As far as I understand it, Britain is officially metric, other than using miles and yards on road signs.
Given that the metrification process started in the mid sixties, wouldn't it make a lot of sense to complete it? It's been nearly fifty years after all.
Chad's selling a book on how to make your fortune as an appreneur, which is a portmanteau word that's like entrepreneur, only better.
As far as I can tell, it involves coming up with an idea for an app, getting a third world coder to build it on the cheap, and then living a life of leisure whilst the money rolls in. I'm not convinced it's that easy, nor do I believe that he's as successful as he claims. Both he (and Ferris, whose blog it's posted to) strike me as snake oil salesmen.
They do a cheaper subscription for existing users at £328.08 for the year.
I think that buying the upgrade would make sense, as it isn't limited to the subscription period. If you shifted to the cloud version then you'd have to continue to shell out to retain access to the software, and the price would rise to the £562.56 level the following year.
Adobe roll out annual upgrades for their CS suite, and the current is around £360.
Assuming that the price stays at around £50 / month, and this isn't cranked upwards in six months or a year's time, then it would take around eight or nine years (assuming you bought the annual upgrades) for the boxed software to work out cheaper.
If you're buying into the product for the first time then the cloud version makes sense, particularly as I suspect that Adobe are going to insist you buy it this way within a few years in any case.
One big advantage of the Creative Cloud version is that you'll be able to install both Mac and PC versions off one license. (You're limited to two machines.) That makes switching between platforms much easier.
I've found that managers are easily impressed by shiny baubles, like a slick transition in a GUI, but don't understand why you might spend days working out how to handle the badly formatted and undocumented JSON spewed out by a third party web service.
The root cause is that programmers operate in a very abstract field, whereas managers deal with the concrete. That's a big culture clash, and since they're in charge, we're going to come off worst.
Dominic's article is about managing the managers, and knowing how the game is played. Sure, not everyone is motivated by earning more, but being able to hang onto what you've got in an era of shrinking incomes and rising costs is a good thing. And being seen as someone who gets things done means you're likely to be given the more interesting projects. That strikes me as win-win...
I don't get the hostility. We live in an imperfect world, deal with it.
Re: " it was that it didn't return any money to the creators"
The record company is probably acting more like a VC than a bank, in that they've got a very good chance of not recouping their investment.
I've heard that of every ten records released, six or seven will lose money, two or three will just about break even, and one will make sufficient profits to cover the losses on the other nine. That's not great odds, and whoever's fronting the money wants to make a return.
If you don't like it then there's always the DIY approach. My brother released a couple records independently in the nineties, and, as others have pointed out, the Internet makes things easier.
Phones 4U are currently flogging it SIM free for £399, which is cheaper than what they're charging for obvious competitors like the Samsung Galaxy S2, Galaxy Nexus, and Motorola Razr.
Sure, there are quad cores coming, but we're a month or so away from the HTC One X arriving, and probably longer for the Galaxy S3. If that's important, then I suspect you'll wait. If not, the Xperia is a nicer piece of industrial design than most of its competitors.
Some of the limitations will be imposed by government regulation of telecoms. Unfortunately networks have to work, and so there's a certain amount of testing and documentation required by law that the proverbial two guys in a garage won't be bound by, or even know about.
I spent a couple of years working for the customisations department of a network hardware vendor, and sometimes the telcos would be forced into adding a feature because a large customer would need a feature, and if Vodafone wouldn't do it then Orange might. Unfortunately individuals don't have that level of clout.
I've got a top-end Samsung TV and I'm shocked at how bad the UI design is. I'm very surprised that no-one has figured out that doing it smarter could be a winning strategy.
I had a brief back-to-back listen to both the Sonos Play:3 and Play:5 in a Tottenham Court electronics emporium a few weeks back.
I wasn't too impressed with the Play:3, but the Play:5 sounded significantly better. If you've got the space and budget (and it's not that much more expensive) then I'd recommended going for the bigger brother.
From what little I've heard about Prometheus, it's moved from being a straight Alien prequel to something that sounds influenced by The Forever War and possibly some of Olaf Stapledon's books. It could actually prove to be something more intelligent than just people getting eaten by Aliens.
I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being much more influenced by the book, as Lottie suggests.
No-one has picked up on this sentence in the original article:
"The ability to sell Microsoft and Nokia applications and content through the operator portal – driven from a central Nokia/Microsoft-run database – is exactly what they want."
Historically the operators demanded their pound of flesh, and then some, as a cut from developers selling applications through their portals. Apple's App Store changed all this, and I suspect that's rather upset people running the networks, particularly as they're missing out on revenue that they see as being rightfully theirs.
But that begs a question: Are developers going to write for a platform that gives them 70% of the gross, or one that gives them much less? (I've heard rumours of 10% rates for developers in the past.)
If app sales are an important part of the "ecosystem", then Microsoft and Nokia are going to have difficulty attracting developers if it becomes even harder for them to make a living. That could slow adoption.
The first Android phones shipped in late 2008, so that's five years of development.
So if Nokia had run under this schedule they'd still have another twelve months to go, and Android took another 12 to 18 months to really get up to speed from there.
I'm not convinced that the US would want to extradite Assange to prosecute him for spying. If they do that then he immediately becomes a martyr to the Wikileaks cause.
But a conviction of rape or sexual assault would destroy his reputation. Even if the bare allegations aren't criminal, pressuring a woman into having sex without contraception strikes me as being both massively selfish and irresponsible. And he doesn't seem to have treated either Miss A or Miss W particularly well.
I support what Wikileaks is doing, but I've got real issues with Assange's behaviour. His claims that intelligence services are setting him up strike me as being similar to a preacher blaming the devil for making him do it.
If there is a conspiracy against him, then I suspect that the agencies are merely feeding and spinning information. And this will be a far, far more effective way of destroying him than locking him up in the US for the next 20 years.
How many developers actually make decent profits on the iPhone?
I've been told (by someone with excellent industry contacts) that it's not really worthwhile writing apps. There are too many competing programs, making it hard to get yours noticed.
With the collapse of the banking sector, impending environmental breakdown, and no doubt some whack-brained scheme from a DARPA boffin who thinks that Skynet is a good idea, I'd say that the future's looking a bit Mad Max.
Let's face it, in a post-apocalyptic landscape stalked my mutants and trigger-happy cyborgs, you want to be (or have around) a big, burly bloke with biceps like the Brecons.
By declaring war on tall men who are blessed with a high BMI, the government is threatening human survival. Obviously they're being typically shortsighted.
There are already a huge number of electric bikes (essentially an EV scooter) in urban China. So I wouldn't be surprised if they've got more experience in this field than the US corporations.
The smog in Beijing is terrible. It's like fog. Anything that can clear it up is a good thing.
I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but I'm pretty certain this would be covered by the laws on fraud. After all, these competitions are asking viewers to part with their money in return for fictitious prizes.
So why not bring criminal cases against the production companies who run them? I'm fairly certain that if a few managing directors ended up in prison, the problem would be resolved very quickly.
That's just typical. I'm in the process of organising a trip to Hangzhou, only to find out that the city's going to get flattened by a monster the size of a skyscraper.
Thanks boffins!
On the other hand if I take a video camera along, I can make a Cloverfield style film about my experienes. I'll just have to avoid getting eaten. :)
Paid adverts from the Church of Scientology are appearing in the Google Ads boxes too:
Scientology:Get The Facts
Learn About Scientology On YouTube. Growing at an incredible rate.
YouTube.com/ChurchOfScientology
Now if all readers click on these, it'll cost the Scientologists wonga, which will be transferred into El Reg's beer fund. I can't see the downside to that. :)
Paris Hilton, because even she would appreciate the logic.
The worst online security that I've seen is with Smile.
They use the account number, sorting code and 4-digit number (not your pin code) as the first level of login security.
The system then asks for "secure personal information", such as a memorable date, first school attended, last school attended, etc. This is COMPLETELY STUPID and breaks the first rule of network security.
I've told them this, and they made noises that there was no plan on changing it.
A pair (male and female) would be £1,150, which would seem to be better value for money. Plus they'd also eat some of the pigeons, which would help keep the buggers at bay.
Register
27 posts • joined Monday 23rd April 2007 11:01 GMT
We are officially metric
As far as I understand it, Britain is officially metric, other than using miles and yards on road signs.
Given that the metrification process started in the mid sixties, wouldn't it make a lot of sense to complete it? It's been nearly fifty years after all.
Re: Right now boomers and the public sector are torching the youth
You got that last bit wrong: There won't be any grandchildren because your generation can't afford them due to your mother's. :)
Re: Need more emoticons,
Chad's selling a book on how to make your fortune as an appreneur, which is a portmanteau word that's like entrepreneur, only better.
As far as I can tell, it involves coming up with an idea for an app, getting a third world coder to build it on the cheap, and then living a life of leisure whilst the money rolls in. I'm not convinced it's that easy, nor do I believe that he's as successful as he claims. Both he (and Ferris, whose blog it's posted to) strike me as snake oil salesmen.
Re: Not so good for upgraders?
They do a cheaper subscription for existing users at £328.08 for the year.
I think that buying the upgrade would make sense, as it isn't limited to the subscription period. If you shifted to the cloud version then you'd have to continue to shell out to retain access to the software, and the price would rise to the £562.56 level the following year.
Adobe roll out annual upgrades for their CS suite, and the current is around £360.
Assuming that the price stays at around £50 / month, and this isn't cranked upwards in six months or a year's time, then it would take around eight or nine years (assuming you bought the annual upgrades) for the boxed software to work out cheaper.
If you're buying into the product for the first time then the cloud version makes sense, particularly as I suspect that Adobe are going to insist you buy it this way within a few years in any case.
One big advantage of the Creative Cloud version is that you'll be able to install both Mac and PC versions off one license. (You're limited to two machines.) That makes switching between platforms much easier.
I've found that managers are easily impressed by shiny baubles, like a slick transition in a GUI, but don't understand why you might spend days working out how to handle the badly formatted and undocumented JSON spewed out by a third party web service.
The root cause is that programmers operate in a very abstract field, whereas managers deal with the concrete. That's a big culture clash, and since they're in charge, we're going to come off worst.
Dominic's article is about managing the managers, and knowing how the game is played. Sure, not everyone is motivated by earning more, but being able to hang onto what you've got in an era of shrinking incomes and rising costs is a good thing. And being seen as someone who gets things done means you're likely to be given the more interesting projects. That strikes me as win-win...
I don't get the hostility. We live in an imperfect world, deal with it.
Re: " it was that it didn't return any money to the creators"
The record company is probably acting more like a VC than a bank, in that they've got a very good chance of not recouping their investment.
I've heard that of every ten records released, six or seven will lose money, two or three will just about break even, and one will make sufficient profits to cover the losses on the other nine. That's not great odds, and whoever's fronting the money wants to make a return.
If you don't like it then there's always the DIY approach. My brother released a couple records independently in the nineties, and, as others have pointed out, the Internet makes things easier.
Re: 470 quid is a
Phones 4U are currently flogging it SIM free for £399, which is cheaper than what they're charging for obvious competitors like the Samsung Galaxy S2, Galaxy Nexus, and Motorola Razr.
Sure, there are quad cores coming, but we're a month or so away from the HTC One X arriving, and probably longer for the Galaxy S3. If that's important, then I suspect you'll wait. If not, the Xperia is a nicer piece of industrial design than most of its competitors.
Regulations and Customisations
Some of the limitations will be imposed by government regulation of telecoms. Unfortunately networks have to work, and so there's a certain amount of testing and documentation required by law that the proverbial two guys in a garage won't be bound by, or even know about.
I spent a couple of years working for the customisations department of a network hardware vendor, and sometimes the telcos would be forced into adding a feature because a large customer would need a feature, and if Vodafone wouldn't do it then Orange might. Unfortunately individuals don't have that level of clout.
TV UI Design
I agree.
I've got a top-end Samsung TV and I'm shocked at how bad the UI design is. I'm very surprised that no-one has figured out that doing it smarter could be a winning strategy.
Play:3 versus Play:5
I had a brief back-to-back listen to both the Sonos Play:3 and Play:5 in a Tottenham Court electronics emporium a few weeks back.
I wasn't too impressed with the Play:3, but the Play:5 sounded significantly better. If you've got the space and budget (and it's not that much more expensive) then I'd recommended going for the bigger brother.
Could be interesting
From what little I've heard about Prometheus, it's moved from being a straight Alien prequel to something that sounds influenced by The Forever War and possibly some of Olaf Stapledon's books. It could actually prove to be something more intelligent than just people getting eaten by Aliens.
I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being much more influenced by the book, as Lottie suggests.
The Operators' Cut
No-one has picked up on this sentence in the original article:
"The ability to sell Microsoft and Nokia applications and content through the operator portal – driven from a central Nokia/Microsoft-run database – is exactly what they want."
Historically the operators demanded their pound of flesh, and then some, as a cut from developers selling applications through their portals. Apple's App Store changed all this, and I suspect that's rather upset people running the networks, particularly as they're missing out on revenue that they see as being rightfully theirs.
But that begs a question: Are developers going to write for a platform that gives them 70% of the gross, or one that gives them much less? (I've heard rumours of 10% rates for developers in the past.)
If app sales are an important part of the "ecosystem", then Microsoft and Nokia are going to have difficulty attracting developers if it becomes even harder for them to make a living. That could slow adoption.
It's worse than that
The first Android phones shipped in late 2008, so that's five years of development.
So if Nokia had run under this schedule they'd still have another twelve months to go, and Android took another 12 to 18 months to really get up to speed from there.
Showers
Given that the leaked documents contain derogatory comments about Julian's personal hygiene, a shower, cold or otherwise, might not be a bad idea. :)
Revenues not Profit
That $2 billion figure is for total revenues, not profit.
That said, the company apparently made $800 million in 2009, so earnings have more than doubled.
If Facebook is making serious money then why are they looking to raise half a billion through a shares sale?
Why would the US extradite Assange?
I'm not convinced that the US would want to extradite Assange to prosecute him for spying. If they do that then he immediately becomes a martyr to the Wikileaks cause.
But a conviction of rape or sexual assault would destroy his reputation. Even if the bare allegations aren't criminal, pressuring a woman into having sex without contraception strikes me as being both massively selfish and irresponsible. And he doesn't seem to have treated either Miss A or Miss W particularly well.
I support what Wikileaks is doing, but I've got real issues with Assange's behaviour. His claims that intelligence services are setting him up strike me as being similar to a preacher blaming the devil for making him do it.
If there is a conspiracy against him, then I suspect that the agencies are merely feeding and spinning information. And this will be a far, far more effective way of destroying him than locking him up in the US for the next 20 years.
It's CGI
Given that the credits include this line:
Illustrator/CGI: Carsten Mainz
I'd say that it's all rendered. :)
Fun and Profits
How many developers actually make decent profits on the iPhone?
I've been told (by someone with excellent industry contacts) that it's not really worthwhile writing apps. There are too many competing programs, making it hard to get yours noticed.
Come the Apocalypse...
With the collapse of the banking sector, impending environmental breakdown, and no doubt some whack-brained scheme from a DARPA boffin who thinks that Skynet is a good idea, I'd say that the future's looking a bit Mad Max.
Let's face it, in a post-apocalyptic landscape stalked my mutants and trigger-happy cyborgs, you want to be (or have around) a big, burly bloke with biceps like the Brecons.
By declaring war on tall men who are blessed with a high BMI, the government is threatening human survival. Obviously they're being typically shortsighted.
Electric Bikes
There are already a huge number of electric bikes (essentially an EV scooter) in urban China. So I wouldn't be surprised if they've got more experience in this field than the US corporations.
The smog in Beijing is terrible. It's like fog. Anything that can clear it up is a good thing.
It's Fraud
I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but I'm pretty certain this would be covered by the laws on fraud. After all, these competitions are asking viewers to part with their money in return for fictitious prizes.
So why not bring criminal cases against the production companies who run them? I'm fairly certain that if a few managing directors ended up in prison, the problem would be resolved very quickly.
RE: beat the rush
Since I'm already outside of Blighty, I've really beaten the rush. :)
Dagahra and Hangzhou
That's just typical. I'm in the process of organising a trip to Hangzhou, only to find out that the city's going to get flattened by a monster the size of a skyscraper.
Thanks boffins!
On the other hand if I take a video camera along, I can make a Cloverfield style film about my experienes. I'll just have to avoid getting eaten. :)
At least they're paying for El Reg
Paid adverts from the Church of Scientology are appearing in the Google Ads boxes too:
Scientology:Get The Facts
Learn About Scientology On YouTube. Growing at an incredible rate.
YouTube.com/ChurchOfScientology
Now if all readers click on these, it'll cost the Scientologists wonga, which will be transferred into El Reg's beer fund. I can't see the downside to that. :)
Paris Hilton, because even she would appreciate the logic.
Clueless banks?
The worst online security that I've seen is with Smile.
They use the account number, sorting code and 4-digit number (not your pin code) as the first level of login security.
The system then asks for "secure personal information", such as a memorable date, first school attended, last school attended, etc. This is COMPLETELY STUPID and breaks the first rule of network security.
I've told them this, and they made noises that there was no plan on changing it.
Real birds would be cheaper
The council could have saved a few quid by buying real, live peregrins. A quick Google reveals a website with a handy price list:
http://www.forestfalconry.com/Birds%20for%20sale.htm
A pair (male and female) would be £1,150, which would seem to be better value for money. Plus they'd also eat some of the pigeons, which would help keep the buggers at bay.