Microsoft would collapse if they couldn't sell enough cardboard boxes in one year. It is a very fragile business model. That's why they want to get in to services and servers.
For example, if Microsoft had pushed something that flopped like Windows ME (and did not offer 98, NT, and 2k at the same time), they would have fallen faster than Enron, $30 billion cash reserver notwithstanding
In these grazing days, every show attracts a line the first day. But a theater has to pay for the the price of the reels. That's a large initial investment. If you paid for spiderman 2 weeks ago and its still bringing in money, but you think the lines for star trek will fizzle out long before they spiderman lines do, you're not likely to put a larger investment in the smaller grossing film.
uh, 1600 fewer theaters is less demand. If there was more demand, Lucas would allow it shown in more theaters. He is trying to *increase* demand by limiting supply.
I'm sick of Larry McVoy claiming that he derives no benefit from Linus and the other kernel developers using BkBits. He tries to sound like some sanctimonious benevolent sack of shit for letting them use it, and then spouts all that tripe about his "paying" customers.
But the truth is that he couldn't buy that kind of advertizing anywhere. At least 99% of his market is *heavily* influenced by Linus's endorsement and that "BitMover is the dotcom in Linux!" or whatever his glossy ads say.
At least Hans Reiser was up front about his motivation for getting ReiserFS into the 2.4 kernel (and *somewhat* gracious when it didn't make it in right way), and he was actually donating code.
It's a bit like Nike claiming that by giving Michael Jordan free shoes that we should all kiss their feet for being so gracious as to allow us to watch basketball.
the probles with your code isn't in the naming convention -- which is an improvement, but you've got operations and assignments on the same line, which are then assigned to temporary variables (boolean at that!) which then need to be checked (with a boolean operator yet!) later on, where you have to remember what the boolean values represent.
That's fine when you're doing cookie cutter coding (like business logic) but if you're doing something new, or more accurately, outside your area of experience, coding has to be done before hand to "learn" the right algorithms, UI design, etc. before you can commit to a final design.
If the pro-comment advocates can't even be bothered to read and understand the comments they want to reply to on Slashdot, how can we expect you to read comments in the code. Dude gives several valid arguemnt and you talk about ordering a pizza.
Personally, I make sure every function says what goes into it, what comes out of it, and what setup (variables, etc.) need to be made for it to be called.
Congratulations, you've just described a function header. The only reason to include that kind of info in comments is if you are using some automatic documentation tool like javadoc--which is a *very* good reason, but a waste of time and space otherwise.
Overall, you're better spending 10 minutes deciding on accurate, descriptive function and variable names are than 5 minutes duplicating your header in pseudocode or filling the page with descriptive comments.
Any complex algorithm (like creating a hash table) is not going to be able to be debugged from reading the comments anyway.
More like teaching condoms as a method for avoiding pregnancy. It's an extra hassle. Sometimes you don't feel like it, sometimes you don't have time, and sometimes it just doesn't work right.
"Army recruiters like Sgt. First Class Jeremy Burton are pitching a new program that offers direct enlistment in the Special Forces." <p> And you can join the Navy and start flying a <a href="jakarta.apache.org">Tomcat</a> right away, too.
In this case, if you believe neither, it translates to, yes Microsoft did lobby the Pentagon to move to wipe out free software, and yes, the DoD did strike a deal with them. Certain agencies and and projects may be granted exemptions, but I think we've just seen a major Microsoft victory.
I've had this nagging familiarity from watching people get addicted to that game that I was sure I'd seen before. And I just realized where it came from. The Sims appeals to exactly the same sort of person as Everquest or Ultima Online. Only they get rid of that completely ridiculous pretense that it is an "action" game. You buy a virtual house where you collect pretend money and stuff. Every once in a while, you walk around and sometimes when they want to get wild, they'll stand next to another character.
It should have been obvious when the Sims people started begging for a multiplayer version so they can stand around next to "real" people instead of AI.
You mention microsoft's investment in cable companies -- don't forget Qwest, DSL for half the country (area, not population) *means* MSN.
But say Microsoft makes a big bid to dominate online gaming and fails. Sony or Nintendo or someone else comes up with a $5 a month scheme, better games and better service and XBox dies young. So? Microsoft still has that investment in the broadband infrastructure for online gaming that the winning consoles need. Sony or Blizzard or Square or whoever gets $5 a month for the game subscription, and Microsoft gets their share of your $50 a month internet bill.
Actually, the content kings are frightened that content is becoming commoditized. Things like the DMCA and the SSSCAII haven't had any kind of impact on the software industry. Think of the cases that have been brought so far... eBooks and DeCSS are content protection schemes. Napster is about listening to existing music. Publishers are pushing to outlaw libraries. Copyright has been extended another 20 years. The media corporations are running scared trying to prevent people from finding (or creating) content without their help. And more importantly, without their approval.
No, you'll always need a network to retrieve content from, hardware to store it and software to view it. But all my favorite music and books and movies are from the past. George Lucas hasn't made any money from me since the first Star Wars boxed set back in 80 something. I've gone through several VCRs and a DVD player since then. Still waiting for the DVDs though--wish I could get them without the new crap he adds on though. I buy all my books second hand (except a few computer manuals.) I spend alot more time on Slashdot than Slate or CNN.com. I don't use MP3s because I haven't got sound working on my Linux box yet, but I don't buy CDs so much because I prefer minidisks. I've bought my personal top 20 records 2 or 3 times each. And the last popular album I bought new was Smashing Pumpkin's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. There just isn't that much content out there being made available by the media corporations that appeals to me. And they're afraid it's not just me.
1) Microsoft stockholders dont' care about profits: no dividends
2) Even if they did, they'd rise up just about the time Microsoft's strategy failed to increase their wealth, which it hasn't yet. Innovation is expensive and risky.
Those numbers are real, but there is a huge math error. $30,000,000 buys a lot of bandwidth. Like a whole lot. And a whole lot of hardware. And plenty of developers and admins and tech support.
Try not to think of it as an earnings hole. Think of it as a tax writeoff. Last I heard, Microsoft was still profitable. If they can spend part of a tax rebate they wouldn't otherwise have had, they can afford to expand their monopoly, even if it cost $1 million per customer.
Slashdot Mirror
True.
Microsoft would collapse if they couldn't sell enough cardboard boxes in one year. It is a very fragile business model. That's why they want to get in to services and servers.
For example, if Microsoft had pushed something that flopped like Windows ME (and did not offer 98, NT, and 2k at the same time), they would have fallen faster than Enron, $30 billion cash reserver notwithstanding
according to Larry McVoy (on the LKML), its at least an order of magnitude more complex than the Linux kernel.
don't you know he's a christian and creationist? It's safe to disregard anything he says.
maybe your sofa is overflowing with quarters, but I don't think watching the movie would pay off any better than lifting the cushions on mine.
Lucas could re-release the original star wars (and put it out on DVD the same day) and it'd probably out-sell them both.
In these grazing days, every show attracts a line the first day. But a theater has to pay for the the price of the reels. That's a large initial investment. If you paid for spiderman 2 weeks ago and its still bringing in money, but you think the lines for star trek will fizzle out long before they spiderman lines do, you're not likely to put a larger investment in the smaller grossing film.
uh, 1600 fewer theaters is less demand. If there was more demand, Lucas would allow it shown in more theaters. He is trying to *increase* demand by limiting supply.
I'm sick of Larry McVoy claiming that he derives no benefit from Linus and the other kernel developers using BkBits. He tries to sound like some sanctimonious benevolent sack of shit for letting them use it, and then spouts all that tripe about his "paying" customers.
But the truth is that he couldn't buy that kind of advertizing anywhere. At least 99% of his market is *heavily* influenced by Linus's endorsement and that "BitMover is the dotcom in Linux!" or whatever his glossy ads say.
At least Hans Reiser was up front about his motivation for getting ReiserFS into the 2.4 kernel (and *somewhat* gracious when it didn't make it in right way), and he was actually donating code.
It's a bit like Nike claiming that by giving Michael Jordan free shoes that we should all kiss their feet for being so gracious as to allow us to watch basketball.
or Empire Strikes Back?
or even Return of the Jedi?
the probles with your code isn't in the naming convention -- which is an improvement, but you've got operations and assignments on the same line, which are then assigned to temporary variables (boolean at that!) which then need to be checked (with a boolean operator yet!) later on, where you have to remember what the boolean values represent.
never take away i
it'll cost you too many enemies
instead, do
for (i = 0; i < LASTROW; i++)
or if you need to compare complex datatypes:
while (! isLastRowPopulated(myTable[i]))
or
while (! Table.isLastRowPopulated(i))
That's fine when you're doing cookie cutter coding (like business logic) but if you're doing something new, or more accurately, outside your area of experience, coding has to be done before hand to "learn" the right algorithms, UI design, etc. before you can commit to a final design.
whoops...
a ramValue(paramname)
just sent out a bean with methods like:
setParamName(param)
setParamValue(value)
getP
All took sinlge String. And I did it to avoid introspection. Sure makes jsp easier though.
If the pro-comment advocates can't even be bothered to read and understand the comments they want to reply to on Slashdot, how can we expect you to read comments in the code. Dude gives several valid arguemnt and you talk about ordering a pizza.
Personally, I make sure every function says what goes into it, what comes out of it, and what setup (variables, etc.) need to be made for it to be called.
Congratulations, you've just described a function header. The only reason to include that kind of info in comments is if you are using some automatic documentation tool like javadoc--which is a *very* good reason, but a waste of time and space otherwise.
Overall, you're better spending 10 minutes deciding on accurate, descriptive function and variable names are than 5 minutes duplicating your header in pseudocode or filling the page with descriptive comments.
Any complex algorithm (like creating a hash table) is not going to be able to be debugged from reading the comments anyway.
More like teaching condoms as a method for avoiding pregnancy. It's an extra hassle. Sometimes you don't feel like it, sometimes you don't have time, and sometimes it just doesn't work right.
what else is needed?
Maybe 'cat README' or 'ls'
"Army recruiters like Sgt. First Class Jeremy Burton are pitching a new program that offers direct enlistment in the Special Forces."
<p>
And you can join the Navy and start flying a <a href="jakarta.apache.org">Tomcat</a> right away, too.
Microsoft or the Government?
In this case, if you believe neither, it translates to, yes Microsoft did lobby the Pentagon to move to wipe out free software, and yes, the DoD did strike a deal with them. Certain agencies and and projects may be granted exemptions, but I think we've just seen a major Microsoft victory.
"low-latency games like The Sims"
I've had this nagging familiarity from watching people get addicted to that game that I was sure I'd seen before. And I just realized where it came from. The Sims appeals to exactly the same sort of person as Everquest or Ultima Online. Only they get rid of that completely ridiculous pretense that it is an "action" game. You buy a virtual house where you collect pretend money and stuff. Every once in a while, you walk around and sometimes when they want to get wild, they'll stand next to another character.
It should have been obvious when the Sims people started begging for a multiplayer version so they can stand around next to "real" people instead of AI.
You mention microsoft's investment in cable companies -- don't forget Qwest, DSL for half the country (area, not population) *means* MSN.
But say Microsoft makes a big bid to dominate online gaming and fails. Sony or Nintendo or someone else comes up with a $5 a month scheme, better games and better service and XBox dies young. So? Microsoft still has that investment in the broadband infrastructure for online gaming that the winning consoles need. Sony or Blizzard or Square or whoever gets $5 a month for the game subscription, and Microsoft gets their share of your $50 a month internet bill.
Actually, the content kings are frightened that content is becoming commoditized. Things like the DMCA and the SSSCAII haven't had any kind of impact on the software industry. Think of the cases that have been brought so far ... eBooks and DeCSS are content protection schemes. Napster is about listening to existing music. Publishers are pushing to outlaw libraries. Copyright has been extended another 20 years. The media corporations are running scared trying to prevent people from finding (or creating) content without their help. And more importantly, without their approval.
No, you'll always need a network to retrieve content from, hardware to store it and software to view it. But all my favorite music and books and movies are from the past. George Lucas hasn't made any money from me since the first Star Wars boxed set back in 80 something. I've gone through several VCRs and a DVD player since then. Still waiting for the DVDs though--wish I could get them without the new crap he adds on though. I buy all my books second hand (except a few computer manuals.) I spend alot more time on Slashdot than Slate or CNN.com. I don't use MP3s because I haven't got sound working on my Linux box yet, but I don't buy CDs so much because I prefer minidisks. I've bought my personal top 20 records 2 or 3 times each. And the last popular album I bought new was Smashing Pumpkin's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. There just isn't that much content out there being made available by the media corporations that appeals to me. And they're afraid it's not just me.
1) Microsoft stockholders dont' care about profits: no dividends
2) Even if they did, they'd rise up just about the time Microsoft's strategy failed to increase their wealth, which it hasn't yet. Innovation is expensive and risky.
switch to decimal mode.
Those numbers are real, but there is a huge math error. $30,000,000 buys a lot of bandwidth. Like a whole lot. And a whole lot of hardware. And plenty of developers and admins and tech support.
With that kind of money you could get:
60 employees @ $50,000 apiece
60 fancy datacenter servers @ $50,000 apiece
60 DS3s (2.7 GB) @ $50,000/year ($4200/month -- overpriced) apiece
and still have $21 million left over for advertising and Windows Datacenter Server Licenses.
Try not to think of it as an earnings hole. Think of it as a tax writeoff. Last I heard, Microsoft was still profitable. If they can spend part of a tax rebate they wouldn't otherwise have had, they can afford to expand their monopoly, even if it cost $1 million per customer.