Yeesh, what a hackneyed misuse of an already overworked phrase. A litmus test, in common parlance, is some issue used to put something into one category or another, just like a real litmus test determines whether a substance has acid or base ph. One example would be a Supreme Court nominee's opinion on abortion used as a determiner as to whether they are conservative or liberal. You could call this a stress test, I suppose, but hardly a litmus test.
Sorry to get picky, but sometimes sloppy diction gets my hackles up...
Exactly - that's why I responded to the parent that focused soley on Ashcroft and RIAA. The credit companies should be up for a group award, in my consideration (especially since I'm looking at a refinance right now)...
Oh come on, the credit-reporting industry has got to be a major contender here. They have a huge impact on the financial lives of American consumers, but their data is notoriously unreliable (at added cost to consumers) and its use is clouded in obfuscation (i.e. credit score calculation). Add to that the increasingly broad use of that information (like insurance rates), and you've got an odds-on perennial favorite...
It's not exactly Adobe proclaiming a preference for PC's, but rather they are simply presenting the results of one expert's analysis. Is this really surprising, however? Mac's haven't exactly been all about the data-crunching race between Intel and AMD, so it's hardly surprising to see it lag behind a PC in this sort of benchmark. There was a similar article a month or so ago in Maximum PC that had a similar theme...
You've touched upon one of the absolute worst aspects of computer hardware and software sales with the "DO NOT RETURN TO STORE" issue. From the customer's perspective, that's one of the silliest things you can do as a retailer, and a surefire way to lose future business.
From the retailer's side, of course this can be a major hassle to deal with. Some former coworkers of mine were involved in a startup company that processed returns for retailers like KMart and Staples, so there's definitely some value to cracking that nut.
I wouldn't mind a store like Office Depot going with this scheme, as long as it means that they'd provide better customer service (i.e. allow returns at the store). As long as the software is certified compliant, it should reduce the number of returns enough to make this manageable for the store...
In related news, I'm changing my job title to Systems Analyst 2.0, to better highlight new features and capabilities. Of course, biweekly licensing fees will be readjusted to reflect this enhanced functionality...
Oh come on, if they did that it wouldn't have been nearly as interesting, would it? How else are they gonna crank up the banner ad numbers without hot topics like this???
Because they were looking for trends and insights from the Linux developer community - and one of the questions was basically, "what platform did you come to Linux from?"
I could totally see that happening, because technologists often forget that execution is every bit as important as innovation. In other words, Apple may come out with an advanced OS, but Microsoft's performance with actually meeting the needs of the wider marketplace gives them an edge in taking it to mainstream usage. Yes, they've got the monopolist's desktop advantage now, but they got it because they've put out products that, while far from perfect, did the job well enough to serve as the focal point for PC development for the last couple decades.
Well said - the other side of the link in my sig is The Art of War, which is an absolutely timeless piece of work. You have to give credit the US/UK military planners here - they seem to be making every effort to convince Iraqis that a quick surrender is their best way out of this...
It appears that he hasn't done this nearly to the extent that he did in Kuwait in 1991 (shock-a-rooney, those weren't his). The only reason I could see would be to slow up the invaders' advance, but I can't imagine it would be that effective.
I'm just waiting for the environmental groups to step up to the plate and show their support for this war. Has anybody caused as much deliberate environmental damage as Hussein?
So, what kind of opportunities does this present to the home user? Presumably we're going to see lots of these units showing up on eBay - can't you just use it as a standalone PVR without the service???
I could give them points for the nonobvious part, just not the prior art. To select advertisers for a particular space on a web page on the fly, based on the characteristics of the user and their activities, cross referencing to the bidding preferences of the advertisers, is indeed a significant advance over the magazine-TV-radio model. A different ad would be pitched to a man than a woman, for example, and also a different ad if they had just come from a search for cookbooks vs. technical reference manuals. That interactive matching makes for better value for the advertisers and more appropriate ads for the viewers. I just find it a little hard to believe that it was done prior to October 2001...
It mostly deals with the interactive nature of selecting which ads to present based on the requesting website visitor and the pool of bids for advertising space. This would be novel and worthwhile if it was an older patent, but it says it was filed in October of 2002!
I never understood why they default to auto-reboot. It smacks of arrogance that says, "this couldn't possibly happen again, we'll have your OS back up and running in no time."
Actually, I think it would be most appropriate to post a story about the technologies employed in this war - that's truly News for Nerds. Take yesterday, for example. Despite a terrific sandstorm that normally would have immobilized troops, the US forces were able to make a speedy and well-organized maneuver up to the border of Iraq thanks to GPS and other tools. It's just this sort of "we couldn't have done this a few years ago" application that makes the difference in war. Let's hear about the Nerds that will liberate Iraq!
Whatever else you may say about the Brits, they have some awfully fine orators. Just flip back and forth between C-SPAN coverage of our Congress and the Prime Minister's question time in the House of Commons to get a comparison that puts our legislators to shame...
A lot of people, including the Security Council of the UN, which has passed over a dozen resolutions over the last decade or so demanding that Iraq disarm (to which Iraq agreed in word but not in deed).
One thing to remember is that it's not like we just whipped up a bunch of troops all of a sudden and headed over to Iraq. We've been patrolling the no-fly zones since the end of Gulf War I. Are we supposed to keep doing that indefinitely? If not, then do we just cease patrolling? Then what happens when Saddam rolls in and stamps out the Kurds - the world would chastise us for abandoning them to a brutish dictator. The problem, of course, dates back to Gulf War I and the failure to finish the job at that time. This is merely a rekindling of a long-smoldering fire.
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Here's the press release from Disney...
you had to throw that one back in the water, didn't ya!
Yeesh, what a hackneyed misuse of an already overworked phrase. A litmus test, in common parlance, is some issue used to put something into one category or another, just like a real litmus test determines whether a substance has acid or base ph. One example would be a Supreme Court nominee's opinion on abortion used as a determiner as to whether they are conservative or liberal. You could call this a stress test, I suppose, but hardly a litmus test.
Sorry to get picky, but sometimes sloppy diction gets my hackles up...
Exactly - that's why I responded to the parent that focused soley on Ashcroft and RIAA. The credit companies should be up for a group award, in my consideration (especially since I'm looking at a refinance right now)...
Oh come on, the credit-reporting industry has got to be a major contender here. They have a huge impact on the financial lives of American consumers, but their data is notoriously unreliable (at added cost to consumers) and its use is clouded in obfuscation (i.e. credit score calculation). Add to that the increasingly broad use of that information (like insurance rates), and you've got an odds-on perennial favorite...
It's not exactly Adobe proclaiming a preference for PC's, but rather they are simply presenting the results of one expert's analysis. Is this really surprising, however? Mac's haven't exactly been all about the data-crunching race between Intel and AMD, so it's hardly surprising to see it lag behind a PC in this sort of benchmark. There was a similar article a month or so ago in Maximum PC that had a similar theme...
From the retailer's side, of course this can be a major hassle to deal with. Some former coworkers of mine were involved in a startup company that processed returns for retailers like KMart and Staples, so there's definitely some value to cracking that nut.
I wouldn't mind a store like Office Depot going with this scheme, as long as it means that they'd provide better customer service (i.e. allow returns at the store). As long as the software is certified compliant, it should reduce the number of returns enough to make this manageable for the store...
In related news, I'm changing my job title to Systems Analyst 2.0, to better highlight new features and capabilities. Of course, biweekly licensing fees will be readjusted to reflect this enhanced functionality...
don't forget the Arthur Andersen Advanced Seminar on Corporate Accounting!
Oh come on, if they did that it wouldn't have been nearly as interesting, would it? How else are they gonna crank up the banner ad numbers without hot topics like this???
Because they were looking for trends and insights from the Linux developer community - and one of the questions was basically, "what platform did you come to Linux from?"
I could totally see that happening, because technologists often forget that execution is every bit as important as innovation. In other words, Apple may come out with an advanced OS, but Microsoft's performance with actually meeting the needs of the wider marketplace gives them an edge in taking it to mainstream usage. Yes, they've got the monopolist's desktop advantage now, but they got it because they've put out products that, while far from perfect, did the job well enough to serve as the focal point for PC development for the last couple decades.
Hmmm... my guess is because there are no $$$ in muds, thus no reason to hype them in a trade publication!
so if Taco posts a link to his own journal in the article header, can he /. /.???
Well said - the other side of the link in my sig is The Art of War, which is an absolutely timeless piece of work. You have to give credit the US/UK military planners here - they seem to be making every effort to convince Iraqis that a quick surrender is their best way out of this...
No wonder the French didn't want to help, then, if that was the intended path...
I'm just waiting for the environmental groups to step up to the plate and show their support for this war. Has anybody caused as much deliberate environmental damage as Hussein?
Rather than just a "strike under way" story, why not something about the tech that's being used this time around? That would be "News for Nerds."
So, what kind of opportunities does this present to the home user? Presumably we're going to see lots of these units showing up on eBay - can't you just use it as a standalone PVR without the service???
I could give them points for the nonobvious part, just not the prior art. To select advertisers for a particular space on a web page on the fly, based on the characteristics of the user and their activities, cross referencing to the bidding preferences of the advertisers, is indeed a significant advance over the magazine-TV-radio model. A different ad would be pitched to a man than a woman, for example, and also a different ad if they had just come from a search for cookbooks vs. technical reference manuals. That interactive matching makes for better value for the advertisers and more appropriate ads for the viewers. I just find it a little hard to believe that it was done prior to October 2001...
It mostly deals with the interactive nature of selecting which ads to present based on the requesting website visitor and the pool of bids for advertising space. This would be novel and worthwhile if it was an older patent, but it says it was filed in October of 2002!
I never understood why they default to auto-reboot. It smacks of arrogance that says, "this couldn't possibly happen again, we'll have your OS back up and running in no time."
Actually, I think it would be most appropriate to post a story about the technologies employed in this war - that's truly News for Nerds. Take yesterday, for example. Despite a terrific sandstorm that normally would have immobilized troops, the US forces were able to make a speedy and well-organized maneuver up to the border of Iraq thanks to GPS and other tools. It's just this sort of "we couldn't have done this a few years ago" application that makes the difference in war. Let's hear about the Nerds that will liberate Iraq!
Whatever else you may say about the Brits, they have some awfully fine orators. Just flip back and forth between C-SPAN coverage of our Congress and the Prime Minister's question time in the House of Commons to get a comparison that puts our legislators to shame...
A lot of people, including the Security Council of the UN, which has passed over a dozen resolutions over the last decade or so demanding that Iraq disarm (to which Iraq agreed in word but not in deed).
One thing to remember is that it's not like we just whipped up a bunch of troops all of a sudden and headed over to Iraq. We've been patrolling the no-fly zones since the end of Gulf War I. Are we supposed to keep doing that indefinitely? If not, then do we just cease patrolling? Then what happens when Saddam rolls in and stamps out the Kurds - the world would chastise us for abandoning them to a brutish dictator. The problem, of course, dates back to Gulf War I and the failure to finish the job at that time. This is merely a rekindling of a long-smoldering fire.