No they dont. Service was pulled for unspecified reasons mid this year.
Conspiracy theorists have had a field day as to why (think: RIAA). Its been really inconvenent because no-one wants to hand their CC # to russians. Although having said that, its a damn good service.
I dont believe selling spectrum is in the best interest of consumers - its a big cash grab by the govt. Suppliers will be forced to pay ridiculous sums because they feel that they will be left out if they dont.
The end result, just like last time, is huge debts piled upon telecoms companies. Who gets to pay for that - either us (consumers) or us (investors who lose their shirts when the companies tip over).
P/E (stock price over earnings) ratios are not the main driver in American tech stocks. It was prior to the mid 90s. However, in the dot-com era, people ignored profit and focused on capital gains - ie the increase in share price to vaidate their purchase. They made money on the rise in share price and ignored profits and dividends. People didn't care at all about profitablity.
Now P/E ratios are a (perhaps small) part of the reason a share is purchased, and the ability to turn a profit is another portion of the reason. Profit is now important - viability is important, which is a good thing.
Lets look at M$. Their stock price has tanked since 2000 (allowing for their 2:1 split in 2003), and really been static since 2001. (see etrade.
Their profit is very good, they are viable, but their dividends are anaemic. Their stock price is holding because people (IMHO) expect their share price to increase - that is they are purchased for capital growth.
Personally, I think they are going to clean up. I think Linux is a very long way from being ready for the desktop, no distro really gets it yet (shrugs on flame retardant suit, see below*). Pirate copies will decrease as they tighten licensing, revenue from desktop installs will increase strongly and desktop (OS + Office) is where they earn most of their dosh.
Dont expect them to be down and out yet.
(rant)
*Problems with Linux on the desktop:
why offer the average joe 6 different versions of apps - he just wants one
which distro is right for me - damn thing is getting fragmented.
"...and you just (sequence of line noise) to install the driver, then..."
not everyone thinks that source code is a good thing in their hands.
for all the ills of "c:\Program Files", and least I know where to install a program. In linux, this is not clear; is it/var,/opt,/usr,/usr/bin,/etc... In many cases the correct answer is all of the above. The answer also differs by distro. eeeewwwwwww
(/rant)
The american press (and others, wasn't just them) was only there to provide propaganda for the war. There was little real reporting going on.
For example: it has been estimated that several thousand civilians died in the first few days of the war (http://www.iraqbodycount.net/). You would think that this was a major tragedy and worth talking about. What was reported? Little. Where were the pictures of the effects of the war, the analysis?
Another example: why did the woman who photographed soldier's coffins returning lose her job? Because the war news is being controlled by spin doctors, not being reported in the sense that you and I think of reporting.
I'm a frequent US visitor who has been fingerprinted and photographed. It didn't feel good, but its not like we have a choice.
This new step is another step towards control - remember, that is what this is all about. Bad guys get around the system - the 9/11 guys were all bona-fide visitors. Good guys, which is everyone else, gets tracked and watched.
I'm glad I'm outside the country 8+ months of the year.
I've got to agree, this smells of dot-com euphoria. The company has a market cap of 40bn on 52mn of net profit. Despite all the good things google is doing, their core revenue comes from web ads which is a fickle business. They've done a hellofa job, providing a better product (web ad delivery) than anyone else has before, but it sure is a risky lifestyle. I'd really be interested in overall click-through rates.
I haven't seen anything that will create a more solid/reliable/long term revenue stream yet. I'd bet that the day they start charging for gmail or desktop search, their loyal customer base would desert them.
Perhaps we could open the floor to slashdotters - where do you think google could up their revenue stream without annoying us loyal customers?
Because finally someone really *gets* what the problem is with linux - the damn thing is uninstallable by the rest of us. Sure - propeller heads can twist linux every which way, but if we really want to create a broadly acceptible, viable alternative to Windows, we need a distribution like Xandros.
If I had a $1 for every time a linux-head answered a question with "thats easy, you just... " and then typed a sequence of line noise... well, I'd be doing ok.
Xandros provides a simple way to get a user up and running with all the *main* needs met - word processor, browser, a well laid out control panel etc. Sure, down the track I'll figure out how to install that weird app I really want, but I'm up and running without so much as a mod-probe or apt-get.
SQL is based on set theory - that is it has a strong underlying foundation. Using sets permits large scale manipulation of data using relatively simple constructs (admittedly getting a little ugly with all the modern addons).
Nothing that I have seen has such a strong basis. This was brought home to me quiet a few years ago when I was programming a reasonable size/complexity database (over 100 tables, millions of rows, untold triggers (pre-DRI days), stored procs, views etc) in Sybase SQLServer. In the next cubicle was a guy programming in Progress. One day I wrote a std query that crossed 4 or 5 tables and modified a large set of data - minutes to write, seconds to run. We were comparing notes and he was amazed - he said that he needed a large amount of code with nested this and for loop that to achieve the same end.
Point of this nostalgia trip is that when someone comes up with a system with a stronger theoretical base, I'll be very happy. But not yet. SQLs failing are in implementation, not concept.
Called tech support about a hard drive that seemed bad.
He said to me...
"just take it outside and leave it in the sun for a while"
Took a while for him to convince me he wan't an id10t - but eventually I sat out in the sun reading a book with the disk. Took it back in and it worked flawlessly. Something to do with warming the sucker up.
I worked on a unix product in the late 80's early 90s. We supported 35 different variants/versions of Unix. Each one had a set of #defines throughout the code dealing with slight variations in libraries, in tools, in compilers and so on.
When we ported to a new version of unix, we had scripts that would compile test programs for each of 100s of known features that differentiated these unii (plural of unix?). Results of the test programs would auto-create the config program.
It was a nightmare, one that I have not had to deal with as much in the Windows world. (re-reads sentence, sighs, puts on flame suit). It was one of the early strengths highlighted by the MS marketing dept ("There is only one windows, but hundreds of unixes").
I was hoping Linux wouldn't go down that path. Just the thought of YAST vs RPM etc gives me the willies. Forks can only lead the distros further apart.
Slashdot Mirror
No they dont. Service was pulled for unspecified reasons mid this year.
Conspiracy theorists have had a field day as to why (think: RIAA). Its been really inconvenent because no-one wants to hand their CC # to russians. Although having said that, its a damn good service.
Interestingly, people talking to you seem to have a slightly higher pitch voice as the low tones are reduced.
The end result, just like last time, is huge debts piled upon telecoms companies. Who gets to pay for that - either us (consumers) or us (investors who lose their shirts when the companies tip over).
Unlike SP2, which is a *regular* version of windows with all bugs fixed and all security holes plugged.
Now P/E ratios are a (perhaps small) part of the reason a share is purchased, and the ability to turn a profit is another portion of the reason. Profit is now important - viability is important, which is a good thing.
Lets look at M$. Their stock price has tanked since 2000 (allowing for their 2:1 split in 2003), and really been static since 2001. (see etrade. Their profit is very good, they are viable, but their dividends are anaemic. Their stock price is holding because people (IMHO) expect their share price to increase - that is they are purchased for capital growth.
Personally, I think they are going to clean up. I think Linux is a very long way from being ready for the desktop, no distro really gets it yet (shrugs on flame retardant suit, see below*). Pirate copies will decrease as they tighten licensing, revenue from desktop installs will increase strongly and desktop (OS + Office) is where they earn most of their dosh.
Dont expect them to be down and out yet.
(rant)
*Problems with Linux on the desktop:
why offer the average joe 6 different versions of apps - he just wants one
which distro is right for me - damn thing is getting fragmented.
"...and you just (sequence of line noise) to install the driver, then..."
not everyone thinks that source code is a good thing in their hands.
for all the ills of "c:\Program Files", and least I know where to install a program. In linux, this is not clear; is it /var, /opt, /usr, /usr/bin, /etc... In many cases the correct answer is all of the above. The answer also differs by distro. eeeewwwwwww
(/rant)
Check out:
http://www.oxfam.org/eng/pr030827_corn_dumping.htm
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/bwi-wto/wto/20 04/0909useusubsidies.htm
For example: it has been estimated that several thousand civilians died in the first few days of the war (http://www.iraqbodycount.net/). You would think that this was a major tragedy and worth talking about. What was reported? Little. Where were the pictures of the effects of the war, the analysis?
Both NBCs Dan Rather http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,717097 ,00.html
and NPR's Morning Edition host Bob Edwards http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030423.as p#3
have questioned the propaganda
that they (the media) delivered to us. Dan Rather called it "patriotism run amok" and said that it was in danger of trampling freedom of the press.
Another example: why did the woman who photographed soldier's coffins returning lose her job? Because the war news is being controlled by spin doctors, not being reported in the sense that you and I think of reporting.
This new step is another step towards control - remember, that is what this is all about. Bad guys get around the system - the 9/11 guys were all bona-fide visitors. Good guys, which is everyone else, gets tracked and watched.
I'm glad I'm outside the country 8+ months of the year.
I haven't seen anything that will create a more solid/reliable/long term revenue stream yet. I'd bet that the day they start charging for gmail or desktop search, their loyal customer base would desert them.
Perhaps we could open the floor to slashdotters - where do you think google could up their revenue stream without annoying us loyal customers?
If I had a $1 for every time a linux-head answered a question with "thats easy, you just... " and then typed a sequence of line noise... well, I'd be doing ok.
Xandros provides a simple way to get a user up and running with all the *main* needs met - word processor, browser, a well laid out control panel etc. Sure, down the track I'll figure out how to install that weird app I really want, but I'm up and running without so much as a mod-probe or apt-get.
Go Xandros!
Nothing that I have seen has such a strong basis. This was brought home to me quiet a few years ago when I was programming a reasonable size/complexity database (over 100 tables, millions of rows, untold triggers (pre-DRI days), stored procs, views etc) in Sybase SQLServer. In the next cubicle was a guy programming in Progress. One day I wrote a std query that crossed 4 or 5 tables and modified a large set of data - minutes to write, seconds to run. We were comparing notes and he was amazed - he said that he needed a large amount of code with nested this and for loop that to achieve the same end.
Point of this nostalgia trip is that when someone comes up with a system with a stronger theoretical base, I'll be very happy. But not yet. SQLs failing are in implementation, not concept.
Called tech support about a hard drive that seemed bad. He said to me... "just take it outside and leave it in the sun for a while" Took a while for him to convince me he wan't an id10t - but eventually I sat out in the sun reading a book with the disk. Took it back in and it worked flawlessly. Something to do with warming the sucker up.
I worked on a unix product in the late 80's early 90s. We supported 35 different variants/versions of Unix. Each one had a set of #defines throughout the code dealing with slight variations in libraries, in tools, in compilers and so on.
When we ported to a new version of unix, we had scripts that would compile test programs for each of 100s of known features that differentiated these unii (plural of unix?). Results of the test programs would auto-create the config program.
It was a nightmare, one that I have not had to deal with as much in the Windows world. (re-reads sentence, sighs, puts on flame suit). It was one of the early strengths highlighted by the MS marketing dept ("There is only one windows, but hundreds of unixes").
I was hoping Linux wouldn't go down that path. Just the thought of YAST vs RPM etc gives me the willies. Forks can only lead the distros further apart.