The article was succinct and straightforward, and ought to be read by every U.S. Congressman. The arguement on energy sources has been more or less front page since OPEC in the early 70s, but what has Congress done?
Debate, debate, debate, but the U.S. Government Reps, Senators & Presidents have more or less refused to commit the country to policies designed to keep thye U.S. being held hostage to external threats on oil supply, UNTIL the price doubles in a short time. New policy implementation takes the better part of a decade to make a serious impact, so lets start it now.
Coal is a disaster and has been known as such for decades, yet what does our U.S. Congress do about it? The answer is obviously nothing.
How many more debates and decades before we either solve the damn problem or we get throttled by the external forces from the enlightened societies with their wonderful societal standards where the oil comes from.
Way back, all value was received by the performer &/or shared with his support crew/director, clear back into the times of Shakespear.
That was what copyright was for was to allow the original content creator to receive compensation from the print copy of his work.
No many users may have 1000-10,000 songs on their hard drive (I have 1000 from my CD's, thats it).
How many of those songs have I listented to? How many will I never listen to? If I had 10,000 songs would I ever be able to listen to them all? Should I pay for something I will never listen to, regardless of the "copy"? No comment on the legal side as IANAL.
The basics still apply for the vast majority of musicians in that they earn their livings from performances and from local sales at those performances and as such, DRM doesn't mean much to the average muscian.
DRM only means something to the "mass media conglomerates". They have held a monopoly that has gradually eroded over the evolution to digital, and now they face the inevitable march of technology and will have to give up the idea that listening to a recording = royalty. Radio has given users "songs" for nearly a century now, but no one stopped buying better copies or albums. I suspect the new "performance packages" will be updated frequently and "sold" as DRM free, and with creativity, the conglomerates will still earn fair incomes off the mega-acts. Thus the "songs" will come with posters, tickets to concerts, video clips, etc., as the world moves on.
1. Hard Drive Hog 2. Hardware intensive (new Hardware req'd) 3. Reduced functionality mode (if & when something craps out) 4. Limited ability to load on new hard drives for backup or in case of other failures/upgrages
I just have to wonder if Microsoft may have to turn VISTA into FOSS?
They earn their money off of the wholesale price as sold to the box makers and that is it. You download your extra copies for free.
If they are going to compete in the long run against Unix/Linux, that may be their only choice UNLESS...
Microsoft could start their own PC Box Company, and come up with a tricky catchy name like MicroBox.
is your Boss, you had BETTER be quick & nimble with the BIG WORDS, & the HOT PLANS, & the NEW MARKET ENTRY at the NEXT HOLIDAY season, & (most important of all)...
You had best get your RESUME OUT THERE NOW, and get that FLACK JACKET & HELMET on because you never known when chairs are going to fly again.
None of this is surprising to anyone I've talked to. No One!
What I am hearing from diehard PC users I run across is subdued speculation, and NOT about Zune. The speculation is all whether VISTA will mean anything to them.
I pity the project managers under Ballmer, because their stomachs must be tied in a knot 24 hours a day. Been there, done that, and you can't survive long that way.
Wait until China starts importing something other than the Cherry (Chevy) to the U.S.
Next it will be the ChiPC computer line, and I'll bet the OS does not have DRM on it, and I'll bet it undercuts HP & Dell.
No special graphics card. No special chips. No VISTA
Microsoft has a LOT to LOSE by aceeding to the demand/acquescence to load the whole system to protect media companies from common consumers. Again, I think Warren Buffet said it right when he said he would not invest in Microsoft because he didn't understand the business model for the long term.
It has been possible to do this since solar cells were invented. It was not possible to get a real break even versus standard energy sources "back then" in the 60's, nor is it possible to get to break even now today in the next 25 years, and I submit from the article my evidence:
"Caminiti argues that the cost of the hydrogen/solar setup works out at about $4,000 a year when its $100,000 cost is spread over the anticipated 25-year lifespan of the equipment. That's still a lot higher than the $1,500 a year the average U.S. homeowner spends on energy, according to the federal government. Even if gasoline costs averaging about $1,000 per car annually are included in the energy mix, the renewables option is still more expensive than the grid/gasoline combination."
'expect to have a prototype by..." does NOT equal "...have developed..." which implies a working nano-sized tool.
This is almost as good as politicians standing up for election spouting all their "projects" they plan to implement with our dollars once we elect them to be our overlords.
It takes both, and only 5% of the engineers will probably be the creative ones who can see the big picture well enough to innovate and get great solutions, sort of like any industry.
Advice: Things are changing fast enough to where any creative engineer is going to have to commit himself/herself to never ever stop learning and asking question, even if it makes them look foolish.
Schools: "Shop" classes still put reality in front of young ideas that forge capabilities.
Given the creeps anywhere can run these scams outside of N. America, it just means other methods might work better.
We can start by having ISPs who know computers crunching out a 1000 emails at a time in the middle of the night get dumped off the Internet until the user gets a new hard drive or computer.
Think Kenya.
They have already tried it their with the ACLU's buddies in the Al Queda group.
Humans have survived where other critters have not because they have the ability to plan ahead.
The day 2-3 kilos of long lived radioisotope dust is spread through the streets of Los Angeles or other major city in the U.S., or a low yield nuclear device goes off, all the naysayers will say "Why didn't you do something to prevent the attack?"
It never fails.
Given some of the above comments, as one might apply them to personal computers in the early 70s, "Who needs one, let alone two?"
Head restraints, crumple zones, airbags, and such are not needed for the vast majority of citizens, "Who needs them?"
The vast majority of homes never burn down, "Who needs fire insurance?"
Trying to solve problems is essentially what Slashdot tries to cover on a daily basis and you would think we are not by reading some of these comments. Whether we are learning to fight insurgents and gain the knowledge and experience and ability to track and identify, where we did not before, or establish systems that we improve to screen passengers, they all get improved over time (think DOS computers to now).
This "iPhone" will be changed in software by the time the first model ships in June 07, and that is just the first generation.
By the time we get to Gen3, I'll bet everyone saying "Ho Hum, another iPod" and "But it is not 3G", and "No iChat?" are going to have selective memory of what they said a year or two back.
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING of a new modern, physically simple hardware device to use for computing-communication and Apple is just the one on the leading edge at the moment.
The reason I see value in the iPhone is unlimited communication, NOT FOR MUSIC! Music is an afterthought & even a distraction for me.
The wide capabilities (& wider in next gen releases) of the iPhone are such that any respecting user of technology can see the device as a VCD, Virtual Connection Device.
Whether you are doing a local simple bit of a document or image collection, it is the bi-directional communication with what is arguably an unlimited number of devices through multiple RF & potentially IR methods that means it is a programmable blank slate computing communicator.
Whether you merely do simple things sending and receiving messages, or you actually use a VCD to do complex interactive and controlling functions is entirely up to the software you will eventually load into the VCD.
Hmmm, now let me see here, about what I've spent my money on.
1. HP-35 & 45 etal = $395 each or so 2. Later HP w/full keyboard (forgot #) = $700 or so 3. StarTac = almost $1000 4. Newton = $800 or so
So what will I get with iPhone or ComPhone (if Cisco-Apple don't agree)?:
A. Sync'd items from my MacBook Pro (worth a lot) B. Email (saves toting MacBook worth a lot) C. Browser that is actually readable (same as B.) D. HP 41-CX emulator (gotta come soon, I'll bet) E. Phone stuff (I'll use the BlueTooth Jawbone, thank you) F. Easy conferencing (why couldn't anyone else do it this easy) G. Camera phone that allows me to easily zoom in to see the picture quality before emailing H. WiFi connections (a major plus, since they seem to be nearly everywhere in big cities)
Is that enough. $599 is nothing if you will use the features. Aunt Minnie and granddaughter might not, but a lot of people in the middle might well do it.
Lots of things will improve in ComPhone v2, but I'll have to learn on version 1. I do hope they let you charge it through the USB port on the MacBook (seems logical given similar devices elsewhere).
"My prediction: Microsoft's Home Server will put an end to the perception of "Apple cool, PC geeky" once and for all -- and hopefully an end to those annoying commercials. "
Hmmm, now who seems to be on the Microsoft Advertising Department payroll.
For gods sake, these people writing these articles must think everyone reading their articles are only 7 years old.
And these people want us to think of them as journalists?
Anyone would be that utterly deceptive...I mean...certainly not a manufacturer of hardware...or certainly not a major software developer...uh...oh, I forgot, except for those accidental bugs in the OS software...and indeed the unfortunate BBBBrowser.
& UNIX is BAD because it is OLD
on
2007 in Security
·
· Score: 1
And everyone knows that older versions of Windows are bad...
So why is it that with security issues of all types, I do NOT see articles about why "UNIX is BAD".
Why is not the computer media in general noting more of the reason why choices involving UNIX variants are good.
We have had some very smart, very well thought out programming and systems which went into and then advanced UNIX, and it has now stood the test of time very very well, but a supermajority of mainstream PC press is simply a fan club for the market leader and companies that hang on its coat tails.
We need far more of "the best" discussed and analyzed and written about to get people away from broken windows.
after he's spent all this money and lost it all at the justice crap table, rather than going out with the same amount of money, like a normal U.S. entrepeneur and...
CREATE SOMETHING PEOPLE WILL KNOCK YOUR DOOR DOW TO GET AT.
Indeed if there are paid 637,000 AutoDesk Inventor licenses that would be good.
Seems to me I remember how some of our largest East Coast papers had to restate "circulation numbers" recently because someone was fudging.
Giving away or bulk licensing virtually unlimited # of licenses for.edu uses again screws the numbers.
Virtually all companies play the game, but I am only judging by seeing what the machinery and tool builders I know use for constructing things. Inventor is seldom heard by me for my uses, though indeed a sample of one is not usable as a valid statistical conclusion.
It will be interesting to see who survives. The market in CAD has the same problems as the OS world. Proprietary file formats make it often difficult to exchange meaningful and/or accurate data that another CAD application accepts. I don't make the case SolidWorks is better than Inventor in that regard, but...AutoDesk has been rather of the Microsoft bent when it comes to being less open on dxf format, where that is simply protecting your hula hoop design.
He who wins in 3D CAD is probably going to have to seriously give the end user the most overall benefits in low-mid range 3D CAD, and 3D CAD is amongst the most complex software packages made for individual designer's uses.
The more OPEN the file format and the less often it changes the more beneficial it is for users. That brings up the CFO involvement in software product design. The software designers can say "We won't change the file format this year, because we don't need to do so." Then the CFO comes in and says "The President has said there will be a file format change whether we need it or not because we have to force upgrade-maintenance fees on our users every year whether it is needed or not.
This attitude is hokum-pokum as we users really know they don't have to do it every single year, but all the 3D solid CAD software packages seem to do this. That creates inumerable problems. Some people you work with don't have "the newest" version software (Bill Gates is looking at how to force that with Trusted Computing, no doubt and sell it to developers). Hence to keep working, an end user has to maintain multiple years of the 3D CAD software available for the customer that can't take "SolidWorks 2007 or even 2005 or 2006 files".
I've been using CAD since the Mid 80s (paper before), and AutoDesk got the jump just because they were the only early serious 2D CAD player when Microsoft hit the street with that, what was it, CP/M derivative OS, called DOS or something.
This is a new millenium and 2D is not gone, but it is dying fast. Somehow they, Autodesk, missed the point that we live and think in a 3D world.
SolidWorks.com has about 500,000 users of their mid-range software and has trounced AutoDesk's various offerings, so AD is just trying to protect what little it has left in 2D. What a pity.
By all rights, AD should have been a leader in low-mid 3D CAD, but they squandered their efforts, not the least of which involve cumbersome user interfaces. I think they needed someone like Andy Hertzfeld and others from Apple's early days to make their CAD interfaces far easier to learn and use.
Good bye AD. I use us no more. Now History. Part of the lore.
Slashdot Mirror
The article was succinct and straightforward, and ought to be read by every U.S. Congressman. The arguement on energy sources has been more or less front page since OPEC in the early 70s, but what has Congress done?
Debate, debate, debate, but the U.S. Government Reps, Senators & Presidents have more or less refused to commit the country to policies designed to keep thye U.S. being held hostage to external threats on oil supply, UNTIL the price doubles in a short time. New policy implementation takes the better part of a decade to make a serious impact, so lets start it now.
Coal is a disaster and has been known as such for decades, yet what does our U.S. Congress do about it? The answer is obviously nothing.
How many more debates and decades before we either solve the damn problem or we get throttled by the external forces from the enlightened societies with their wonderful societal standards where the oil comes from.
Way back, all value was received by the performer &/or shared with his support crew/director, clear back into the times of Shakespear.
That was what copyright was for was to allow the original content creator to receive compensation from the print copy of his work.
No many users may have 1000-10,000 songs on their hard drive (I have 1000 from my CD's, thats it).
How many of those songs have I listented to? How many will I never listen to? If I had 10,000 songs would I ever be able to listen to them all? Should I pay for something I will never listen to, regardless of the "copy"? No comment on the legal side as IANAL.
The basics still apply for the vast majority of musicians in that they earn their livings from performances and from local sales at those performances and as such, DRM doesn't mean much to the average muscian.
DRM only means something to the "mass media conglomerates". They have held a monopoly that has gradually eroded over the evolution to digital, and now they face the inevitable march of technology and will have to give up the idea that listening to a recording = royalty. Radio has given users "songs" for nearly a century now, but no one stopped buying better copies or albums. I suspect the new "performance packages" will be updated frequently and "sold" as DRM free, and with creativity, the conglomerates will still earn fair incomes off the mega-acts. Thus the "songs" will come with posters, tickets to concerts, video clips, etc., as the world moves on.
1. Hard Drive Hog
2. Hardware intensive (new Hardware req'd)
3. Reduced functionality mode (if & when something craps out)
4. Limited ability to load on new hard drives for backup or in case of other failures/upgrages
I just have to wonder if Microsoft may have to turn VISTA into FOSS?
They earn their money off of the wholesale price as sold to the box makers and that is it. You download your extra copies for free.
If they are going to compete in the long run against Unix/Linux, that may be their only choice UNLESS...
Microsoft could start their own PC Box Company, and come up with a tricky catchy name like MicroBox.
Then they could go head to head against Apple.
is your Boss, you had BETTER be quick & nimble with the BIG WORDS, & the HOT PLANS, & the NEW MARKET ENTRY at the NEXT HOLIDAY season, & (most important of all)...
You had best get your RESUME OUT THERE NOW, and get that FLACK JACKET & HELMET on because you never known when chairs are going to fly again.
None of this is surprising to anyone I've talked to. No One!
What I am hearing from diehard PC users I run across is subdued speculation, and NOT about Zune. The speculation is all whether VISTA will mean anything to them.
I pity the project managers under Ballmer, because their stomachs must be tied in a knot 24 hours a day. Been there, done that, and you can't survive long that way.
Wait until China starts importing something other than the Cherry (Chevy) to the U.S.
Next it will be the ChiPC computer line, and I'll bet the OS does not have DRM on it, and I'll bet it undercuts HP & Dell.
No special graphics card.
No special chips.
No VISTA
Microsoft has a LOT to LOSE by aceeding to the demand/acquescence to load the whole system to protect media companies from common consumers. Again, I think Warren Buffet said it right when he said he would not invest in Microsoft because he didn't understand the business model for the long term.
Boy is that reviewer up to date!
It has been possible to do this since solar cells were invented. It was not possible to get a real break even versus standard energy sources "back then" in the 60's, nor is it possible to get to break even now today in the next 25 years, and I submit from the article my evidence:
"Caminiti argues that the cost of the hydrogen/solar setup works out at about $4,000 a year when its $100,000 cost is spread over the anticipated 25-year lifespan of the equipment. That's still a lot higher than the $1,500 a year the average U.S. homeowner spends on energy, according to the federal government. Even if gasoline costs averaging about $1,000 per car annually are included in the energy mix, the renewables option is still more expensive than the grid/gasoline combination."
So what is new here?
'expect to have a prototype by..." does NOT equal "...have developed..." which implies a working nano-sized tool.
This is almost as good as politicians standing up for election spouting all their "projects" they plan to implement with our dollars once we elect them to be our overlords.
It takes both, and only 5% of the engineers will probably be the creative ones who can see the big picture well enough to innovate and get great solutions, sort of like any industry.
Advice: Things are changing fast enough to where any creative engineer is going to have to commit himself/herself to never ever stop learning and asking question, even if it makes them look foolish.
Schools: "Shop" classes still put reality in front of young ideas that forge capabilities.
Unfortunately the lawyers are now running SCO "till death do us part".
It would be far better for everyone if the judge just gave a summary judgement to IBM and told SCO to just commit suicide and be done with it.
I hope so but...
Given the creeps anywhere can run these scams outside of N. America, it just means other methods might work better.
We can start by having ISPs who know computers crunching out a 1000 emails at a time in the middle of the night get dumped off the Internet until the user gets a new hard drive or computer.
Think Kenya. They have already tried it their with the ACLU's buddies in the Al Queda group. Humans have survived where other critters have not because they have the ability to plan ahead. The day 2-3 kilos of long lived radioisotope dust is spread through the streets of Los Angeles or other major city in the U.S., or a low yield nuclear device goes off, all the naysayers will say "Why didn't you do something to prevent the attack?" It never fails.
Given some of the above comments, as one might apply them to personal computers in the early 70s, "Who needs one, let alone two?"
Head restraints, crumple zones, airbags, and such are not needed for the vast majority of citizens, "Who needs them?"
The vast majority of homes never burn down, "Who needs fire insurance?"
Trying to solve problems is essentially what Slashdot tries to cover on a daily basis and you would think we are not by reading some of these comments. Whether we are learning to fight insurgents and gain the knowledge and experience and ability to track and identify, where we did not before, or establish systems that we improve to screen passengers, they all get improved over time (think DOS computers to now).
Sheesh!
But SolidWorks in Win XP SP2 has a problem when approaching 2 GB use with one single application, er well actually it crashes.
n e,_two,_&_three.pd
Thus a "3 GB Switch" solution:
If you need help with the switch, you can find answers here.
http://www.kcswug.com/documents/3gb_switch_part_o
So much for a Mac only sort of issue.
This "iPhone" will be changed in software by the time the first model ships in June 07, and that is just the first generation.
By the time we get to Gen3, I'll bet everyone saying "Ho Hum, another iPod" and "But it is not 3G", and "No iChat?" are going to have selective memory of what they said a year or two back.
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING of a new modern, physically simple hardware device to use for computing-communication and Apple is just the one on the leading edge at the moment.
Bring it on!
The reason I see value in the iPhone is unlimited communication, NOT FOR MUSIC! Music is an afterthought & even a distraction for me.
The wide capabilities (& wider in next gen releases) of the iPhone are such that any respecting user of technology can see the device as a VCD, Virtual Connection Device.
Whether you are doing a local simple bit of a document or image collection, it is the bi-directional communication with what is arguably an unlimited number of devices through multiple RF & potentially IR methods that means it is a programmable blank slate computing communicator.
Whether you merely do simple things sending and receiving messages, or you actually use a VCD to do complex interactive and controlling functions is entirely up to the software you will eventually load into the VCD.
Hmmm, now let me see here, about what I've spent my money on.
1. HP-35 & 45 etal = $395 each or so
2. Later HP w/full keyboard (forgot #) = $700 or so
3. StarTac = almost $1000
4. Newton = $800 or so
So what will I get with iPhone or ComPhone (if Cisco-Apple don't agree)?:
A. Sync'd items from my MacBook Pro (worth a lot)
B. Email (saves toting MacBook worth a lot)
C. Browser that is actually readable (same as B.)
D. HP 41-CX emulator (gotta come soon, I'll bet)
E. Phone stuff (I'll use the BlueTooth Jawbone, thank you)
F. Easy conferencing (why couldn't anyone else do it this easy)
G. Camera phone that allows me to easily zoom in to see the picture quality before emailing
H. WiFi connections (a major plus, since they seem to be nearly everywhere in big cities)
Is that enough. $599 is nothing if you will use the features. Aunt Minnie and granddaughter might not, but a lot of people in the middle might well do it.
Lots of things will improve in ComPhone v2, but I'll have to learn on version 1. I do hope they let you charge it through the USB port on the MacBook (seems logical given similar devices elsewhere).
"My prediction: Microsoft's Home Server will put an end to the perception of "Apple cool, PC geeky" once and for all -- and hopefully an end to those annoying commercials. " Hmmm, now who seems to be on the Microsoft Advertising Department payroll. For gods sake, these people writing these articles must think everyone reading their articles are only 7 years old. And these people want us to think of them as journalists?
Uh...forget what I just said about Apple's tightly integrated sh-t...I want you to have Vista running on a new MSCommunicator by June!
Anyone would be that utterly deceptive...I mean...certainly not a manufacturer of hardware...or certainly not a major software developer...uh...oh, I forgot, except for those accidental bugs in the OS software...and indeed the unfortunate BBBBrowser.
her liberal upbrining in San Francisco politics.
And everyone knows that older versions of Windows are bad...
So why is it that with security issues of all types, I do NOT see articles about why "UNIX is BAD".
Why is not the computer media in general noting more of the reason why choices involving UNIX variants are good.
We have had some very smart, very well thought out programming and systems which went into and then advanced UNIX, and it has now stood the test of time very very well, but a supermajority of mainstream PC press is simply a fan club for the market leader and companies that hang on its coat tails.
We need far more of "the best" discussed and analyzed and written about to get people away from broken windows.
after he's spent all this money and lost it all at the justice crap table, rather than going out with the same amount of money, like a normal U.S. entrepeneur and...
CREATE SOMETHING PEOPLE WILL KNOCK YOUR DOOR DOW TO GET AT.
Indeed if there are paid 637,000 AutoDesk Inventor licenses that would be good.
.edu uses again screws the numbers.
Seems to me I remember how some of our largest East Coast papers had to restate "circulation numbers" recently because someone was fudging.
Giving away or bulk licensing virtually unlimited # of licenses for
Virtually all companies play the game, but I am only judging by seeing what the machinery and tool builders I know use for constructing things. Inventor is seldom heard by me for my uses, though indeed a sample of one is not usable as a valid statistical conclusion.
It will be interesting to see who survives. The market in CAD has the same problems as the OS world. Proprietary file formats make it often difficult to exchange meaningful and/or accurate data that another CAD application accepts. I don't make the case SolidWorks is better than Inventor in that regard, but...AutoDesk has been rather of the Microsoft bent when it comes to being less open on dxf format, where that is simply protecting your hula hoop design.
He who wins in 3D CAD is probably going to have to seriously give the end user the most overall benefits in low-mid range 3D CAD, and 3D CAD is amongst the most complex software packages made for individual designer's uses.
The more OPEN the file format and the less often it changes the more beneficial it is for users. That brings up the CFO involvement in software product design. The software designers can say "We won't change the file format this year, because we don't need to do so." Then the CFO comes in and says "The President has said there will be a file format change whether we need it or not because we have to force upgrade-maintenance fees on our users every year whether it is needed or not.
This attitude is hokum-pokum as we users really know they don't have to do it every single year, but all the 3D solid CAD software packages seem to do this. That creates inumerable problems. Some people you work with don't have "the newest" version software (Bill Gates is looking at how to force that with Trusted Computing, no doubt and sell it to developers). Hence to keep working, an end user has to maintain multiple years of the 3D CAD software available for the customer that can't take "SolidWorks 2007 or even 2005 or 2006 files".
Bo
I've been using CAD since the Mid 80s (paper before), and AutoDesk got the jump just because they were the only early serious 2D CAD player when Microsoft hit the street with that, what was it, CP/M derivative OS, called DOS or something.
This is a new millenium and 2D is not gone, but it is dying fast. Somehow they, Autodesk, missed the point that we live and think in a 3D world.
SolidWorks.com has about 500,000 users of their mid-range software and has trounced AutoDesk's various offerings, so AD is just trying to protect what little it has left in 2D. What a pity.
By all rights, AD should have been a leader in low-mid 3D CAD, but they squandered their efforts, not the least of which involve cumbersome user interfaces. I think they needed someone like Andy Hertzfeld and others from Apple's early days to make their CAD interfaces far easier to learn and use.
Good bye AD. I use us no more.
Now History. Part of the lore.