Although Red Hat didn't announce a date for the new version's release, investors reacted happily, bumping the stock up US$8.25 to $103.50 per share.
Okay, my biggest question, as I know nothing financial, is how I am to assume this reaction. Now, my guess being that investors and stockholders are typically ignorant, and are simply reacting to promises of 'making the fad even more', taking a niche market and exploiting it until it catches on, but I could be completely wrong.
However, I think the addition of Intel 64-bit support as well as the inclusion of a journalling file system (Wired didn't tell me which one, does anybody know?), is a Good Thing. With Linux getting more and more support, and easier to operate with X, even those more accustomed to NT are finally falling prey to its lure.
Mr Pathmanaban said many customers had told him they would use Linux if Compaq could support it.
Exactly... Support it, and they will come... Granted, Linux support outdoes Microsoft support royally. However, most people don't know about Newsgroups, and other forums in which to voice opinions... Also, they don't feel that they can trust them. Seriously, if I just bought a computer, why would I think that Joe Random I just met on the newsgroup really wants to help me fix my problem, and not format my hard drive. It's a paranoid world, and that paranoia, coupled with FUD, keeps users away.
Technical staff, rather than management, were particularly keen to deploy the system, he said. Duh... That almost certainly goes without saying. Management really doesn't care what is used. They like Microsoft because that's what everyone else is using. Now that they realize the potential pricing disasters that tag along with Win2K, they're happy to entertain other notions. As long as their techs reassure them that it'll be okay.
Side note for management: If your techs like something, there's a reason. Start listening for chrissake...
Data#3, GE Capital IT Solutions and Avnet/Integrand have signed up to offer the programs. Jumping on the bandwagon? Some might say so... I feel that they have simply been shown that it can work for big business... Companies are starting to realize that they don't necessarily have to rely on other big businesses to turn a profit, or at least, that they won't lose popularity for doing so.
It's my opinion that the MSvsDOJ trial is building a lot of this momentum (not flame, just one man's opinion), and that by publicizing what businesses have known all along, it makes the users less likely to say "Well, why aren't you using something more popular, like NT?"
Anyway, that's just my brief take on the matter... If I'm screwed up, lemme know.
Okay, is it just me, or is there very little cause for worry here? It appears that the problem is already taking care of itself... Here's the scenario as I see it: -Moving to DTV cause it's better -Adopting 8VSB cause it got approved -8VSB proving not up to snuff -Adopting COFDM instead cause it's better
Now, is it just me? Since we're not going to immediately switch over to DTV for awhile anyway, and we've already got almost half (a big number no matter how you look at it) rooting for COFDM, which I view as the better, then it's downhill from there.
Any cable company installing a standard in which the reception isn't healthy isn't going to prosper, plain and simply. There are too many alternatives to your local cable company. Satellite, mini-dish, or, as I do, hook up a big antenna and only receive 5 channels... Works for me. Synopsis: -Any stations adopting the weaker standard is going to end up with unhappy customers. -Unhappy customers means revenue loss
We are FINALLY living in a day and age in which consumers are REALIZING their purchasing power. I mean, c'mon, understandably enough, people are locked into things like Microsoft products because they don't know better... but who doesn't know about satellite. In most communities it's considered an UPgrade. Anyway, I just think the situation is handling itself properly, and that there isn't any cause for concern... Feel free to flame me with more accurate info if I'm wrong.
Seriously tho, the Statement of Intent impressed the heck out of me... Seems like it would have been something simpler, like "WE WANTED TO BLOW SH!T UP! yeah baby..."
What I really love is the "all natural" Electrum Project in which 'The viewer is bathed in the raw force of nature.' Yeah... be bathed in a pile of their own sh!t if they're not careful.
The big question? Can Uncle Billy run 300 feet in the time it takes that thing to arm?
Yeah, it's probably not good karma to look like an idiot in one post, and then answer your own damn question in the next, but I found weblogic, and it was FAR too easy to find at weblogic.com, which redirected me over to beasys.com...
Okay, this is a complete and total sideline, but I checked the web server of DoubleTwist, and it's Running WebLogic 4.5.0 07/29/1999 01:25:14 #49037 on Solaris. What is WebLogic? and why have I never heard of it?
If I'm the one that's an idiot here, that's fine, just let me know. But I've still never heard of WebLogic, and Netcraft didn't have any examples of any other sites running it either.
Solaris, yeah, Solaris is pretty nice. Shows, if nothing else, good intention (unless they just happened to find a sysadmin that ONLY knew Solaris, which is damned near impossible), but WebLogic?
I guess, so this post doesn't look like a complete batch of idiocy (too late) I'll ask a question: 'What is WebLogic, and how suited is it for portal serving? Is this site going to be reliable?'
aims to bring the Internet back to its roots -- back to the days when the Net was primarily used by scientists and researchers sharing ideas and data.
Okay, not a bad idea. My guess, (and NO, I didn't bother to research it at all) is that it's going to be a pay for play kinda site, but who determines power usage?
'I need info on Genetic String Xydl;XY89$ajffdasd...' 'Okay Doctor Dooright, that'll be $520, since this is something a power user would need'
I guess it would be set up as some kind of subscription type basis, but at what point are the "free" members limited from the "power" information? Maybe it's just me, but I don't recall the "roots" of the internet charging for scientists and researchers sharing ideas and data
Anyway, don't get me wrong, I'm fully in support of this idea... Especially being the casual nerd that I am. I don't need DNA comparisons between a duck and cat-tailed marmadillo very often (don't ask me what a cat-tailed marmadillo is either), so it's not gonna hurt me any. But I'm worried that there's going to be a paper due, or a project, in which I REALLY need some information, and they're gonna say "Sorry buddy, you've used up all the information you can handle this month... Fork over $250 and I'll see what I can do." (???)
/offtopic/ How come every time I see a topic that I REALLY can add to on Slashdot, I catch it 4 hours too late?
could that be because you have just one more than 20 karma points??? I think it should go to people with 50 or more... but I'm in a real bad mood... Actually, just ignore this.
Okay, okay, I know there's no valid reason for bringing this up here, but I just have to do it.
Seems like a very 'Microsoft-ish' approach to IPO. C'mon, let's think about this...
Steal another person's product Claim it as your own Make minor modifications Charge more for it Defer support elsewhere when possible File for IPO and make millions Sell stock at peak, then do something stupid Stock will fall, you're still rich
Okay, maybe I'm being critical... I dunno. Regardless, I DO want to commend the authors of the article for SPECTACULAR reporting. Seems like 'the other' big names in reporting are either skewing the facts for ratings, getting the information wrong, not being tech enough to detect falsehoods, or simply NOT CHECKING to see if information is accurate.
Quite frankly, I applaud the article for doing NONE of that, and am now hell-bent and determined to use linuxworld more now as a result...
Don't know what I was thinking, but if you would do me the favor, ignore all references to hardware in my post... If it makes you feel better, you can even replace it with software... whatever makes ya happy. thank you.
the 2.2.12 kernel. (Just to be a nitpick.) Anyway, this looks promising, with the slight exception of those users using older versions of Linux.
The big thing in my case being, I've got a Debian box that I haven't updated in forever, cause I haven't needed to. (Mama taught me that if it's not broken...)
So, how is this going to affect me? Probably not at all, as I won't be purchasing this router at home. At work, we keep a lot more current (for obvious reasons) than I feel I have to for my little proxy setup.
Maybe it's just me, but it seems like it would have been smarter to port the hardware to older kernel versions, as your newer kernels are going to be more backwards compatible than the old ones can be forward.
You can afford to eat? I can't... I used to be able to... before the internet. Now I spend all my grocery money on my ISP... Just kidding.
Spectacular speculation, at least in my opinion. It's not often that people think about what things would be like _without_ something, more often the other way. (ie: what would life be like if ice cream could talk.) It's good to see that it still happens.
In all seriousness tho, I know a lot of people, who are BRILLIANT in the computer field, but without the very first lick of common sense. I've seen people do things that you know they're too smart to do, and not realize how dumb it was.
The real truth, is that forethought is just as, if not more important than thought. Tearing apart a circuit board is a bad idea, UNLESS it works. (or unless you learned something in the process, which is another tangent) Granted, the results are worth it, but how many times have you had a hack go the wrong way, and have nothing to show for it but a pile of chips?
I'm not implying that hackers/techies don't have forethought, but that I've seen a mighty many that don't.
Okay, if they were REALLY trying to catch this bastardly little ghost, then why aren't there ANY fraud protection in place to prevent it... I mean, really, I could stick a picture of Mickey Mouse in there at this point, at a little gaussian blur, crank down the opacity, and voila... instant ghost.
Anyway, it would be so easy to prevent this from happening, it's as if they don't care. First and foremost, time-stamp all the images. Duh.. Secondly, (and they had BETTER be doing this already) recording the feed on location, or AT LEAST archiving each image that gets posted to the web.
With these two SIMPLE procedures in place, in the event of a really convincing shot, it will give them the ability to see if the shot being submitted is at least the same shot as the one that was on the web, without any altering.
PS - Maybe it's just me, but the circles and arrows and whatnot bugged the hell out of me... If there HAD been something there, I wouldn't have seen it because it was already too grainy WITHOUT the distracting yellow indicators. Also, I really don't think I saw anything ghost-worthy. One pic with a blur close to the camera was okay, but coulda been faked far too easily..
I apologize if I didn't make myself clear. I was in a hurry when I wrote that, but now it's time to clarify. When I wrote spam !=bad business, what I meant was that spamming doesn't necessarily indicate that your are involved in OTHER bad business practices. Yes, spam IS a bad business practice, but lots of TOP-RATE companies use spam to some small degree. It's hard to keep anonymous these days... Guess I've just been lucky.
At least Toshiba has decided to take responsibility for their actions. I recall a situation in which I was on the development team of another (read= competing) laptop manufacturing company, that knew about what was also a rather inconsequential bug. Due to marketing and meeting deadlines, the bug was released intact with the product, and software programs that would invoke the bug (example : NT Service Pack 4) were simply labelled unsupported software.
Users of 'unsupported software' programs were urged to regress to SP 3 by the help desk, a task which any other Wintel users can say doesn't always work for the best.
It's good to see them NOT taking the same action. "Well, if the disk won't write in MS Office, we'll just bundle Smartsuite instead."
Offtopic, does anyone know of the circumstances that would cause the floppy to miswrite/malfunction? How common was the error produced?
One thing that does sadden me tho, is that ANY major company with a reputation to maintain, entrenched in competition by its peers, would allow anything known wrong out the door. NOTE FOR MANUFACTURERS - if there is a bug in your hardware, it WILL be found. There are too many myriad configurations of software/hardware for ANY single bug to go completely unnoticed. If you know about it, fix it before it hits shelves. Push deadlines back, the people will appreciate it...
In all seriousness, their deaths PROBABLY had NOTHING to do with spam, but business practices in general. As much as I would love for this to be a lesson to spammers in general, spam != bad business for most companies.
No, I'm not saying that spam isn't bad business. What I am saying, is that not all spammers are out to defraud, and make money off of us.
The most interesting thing for me, is to wait and see if this DOES discourage people from spamming. I mean, seriously, we can't say that these deaths AREN'T directly related to spam. This could scare potential spammers/scammers, especially ones specifically out to defraud or propate inethical business practices from making the first attempt.
Either way, reap what you sow = good way to think. Karma gonna git you sucka.
Seems to me, that where there REALLY shouldn't have been any involvement from ANY outside parties, Microsoft decided to stick its nose in at least once, and quite possibly twice, depending on how trustworthy one considers them to be.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not alleging that Microsoft somehow cheated, or allowed Kasparov to cheat. What I am saying however, that in a scenario in which NO participation was needed, ANY involvement from a third party is going to be misinterpreted. For better or worse, it's going to hinder or help at least one side. In a battle of wills between two people (counting "the world" as one entity), any involvement from any third party is damaging to at least one other party.
My question, is why did Microsoft bother to stick their nose in? I mean, I can almost understand Microsoft not allowing them to stuff the vote, but still, it was 66% FOR stuffing. Now, in my opinion, not allowing resignation is interference.
Also, I haven't followed the article (don't play chess, don't like chess. sorry), but does anyone know how many members/teamleaders there were? I'd be interested in the ratio.
Another poster suggested that it wasn't Kasparov against the most intelligent competition, but rather, K against the AVERAGE intelligence of the competition, which I don't agree with, but would skew heavily depending on how many members/team leaders, the ratio between them, and how much conferencing was done OFFline to discuss strategy. Otherwise, Kasparov is able to see everyone else's decision making process, which, tends to skew data as well...
In a recent conversation with Sm@rt Reseller, Andreessen declined to comment on any unannounced projects or investments.
Gee, wonder what he's got up his sleeve. Anyway, I'm pretty much behind anything that Marc tries to pull off. He's just escaped a very large evil, and one can't help but wonder why he stayed so long... to maintain control maybe? How long before he realized that it was a failed effort? Anyway, I know this comment sucks, but it's still the
First REAL Post! Hellz yeah!.! Skr1pt K1ddi35 R00L!!!
To anyone who wasn't paying attention, the above comment SARCASM.
This is the letter I sent to Amazon.com in response to this... I would really appreciate it if we could give some sort of forum to the responses that Amazon gives out. I'm rather curious to see how these are answered, if they come up with some sort of scripted response, or if they actually take the time to write out a response, or if they don't respond at all. Let's try and not "drop this" like most other topics get done. Once it's off the front page != old news. Also, I'm not opposed to anyone sending me an email at Issue9mm@hotmail.com to keep me updated with their replies, or status of an inquiry. Thanks, -i9mm-
To Whom This May Concern,
I am writing in regards to Patent # 5,960,411. First and foremost, let me say that I feel this is a FAR over-reached patent, and should, quite honestly, never have been approved by the U.S. Patent Office. However, since I must contend with the fact that it WAS granted, for whatever idiotic reason, that your (mis)use of it is most blatantly WRONG.
I contend that you are using this patent for no other reason than to keep Barnes & Noble from competing, an act, which Microsoft may well teach you, will eventually make you a monopoly (read - monopoly bad). I can tell you, that while I have chosen to shop at your site for quite some time now, and placed great deals of money into your hands, it is NOT because of your "1-Click" shopping. Yes, it's convenient, but not innovative. Quite frankly, I would much rather enter my information EACH AND EVERY time, than to have you sell customers' private information to outside parties (which I tolerated).
In addition to the quality of product, service, and ability to find those hard to find items, I shopped with Amazon because it made a stake on the web when prior one had not been made. I chose to shop with Amazon because of its pioneering attitude, and willingness to explore. I chose Amazon, because it made me feel like part of something better than brick-and-mortar, better than pushy salespeople, better than congested stores. Part of a team almost.
Now, looking at your bully-ish tactics, doing whatever it takes to secure your foot hold in the online economy, I shudder to think what I've become part of.
Your competitors are competing, this is what makes them good. I am not saying that you are not, because you are. You ARE a quality service provider if ever there was one. I simply cannot allow myself to become part of this lunacy.
To sum up... I will not spend another DIME at Amazon.com until matters are resolved. If legal action ensues, and B&N actually has the guts to stick up for themselves against a far over-reaching and too-broad patent, I will most likely take my business to them. If, at some point, Amazon decides to do the right thing, chances are, they'll win my business back.
This is the letter I sent to Amazon.com in response to this... I would really appreciate it if we could give some sort of forum to the responses that Amazon gives out. I'm rather curious to see how these are answered, if they come up with some sort of scripted response, or if they actually take the time to write out a response, or if they don't respond at all. Let's try and not "drop this" like most other topics get done. Once it's off the front page != old news. Also, I'm not opposed to anyone sending me an email at Issue9mm@hotmail.com to keep me updated with their replies, or status of an inquiry. Thanks, -i9mm-
To Whom This May Concern,
I am writing in regards to Patent # 5,960,411. First and foremost, let me say that I feel this is a FAR over-reached patent, and should, quite honestly, never have been approved by the U.S. Patent Office. However, since I must contend with the fact that it WAS granted, for whatever idiotic reason, that your (mis)use of it is most blatantly WRONG.
I contend that you are using this patent for no other reason than to keep Barnes & Noble from competing, an act, which Microsoft may well teach you, will eventually make you a monopoly (read - monopoly bad). I can tell you, that while I have chosen to shop at your site for quite some time now, and placed great deals of money into your hands, it is NOT because of your "1-Click" shopping. Yes, it's convenient, but not innovative. Quite frankly, I would much rather enter my information EACH AND EVERY time, than to have you sell customers' private information to outside parties (which I tolerated).
In addition to the quality of product, service, and ability to find those hard to find items, I shopped with Amazon because it made a stake on the web when prior one had not been made. I chose to shop with Amazon because of its pioneering attitude, and willingness to explore. I chose Amazon, because it made me feel like part of something better than brick-and-mortar, better than pushy salespeople, better than congested stores. Part of a team almost.
Now, looking at your bully-ish tactics, doing whatever it takes to secure your foot hold in the online economy, I shudder to think what I've become part of.
Your competitors are competing, this is what makes them good. I am not saying that you are not, because you are. You ARE a quality service provider if ever there was one. I simply cannot allow myself to become part of this lunacy.
To sum up... I will not spend another DIME at Amazon.com until matters are resolved. If legal action ensues, and B&N actually has the guts to stick up for themselves against a far over-reaching and too-broad patent, I will most likely take my business to them. If, at some point, Amazon decides to do the right thing, chances are, they'll win my business back.
being moderated down to end up there with them. As pathetic enough as it is to AC post a "First Post!!! Yeah!", my question is, how much more pathetic is it to make that post and be third?
Anyway, back on topic. (Kind of) I dunno if I'm for color. Battery life is so critical with me as it is, and (believe it or not) I really like the color of my Palm III. Makes me feel digital, in a way. Color would actually DEtract from its beauty in this sense. ('least I think so)
Also, and this probably has nothing to do with anything... but why did the GameBoy win over all of its COLOR competitors??? Seriously, the Lynx rocked. (When I was 10 anyway. Kicked arse) How exactly did the GameBoy win? By NOT being color, and focussing on EVERY THING ELSE... Gameplay, usability, and, of course, getting games ported to it.
I only hope the PALM engineers can carry this concept with them. I'd hate to lose out on ANYTHING, in order to gain the color I don't really need.
Probably somewhere in Hawaii. You know how hard it is to stretch a phone line over there? Much less cable. Seriously tho, I used to live in Kailua, Hi, and it seems like that would be one of the last places to get hooked up. Granted, it was four years ago, so things may have changed. But that's my guess.
Slashdot Mirror
Although Red Hat didn't announce a date for the new version's release, investors reacted happily, bumping the stock up US$8.25 to $103.50 per share.
Okay, my biggest question, as I know nothing financial, is how I am to assume this reaction. Now, my guess being that investors and stockholders are typically ignorant, and are simply reacting to promises of 'making the fad even more', taking a niche market and exploiting it until it catches on, but I could be completely wrong.
However, I think the addition of Intel 64-bit support as well as the inclusion of a journalling file system (Wired didn't tell me which one, does anybody know?), is a Good Thing. With Linux getting more and more support, and easier to operate with X, even those more accustomed to NT are finally falling prey to its lure.
Mr Pathmanaban said many customers had told him they would use Linux if Compaq could support it.
Exactly... Support it, and they will come... Granted, Linux support outdoes Microsoft support royally. However, most people don't know about Newsgroups, and other forums in which to voice opinions... Also, they don't feel that they can trust them. Seriously, if I just bought a computer, why would I think that Joe Random I just met on the newsgroup really wants to help me fix my problem, and not format my hard drive. It's a paranoid world, and that paranoia, coupled with FUD, keeps users away.
Technical staff, rather than management, were particularly keen to deploy the system, he said. Duh... That almost certainly goes without saying. Management really doesn't care what is used. They like Microsoft because that's what everyone else is using. Now that they realize the potential pricing disasters that tag along with Win2K, they're happy to entertain other notions. As long as their techs reassure them that it'll be okay.
Side note for management: If your techs like something, there's a reason. Start listening for chrissake...
Data#3, GE Capital IT Solutions and Avnet/Integrand have signed up to offer the programs. Jumping on the bandwagon? Some might say so... I feel that they have simply been shown that it can work for big business... Companies are starting to realize that they don't necessarily have to rely on other big businesses to turn a profit, or at least, that they won't lose popularity for doing so.
It's my opinion that the MSvsDOJ trial is building a lot of this momentum (not flame, just one man's opinion), and that by publicizing what businesses have known all along, it makes the users less likely to say "Well, why aren't you using something more popular, like NT?"
Anyway, that's just my brief take on the matter... If I'm screwed up, lemme know.
According to doubletwist they charge a fee for "power users"... I can't remember if it's mentioned in the article or not tho...
Looks like a steaming hot cup of coffee to me, just from a more hard to recognize angle. Does resemble a flower pot tho...
Okay, is it just me, or is there very little cause for worry here? It appears that the problem is already taking care of itself...
Here's the scenario as I see it:
-Moving to DTV cause it's better
-Adopting 8VSB cause it got approved
-8VSB proving not up to snuff
-Adopting COFDM instead cause it's better
Now, is it just me? Since we're not going to immediately switch over to DTV for awhile anyway, and we've already got almost half (a big number no matter how you look at it) rooting for COFDM, which I view as the better, then it's downhill from there.
Any cable company installing a standard in which the reception isn't healthy isn't going to prosper, plain and simply. There are too many alternatives to your local cable company. Satellite, mini-dish, or, as I do, hook up a big antenna and only receive 5 channels... Works for me.
Synopsis:
-Any stations adopting the weaker standard is going to end up with unhappy customers.
-Unhappy customers means revenue loss
We are FINALLY living in a day and age in which consumers are REALIZING their purchasing power. I mean, c'mon, understandably enough, people are locked into things like Microsoft products because they don't know better... but who doesn't know about satellite. In most communities it's considered an UPgrade.
Anyway, I just think the situation is handling itself properly, and that there isn't any cause for concern... Feel free to flame me with more accurate info if I'm wrong.
Redmond, here we come... (just kidding, kinda...)
Seriously tho, the Statement of Intent impressed the heck out of me... Seems like it would have been something simpler, like "WE WANTED TO BLOW SH!T UP! yeah baby..."
What I really love is the "all natural" Electrum Project in which 'The viewer is bathed in the raw force of nature.' Yeah... be bathed in a pile of their own sh!t if they're not careful.
The big question? Can Uncle Billy run 300 feet in the time it takes that thing to arm?
Yeah, it's probably not good karma to look like an idiot in one post, and then answer your own damn question in the next, but I found weblogic, and it was FAR too easy to find at weblogic.com, which redirected me over to beasys.com...
Anyway, if anyone else wants More info on weblogic, there it is.
Okay, this is a complete and total sideline, but I checked the web server of DoubleTwist, and it's Running WebLogic 4.5.0 07/29/1999 01:25:14 #49037 on Solaris. What is WebLogic? and why have I never heard of it?
If I'm the one that's an idiot here, that's fine, just let me know. But I've still never heard of WebLogic, and Netcraft didn't have any examples of any other sites running it either.
Solaris, yeah, Solaris is pretty nice. Shows, if nothing else, good intention (unless they just happened to find a sysadmin that ONLY knew Solaris, which is damned near impossible), but WebLogic?
I guess, so this post doesn't look like a complete batch of idiocy (too late) I'll ask a question: 'What is WebLogic, and how suited is it for portal serving? Is this site going to be reliable?'
Isn't that what Nymphoseek is for? (j/k)
/offtopic/ How come every time I see a topic that I REALLY can add to on Slashdot, I catch it 4 hours too late?
aims to bring the Internet back to its roots -- back to the days when the Net was primarily used by scientists and researchers sharing ideas and data.
Okay, not a bad idea. My guess, (and NO, I didn't bother to research it at all) is that it's going to be a pay for play kinda site, but who determines power usage?
'I need info on Genetic String Xydl;XY89$ajffdasd...'
'Okay Doctor Dooright, that'll be $520, since this is something a power user would need'
I guess it would be set up as some kind of subscription type basis, but at what point are the "free" members limited from the "power" information? Maybe it's just me, but I don't recall the "roots" of the internet charging for scientists and researchers sharing ideas and data
Anyway, don't get me wrong, I'm fully in support of this idea... Especially being the casual nerd that I am. I don't need DNA comparisons between a duck and cat-tailed marmadillo very often (don't ask me what a cat-tailed marmadillo is either), so it's not gonna hurt me any. But I'm worried that there's going to be a paper due, or a project, in which I REALLY need some information, and they're gonna say "Sorry buddy, you've used up all the information you can handle this month... Fork over $250 and I'll see what I can do." (???)
You apparently didn't realize that the post in which you just responded to is a joke. Sheesh. (Henceforth, Score 2 : Funny, get it?)
could that be because you have just one more than 20 karma points??? I think it should go to people with 50 or more... but I'm in a real bad mood... Actually, just ignore this.
Okay, okay, I know there's no valid reason for bringing this up here, but I just have to do it.
/.
Seems like a very 'Microsoft-ish' approach to IPO. C'mon, let's think about this...
Steal another person's product
Claim it as your own
Make minor modifications
Charge more for it
Defer support elsewhere when possible
File for IPO and make millions
Sell stock at peak, then do something stupid
Stock will fall, you're still rich
Okay, maybe I'm being critical... I dunno. Regardless, I DO want to commend the authors of the article for SPECTACULAR reporting. Seems like 'the other' big names in reporting are either skewing the facts for ratings, getting the information wrong, not being tech enough to detect falsehoods, or simply NOT CHECKING to see if information is accurate.
Quite frankly, I applaud the article for doing NONE of that, and am now hell-bent and determined to use linuxworld more now as a result...
Long as it doesn't interfere with
Don't know what I was thinking, but if you would do me the favor, ignore all references to hardware in my post... If it makes you feel better, you can even replace it with software... whatever makes ya happy. thank you.
the 2.2.12 kernel. (Just to be a nitpick.) Anyway, this looks promising, with the slight exception of those users using older versions of Linux.
The big thing in my case being, I've got a Debian box that I haven't updated in forever, cause I haven't needed to. (Mama taught me that if it's not broken...)
So, how is this going to affect me? Probably not at all, as I won't be purchasing this router at home. At work, we keep a lot more current (for obvious reasons) than I feel I have to for my little proxy setup.
Maybe it's just me, but it seems like it would have been smarter to port the hardware to older kernel versions, as your newer kernels are going to be more backwards compatible than the old ones can be forward.
Oh well, notch one for good intention I guess...
You can afford to eat? I can't... I used to be able to... before the internet. Now I spend all my grocery money on my ISP... Just kidding.
Spectacular speculation, at least in my opinion. It's not often that people think about what things would be like _without_ something, more often the other way. (ie: what would life be like if ice cream could talk.) It's good to see that it still happens.
In all seriousness tho, I know a lot of people, who are BRILLIANT in the computer field, but without the very first lick of common sense. I've seen people do things that you know they're too smart to do, and not realize how dumb it was.
The real truth, is that forethought is just as, if not more important than thought. Tearing apart a circuit board is a bad idea, UNLESS it works. (or unless you learned something in the process, which is another tangent) Granted, the results are worth it, but how many times have you had a hack go the wrong way, and have nothing to show for it but a pile of chips?
I'm not implying that hackers/techies don't have forethought, but that I've seen a mighty many that don't.
Okay, if they were REALLY trying to catch this bastardly little ghost, then why aren't there ANY fraud protection in place to prevent it... I mean, really, I could stick a picture of Mickey Mouse in there at this point, at a little gaussian blur, crank down the opacity, and voila... instant ghost.
Anyway, it would be so easy to prevent this from happening, it's as if they don't care. First and foremost, time-stamp all the images. Duh.. Secondly, (and they had BETTER be doing this already) recording the feed on location, or AT LEAST archiving each image that gets posted to the web.
With these two SIMPLE procedures in place, in the event of a really convincing shot, it will give them the ability to see if the shot being submitted is at least the same shot as the one that was on the web, without any altering.
PS - Maybe it's just me, but the circles and arrows and whatnot bugged the hell out of me... If there HAD been something there, I wouldn't have seen it because it was already too grainy WITHOUT the distracting yellow indicators. Also, I really don't think I saw anything ghost-worthy. One pic with a blur close to the camera was okay, but coulda been faked far too easily..
I apologize if I didn't make myself clear. I was in a hurry when I wrote that, but now it's time to clarify. When I wrote spam !=bad business, what I meant was that spamming doesn't necessarily indicate that your are involved in OTHER bad business practices. Yes, spam IS a bad business practice, but lots of TOP-RATE companies use spam to some small degree. It's hard to keep anonymous these days... Guess I've just been lucky.
At least Toshiba has decided to take responsibility for their actions. I recall a situation in which I was on the development team of another (read= competing) laptop manufacturing company, that knew about what was also a rather inconsequential bug. Due to marketing and meeting deadlines, the bug was released intact with the product, and software programs that would invoke the bug (example : NT Service Pack 4) were simply labelled unsupported software.
Users of 'unsupported software' programs were urged to regress to SP 3 by the help desk, a task which any other Wintel users can say doesn't always work for the best.
It's good to see them NOT taking the same action. "Well, if the disk won't write in MS Office, we'll just bundle Smartsuite instead."
Offtopic, does anyone know of the circumstances that would cause the floppy to miswrite/malfunction? How common was the error produced?
One thing that does sadden me tho, is that ANY major company with a reputation to maintain, entrenched in competition by its peers, would allow anything known wrong out the door. NOTE FOR MANUFACTURERS - if there is a bug in your hardware, it WILL be found. There are too many myriad configurations of software/hardware for ANY single bug to go completely unnoticed. If you know about it, fix it before it hits shelves. Push deadlines back, the people will appreciate it...
In all seriousness, their deaths PROBABLY had NOTHING to do with spam, but business practices in general. As much as I would love for this to be a lesson to spammers in general, spam != bad business for most companies.
No, I'm not saying that spam isn't bad business. What I am saying, is that not all spammers are out to defraud, and make money off of us.
The most interesting thing for me, is to wait and see if this DOES discourage people from spamming. I mean, seriously, we can't say that these deaths AREN'T directly related to spam. This could scare potential spammers/scammers, especially ones specifically out to defraud or propate inethical business practices from making the first attempt.
Either way, reap what you sow = good way to think. Karma gonna git you sucka.
Seems to me, that where there REALLY shouldn't have been any involvement from ANY outside parties, Microsoft decided to stick its nose in at least once, and quite possibly twice, depending on how trustworthy one considers them to be.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not alleging that Microsoft somehow cheated, or allowed Kasparov to cheat. What I am saying however, that in a scenario in which NO participation was needed, ANY involvement from a third party is going to be misinterpreted. For better or worse, it's going to hinder or help at least one side. In a battle of wills between two people (counting "the world" as one entity), any involvement from any third party is damaging to at least one other party.
My question, is why did Microsoft bother to stick their nose in? I mean, I can almost understand Microsoft not allowing them to stuff the vote, but still, it was 66% FOR stuffing. Now, in my opinion, not allowing resignation is interference.
Also, I haven't followed the article (don't play chess, don't like chess. sorry), but does anyone know how many members/teamleaders there were? I'd be interested in the ratio.
Another poster suggested that it wasn't Kasparov against the most intelligent competition, but rather, K against the AVERAGE intelligence of the competition, which I don't agree with, but would skew heavily depending on how many members/team leaders, the ratio between them, and how much conferencing was done OFFline to discuss strategy. Otherwise, Kasparov is able to see everyone else's decision making process, which, tends to skew data as well...
From the article...
In a recent conversation with Sm@rt Reseller, Andreessen declined to comment on any unannounced projects or investments.
Gee, wonder what he's got up his sleeve. Anyway, I'm pretty much behind anything that Marc tries to pull off. He's just escaped a very large evil, and one can't help but wonder why he stayed so long... to maintain control maybe? How long before he realized that it was a failed effort? Anyway, I know this comment sucks, but it's still the
First REAL Post! Hellz yeah!.! Skr1pt K1ddi35 R00L!!!
To anyone who wasn't paying attention, the above comment SARCASM.
This is the letter I sent to Amazon.com in response to this... I would really appreciate it if we could give some sort of forum to the responses that Amazon gives out. I'm rather curious to see how these are answered, if they come up with some sort of scripted response, or if they actually take the time to write out a response, or if they don't respond at all. Let's try and not "drop this" like most other topics get done. Once it's off the front page != old news. Also, I'm not opposed to anyone sending me an email at Issue9mm@hotmail.com to keep me updated with their replies, or status of an inquiry. Thanks,
-i9mm-
To Whom This May Concern,
I am writing in regards to Patent # 5,960,411. First and foremost, let me say that I feel this is a FAR over-reached patent, and should, quite honestly, never have been approved by the U.S. Patent Office. However, since I must contend with the fact that it WAS granted, for whatever idiotic reason, that your (mis)use of it is most blatantly WRONG.
I contend that you are using this patent for no other reason than to keep Barnes & Noble from competing, an act, which Microsoft may well teach you, will eventually make you a monopoly (read - monopoly bad). I can tell you, that while I have chosen to shop at your site for quite some time now, and placed great deals of money into your hands, it is NOT because of your "1-Click" shopping. Yes, it's convenient, but not innovative. Quite frankly, I would much rather enter my information EACH AND EVERY time, than to have you sell customers' private information to outside parties (which I tolerated).
In addition to the quality of product, service, and ability to find those hard to find items, I shopped with Amazon because it made a stake on the web when prior one had not been made. I chose to shop with Amazon because of its pioneering attitude, and willingness to explore. I chose Amazon, because it made me feel like part of something better than brick-and-mortar, better than pushy salespeople, better than congested stores. Part of a team almost.
Now, looking at your bully-ish tactics, doing whatever it takes to secure your foot hold in the online economy, I shudder to think what I've become part of.
Your competitors are competing, this is what makes them good. I am not saying that you are not, because you are. You ARE a quality service provider if ever there was one. I simply cannot allow myself to become part of this lunacy.
To sum up... I will not spend another DIME at Amazon.com until matters are resolved. If legal action ensues, and B&N actually has the guts to stick up for themselves against a far over-reaching and too-broad patent, I will most likely take my business to them. If, at some point, Amazon decides to do the right thing, chances are, they'll win my business back.
Good luck, it's all on you.
Until this is over with,
Barry Melton
This is the letter I sent to Amazon.com in response to this... I would really appreciate it if we could give some sort of forum to the responses that Amazon gives out. I'm rather curious to see how these are answered, if they come up with some sort of scripted response, or if they actually take the time to write out a response, or if they don't respond at all. Let's try and not "drop this" like most other topics get done. Once it's off the front page != old news. Also, I'm not opposed to anyone sending me an email at Issue9mm@hotmail.com to keep me updated with their replies, or status of an inquiry. Thanks,
-i9mm-
To Whom This May Concern,
I am writing in regards to Patent # 5,960,411. First and foremost, let me say that I feel this is a FAR over-reached patent, and should, quite honestly, never have been approved by the U.S. Patent Office. However, since I must contend with the fact that it WAS granted, for whatever idiotic reason, that your (mis)use of it is most blatantly WRONG.
I contend that you are using this patent for no other reason than to keep Barnes & Noble from competing, an act, which Microsoft may well teach you, will eventually make you a monopoly (read - monopoly bad). I can tell you, that while I have chosen to shop at your site for quite some time now, and placed great deals of money into your hands, it is NOT because of your "1-Click" shopping. Yes, it's convenient, but not innovative. Quite frankly, I would much rather enter my information EACH AND EVERY time, than to have you sell customers' private information to outside parties (which I tolerated).
In addition to the quality of product, service, and ability to find those hard to find items, I shopped with Amazon because it made a stake on the web when prior one had not been made. I chose to shop with Amazon because of its pioneering attitude, and willingness to explore. I chose Amazon, because it made me feel like part of something better than brick-and-mortar, better than pushy salespeople, better than congested stores. Part of a team almost.
Now, looking at your bully-ish tactics, doing whatever it takes to secure your foot hold in the online economy, I shudder to think what I've become part of.
Your competitors are competing, this is what makes them good. I am not saying that you are not, because you are. You ARE a quality service provider if ever there was one. I simply cannot allow myself to become part of this lunacy.
To sum up... I will not spend another DIME at Amazon.com until matters are resolved. If legal action ensues, and B&N actually has the guts to stick up for themselves against a far over-reaching and too-broad patent, I will most likely take my business to them. If, at some point, Amazon decides to do the right thing, chances are, they'll win my business back.
Good luck, it's all on you.
Until this is over with, Barry Melton
being moderated down to end up there with them. As pathetic enough as it is to AC post a "First Post!!! Yeah!", my question is, how much more pathetic is it to make that post and be third?
Anyway, back on topic. (Kind of) I dunno if I'm for color. Battery life is so critical with me as it is, and (believe it or not) I really like the color of my Palm III. Makes me feel digital, in a way. Color would actually DEtract from its beauty in this sense. ('least I think so)
Also, and this probably has nothing to do with anything... but why did the GameBoy win over all of its COLOR competitors??? Seriously, the Lynx rocked. (When I was 10 anyway. Kicked arse) How exactly did the GameBoy win? By NOT being color, and focussing on EVERY THING ELSE... Gameplay, usability, and, of course, getting games ported to it.
I only hope the PALM engineers can carry this concept with them. I'd hate to lose out on ANYTHING, in order to gain the color I don't really need.
Probably somewhere in Hawaii. You know how hard it is to stretch a phone line over there? Much less cable. Seriously tho, I used to live in Kailua, Hi, and it seems like that would be one of the last places to get hooked up. Granted, it was four years ago, so things may have changed. But that's my guess.