that no one who has thought things through wants to "rent" software? Nor does anyone who has rationally analyzed this want to have important data locked up in some format/location where it's inaccessible when the network goes down or the "cloud provider" goes under.
Aside from the regulatory hurdles that businesses would have to overcome, there's just too much risk at the moment, no matter what the SLA says. And for consumers, where bandwidth and network outages are a real issue, there's basically no compelling reason to do this.
I'm sure all the buzzword boys down in "cloud city" are hoping that they can obfuscate these issues, but in my mind, they're real show stoppers.
Ah... I missed the point that the book publishers might want to get around Amazon. That will be something to watch for.
I know that I do buy books from Baen online--they're DRM-free and generally an OK value (though I think they could still do better, since the online price isn't that much lower than the IRL book price).
You had me right up until you equated popularity of the kindle with DRM-free ebooks. Much more likely is that Amazon and publishers will draw the conclusion that Apple has: most consumers don't really care about DRM.
But how many people actually type an address in the browser's address bar these days? Pretty much all of my browsing (to non-bookmarked sites) involves a search followed by clicking a link in the results list. in fact, I honestly can't recall the last time I typed an address in the address field as opposed to the search field.
It depends partly on whether you're a language descriptionist or a prescriptionist.
However, anecdotally the negative connotation seems stronger with "nerd" than "geek"--which can be seen in things like "Geek Squad" (you can be sure marketing's focus groups tried out "nerd squad") where geeks are helpful, and movies like "Revenge of the Nerds" where the nerds are losers.
In this instance, the person in question is definitely in the "needs to seriously consider getting a life" category.
Actually, the earth is fine. But we're going to start storing nuclear waste on the moon and in 1999, a spontaneous explosion will send the moon hurtling off into Space 1999.
You wonder why fixed-width is still around in 2008...
True story: in 2003 I was working as a tech writer for a company in the Bay Area. One of my co-workers was a guy who'd been moved from something else to working on the company Web site. When the Pubs department decided we needed a new look on our internal site, we met with this guy to talk about the changes and showed him our proposed design.
He said "You can't do that. You don't know what resolution visitors will have on their monitors" and then, I'm not kidding, he said "There's no way to get the page to fill the screen at every resolution."
I about fell out of my chair. It's still an "inside" joke between some former coworkers and myself to say "There's no way to get the page to fill the screen!"
Oh boy. Another city-bred basement dweller who has no interaction with the rest of the country.
Large pickup trucks are practically a requirement for anyone doing serious construction or farming. Have you ever tried to haul 10 sheets of drywall in a Ranger? How about moving a large quantity of feed in the back of a Cheyenne (they don't make the S-10 anymore, and haven't for several years)?
How about modding the parent -5, Has No Effing Clue?
They are "built" in the same sense that a car of legos is "built" by a 9-year-old... the legos were made somewhere else and then put together by our theoretical youngster. Toyotas assembled in the United States are assembled from parts that were made in Japan (and increasingly, China). The value added by the assembly (and the percentage of the profit that comes to the U.S. assembly workers) is not a major economic benefit to the U.S. (To the locality, perhaps--but assembing Toyotas here is a tax dodge, because Toyota doesn't pay the same import duties on the parts as they would on the completed car)
I own a Chrysler (with an drivetrain made in Mexico) and a Suzuki motorcycle (built and assembled in Japan)--so I'm not preaching some sort of protectionism here. Just pointing out that Japanese car makers "outsource" the assembly of cars to the U.S. because it's cheaper than assembling them in Japan and paying the import duties on a completed automobile.
Union "elections" are a byword for corruption, and union bosses are almost synonymous with the mob. Jimmy Hoffa, anyone?
A union represents the members the same way that the legislative branch represents citizens--which is to say: always in theory, but rarely or never in practice.
It's nice to say (of congress or unions) that "You are THEIR boss" but trying getting things changed by talking to a legislator or "boss" is equally ineffective. The congresscritter will tell you they feel your pain, and the union boss will tell you that there's some obscure work rule that prevents you from doing things faster/more efficiently/easier.
I've been a union member, and I hated every minute of it, from the money they collect "voluntarily," to the corruption in the elections, to the way that they protected the lazy, incompetent, and downright stupid. Never again.
Robots will always be more expensive to build/run/maintain than people.
Until you can create a robot that costs less than $1 a day to run and maintain (lots of people in the world live on that) you're not going to see robots replacing people at low-skilled, labor-intensive manual tasks. In other words, it's cheaper to buy and pay maintenance on a robot welder to build cars than to pay a union worker, but it's cheaper to hire some high-school dropout to dig ditches than to buy and maintain a ditch-digging robot.
Slashdot Mirror
that no one who has thought things through wants to "rent" software? Nor does anyone who has rationally analyzed this want to have important data locked up in some format/location where it's inaccessible when the network goes down or the "cloud provider" goes under.
Aside from the regulatory hurdles that businesses would have to overcome, there's just too much risk at the moment, no matter what the SLA says. And for consumers, where bandwidth and network outages are a real issue, there's basically no compelling reason to do this.
I'm sure all the buzzword boys down in "cloud city" are hoping that they can obfuscate these issues, but in my mind, they're real show stoppers.
Ah... I missed the point that the book publishers might want to get around Amazon. That will be something to watch for.
I know that I do buy books from Baen online--they're DRM-free and generally an OK value (though I think they could still do better, since the online price isn't that much lower than the IRL book price).
I guess we'll all have to stay tuned.
If you buy rent books from Amazon they are DRM encoded.
Fixed that for you.
And BTW, no thanks. If I want to BUY a book, I'll buy it. I'm not interested in RENTING applications, music, or books.
kdawson=Oprah?
You had me right up until you equated popularity of the kindle with DRM-free ebooks. Much more likely is that Amazon and publishers will draw the conclusion that Apple has: most consumers don't really care about DRM.
But how many people actually type an address in the browser's address bar these days? Pretty much all of my browsing (to non-bookmarked sites) involves a search followed by clicking a link in the results list. in fact, I honestly can't recall the last time I typed an address in the address field as opposed to the search field.
So. A series of pictures then?
The worm has definitely turned for you, dude
It depends partly on whether you're a language descriptionist or a prescriptionist.
However, anecdotally the negative connotation seems stronger with "nerd" than "geek"--which can be seen in things like "Geek Squad" (you can be sure marketing's focus groups tried out "nerd squad") where geeks are helpful, and movies like "Revenge of the Nerds" where the nerds are losers.
In this instance, the person in question is definitely in the "needs to seriously consider getting a life" category.
Plu, right now you could buy the whole place for a song.
Antarctica is a desert.
No really. Look it up.
Logan's Run...
I'm trying to figure out who you're astroturfing for... and all I could come up with is Cookie Monster.
Actually, the earth is fine. But we're going to start storing nuclear waste on the moon and in 1999, a spontaneous explosion will send the moon hurtling off into Space 1999.
You forgot the awesome power of TIME CUBE!
What's the problem with Netflix and Mac? My wife watches the streaming NetFlix in a VM.
Did I say "overlords"? I meant "protectors!"
Oh great.
New meme: I didn't RTFS?
You wonder why fixed-width is still around in 2008...
True story: in 2003 I was working as a tech writer for a company in the Bay Area. One of my co-workers was a guy who'd been moved from something else to working on the company Web site. When the Pubs department decided we needed a new look on our internal site, we met with this guy to talk about the changes and showed him our proposed design.
He said "You can't do that. You don't know what resolution visitors will have on their monitors" and then, I'm not kidding, he said "There's no way to get the page to fill the screen at every resolution."
I about fell out of my chair. It's still an "inside" joke between some former coworkers and myself to say "There's no way to get the page to fill the screen!"
Hilarious. Or maybe you had to be there :o)
Oh boy. Another city-bred basement dweller who has no interaction with the rest of the country.
Large pickup trucks are practically a requirement for anyone doing serious construction or farming. Have you ever tried to haul 10 sheets of drywall in a Ranger? How about moving a large quantity of feed in the back of a Cheyenne (they don't make the S-10 anymore, and haven't for several years)?
How about modding the parent -5, Has No Effing Clue?
They are "built" in the same sense that a car of legos is "built" by a 9-year-old... the legos were made somewhere else and then put together by our theoretical youngster. Toyotas assembled in the United States are assembled from parts that were made in Japan (and increasingly, China). The value added by the assembly (and the percentage of the profit that comes to the U.S. assembly workers) is not a major economic benefit to the U.S. (To the locality, perhaps--but assembing Toyotas here is a tax dodge, because Toyota doesn't pay the same import duties on the parts as they would on the completed car)
I own a Chrysler (with an drivetrain made in Mexico) and a Suzuki motorcycle (built and assembled in Japan)--so I'm not preaching some sort of protectionism here. Just pointing out that Japanese car makers "outsource" the assembly of cars to the U.S. because it's cheaper than assembling them in Japan and paying the import duties on a completed automobile.
Dude! mouse replacer? Now that's some serious specialization. Do you also have someone who comes in before the peons to turn their monitors on? :-)
Union "elections" are a byword for corruption, and union bosses are almost synonymous with the mob. Jimmy Hoffa, anyone?
A union represents the members the same way that the legislative branch represents citizens--which is to say: always in theory, but rarely or never in practice.
It's nice to say (of congress or unions) that "You are THEIR boss" but trying getting things changed by talking to a legislator or "boss" is equally ineffective. The congresscritter will tell you they feel your pain, and the union boss will tell you that there's some obscure work rule that prevents you from doing things faster/more efficiently/easier.
I've been a union member, and I hated every minute of it, from the money they collect "voluntarily," to the corruption in the elections, to the way that they protected the lazy, incompetent, and downright stupid. Never again.
Robots will always be more expensive to build/run/maintain than people.
Until you can create a robot that costs less than $1 a day to run and maintain (lots of people in the world live on that) you're not going to see robots replacing people at low-skilled, labor-intensive manual tasks. In other words, it's cheaper to buy and pay maintenance on a robot welder to build cars than to pay a union worker, but it's cheaper to hire some high-school dropout to dig ditches than to buy and maintain a ditch-digging robot.
Somehow I read that as NSFW networks, and it had me wondering what kinda network we're talking about here--until I re-read it.