I did a database-oriented web app last year. I found Catalyst http://catalyst.perl.org/ really really useful. The MVC pattern it imposes on you really helped. Ditto for the web framework, plugins, DB access and scaffolding.
From what I can tell, RoR is conceptually pretty close to Catalyst, but me being a perl-head, I chose Catalyst. Anyone tried them both? Any comments?
VCs (and many entrepreneurs) use the law of large numbers. They'll sift through a hundred biz ideas just to get one that they'll invest money. They'll keep investing in a bunch of businesses with the hopes that one will hit really big. That's why when you get a VC contract, basically, they'll demand some percentage of return (like 40%+/yr compounded). Which means, even if the business is sold for a couple of million, the original entrepreneur (the one with the idea) will get nothing just so that the VC firm can get some sort of return that approaches their required return.
First off, the VCs will try and get as good a deal as they can. You should too. It's a negotiation. You don't have to take the first offer. Know the trade or you'll get screwed.
The "law of big numbers" plays a role in dividing the risk but is not the reason behind the high required return on investment (you quote 40% - I've heard rates of 400% per annum for some branches ie. biotechnology).
These percentages stem from the risk associated with the business. The higher the risk (as with the biotech) the higher the return on investment the VC wants. See the Wikipedia article for a more in-depth discussion. Some often quoted examples (these are approximate and will vary):
State treasury bonds, "zero risk", 4%
Stable business, 8%
Stock market average, 12%
Business extension (ie. new product based on older products), 20%
If you don't know the difference between a $20 linksys router and a $1,000 cisco monstrosity, buy the linksys. If you want a file server for 6 people, buy the $300 dell dimension desktop and not the $2500 powervault file server. Setup a simple backup script, ignore raid and complex programs like veritas until you are ready to deal with them.
I think the KISS principle is always appropriate but be sure not to be penny wise pound foolish.
Whether you should choose the $300 desktop or $2500 file server depends entirely on your business practices and requirements.
You should carefully map out the requirements for your essential business operations (don't forget support operations!). If your requirements map shows a potential single point of failure, pay attention to it.
6 hours of stalled business operations is all it takes for a 6 person company to run up the $2200 difference.
Why is it that outsourcing has become a synonym for offshoring which is completely different (and may not even involve outsourcing)?
Outsourcing in general simply means that you decide that your effort is best spent doing the things you are best at and letting someone else worry about the other stuff (usually defined in quite a bit detail).
Overall, outsourcing and focusing, as much buzzwords as they've become, are the way most industries are headed. Quite frankly I believe IT is too. In fact I'd go as far as to claim that the level of outsourcing is a good measure of the maturity of the industry.
From your post I'd gather that you are eager to learn new things. That's great and one should know the general concepts of a service if ever planning to outsource it. Whether or not you want to get into the messy details is entirely another thing.
My advise to you, the original poster, is that don't overlook outsourcing solutions. Bear in mind that once you implement the network, you will most probably find yourself maintaining the thing.
Does anyone have a formula for the chemical reaction that takes place when water is added to the sodium / silica powder? How much energy can be extracted from one kilogram of the powder, how much water would it take?
Would it be feasible to put the powder in a container and replace the container at a "gas station" when all the sodium is oxidized? Would it be feasible to have the sodium de-oxidized at a special processing plant?
In other words, could this be a feasible solution to the storing of hydrogen in a vehicle problem?
There's a separate root directory for each vserver, which means one can install whatever Linux distribution one wants in there, as long as the distribution doesn't depend on a special kernel (it shouldn't: near-metal operations will be done in the host kernel). Your argument is at fault here.
There's only one kernel instance running though, which is your point I believe. Xen seems to support non-linux OSes such as FreeBSD.
Erm, none of the matter found on Earth was created in our Sun. All of it comes from a star (or stars) that once blossomed and then exploded. And because we can find uranium and other heavy substances here on Earth, the star has been one of those larger ones that went up in a supernova once upon a time.
On a side note, I don't know how you can describe the act of crunching coffee solids and frying them and then pouring hot water on them as being "completely random". Moreover, the coffee solids themselves are organic. (Or did I miss your point?)
You see, the reason why organic molecules are carbon compounds is because of the peculiar structure of carbon's electron orbitals. It'd be a long explanation, and I can give it only in Finnish so I won't go into details here. I suggest you go looking at britannica.com or something if you are interested.
You know, this R != 0 is not my invention, I heard it somewhere. It was offered with an explanation that the reason that the resistance drops dramatically is that under some circumstances, electrons form up pairs, which don't collide as much with the material as single electrons would. This sounds quite reasonable to me, but then again, it boils down to quantum mechanics I'd suppose where common sense just aint enough.
A quick search on google gave me
this page, which uses the term "electron-pair" waves. This particular term sounds like quantum mechanic atomic model. Would this mean that electrons in a superconductor should be considered de Broglie matter waves rather than actual particles?
This is very interesting. I tried to look up further with google but no luck so far. Pointers would be appreciated.
And the notion about R = U/I.. as someone mentioned, it applies only to ohmic resistors which superconductors definately are not. Shoot me in the head if I make that mistake again. I blame the lack of caffeine on that one:-)
True, but the generators generate AC which would have to be converted to DC which would constitute a loss. Just think why your PC's power supply has all those fans and cooling vents.
And the reason why generators generate AC and not DC is the way they work. The energy comes from spinning a loop (area A) in a magnetic field (magnetic induction B); the voltage is related to the angle between the loop and the magnetic flux density. Thus, a sinewave.
Resistance R:
p = 1.678E-8 Ohms/m for copper
l = 10000m for instance
A = 1.0 cm2 = 1E-4 m2
R = p l/A = 1.7 Ohms
Inductive reactance XL:
f = 50 Hz
û = 50kV
î = 100A
h = 10 m (height above ground)
r = 0.0056 m (wire radius)
u0 = 1.25664E-6 N/A^2
ur = 0.99990 (copper)
L = l * (u0*ur)/(2 pi) * cosh^-1 h/r = 0.016 H
XL = 2*pi*f*L = 5.0 Ohms
Comparing R = 1.7 Ohms and XL = 5.0 Ohms proves your point.
For the longest time I dreamt of moving to the States. I no longer do. I'm quite content living here in Finland.
I don't claim Finland is the perfect society. High taxes, expensive gasoline and the weather could be better (society's fault?-P). Everybody complains that all politicians are assholes, but that goes pretty much for every country I've heard of (well, save for dictatorship, at least if one value ones life). Hell, it seems to me that complaining about the political system an essential part of being a citizen!
The same goes for the legal system. Someone thinks he wasn't treated properly (crazy/egoistic ppl are everywhere) and starts a rumour. Add the snowball effect. Here we go again..
But
I still think Finland is the place to be. We are a not-too-big high-tech society, which happens to be surrounded by beautiful nature and yes, we have best lager in the World;) (I'm a Olvi fan actulally but it's worth mentioning)
Just imagine: sitting on your private sail boat in the beautiful archipelago of Turku, a pint of beer in one hand and a laptop with GRPS connection posting "First Post!!111!!1!!" on Slashdot...
Or if you aren't into that kind of stuff, well, go to Lapland during the winter: the sun won't rise for several days or weeks (depending on your location).. 24/7 partying / coding;)
What is the reason behind the poor (apalling, actually) performance of 3Dfx Voodoo3 cards on XFree86 4.x? I thought 3Dfx have had their DRI drivers around for a good while now. More hacking, is that the answer, or are there some architechtural structures that cause the slowdown?
I just read the 7 so-far posted features. It's a touching story. Even though I don't personally know the author it hurts. I really hope that they eventually catch the cracker and help him out of his condition. Poor guy.
As I have told you many times (and as you can see from my mail address tld) I live in Finland. I truly really honestly did not know the situation was that bad.
My host has been cracked once (through mIRC scripts which a friend of mine sent me, thought I could trust him). I have been probed for BO and netbus and what not but I have never faced or even heard of this level of cracking activity.
I know that some sites have been cracked (University of Helsinki among them) but for the first time of my life cracker activity comes this close. I wonder if it is just that I don't know or is there really that much difference between Finland and the States?
I know plenty of people who happily run out-of-the-box linuxes, even non-patched Windowses with some shareware/freeware FTP servers and such running on their static IP connections. I wonder how easily is one of those compromized. Seconds?
This guy worries me. I definately do not share his political views (and that's alright) and I really am afraid that this Fling will do some real damage if it turns out to be of any value.
Don't get me wrong. I support anonymity. That is one part of democracy. But I strongly object this kind of stealthiness. If you blackmail your boss there is a (good) possibility to get caught. If you blackmail the President with assistance of this protocol, you're 100% safe.
I am afraid that this is something that anti-anonymity advocates will use against Free Speech. I can find no justified use for this kind of technology. That's perhaps because I live in a democratic society (Finland) in which one does not have to be afraid of getting killed for saying a wrong word. Everything I can think of has something to do with illegal activities. One can be anonymous enough with current technologies.
Please note that I have talked only of anonymity here. The fact that it prevents man-in-the-middle attacks is a good thing. Great. But that doesn't justify the damage it can cause.
Texting is quite popular even here in Finland, but it's true what Timothy says, talking is even more popular. My personal cell phone bill consists of about 40% SMS, 40% talking and 20% monthly fees. I don't talk long (one reason is that my cell phone is rather old and has quite a poor battery) but I try to call rather than to text someone if I have something to say. That way I get an instant reply (not everybody hears the SMS beep) and can chat with him/her in real time. Plus, I find it nicer to talk than to punch buttons.
The reason why my SMS fees still comprise 40% of my phone bill is that while I enjoy talking, I don't like to leave a message on an answering machine. I rather say it briefly in a text message. That way the recipient can read it when he/she wants and as many times he/she wants. Plus, many times when they have their answering machine on, they still can recieve SMS messages (in a meeting for instance) and perhaps even reply to them.
And then there are these services. Sonera Zed for instance. Get stock quotes, weather information, cinema info, find the gas station with the lowest fees in town to name but a few. All these cost about twice or thrice the standard SMS fee (which is ~15-20 cents) and thus can easily comprise a large-ish portion of your bill.
Many of the phones sold today have predictive text input and that speeds up typing considerably. On the other hand, it's a pain when your buddy has it and you don't: Once a friend of mine sent me a message to which I was replying when he sent another. I had to abort to see what he wrote and then started typing a reply for both. Third message arrived from the same person. This would have gone forever but he got tired and stopped:)
Then there's this thing about privacy. You can't call your girlfriend from work but who would stop you from texting her. We Finns are quite shy in general and therefore find it easier to text rather than to talk aloud when there are others around. And it's more polite as the Japanese guy earlier pointed out.
Who was talking about setting up servers? Just to keep up the heat, why not look at this: E-Smith server-out-of-a-box. Apache, SMTP&POP3, DHCP, DNS, FTP, SQUID, web-based configuration & administration, dial-on-demand, masquerading and perhaps something more. It comes on a single cd which installs on your machine in MINUTES (so they tell me). Beat that, freak!
Admit it, linux is far more easily administered remotely than any Windows box. With ssh it's even secure. Not to mention the things you can do with little scripting with perl/php/whatever plus apache for instance. Web controlled ppp dialup, fetchmail retrieval, whatever you wish. Damned, you probably could build a web-based front end to build and install your KERNEL for that matter.
While I agree with you on this, the thing that makes linux either success or failure (in the enterprise sector) is it's performance and reliability. The boss doesn't care if you have fun with your system (perhaps he does, where are you working?-), instead, he wants it to WORK. In a big enterprise with huge loads on the server, speed is one considerable factor.
The freedom is the reason I use and develop linux. When good performance comes with it, I'm overwhelmed with joy.
Good point... Do you think that similar mergers might happen in other countries? Or in a more globalized economy, mightn't AOL expand its reach to other countries? If I'm correct, AOL has a presence in the UK...
Perhaps, but the volume will be far less however. I think it'd be hard for AOL (or any other ISP for that matter) to become dominant in Europe in the ISP sector since most users use local ( == domestic) ISPs. If they could provide a nice and fast cable connections for a really low price, then they could have an edge, though.
I don't think it'll be an issue when speaking of the ordinary web-over-[phone|ISDN|...] markets, but when the influx into broader-bandwidth-connections begins, we may have another situation. In Finland, local telephone companies (and cable TV companies) will have an edge over competitors. That can become a problem.
I'm being as Europe-centered here as Roblimo is being USA-centered. Sorry for that. Hey AOL! There are ~1 billion people in India and another billion in China, why don't you guys go there (and leave us alone)?
...within the next few years we could easily see a world where 95% of all Web users only access 5% of everything that's potentially available online.
Wake up! There *are* people living outside the States, believe it or not. This statement of 95% of all Web users... tsk tsk tsk.
Even within the States I'd doubt it, but if this is intented as a global statement, I'd say it's false. Period.
Most of the non-US citizens I know read most of their news (that's like, 75%) right from their local newspapers' pages (or broadcasting compaines' whatever). FEW read only AOL+Time-Warner-owned sites. One reason is that they're in a foreign language. Another is that the topics they publish really don't draw their attention.
Roblimo, you're not the only one found guilty of being far too USA-centered. Most of them never learn. Be better.
Slashdot Mirror
I did a database-oriented web app last year. I found Catalyst http://catalyst.perl.org/ really really useful. The MVC pattern it imposes on you really helped. Ditto for the web framework, plugins, DB access and scaffolding.
From what I can tell, RoR is conceptually pretty close to Catalyst, but me being a perl-head, I chose Catalyst. Anyone tried them both? Any comments?
The "law of big numbers" plays a role in dividing the risk but is not the reason behind the high required return on investment (you quote 40% - I've heard rates of 400% per annum for some branches ie. biotechnology).
These percentages stem from the risk associated with the business. The higher the risk (as with the biotech) the higher the return on investment the VC wants. See the Wikipedia article for a more in-depth discussion. Some often quoted examples (these are approximate and will vary):
There's a whole lot more to managing than giving oneliner answers to e-mails.
Whether you should choose the $300 desktop or $2500 file server depends entirely on your business practices and requirements.
You should carefully map out the requirements for your essential business operations (don't forget support operations!). If your requirements map shows a potential single point of failure, pay attention to it.
6 hours of stalled business operations is all it takes for a 6 person company to run up the $2200 difference.
Pay attention.
Why is it that outsourcing has become a synonym for offshoring which is completely different (and may not even involve outsourcing)?
Outsourcing in general simply means that you decide that your effort is best spent doing the things you are best at and letting someone else worry about the other stuff (usually defined in quite a bit detail).
Overall, outsourcing and focusing, as much buzzwords as they've become, are the way most industries are headed. Quite frankly I believe IT is too. In fact I'd go as far as to claim that the level of outsourcing is a good measure of the maturity of the industry.
From your post I'd gather that you are eager to learn new things. That's great and one should know the general concepts of a service if ever planning to outsource it. Whether or not you want to get into the messy details is entirely another thing.
My advise to you, the original poster, is that don't overlook outsourcing solutions. Bear in mind that once you implement the network, you will most probably find yourself maintaining the thing.
Does anyone have a formula for the chemical reaction that takes place when water is added to the sodium / silica powder? How much energy can be extracted from one kilogram of the powder, how much water would it take?
Would it be feasible to put the powder in a container and replace the container at a "gas station" when all the sodium is oxidized? Would it be feasible to have the sodium de-oxidized at a special processing plant?
In other words, could this be a feasible solution to the storing of hydrogen in a vehicle problem?
There's a separate root directory for each vserver, which means one can install whatever Linux distribution one wants in there, as long as the distribution doesn't depend on a special kernel (it shouldn't: near-metal operations will be done in the host kernel). Your argument is at fault here.
There's only one kernel instance running though, which is your point I believe. Xen seems to support non-linux OSes such as FreeBSD.
How is this different from projects such as Linux-VServer? http://linux-vserver.org/
Honestly, why do you think Venture Capitalists invest money in startups in the first place?
To make some money off of it.
VC gives you money, you give him shares. The VC is bound to want his money back, with some interest on it (typically 40% p.a. and up).
The VC will want to sell his shares at one point.
Having an exit strategy laid down right from the beginning is, at least to me, a sign of honesty and transparency. At least on some level.
Erm, none of the matter found on Earth was created in our Sun. All of it comes from a star (or stars) that once blossomed and then exploded. And because we can find uranium and other heavy substances here on Earth, the star has been one of those larger ones that went up in a supernova once upon a time.
On a side note, I don't know how you can describe the act of crunching coffee solids and frying them and then pouring hot water on them as being "completely random". Moreover, the coffee solids themselves are organic. (Or did I miss your point?)
Not really...
You see, the reason why organic molecules are carbon compounds is because of the peculiar structure of carbon's electron orbitals. It'd be a long explanation, and I can give it only in Finnish so I won't go into details here. I suggest you go looking at britannica.com or something if you are interested.
Hm? This is most interesting then.
You know, this R != 0 is not my invention, I heard it somewhere. It was offered with an explanation that the reason that the resistance drops dramatically is that under some circumstances, electrons form up pairs, which don't collide as much with the material as single electrons would. This sounds quite reasonable to me, but then again, it boils down to quantum mechanics I'd suppose where common sense just aint enough.
A quick search on google gave me this page, which uses the term "electron-pair" waves. This particular term sounds like quantum mechanic atomic model. Would this mean that electrons in a superconductor should be considered de Broglie matter waves rather than actual particles?
This is very interesting. I tried to look up further with google but no luck so far. Pointers would be appreciated.
And the notion about R = U/I.. as someone mentioned, it applies only to ohmic resistors which superconductors definately are not. Shoot me in the head if I make that mistake again. I blame the lack of caffeine on that one :-)
True, but the generators generate AC which would have to be converted to DC which would constitute a loss. Just think why your PC's power supply has all those fans and cooling vents.
And the reason why generators generate AC and not DC is the way they work. The energy comes from spinning a loop (area A) in a magnetic field (magnetic induction B); the voltage is related to the angle between the loop and the magnetic flux density. Thus, a sinewave.
Resistance R: p = 1.678E-8 Ohms/m for copper
l = 10000m for instance
A = 1.0 cm2 = 1E-4 m2
R = p l/A = 1.7 Ohms
Inductive reactance XL:
f = 50 Hz
û = 50kV
î = 100A
h = 10 m (height above ground)
r = 0.0056 m (wire radius)
u0 = 1.25664E-6 N/A^2
ur = 0.99990 (copper)
L = l * (u0*ur)/(2 pi) * cosh^-1 h/r = 0.016 H
XL = 2*pi*f*L = 5.0 Ohms
Comparing R = 1.7 Ohms and XL = 5.0 Ohms proves your point.
For the longest time I dreamt of moving to the States. I no longer do. I'm quite content living here in Finland.
I don't claim Finland is the perfect society. High taxes, expensive gasoline and the weather could be better (society's fault?-P). Everybody complains that all politicians are assholes, but that goes pretty much for every country I've heard of (well, save for dictatorship, at least if one value ones life). Hell, it seems to me that complaining about the political system an essential part of being a citizen!
The same goes for the legal system. Someone thinks he wasn't treated properly (crazy/egoistic ppl are everywhere) and starts a rumour. Add the snowball effect. Here we go again..
But
I still think Finland is the place to be. We are a not-too-big high-tech society, which happens to be surrounded by beautiful nature and yes, we have best lager in the World ;) (I'm a Olvi fan actulally but it's worth mentioning)
Just imagine: sitting on your private sail boat in the beautiful archipelago of Turku, a pint of beer in one hand and a laptop with GRPS connection posting "First Post!!111!!1!!" on Slashdot...
Or if you aren't into that kind of stuff, well, go to Lapland during the winter: the sun won't rise for several days or weeks (depending on your location).. 24/7 partying / coding ;)
But the question remains: Does he want to?
What is the reason behind the poor (apalling, actually) performance of 3Dfx Voodoo3 cards on XFree86 4.x? I thought 3Dfx have had their DRI drivers around for a good while now. More hacking, is that the answer, or are there some architechtural structures that cause the slowdown?
I just read the 7 so-far posted features. It's a touching story. Even though I don't personally know the author it hurts. I really hope that they eventually catch the cracker and help him out of his condition. Poor guy.
As I have told you many times (and as you can see from my mail address tld) I live in Finland. I truly really honestly did not know the situation was that bad.
My host has been cracked once (through mIRC scripts which a friend of mine sent me, thought I could trust him). I have been probed for BO and netbus and what not but I have never faced or even heard of this level of cracking activity.
I know that some sites have been cracked (University of Helsinki among them) but for the first time of my life cracker activity comes this close. I wonder if it is just that I don't know or is there really that much difference between Finland and the States?
I know plenty of people who happily run out-of-the-box linuxes, even non-patched Windowses with some shareware/freeware FTP servers and such running on their static IP connections. I wonder how easily is one of those compromized. Seconds?
This guy worries me. I definately do not share his political views (and that's alright) and I really am afraid that this Fling will do some real damage if it turns out to be of any value.
Don't get me wrong. I support anonymity. That is one part of democracy. But I strongly object this kind of stealthiness. If you blackmail your boss there is a (good) possibility to get caught. If you blackmail the President with assistance of this protocol, you're 100% safe.
I am afraid that this is something that anti-anonymity advocates will use against Free Speech. I can find no justified use for this kind of technology. That's perhaps because I live in a democratic society (Finland) in which one does not have to be afraid of getting killed for saying a wrong word. Everything I can think of has something to do with illegal activities. One can be anonymous enough with current technologies.
Please note that I have talked only of anonymity here. The fact that it prevents man-in-the-middle attacks is a good thing. Great. But that doesn't justify the damage it can cause.
And like Italy there are almost as many mobile phones as telephone lines.
I assume you mean telephones. Anyhow, we got past that point several months ago. Face it: there are more cell phones than there are regular ones.
There are three GSM operators in here, Sonera (originally Telecom Finland, partially owned by state), Radiolinja (owned partially by local telephone companies) and the Swedish Telia (also partly government-owned). Fourth is coming, Saunalahti will begin it's cell phone service in a month or so. Hope they'll push the already reasonable (albeit still expensive for a student :) prices down a little bit more. Especially WAP connection prices are way too high IMHO.
Texting is quite popular even here in Finland, but it's true what Timothy says, talking is even more popular. My personal cell phone bill consists of about 40% SMS, 40% talking and 20% monthly fees. I don't talk long (one reason is that my cell phone is rather old and has quite a poor battery) but I try to call rather than to text someone if I have something to say. That way I get an instant reply (not everybody hears the SMS beep) and can chat with him/her in real time. Plus, I find it nicer to talk than to punch buttons.
The reason why my SMS fees still comprise 40% of my phone bill is that while I enjoy talking, I don't like to leave a message on an answering machine. I rather say it briefly in a text message. That way the recipient can read it when he/she wants and as many times he/she wants. Plus, many times when they have their answering machine on, they still can recieve SMS messages (in a meeting for instance) and perhaps even reply to them.
And then there are these services. Sonera Zed for instance. Get stock quotes, weather information, cinema info, find the gas station with the lowest fees in town to name but a few. All these cost about twice or thrice the standard SMS fee (which is ~15-20 cents) and thus can easily comprise a large-ish portion of your bill.
Many of the phones sold today have predictive text input and that speeds up typing considerably. On the other hand, it's a pain when your buddy has it and you don't: Once a friend of mine sent me a message to which I was replying when he sent another. I had to abort to see what he wrote and then started typing a reply for both. Third message arrived from the same person. This would have gone forever but he got tired and stopped :)
Then there's this thing about privacy. You can't call your girlfriend from work but who would stop you from texting her. We Finns are quite shy in general and therefore find it easier to text rather than to talk aloud when there are others around. And it's more polite as the Japanese guy earlier pointed out.
Who was talking about setting up servers? Just to keep up the heat, why not look at this: E-Smith server-out-of-a-box. Apache, SMTP&POP3, DHCP, DNS, FTP, SQUID, web-based configuration & administration, dial-on-demand, masquerading and perhaps something more. It comes on a single cd which installs on your machine in MINUTES (so they tell me). Beat that, freak!
Admit it, linux is far more easily administered remotely than any Windows box. With ssh it's even secure. Not to mention the things you can do with little scripting with perl/php/whatever plus apache for instance. Web controlled ppp dialup, fetchmail retrieval, whatever you wish. Damned, you probably could build a web-based front end to build and install your KERNEL for that matter.
Now THAT'S freedom.
While I agree with you on this, the thing that makes linux either success or failure (in the enterprise sector) is it's performance and reliability. The boss doesn't care if you have fun with your system (perhaps he does, where are you working?-), instead, he wants it to WORK. In a big enterprise with huge loads on the server, speed is one considerable factor.
The freedom is the reason I use and develop linux. When good performance comes with it, I'm overwhelmed with joy.
Perhaps, but the volume will be far less however. I think it'd be hard for AOL (or any other ISP for that matter) to become dominant in Europe in the ISP sector since most users use local ( == domestic) ISPs. If they could provide a nice and fast cable connections for a really low price, then they could have an edge, though.
I don't think it'll be an issue when speaking of the ordinary web-over-[phone|ISDN|...] markets, but when the influx into broader-bandwidth-connections begins, we may have another situation. In Finland, local telephone companies (and cable TV companies) will have an edge over competitors. That can become a problem.
I'm being as Europe-centered here as Roblimo is being USA-centered. Sorry for that. Hey AOL! There are ~1 billion people in India and another billion in China, why don't you guys go there (and leave us alone)?
Wake up! There *are* people living outside the States, believe it or not. This statement of 95% of all Web users... tsk tsk tsk.
Even within the States I'd doubt it, but if this is intented as a global statement, I'd say it's false. Period.
Most of the non-US citizens I know read most of their news (that's like, 75%) right from their local newspapers' pages (or broadcasting compaines' whatever). FEW read only AOL+Time-Warner-owned sites. One reason is that they're in a foreign language. Another is that the topics they publish really don't draw their attention.
Roblimo, you're not the only one found guilty of being far too USA-centered. Most of them never learn. Be better.