While he correctly stated Microsoft's market value as still being 100 times that of Redhat's (as a rebuttal to the upsurd price for Redhat), he did not mention anything about Microsft's sales being over a thousand times that of Redhat's.
And yes, I surely do work for Microsoft, to post such a thing!;-)
While I have few friends who are studying sciences in order to become a (research) "scientist"... I do have many friends studying the sciences in order to become a doctor. Money driven? A lot of them.
I think computer science has replaced a lot of the traditional sciences for many people because here is a field where you do not need to get a master's or a Phd in order to enter the work force in their desired field. Plus (right now), the pay is a lot better.
I know plenty of people who started out as chem or physics majors in college, and either switched to computer Science half-way through (it was more interesting and easy for them), *or* ended up working in a computer related field because they simply could not find a job as a traditional scientist.
Eventually it will even out... but I definitely have not noticed a decline in those people wanted to become doctors.
Public schools are important for learning social skills and interacting with a wide variety of other people. I think I got a lot out of that, and even if I may have received a better book education... I would not give up what I gained from being around numerous kids from completely different backgrounds. That was valuable.
Take me back to the days of Iggy Stardust anyday. Just listening to that yesterday.
I think that it is high time glam rock made a comeback. Rock & Roll is currently dead in my opinion.
Communications, Communications, Communications....
on
Cisco, IBM to ally
·
· Score: 1
This is going to be where the big time growth is over the next decade.
From my standpoint, this is exciting stuff as well.
All the major players are jockying for position. Look at all the companies that became involved when AT&T bought MediaOne (Time Warner, Microsoft, AOL, MCI WorldComm...)! AOL has now formed a coalition to force Ma Bell to open those lines, while on the other broadband side, striking deals with Bell Atlantic, GTE, Ameritech and other baby's for DSL, and starting investments with satelite broadband providers.
Paul Allen has stealthily bought a huge cable network as well, while Bill Gates has done the same thing in Europe.
Cisco and Lucent are buying up new technologies (and paying outrageous prices for them) faster than you can blink. Microsoft is investing in everything under the sun. Sattelite communications companies are dieing, despite the vast sums of money pumped into them.
One time small(er) players are becoming big-boys fast. Qwest is buying US West. Global Crossing buying Frontier. You have everyone providing internet connections. Long distance companies selling local service and cable access, and regional bells selling long distance.
This is exciting... who needs college football!!??
Coke would probably not be your best choice for a dividend.
Yield = 1%
Actually, dividends give an important service to investors. The actual yield is secondary.
We know that companies can fiddle with their earnings through legal accounting... but you can not fiddle with dividends. Watching a company's dividend history can be very important. Often, this is more informative than looking at their year to year earnings.
Look for companies that have been able to increase their dividends from year to year, and by a good percentage. This shows a lot of confidence (from the company) in their ability to grow.
Dividends also benefit the long term investor during corrections and down times. You buy a stock at 100, and it quickly falls to 80. If you are able to buy more at 80, the dividends insure that you have made a profit, only if the stock merely attains a price of 100. More incentive to take advantage of those dips!
... I think the author might not be looking at the big picture. Red Hat, like any other company, is not after the end user market. They're after enterprises and large companies - places where they can sell their support offerings. An end user is more likely to hit up the folks on one of the comp.os.linux* groups than they are to call up Red Hat support - because it's cheaper.
In order for Redhat to succeed, or more to the point, come even close to justifying their market value... they need to go after the end users. My grandma needs to understand, and use the product (with phone support).
Giving these people that service is going to become their lifeblood. They have to become conveniant to use (hence, people will pay for them).
The problem with Redhat now, is they HAVE to start taking their shareholders into account now.
They now have to keep their upsurd stock value in mind now when making business decisions.
This can be an advantage, and a disadvantage.
The nice thing, is it keeps the company on its toes. Redhat now has a *lot* of people to answer to, giving them more incentive to grow and innovate. On the other hand, they may be forced to do things that were not included in their original business plan. In order to maintain such a lofty market cap, they may be forced to acquire another company... maybe even one much larger than themselves.
Interesting, Cops guns... My dad was a cop in the 60's, and I remember some black folks who snuck in to a Chicago stadium where some police were sleeping (bunked there because of riots). Seems theses black fellas randomly dropped concrete blocks on policeman's heads. And, I guess it's because they wanted equality, right?
Are you serious!? Maybe they really are BAD people after all! If you can even call them people...
Sorry, I just don't think history has shown the black people going about it as a group in the right ways. How long before the anger wears off? How many more generations of handouts and "affirmative action?" How are those of us who "made it" from humble roots to believe it takes more than 3 generations?
You are so right... I think it is about time that someone did something. We should ship those horrible monkeys back to Africa where they will not harm and leach off of us hardworking and deserving white folk!
Interesting, Cops guns... My dad was a cop in the 60's, and I remember some black folks who snuck in to a Chicago stadium where some police were sleeping (bunked there because of riots). Seems theses black fellas randomly dropped concrete blocks on policeman's heads. And, I guess it's because they wanted equality, right?
Are you serious!? Maybe they really are BAD people after all! If you can even call them people...
Sorry, I just don't think history has shown the black people going about it as a group in the right ways. How long before the anger wears off? How many more generations of handouts and "affirmative action?" How are those of us who "made it" from humble roots to believe it takes more than 3 generations?
You are so right... I think it is about time that someone did something. We should ship those horrible monkeys back to Africa where they will not harm and leach off of us hardworking and deserving white folk!
Argh... I am not talking about slavery here. In my opinion, that is not much of an issue on today's current state... though it is important to know.
I am talking about blacks in america not being able to even vote until 30 years ago!!!
You are calling me racist because I feel this has a bearing on the FACT that a disproportianate number of black americans are living in poverty, compared to whites!?
I am racist because I feel there is a genuine reason for this.... as opposed to blacks, as a race are simply genetically stupid and lazy!? Is this what you are trying to tell me?
We have a problem in America, and it is directly related to one specific race inproportianately. We need to deal with that.
That blacks have been victims in this country is simply true. It is not an insult. You identify the problem and force people to deal with it. You do not turn your back to it, ignore it, and hope it goes away... believe it or not, that does not work in most cases (though it did with that one girl I was forced into a blind date with two years ago).
Here you had a great idea (global, satelite network for phones), a huge backer (Motorola, who dumped over 750 million into the project) and a lofty stock price. And it failed.
Whether they were ahead of their time and the idea never caught on, or they botched up about everything that could go wrong (i would say both), the company went bankrupt.
the best ideas and technologies do not always work.
Because times have been so good, companies are looking for things to spend their cash reserves on.
Plus, they need to justify their sky-high market caps somehow. This how all the Japanese conglomerates got into so much trouble in the 90's. Remember when everyone was afraid the Japanese were soon going to own America?
The difference however, is that Cisco is sitting on a huge cash reserve and no debt.
I will state this again: I asm not going back 200, 100 or even 50 years ago. I am talking about the fact that black americans were not even given the right to vote until 30 years ago!
This has a large bearing on why there is a disproportianate amount of blacks living in poverty.
Not because they are a "lazy" people.
Everyone has been prejudiced against... no denying that, and everyone has had a struggle to get where they are. But, black people in this country were denied those rights the longest!
Slashdot Mirror
While he correctly stated Microsoft's market value as still being 100 times that of Redhat's (as a rebuttal to the upsurd price for Redhat), he did not mention anything about Microsft's sales being over a thousand times that of Redhat's.
;-)
And yes, I surely do work for Microsoft, to post such a thing!
yeah... and my comments with it :(
oh well.
1) Goldman Sachs and Thomas Weisel started RHAT at a Market Outperform and Buy respectively.
2) Gateway announced they would be using RHAT's 6.0 OS for qualified ALR server platforms.
3) Burlington Coat Factory announced they would be using RHAT support (260 stores).
4) Entered into a pact with V-One, a security software maker.
5) Began a Japanese unit.
werd.
Kinda like the Internet was supposed to be the Next Big Thing in the late 90's?
;-)
While I have few friends who are studying sciences in order to become a (research) "scientist"... I do have many friends studying the sciences in order to become a doctor.
Money driven? A lot of them.
I think computer science has replaced a lot of the traditional sciences for many people because here is a field where you do not need to get a master's or a Phd in order to enter the work force in their desired field. Plus (right now), the pay is a lot better.
I know plenty of people who started out as chem or physics majors in college, and either switched to computer Science half-way through (it was more interesting and easy for them), *or* ended up working in a computer related field because they simply could not find a job as a traditional scientist.
Eventually it will even out... but I definitely have not noticed a decline in those people wanted to become doctors.
Sheesh... I never said this was all "positive" social interaction. What was said is that I learned a lot from it.
In high school you learn that people can be horrible, and hopefully you learn to accept that, and learn how to handle it.
You can not tell me that your life is so hunky dorry now that you never come across cruel and ignorant people.
I did not come across many of them in college... I certainly did in highschool, and I certainly do now.... there are plenty out there!
Public schools are important for learning social skills and interacting with a wide variety of other people.
I think I got a lot out of that, and even if I may have received a better book education... I would not give up what I gained from being around numerous kids from completely different backgrounds. That was valuable.
Now I can not get to it, but on the map of the major ISP's (on Bell-lab's site)... what was the source of the huge green bundle at the top of the map?
Stupid me....
Asides from that, I occasionally have a clue.
How embarrassing... believe it or not, I was *playing* the damn album just last night!
The Velvet Goldmine is spectacular by the way.
I wish Shudder to Think performed in that manner more often.
Arg.
And what music is there nowadays that is not a rehashing of previous music in some way or another?
There is none... everything you could possibly listen to has its roots and influences.
David Bowie... quite the career.
Take me back to the days of Iggy Stardust anyday.
Just listening to that yesterday.
I think that it is high time glam rock made a comeback. Rock & Roll is currently dead in my opinion.
This is going to be where the big time growth is over the next decade.
From my standpoint, this is exciting stuff as well.
All the major players are jockying for position. Look at all the companies that became involved when AT&T bought MediaOne (Time Warner, Microsoft, AOL, MCI WorldComm...)! AOL has now formed a coalition to force Ma Bell to open those lines, while on the other broadband side, striking deals with Bell Atlantic, GTE, Ameritech and other baby's for DSL, and starting investments with satelite broadband providers.
Paul Allen has stealthily bought a huge cable network as well, while Bill Gates has done the same thing in Europe.
Cisco and Lucent are buying up new technologies (and paying outrageous prices for them) faster than you can blink. Microsoft is investing in everything under the sun. Sattelite communications companies are dieing, despite the vast sums of money pumped into them.
One time small(er) players are becoming big-boys fast. Qwest is buying US West. Global Crossing buying Frontier.
You have everyone providing internet connections. Long distance companies selling local service and cable access, and regional bells selling long distance.
This is exciting... who needs college football!!??
Coke would probably not be your best choice for a dividend.
Yield = 1%
Actually, dividends give an important service to investors. The actual yield is secondary.
We know that companies can fiddle with their earnings through legal accounting... but you can not fiddle with dividends. Watching a company's dividend history can be very important. Often, this is more informative than looking at their year to year earnings.
Look for companies that have been able to increase their dividends from year to year, and by a good percentage. This shows a lot of confidence (from the company) in their ability to grow.
Dividends also benefit the long term investor during corrections and down times. You buy a stock at 100, and it quickly falls to 80. If you are able to buy more at 80, the dividends insure that you have made a profit, only if the stock merely attains a price of 100. More incentive to take advantage of those dips!
... I think the author might not be looking at the big picture. Red Hat, like any other company, is not after the
end user market. They're after enterprises and large companies - places where they can sell their support
offerings. An end user is more likely to hit up the folks on one of the comp.os.linux* groups than they are to
call up Red Hat support - because it's cheaper.
In order for Redhat to succeed, or more to the point, come even close to justifying their market value... they need to go after the end users. My grandma needs to understand, and use the product (with phone support).
Giving these people that service is going to become their lifeblood. They have to become conveniant to use (hence, people will pay for them).
That is the big picture.
The problem with Redhat now, is they HAVE to start taking their shareholders into account now.
They now have to keep their upsurd stock value in mind now when making business decisions.
This can be an advantage, and a disadvantage.
The nice thing, is it keeps the company on its toes. Redhat now has a *lot* of people to answer to, giving them more incentive to grow and innovate. On the other hand, they may be forced to do things that were not included in their original business plan. In order to maintain such a lofty market cap, they may be forced to acquire another company... maybe even one much larger than themselves.
Redhat is probably not ready for that.
Interesting, Cops guns... My dad was a cop in the 60's, and I remember some black folks who snuck in to a Chicago stadium where some police were sleeping (bunked there because of riots). Seems theses black fellas randomly dropped concrete blocks on policeman's heads. And, I guess it's because they wanted equality, right?
Are you serious!? Maybe they really are BAD people after all! If you can even call them people...
Sorry, I just don't think history has shown the black people going about it as a group in the right ways. How long before the anger wears off? How many more generations of handouts and "affirmative action?" How are those of us who "made it" from humble roots to believe it takes more than 3 generations?
You are so right... I think it is about time that someone did something. We should ship those horrible monkeys back to Africa where they will not harm and leach off of us hardworking and deserving white folk!
Interesting, Cops guns... My dad was a cop in the 60's, and I remember some black folks who snuck in to a Chicago stadium where some police were sleeping (bunked there because of riots). Seems theses black fellas randomly dropped concrete blocks on policeman's heads. And, I guess it's because they wanted equality, right?
Are you serious!? Maybe they really are BAD people after all! If you can even call them people...
Sorry, I just don't think history has shown the black people going about it as a group in the right ways. How long before the anger wears off? How many more generations of handouts and "affirmative action?" How are those of us who "made it" from humble roots to believe it takes more than 3 generations?
You are so right... I think it is about time that someone did something. We should ship those horrible monkeys back to Africa where they will not harm and leach off of us hardworking and deserving white folk!
Argh... I am not talking about slavery here. In my opinion, that is not much of an issue on today's current state... though it is important to know.
I am talking about blacks in america not being able to even vote until 30 years ago!!!
You are calling me racist because I feel this has a bearing on the FACT that a disproportianate number of black americans are living in poverty, compared to whites!?
I am racist because I feel there is a genuine reason for this.... as opposed to blacks, as a race are simply genetically stupid and lazy!?
Is this what you are trying to tell me?
We have a problem in America, and it is directly related to one specific race inproportianately.
We need to deal with that.
That blacks have been victims in this country is simply true. It is not an insult. You identify the problem and force people to deal with it.
You do not turn your back to it, ignore it, and hope it goes away... believe it or not, that does not work in most cases (though it did with that one girl I was forced into a blind date with two years ago).
Are you joking!?
Where do you get these things from?
Homesexuality has been documented well before humans ever needed any form of population control (so did war and disease by the way).
Do the rats start decorating their cage?
You are making the mistake of throwing all geeks into the same pot.
There are many intelligent men/women out there who can be considered just as "geeky" as computer nerds. They may just be in other fields.
And they will still understand your dedication to work, while opening you up to other aspects of their lives.
I think people are making a mistake if they think programmers are the only partners that could possibly understand their way of lives.
It is nice to have a media outlet that actually pokes bullshit stories full of holes within the hour.
It has to be a nightmare for these journalists to find out that their piece was linked to by Slashdot.
Poor bastards.
Just call us the Renaissance Men of Geekdom.
:)
Reminds me of Iridium.
Here you had a great idea (global, satelite network for phones), a huge backer (Motorola, who dumped over 750 million into the project) and a lofty stock price. And it failed.
Whether they were ahead of their time and the idea never caught on, or they botched up about everything that could go wrong (i would say both), the company went bankrupt.
the best ideas and technologies do not always work.
Difference is that Motorola did not own Iridium.
Because times have been so good, companies are looking for things to spend their cash reserves on.
Plus, they need to justify their sky-high market caps somehow. This how all the Japanese conglomerates got into so much trouble in the 90's. Remember when everyone was afraid the Japanese were soon going to own America?
The difference however, is that Cisco is sitting on a huge cash reserve and no debt.
I will state this again:
I asm not going back 200, 100 or even 50 years ago.
I am talking about the fact that black americans were not even given the right to vote until 30 years ago!
This has a large bearing on why there is a disproportianate amount of blacks living in poverty.
Not because they are a "lazy" people.
Everyone has been prejudiced against... no denying that, and everyone has had a struggle to get where they are. But, black people in this country were denied those rights the longest!