is the broadband net connection from home being paid entirely for by the company or partly by the employee?
i think all this is yet another example of corporations passing on the cost of things onto other people.
what happens when all the coffee places with wireless fill up with "office workers" using their network connections on one cup of coffee a day? how is starbucks, mcds et al going to keep their tables clear from all these laptop toting employees using up real estate paid for by the restaurant/cafe?
same thing with dell and their "zero inventory" - all that happens is that the inventory stocking problems get passed on to their suppliers, the smaller fry who can't afford to say no.
Remember, they're growing up in a HDTV, 500-channel, broadband Internet world.
But this is also a world where computers and calculators are everywhere. Does this mean we don't need to teach addition and multiplication as well?
Let's project to the future (well ok it's fiction but you get what I mean) - would the Star Trek crew have to learn Morse?
Er, ah, forget I said anything.
it's too late!!!!
a beowulf cluster of Olsen Twins!?!?!?
OH MY GOD!!!!!
do they care about security?
on
Spray-On Computers
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
do these devices have enough compute horsepower to handle encryption? do you really want your heart status to be "broadcast out"?
can they autonegotiate proper encryption for correct data exchange?
all these smart dust, smart pebbles, etc. plans (especially those intended for military purposes) - it looks like major security needs to be built in, but at least so far the track record has been pretty bad (WEP).
are you a person who caught AIDS because of blood transfusions, operations, a cop who got bit by some infected addict, or are you someone who caught it from casual sex?
if the latter, are you going to be very careful with using condoms etc. (are you even going to TELL your partners/potential victims you have HIV? I mean, hey, you look healthy, and are they going to say "yes" to sex with you (even with a condom) when you've told them you have HIV? In which case, are you going to pass up on the chance to fuck them?)?
What if these victims don't have the resources to afford this same treatment that keeps you around as a disease vector?
"Politech is reporting that your 'ownership' of music purchased from Apple's iTunes isn't what everyone considers ownership
Actually, the RIAA's concept of "ownership" isn't what "everyone considers ownership" either.
come to think of it, software too. how many people "on the street" really understand that that nice box of MS Office they just shelled out hundreds for isn't actually something they own?
is there any way we can tell if this was something apple wanted to restrict their users from doing, or is it something the RIAA made them do?
the music store does not only carry independent music. i don't believe the RIAA had no say in the terms by which the the service is provided. i am typing this on a windows machine and not a mac, but i still think apple is "innocent" of this
(a) all of these vendors are ultimately competitors. surely the things they will publicly agree on as "good/bad/whatever" will be agreed on because it is the lowest common denominator, blindingly obvious, or otherwise something that does not give away internal development hints nor affect the bottom line
(b) all of these vendors are ultimately in thrall to the one big kahuna of the motherboard industry, Intel. By this I don't mean in terms of motherboards shipped (even though Intel does ship a whole lot) - I mean in terms of the CPUs used and the chipsets supplied. Which one of these CEOs is going to give the skinny on strong-arm-elbow-twisting, e.g. anti-VIA action, etc.? The CEO that is shorting his own stock, that's who. So they DO talk some about Intel (Nvidia's interactions etc.) - what's it really worth? Are they REALLy telling you the inside news?
(c) historically industry predictions have always been fucked up. One big reason why Moore's "law" is repeatedly cited is because it's one of the few predictions that came out more-or-less true: where are our flying cars, robot helpers, etc? nowhere, that's where. "motherboards will get smaller". Excellent prediction, Sherlock. Let me predict another: the model numbers will increment.
This kind of "news" is the kind of pap that rubbish news/journos push out, like how all those articles trumpeting the impact of the dotcoms right up until the bubble burst.
i am amazed at the willingness of anybody to put in the amount of effort to write up this kind of crap. like maybe darth vader would say - "impressive, most impressive".
if it was done on company time, it's time to short that company's stock.
You mean to tell me you never told a challenger joke
never.
imagine this scenario. bunch of guys standing around. one guy says - "q:what was the astronaut's last words? a: What's this big red button for?" everybody bar one laughs. 1 guy standing in the back says "my uncle was on the challenger". does everyone laugh even more, or does everyone shut the fuck up and look down?
but if the guy isn't there, it's ok to make that kind of joke?
humour as catharsis: ok, when it's the guy in the back making the joke, not when its some random asshat who lost nothing
Frankly, it scares me to think that the skills I've worked so hard and spend so much to develop (and continue to develop) have nothing but marginal value.
Losing value? They're already exporting everything out to India, you realize...
The fact of the matter is that the various open source or free products are good enough. As the software consumers become better educated, the market for traditional applications shrinks. OpenOffice.org is good enough that anyone who knows better won't buy MS Office. Opera is as good as any browser out there and can be run free of charge - with only a minor banner ad. One by one any major "shrink wrap" product will feel the pinch
what about utilities? i am thinking of things like antivirus tools and stuff like norton utilities. even if free alternatives exist, people will still want to pay for something that has some kind of "backing" for it, because part of what motivates this kind of purchases is fear.
And when people are afraid they're always willing to whip out the wallet. OSS utilities are not going to be able to compare in the Joe Consumers mind with some (whether correct or unfounded) Big Reliable Trustworthy Megacorp (people buy from MS for this reason too).
the economy is in a tailspin and that can have an effect if it disproportionately affects purchases of the two different types of computer. are purchases of laptops more or less elastic than desktops, i.e. with the economy down, are the people buying laptops more the type to buy them anyway or put them off? in which case whether laptop sales have outstripped desktop sales may be more significant than the raw numbers as provided would suggest.
But then its hard to tell because as the previous posters have mentioned - these are dollar values (which with laptops generally costing so much more skews the numbers) AND it also doesn't capture the non-retail numbers, which basically means... "nothing to see here, move along"
Slashdot Mirror
is the broadband net connection from home being paid entirely for by the company or partly by the employee? i think all this is yet another example of corporations passing on the cost of things onto other people. what happens when all the coffee places with wireless fill up with "office workers" using their network connections on one cup of coffee a day? how is starbucks, mcds et al going to keep their tables clear from all these laptop toting employees using up real estate paid for by the restaurant/cafe? same thing with dell and their "zero inventory" - all that happens is that the inventory stocking problems get passed on to their suppliers, the smaller fry who can't afford to say no.
and how much longer before Microsoft death squads hunt you (and those like you) down?
yeah am worried about that too. it would be armageddon.
I get a nagging suspicion the above was intended to be "Funny" (as in ironic) and not "Insightful".
But what should Google return if that someone types in "how do you kill eight million jews" instead?
Remember, they're growing up in a HDTV, 500-channel, broadband Internet world. But this is also a world where computers and calculators are everywhere. Does this mean we don't need to teach addition and multiplication as well? Let's project to the future (well ok it's fiction but you get what I mean) - would the Star Trek crew have to learn Morse?
Er, ah, forget I said anything. it's too late!!!! a beowulf cluster of Olsen Twins!?!?!? OH MY GOD!!!!!
do these devices have enough compute horsepower to handle encryption? do you really want your heart status to be "broadcast out"? can they autonegotiate proper encryption for correct data exchange? all these smart dust, smart pebbles, etc. plans (especially those intended for military purposes) - it looks like major security needs to be built in, but at least so far the track record has been pretty bad (WEP).
think about it
lets say you have AIDS
are you a person who caught AIDS because of blood transfusions, operations, a cop who got bit by some infected addict, or are you someone who caught it from casual sex?
if the latter, are you going to be very careful with using condoms etc. (are you even going to TELL your partners/potential victims you have HIV? I mean, hey, you look healthy, and are they going to say "yes" to sex with you (even with a condom) when you've told them you have HIV? In which case, are you going to pass up on the chance to fuck them?)?
What if these victims don't have the resources to afford this same treatment that keeps you around as a disease vector?
putting himself at the beginning of the spirited away
I have to agree - I thought Miyazaki looked distinctly uncomfortable...
"Politech is reporting that your 'ownership' of music purchased from Apple's iTunes isn't what everyone considers ownership
Actually, the RIAA's concept of "ownership" isn't what "everyone considers ownership" either.
come to think of it, software too. how many people "on the street" really understand that that nice box of MS Office they just shelled out hundreds for isn't actually something they own?
is there any way we can tell if this was something apple wanted to restrict their users from doing, or is it something the RIAA made them do?
the music store does not only carry independent music. i don't believe the RIAA had no say in the terms by which the the service is provided. i am typing this on a windows machine and not a mac, but i still think apple is "innocent" of this
(a) all of these vendors are ultimately competitors. surely the things they will publicly agree on as "good/bad/whatever" will be agreed on because it is the lowest common denominator, blindingly obvious, or otherwise something that does not give away internal development hints nor affect the bottom line (b) all of these vendors are ultimately in thrall to the one big kahuna of the motherboard industry, Intel. By this I don't mean in terms of motherboards shipped (even though Intel does ship a whole lot) - I mean in terms of the CPUs used and the chipsets supplied. Which one of these CEOs is going to give the skinny on strong-arm-elbow-twisting, e.g. anti-VIA action, etc.? The CEO that is shorting his own stock, that's who. So they DO talk some about Intel (Nvidia's interactions etc.) - what's it really worth? Are they REALLy telling you the inside news? (c) historically industry predictions have always been fucked up. One big reason why Moore's "law" is repeatedly cited is because it's one of the few predictions that came out more-or-less true: where are our flying cars, robot helpers, etc? nowhere, that's where. "motherboards will get smaller". Excellent prediction, Sherlock. Let me predict another: the model numbers will increment. This kind of "news" is the kind of pap that rubbish news/journos push out, like how all those articles trumpeting the impact of the dotcoms right up until the bubble burst.
it would be a shame if society evolved into a "no permission means no look, no touch" attitude.
Society's already there. Where have you been?
it doesn't matter if you stop the RIAA this time! they'll be back!
They've got to stop it now!
maybe there needs to be a "conspiracy theory" mod type and not just "troll"... ?
i am amazed at the willingness of anybody to put in the amount of effort to write up this kind of crap. like maybe darth vader would say - "impressive, most impressive".
if it was done on company time, it's time to short that company's stock.
You mean to tell me you never told a challenger joke
never.
imagine this scenario. bunch of guys standing around. one guy says - "q:what was the astronaut's last words? a: What's this big red button for?" everybody bar one laughs. 1 guy standing in the back says "my uncle was on the challenger". does everyone laugh even more, or does everyone shut the fuck up and look down?
but if the guy isn't there, it's ok to make that kind of joke?
humour as catharsis: ok, when it's the guy in the back making the joke, not when its some random asshat who lost nothing
y'know - considering how people got killed, this is not something funny to joke about.
Frankly, it scares me to think that the skills I've worked so hard and spend so much to develop (and continue to develop) have nothing but marginal value.
Losing value? They're already exporting everything out to India, you realize...
The fact of the matter is that the various open source or free products are good enough. As the software consumers become better educated, the market for traditional applications shrinks. OpenOffice.org is good enough that anyone who knows better won't buy MS Office. Opera is as good as any browser out there and can be run free of charge - with only a minor banner ad. One by one any major "shrink wrap" product will feel the pinch
what about utilities? i am thinking of things like antivirus tools and stuff like norton utilities. even if free alternatives exist, people will still want to pay for something that has some kind of "backing" for it, because part of what motivates this kind of purchases is fear.
And when people are afraid they're always willing to whip out the wallet. OSS utilities are not going to be able to compare in the Joe Consumers mind with some (whether correct or unfounded) Big Reliable Trustworthy Megacorp (people buy from MS for this reason too).
the economy is in a tailspin and that can have an effect if it disproportionately affects purchases of the two different types of computer. are purchases of laptops more or less elastic than desktops, i.e. with the economy down, are the people buying laptops more the type to buy them anyway or put them off? in which case whether laptop sales have outstripped desktop sales may be more significant than the raw numbers as provided would suggest. But then its hard to tell because as the previous posters have mentioned - these are dollar values (which with laptops generally costing so much more skews the numbers) AND it also doesn't capture the non-retail numbers, which basically means... "nothing to see here, move along"
i dunno i look at the picture, and i think: no wonder mac users laugh at pc users