No more stupid than the people in the States that bought shares in WorldCom and Enron, or the people here in Australia that had stock in HIH. It's worth whatever the market and the people within it decide it's worth, no more and no less.
And if you want to claim that it's "virtual" and thus not "really" worth what it sold for, then don't look too closely at why diamonds are priced as they are.
I was about to ask the exact same thing. Having completed all of my studies at Catholic schools I've had numerous bibles, all with their own variations on the various passages. How dismayed I was when I discovered Ezekiel 25:17 wasn't exactly as read by Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction;)
And for the record, in all those years NEVER were we taught that Genesis was a literal truth on the creation of the universe. Moreso a symbolic reference to a "creator"
Where exactly in Australia are you? I'm in Melbourne and I expect to hear someone talking about it on whatever breakfast news program I decide to watch. It's been a staple news item (and research/stockpiling of potential vacines by the government) for at least the past 3 weeks.
Okay, I'll bite! Hopefully this comes in handy, it's helped me a few times in the past. I generally don't go using it a great deal though, as the performance is nothing like the limit offset you get from Postgres.
CREATE PROCEDURE sp_limitoffset (
@table as nvarchar(255),
@limit as int,
@offset as int,
@primary_key as nvarchar(30),
@conditions as nvarchar(255)=null ) AS
declare @sql as nvarchar(4000)
set @sql = N'SELECT * FROM (
SELECT TOP '+cast(@limit as nvarchar)+' * FROM (
SELECT TOP '+cast(@offset as nvarchar)+' '+@primary_key+' FROM '+@table
if (@conditionsnull)
begin
set @sql = @sql + N' WHERE '+@conditions
end
set @sql = @sql + N' ORDER BY '+@table+'.'+@primary_key+' ASC) as foo ORDER by '+@primary_key+' DESC) as bar ORDER by '+@primary_key+' ASC'
execute sp_executesql @sql GO
Then you can simply: exec sp_limitoffset 'tablename',5,20,'ID' and get the results you were expecting. I guess you could also include a call to sp_columns to determine which field was the primary key and automatically sort on that, but I figured the performance hit probably didn't justify it as I always know what the PK is.
- Free/cheap WiFi for all - All HTTP requests transparently proxied through Internet Accelerator - Content cached, indexed, etc at each of these proxies
Suddenly the need for regular spidering has been quite dramatically reduced.
I've never had a problem with any of the MS systems I support when using update. I've set it to automatically download updates every 3 days, and install them once a week. I've found that on the rare (maybe twice?) occassions that MS have mistakenly released a patch which causes problems, they've rectified it by the time my schedule installs the update.
I'm from Australia, and I'm led to believe we have an embarrassingly high rate of road traffic mortalities. This is despite the fact (in Victoria at least) that the maximum speed limit on local streets is 50km/h, urban limits of 60km/h, and freeways/interstates usually 100km/h, occassionally 110km/h. We have a very obvious police presence issuing large numbers of speeding fines, fixed speed and red light cameras snapping pictures all day at major offending points.
While travelling recently I read a report which was discussing the attempt to attack speed as an issue within the US and it cited Australia as an example. Anecdotally the author stated that as a whole we had one of the most conforming societys in relation to speed with roads of an "Autobahn quality" (I haven't been to Germany, I can't comment on that but I assumed it was good). He went on to state that he found it amazing to travel some several hundred kilometers interstate in Australia to find almost all travellers adhereing to the sign-posted 100km/h limit, and those that breached it only marginally so. Yet we still have quite a high rate of mortality on our major interstate roadways. I've had a search for the report and can't find it online, if I do I'll post a link in reply to this. The conclusion was that off all of the road safety fatalities over a 10 year period in the US only a very minor percentage were attributable to speed alone (most involving alcohol, drugs, etc. as an additional factor).
Given we already have apparently such an obedient society in relation to conforming to speed limits I must wonder why we still have such a focus on installing fixed location speed cameras everywhere (apart from the easy revenue generation for booking someone travelling 51km/h) and if the reduction in the road toll isn't more a by-product of:
- Free coffee and snacks being made available at regular intervals on interstate freeways, particularly more common on holiday weekends - Large advertising campaigns to prevent driver fatique - Advertising campaigns to combat drink driving - All police being equiped to conduct random blood alcohol level testing - Regular police presence with "booze buses" to test all drivers on major motorways at random intervals - Testing for drivers under the influence of recreational drugs
As for "the facts". If I take your figures as truly being the facts and pick a car at random (the Audi A4 for point of argument) and make the following assumptions:
- It is travelling 27m/sec (more than I'd expect to see cars travelling at near pedestrians in this country) - It is capable of stopping from this speed at in less than 40m (do a search to verify) - The driver may have a reaction time of up to 2secs
Assuming the rate of deceleration is linear and the driver takes the full 2 seconds to react you could step out in front of this car travelling at 100km/h a mere 95m in front of the driver and stop and not be hit by the car. I really have to question how much to blame the driver is (or the speed he is travelling) if a pedestrian plays chicken with a vehicle that and tries to run across a major motorway in a window of opportunity that is lasting less than 4 seconds. When a vehicle like this can come to a complete stop in under 2 seconds from the moment the driver reacts, even at these high speeds... well I have to assume such high mortality rates are more a by-product of slow reaction times and not speedy vehicles.
And yes I know not every car is an Audi, but that comes back to the parents point about the issue being a lack of understanding of a particular cars ability and poor driver education.
In searching for some support to this reply I found an interesting study that discovered 2/5 occupant fatalities in motor vehicle accidents were not wearing their seatbelt at the time.
I'm fortunate enough to work with a bunch of nerds that partake in motorsports on a regular basis. When I got my licence and went out to buy a WRX as my first car my boss took me for a
Admittedly I dont play FPS as much as I used to, but I used to play with my MS Explorer mouse. Two main buttons, a clickable scroll wheel, and two more on either side (the back and forward ones).
Mouse direction took care of moving, scrolling cycled through weapons, clicking the scroll was jump. Main button shoot, secondary open door. Back button crouch, forward button jump.
So from your list all that is left is: - Run (or just move, mouse only sets the direction it doesn't actually get you going) - Walk - Talk with team - Talk with everybody - 3 special functions
So excluding being able to select every weapon you've still got 5 spare buttons. Assign those to your 5 most required weapons, and scroll for the others?
I haven't used the CLAW, but 10 buttons + a decent mouse would have sufficed in my FPS playing days.
I've re-read the parent post, and I agree. Mine was out of line and wasn't intended to be directed straight at the parent poster but rather to the mass of "I want one where I can share all my files with my friends" posts to which I unfairly lumped the accused. My sincere apologies for such a poorly thought out response.
Regarding your example with the church, I see the problem here being the DMCA (DCMA? I can never remember which way it goes) and not the DRM itself per se. DRM should prevent the church from freely distributing the file to all who attended (fair enough), but not for infringing on what they can do with the file in their own posession. If we take it back to my book example and how the law has typically operated, the church should be forbidden for photocopying and distributing the book to everyone who arrives... but the mere act of photocopying shouldn't and wouldn't be an infringement.
But in the scenario you painted, if these people were open to prosecution (which in the current situation due to the DMCA they are) then it is a completely unacceptable situation to be in. I again stand corrected.
I still believe the problem isn't DRM, but the DCMA and how it is being abused to prosecute anyone for almost any reason, however ridiculous.
You warez and copyright infringing fanboys seem to think that leeching whatever you want when and where you want is fine.
I'm not a fan of DRM the way it is being rolled out in the majority of cases, but Apple's implementation is pretty tight. It doesn't impact on my ability to use the content I've purchased how I want to use it, all it's done is prevent me from freely giving away someone elses work. Spend 12 months slaving away over your masterpiece which you're planning on having make you rich... give it to a friend, and have him photocopy it and pass around to all he knows. See how much you appreciate the action then.
I'm dead against DRM which prevents me from using things I've purchased for my own personal use, whatever they may be. I'm also against content which ultimately requires a subscription or on-going licence to be able to use.
Apple infringes on neither of these desires, and is completely transparent to my experience. Get used to it, DRM is going to be the way forward and with good reason. People who invest their time (and money?) to provide you with a product or service deserve to be re-imbursed in some fashion. If you want to receive your content electronically, then DRM is currently the only solution to prevent you from depriving someone else of renumeration they rightfully deserve. And I don't care how secure or insecure it is, it just needs to be secure enough to make the majority of people not want to invest the time to circumvent it. Books are fairly insecure from a copyright perspective, it's just that photocopying a 300 page novel usually requires more of a time commitment than earning the $20 to buy it.
Your consumer rights haven't been screwed, come back to reality. It's just that things are now being put in placed to stop the providers of goods being screwed over by the likes of you.
I'm disgusted at how much money the record companies make on the back of artists. I'm disgusted how little said artists get paid for the amount of work they usually have to do. That being said, stealing the content off of a friend only deprives them even more. If they have the means to distribute the content themselves without being screwed over by morally challenged "consumers", then maybe they can free themselves of the dependence on the big industry. DRM gives them the ability to do things like this themselves, not hinder it.
And hopefully along the way, the significant reduction in costs of production and distribution is passed directly back to me, the consumer.
I've heard the southern coast of Australia, in particular Melbourne, is one of the most difficult areas to accurately predict. I guess New Zealand wouldn't be too different, althought probably for different reasons.
Australia is predominantly a large, dry land mass and the hot dry heat blowing down from northern Australia meets quite violently with the icy cold winds blowing north from the antarctica along the southern Australian coast line. This creates quite chaotic and unpredictable weather patterns. Anyone who has spent any time in a southern Australian city can attest to the weathers amazing ability to be a searing 40c, before dropping to a mild 18c with a torrential downpour of rain or hail, before climbing back up to mid 30s prior to dusk.
I think meteorologists are trying to make meaning of something which is as predictable as the stock market some times.
It's not like being first to market is always the key to being the most profitable. Just look how well Ford are doing, from once having pretty much 100% market share.
Apologies for replying in the article, wasn't sure how else to contact you.
Is this free iPod thing for real? Unfortunately I'm not in the states so cant progress through the second stage of the site. Although I'd be interested in some more details, please shoot me an email;)
IANAL, but my understanding of patent law is that when the patent is granted you must prosecute any infringements you are aware of. No getting to pick your battles. And you must file suit within a reasonable time period.
Failing to do so voids your patent.
At least, I'm almost certain that is how it works here in Australia.
No don't get me wrong, I think the "linux community" as a whole have made tremendous steps towards making things easier, I was just responding to the sarcasm in the parent post.
Mandrake, Suse, the Fedora guys and all the kids at KDE and Gnome should keep up the great work. (and maybe consolidate the truly great ideas?)
While I don't advocate the command line is removed as it offers a great level of flexibility, things shouldn't stay more difficult just because they can. It's this kind of mentality that stops a more widespread adoption of linux on the desktop. Distros are thankfully making the user experience more enjoyable and not targetting them solely at geeks.
That being said, I've read both articles (and no I'm not new here;) and I don't think the conclusions are all that differ. Each offer their advantages, Suse seems to be the most polished. I'd been a mandrake user previously, might be worth taking a look at suse next time.
Why wait until you've lost the share? I was a devout Netscape fan for years until it became apparent that IE was quite simply, better. As a web developer at the time, it wasn't a choice I made lightly.
A few years down the track and I decide to give firefox a try, and was happily suprised. I've since re-built my machine and though what the hell, I'll try GIMP and OO.org instead of Photoshop MS Office. Again I've been pleasantly suprised. Admittedly I've installed photoshop and office because a sudden deadline meant I couldn't take the chance at fumbling around in a foreign application, but appart from that one project I've not needed to touch my closed source commercial counter-parts.
Mozilla/Firefox may just be the start of something bigger as far as MS are concerned. If it gets widespread acceptance, people may start looking elsewhere for their other software.
Personally, I can't see MS having anywhere near the stranglehold they do now in 5 years. The product improvements no longer justify the outlay, and the industry as a whole really seems to be maturing.
Quite scary personally, as almost all of my skillset is MS based. Time to start learning some "real" skills I guess;)
Actually, for the vast majority of people "features" aren't important at all. Anybody who has a decent amount of sales experience or training is well aware that to the vast majority you can't sell "features", you sell benefits.
I don't care if it has a colour screen, a 1tb disk, wifi and full surround if it isn't any easier to use and doesn't offer anything other than some new "features"
It's been done, although I quick search on google couldn't find one for me. The footballers (Australian Rules) over here use them when they are substituted and taken from the ground. It allows them to sit on the player bench out of the rain but remain active so they don't run back out onto the ground cold.
Regular stationary bikes were to cumbersome to transport and have sitting right on the sidelines.
Slashdot Mirror
No more stupid than the people in the States that bought shares in WorldCom and Enron, or the people here in Australia that had stock in HIH. It's worth whatever the market and the people within it decide it's worth, no more and no less.
And if you want to claim that it's "virtual" and thus not "really" worth what it sold for, then don't look too closely at why diamonds are priced as they are.
I was about to ask the exact same thing. Having completed all of my studies at Catholic schools I've had numerous bibles, all with their own variations on the various passages. How dismayed I was when I discovered Ezekiel 25:17 wasn't exactly as read by Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction ;)
And for the record, in all those years NEVER were we taught that Genesis was a literal truth on the creation of the universe. Moreso a symbolic reference to a "creator"
$1200, >30% effeciency, and it equates to cheaper power than what you can get off the grid.
There doesn't seem to be much excuse any more. Cheap AND effecient cells:
http://www.greenandgoldenergy.com.au/
Where exactly in Australia are you? I'm in Melbourne and I expect to hear someone talking about it on whatever breakfast news program I decide to watch. It's been a staple news item (and research/stockpiling of potential vacines by the government) for at least the past 3 weeks.
I'm pretty sure the "Australian Icon" has been an almost direct rip of the German Opel for many years now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_Commodore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Omega
Okay, I'll bite! Hopefully this comes in handy, it's helped me a few times in the past. I generally don't go using it a great deal though, as the performance is nothing like the limit offset you get from Postgres.
CREATE PROCEDURE sp_limitoffset (
@table as nvarchar(255),
@limit as int,
@offset as int,
@primary_key as nvarchar(30),
@conditions as nvarchar(255)=null
) AS
declare @sql as nvarchar(4000)
set @sql = N'SELECT * FROM (
SELECT TOP '+cast(@limit as nvarchar)+' * FROM (
SELECT TOP '+cast(@offset as nvarchar)+' '+@primary_key+' FROM '+@table
if (@conditionsnull)
begin
set @sql = @sql + N' WHERE '+@conditions
end
set @sql = @sql + N' ORDER BY '+@table+'.'+@primary_key+' ASC) as foo ORDER by '+@primary_key+' DESC) as bar ORDER by '+@primary_key+' ASC'
execute sp_executesql @sql
GO
Then you can simply:
exec sp_limitoffset 'tablename',5,20,'ID'
and get the results you were expecting. I guess you could also include a call to sp_columns to determine which field was the primary key and automatically sort on that, but I figured the performance hit probably didn't justify it as I always know what the PK is.
Enjoy
How's this for a conspiracy theory then:
- Free/cheap WiFi for all
- All HTTP requests transparently proxied through Internet Accelerator
- Content cached, indexed, etc at each of these proxies
Suddenly the need for regular spidering has been quite dramatically reduced.
I've never had a problem with any of the MS systems I support when using update. I've set it to automatically download updates every 3 days, and install them once a week. I've found that on the rare (maybe twice?) occassions that MS have mistakenly released a patch which causes problems, they've rectified it by the time my schedule installs the update.
I'm from Australia, and I'm led to believe we have an embarrassingly high rate of road traffic mortalities. This is despite the fact (in Victoria at least) that the maximum speed limit on local streets is 50km/h, urban limits of 60km/h, and freeways/interstates usually 100km/h, occassionally 110km/h. We have a very obvious police presence issuing large numbers of speeding fines, fixed speed and red light cameras snapping pictures all day at major offending points.
While travelling recently I read a report which was discussing the attempt to attack speed as an issue within the US and it cited Australia as an example. Anecdotally the author stated that as a whole we had one of the most conforming societys in relation to speed with roads of an "Autobahn quality" (I haven't been to Germany, I can't comment on that but I assumed it was good). He went on to state that he found it amazing to travel some several hundred kilometers interstate in Australia to find almost all travellers adhereing to the sign-posted 100km/h limit, and those that breached it only marginally so. Yet we still have quite a high rate of mortality on our major interstate roadways. I've had a search for the report and can't find it online, if I do I'll post a link in reply to this. The conclusion was that off all of the road safety fatalities over a 10 year period in the US only a very minor percentage were attributable to speed alone (most involving alcohol, drugs, etc. as an additional factor).
Given we already have apparently such an obedient society in relation to conforming to speed limits I must wonder why we still have such a focus on installing fixed location speed cameras everywhere (apart from the easy revenue generation for booking someone travelling 51km/h) and if the reduction in the road toll isn't more a by-product of:
- Free coffee and snacks being made available at regular intervals on interstate freeways, particularly more common on holiday weekends
- Large advertising campaigns to prevent driver fatique
- Advertising campaigns to combat drink driving
- All police being equiped to conduct random blood alcohol level testing
- Regular police presence with "booze buses" to test all drivers on major motorways at random intervals
- Testing for drivers under the influence of recreational drugs
As for "the facts". If I take your figures as truly being the facts and pick a car at random (the Audi A4 for point of argument) and make the following assumptions:
- It is travelling 27m/sec (more than I'd expect to see cars travelling at near pedestrians in this country)
- It is capable of stopping from this speed at in less than 40m (do a search to verify)
- The driver may have a reaction time of up to 2secs
Assuming the rate of deceleration is linear and the driver takes the full 2 seconds to react you could step out in front of this car travelling at 100km/h a mere 95m in front of the driver and stop and not be hit by the car. I really have to question how much to blame the driver is (or the speed he is travelling) if a pedestrian plays chicken with a vehicle that and tries to run across a major motorway in a window of opportunity that is lasting less than 4 seconds. When a vehicle like this can come to a complete stop in under 2 seconds from the moment the driver reacts, even at these high speeds... well I have to assume such high mortality rates are more a by-product of slow reaction times and not speedy vehicles.
And yes I know not every car is an Audi, but that comes back to the parents point about the issue being a lack of understanding of a particular cars ability and poor driver education.
In searching for some support to this reply I found an interesting study that discovered 2/5 occupant fatalities in motor vehicle accidents were not wearing their seatbelt at the time.
I'm fortunate enough to work with a bunch of nerds that partake in motorsports on a regular basis. When I got my licence and went out to buy a WRX as my first car my boss took me for a
Admittedly I dont play FPS as much as I used to, but I used to play with my MS Explorer mouse. Two main buttons, a clickable scroll wheel, and two more on either side (the back and forward ones).
Mouse direction took care of moving, scrolling cycled through weapons, clicking the scroll was jump. Main button shoot, secondary open door. Back button crouch, forward button jump.
So from your list all that is left is:
- Run (or just move, mouse only sets the direction it doesn't actually get you going)
- Walk
- Talk with team
- Talk with everybody
- 3 special functions
So excluding being able to select every weapon you've still got 5 spare buttons. Assign those to your 5 most required weapons, and scroll for the others?
I haven't used the CLAW, but 10 buttons + a decent mouse would have sufficed in my FPS playing days.
I've re-read the parent post, and I agree. Mine was out of line and wasn't intended to be directed straight at the parent poster but rather to the mass of "I want one where I can share all my files with my friends" posts to which I unfairly lumped the accused. My sincere apologies for such a poorly thought out response.
Regarding your example with the church, I see the problem here being the DMCA (DCMA? I can never remember which way it goes) and not the DRM itself per se. DRM should prevent the church from freely distributing the file to all who attended (fair enough), but not for infringing on what they can do with the file in their own posession. If we take it back to my book example and how the law has typically operated, the church should be forbidden for photocopying and distributing the book to everyone who arrives... but the mere act of photocopying shouldn't and wouldn't be an infringement.
But in the scenario you painted, if these people were open to prosecution (which in the current situation due to the DMCA they are) then it is a completely unacceptable situation to be in. I again stand corrected.
I still believe the problem isn't DRM, but the DCMA and how it is being abused to prosecute anyone for almost any reason, however ridiculous.
You warez and copyright infringing fanboys seem to think that leeching whatever you want when and where you want is fine.
I'm not a fan of DRM the way it is being rolled out in the majority of cases, but Apple's implementation is pretty tight. It doesn't impact on my ability to use the content I've purchased how I want to use it, all it's done is prevent me from freely giving away someone elses work. Spend 12 months slaving away over your masterpiece which you're planning on having make you rich... give it to a friend, and have him photocopy it and pass around to all he knows. See how much you appreciate the action then.
I'm dead against DRM which prevents me from using things I've purchased for my own personal use, whatever they may be. I'm also against content which ultimately requires a subscription or on-going licence to be able to use.
Apple infringes on neither of these desires, and is completely transparent to my experience. Get used to it, DRM is going to be the way forward and with good reason. People who invest their time (and money?) to provide you with a product or service deserve to be re-imbursed in some fashion. If you want to receive your content electronically, then DRM is currently the only solution to prevent you from depriving someone else of renumeration they rightfully deserve. And I don't care how secure or insecure it is, it just needs to be secure enough to make the majority of people not want to invest the time to circumvent it. Books are fairly insecure from a copyright perspective, it's just that photocopying a 300 page novel usually requires more of a time commitment than earning the $20 to buy it.
Your consumer rights haven't been screwed, come back to reality. It's just that things are now being put in placed to stop the providers of goods being screwed over by the likes of you.
I'm disgusted at how much money the record companies make on the back of artists. I'm disgusted how little said artists get paid for the amount of work they usually have to do. That being said, stealing the content off of a friend only deprives them even more. If they have the means to distribute the content themselves without being screwed over by morally challenged "consumers", then maybe they can free themselves of the dependence on the big industry. DRM gives them the ability to do things like this themselves, not hinder it.
And hopefully along the way, the significant reduction in costs of production and distribution is passed directly back to me, the consumer.
Take the wires off the battery in your car, and lets see how far you get ;)
I've heard the southern coast of Australia, in particular Melbourne, is one of the most difficult areas to accurately predict. I guess New Zealand wouldn't be too different, althought probably for different reasons.
Australia is predominantly a large, dry land mass and the hot dry heat blowing down from northern Australia meets quite violently with the icy cold winds blowing north from the antarctica along the southern Australian coast line. This creates quite chaotic and unpredictable weather patterns. Anyone who has spent any time in a southern Australian city can attest to the weathers amazing ability to be a searing 40c, before dropping to a mild 18c with a torrential downpour of rain or hail, before climbing back up to mid 30s prior to dusk.
I think meteorologists are trying to make meaning of something which is as predictable as the stock market some times.
It's not like being first to market is always the key to being the most profitable. Just look how well Ford are doing, from once having pretty much 100% market share.
Only on slashdot can karma whoring be considered insightful.
That my frieds, is the beauty of free speech
Apologies for replying in the article, wasn't sure how else to contact you.
;)
Is this free iPod thing for real? Unfortunately I'm not in the states so cant progress through the second stage of the site. Although I'd be interested in some more details, please shoot me an email
IANAL, but my understanding of patent law is that when the patent is granted you must prosecute any infringements you are aware of. No getting to pick your battles. And you must file suit within a reasonable time period.
Failing to do so voids your patent.
At least, I'm almost certain that is how it works here in Australia.
No don't get me wrong, I think the "linux community" as a whole have made tremendous steps towards making things easier, I was just responding to the sarcasm in the parent post.
Mandrake, Suse, the Fedora guys and all the kids at KDE and Gnome should keep up the great work. (and maybe consolidate the truly great ideas?)
While I don't advocate the command line is removed as it offers a great level of flexibility, things shouldn't stay more difficult just because they can. It's this kind of mentality that stops a more widespread adoption of linux on the desktop. Distros are thankfully making the user experience more enjoyable and not targetting them solely at geeks.
;) and I don't think the conclusions are all that differ. Each offer their advantages, Suse seems to be the most polished. I'd been a mandrake user previously, might be worth taking a look at suse next time.
That being said, I've read both articles (and no I'm not new here
You obviously don't need to be more familiar as you've got it pretty well summed up.
If you don't want nulls, put a constraint on the field to prevent them being accepted as a type.
How difficult is that for anybody who knows how to use SQL effeciently? Don't blame on poor design what can easily be explained by ignorance.
Maybe he learnt his lesson with the 640k, and so now he's just trying to play it safe?
;)
Nobody will never need more than 640k, nobody will ever need more than $1mil
Why wait until you've lost the share? I was a devout Netscape fan for years until it became apparent that IE was quite simply, better. As a web developer at the time, it wasn't a choice I made lightly.
;)
A few years down the track and I decide to give firefox a try, and was happily suprised. I've since re-built my machine and though what the hell, I'll try GIMP and OO.org instead of Photoshop MS Office. Again I've been pleasantly suprised. Admittedly I've installed photoshop and office because a sudden deadline meant I couldn't take the chance at fumbling around in a foreign application, but appart from that one project I've not needed to touch my closed source commercial counter-parts.
Mozilla/Firefox may just be the start of something bigger as far as MS are concerned. If it gets widespread acceptance, people may start looking elsewhere for their other software.
Personally, I can't see MS having anywhere near the stranglehold they do now in 5 years. The product improvements no longer justify the outlay, and the industry as a whole really seems to be maturing.
Quite scary personally, as almost all of my skillset is MS based. Time to start learning some "real" skills I guess
Actually, for the vast majority of people "features" aren't important at all. Anybody who has a decent amount of sales experience or training is well aware that to the vast majority you can't sell "features", you sell benefits.
I don't care if it has a colour screen, a 1tb disk, wifi and full surround if it isn't any easier to use and doesn't offer anything other than some new "features"
It's been done, although I quick search on google couldn't find one for me. The footballers (Australian Rules) over here use them when they are substituted and taken from the ground. It allows them to sit on the player bench out of the rain but remain active so they don't run back out onto the ground cold.
Regular stationary bikes were to cumbersome to transport and have sitting right on the sidelines.