Tell that to the thousands of people who had their lives turned upside down. The effects of identity theft can be devastating and long lasting. If your data is stolen, you have every right to know about it. This is just an attempt for companies to downplay their incompetence and lack of security. I'd like to see how they would react if their information was stolen.
I read the article and I am not impressed. The complaints are mostly trivial or nonexistent with proper coding and design. I especially like the bit about bookmarks...OH NO!!!! That's a deal killer for me. Obviously, AJAX is not the best tool for every situation, but when used correctly, the results are spectacular as seen in Google Maps, Yahoo Mail Beta, etc.
Having worked with a software development group in India for 3 years now, I can honestly say I am not impressed. Many of the engineers there are well educated on paper, but in reality lacked creativity and the ability to work independently. They were definitely cheaper, but the price we paid for that was a huge cut in productivity. We needed 2-3x more of them to get the job of one engineer done here.
On the flip side, I also work with many Indians here in the US on my team. The differences are startling compared to their counterparts in India. They are much stronger in all aspects of engineering, whether its creativity or pure coding knowledge. It appears that the issues are somewhat cultural and will improve with time.
Good luck to Microsoft and the others, but we are scaling back our staff in India. It's just not worth it yet.
Once every city has wireless, people will "broadcast" their own stations to the entire city. A better music selection and no commercials will fuel this revolution. Large companies will hop onboard and compete aswell. Eventually auto manufacturers will offer Wi-Fi players in cars and the rest is history.
Imagine listening to Launchcast or your friends station in your car. Sounds awesome to me. Radio had been declining for years do to poor music and tons of annoying commercials. It will either evolve or die.
I work as a software engineer for a very large company in the US. After 5 years with limited security and no virus scanning of email, the company network was beat down internally by every virus known to man. The "solution" was a very unfocused initiative. IT did stupid things like block every attachment via email (driving us nuts) while not making antivirus software mandatory. People would just plug a laptop in the network and spread everything they had on it. The IT department should have focused on handling the virus instead on trying to avoid them all together. They will get on the network anyways. Another "smart" thing they did was block access to Windows Update to make installing patches difficult. They had the staff, but not the knowledge and plan. That's more important in my opinion.
Many articles claim that M$ was rushing out the Xbox 360 to beat rivals Sony and Nintendo. I found that slightly odd since neither of them ever planned to release until next year. M$ was really trying to get that overpriced box out by Christmas and ca$h in. I bet some hackers will find the problems and have a patch out before M$ even admits a problem.
No jury in the world would come down on a person for downloading a few songs when the corporation suing is insanely rich and greedy. Even if she were guilty, I would give her a slap on the wrist at most. Go after the people selling the pirated music!
I'll stick by my original statement, but will add one point. With all the resources available at M$, Windows has been rather stagnant since 98. Look at what Macintosh has done over the same period of time. XP may be more stable than 98, but that's to be expected. Innovation has been not existent.
The biggest problem that M$ has is their size. Sure they have tons of cash and an army of coders, but I bet the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing. There must be so much red tape there as to basically paralyze them. Just look at the lack of innovation coming out of M$. Windows has been stagnant since Windows 98 and Office hasn't improved much since Office 97. M$ is being crushed under their own weight.
The online advertising is so successful because it allows any company big or small to get recognized for as little or as much money they want to spend. If you look at how adwords functions, it allows you to bid on keywords to get your ads placed on sites with Adsense. Sure, some keywords get very expensive, but in general the prices are reasonable. Now with other companies like Yahoo getting in on the action, this will drive prices down. What's key here is how effective these ads are or are not. Everywhere you go, my site included, has Adsense. I bet many people click on the ads not even realizing they were ads, thus diluting them a little. But the fact that they are content based, does make them effective. This is the future for now and the kinks will be worked out. Let's just hope tv shows start using adwords so we can get rid of commercials:)
I will never give up my Shuttle/SageTv combination because I have no monthly fees and it works the way I want it to. There's a huge community support and it's more powerful than a Tivo. Lose the monthly fees Tivo and work with Intel to make transferring media to/from it easier. When you've done that, maybe I'll give it the time of day.
Indeed, but what I don't see mentioned there is a 4 cylinder engine. That's what Japan was putting in most of their sedans. Sure computer controls help, but Japan didn't have them either in the 70's, yet they still had more efficient cars. The US automakers motto was bigger is better and thus the term land yacht was born.
When I look at the big newpapers out there, I am reminded of the big auto makers of the past like GM, Ford, etc. They are so used to doing business the way they did decades ago and are hesitant to change. This is somewhat understandable because it worked for so long. Now look at GM, they are hurting bad because they haven't adapted to the changing times. Back in the 70's when gas was expensive for a period, America kept making gas guzzlers, while Japan focused on fuel efficient designs. Gas prices eased up and the American auto makers start cranking out minivans and SUVs that are just as bad as the cars in the 60's. Once again Japan comes through and put a lot of effort into hybrids and alternative energy sources. American auto companies are feeling the sting once again.
Now as for newspapers, the tone is similar. Many smaller bloggers and independent reporters are gathering a large following because they give the public what they want... important news easily available online for free. The big papers like the New York Times still insist on stupid registration which pushed potential readers away. They should be focusing on getting as many readers as possible and the advertising revenue will flow. Just look at Google.
If you don't comment it will come back to haunt u
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Commenting code is good on several fronts. Firstly, even the programmer can't remember what the hell he did just a few weeks ago, let alone several months or years. You will thank yourself. Secondly, anyone else who has to modify that code will track you down to explain something if it's not commented. If you use source control, they will find you. And thirdly, it's easy to do while you're coding and not after. It's almost a freebee.
M$ will never make their documents standards open because the Office apps represent an enormous amount of their income. The other app is Windows. Everything else they do is either a loss or a drop in the bucket. M$ knows that once they open up their doc formats, competitors would drive them out of that business.
Until there are devastating consequences for any company that dies this, it just doesn't matter. 90% of the their customers don't even know about this, and the ones that do, don't fully understand it. This can only change once the average consumer is educated on the issue and there are successful lawsuits that punish companies like Sony. Sony knows that this will blow over in a few months and most people will forget about it (except Slashdot readers of course). People will just continue to buy cds like they always have.
So what if they are available to the wealthy only. It's not likes it food or some other necessity like healthcare. It's just a damn URL. And it's only 26 domain names. The other trillion billion are available to the poor. Good to see the Slashdot crowd worried about the little people though.
I thought the FBI was doing this years ago when they revealed they had files on many regular citizens and famous ones like Elvis, Sinatra, etc. But look on the brightside, federal surveillance won't be needed in 10 years, they will just buy it from corporations. They will know damn near everything about you...what you eat, where you shop and what you buy, the books you read, etc. It's a Brave New World.
How can paying for an OS be considred a tax? Now, if you wanted to buy a box from Dell without the OS and they won't, then yes that's a tax...well kinda. But stick it to Dell by buying from someone else or making your own system. There are plently of places to buy a computer from without having Windows installed.
Slashdot Mirror
Tell that to the thousands of people who had their lives turned upside down. The effects of identity theft can be devastating and long lasting. If your data is stolen, you have every right to know about it. This is just an attempt for companies to downplay their incompetence and lack of security. I'd like to see how they would react if their information was stolen.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/I read the article and I am not impressed. The complaints are mostly trivial or nonexistent with proper coding and design. I especially like the bit about bookmarks...OH NO!!!! That's a deal killer for me. Obviously, AJAX is not the best tool for every situation, but when used correctly, the results are spectacular as seen in Google Maps, Yahoo Mail Beta, etc.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/Having worked with a software development group in India for 3 years now, I can honestly say I am not impressed. Many of the engineers there are well educated on paper, but in reality lacked creativity and the ability to work independently. They were definitely cheaper, but the price we paid for that was a huge cut in productivity. We needed 2-3x more of them to get the job of one engineer done here.
On the flip side, I also work with many Indians here in the US on my team. The differences are startling compared to their counterparts in India. They are much stronger in all aspects of engineering, whether its creativity or pure coding knowledge. It appears that the issues are somewhat cultural and will improve with time.
Good luck to Microsoft and the others, but we are scaling back our staff in India. It's just not worth it yet.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/Sounds interesting, but will it include virtual girlfriends for the endusers? Hey, I'm looking out for you guys!
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/Once every city has wireless, people will "broadcast" their own stations to the entire city. A better music selection and no commercials will fuel this revolution. Large companies will hop onboard and compete aswell. Eventually auto manufacturers will offer Wi-Fi players in cars and the rest is history.
Imagine listening to Launchcast or your friends station in your car. Sounds awesome to me. Radio had been declining for years do to poor music and tons of annoying commercials. It will either evolve or die.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/I work as a software engineer for a very large company in the US. After 5 years with limited security and no virus scanning of email, the company network was beat down internally by every virus known to man. The "solution" was a very unfocused initiative. IT did stupid things like block every attachment via email (driving us nuts) while not making antivirus software mandatory. People would just plug a laptop in the network and spread everything they had on it. The IT department should have focused on handling the virus instead on trying to avoid them all together. They will get on the network anyways. Another "smart" thing they did was block access to Windows Update to make installing patches difficult. They had the staff, but not the knowledge and plan. That's more important in my opinion.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/Many articles claim that M$ was rushing out the Xbox 360 to beat rivals Sony and Nintendo. I found that slightly odd since neither of them ever planned to release until next year. M$ was really trying to get that overpriced box out by Christmas and ca$h in. I bet some hackers will find the problems and have a patch out before M$ even admits a problem.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/Coffee drinkers have twice the rate of kidney failure than non coffee drinkers.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/No jury in the world would come down on a person for downloading a few songs when the corporation suing is insanely rich and greedy. Even if she were guilty, I would give her a slap on the wrist at most. Go after the people selling the pirated music!
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/And I'm starting to feel guilty for critizing M$ now...that's really starting to creep me out!!!
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/I'll stick by my original statement, but will add one point. With all the resources available at M$, Windows has been rather stagnant since 98. Look at what Macintosh has done over the same period of time. XP may be more stable than 98, but that's to be expected. Innovation has been not existent.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/The biggest problem that M$ has is their size. Sure they have tons of cash and an army of coders, but I bet the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing. There must be so much red tape there as to basically paralyze them. Just look at the lack of innovation coming out of M$. Windows has been stagnant since Windows 98 and Office hasn't improved much since Office 97. M$ is being crushed under their own weight.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/The online advertising is so successful because it allows any company big or small to get recognized for as little or as much money they want to spend. If you look at how adwords functions, it allows you to bid on keywords to get your ads placed on sites with Adsense. Sure, some keywords get very expensive, but in general the prices are reasonable. Now with other companies like Yahoo getting in on the action, this will drive prices down. What's key here is how effective these ads are or are not. Everywhere you go, my site included, has Adsense. I bet many people click on the ads not even realizing they were ads, thus diluting them a little. But the fact that they are content based, does make them effective. This is the future for now and the kinks will be worked out. Let's just hope tv shows start using adwords so we can get rid of commercials :)
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/And people say that Hollywood doesn't make realistic movies!
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/I will never give up my Shuttle/SageTv combination because I have no monthly fees and it works the way I want it to. There's a huge community support and it's more powerful than a Tivo. Lose the monthly fees Tivo and work with Intel to make transferring media to/from it easier. When you've done that, maybe I'll give it the time of day.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/The doctors said they replaced the lips, nose, and chin. Sounds like half the people in Hollywood if you ask me.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/Indeed, but what I don't see mentioned there is a 4 cylinder engine. That's what Japan was putting in most of their sedans. Sure computer controls help, but Japan didn't have them either in the 70's, yet they still had more efficient cars. The US automakers motto was bigger is better and thus the term land yacht was born.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/When I look at the big newpapers out there, I am reminded of the big auto makers of the past like GM, Ford, etc. They are so used to doing business the way they did decades ago and are hesitant to change. This is somewhat understandable because it worked for so long. Now look at GM, they are hurting bad because they haven't adapted to the changing times. Back in the 70's when gas was expensive for a period, America kept making gas guzzlers, while Japan focused on fuel efficient designs. Gas prices eased up and the American auto makers start cranking out minivans and SUVs that are just as bad as the cars in the 60's. Once again Japan comes through and put a lot of effort into hybrids and alternative energy sources. American auto companies are feeling the sting once again. Now as for newspapers, the tone is similar. Many smaller bloggers and independent reporters are gathering a large following because they give the public what they want... important news easily available online for free. The big papers like the New York Times still insist on stupid registration which pushed potential readers away. They should be focusing on getting as many readers as possible and the advertising revenue will flow. Just look at Google.
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/Commenting code is good on several fronts. Firstly, even the programmer can't remember what the hell he did just a few weeks ago, let alone several months or years. You will thank yourself. Secondly, anyone else who has to modify that code will track you down to explain something if it's not commented. If you use source control, they will find you. And thirdly, it's easy to do while you're coding and not after. It's almost a freebee.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/M$ will never make their documents standards open because the Office apps represent an enormous amount of their income. The other app is Windows. Everything else they do is either a loss or a drop in the bucket. M$ knows that once they open up their doc formats, competitors would drive them out of that business.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/Just like my property taxes and unlike my last few raises :( What did everyone expect though. We have a war to pay for damnit!!!
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/Until there are devastating consequences for any company that dies this, it just doesn't matter. 90% of the their customers don't even know about this, and the ones that do, don't fully understand it. This can only change once the average consumer is educated on the issue and there are successful lawsuits that punish companies like Sony. Sony knows that this will blow over in a few months and most people will forget about it (except Slashdot readers of course). People will just continue to buy cds like they always have.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/So what if they are available to the wealthy only. It's not likes it food or some other necessity like healthcare. It's just a damn URL. And it's only 26 domain names. The other trillion billion are available to the poor. Good to see the Slashdot crowd worried about the little people though.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/I thought the FBI was doing this years ago when they revealed they had files on many regular citizens and famous ones like Elvis, Sinatra, etc. But look on the brightside, federal surveillance won't be needed in 10 years, they will just buy it from corporations. They will know damn near everything about you...what you eat, where you shop and what you buy, the books you read, etc. It's a Brave New World.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/How can paying for an OS be considred a tax? Now, if you wanted to buy a box from Dell without the OS and they won't, then yes that's a tax...well kinda. But stick it to Dell by buying from someone else or making your own system. There are plently of places to buy a computer from without having Windows installed.
gasmonso http://religiousfreaks.com/