers like shit. But the customers didn't have any place to go, because every vendor in the market sucked.
It's one thing for a search engine to link to a published work. Google is defending the practice of caching copies of published works and linking to the cache. But in this case the students never published the papers on the Internet, so I don't see it the same at all (but IANAL). As long as the school publishes original papers (with students' permission of course), turnin.com should be able to link to them (or cached copies).
The survey gives the percent of cheaters who admit the cheat? Does that mean the business students are the most honest in admitting they cheat, and the other students (**cough** law students **cough**) both cheat and lie more?
"imagine the embarrassing situation of send retraction and correction letters"
Boohoohoo. I really feel sorry for the guy. Stole all that money, and now he has to live with the fact that he got caught.
It's like anyone else who's convicted of a felony: Do the crime, do the time.
Yea, last time I checked, zero was less than 10e-11. But I disagree with your sig too. In a democracy, if you didn't participate in the democratic process, you fully share the blame.
You're correct that there's a high barrier to competing with the major players in the gaming industry. But that's true of pretty much every industry. Big business is big business.
And the solution you propose is?
My experience with employee suggestion systems or quality circles is exactly what the executives at this company are trying to avoid. An idea comes in, some big shot decides it's not worth pursuing, and the whole suggestion system/quality circle/whatever falls apart because employees get discouraged. These guys are willing to let their decisions be driven by internal market forces (the employees). Sounds like a pretty good process to me.
By settling, RIM now has a license to "patented" technology. So their competitors still have to worry about patents claimed by NTP (and RIM). If RIM had kept fighting to the end and actually won they (and their competitors) would have no IP claim to the technology.
Grocery stores all sell ground Chuck. Must be a common name somewhere...
"I'm not sure I want my professional qualifications trumped by whether or not the interviewer agrees with my sense of humour"
Sorry, but it's always been that way. How you look, what your voice sounds like, whether the interviewer likes your school, and your sense of humor are all major factors in whether you get the job (you wouldn't have gotten the interview if your professional qualifications weren't adequate).
Yea. How about something like "Information Superhighway Explorer"
Oh wait, people would think it's a rerun...
It sounds to me that they're going to make darn sure AOL's content is properly indexed. That will have to change the results of a search from what it is today; helping AOL get better placement isn't bias?
Yes, they also work with other webmasters. And I suppose they do have to protect themselves from getting hit with a chair...
IMHO the real reason vendors like Microsoft and IBM offer the no/low cost versions of their database engines is for vendor lock-in. You write a small app, you're not going to buy an enterprise license right away. But by the time you need one you're locked into that DBMS. Or even if you need a big server dbms right away you might need to have part of the app run on laptops that aren't connected to the main server all the time, so of course you will want to use the engine your developers are comfortable using and administering. In that context this review makes a lot of sense. I think the low cost offerings, albeit slightly crippled, are excellent marketing by the big guys. Eventually a percentage of applications will grow into the big money licenses.
FTFA "As a Phase I clinical trial, the project's first emphasis is to establish the safety of the procedure, with a secondary goal of observing possible therapeutic effects."
A couple of days ago people were freaking because experimental drugs were being used on India's poor. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/1 9/1838223&tid=191&tid=219
So how come nobody's up in arms about this experimental procedure being used on children in Texas? Presumably the Indian subjects were in need of treatment too.
From TFA: "The concept is an ingenious one, inspired by the northern and southern aurorae...led to a patent on a promising new electric propulsion device called an Electronegative Plasma Thruster" Obligatory gripe about patenting basic science. Geez, they patented the aurorae borealis! It does point out the gray area between a basic physical property of matter and something patentable though. This seems to me like a reasonable idea to protect, although I'm not sure what the ESA is going to do with the intellectual property rights here. Do they license this technology to Klingons or something?
This generates strong passwords, and you don't have to remember or type them even once: http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/
Get your head out of the sand. Today, companies like the one I work for and our customers are locked into Windows if we want any web based apps. But with a good alternative browser, we will have a choice. Some might still choose Windows, some might not.
On the other hand, inhouse applications used by companies on their intranets should be something Microsoft pays attention to.
Once those apps run on another browser, the workstations used by company employees don't need to run Windows anymore. That can add up to a lot of cash in a hurry.
On a slightly related note, I knew a kid who, after watching a man drive a big truck up to his parents' house and operate a bunch of complicated machinery, told everyone that he wanted to pump out septic tanks for a living.
The "plaintiffs" in this case stand to get a couple of dollars at most, the lawyers stand to make tens or hundreds of millions. I really wonder if this guy took the time to call a lawyer because he thinks we was screwed out of $1.50.
I work for a company that has a cross-licensing agreement with Microsoft. One of our lawyers explained that if we write code that infringes on a Microsoft patent, we're covered. But Microsoft insisted on an exclusion for Open Source. If we use an OS product that infringes, the cross-license agreement does not apply; they can come after us and our customers.
Has anyone considered the possibility that an advanced civilization could appear on our doorstep through a wormhole from another universe at any time? What if they're weirdos or something? I for one would welcome them.