... don't expect much. The blurb for their "Vista-ready" chipset, they're not promising anything:
"Intel's next generation mobile platform, code-named "Napa", is scheduled to launch in early 2006. Napa-based laptops using either Intel's integrated or certain 3rd party discrete graphics are targeted to support the new Windows Vista Display Driver Model."
Translation: you'll still need a third-party GPU if you want decent 3D graphics performance.
It will keep the Mozilla folks on their toes and get them to fix some really nasty problems like memory leaks.
Tell me about it. Between the various 100% CPU usage defects and memory leaks, I'm about to give up and go back to IE6, even though I really don't want to. I'd glady use IE7 if it were available to me.
Well, considering the fact that Rogers Wireless is a Canadian company... I'd be deeply disturbed if the FBI stepped in.
I wouldn't - I would welcome it. The RCMP's track record shows that it is absolutely useless when it comes to policing white collar crime and terrorists. Canada has a international reputation as being a soft touch for these kinds of crimes.
Interesting that this transaction went down in the same week as the tag-based dating site, Consumating was acquired by C|Net. Both were tag-based, and both had been in business for only 12 months or less - very similar situations to Flickr. Big companies are becoming much more aggressive about acquiring promising startups early - and it makes a lot of sense. These acquisitions are in the mid-to-low 7 figures, a bargin compared to trying to buy later for 100 million or more.
Another considerion to keep in mind is fixed costs -vs- variable costs.
Fixed costs are those costs that you can't avoid incurring when deciding to sell a song at a certain price. This includes the production costs (renting the studio, for example), and marketing costs. These are sunk costs -- once you've spent the money, that's it - it's gone.
Variable costs are those that are incurred for each unit you sell. In the case of digital contant, the variable costs are almost zero -- the cost of bandwidth consumed when it is downloaded, but thats about it.
Since fixed costs are unavoidable, the price of the song is completely independent of those costs. For example, if a song was not selling at all, it would make the most business sense for the seller to reduce the price of the song to induce people to buy. "holding out" at a higher price to cover the fixed costs might mean missing out on revenue of any kind. Even if the ultimate result is a loss, the business is still better off, simply because they got SOME money back. The only way to guarantee a profit is to make a product that people really want.
Also, the other issue is that obscure artists are unknown and in order to attract new listeners, they have to lower the cost of sampling their product to attract new listeners. This effect explains why filesharing actually benefits small artists. In an open market for digital music, new artists would need to price their products very low. On the flip side, their fixed costs for marketing would be much lower than that for large acts, so they may be able to be quite profitable even at lower prices.
What I hate the most are those voice menu systems that ask you to say what topic you're interested in, and then based on their voice recognition software. Our local phone company started using one of these for their customer service line, and it was so incredibly irritating to use that I ended up swearing viciously at it. The result? It immediately transferred me to a human operator.
Moral of the story: when faced with a voice prompt system - just swear at it to get what you want. Go right ahead and let 'em know what you think. Don't hold anything back.
The online dating industry is notorious for planting fake profiles, but I would be genuinely surprised if Match.com is one of the offenders -- I have used match.com before, and the only fake profiles I have seen came from the users themselves.
The worst and most incredibly blantant offender that I'm aware of is FriendFinder and its affiliate sites (run by Andew Conru). I can't believe they haven't been shutdown long ago. Some of the things that company does is breathtaking in its audacity - such as taking profiles of women that post looking for a normal date, and repurpose them into women "looking for bondage and sex with strangers". Someone is going to end up getting hurt because of this; I don't know about you, but I'm of the view they should be shutdown before this happens.
The shady business practices of these guys is well documented - here's the first example that came up on Google.
Has anyone been able to find out the official time (i.e. time with stops/pauses substracted) that TerraMax took to complete the course? I get the impression that TerraMax was really unlucky, getting paused by other competitors many times and then being forced to shutdown for the night.
Also, does anyone know the top speed that was reached by any vehicle on the course?
Sun gained an excellent database when they acquired Clustra. What happened to it and why are they now talking about Postgres? Are they really that intent on pissing away that investment?
This is an unfortunate example of why most geeks shouldn't be allowed to name things.
Naming things is tough in this day of domain name squatters, which makes it very tempting to go with meaningless invented names (or names that sound that way to most people - e.g. "Ogg Vorbis"). Weird names are fine for things that don't require much investment to sample them -- but for the case where it does represent a significant investment (in either time, money, or risk) then a weird name can be a severe handicap to the adoption of that product.
How exactly is this going to 'enhance' life online for those of us who are deaf?
Not to mention the various problems with voice media - it's not easily searchable, you can't translate it with bablefish, it's low bandwidth, you can't cut and paste an interesting part to forward to someone, etc, etc ad nausum.
I do climb mountains wearing jeans and sweatshirts, much to the goretex brigade's horror
As an active climber and mountaineer let me assure you that the 'Gortex Brigade's horror of what you wear is well-founded. Cotton kills. When it gets wet, it loses its insulating properies and you become vulnerable to hypothermia. Technical fabrics breathe better, dry faster, are much lighter, are more durable and are warmer when they do get wet.
Technical fabrics have revolutionized outdoor sports. People are now able to be out in conditions far more adverse than was possible in the past. Of course, you don't need technical fabrics for a short day hike, but for serious climbing and mountaineering where you're out there on your own in the elements, it's dangerous (not to mention heavy and uncomfortable) to wear typical street clothes.
I actually have a thought on this: Requiring applicants to write something in a pseudo-language. The language is defined on a handful of pages given to him, and he has to solve a couple simple problems in that language. I think it would be a great barrier to block idiots from getting in.
Excellent idea! I nominate INTERCAL as the language of choice for this exercise.
"48 percent [of women] made the decision to purchase a DVR on their own"
Who allowed these women to make decisions for themselves? Next thing we know they'll be allowed to drive. Or vote. Mark my words, this is the start of a terrible slide into a bottomless pit of immorality.
When Microsoft goes through with their plans to buy Gator... uh, I mean Claria, there's bound to be layoffs. But not to worry: the Department of Homeland Security is always eager to hire spyware and adware company employees.
Good to see the government looking out for the best interests of American citizens!
I think your advisor phrased his advice incorrectly. It's not that you want to be above your skill level (out of your depth and making expensive mistakes), but more that it is best to have a position that challenges you. This can happen in quite junior posiitons, in the right organization.
You won't get a job as a senior anything with no experience. As a fresh graduate, it is very likely that you don't yet realise what you don't know. That is one of the things that makes someone 'senior' as opposed to a more junior developer.
Also, having a Master's degree isn't really a big deal these days, so don't be surprised if there isn't much of a salary premium to go with it. In my experience, people with Master's degrees aren't necessarily any better developers than those with a Bachelor's degree. It all comes down to the individual's ability.
Yep. You are exactly in the same boat as I am. I *can* use the phone, but it can be a pain. Especially callers with thick Indian or Asian accents. And the office phone (PABX system), well... I can basically forget about using that. The sound quality is just too poor. The reason these places use the phone instead is simply because the phone is easier for them.
Voicemail is even worse because people assume that since they have left a message, I'll get the message, understand it, and act on it accordingly. This may or may not be true.
Slashdot Mirror
... don't expect much. The blurb for their "Vista-ready" chipset, they're not promising anything:
Translation: you'll still need a third-party GPU if you want decent 3D graphics performance.
Tell me about it. Between the various 100% CPU usage defects and memory leaks, I'm about to give up and go back to IE6, even though I really don't want to. I'd glady use IE7 if it were available to me.
Well, considering the fact that Rogers Wireless is a Canadian company ... I'd be deeply disturbed if the FBI stepped in.
I wouldn't - I would welcome it. The RCMP's track record shows that it is absolutely useless when it comes to policing white collar crime and terrorists. Canada has a international reputation as being a soft touch for these kinds of crimes.
Interesting that this transaction went down in the same week as the tag-based dating site, Consumating was acquired by C|Net. Both were tag-based, and both had been in business for only 12 months or less - very similar situations to Flickr. Big companies are becoming much more aggressive about acquiring promising startups early - and it makes a lot of sense. These acquisitions are in the mid-to-low 7 figures, a bargin compared to trying to buy later for 100 million or more.
Great. Not only are they immortal and fearless - now they can fly fighter jets too.
What could possibly go wrong?
Another considerion to keep in mind is fixed costs -vs- variable costs.
Fixed costs are those costs that you can't avoid incurring when deciding to sell a song at a certain price. This includes the production costs (renting the studio, for example), and marketing costs. These are sunk costs -- once you've spent the money, that's it - it's gone.
Variable costs are those that are incurred for each unit you sell. In the case of digital contant, the variable costs are almost zero -- the cost of bandwidth consumed when it is downloaded, but thats about it.
Since fixed costs are unavoidable, the price of the song is completely independent of those costs. For example, if a song was not selling at all, it would make the most business sense for the seller to reduce the price of the song to induce people to buy. "holding out" at a higher price to cover the fixed costs might mean missing out on revenue of any kind. Even if the ultimate result is a loss, the business is still better off, simply because they got SOME money back. The only way to guarantee a profit is to make a product that people really want.
Also, the other issue is that obscure artists are unknown and in order to attract new listeners, they have to lower the cost of sampling their product to attract new listeners. This effect explains why filesharing actually benefits small artists. In an open market for digital music, new artists would need to price their products very low. On the flip side, their fixed costs for marketing would be much lower than that for large acts, so they may be able to be quite profitable even at lower prices.
What I hate the most are those voice menu systems that ask you to say what topic you're interested in, and then based on their voice recognition software. Our local phone company started using one of these for their customer service line, and it was so incredibly irritating to use that I ended up swearing viciously at it. The result? It immediately transferred me to a human operator.
Moral of the story: when faced with a voice prompt system - just swear at it to get what you want. Go right ahead and let 'em know what you think. Don't hold anything back.
The online dating industry is notorious for planting fake profiles, but I would be genuinely surprised if Match.com is one of the offenders -- I have used match.com before, and the only fake profiles I have seen came from the users themselves.
The worst and most incredibly blantant offender that I'm aware of is FriendFinder and its affiliate sites (run by Andew Conru). I can't believe they haven't been shutdown long ago. Some of the things that company does is breathtaking in its audacity - such as taking profiles of women that post looking for a normal date, and repurpose them into women "looking for bondage and sex with strangers". Someone is going to end up getting hurt because of this; I don't know about you, but I'm of the view they should be shutdown before this happens.
The shady business practices of these guys is well documented - here's the first example that came up on Google.
Has anyone been able to find out the official time (i.e. time with stops/pauses substracted) that TerraMax took to complete the course? I get the impression that TerraMax was really unlucky, getting paused by other competitors many times and then being forced to shutdown for the night.
Also, does anyone know the top speed that was reached by any vehicle on the course?
The best definition of Web 2.0 I've ever seen was posted by some wag in reply to this blog post.
Sun gained an excellent database when they acquired Clustra. What happened to it and why are they now talking about Postgres? Are they really that intent on pissing away that investment?
How much does it cost to get a blatant ad like this posted as a story? Because I'd sure love to post a few ad^H^Hstories myself.
This is an unfortunate example of why most geeks shouldn't be allowed to name things.
Naming things is tough in this day of domain name squatters, which makes it very tempting to go with meaningless invented names (or names that sound that way to most people - e.g. "Ogg Vorbis"). Weird names are fine for things that don't require much investment to sample them -- but for the case where it does represent a significant investment (in either time, money, or risk) then a weird name can be a severe handicap to the adoption of that product.
How exactly is this going to 'enhance' life online for those of us who are deaf?
Not to mention the various problems with voice media - it's not easily searchable, you can't translate it with bablefish, it's low bandwidth, you can't cut and paste an interesting part to forward to someone, etc, etc ad nausum.
As an active climber and mountaineer let me assure you that the 'Gortex Brigade's horror of what you wear is well-founded. Cotton kills. When it gets wet, it loses its insulating properies and you become vulnerable to hypothermia. Technical fabrics breathe better, dry faster, are much lighter, are more durable and are warmer when they do get wet.
Technical fabrics have revolutionized outdoor sports. People are now able to be out in conditions far more adverse than was possible in the past. Of course, you don't need technical fabrics for a short day hike, but for serious climbing and mountaineering where you're out there on your own in the elements, it's dangerous (not to mention heavy and uncomfortable) to wear typical street clothes.
Excellent idea! I nominate INTERCAL as the language of choice for this exercise.
WARNING: be careful where you get those parts. Otherwise you run the risk of getting a virus when you mount the device.
Heh.
Instead of AliceBot, why not use Liza (or or the AOL chat version, AOLiza)?
Does it bother you to talk about unf Unf Unf?Nice try. Unfortunately many key loggers also monitor the clipboard, so cutting and pasting won't save you.
From the summary:
"48 percent [of women] made the decision to purchase a DVR on their own"Who allowed these women to make decisions for themselves? Next thing we know they'll be allowed to drive. Or vote. Mark my words, this is the start of a terrible slide into a bottomless pit of immorality.
Well, I hope so anyway.
Joss Whedon also has track record in writing screenplays. IMDB credts Joss Whedon as the writer for:
Full details here.
When Microsoft goes through with their plans to buy Gator... uh, I mean Claria, there's bound to be layoffs. But not to worry: the Department of Homeland Security is always eager to hire spyware and adware company employees.
Good to see the government looking out for the best interests of American citizens!
While Ogg is technically superior, it's never going to catch on because:
As a geek, I'd love the see technical superiority win, but I don't think Ogg is well-positioned to have any chance of taking marketshare from MP3s.
I think your advisor phrased his advice incorrectly. It's not that you want to be above your skill level (out of your depth and making expensive mistakes), but more that it is best to have a position that challenges you. This can happen in quite junior posiitons, in the right organization.
You won't get a job as a senior anything with no experience. As a fresh graduate, it is very likely that you don't yet realise what you don't know. That is one of the things that makes someone 'senior' as opposed to a more junior developer.
Also, having a Master's degree isn't really a big deal these days, so don't be surprised if there isn't much of a salary premium to go with it. In my experience, people with Master's degrees aren't necessarily any better developers than those with a Bachelor's degree. It all comes down to the individual's ability.
Yep. You are exactly in the same boat as I am. I *can* use the phone, but it can be a pain. Especially callers with thick Indian or Asian accents. And the office phone (PABX system), well... I can basically forget about using that. The sound quality is just too poor. The reason these places use the phone instead is simply because the phone is easier for them.
Voicemail is even worse because people assume that since they have left a message, I'll get the message, understand it, and act on it accordingly. This may or may not be true.