Put your kid in front of an XBox, Playstation, DS, Windows, Linux, you name it. She will likely do just fine.
She's a smart kid, that's true. But she couldn't read more than about half a dozen words at that point. She still can't get through a DVD menu that she hasn't seen before, because there aren't 'standard icons' to start the movie. I'd bet if I handed you a new consumer device that you'd never used before, and the interface was in a language you couldn't read, that you'd find it a bit difficult to navigate. You might, by trial and error, be able to get things to work after some effort. My point was that she had movies running within a minute, not by banging on buttons until something magically happened.
You can literally hand any one an iphone and they can figure out how to make calls with it and surf the web without being told how. Maybe one day other companies will figure out that the interface matters more than the hardware specs. that people with big fingers can't push tiny little keyboard buttons to enter phone numbers with. That as you age you lose the dexterity of a 15 year old. I have watched business people use the blackberries, and all they do is struggle with it. I hand them my iphone and they find they can do the things they just were easily, not trying to use a scroll ball half the size of the tip of their pinky.
Exactly. I bought an ipod touch for "entertainment" on a cross country flight with my kids. My just-turned-five year old had it up and running, pulling up movies and playing the games that I put on there with no help, except for showing her how to turn it on and telling her to "touch the screen". That's why people buy an iPhone/iPod, and that's why they're cooler than the LG whatever or the Zune.
For the non-technical crowd, that simplicity -- simple but still usable devices -- makes Apple stuff "cool". Microsoft has never even remotely approached that level.
Keyword: Inconvenient. Just tell them that you're really busy and can't come over for a few days. I've got shit-tons of work to do, etc; I'll get to it as soon as I can. The more inconvenient your "services" become, the more "convenient" the alternatives become, whether it's learning not to click on the spyware or getting a new system.
That's totally useless. What we really need to know is how to package lots of bad loans into a derivative and make it worth a fortune. That and how to hide a CEO's income from the IRS. This science stuff just pollutes the mind, and distracts us from putting more money into another Wall Street shell game.
Bzzt! Oracle bought Sun because Oracle wants to be a systems company.
Ellison said, "We're keeping everything: tape, storage, x86, Sparc, he said. "I'm not sure if for (the same price) we could buy IBM, HP or Sun (that) we wouldn't pick Sun. Sun has fantastic technology, great microprocessor technology and leading tape archival storage."
Well, that settles it. Larry Ellison would never fudge the truth.
Maybe, just maybe, one or two of them might have an iPhone or an iPod. I know that most people use the amazing Zune, but there's a few iPods and iPhones out there. So maybe there are a few jurors that have a decent feeling about Apple.
Considering bacteria have one circular chromosome, changing the number of chromosomes would be quite a feat. Besides, changing the number of chromosomes is not a huge leap in biological terms. Chromosomes split, duplicate, and recombine all the time. Look at Xenopus (a type of frog used in research); it has two nearly identical (but not quite) sets of chromosomes -- they call this condition "pseudo tetraploid". The two nearly duplicate pairs are in most cases completely redundant, as the genome duplication didn't happen that long ago in evolutionary terms.
The problem with your quick dismissal -- "Easy DNA sequencing" isn't that easy. It's a hell a lot easier and cheaper than it was 20 years ago, but it's neither cheap nor effortless.
"Easy" DNA sequencing (e.g. short-read sequencing systems) are still rather expensive, and require a good deal of skill. Even archiving and preparing 40,000 samples would be an enormous challenge. The costs for a "full genome" read of an E.Coli genome (say, 1 or 2 lanes on an Illumina short-read sequencer) would run in the thousands of dollars. "Fine mapping" a mutation by PCR sequencing the candidate clones for generations between the ones that you have full sequence data on (and to confirm the mutations in the whole genome reads) would run at least $5-7, not counting labor costs. Then there's the analysis of the data to consider.
Let's see you make 40,000 generations of disk-to-disk copies on a 1.44 Mb floppy disk, "diff" them all to figure out when every bit flip happened, analyze the significance of each bit flip to the data and executables on the disk, and then get back to us. That would be several orders of magnitude easier than this analysis was.
That's TiVo's big problem: the cablecos deliberately undercut them on price. Why? Is it because Verizon gets more money from people who use their box? I have no idea. But they are the ones trying to put TiVo out of business.
And how, exactly, is that different from the DVR that Time-Warner wants to put on my set? It fast-forwards through ads as well.
And, at least to a rough approximation, the vehicles which cause more road damage (heavy and/or overloaded vehicles) pay more, as they use more fuel. The driver of the F250 hauling bags of cement pays more per mile than the driver of the Mini. But, I'd bet that the F250 is responsible for a few more potholes than the Mini.
If Linux (or any other platform) gains in popularity so much that it becomes the target of most viruses, then the "cost of training" will go down, because every high school and community college will be showing their students how to use Open Office on Linux... and MS software would become "niche software" that requires extra training.
Even if they're not editing the final product, I'd be surprised if a video crew wouldn't want to patch together "dailys" to see whether the day's footage was usable. iMovie (included with OSX) on a $1200 MacBook might be sufficient for that purpose; a windows machine would probably end up costing more after purchasing usable video editing software.
I just don't understand how Microsoft expects it to be a practical replacement for companies when it's so limited to high-end hardware; unless, of course, it's not intended as a commonly practical XP replacement.
You could almost call it the "Windows XP tax". Like the Microsoft ad says, "I guess I'm not cool enough to run Windows XP."
Yeah, it's crazy that book authors should want to make a few bucks to eat and pay rent. They're just greedy bastards.
How much do you make at your job? How much do you you expect to be paid for a year's worth of work? An author who spends a year of their life writing a book is just greedy if they hope to make more than, say, $10 bucks for their work?
Obviously, though, the sky's the limit for your chosen profession; surely the world would be a wasteland without your work, so you should get paid generously, even if you're just spending the day playing minesweeper.
The compensation of a Fortune 500 CEO generally has no relation to their performance. And, what's even worse, the compensation for most companies that is tied to performance is usually only gauged in the shortest of terms. The US taxpayers are footing bills in the trillions of dollars to bail out the whiz kids at our "premier financial institutions" who were paid "performance bonuses" for their short-term gains. These financial geniuses sold piles of crap that carried immense risk -- risking thousand of times more money than their company could ever conceivably pay -- for a relative pittance in short term cash. They got their multi-million dollar bonuses, the company (and now the taxpayers)got the risk.
I think that any million-dollar bonuses should be required to be tied to long-term performance. Tax the crap out of any compensation over a million bucks, but give a favorable rate to compensation that carries some risk. Like stock options that can't be cashed in for 5-10 years, or long-term ownership of the company by some other agreement. Otherwise, we're going to continue to support the profitable trade of long-term health for short-term quick cash.
Slashdot Mirror
Put your kid in front of an XBox, Playstation, DS, Windows, Linux, you name it. She will likely do just fine.
She's a smart kid, that's true. But she couldn't read more than about half a dozen words at that point. She still can't get through a DVD menu that she hasn't seen before, because there aren't 'standard icons' to start the movie. I'd bet if I handed you a new consumer device that you'd never used before, and the interface was in a language you couldn't read, that you'd find it a bit difficult to navigate. You might, by trial and error, be able to get things to work after some effort. My point was that she had movies running within a minute, not by banging on buttons until something magically happened.
You can literally hand any one an iphone and they can figure out how to make calls with it and surf the web without being told how. Maybe one day other companies will figure out that the interface matters more than the hardware specs. that people with big fingers can't push tiny little keyboard buttons to enter phone numbers with. That as you age you lose the dexterity of a 15 year old. I have watched business people use the blackberries, and all they do is struggle with it. I hand them my iphone and they find they can do the things they just were easily, not trying to use a scroll ball half the size of the tip of their pinky.
Exactly. I bought an ipod touch for "entertainment" on a cross country flight with my kids. My just-turned-five year old had it up and running, pulling up movies and playing the games that I put on there with no help, except for showing her how to turn it on and telling her to "touch the screen". That's why people buy an iPhone/iPod, and that's why they're cooler than the LG whatever or the Zune.
For the non-technical crowd, that simplicity -- simple but still usable devices -- makes Apple stuff "cool". Microsoft has never even remotely approached that level.
oldermanwholikestofondleyou.cx
To follow the goatse.cx standard, I believe it should be http://oldermanwholikestofondleyour.co.ck
It's only $250 to register a .co.ck address!
Keyword: Inconvenient. Just tell them that you're really busy and can't come over for a few days. I've got shit-tons of work to do, etc; I'll get to it as soon as I can. The more inconvenient your "services" become, the more "convenient" the alternatives become, whether it's learning not to click on the spyware or getting a new system.
Just thought I'd note that this is absolutely, positively the wrong thing to do if the problem is malware and viruses.
That's totally useless. What we really need to know is how to package lots of bad loans into a derivative and make it worth a fortune. That and how to hide a CEO's income from the IRS. This science stuff just pollutes the mind, and distracts us from putting more money into another Wall Street shell game.
Bzzt! Oracle bought Sun because Oracle wants to be a systems company.
Ellison said, "We're keeping everything: tape, storage, x86, Sparc, he said. "I'm not sure if for (the same price) we could buy IBM, HP or Sun (that) we wouldn't pick Sun. Sun has fantastic technology, great microprocessor technology and leading tape archival storage."
Well, that settles it. Larry Ellison would never fudge the truth.
Open source is probably what Obama had ACORN use in his secret muslin elections in Kenya! He's going to use open source to ban Christmas!
Maybe, just maybe, one or two of them might have an iPhone or an iPod. I know that most people use the amazing Zune, but there's a few iPods and iPhones out there. So maybe there are a few jurors that have a decent feeling about Apple.
Considering bacteria have one circular chromosome, changing the number of chromosomes would be quite a feat. Besides, changing the number of chromosomes is not a huge leap in biological terms. Chromosomes split, duplicate, and recombine all the time. Look at Xenopus (a type of frog used in research); it has two nearly identical (but not quite) sets of chromosomes -- they call this condition "pseudo tetraploid". The two nearly duplicate pairs are in most cases completely redundant, as the genome duplication didn't happen that long ago in evolutionary terms.
The problem with your quick dismissal -- "Easy DNA sequencing" isn't that easy. It's a hell a lot easier and cheaper than it was 20 years ago, but it's neither cheap nor effortless.
"Easy" DNA sequencing (e.g. short-read sequencing systems) are still rather expensive, and require a good deal of skill. Even archiving and preparing 40,000 samples would be an enormous challenge. The costs for a "full genome" read of an E.Coli genome (say, 1 or 2 lanes on an Illumina short-read sequencer) would run in the thousands of dollars. "Fine mapping" a mutation by PCR sequencing the candidate clones for generations between the ones that you have full sequence data on (and to confirm the mutations in the whole genome reads) would run at least $5-7, not counting labor costs. Then there's the analysis of the data to consider.
Let's see you make 40,000 generations of disk-to-disk copies on a 1.44 Mb floppy disk, "diff" them all to figure out when every bit flip happened, analyze the significance of each bit flip to the data and executables on the disk, and then get back to us. That would be several orders of magnitude easier than this analysis was.
And how, exactly, is that different from the DVR that Time-Warner wants to put on my set? It fast-forwards through ads as well.
I visited the High Desert Museum just south of Bend, OR a few years back. It wasn't huge, but it was pretty well done.
The "butterfly house" at the Durham Life & Sci is spectacular.
The Harvard botanical museum is worth a quick look; the displays of glass flowers and plants are worth a look.
And, at least to a rough approximation, the vehicles which cause more road damage (heavy and/or overloaded vehicles) pay more, as they use more fuel. The driver of the F250 hauling bags of cement pays more per mile than the driver of the Mini. But, I'd bet that the F250 is responsible for a few more potholes than the Mini.
If Linux (or any other platform) gains in popularity so much that it becomes the target of most viruses, then the "cost of training" will go down, because every high school and community college will be showing their students how to use Open Office on Linux... and MS software would become "niche software" that requires extra training.
Maybe that will work, but you'll have to turn Aero 5 off. And, of course, you'll be limited to 3 apps.
I think you've misnamed a couple seasons.
I believe the seasons are Allergy, Mudslide, and Fire.
And, of course, Apple pays full retail for its own hardware and software.
Even if they're not editing the final product, I'd be surprised if a video crew wouldn't want to patch together "dailys" to see whether the day's footage was usable. iMovie (included with OSX) on a $1200 MacBook might be sufficient for that purpose; a windows machine would probably end up costing more after purchasing usable video editing software.
Greenpeace is sleazy, but PETA is a nut-cult.
Are those nuts water cooled?
I just don't understand how Microsoft expects it to be a practical replacement for companies when it's so limited to high-end hardware; unless, of course, it's not intended as a commonly practical XP replacement.
You could almost call it the "Windows XP tax". Like the Microsoft ad says, "I guess I'm not cool enough to run Windows XP."
Yeah, it's crazy that book authors should want to make a few bucks to eat and pay rent. They're just greedy bastards.
How much do you make at your job? How much do you you expect to be paid for a year's worth of work? An author who spends a year of their life writing a book is just greedy if they hope to make more than, say, $10 bucks for their work?
Obviously, though, the sky's the limit for your chosen profession; surely the world would be a wasteland without your work, so you should get paid generously, even if you're just spending the day playing minesweeper.
The compensation of a Fortune 500 CEO generally has no relation to their performance. And, what's even worse, the compensation for most companies that is tied to performance is usually only gauged in the shortest of terms. The US taxpayers are footing bills in the trillions of dollars to bail out the whiz kids at our "premier financial institutions" who were paid "performance bonuses" for their short-term gains. These financial geniuses sold piles of crap that carried immense risk -- risking thousand of times more money than their company could ever conceivably pay -- for a relative pittance in short term cash. They got their multi-million dollar bonuses, the company (and now the taxpayers)got the risk.
I think that any million-dollar bonuses should be required to be tied to long-term performance. Tax the crap out of any compensation over a million bucks, but give a favorable rate to compensation that carries some risk. Like stock options that can't be cashed in for 5-10 years, or long-term ownership of the company by some other agreement. Otherwise, we're going to continue to support the profitable trade of long-term health for short-term quick cash.