I'm not a Netflix user but I know those that are. The heaviest users tend to be evangelists for the company and have an important role in growing the company via word of mouth, the most effective form of advertising.
If this gets widespread coverage I can see them having some serious problems, that would only be slightly mitigated by people who aren't heavy users joining for the preferential service they would get.
While the company isn't doing anything worse than credit card companies that cut the time required for payment for those that pay in time in an attempt to get them to miss the due date. If you don't like those kind of practices don't use the company.
Such technologies will have a big effect on the future look of the army but let's not forget the record of drones isn't great. Sure they can be modified to carry missiles and destroy targets but they still rely on human intelligence. Is it any more acceptable if a drone kills the wrong person or if a human does it?
Longer term though this is a worrying trend. If we build future armies on this technology while not retaining key skills a single EMP blast from an orbital bomb could cripple an entire army. I understand F18's and beyond can't fly safely without fly-by-wire, this system would be even worse.
Like the blimp idea though. That has real possibilities for developing world aid etc...
But they still have to be there to catch the driver(s) once they try and dump the car. That requires either visual contact or you'd have to use a helicopter to track them, in which case why bother with this device?
If it's got to the stage of firing this thing from a moving vehicle then you'd already know where the car was and could head it off. Besides, once the driver sees the tagging the car is useless and would have to be dumped, which may lead to more dangerous chases as they attempt to escape.
This is going to be worse than useless in such circumstances. If the police are going to be in a position to use this they'd surely be able to use spike strips to take out the tires. If a foot officer saw a stolen car and was in a position to tag it but is it worth carrying the weight. Shades of Snowcrash loogie guns.
The only thing this would be useful for is surveillance, and there are better devices out there.
The second they really annoy the Chinese the Beijing authorities will cut back on their dollar purchases and suddenly that deficit starts to look really untenable. See also reasons for not defending Taiwan.
I wasn't referring to refurbished PCs. You could set up a production line building new Linux boxes that could sell fro $100 now in a developing nation - Negroponte's laptop doesn't cost anything like $100 to produce at the moment, it would cost much more and it won't be available for years.
Developing countries need computers today, and need access to the internet while using them. Setting up local computing centres that could manage power and environment more than individuals would provide an immediate benefit until Negroponte gets his plans up and running.
Here's a great example of the closeminded view seen at Microsoft so often. He can't get his mind about the concept that to make a developing nation customer pay for their operating system, or for the software needed to use it, is a tad obscene when there's a free or nearly free alternative.
Crippling the hardware to make up for this software royalty (ever try producing a large document on a mobile phone screen?) isn't the answer. I'm not sure Negroponte has it right either - low cost PC boxes and CRT monitors that are unsellable in the West are going to be a cheaper alternative in the short term .
Sooner or later Microsoft is going to have to admit that it isn't interested in doing antivirus. It deals in boxed product and proto-web services within a rigid framework. Antivirus is primarily a signature service system with a dollop of heuristic programming.
It looks like it has bought a few companies, looked at the depth of the problem and decided not to bother. Vista is looking increasingly toothless.
Wikipedia is a valuable resource, but its value will increasingly become tied to the credibility of its authors. Traceability is key to this credibility, and if that means authors must stand or fall on what they write. That may mean authors lose a right of privacy but so be it.
Speech recognition has long been the land of inflated promises and little returns. Anyone remember Lernout & Hauspie and its supposed 15 minutes learning time?
Speech recognition is riddled with problems. From a computing side it's enormously processor intensive and memory hungry. From a computer side it's very com,plex code and the 'learning' process is fraught with problems - surnames, company names and locations are all very poorly recognised.
So don't rush to buy. Let the labs check it out first.
So he serves two years with good behavior, comes out to enjoy his earnings a little later and in the meantime gets to pick up lots of useful contacts inside.
I'd recommend the complete stripping of all assets as a two year community service order upgrading spam filters.
Back in the early 80's there was very little access to pornography, particularly film.
Nowadays the situation is must less restricted and anyone with an internet connection can watch the filth of their choice with little difficulty and with no need of a media player. The internet distribution system is also a lot harder to censor.
One of the interesting things about the Blu-Ray announcement was that a key driver for the porn company was that PlayStation 3's will have drives built in. Is this an oblique way for calling PS3 players wankers?
The Opteron strategy was a masterstroke and they have the edge in the technology battle for the fastest processor. But the company has a long way to go before it beats Intel.
I particular getting dual core onto the desktop first isn't going to be as big a coup as AMD thinks. Business generally doesn't seem to want dual core desktops yet and is certainly unwilling to pay a price premium for it.
So while Craig Barratt sidelined everyone with the Itanium processor AMD got the edge, but they may not keep it...
Both sides used amphetamines in WWII and most branches of the armed forces continue to use them today. The drug itself was invented in the late 1800's, although I thing the chemist was German.
Let us imagine this pill works and significantly reduces the trauma by helping the victim forget. It's not going to take the smartest defence lawyer to get the attacker off on the basis that the victim's testimony cannot be trusted, since they can't remember the attack. Such a pill would be unlikely to work if taken only after the trial because the synaptic pathways would have been established firmly by that time.
The article also mentions military use; which is even more worrying. Suppose these had been around in Hitler's day - think how much more deadly the Holocaust would have been if SS guards could just take a pill and get on with the killing the next day. One of the reasons for the industrialisation of death in the gas chambers was that earlier methods of just shooting people caused very high levels of stress related breakdown among the executioners.
The possibilities for this are endless - converting 'wanker' into an off the wrist gesture, raising one or two fingers for the US or UK symbol for f*** off, the list goes on...
On a practical level however this is surely of limited use. Conversion to text would be far more useful and allow deaf people to talk to non-deaf folk. Cute application mind you can could have some spin offs for better robotic hands in the future.
It won't hurt the company's bottom line but it would hurt the share price; no investor wants to see falling returns over something with the potential to spread worldwide and cut into profits.
It's the right time for a change - taking any brand name past three or four versions makes it look dated, which is something Intel is particularly looking to avoid. Sad to say some of the less smart consumers buying PCs really do by on brand name.
The timing of this is interesting; it would have been much simpler to do all the brand changes in one go. This suggests that the initial branding changes went through, someone in the desktop division pulled a pet project to dump the brand and managed to get his idea agreed.
If past form is anything to go by Ballmer or another senior executive will be booking their flights to head down and do a deal. Expect a large discount to be forthcoming that would allow the government to continue with its purchasing and still meet the 25 per cent target.
It's happened before but the question is how long Microsoft can continue along that route. Discounting is all very well but once more governments get in on the game it's going to start costing.
Why is it one supposes that Microsoft seems to move faster when a government threatens to stop sales than when they threaten it with an enquiry? This tells you a lot about the effectiveness of competition regulations in a WTO world.
Nothing concentrates the mind like the thought of a useless mission. Missing this opportunity would be crime.
The Pluto may also provide an opportunity to solve a question that's been vexing many; should Pluto even be counted as a planet or just a small body as part of the Kuiper belt.
Intel lost the technology lead two years ago and hasn't got it back yet - and won't for at least another year. It's behind the game on dual/multi core and all the tech fixes in the world won't reverse that unless they can get Intel can get the 64 and 45nm fabs up and running fast.
That said Intel can do volume in a way AMD never can in the short term. On the other hand Intel's put too much of its manufacturing expertise in Israel and if the Iran war kicks off those plants are vulnerable.
Interesting time ahead.
Seconded. I used to wear glasses and my eyesight was getting worse. Stopped wearing them and my eyesight has improved to the extent that I no longer need glasses.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not a Netflix user but I know those that are. The heaviest users tend to be evangelists for the company and have an important role in growing the company via word of mouth, the most effective form of advertising.
If this gets widespread coverage I can see them having some serious problems, that would only be slightly mitigated by people who aren't heavy users joining for the preferential service they would get.
While the company isn't doing anything worse than credit card companies that cut the time required for payment for those that pay in time in an attempt to get them to miss the due date. If you don't like those kind of practices don't use the company.
Such technologies will have a big effect on the future look of the army but let's not forget the record of drones isn't great. Sure they can be modified to carry missiles and destroy targets but they still rely on human intelligence. Is it any more acceptable if a drone kills the wrong person or if a human does it?
Longer term though this is a worrying trend. If we build future armies on this technology while not retaining key skills a single EMP blast from an orbital bomb could cripple an entire army. I understand F18's and beyond can't fly safely without fly-by-wire, this system would be even worse.
Like the blimp idea though. That has real possibilities for developing world aid etc...
But they still have to be there to catch the driver(s) once they try and dump the car. That requires either visual contact or you'd have to use a helicopter to track them, in which case why bother with this device?
If it's got to the stage of firing this thing from a moving vehicle then you'd already know where the car was and could head it off. Besides, once the driver sees the tagging the car is useless and would have to be dumped, which may lead to more dangerous chases as they attempt to escape.
This is going to be worse than useless in such circumstances. If the police are going to be in a position to use this they'd surely be able to use spike strips to take out the tires. If a foot officer saw a stolen car and was in a position to tag it but is it worth carrying the weight. Shades of Snowcrash loogie guns.
The only thing this would be useful for is surveillance, and there are better devices out there.
The second they really annoy the Chinese the Beijing authorities will cut back on their dollar purchases and suddenly that deficit starts to look really untenable. See also reasons for not defending Taiwan.
I though Western ideas won out against totalitarianism. The current situation almost makes you wish for the cold war back again.
I wasn't referring to refurbished PCs. You could set up a production line building new Linux boxes that could sell fro $100 now in a developing nation - Negroponte's laptop doesn't cost anything like $100 to produce at the moment, it would cost much more and it won't be available for years.
Developing countries need computers today, and need access to the internet while using them. Setting up local computing centres that could manage power and environment more than individuals would provide an immediate benefit until Negroponte gets his plans up and running.
Here's a great example of the closeminded view seen at Microsoft so often. He can't get his mind about the concept that to make a developing nation customer pay for their operating system, or for the software needed to use it, is a tad obscene when there's a free or nearly free alternative.
Crippling the hardware to make up for this software royalty (ever try producing a large document on a mobile phone screen?) isn't the answer. I'm not sure Negroponte has it right either - low cost PC boxes and CRT monitors that are unsellable in the West are going to be a cheaper alternative in the short term .
Sooner or later Microsoft is going to have to admit that it isn't interested in doing antivirus. It deals in boxed product and proto-web services within a rigid framework. Antivirus is primarily a signature service system with a dollop of heuristic programming. It looks like it has bought a few companies, looked at the depth of the problem and decided not to bother. Vista is looking increasingly toothless.
Wikipedia is a valuable resource, but its value will increasingly become tied to the credibility of its authors. Traceability is key to this credibility, and if that means authors must stand or fall on what they write. That may mean authors lose a right of privacy but so be it.
Speech recognition has long been the land of inflated promises and little returns. Anyone remember Lernout & Hauspie and its supposed 15 minutes learning time?
Speech recognition is riddled with problems. From a computing side it's enormously processor intensive and memory hungry. From a computer side it's very com,plex code and the 'learning' process is fraught with problems - surnames, company names and locations are all very poorly recognised.
So don't rush to buy. Let the labs check it out first.
So he serves two years with good behavior, comes out to enjoy his earnings a little later and in the meantime gets to pick up lots of useful contacts inside.
I'd recommend the complete stripping of all assets as a two year community service order upgrading spam filters.
Back in the early 80's there was very little access to pornography, particularly film.
Nowadays the situation is must less restricted and anyone with an internet connection can watch the filth of their choice with little difficulty and with no need of a media player. The internet distribution system is also a lot harder to censor.
One of the interesting things about the Blu-Ray announcement was that a key driver for the porn company was that PlayStation 3's will have drives built in. Is this an oblique way for calling PS3 players wankers?
The Opteron strategy was a masterstroke and they have the edge in the technology battle for the fastest processor. But the company has a long way to go before it beats Intel.
I particular getting dual core onto the desktop first isn't going to be as big a coup as AMD thinks. Business generally doesn't seem to want dual core desktops yet and is certainly unwilling to pay a price premium for it.
So while Craig Barratt sidelined everyone with the Itanium processor AMD got the edge, but they may not keep it...
Both sides used amphetamines in WWII and most branches of the armed forces continue to use them today. The drug itself was invented in the late 1800's, although I thing the chemist was German.
Let us imagine this pill works and significantly reduces the trauma by helping the victim forget. It's not going to take the smartest defence lawyer to get the attacker off on the basis that the victim's testimony cannot be trusted, since they can't remember the attack. Such a pill would be unlikely to work if taken only after the trial because the synaptic pathways would have been established firmly by that time.
The article also mentions military use; which is even more worrying. Suppose these had been around in Hitler's day - think how much more deadly the Holocaust would have been if SS guards could just take a pill and get on with the killing the next day. One of the reasons for the industrialisation of death in the gas chambers was that earlier methods of just shooting people caused very high levels of stress related breakdown among the executioners.
The possibilities for this are endless - converting 'wanker' into an off the wrist gesture, raising one or two fingers for the US or UK symbol for f*** off, the list goes on... On a practical level however this is surely of limited use. Conversion to text would be far more useful and allow deaf people to talk to non-deaf folk. Cute application mind you can could have some spin offs for better robotic hands in the future.
It won't hurt the company's bottom line but it would hurt the share price; no investor wants to see falling returns over something with the potential to spread worldwide and cut into profits.
It's the right time for a change - taking any brand name past three or four versions makes it look dated, which is something Intel is particularly looking to avoid. Sad to say some of the less smart consumers buying PCs really do by on brand name.
The timing of this is interesting; it would have been much simpler to do all the brand changes in one go. This suggests that the initial branding changes went through, someone in the desktop division pulled a pet project to dump the brand and managed to get his idea agreed.
If past form is anything to go by Ballmer or another senior executive will be booking their flights to head down and do a deal. Expect a large discount to be forthcoming that would allow the government to continue with its purchasing and still meet the 25 per cent target. It's happened before but the question is how long Microsoft can continue along that route. Discounting is all very well but once more governments get in on the game it's going to start costing. Why is it one supposes that Microsoft seems to move faster when a government threatens to stop sales than when they threaten it with an enquiry? This tells you a lot about the effectiveness of competition regulations in a WTO world.
Be nice to birdies, one day they might come for you again...
Nothing concentrates the mind like the thought of a useless mission. Missing this opportunity would be crime. The Pluto may also provide an opportunity to solve a question that's been vexing many; should Pluto even be counted as a planet or just a small body as part of the Kuiper belt.
Intel lost the technology lead two years ago and hasn't got it back yet - and won't for at least another year. It's behind the game on dual/multi core and all the tech fixes in the world won't reverse that unless they can get Intel can get the 64 and 45nm fabs up and running fast. That said Intel can do volume in a way AMD never can in the short term. On the other hand Intel's put too much of its manufacturing expertise in Israel and if the Iran war kicks off those plants are vulnerable. Interesting time ahead.
Seconded. I used to wear glasses and my eyesight was getting worse. Stopped wearing them and my eyesight has improved to the extent that I no longer need glasses.