That's an interesting point, and I certainly think the parent is worth some mod points...
The common joke I hear when I talk to oncologists is "I can cure cancer in any mouse," and there's a point to that: plenty of treatments show a lot of promise in the mouse model, only to not pan out when tried in humans. The mouse model is a good starting point for research, but it's not always a great predictor of human response. -- Paul
thats a really scary concept, that the very programs we rely on to protect our computers are so incredibly insecure that a couple keystrokes can completely disable our protection. you would think that if we are expected to pay a company to protect us, that they would do their best. this day in age, that is NOT the best they can do. Not a chance.
From what I understood, the keystrokes weren't disabling the protection, but rather activating it, i.e., shutting down the chat session to prevent it from triggering malware. - Paul
From what little details can be gathered from the article, the 20 statements were read and rated in isolation. Context is important in determining the tone of any statement, regardless of whether its spoken or written. Of course, in spoken language there's body language and, well, tone, to help, but the context is still very important.
In fact, the tone of an isolated statement can also contrast with the overall tone of the conversation, so the tone of the isolated statement may not be helpful in a face-to-face conversation, either.
So, while the study sounds interesting, I think it would be more interesting if they had used larger statements with context to see if the trends held. Perhaps they did this and the articles did poor reporting, but that's what I would think would need to be done. Interesting stuff, though. -- Paul
You know, at first I thought you might be confusing it with the safety merit badge, which has a white cross on a green background. But then I looked at the actual emergency prepardness badge, and sure enough, there's a small green cross on the top. It's also interesting to note that the cross makes up only a small portion of the badge, which makes me wonder if it was more prominent in the original badge.
The first aid badge is also a cross design: a green cross on a red background. Quite a bit different from what we'd associate with typical first aid kit: a red cross. -- Paul
I recently read in the LA Times about a small company that's competing with LM on the blimps.
Apparently, Worldwide Aeros, a smallish company founded by a Russian immigrant, was one of two U.S. companies that was awarded $3 million (USD) by the Pentagon to research the concept. (The other was LM.)
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian had been working on a project to develop mammoth airships to deliver supplies to Siberian oilfields.
Plus more and more people are behind firewalls and routers
That's a very good point. Along those lines, many are behind routers/firewalls that actively block P2P and torrent traffic as a matter of policy. (e.g., at universities, businesses, etc.) So, depending upon the target audience, relying solely upon bittorrent could cut out a major group. -- Paul
I can just see these balloons falling in some interesting places like some guy driving 80mph down a highway and hitting one of them.
That's a good point. Fortunately, the odds are low, especially given (by TFA) that it's being targeted at very sparsely-populated markets (e.g., North Dakota). Nonetheless, they'll certainly need to weigh the low odds with the high cost of such an event. (Huge legal liability, particularly if the driver is injured or killed, or if it leads to a larger accident.)
Ona related note, for every balloon that goes up, there are two descents: one by the popped balloon, and one by the parachuting electronics. That's interesting, in that in increases the odds of hitting something on the way down. I'd almost think that it would be better to including a "popping mechanism" in the electronics package so that the deflated balloon and electronics come down at the same time. I suppose they'd be worried about the deflated balloon snarling the parachute, though. -- Paul
Qrio embodies Sony's dreams and most advanced technologies in recognition, motion control, communications, IT and AI. [...] resulting technologies will be applied to a wide range of products and services, beyond robots, to enhance the fun and joy of life.
Well, so much for Sony killing off its own dreams. More seriously, how can Sony hope to offer innovative products in the future, if it fails to pursue cutting-edge research now. Certainly, developing high-precision manufacturing techniques, etc. can only help in the future when such technologies will be required. -- Paul
There are archaeobacteria that live in nearly boiling hot sulfuric acid ponds, stuff that has chemical activity more aggressive than batteries, and others that live near underwater volcanic vents that, because of the enormous water pressure and its increase in the boiling point of water, survive quite nicely in water temperatures far above boiling. Many of them have weird long-chain ethers and esters in their cell membranes that keep the membranes from rupturing to the outside world, in a manner similar to rivets keeping an airplane's skin on.
That's absolutely fascinating! (I knew that these extremophiles lived in the high temperatures, but I hadn't remembered the pH levels.) The structure of the membrane is really very interesting. Now that's a post that should be modded +5 interesting. Thanks -- Paul
If science can find a fish living in acid, then the possibility of life on other planets seems more real.
I thought that was pretty cool, too. Although it's not household cleaner-strength acid. According to the article, the pH is 3, which is very close to orange juice, vinegar, and cola. I can only imagine the joy of living in oxygenated cola. MMmm, cola.:-) -- Paul
Actually, a good percentage of lung cancers aren't caused by smoking. I don't recall the percentage, but it's significant. It's unfortunate that those suffering through lung cancer have the stigma that "they deserve it," as that's not true in all the cases, and nobody deserves to suffer though cancer. -- Paul
According to the article, in 2004, nearly half of the accidents were caused by on-site workers not checking with the proper support numbers for underground cables and/or pipelines.
I wonder just how much those incidents would be reduced if companies were fined a stiff penalty for digging without calling these numbers. The type of astronomical fines/penalties levied against virus writers would seem very appropriate in these cases, given the type of economic damage that can be caused by telecom outages.
I'm glad to see that a national calling center is being established (similar to 911, according to the article). Now, it will be easier for workers to call. But I still think we need the other half: better (financial) incentive to make those calls in the first place. -- Paul
Seriously, god knows how many reviews/blogs/posts/whatever complaining about whatever mp3 player not having radio. Why would I want to listen to what someone else picks and ads and stupid people when I can listen to what I want, when and where I want to listen to it!
public radio
live sportscasts
emergency broadcasts
exposure to music you don't own
Really, it's not to hard to come up with a few good reasons. -- Paul
It's pretty amazing that TFA's discovery was by students.
Actually, that's pretty normal in graduate school. Professors have the breadth and depth of understanding that allows them to select promising projects and to know which have the greatest current value. (i.e., they know how to select a project that's currently important / interesting with a good likelihood of getting grant funding.) This also allows them to direct a large group of graduate students. But generally, once the graduate students receive the problem, it's up to them to find the solutions and any new discoveries to finish the job.
An example: A student is told to implement a mathematical model for tissue growth in a collagen scaffolding. The professor says that a level set method is probably the best way to model the boundary of the growing tissue / colony of cells and hands off several research papers to the graduate student. The student tries those things and find that some methods work well and others don't. The student does a literature search and finds out that this is the best that exists. At that point, the student confers with the advisor as necessary and develops whatever new techniques are necessary to get the job done. Then, the advisor and student get to write two papers: one on their new numerical techniques, and another on the science findings that were made possible by their new numerical techniques.
The key is that the graduate students are responsible for filling in the fine details of a larger project. This means that it's only natural that they'll discover new things along the way. (That's what they write their dissertation on.) The professors of course have a major role in this, too, but in a certain sense, they're (extremely competent) managers, but not of the pointy-haired variety.:-) -- Paul
Ah, now that makes perfect sense. Thanks for the explanation. I'd imagine they'd have to be careful, though. If you hit -, it not only gives the CPU string, but also the CPU speed at bootup. e.g.,
Computer:
Intel (R)
Pentium (R) 4 CPU 3.00 GHz
3.50 GHz, 2.00 GB of RAM
If I change my overclocking settings, the 3.50 GHz changes accordingly, but only after a reboot. So, I wonder if just fudging the CPU string would not change the computed speed below. Again, thanks for the interesting clarification! -- Paul
On another note, how do they plan to mask it on non-Windows OSs.
I saw this in the article:
"Chuanghui handles the remarking of the Celeron chips itself, Zhan said. In addition, the company provides buyers with software that masks the identify of the remarked Celerons from a computer's BIOS and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system, fooling the software into believing the chip is actually a 3.6-GHz Pentium 4 processor, he said."
So, this explains why they're selling it with the motherboard, as it's a major component of the scam: they're masking the chip's speed at the BIOS level, probably with some sort of hack to the mobo's BIOS. The interesting thing, then is that any CPUID program would probably misdetect the chip, regardless of the OS. But put the chip into another motherboard, and you'd probably detect the correct chip type.
angiogenesis: angio = blood vessels, genesis = creation, so angiogenesis is the creation of new blood vessels. adjective form: angiogenic
angiogenic growth factor: a chemical substance / signal that promotes angiogenesis
angiogenic inhibitor: a chemical substance / signal that inhibits angiogensis
gradient: in this context, a variation with a pronounced direction of increase
chemotaxis: chemo = chemicals, taxis = motion or moving, so chemotaxis is the (active) motion of something in response to chemoicals. usually involves a cell or organism moving from areas of a high chemical concentration to an area of low chemical concentration, or vice versa. adverb form: chemotactically
hypoxic: hypo = too little, oxic = oxygen, so hypoxic means being in a condition of having too little oxygen
Given the generally science-educated readership, I didn't give it earlier, although I perhaps should have. I used the terms because they have specific meanings, and the interesting aspect (one of balance) wouldn't have been as well conveyed without them. I'll grant that I could have done a better job writing my post, but it's only slashdot.;-)
The thing that's interesting about all these chemical signals is that it's the precise balance of them that leads to the proper formation or blood vessels when called for. When the chemicals are out of balance, strange things happen, like blood vessels growing towards tumors. Another interesting aspect is that the balance of promoters and inhibitors for tumors is different than in the usual formation of blood vessels. This inbalance actually causes the blood vessels to be "leaky" and less rigid. The implications of this are too numerous to go into here, but chemotherapy is one thing that is (adversely) affected.
These balance issues are present in almost all aspects of how the body regulates itself. Cells are replete with redundant signaling pathways (different chains of events that can trigger a cell activity). Sometimes, multiple, contradictory pathways will be active at the same time, and the balance or imbalance will determine the net result. In another example, the balance and distribution of chemicals, hormones, nutrients determines whether a growing tooth becomes a molar or an incisor. (There was a Scientific American article on this a few months ago, in the context of growing tissues and organs from stem cells.) Again, the issue of balance. Fascinating stuff!:) -- Paul
Just the other day in my cancer seminar (biomedical engineering department at UC Irvine), we were discussing angiogenesis, which ordinarily occurs when tumors have an imbalance between angiogenic growth factors and inhibitors. (Usually arises when tumors become too large to receive their nutrients soley from diffusion through the tissues.) The resulting gradient in these chemical signals recruits endotheial cells (the cells that ordinarily form the walls of blood vessels) to move chemotactically towards the tumor, align themselves, and form a new blood vessel to supply nutrients to the previously hypoxic tumor.
But in some tumors, the tumor cells themselves align and form blood vessels, with no need for endotheial cells. Much like forming blood vessels from skin cells.
The human body is truly an amazing machine. The fascinating part about cancer is that you get to see many of the mechanisms at play, and what happens when they're out of balance. -- Paul
I could see MS being frightened of this if free WiFi access becomes widespread, and for good reason. If WiFi becomes nearly universally available, then web-based apps for things other than email access will be truly practical as replacements for and competitors to locally-installed apps. (Think of an ultra-cheap subscription-based or free Google-hosted OpenOfficeOnline over universally free broadband vs. locally-installed MS Office.)
Google already has some good experience in this. Just take a look at Google Earth, which has a small local component that combines with a silky-smooth connection to Google's data. The thing is a just beautiful replacement for locally-installed mapping software (such as MS Streets and Trips). In general, online mapping software is pretty good. The only thing that really keeps people buying locally-installed map software is that they may need it when there's no web connection available. Make WiFi universally available, and that factor is a thing of the past. -- Paul
Absolutely! Besides, if Plan A1 costs half of Plan A2, perhaps you can now afford a backup plan B. In a situation like this, I'd think you wouldn't want to go all or nothing on a single plan. -- Paul
I have just learned about the malware that Sony has started to add to "compact disks" (in quotes, because Sony breaks the CD standard) via poorly-written DRM software from First4Internet. It is simply unconscionable that Sony would resort to such unethical lengths to prevent the pirating of a software. In fact, criminal trespass comes to mind, given that the software differs from what is described in the EULA and non-removable.
I'm outraged at this behavior demonstrated by Sony, and I can assure you that I am no longer a Sony customer. In short, although I am a computer enthusiast/technologist who builds his own systems and enjoys gaming, and although I am a scientist who uses high-end computing resources on a daily basis, I won't be purchasing any of the following from Sony in the next few years:
1) Stereos and portable audio equipment
2) Flat screen televisions, plasma TV's, etc
3) High-end computer LCD monitors
4) Laptop computers
5) Computer CD and DVD drives
6) Sony-branded CD, DVD, and floppy disk media
7) PlayStation 2 or 3
8) PlayStation Games
9) PlayStation Portable
and needless to say,
10) Sony and BMG music.
If you break standards on DVD equipment, add Sony and Columbia TriStar movies to that list.
Thank you for making my future purchase decisions so much easier.
It's not IBM anymore, guys, but rather Lenovo. Even for ThinkPads originally purchased from IBM, the Package Manager software has been steadily replacing all the IBM-branded ThinkVantage software with Lenovo-branded software. (So far, it all works the same, but they're making it very clear that it's a Lenovo show now.) Customer support has been turned over to Lenovo as well. (I can say from recent experience that it's still quite good.)
The article got this right, but I thought I'd post the FYI here as well. -- Paul
Slashdot Mirror
That's an interesting point, and I certainly think the parent is worth some mod points...
The common joke I hear when I talk to oncologists is "I can cure cancer in any mouse," and there's a point to that: plenty of treatments show a lot of promise in the mouse model, only to not pan out when tried in humans. The mouse model is a good starting point for research, but it's not always a great predictor of human response. -- Paul
thats a really scary concept, that the very programs we rely on to protect our computers are so incredibly insecure that a couple keystrokes can completely disable our protection. you would think that if we are expected to pay a company to protect us, that they would do their best. this day in age, that is NOT the best they can do. Not a chance.
From what I understood, the keystrokes weren't disabling the protection, but rather activating it, i.e., shutting down the chat session to prevent it from triggering malware. - Paul
Best Sunday morning post ever! If I had mod points, I'd give you a boost. Thanks for a good laugh. :-) - Paul
Mod parent up.
From what little details can be gathered from the article, the 20 statements were read and rated in isolation. Context is important in determining the tone of any statement, regardless of whether its spoken or written. Of course, in spoken language there's body language and, well, tone, to help, but the context is still very important.
In fact, the tone of an isolated statement can also contrast with the overall tone of the conversation, so the tone of the isolated statement may not be helpful in a face-to-face conversation, either.
So, while the study sounds interesting, I think it would be more interesting if they had used larger statements with context to see if the trends held. Perhaps they did this and the articles did poor reporting, but that's what I would think would need to be done. Interesting stuff, though. -- Paul
You know, at first I thought you might be confusing it with the safety merit badge, which has a white cross on a green background. But then I looked at the actual emergency prepardness badge, and sure enough, there's a small green cross on the top. It's also interesting to note that the cross makes up only a small portion of the badge, which makes me wonder if it was more prominent in the original badge.
The first aid badge is also a cross design: a green cross on a red background. Quite a bit different from what we'd associate with typical first aid kit: a red cross. -- Paul
I recently read in the LA Times about a small company that's competing with LM on the blimps.
Apparently, Worldwide Aeros, a smallish company founded by a Russian immigrant, was one of two U.S. companies that was awarded $3 million (USD) by the Pentagon to research the concept. (The other was LM.)
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian had been working on a project to develop mammoth airships to deliver supplies to Siberian oilfields.
You can find the article here. -- Paul
Plus more and more people are behind firewalls and routers
That's a very good point. Along those lines, many are behind routers/firewalls that actively block P2P and torrent traffic as a matter of policy. (e.g., at universities, businesses, etc.) So, depending upon the target audience, relying solely upon bittorrent could cut out a major group. -- Paul
I can just see these balloons falling in some interesting places like some guy driving 80mph down a highway and hitting one of them.
That's a good point. Fortunately, the odds are low, especially given (by TFA) that it's being targeted at very sparsely-populated markets (e.g., North Dakota). Nonetheless, they'll certainly need to weigh the low odds with the high cost of such an event. (Huge legal liability, particularly if the driver is injured or killed, or if it leads to a larger accident.)
Ona related note, for every balloon that goes up, there are two descents: one by the popped balloon, and one by the parachuting electronics. That's interesting, in that in increases the odds of hitting something on the way down. I'd almost think that it would be better to including a "popping mechanism" in the electronics package so that the deflated balloon and electronics come down at the same time. I suppose they'd be worried about the deflated balloon snarling the parachute, though. -- Paul
From Sony's Qrio site:
Qrio embodies Sony's dreams and most advanced technologies in recognition, motion control, communications, IT and AI. [...] resulting technologies will be applied to a wide range of products and services, beyond robots, to enhance the fun and joy of life.
Well, so much for Sony killing off its own dreams. More seriously, how can Sony hope to offer innovative products in the future, if it fails to pursue cutting-edge research now. Certainly, developing high-precision manufacturing techniques, etc. can only help in the future when such technologies will be required. -- Paul
There are archaeobacteria that live in nearly boiling hot sulfuric acid ponds, stuff that has chemical activity more aggressive than batteries, and others that live near underwater volcanic vents that, because of the enormous water pressure and its increase in the boiling point of water, survive quite nicely in water temperatures far above boiling. Many of them have weird long-chain ethers and esters in their cell membranes that keep the membranes from rupturing to the outside world, in a manner similar to rivets keeping an airplane's skin on.
That's absolutely fascinating! (I knew that these extremophiles lived in the high temperatures, but I hadn't remembered the pH levels.) The structure of the membrane is really very interesting. Now that's a post that should be modded +5 interesting. Thanks -- Paul
If science can find a fish living in acid, then the possibility of life on other planets seems more real.
I thought that was pretty cool, too. Although it's not household cleaner-strength acid. According to the article, the pH is 3, which is very close to orange juice, vinegar, and cola. I can only imagine the joy of living in oxygenated cola. MMmm, cola. :-) -- Paul
Actually, a good percentage of lung cancers aren't caused by smoking. I don't recall the percentage, but it's significant. It's unfortunate that those suffering through lung cancer have the stigma that "they deserve it," as that's not true in all the cases, and nobody deserves to suffer though cancer. -- Paul
"Brain tumors cause cell phones."
... :-)
Well, abnormal, asymmetric, multicolored, and/or raised growths are certainly warning signs of melanoma
According to the article, in 2004, nearly half of the accidents were caused by on-site workers not checking with the proper support numbers for underground cables and/or pipelines.
I wonder just how much those incidents would be reduced if companies were fined a stiff penalty for digging without calling these numbers. The type of astronomical fines/penalties levied against virus writers would seem very appropriate in these cases, given the type of economic damage that can be caused by telecom outages.
I'm glad to see that a national calling center is being established (similar to 911, according to the article). Now, it will be easier for workers to call. But I still think we need the other half: better (financial) incentive to make those calls in the first place. -- Paul
Seriously, god knows how many reviews/blogs/posts/whatever complaining about whatever mp3 player not having radio. Why would I want to listen to what someone else picks and ads and stupid people when I can listen to what I want, when and where I want to listen to it!
Really, it's not to hard to come up with a few good reasons. -- Paul
From TFA:
It is in the same sense that Kazushige Goto's business card says simply "high performance computing."
i.e., Goto is the name of the developer, not the name of the coding practice he's using! -- Paul
It's pretty amazing that TFA's discovery was by students.
Actually, that's pretty normal in graduate school. Professors have the breadth and depth of understanding that allows them to select promising projects and to know which have the greatest current value. (i.e., they know how to select a project that's currently important / interesting with a good likelihood of getting grant funding.) This also allows them to direct a large group of graduate students. But generally, once the graduate students receive the problem, it's up to them to find the solutions and any new discoveries to finish the job.
An example: A student is told to implement a mathematical model for tissue growth in a collagen scaffolding. The professor says that a level set method is probably the best way to model the boundary of the growing tissue / colony of cells and hands off several research papers to the graduate student. The student tries those things and find that some methods work well and others don't. The student does a literature search and finds out that this is the best that exists. At that point, the student confers with the advisor as necessary and develops whatever new techniques are necessary to get the job done. Then, the advisor and student get to write two papers: one on their new numerical techniques, and another on the science findings that were made possible by their new numerical techniques.
The key is that the graduate students are responsible for filling in the fine details of a larger project. This means that it's only natural that they'll discover new things along the way. (That's what they write their dissertation on.) The professors of course have a major role in this, too, but in a certain sense, they're (extremely competent) managers, but not of the pointy-haired variety. :-) -- Paul
Ah, now that makes perfect sense. Thanks for the explanation. I'd imagine they'd have to be careful, though. If you hit -, it not only gives the CPU string, but also the CPU speed at bootup. e.g.,
Computer:
Intel (R)
Pentium (R) 4 CPU 3.00 GHz
3.50 GHz, 2.00 GB of RAM
If I change my overclocking settings, the 3.50 GHz changes accordingly, but only after a reboot. So, I wonder if just fudging the CPU string would not change the computed speed below. Again, thanks for the interesting clarification! -- Paul
On another note, how do they plan to mask it on non-Windows OSs.
I saw this in the article:
"Chuanghui handles the remarking of the Celeron chips itself, Zhan said. In addition, the company provides buyers with software that masks the identify of the remarked Celerons from a computer's BIOS and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system, fooling the software into believing the chip is actually a 3.6-GHz Pentium 4 processor, he said."
So, this explains why they're selling it with the motherboard, as it's a major component of the scam: they're masking the chip's speed at the BIOS level, probably with some sort of hack to the mobo's BIOS. The interesting thing, then is that any CPUID program would probably misdetect the chip, regardless of the OS. But put the chip into another motherboard, and you'd probably detect the correct chip type.
At least, that was my impression. -- Paul
For the AC, here are some definitions:
angiogenesis: angio = blood vessels, genesis = creation, so angiogenesis is the creation of new blood vessels. adjective form: angiogenic
angiogenic growth factor: a chemical substance / signal that promotes angiogenesis
angiogenic inhibitor: a chemical substance / signal that inhibits angiogensis
gradient: in this context, a variation with a pronounced direction of increase
chemotaxis: chemo = chemicals, taxis = motion or moving, so chemotaxis is the (active) motion of something in response to chemoicals. usually involves a cell or organism moving from areas of a high chemical concentration to an area of low chemical concentration, or vice versa. adverb form: chemotactically
hypoxic: hypo = too little, oxic = oxygen, so hypoxic means being in a condition of having too little oxygen
Given the generally science-educated readership, I didn't give it earlier, although I perhaps should have. I used the terms because they have specific meanings, and the interesting aspect (one of balance) wouldn't have been as well conveyed without them. I'll grant that I could have done a better job writing my post, but it's only slashdot. ;-)
The thing that's interesting about all these chemical signals is that it's the precise balance of them that leads to the proper formation or blood vessels when called for. When the chemicals are out of balance, strange things happen, like blood vessels growing towards tumors. Another interesting aspect is that the balance of promoters and inhibitors for tumors is different than in the usual formation of blood vessels. This inbalance actually causes the blood vessels to be "leaky" and less rigid. The implications of this are too numerous to go into here, but chemotherapy is one thing that is (adversely) affected.
These balance issues are present in almost all aspects of how the body regulates itself. Cells are replete with redundant signaling pathways (different chains of events that can trigger a cell activity). Sometimes, multiple, contradictory pathways will be active at the same time, and the balance or imbalance will determine the net result. In another example, the balance and distribution of chemicals, hormones, nutrients determines whether a growing tooth becomes a molar or an incisor. (There was a Scientific American article on this a few months ago, in the context of growing tissues and organs from stem cells.) Again, the issue of balance. Fascinating stuff! :) -- Paul
This has been done before--by cancer.
Just the other day in my cancer seminar (biomedical engineering department at UC Irvine), we were discussing angiogenesis, which ordinarily occurs when tumors have an imbalance between angiogenic growth factors and inhibitors. (Usually arises when tumors become too large to receive their nutrients soley from diffusion through the tissues.) The resulting gradient in these chemical signals recruits endotheial cells (the cells that ordinarily form the walls of blood vessels) to move chemotactically towards the tumor, align themselves, and form a new blood vessel to supply nutrients to the previously hypoxic tumor.
But in some tumors, the tumor cells themselves align and form blood vessels, with no need for endotheial cells. Much like forming blood vessels from skin cells.
The human body is truly an amazing machine. The fascinating part about cancer is that you get to see many of the mechanisms at play, and what happens when they're out of balance. -- Paul
I could see MS being frightened of this if free WiFi access becomes widespread, and for good reason. If WiFi becomes nearly universally available, then web-based apps for things other than email access will be truly practical as replacements for and competitors to locally-installed apps. (Think of an ultra-cheap subscription-based or free Google-hosted OpenOfficeOnline over universally free broadband vs. locally-installed MS Office.)
Google already has some good experience in this. Just take a look at Google Earth, which has a small local component that combines with a silky-smooth connection to Google's data. The thing is a just beautiful replacement for locally-installed mapping software (such as MS Streets and Trips). In general, online mapping software is pretty good. The only thing that really keeps people buying locally-installed map software is that they may need it when there's no web connection available. Make WiFi universally available, and that factor is a thing of the past. -- Paul
Absolutely! Besides, if Plan A1 costs half of Plan A2, perhaps you can now afford a backup plan B. In a situation like this, I'd think you wouldn't want to go all or nothing on a single plan. -- Paul
Hello.
I have just learned about the malware that Sony has started to add to "compact disks" (in quotes, because Sony breaks the CD standard) via poorly-written DRM software from First4Internet. It is simply unconscionable that Sony would resort to such unethical lengths to prevent the pirating of a software. In fact, criminal trespass comes to mind, given that the software differs from what is described in the EULA and non-removable.
I'm outraged at this behavior demonstrated by Sony, and I can assure you that I am no longer a Sony customer. In short, although I am a computer enthusiast/technologist who builds his own systems and enjoys gaming, and although I am a scientist who uses high-end computing resources on a daily basis, I won't be purchasing any of the following from Sony in the next few years:
1) Stereos and portable audio equipment
2) Flat screen televisions, plasma TV's, etc
3) High-end computer LCD monitors
4) Laptop computers
5) Computer CD and DVD drives
6) Sony-branded CD, DVD, and floppy disk media
7) PlayStation 2 or 3
8) PlayStation Games
9) PlayStation Portable
and needless to say,
10) Sony and BMG music.
If you break standards on DVD equipment, add Sony and Columbia TriStar movies to that list.
Thank you for making my future purchase decisions so much easier.
Sincerely,
****
It's not IBM anymore, guys, but rather Lenovo. Even for ThinkPads originally purchased from IBM, the Package Manager software has been steadily replacing all the IBM-branded ThinkVantage software with Lenovo-branded software. (So far, it all works the same, but they're making it very clear that it's a Lenovo show now.) Customer support has been turned over to Lenovo as well. (I can say from recent experience that it's still quite good.)
The article got this right, but I thought I'd post the FYI here as well. -- Paul