Re:What a crock of...
on
VoIP Questioned
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· Score: 3, Insightful
The article is truly awful. Lots of generalities, no specifics. You get things like "a VoIP phone number won't likely be included in most phone directories" and "Protecting your home could get tougher, as well. Some home alarm systems have trouble..." (emphasis mine). Then there's the Tivo misinformation that others have already commented on.
This is just poor journalism. Of the complaints raised the 911 issue is the most legitimate due to the lack of location specifics when you dial 911 from a cell phone. The others are either bogus or are actually features to many folks.
I hope the company I work for never goes public. I'd rather stay small and slightly profitable than get a whole bunch of money and blow it.
This is an interesting and totally understandable point of view. But it is really hard to do this in the software industry. Things change so fast that small companies that are providing a niche service just can't hang around for years and years unless they reinvent themselves. And successful reinvention is hard.
Given this, the successful (read, profitable) small software company has three choices: 1) Get acquired by someone like MS, Sun, Oracle, or whomever; 2) go public and grow, grow, grow; or 3) stay small and play the reinvention game. It's tough.
I thoroughly empathize with the poster, though, because a small, profitable, private software company is a great place to work. If you are at one now, congratulations! Enjoy it.
So, Wi-Fi would cause more people to use public transport and thus help to copy with traffic jams?
Perhaps. It's something to make you a bit more productive during your commute. Living in Southern California I am very familiar with how a commute by car just eats into your day. Many people in this area spend 3-4 hours commuting every day. That is pure wasted time when you are alone in your car.
Now if you could be fully productive -- or even just entertained -- during your commute, maybe you'll make that extra effort to take the train, ferry, or whatever.
Of course around here the problem is lack of options...the train doesn't come anywhere near where I live.
My cell phone can barely be called a phone based upon it's service track and they want to make it my next PC?
It's a well-known quote, but it seems applicable:
I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.
- Bjarne Stroustrup
Cell phones have a long way to go before they replace my computer, and reliability is only part of the problem. Handheld devices inherently require tradeoffs in usability.
Funny, as the current trend in AI research is to eschew abstractions and modeling (referred to as GOFAI - good old fashioned AI) in favor of neural nets and the like.
I've seen so many lame ass architectures defined as "neural nets" in the past few years it's hilarious. Effectively any loosely coupled network is a "neural net" to the marketecture guys!
I personally would be much more impressed with a computer that could play baseball.
A computer program to manage a baseball game would be pretty interesting. Armed with sufficient data -- batting average vs lefties, speed of runners on base, arm strength/accuracy of outfielders, etc., which real life managers certainly have in abundance -- I suspect you could write a pretty damn good baseball manager program.
Well Sun certainly needs "radical change," but I don't think selling cheap hardware at Wal-Mart is the answer. How much margin is there in that?
What Sun needs to do, and has needed to do for some time, is become a software and services company. They tried this with the AOL partnership (iPlanet), and they tried again by making a software "company" under Schwartz. Now that Schwartz has moved up the ladder what does this do to software at Sun? My prediction is nothing good. Sun still sees itself as a hardware box vendor, an attitude that is deeply ingrained in the sales force. Until that self-image changes, don't look for much change from Sun.
I'd be more concerned about getting the proper packaging...manuals and such.
Does any software come with proper manuals any more? Even an absurdly complex and expensive application like MS Word doesn't ship with a real manual. This fact has given birth to an entire industry of third party books that serve as software documentation. You're expected to pay $250 for a word processor, then $50 more for the "manual."
So for me personally the manual issue wouldn't stop me from using such a kiosk. I would expect decent documentation on the CD in HTML or PDF format (and doubtless be disappointed).
If cost is an issue, then build your own is probably the way to go.
I wouldn't mind building my own for a couple of reasons:
It would be interesting
I don't really want to pay the subscription fee (I've already got plenty of recurring monthly fees in my life)
But I don't know that cost is a good motivator. I'd want a separate box for this, so there's a few hundred dollars. Why not use the existing desktop? Because it's in the wrong room, and I'd like to keep it there. I'm sure you can stream video to the other room over the network, but that means another device to receive it on the TV end and either a wireless connection in there or stringing cable.
So you need a capable box, including the tuner, and the software. SageTV offers a hardware/software bundle for anywhere from $170US to $225US. If you have a computer sitting around with nothing else to do, I suppose you'll save some money. Otherwise I don't see how you will.
I wouldn't say bother were crap, but I agree they could've been better.
I'll cut Spielberg a break with Schindler; most of it is very good, except for that last scene ("why didn't I sell this pin? I could have (sob) saved two more.."). It wrecked the whole flick for me, with all of that unnecessary treacle.
Absolutely! There was a perfect moment in the film for an ending...Ben Kingsley sitting on a box near the railroad tracks. At least I think I'm remembering that right, it's been a while. But Spielberg always stretches his movies out too long. He doesn't know how to end them.
As for Ryan, well, once you check out the first half hour, there's not much else to see, unless you drool spontaneously when things blow up. The plot itself is just 100% inane.
The middle is definitely standard-issue war movie stuff. The first 20 minutes are incredible, though. This movie has unecessary bookends as well. Do we really need to see the old vet at the beginning and end of the movie? We get the point without that!
I'm still unsure whether the whole "take Frodo to Osgilith" scene was necessary or not. I understand Jackson's purpose (Faramir is human and corruptable by the ring, so that *needs* to be shown explicitly to drive the point home), I'm just not sure if I liked how it was handled.
I didn't like it, myself. In the book Faramir is corruptible but not corrupted. I thought Faramir was a much better character in the book than in the movie. Ditto for Denother, who is just a crazy old man in the movie. He's much more tragic in the book.
Yes Los Angeles had a huge smog problem in the 70's. We have a huge smog problem now. It's gone from insufferable to just terrible. If you think that terrible is an acceptable level, then good for you. I don't. And it just gets worse as more and more people spend more and more time in their cars. Cars -- and other pollution sources -- are cleaner than they were 30 years ago, but there are vastly more of them.
So to answer your question, "was technology the answer to LA's [sic] problems?": no. The problem has not been solved.
Depends on the prediction window. If it's small, say a few hours, then you can batten down the hatches and ride it out. People who live in single family dwellings could shut off the gas and water, and go sit in the front yard for while. People who live in apartments and other such dense arrangements could get themselves out and to a safer locale.
Now if the window is a number of days, it gets trickier. You would probably have to evacuate the area, which is a very different story.
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This is just poor journalism. Of the complaints raised the 911 issue is the most legitimate due to the lack of location specifics when you dial 911 from a cell phone. The others are either bogus or are actually features to many folks.
Given this, the successful (read, profitable) small software company has three choices: 1) Get acquired by someone like MS, Sun, Oracle, or whomever; 2) go public and grow, grow, grow; or 3) stay small and play the reinvention game. It's tough.
I thoroughly empathize with the poster, though, because a small, profitable, private software company is a great place to work. If you are at one now, congratulations! Enjoy it.
Now if you could be fully productive -- or even just entertained -- during your commute, maybe you'll make that extra effort to take the train, ferry, or whatever.
Of course around here the problem is lack of options...the train doesn't come anywhere near where I live.
It's a well-known quote, but it seems applicable:
I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.
- Bjarne Stroustrup
Cell phones have a long way to go before they replace my computer, and reliability is only part of the problem. Handheld devices inherently require tradeoffs in usability.
What Sun needs to do, and has needed to do for some time, is become a software and services company. They tried this with the AOL partnership (iPlanet), and they tried again by making a software "company" under Schwartz. Now that Schwartz has moved up the ladder what does this do to software at Sun? My prediction is nothing good. Sun still sees itself as a hardware box vendor, an attitude that is deeply ingrained in the sales force. Until that self-image changes, don't look for much change from Sun.
So for me personally the manual issue wouldn't stop me from using such a kiosk. I would expect decent documentation on the CD in HTML or PDF format (and doubtless be disappointed).
Amen! One clever, hilarious April Fool's story would be much better than a bunch of marginally funny ones.
It would be interesting
I don't really want to pay the subscription fee (I've already got plenty of recurring monthly fees in my life)
But I don't know that cost is a good motivator. I'd want a separate box for this, so there's a few hundred dollars. Why not use the existing desktop? Because it's in the wrong room, and I'd like to keep it there. I'm sure you can stream video to the other room over the network, but that means another device to receive it on the TV end and either a wireless connection in there or stringing cable.
So you need a capable box, including the tuner, and the software. SageTV offers a hardware/software bundle for anywhere from $170US to $225US. If you have a computer sitting around with nothing else to do, I suppose you'll save some money. Otherwise I don't see how you will.
I didn't like it, myself. In the book Faramir is corruptible but not corrupted. I thought Faramir was a much better character in the book than in the movie. Ditto for Denother, who is just a crazy old man in the movie. He's much more tragic in the book.
Yes Los Angeles had a huge smog problem in the 70's. We have a huge smog problem now. It's gone from insufferable to just terrible. If you think that terrible is an acceptable level, then good for you. I don't. And it just gets worse as more and more people spend more and more time in their cars. Cars -- and other pollution sources -- are cleaner than they were 30 years ago, but there are vastly more of them. So to answer your question, "was technology the answer to LA's [sic] problems?": no. The problem has not been solved.
Depends on the prediction window. If it's small, say a few hours, then you can batten down the hatches and ride it out. People who live in single family dwellings could shut off the gas and water, and go sit in the front yard for while. People who live in apartments and other such dense arrangements could get themselves out and to a safer locale. Now if the window is a number of days, it gets trickier. You would probably have to evacuate the area, which is a very different story.
Who's going to tell Canada that the Rockies start in Idaho?