The thing that fascinates me is how Sun sees itself as a big competitor to MS. Prior to Star Office, what software products did Sun sell and market for the PC?
Solaris on the server, Sun clients running Solaris on the desktop, vs Windows. iPlanet servers on the server, vs IIS. There are probably a couple more, though. --
... is if the DoJ figured out that this is just YA delay tactic, and filed for an injunction to temporarily halt MS from shipping *anything* until the penalties have been assigned and agreed to. Of course, this probably won't be filed for by the DoJ, let alone approved by the Court of Appeals, so it's a moot point. --
Uh, read the specs, if you can grok Japanese. You can light a reflective TFT, just not from the back, like a lot of people seem to say. The iPaq most certainly has an optionally lit screen, and apparently, so does this thing. --
When were you a TA? When I was there (1995-1999ish), I was under the impression that they had a perl script that checked codes and made some checks to detect plagerism. Was I wrong?:-) --
Actually, I was characterising this from a pointy-haired standpoint. I've looked at Apache code, and some of it is *very* well-written. Some of the other free software, however, looked like it was written by me when I was just learning how to code:-)
Seriously, I am aware that parts of IBM writes parts of widely-used free software, and I'm also aware that some IBM programmers are awesome, and others are rather pitiful. BTW--I don't knock "college student hackers". Some of them has written some very impressive pieces of software that I use *every day* for work. --
Actually, your short-term memory goes away, too, among other things. After that, your cognitive skills go downhill, especially the parts dealing with complex judgemental issues. If I weren't so bloody lazy, I'd post a relevent link to some studies that I should be citing:-P --
Well, true, once it reaches that Nirvana of software, it shouldn't need support. However, what will happen if/when the college student hackers that're currently supporting it lose interest? What will happen when a new platform comes out? What will happen when things just go wrong, after someone erroneously decided that the software has reached Nirvana?
These are the questions that need to be answered by businesses when they use Free software, whether it be from Apache, FSF, whatever. That's one of the reasosn why IBM's services division is doing so well (IBM Global Services wanted people familiar with Linux+Apache from my school, primarily), and is the business model upon which RedHat is trying to make money on. Fun stuff. --
Plus, if they were *that* easy to install and such, then they'd lose out on the \$$BIGNUM amount of money they make on the support contracts. Actually, forget that. They would still spit out the FUD, to get the \$$BIGNUM, but they will hire one guy to answer the phone, and rake in the profits. --
What's up with most restaurants giving you a medium to medium-well when you order medium-rare? What's up with their unwillingness/inability to distinguish between "raw" and "rare"? *grumble*, and my fiancée wonders why we don't go to steak places anymore. --
That just comes out to $10,000/customer. If every customer had an annual support program with Informix, and bought additional software licenses from IBM née Informix every year, then the purchase isn't exactly a silly investment, from this point alone. --
Oh, yeah, I hate to reply to my own post, but many Informix-using companies who also run them on IBM hardware must be salivating right now, as they can get support and sales from one convenient(?) place. --
Customer base? I didn't think Informix had that much of a following.
It may not be worth $1B, but Informix does have a fairly large list of prominent customers.
When I worked for an all-Informix+IBM RS/6k house, we were told that the company did some $BIGNUM%, where $BIGNUM > 40 and $BIGNUM < 100, of all the real estate-based credit reporting in the US. As another poster has said, they also hold Verizon and Deutsche Telekom as clients as well. I don't call that small:-).
I do concur about their support being surreal, though, and some of their DB Servers were extremely flakey, and as for R&D, well, you already said everything I was going to say:-P. --
Previous to this, Informix wasn't exactly what you'd call "cheap". I worked for an all-Informix shop at one point, and they paid through the nose for a then-obsolete Informix 5. Mind you, they had multi-terabyte databases and millions of transactions a day, but still.... --
There was a post in comp.lang.python that was in "Kanji" (double-byte asian font).
<nitpick> Actually, it's a double-byte Japanese font. Even if Chinese word for the letters used the same characters, they would not read them the same way, as pronounciation of the words differ between Japanese and Chinese. </nitpick>
Centuries of evolution in both Japan and China make the two languages dramatically different, you know:-P. --
Grashopper, calculus is only the beginning to true enlightenment, and will only reach the first layer of abstraction with it. You need much more mathematics, at the university level, to understand its importance. Mathematics will be critical in engineering, physics, finance (no, finance isn't just addition:-P), etc. You just showed your ignorance, sir. --
It really hinges on where you want to spend your time, and how to spend it. Do a detailed design, and the development time will be short. Cut your corners on it, and you'll suffer during the development effort. In some projects, though, the complexity of the system would be such that without solid design, you'd be dead without it. --
Unfortunately, Missouri PSC will probably not do what the Texas PSC did, to further create the illusion of "SBC-friendly state" to get the SBC headquarters back in Saint Louis:-P --
What's wrong with this is that the farmer being sued alleges that he did not intentionally plant Monsanto seeds, but instead, had them unintentionally planted to his fields via his neighbours who planted them. --
SBC *does* offer 6Mbps DSL. However, expect to pay an arm and a leg for it, as this is supposedly a business-class connection. Even with this connection, though, your upstream is limited to 384kbps. This really doesn't make sense, IMO. A business-class connection really should be SDSL, or ADSL going the other way; one would think that the upstream performance is just as important as the downstream performance. --
Slashdot Mirror
Solaris on the server, Sun clients running Solaris on the desktop, vs Windows. iPlanet servers on the server, vs IIS. There are probably a couple more, though.
--
... is if the DoJ figured out that this is just YA delay tactic, and filed for an injunction to temporarily halt MS from shipping *anything* until the penalties have been assigned and agreed to. Of course, this probably won't be filed for by the DoJ, let alone approved by the Court of Appeals, so it's a moot point.
--
Uh, read the specs, if you can grok Japanese. You can light a reflective TFT, just not from the back, like a lot of people seem to say. The iPaq most certainly has an optionally lit screen, and apparently, so does this thing.
--
When were you a TA? When I was there (1995-1999ish), I was under the impression that they had a perl script that checked codes and made some checks to detect plagerism. Was I wrong? :-)
--
Actually, I was characterising this from a pointy-haired standpoint. I've looked at Apache code, and some of it is *very* well-written. Some of the other free software, however, looked like it was written by me when I was just learning how to code :-)
Seriously, I am aware that parts of IBM writes parts of widely-used free software, and I'm also aware that some IBM programmers are awesome, and others are rather pitiful. BTW--I don't knock "college student hackers". Some of them has written some very impressive pieces of software that I use *every day* for work.
--
Actually, your short-term memory goes away, too, among other things. After that, your cognitive skills go downhill, especially the parts dealing with complex judgemental issues. If I weren't so bloody lazy, I'd post a relevent link to some studies that I should be citing :-P
--
Well, true, once it reaches that Nirvana of software, it shouldn't need support. However, what will happen if/when the college student hackers that're currently supporting it lose interest? What will happen when a new platform comes out? What will happen when things just go wrong, after someone erroneously decided that the software has reached Nirvana?
These are the questions that need to be answered by businesses when they use Free software, whether it be from Apache, FSF, whatever. That's one of the reasosn why IBM's services division is doing so well (IBM Global Services wanted people familiar with Linux+Apache from my school, primarily), and is the business model upon which RedHat is trying to make money on. Fun stuff.
--
Seriously, though, *IF* AMD can buy out the guts of Rambus, then it would be tremendously funny :-).
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Plus, if they were *that* easy to install and such, then they'd lose out on the \$$BIGNUM amount of money they make on the support contracts. Actually, forget that. They would still spit out the FUD, to get the \$$BIGNUM, but they will hire one guy to answer the phone, and rake in the profits.
--
What's up with most restaurants giving you a medium to medium-well when you order medium-rare? What's up with their unwillingness/inability to distinguish between "raw" and "rare"? *grumble*, and my fiancée wonders why we don't go to steak places anymore.
--
That just comes out to $10,000/customer. If every customer had an annual support program with Informix, and bought additional software licenses from IBM née Informix every year, then the purchase isn't exactly a silly investment, from this point alone.
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MasterCard International, for one. And yes, MS Outhouse is still better than Lotus Nots.
--
Oh, yeah, I hate to reply to my own post, but many Informix-using companies who also run them on IBM hardware must be salivating right now, as they can get support and sales from one convenient(?) place.
--
It may not be worth $1B, but Informix does have a fairly large list of prominent customers.
When I worked for an all-Informix+IBM RS/6k house, we were told that the company did some $BIGNUM%, where $BIGNUM > 40 and $BIGNUM < 100, of all the real estate-based credit reporting in the US. As another poster has said, they also hold Verizon and Deutsche Telekom as clients as well. I don't call that small :-).
I do concur about their support being surreal, though, and some of their DB Servers were extremely flakey, and as for R&D, well, you already said everything I was going to say :-P.
--
Previous to this, Informix wasn't exactly what you'd call "cheap". I worked for an all-Informix shop at one point, and they paid through the nose for a then-obsolete Informix 5. Mind you, they had multi-terabyte databases and millions of transactions a day, but still....
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*sigh*. And I'm criticising for being overly general. Go away, AC.
--
There was a post in comp.lang.python that was in "Kanji" (double-byte asian font).
<nitpick> Actually, it's a double-byte Japanese font. Even if Chinese word for the letters used the same characters, they would not read them the same way, as pronounciation of the words differ between Japanese and Chinese. </nitpick>
Centuries of evolution in both Japan and China make the two languages dramatically different, you know :-P.
--
You'd know that the other poster is not talking about the SR-71, but is talking about the now-scrapped space-plane project. *plonk*
--
Grashopper, calculus is only the beginning to true enlightenment, and will only reach the first layer of abstraction with it. You need much more mathematics, at the university level, to understand its importance. Mathematics will be critical in engineering, physics, finance (no, finance isn't just addition :-P), etc. You just showed your ignorance, sir.
--
It really hinges on where you want to spend your time, and how to spend it. Do a detailed design, and the development time will be short. Cut your corners on it, and you'll suffer during the development effort. In some projects, though, the complexity of the system would be such that without solid design, you'd be dead without it.
--
But I bet you the lion's share of profits of Mobil and company come not from lubrication, but from the fuels that they provide.
Speaking of Mobil, the McLaren F1 team uses Mobil unleaded. If it's good enough for McLaren, it's good enough for me! (;
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Unfortunately, Missouri PSC will probably not do what the Texas PSC did, to further create the illusion of "SBC-friendly state" to get the SBC headquarters back in Saint Louis :-P
--
What's wrong with this is that the farmer being sued alleges that he did not intentionally plant Monsanto seeds, but instead, had them unintentionally planted to his fields via his neighbours who planted them.
--
SBC *does* offer 6Mbps DSL. However, expect to pay an arm and a leg for it, as this is supposedly a business-class connection. Even with this connection, though, your upstream is limited to 384kbps. This really doesn't make sense, IMO. A business-class connection really should be SDSL, or ADSL going the other way; one would think that the upstream performance is just as important as the downstream performance.
--
su ra tsu shi u do tsu to
Man, I had a hard time wrapping my brain around that until I realised that the <sub> tags were missing.
If reports from my family members are correct, neither of my obaachan won't touch computers with a ten-foot pole :-).
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