An innovative startup company is being sued by Random House and other publishers for a product which can hold the text and figures of up to 500 books. Their new product stores the words and pictures of of up to 500 novels, paperbacks, or coffee table books and allows any one of the thousands of words and pictures to be accessed in an instant. Called the "bookshelf", the new product goes on sale starting at $49.99. Publishers complain that there is nothing to prevent the owner of this data-storage system from making photocopies of the books, lending the books , or reading the books and then selling them at a discount to others. The publishers claim that if the technology is not regulated, it has the, potential to destroy the publishing industry, leaving thousands of editors starving on the streets of New York.
One cow is talking to another in the barn and says, "I don't know what to think about this Mad Cow Disease. There are all these complicated scientific issues, economic issues, and political issues! What's a poor cow to think?" The other cow says: "I don't care; I'm a helicopter!"
If You have to ask why sex, then you my friend have truly entered into geekdom.
If you ask "why have sex" then you are merely at the beginning of the path to Geekdom. When you ask "what is sex?", then will you have attained True Geekdom.
I personally hate mowing my lawn, however killing pests is a great opportunity to bring out the ol' katana and have some fun... it's like a small party and it really freaks out the neighbors.
Agreed. Nothing like a warm Sunday afternoon with a beer in one hand and a katana in the other, chasin' after gophers. Hell, not even the damn Jehovah's Witnesses pester me anymore! 'Course, my lawn is littered with baseballs, frisbees and other toys that the neighbors kids are too afraid to come and get...
I think the point is that making record amounts of money isn't always a sign that all is well in the long term. People were making out like bandits on their stock returns, right up until the tech bubble burst; same story with the 1929 crash.
Sure they've grown rapidly, but is that sustainable? Microsoft, it seems to me, has defined itself in terms of rapid growth and leveraging their monopoly power in the marketplace. But what happens when there's nowhere left to grow to? Pretty much everybody in the US who wants and can afford a computer already has one. And as for monopolies, here's a thought that must keep Gates up at night: what happens if they no longer rule the market with an iron fist and Microsoft must make people actually want to use their products?
A final point: often, the simple fact that you have to ask answers the question. I can't imagine anyone taking this article seriously half a dozen years ago. The fact that we're discussing it now really says something about a shift in computing.
You could upgrade the motor to the gun turret allowing a greater range than "down" and "slightly less down"
Just install a counterweight of some sort- put a mass behind the point of movement of the gun barrel which exerts a torque balancing the weight of the barrel+camera.Then you're only fighting the inertia of the setup, instead of the weight of the camera.
Or you could just move the camera back on the gun barrel, although I suspect that you want it as far forward as possible, given the limited range of vision.
But it took several hundert years until it collapsed.
Things move much more quickly these days, it seems to me. With technology changing so rapidly, unless you're actively growing and adapting, you're dying. It took a month for Firefox to hit 10 million downloads. Or look how fast products like the iPod or Google took off. Microsoft may not be fighting for its life right now, but a bit player can become a serious challenge very, very quickly. Likewise a new technology can completely change the game. Microsoft has done very well in adapting to new technologies in the past- they successfully met the internet head on after getting hit upside the head by not anticipating that one- the question is whether Bill Gates is still sharp enough and hungry enough to adapt that way again when a new challenge emerges.
It's easy to write off the "smell of rot" observation as wishful thinking. But the guy makes a coherent argument and he doesn't seem to come down for Microsoft or against it: he's just saying that he's learned to listen to his instincts over time after they successfully predicted problems (HP, SGI) and successes (like eBay) and that now these instincts are saying that something's wrong with Microsoft.
Or maybe not even that something is wrong- just that something that used to be right isn't there anymore. I think I see what he means. The image used alongside the article is the Microsoft that dominated, that we feared and loathed: the Borg. I can't exactly put my finger on it now, but that's not how I see Microsoft right now. Sure, they're still enormously big, powerful, and evil, but somehow don't seem terrifyingly unstoppable, destined to destroy or eat up everything in their path. There was a time that the mere mention of Microsoft getting into a market was enough to send people scattering. Do they still have that effect? I think the guy is onto something.
Oh fuck you and your worthless out-of-context sound bites. Kindly explain to the audience here exactly which one (or the aggregate) of those sentences said "We should immediately and unilaterally invade and occupy Iraq no matter what the consequences".
If you were really clever, you could even have hustlers on the floor. Guy wins $1000 at a $25 Blackjack table? Cute chick comes over and offers him a drink on the way to the cashier's.
Hey, if RFID results in cute chicks buying me drinks, I'm for installing it in EVERYTHING.
As is always, that which helps to protect the innocent can be used to protect the *evil*."
Yeah, sure. You guys are so paranoid, next you're going to be telling me that the flesh-reanimation technology I've been working on can be used for evil too.
Exactly. I send out Christmas cards every year precisely because its a pain in the ass to use physical mail. Sending someone an email takes about two seconds to put them on the list if you have their address, maybe a minute to Google them if you don't. It doesn't exactly bowl you over when someone spent two seconds putting you on a mailing list of 300.
I go through the commotion of getting my envelopes, figuring out postage, signing all the cards, and I make my own cards (you can print on Bristol board, heavy drawing paper or cardstock using a conventional inkjet) which can take a while. This occupies a significant portion of my Christmas vacation but I figure it's worth it. Printing an email and hanging it on the fridge just isn't the same.
Does anyone else smell the hand of Bill Gates, or is it just me?
Man, Bill Gates is to Slashdotters what Satan is to the evangelicals- this all powerful, ubiquitous incarnation of darkness, whom all evil acts in the world can be blamed on.
I mean, I'm not saying I disagree with that viewpoint or anything...
..the Totally, Completely, Not at All Related to the Big Oil Companies Research Institute released its findings that automobile emissions are good for baby birds and cute lil' bunnies. The Institute's previous work has shown that crude oil gives sea otter fur a shiny, healthy glow.
Someone once explained to me that piracy actually helped Sony. Since you could get pirated games for the Playstation but not Nintendo, more people bought the PS1 than would have otherwise, which gave them a bit of an edge. Plus figure that those people who made that decision probably bought at least some legitimate games, and it ends up helping Sony. Too bad they couldn't see the light on MP3 players.
Breaking even is not a success. If you invest 500 million into something (arbitrary figure) and get 500 million back over the lifetime of the product, it was a bad investment.
Depends. If you crush the life out of your competition such that in the future you'll be able to get their market and prevent them from moving into yours, then it was a good investment. Giving away IE to suck the life out of Netscape, for instance.
It kinda loses a little impact when you gotta explain the sarcasm.
Oh, no, it really doesn't lose any impact at allwhen you have to explain the sarcasm.
[OK, you see, I actually mean "it does lose impact" but, instead I say "it doesn't lose impact" and the contradiction between what I actually say and what I mean is sarcasm. Oh, never mind...]
Slashdot Mirror
An innovative startup company is being sued by Random House and other publishers for a product which can hold the text and figures of up to 500 books. Their new product stores the words and pictures of of up to 500 novels, paperbacks, or coffee table books and allows any one of the thousands of words and pictures to be accessed in an instant. Called the "bookshelf", the new product goes on sale starting at $49.99. Publishers complain that there is nothing to prevent the owner of this data-storage system from making photocopies of the books, lending the books , or reading the books and then selling them at a discount to others. The publishers claim that if the technology is not regulated, it has the, potential to destroy the publishing industry, leaving thousands of editors starving on the streets of New York.
One cow is talking to another in the barn and says, "I don't know what to think about this Mad Cow Disease. There are all these complicated scientific issues, economic issues, and political issues! What's a poor cow to think?" The other cow says: "I don't care; I'm a helicopter!"
If you ask "why have sex" then you are merely at the beginning of the path to Geekdom. When you ask "what is sex?", then will you have attained True Geekdom.
Fool! That program is laced with subliminal mind-control waves. The black helicopters are probably on their way already.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but won't it still just blink "12:00"? (How many Slashdot readers DOES it take to program a VCR...)
Agreed. Nothing like a warm Sunday afternoon with a beer in one hand and a katana in the other, chasin' after gophers. Hell, not even the damn Jehovah's Witnesses pester me anymore! 'Course, my lawn is littered with baseballs, frisbees and other toys that the neighbors kids are too afraid to come and get...
Sure they've grown rapidly, but is that sustainable? Microsoft, it seems to me, has defined itself in terms of rapid growth and leveraging their monopoly power in the marketplace. But what happens when there's nowhere left to grow to? Pretty much everybody in the US who wants and can afford a computer already has one. And as for monopolies, here's a thought that must keep Gates up at night: what happens if they no longer rule the market with an iron fist and Microsoft must make people actually want to use their products?
A final point: often, the simple fact that you have to ask answers the question. I can't imagine anyone taking this article seriously half a dozen years ago. The fact that we're discussing it now really says something about a shift in computing.
Just install a counterweight of some sort- put a mass behind the point of movement of the gun barrel which exerts a torque balancing the weight of the barrel+camera.Then you're only fighting the inertia of the setup, instead of the weight of the camera. Or you could just move the camera back on the gun barrel, although I suspect that you want it as far forward as possible, given the limited range of vision.
I don't even want to think about what is going to happen when they hear about my Linux-powered Natalie Portman robot.
But there's no tape on Mars to attach the camera to the gun barrel!
Things move much more quickly these days, it seems to me. With technology changing so rapidly, unless you're actively growing and adapting, you're dying. It took a month for Firefox to hit 10 million downloads. Or look how fast products like the iPod or Google took off. Microsoft may not be fighting for its life right now, but a bit player can become a serious challenge very, very quickly. Likewise a new technology can completely change the game. Microsoft has done very well in adapting to new technologies in the past- they successfully met the internet head on after getting hit upside the head by not anticipating that one- the question is whether Bill Gates is still sharp enough and hungry enough to adapt that way again when a new challenge emerges.
Or maybe not even that something is wrong- just that something that used to be right isn't there anymore. I think I see what he means. The image used alongside the article is the Microsoft that dominated, that we feared and loathed: the Borg. I can't exactly put my finger on it now, but that's not how I see Microsoft right now. Sure, they're still enormously big, powerful, and evil, but somehow don't seem terrifyingly unstoppable, destined to destroy or eat up everything in their path. There was a time that the mere mention of Microsoft getting into a market was enough to send people scattering. Do they still have that effect? I think the guy is onto something.
Mod parent way, way up.
You know, I was wondering why the article on cigarettes said that they were non-addictive and good for your health...
RTFA: "...more than half of the respondents said they had been ordered to alter findings to lessen protection of species".
Mod parent "moron".
Hey, if RFID results in cute chicks buying me drinks, I'm for installing it in EVERYTHING.
Next you're going to be complaining about the measurement of upward descent during the launch of the probe!
Yeah, sure. You guys are so paranoid, next you're going to be telling me that the flesh-reanimation technology I've been working on can be used for evil too.
I go through the commotion of getting my envelopes, figuring out postage, signing all the cards, and I make my own cards (you can print on Bristol board, heavy drawing paper or cardstock using a conventional inkjet) which can take a while. This occupies a significant portion of my Christmas vacation but I figure it's worth it. Printing an email and hanging it on the fridge just isn't the same.
(Shudder). Just imagine the horror: a world in the grips of stale dialogue, bad acting, the lack of real suspense or characters you can care about...
Man, Bill Gates is to Slashdotters what Satan is to the evangelicals- this all powerful, ubiquitous incarnation of darkness, whom all evil acts in the world can be blamed on.
I mean, I'm not saying I disagree with that viewpoint or anything...
..the Totally, Completely, Not at All Related to the Big Oil Companies Research Institute released its findings that automobile emissions are good for baby birds and cute lil' bunnies. The Institute's previous work has shown that crude oil gives sea otter fur a shiny, healthy glow.
Someone once explained to me that piracy actually helped Sony. Since you could get pirated games for the Playstation but not Nintendo, more people bought the PS1 than would have otherwise, which gave them a bit of an edge. Plus figure that those people who made that decision probably bought at least some legitimate games, and it ends up helping Sony. Too bad they couldn't see the light on MP3 players.
Depends. If you crush the life out of your competition such that in the future you'll be able to get their market and prevent them from moving into yours, then it was a good investment. Giving away IE to suck the life out of Netscape, for instance.
Oh, no, it really doesn't lose any impact at allwhen you have to explain the sarcasm.
[OK, you see, I actually mean "it does lose impact" but, instead I say "it doesn't lose impact" and the contradiction between what I actually say and what I mean is sarcasm. Oh, never mind...]