Palms are successful because they are the right tool with a good interface. One can extent them, program them, they connect to desktop machines. We love them, we take them out for walks and most of all, they do their job.
I like having a color display, but that by itself will not ensure dominance and I hope that noone at 3COM is believing this.
What I see happening is something like Bluetooth joining PCs, Cellphones, PDAs, Watches, Telephones, Modems together. And I hope that Palms will fit very nicely into this picture.
I live outside the United States and Canada. Can I still enter? Sorry, the offer is open only to residents of the United States and Canada, excluding Quebec. Why isn't this contest open to international customers? Unfortunately, we are unable to offer this contest to residents outside the United States and Canada due to the complexity and variety of international legal requirements. We hope you understand that we are subject to certain legal limitations.
*Sigh* When will the U.S. stop being in a continuous state of national emergency (dating back to the years of the big depression, no kidding)?
If you're a member of our wealthy society than this genetic engineering stuff might seem very scary. Why? Because you might not be able to afford it! And it makes a big differnce to you what will become of your children, right? And "they" better give treatment to your children too, or else? Is that what you feel?
Well, get real! We are already living in this scenario. It makes at least as much difference in what country on Earth you are born today than genetic engineering will make in the years to come.
The only difference is that this time it might happen to yourself and not some poor guy in a mosquito infested backyard of our planet.
"Optimists think that we live in the best of all possible worlds. Pessimists are afraid that they're right."
I'm pretty sure it will happen, only different. UMTS is supposed to show up in 2-3 years (at least here in Europe, don't know about the states). It will offer 384kbps (up to 2 Mbit theoretical max), data services included. Wireless videoconferencing on the Internet. Cool? Yes.
However the question is: will the cost/benefit make it attractive?
Radio bandwith is a scarce resource for a wireless network operator. When you have sufficient subscribers (which is the case with GSM in almost every country), would you rather serve one guy at 384 kbps (video) or 24 subscribers at 16kbps (audio)?
That means you can expect your video call to cost 24 times as much as a normal phone call. I doubt that people find each others face that attractive...
It would be cool to use the higher bandwith together with devices like the Sony Vaio C1, where I can record and edit pictures and videos, combine them with documents, etc. How much more interesting than a videophone...
Didn't someone have a patent on patenting obvious ideas? That way you could sue the poeple who sue others.
Of course this idea is vulnerable to the people with the patent on making a patent on patenting obvious ideas. They could sue you.
But at least you can rest assured that those people will receive a lawsuit by the very people who patented patenting patenting obvious ideas.
Since this leads to infinite regression, every human on earth could hold such a patent...
Since humans and the number of lawsuits of everyone against everyone else is both the same kind of infinity, there are enough meta patents for it. (Easy proof: give every human a unique number and define n/m as the lawsuit of person n against person m. Thus you get, potentially, all rational numbers, which are countable. So you can cover all possible lawsuits, forever(!) with an individual meta patent.)
"Heisenberg once slept here, or at a place nearby."
Also maybe a little outdated, I found that "Firewalls and Internet Security" by William R. Cheswick and Steven M. Bellovin (Addison-Wesley) is a good one on the subject.
They describe in detail their (multi-) firewall setup, how they log intrusion events, etc.
Their main advise is like you said: keep the firewall system to a bare minimum of services. It makes configuration and intrusion detection easier.
There are two main factors behind any population growth:
Resources: The number of people participating in such projects is not increasing exponential. I would assume quite a steady percentage of the overall human population is geeky enough to be a candidate for such a project. While the human population on Earth is showing geometric growth, the population of the high tech countries isnt't. So, it seems safe to assume linear growth of the overall population of possible participants. And, the percentage of internet users who can actually program must be decreasing during the last 4 years.
Competition: There are more and more projects competing for resources. The number of such project has probably shown geometric growth during the last 2 years.
If you take these two factors together, an average project would grow logarithmic or even not at all.
For Eric this would mean that he is doing very well with fetchmail, as he is able to keep his percentage of the "market".
As a side comment: Hats off for collecting all this data and making use of it. I've seen quite some data graveyards in project management. This one is interesting. Thanks, Eric!
> But I think that they do have a point about technology -- it's not > necessarily harmless, not necessarily necessary, and should be used only > after careful consideration.
Consideration by whom, is the question in this case. I don't know how the Amish do it, I expect they have a counsel of elders or so (someone have more information on this?)
I prefer that the individual makes a choice. Only in severe cases should society make a choice. That's what laws are about. I think most people manage quite well on their own.
What I myself would connect to "cyberclysm" is the fragility of the technology we apply. Consider the Y2K drama during these days. I don't think there will be much happening, however it points out that society - worldwide - is getting more vulnerable.
Computers are supergood at processing knowledge, but they are pretty bad when it comes to storing it. Do you expect your backup tapes to be readable 20 years from now? Yes? Will you still have a tape drive supporting that format? Maybe not.
The big library of Alexandria was burnt down 400 A.D. and, everything being on paper, went with it. What followed was 1000 years of medieval darkness until mankind rediscorvered what was lost. The Greek knew 500 B.C. that the world was heliocentric (so much to Galileo).
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However, IMHO, the point of the story was that SUN might not be good for the product StarOffice. And thus not good for the users. End user applications is really not Sun's core business.
With standardized file formats, this whole [MS|Star|K]Office{95|97|2000} thing would not really bother anyone. So, it's good that there are more and more end users, who "just want to get the job done". And are not religious about any OS or application.
Anyone know how XML is getting along in this area?
While there is nothing to say against the intentions and possible benefits of this technology, building such a network creates a huge potential for misuse:
who has access to this system?
how long is the data stored?
how secure is the system (tampering)? A more "democratic" system would be the one invented by Neal Stephenson where everyone wears a camera with hotlink to the police station. Kind of a visual 911.
But even that creates a society I wouldn't want to live in. So, I cannot find anything cool about it...
For reasons why biometrics isn't as good as you might think, you can read this article by Bruce Schneier.
Your basic assumtpion is that consumers buy hardware because of need.
If that would be true, how the heck did Furbies ever come into existance?
In our western societies need is really at the bottom of the list when it comes to motivations for a purchase. (Which is a good thing, don't get me wrong)
Slashdot Mirror
Nice, but can you take screenshots with it?
We love them, we take them out for walks and most of all, they do their job.
I like having a color display, but that by itself will not ensure dominance and I hope that noone at 3COM is believing this.
What I see happening is something like Bluetooth joining PCs, Cellphones, PDAs, Watches, Telephones, Modems together. And I hope that Palms will fit very nicely into this picture.
Sorry, the offer is open only to residents of the United States and Canada, excluding Quebec.
Why isn't this contest open to international customers?
Unfortunately, we are unable to offer this contest to residents outside the United States and Canada due to the complexity and variety of international legal requirements. We hope you understand that we are subject to certain legal limitations.
*Sigh*
When will the U.S. stop being in a continuous state of national emergency (dating back to the years of the big depression, no kidding)?
Is that what you feel?
Well, get real! We are already living in this scenario. It makes at least as much difference in what country on Earth you are born today than genetic engineering will make in the years to come.
The only difference is that this time it might happen to yourself and not some poor guy in a mosquito infested backyard of our planet.
"Optimists think that we live in the best of all possible worlds.
Pessimists are afraid that they're right."
A robot carrying 25 times its own weight in Europe would not be able to carry 50 times its weight in the US!
Thats _g-force_ for you, and it's supposed to be the same all over the planet. (apart from those places where it really sucks)
according to their ads: "AOL *IS* the Internet"
Did the internet ever have a href-blockade before?
Maybe alta vista, yahoo, hotbot, excite, etc. shoud remove ebay from their search results...
UMTS is supposed to show up in 2-3 years (at least here in Europe, don't know about the states). It will offer 384kbps (up to 2 Mbit theoretical max), data services included. Wireless videoconferencing on the Internet. Cool? Yes.
However the question is: will the cost/benefit make it attractive?
Radio bandwith is a scarce resource for a wireless network operator. When you have sufficient subscribers (which is the case with GSM in almost every country), would you rather serve one guy at 384 kbps (video) or 24 subscribers at 16kbps (audio)?
That means you can expect your video call to cost 24 times as much as a normal phone call. I doubt that people find each others face that attractive...
It would be cool to use the higher bandwith together with devices like the Sony Vaio C1, where I can record and edit pictures and videos, combine them with documents, etc.
How much more interesting than a videophone...
Of course this idea is vulnerable to the people with the patent on making a patent on patenting obvious ideas. They could sue you.
But at least you can rest assured that those people will receive a lawsuit by the very people who patented patenting patenting obvious ideas.
Since this leads to infinite regression, every human on earth could hold such a patent...
Since humans and the number of lawsuits of everyone against everyone else is both the same kind of infinity, there are enough meta patents for it.
(Easy proof: give every human a unique number and define n/m as the lawsuit of person n against person m. Thus you get, potentially, all rational numbers, which are countable. So you can cover all possible lawsuits, forever(!) with an individual meta patent.)
"Heisenberg once slept here, or at a place nearby."
They describe in detail their (multi-) firewall setup, how they log intrusion events, etc.
Their main advise is like you said: keep the firewall system to a bare minimum of services. It makes configuration and intrusion detection easier.
Resources: The number of people participating in such projects is not increasing exponential. I would assume quite a steady percentage of the overall human population is geeky enough to be a candidate for such a project.
While the human population on Earth is showing geometric growth, the population of the high tech countries isnt't. So, it seems safe to assume linear growth of the overall population of possible participants.
And, the percentage of internet users who can actually program must be decreasing during the last 4 years.
Competition: There are more and more projects competing for resources. The number of such project has probably shown geometric growth during the last 2 years.
If you take these two factors together, an average project would grow logarithmic or even not at all.
For Eric this would mean that he is doing very well with fetchmail, as he is able to keep his percentage of the "market".
As a side comment: Hats off for collecting all this data and making use of it. I've seen quite some data graveyards in project management. This one is interesting. Thanks, Eric!
> necessarily harmless, not necessarily necessary, and should be used only
> after careful consideration.
Consideration by whom, is the question in this case. I don't know how the Amish do it, I expect they have a counsel of elders or so (someone have more information on this?)
I prefer that the individual makes a choice. Only in severe cases should society make a choice. That's what laws are about. I think most people manage quite well on their own.
What I myself would connect to "cyberclysm" is the fragility of the technology we apply. Consider the Y2K drama during these days. I don't think there will be much happening, however it points out that society - worldwide - is getting more vulnerable.
Computers are supergood at processing knowledge, but they are pretty bad when it comes to storing it. Do you expect your backup tapes to be readable 20 years from now? Yes? Will you still have a tape drive supporting that format? Maybe not.
The big library of Alexandria was burnt down 400 A.D. and, everything being on paper, went with it. What followed was 1000 years of medieval darkness until mankind rediscorvered what was lost.
The Greek knew 500 B.C. that the world was heliocentric (so much to Galileo).
Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server.
Or is it stuff that matters?
Oh, wait, this calls for something new:
Strikehot
News for mercs. Stuff that shatters.
However, IMHO, the point of the story was that SUN might not be good for the product StarOffice. And thus not good for the users. End user applications is really not Sun's core business.
With standardized file formats, this whole [MS|Star|K]Office{95|97|2000} thing would not really bother anyone. So, it's good that there are more and more end users, who "just want to get the job done". And are not religious about any OS or application.
Anyone know how XML is getting along in this area?
who has access to this system?
how long is the data stored?
how secure is the system (tampering)?
A more "democratic" system would be the one invented by Neal Stephenson where everyone wears a camera with hotlink to the police station. Kind of a visual 911.
But even that creates a society I wouldn't want to live in. So, I cannot find anything cool about it...
For reasons why biometrics isn't as good as you might think, you can read this article by Bruce Schneier.
If that would be true, how the heck did Furbies ever come into existance?
In our western societies need is really at the bottom of the list when it comes to motivations for a purchase. (Which is a good thing, don't get me wrong)