Ah yes, but see, the "90%" have this magical thing called the "vote." You may have heard of it. As much as politicians love money, they love votes far far more.
Now, if only people actually realized this.
So people voted for the lizards,
Yes,
But didn't the lizards eat the people.
Yes,
So why did they vote for the lizards.
Because if they didn't vote, the wrong lizard might get in.
Sorry if this is inaccurate, I couldn't be arsed looking it up and you get the idea. Earn some Karma by looking it up and reposting it yourself.:)
Now voting is highly ineffective when you have to choose between two corrupt parties. Both parties are corrupt because the system is corrupt or at least easily facilitates corruption. It's like choosing between Stalin and Hitler, you're screwed either way. The system needs to be fixed.
It should be modular and have upgrade slots following ISO standard interfaces. Perhaps give the option of one or many Intel or AMD cpus and have different graphic options from both NVidia and ATI. Oh, and upgradeable storage & memory.
So basically you are saying is that they should just make PC's.
You know that Sony already does that... and unlike the PS3 that division is actually making money.
The Wii's sales began to significantly drop several years ago. Last May, sales were down 38% year-over-year and fell to record lows in Japan.
Nice attempt to frame the argument.
But the Wii has sold a lot more consoles then Sony and Microsoft. Also remember that Sony had to significantly redesign it's console to stop it haemorrhaging money and Microsoft has also redesigned it's console as well as various versions (Arcade, Elite).
Wii, 1 production model: 90 million sold.
Xbox360, 4 production models: 66 million sold.
PS3, 2 production models: 55 million sold.
Telling me that sales of the Wii has dropped is simply saying they aren't selling as phenomenally well as they were when it was released, the same thing happened with the Xbox360. This simply indicates it's reached it's saturation point, not an indication of product failure. A slow down in sales after 5 years is normal. The PS3 on the other hand did not experience the majority of its sales after it's redesign.
Does anyone else have a nagging feeling that Nintendo is doomed in the next console cycle?
Nope.
Out of all three console manufacturers, Nintendo is in the least peril. First from the Billions the Wii made, next from the strategy Nintendo is following.
Nintendo understands that consoles are casual. They always were and will continue to be for casual gamers. The most casual console of the last three generations ended up being the victors.
I love Nintendo's classics, but their refusal to embrace online play on the same level of their competitors as well as their reliance on nostalgia titles is frustrating.
This is the opposite of most peoples experience with Nintendo. Most console owners dont want to play online competitively, they play for 4 maybe 5 hours per week so they simply want a machine that starts quickly and is easy to use as well as having games which are simple and fun to play.
Of all the console manufacturers, the one I'd be worried about is Sony. Sony cant afford another loss leader like the PS3, in five years the PS3 hasn't become profitable, let alone made it into the black. It took 3 years for them to stop selling the each unit at a loss. However this is not the problem. Nintendo has shown that consoles are casual, yet I doubt Sony has learned this, they still seem intent on chasing a more dedicated gamer which simply doesn't exist in sufficient numbers on the console. A PS4 with the financials of the PS3 will probably sink the entire PlayStation division given the utter failures of the Playstation Phone, Playstation Portable and PS Vita.
Microsoft will probably release an overpowered casual console, remaining decidedly indecisive but openly willing to chase the casual dollars. If MS is good at anything it's following the leader.
As for the Wii U, yep, it may be evolutionary rather then revolutionary but at least Nintendo is trying new things. It probably wont be the smashing success that the Wii was but unlike Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo can afford for the Wii U to be lacklustre although I highly doubt it will be. It probably wont sell like the Wii did, but it will still do well.
Let's consider another "scientific discipline" that was once popular among progressives: eugenics. That's right, science says we should kill or sterilize anyone that we experts think are defective. (Pick your favorite victim group.)
Where's the scientific evidence of this?
I've never seen any evidence of Eugenics programs working. If anything, the scientific argument is against it. We know what happens when genetic diversity is eliminated from a society, it becomes inbred and countless experiments have proven that genetically isolation does not produce a superior species. This is why you cant keep breeding that prize racehorse or bullock with the same stock.
Eugenics was never a scientific discipline. It was a social one, the idea that one class of people are inherently superior is not an idea supported by science, in fact it's refuted by it.
Think about what you're saying rather then making poorly veiled anti-establishment rants.
Are you suggesting presenting varying findings from people actually working in the field?
Or "teaching the controversy" by presenting the rantings of retired weathermen from Kansas and Oklahoma railing against communist environmentalists?
Dont worry, he's dropped any pretence of being a scientist and just has poorly made ad hominem rants against people with actual data.
I wondered why Anthony Watts dropped completely off the grid about 18 months back, turns out he became openly batshit insane.
Also please keep in mind that getting granted an injunction in Germany, says very little about the validity of the case. Unless you very obviously don't have a case you'll get your injunction. This is balanced by the fact that you are then liable for damages if you later fail to win your case. So Apple getting an injunction merely means they felt sure enough of their case to risk it.
It's the same in Australia. The Injunction Apple tried to get was called interlocutory injunction, which is a temporary injunction during an ongoing case, which is not a judgement on the case itself. The actual infringement case between Apple and Samsung in Australia has not been held yet and I doubt Apple have a chance of winning that.
I know you're trying for the funny but a lot of them are married or have girlfriends.
Actually, the getting laid thing is mostly bollocks. Many serial killers have trouble either forming, or maintaining a normal sexual relationship with women.
If we look at most serial killers such as Berkowitz or Gacy, they had serious sexual deviancies. Gacy was married too, yet was still deviant (he was a Peado)
As Ray Kurzweil has pointed out, if Moore's law holds for another 30 years, a machine intelligence a billion times more powerful than all of humanity can emerge. Ambitious projects to emulate more and more complex biological intelligence in silicon are well underway.
What would such a thing need us for?
OK, Moore's Law is about the number of transistors, not about computing power.
Second, having the hardware with 1000 times the power of the human brain is pointless without the software intelligence and independence. Without self determination it's no different to computers today. Same if it doesn't have the ability to modify it's own code base.
Thirdly, why do we assume a being of vastly superior intelligence will view us as hostile. It may simply view us as we view children. Those who simply dont know any better and are to be guided. AI government which could instantly understand the needs and desires of every single represented citizen would lead to an age of unprecedented peace and freedom (which is just as likely as Judgement day, the robot is looking for Sarah Connor, she left her purse at the shop). Not to mention the reduction in corruption.
Would a creature of logic and reason seek to exterminate an entire race, that sounds more like a being of hatred and malevolence. Why do we assume computers will develop the worst of human traits.
I have just arrived here from the year 2112 in my time machine to answer a few of your questions.
The South did win the war against the north due to everyone migrating into Canada. The problem with that is that the South wasn't happy being one state, so South North declared war on the South South which sat at a stalemate for years until Canada finally annexed the south and polited the southerners into submission. All sports other then hockey are now banned in Greater Canada and the beverage previously known as Beer in the former US was renamed "Goats Piss" by His Royal Openness Michael Geist and the 1st open source monarch.
Overpopulation was solved by the zombie crisis of 2035. The zombies actually won that but we were able to stall them by giving them their own sitcom. Groaning Pains is now in it's 76 th season although the corpse of Michael J Fox wont last that many more seasons.
China never became a real superpower because they couldn't make a decent cappuccino.
Most oil reserves ran out in 2048, in 2049 an enterprising geneticist came up with the idea of cloning dinosaurs from DNA encased in fossilised mosquitoes which then could be raised on a Costa Rican Island and turned into oil. Apart from the odd human consumption incident, this has been a smashing success.
The break up of the European Union was announced in 2014, as of December 2111, the EU parliament still hasn't got a working plan on how to facilitate the break up.
First contact was made in 2076. A ship landed in southern Fiji, initially hostile the insectoid aliens were pacified by giving them candy. in 2078 the KzsSSNRRG declared war on Earth to secure candy supplies. The Department of Homeworld Security was formed although quickly disbanded after they discovered the KzsSSNRRG's exoskeleton deflected millimetre wave scanners and no one wanted to give them an enhanced pat down. The war raged on in the stars for years with the Earth Defence Forces slowly falling back until we were able to clone Casper Van Diem.
Flying cars are still 20 years away.
Wikipedism is now bigger then Islam and Christianity combined. Jimmy Wales was deified on his death bed and now millions of people now start their days by staring and offering a personal appeal Jimmy Wales.
The Apple-Google wars of 2018 were as short lived as they were fierce. Apple lost the conflict because they used shiny white armour that could be spotted a mile away and their guns could only fire one bullet before having to be reloaded.
Lord British took over the British isles in 2023. He implemented an experience point for all working residents of great Britain. One earned XP at whatever job they do. It's the only place on earth where a level 73 Tea Lady beats a Level 42 CEO.
Richard M Stallman was lost forever on 14 August 2041. His home was searched by police but all they found was an empty bottle of soap and a recently used razor.
Copyright is now life of the sun plus 10,000 years, but Bit Torrent still works.
If you would excuse me, I must return to my own time. Typing on keyboards is so quaint, in the future we just shout "Bingle, Porn" and it does everything automatically.
Farewell.
You say that your developers are MS guys at heart? Then go with the MS stack to develop this. Your developers are your biggest expense, and Microsoft licensing for nonprofits is completely reasonable. As much as you might want to do everything open source, sometimes it's more important to get the job done in a timely fashion.
MS licensing is cheap.
No, seriously, especially as a non-profit they'll get SQL Enterprise licenses for pennies.
However that is not the OP's problem. If you go with the MS stack, you're practically choosing to go with ESRI and ESRI licensing is not cheap. You may be looking at $20 K for a floating ArcInfo licence. You're looking at $4K just for a single use ArcMap license. Lets not even look at ArcGIS server
Sure, that litigation holds back sales and marketplace competition... But "and by extent innovation"? How does litigation over an existing product in any way affect innovation regarding new products? Can you logically support that extension you're proposing?
You mean besides the direct effect of asking for an injunction on any product that even might be better, simply because it competes.
Well it's designed to raise the cost of entry by increasing the risks. Smaller companies that can afford to be more innovative then Apple have a huge disincentive to release new products out of the fear of an expensive law suit that they would be unable to fight.
Reduction in innovation is a direct result of reduction in competition. Attempting to stop competition from releasing new products reduces the new technologies available on the market.
Not to mention the fact that the injunctions against the Galaxy Tab were because judges thought Samsung wasn't innovating
Wrong.
The German injunction was over a design patent. Not an innovation and that was overturned. The Australian injunction was voluntary. Samsung agreed to it and the first Judge, Justice Anabelle Bennett's major complaint was against Samsung's Lawyers, not a judgement on the technology itself. This judgement was overturned by a full bench of the Federal court AND a full bench of the High court. This is a very clear indication that the injunction was wrong.
So when you learn the truth, they actually are good examples. Apple are using litigation to stop competition because they are unable to compete. As I said before, just because they aren't very good at it doesn't make it OK.
Does that mean that we'll go back to having gasoline actually be real, 100% honest-to-God gasoline too?
Considering that Gasoline comes from the broken down remains of prehistoric creatures and according to God, there was no history before 6000 years ago... Honest to God gasoline cant possibly exist.
The constant litigation between Apple and [insert every other phone manufacturer] is not only holding back innovation
Really? Because I see a whole bunch of new phones at CES. Do you have any evidence that innovation is being held back, or is this just a gut "but it must be so" feeling?
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 was due for an Australian release in October. Due to legal interference from Apple it was not released until December.
So yes, they are trying to hold back competition and by extent innovation. Just because they haven't been successful at it does not make it OK.
I remember a time where companies would get 3 or 4 years of quality FUD out of a false patent claim. All Apple got were a few months and some Florian Mueller posts. I'd be asking for my money back, at least from Mueller.
This says more about the US's infatuation with guns then the TSA.
People are dumb enough to bring guns to an airport. Sorry if that sounds less alarmist but it's true, never ascribe to malice what can easily be explained by stupidity.
Now the TSA isn't needed for finding people who are dumb enough to bring guns to an airport. Security could do that well enough before the TSA or DHS ever existed. It's basic security that has been around since metal detectors were first installed in Airports. To stop guns at airports all you need to do is have a metal detector and luggage X-Ray that everyone passes though... and we've had those since long before the 90's.
I dare say, non-US airports find significantly fewer firearms because people in other nations tend to lock their firearms up amongst other logical procedures involved with firearm ownership. You want to stop dumb people from bringing guns to an airport, start with fixing the dumb people.
These people were involved in sending food and medical supplies to one of their allies in a time of war: surely nothing to be ashamed of? But then, just a little bit later, the USSR was the Evil Empire and anyone who supported it in any way was an evil communist and a traitor. The House Committee on Unamerican Activities would look at this charitable donation as evidence of communist sympathies and you could lose your job and be alienated from your friends.
There are not a lot of American donations to the Red Crescent, despite it just being the Muslim version of the Red Cross. Most of the charity in the ME comes out of Asian organisations.
But every second week we hear about how X is funding terrorism in an attempt to make people scared. Make no mistake, the "house committee" isn't grabbing people off the street to stand trial but people are being lead around by the nose. If anything, the current crop of oppressive organisations like the DHS have learned from the McCarthy era. They wont put you on trial because that gives you a chance to defend yourself. They learned that was McCarthyism's downfall.
For the benefit of anyone who's never seen an Australian Rules Footy match, it can be best described as two teams of Aussie men trying to kill each other whilst keeping an umpire distracted with a ball.
When it comes to Linux, fragmentation is inevitable. If you can't accept that, you are the one with a problem.
Erm...
I think you missed the OP's sarcasm.
"Fragmentation" doesn't describe a perfectly natural and often useful diversity in a single ecosystem. It's used to as a scary buzzword by people who dont understand what it really is to deride platforms they know nothing about. For sample, some people have black hair, others blonde, this would cause some to describe the human race as being "fragmented" when really it's genetic diversity we would be quite worse off without.
And yes, you're right, the same kind of diversity is inherent in Linux and this is a good thing(TM).
Wow. I must be lucky in my last two jobs. At both places (both multinationals), we were encouraged to not only take our allotted time, but we were told you're on vacation you will not be called or expected to work. Most of us bring at least our phones "just in case", but I can honestly say I've never been called when taking scheduled time off.
This is how it works in Australia, too much accrued annual leave (20 days standard) is considered a liability for companies. Most would rather you took it in small lots rather then saving up 3 months of leave and then taking off on a holiday. Also if you leave or are terminated all remaining annual leave must be paid out. To a small company this could send them into the red for that month.
This is why it's standard on contracts in Oz to have a clause that does not permit more then 8 weeks (40 days or 2 years of accrual) of annual leave to be accrued. Here the company has the option of paying out the leave (if the employee does not wish to take leave).
It's good to see Google admit that large amount of Android apps aren't really standardly designed and suffer from huge fragmentation issues, both with hardware and design. It's just weird to see Google CEO saying there isn't such issue while at the same time the company is launching design guide to help fix some of the issues.
Nice to see you read the actual article.
What Schmidt actually said
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt on Tuesday took issue with the idea that the Android mobile operating system is fragmented, arguing that there is instead a "differentiation" between devices.
"Differentiation is positive, fragmentation is negative,"
Now a lot of idiots beleive that fragmentation is the differences between UI's. This is false as UI's make no difference to the way applications behave.
The Differentiation that Schmidt talked about is things like differing screen sizes which are actually things that phone buyers want, yet make things slightly more difficult for developers. Google have recognised this for years, the benefits of choice to the consumer are greater then the pitfalls to developers.
I think this is also part of a longer plan for Android's issues. I think Google is finally starting to see that the supposed freedom they gave to manufacturers and telcos backfired and resulted in fragmented hardware and non-standard design within apps and phones. I believe they will soon announce some similar guidelines and policy changes to try to get Android more together.
There is no "supposed" freedom. There is freedom and it was given to all, not just manufacturers and telcos.
This freedom has resulted in a thriving phone market and development community and it's not going anywhere. Guidelines are not edicts set in stone, nor will the inclusion of the "Holo" theme change custom launchers.
Especially now that WP7 market share is starting to climb as a result of Nokia's new phones.
OK, what are you smoking and why aren't you sharing.
Despite a marketing blitz that rivals Apple's, WP7 is going nowhere. In fact MS's share keeps dropping as the laggards on WinMo realise that WP7 isn't going to work and switch to Android.
Slashdot Mirror
A personal appeal from Wikipedia vandal MJWX
Ah yes, but see, the "90%" have this magical thing called the "vote." You may have heard of it. As much as politicians love money, they love votes far far more.
Now, if only people actually realized this.
So people voted for the lizards,
:)
Yes,
But didn't the lizards eat the people.
Yes,
So why did they vote for the lizards.
Because if they didn't vote, the wrong lizard might get in.
Sorry if this is inaccurate, I couldn't be arsed looking it up and you get the idea. Earn some Karma by looking it up and reposting it yourself.
Now voting is highly ineffective when you have to choose between two corrupt parties. Both parties are corrupt because the system is corrupt or at least easily facilitates corruption. It's like choosing between Stalin and Hitler, you're screwed either way. The system needs to be fixed.
It should be modular and have upgrade slots following ISO standard interfaces. Perhaps give the option of one or many Intel or AMD cpus and have different graphic options from both NVidia and ATI. Oh, and upgradeable storage & memory.
So basically you are saying is that they should just make PC's.
You know that Sony already does that... and unlike the PS3 that division is actually making money.
Nice attempt to frame the argument.
But the Wii has sold a lot more consoles then Sony and Microsoft. Also remember that Sony had to significantly redesign it's console to stop it haemorrhaging money and Microsoft has also redesigned it's console as well as various versions (Arcade, Elite).
Wii, 1 production model: 90 million sold.
Xbox360, 4 production models: 66 million sold.
PS3, 2 production models: 55 million sold.
Telling me that sales of the Wii has dropped is simply saying they aren't selling as phenomenally well as they were when it was released, the same thing happened with the Xbox360. This simply indicates it's reached it's saturation point, not an indication of product failure. A slow down in sales after 5 years is normal. The PS3 on the other hand did not experience the majority of its sales after it's redesign.
Nope.
Out of all three console manufacturers, Nintendo is in the least peril. First from the Billions the Wii made, next from the strategy Nintendo is following.
Nintendo understands that consoles are casual. They always were and will continue to be for casual gamers. The most casual console of the last three generations ended up being the victors.
I love Nintendo's classics, but their refusal to embrace online play on the same level of their competitors as well as their reliance on nostalgia titles is frustrating.
This is the opposite of most peoples experience with Nintendo. Most console owners dont want to play online competitively, they play for 4 maybe 5 hours per week so they simply want a machine that starts quickly and is easy to use as well as having games which are simple and fun to play.
Of all the console manufacturers, the one I'd be worried about is Sony. Sony cant afford another loss leader like the PS3, in five years the PS3 hasn't become profitable, let alone made it into the black. It took 3 years for them to stop selling the each unit at a loss. However this is not the problem. Nintendo has shown that consoles are casual, yet I doubt Sony has learned this, they still seem intent on chasing a more dedicated gamer which simply doesn't exist in sufficient numbers on the console. A PS4 with the financials of the PS3 will probably sink the entire PlayStation division given the utter failures of the Playstation Phone, Playstation Portable and PS Vita.
Microsoft will probably release an overpowered casual console, remaining decidedly indecisive but openly willing to chase the casual dollars. If MS is good at anything it's following the leader.
As for the Wii U, yep, it may be evolutionary rather then revolutionary but at least Nintendo is trying new things. It probably wont be the smashing success that the Wii was but unlike Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo can afford for the Wii U to be lacklustre although I highly doubt it will be. It probably wont sell like the Wii did, but it will still do well.
Let's consider another "scientific discipline" that was once popular among progressives: eugenics. That's right, science says we should kill or sterilize anyone that we experts think are defective. (Pick your favorite victim group.)
Where's the scientific evidence of this?
I've never seen any evidence of Eugenics programs working. If anything, the scientific argument is against it. We know what happens when genetic diversity is eliminated from a society, it becomes inbred and countless experiments have proven that genetically isolation does not produce a superior species. This is why you cant keep breeding that prize racehorse or bullock with the same stock.
Eugenics was never a scientific discipline. It was a social one, the idea that one class of people are inherently superior is not an idea supported by science, in fact it's refuted by it.
Think about what you're saying rather then making poorly veiled anti-establishment rants.
Are you suggesting presenting varying findings from people actually working in the field?
Or "teaching the controversy" by presenting the rantings of retired weathermen from Kansas and Oklahoma railing against communist environmentalists?
Dont worry, he's dropped any pretence of being a scientist and just has poorly made ad hominem rants against people with actual data. I wondered why Anthony Watts dropped completely off the grid about 18 months back, turns out he became openly batshit insane.
The German injunction was over a design patent.
Also please keep in mind that getting granted an injunction in Germany, says very little about the validity of the case. Unless you very obviously don't have a case you'll get your injunction. This is balanced by the fact that you are then liable for damages if you later fail to win your case. So Apple getting an injunction merely means they felt sure enough of their case to risk it.
It's the same in Australia. The Injunction Apple tried to get was called interlocutory injunction, which is a temporary injunction during an ongoing case, which is not a judgement on the case itself. The actual infringement case between Apple and Samsung in Australia has not been held yet and I doubt Apple have a chance of winning that.
I know you're trying for the funny but a lot of them are married or have girlfriends.
Actually, the getting laid thing is mostly bollocks. Many serial killers have trouble either forming, or maintaining a normal sexual relationship with women.
If we look at most serial killers such as Berkowitz or Gacy, they had serious sexual deviancies. Gacy was married too, yet was still deviant (he was a Peado)
As Ray Kurzweil has pointed out, if Moore's law holds for another 30 years, a machine intelligence a billion times more powerful than all of humanity can emerge. Ambitious projects to emulate more and more complex biological intelligence in silicon are well underway.
What would such a thing need us for?
OK, Moore's Law is about the number of transistors, not about computing power.
Second, having the hardware with 1000 times the power of the human brain is pointless without the software intelligence and independence. Without self determination it's no different to computers today. Same if it doesn't have the ability to modify it's own code base.
Thirdly, why do we assume a being of vastly superior intelligence will view us as hostile. It may simply view us as we view children. Those who simply dont know any better and are to be guided. AI government which could instantly understand the needs and desires of every single represented citizen would lead to an age of unprecedented peace and freedom (which is just as likely as Judgement day, the robot is looking for Sarah Connor, she left her purse at the shop). Not to mention the reduction in corruption.
Would a creature of logic and reason seek to exterminate an entire race, that sounds more like a being of hatred and malevolence. Why do we assume computers will develop the worst of human traits.
You spelled "War of Southern Treason" wrong.
The South started the war, so I fail to see how it could be Northern aggression.
Well it depends on who wins it doesn't it.
If France won the Napoleonic conflict, wouldn't we be referring to them as the Neslsonic and Wellingtonic wars.
Whoooooooooosh, Whooooooooooooooosh, Whoooooooooooooosh.
/flashing lights.
I have just arrived here from the year 2112 in my time machine to answer a few of your questions.
The South did win the war against the north due to everyone migrating into Canada. The problem with that is that the South wasn't happy being one state, so South North declared war on the South South which sat at a stalemate for years until Canada finally annexed the south and polited the southerners into submission. All sports other then hockey are now banned in Greater Canada and the beverage previously known as Beer in the former US was renamed "Goats Piss" by His Royal Openness Michael Geist and the 1st open source monarch.
Overpopulation was solved by the zombie crisis of 2035. The zombies actually won that but we were able to stall them by giving them their own sitcom. Groaning Pains is now in it's 76 th season although the corpse of Michael J Fox wont last that many more seasons.
China never became a real superpower because they couldn't make a decent cappuccino.
Most oil reserves ran out in 2048, in 2049 an enterprising geneticist came up with the idea of cloning dinosaurs from DNA encased in fossilised mosquitoes which then could be raised on a Costa Rican Island and turned into oil. Apart from the odd human consumption incident, this has been a smashing success.
The break up of the European Union was announced in 2014, as of December 2111, the EU parliament still hasn't got a working plan on how to facilitate the break up.
First contact was made in 2076. A ship landed in southern Fiji, initially hostile the insectoid aliens were pacified by giving them candy. in 2078 the KzsSSNRRG declared war on Earth to secure candy supplies. The Department of Homeworld Security was formed although quickly disbanded after they discovered the KzsSSNRRG's exoskeleton deflected millimetre wave scanners and no one wanted to give them an enhanced pat down. The war raged on in the stars for years with the Earth Defence Forces slowly falling back until we were able to clone Casper Van Diem.
Flying cars are still 20 years away.
Wikipedism is now bigger then Islam and Christianity combined. Jimmy Wales was deified on his death bed and now millions of people now start their days by staring and offering a personal appeal Jimmy Wales.
The Apple-Google wars of 2018 were as short lived as they were fierce. Apple lost the conflict because they used shiny white armour that could be spotted a mile away and their guns could only fire one bullet before having to be reloaded.
Lord British took over the British isles in 2023. He implemented an experience point for all working residents of great Britain. One earned XP at whatever job they do. It's the only place on earth where a level 73 Tea Lady beats a Level 42 CEO.
Richard M Stallman was lost forever on 14 August 2041. His home was searched by police but all they found was an empty bottle of soap and a recently used razor.
Copyright is now life of the sun plus 10,000 years, but Bit Torrent still works.
If you would excuse me, I must return to my own time. Typing on keyboards is so quaint, in the future we just shout "Bingle, Porn" and it does everything automatically.
Farewell.
You say that your developers are MS guys at heart? Then go with the MS stack to develop this. Your developers are your biggest expense, and Microsoft licensing for nonprofits is completely reasonable. As much as you might want to do everything open source, sometimes it's more important to get the job done in a timely fashion.
MS licensing is cheap.
No, seriously, especially as a non-profit they'll get SQL Enterprise licenses for pennies.
However that is not the OP's problem. If you go with the MS stack, you're practically choosing to go with ESRI and ESRI licensing is not cheap. You may be looking at $20 K for a floating ArcInfo licence. You're looking at $4K just for a single use ArcMap license. Lets not even look at ArcGIS server
Google Earth is hard to beat for functionality and ease of programming (see: KML).
Google Earth is not Open Source, but for basic GIS it's a hell of a lot cheaper then an ESRI setup.
You mean besides the direct effect of asking for an injunction on any product that even might be better, simply because it competes.
Well it's designed to raise the cost of entry by increasing the risks. Smaller companies that can afford to be more innovative then Apple have a huge disincentive to release new products out of the fear of an expensive law suit that they would be unable to fight.
Reduction in innovation is a direct result of reduction in competition. Attempting to stop competition from releasing new products reduces the new technologies available on the market.
Wrong. The German injunction was over a design patent. Not an innovation and that was overturned. The Australian injunction was voluntary. Samsung agreed to it and the first Judge, Justice Anabelle Bennett's major complaint was against Samsung's Lawyers, not a judgement on the technology itself. This judgement was overturned by a full bench of the Federal court AND a full bench of the High court. This is a very clear indication that the injunction was wrong.
So when you learn the truth, they actually are good examples. Apple are using litigation to stop competition because they are unable to compete. As I said before, just because they aren't very good at it doesn't make it OK.
Does that mean that we'll go back to having gasoline actually be real, 100% honest-to-God gasoline too?
Considering that Gasoline comes from the broken down remains of prehistoric creatures and according to God, there was no history before 6000 years ago... Honest to God gasoline cant possibly exist.
The constant litigation between Apple and [insert every other phone manufacturer] is not only holding back innovation
Really? Because I see a whole bunch of new phones at CES. Do you have any evidence that innovation is being held back, or is this just a gut "but it must be so" feeling?
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 was due for an Australian release in October. Due to legal interference from Apple it was not released until December.
So yes, they are trying to hold back competition and by extent innovation. Just because they haven't been successful at it does not make it OK.
Sorry if this sounds a bit insensitive but... This is a US only problem. Europe, Asia, Australia and many other places dont have this issue.
If you want to fix it, you need to fix the broken telecommunications laws in the US, not the phones.
I remember a time where companies would get 3 or 4 years of quality FUD out of a false patent claim. All Apple got were a few months and some Florian Mueller posts. I'd be asking for my money back, at least from Mueller.
As long as people are willing to trade freedom for illusion of security, DHS and its ilk will prosper.
There, FTFY.
TSA finds 4 guns per day at airports
This says more about the US's infatuation with guns then the TSA.
People are dumb enough to bring guns to an airport. Sorry if that sounds less alarmist but it's true, never ascribe to malice what can easily be explained by stupidity.
Now the TSA isn't needed for finding people who are dumb enough to bring guns to an airport. Security could do that well enough before the TSA or DHS ever existed. It's basic security that has been around since metal detectors were first installed in Airports. To stop guns at airports all you need to do is have a metal detector and luggage X-Ray that everyone passes though... and we've had those since long before the 90's.
I dare say, non-US airports find significantly fewer firearms because people in other nations tend to lock their firearms up amongst other logical procedures involved with firearm ownership. You want to stop dumb people from bringing guns to an airport, start with fixing the dumb people.
These people were involved in sending food and medical supplies to one of their allies in a time of war: surely nothing to be ashamed of? But then, just a little bit later, the USSR was the Evil Empire and anyone who supported it in any way was an evil communist and a traitor. The House Committee on Unamerican Activities would look at this charitable donation as evidence of communist sympathies and you could lose your job and be alienated from your friends.
There are not a lot of American donations to the Red Crescent, despite it just being the Muslim version of the Red Cross. Most of the charity in the ME comes out of Asian organisations.
But every second week we hear about how X is funding terrorism in an attempt to make people scared. Make no mistake, the "house committee" isn't grabbing people off the street to stand trial but people are being lead around by the nose. If anything, the current crop of oppressive organisations like the DHS have learned from the McCarthy era. They wont put you on trial because that gives you a chance to defend yourself. They learned that was McCarthyism's downfall.
Presumably you're saying that for some reason more than just "they contain tantalum capacitors", as tantalum isn't ipso facto a conflict mineral, unless you're counting Australian rules football: and capoeira matches as "conflicts".
For the benefit of anyone who's never seen an Australian Rules Footy match, it can be best described as two teams of Aussie men trying to kill each other whilst keeping an umpire distracted with a ball.
When it comes to Linux, fragmentation is inevitable. If you can't accept that, you are the one with a problem.
Erm...
I think you missed the OP's sarcasm.
"Fragmentation" doesn't describe a perfectly natural and often useful diversity in a single ecosystem. It's used to as a scary buzzword by people who dont understand what it really is to deride platforms they know nothing about. For sample, some people have black hair, others blonde, this would cause some to describe the human race as being "fragmented" when really it's genetic diversity we would be quite worse off without.
And yes, you're right, the same kind of diversity is inherent in Linux and this is a good thing(TM).
Wow. I must be lucky in my last two jobs. At both places (both multinationals), we were encouraged to not only take our allotted time, but we were told you're on vacation you will not be called or expected to work. Most of us bring at least our phones "just in case", but I can honestly say I've never been called when taking scheduled time off.
This is how it works in Australia, too much accrued annual leave (20 days standard) is considered a liability for companies. Most would rather you took it in small lots rather then saving up 3 months of leave and then taking off on a holiday. Also if you leave or are terminated all remaining annual leave must be paid out. To a small company this could send them into the red for that month.
This is why it's standard on contracts in Oz to have a clause that does not permit more then 8 weeks (40 days or 2 years of accrual) of annual leave to be accrued. Here the company has the option of paying out the leave (if the employee does not wish to take leave).
It's good to see Google admit that large amount of Android apps aren't really standardly designed and suffer from huge fragmentation issues, both with hardware and design. It's just weird to see Google CEO saying there isn't such issue while at the same time the company is launching design guide to help fix some of the issues.
Nice to see you read the actual article. What Schmidt actually said
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt on Tuesday took issue with the idea that the Android mobile operating system is fragmented, arguing that there is instead a "differentiation" between devices.
"Differentiation is positive, fragmentation is negative,"
Now a lot of idiots beleive that fragmentation is the differences between UI's. This is false as UI's make no difference to the way applications behave.
The Differentiation that Schmidt talked about is things like differing screen sizes which are actually things that phone buyers want, yet make things slightly more difficult for developers. Google have recognised this for years, the benefits of choice to the consumer are greater then the pitfalls to developers.
I think this is also part of a longer plan for Android's issues. I think Google is finally starting to see that the supposed freedom they gave to manufacturers and telcos backfired and resulted in fragmented hardware and non-standard design within apps and phones. I believe they will soon announce some similar guidelines and policy changes to try to get Android more together.
There is no "supposed" freedom. There is freedom and it was given to all, not just manufacturers and telcos.
This freedom has resulted in a thriving phone market and development community and it's not going anywhere. Guidelines are not edicts set in stone, nor will the inclusion of the "Holo" theme change custom launchers.
Especially now that WP7 market share is starting to climb as a result of Nokia's new phones.
OK, what are you smoking and why aren't you sharing.
Despite a marketing blitz that rivals Apple's, WP7 is going nowhere. In fact MS's share keeps dropping as the laggards on WinMo realise that WP7 isn't going to work and switch to Android.