* Posts by Paul C

11 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Apr 2011

Paul Allen buys lovingly restored vintage V-2 Nazi ballistic missile

Paul C
Coat

That seems fine.

Now, if Larry Ellison had bought it to install on his volcanic island, I'd be worried.

Netbooks projected to become EXTINCT by 2015

Paul C

Netbooks

Between myself and colleagues at other universities in IT, and students we work with, I saw dozens of different models the first few years. The Linux experience on early Netbooks (wifi drivers, etc) wasn't always a smooth one. One or two people around you with problems would suddenly make WIndows XP Home sound great on a cheap notebook.

I'd actually argue that Netbooks would have failed earlier if Windows hadn't shown up on them. Your average consumer wanted a cheap computer at that time, and Netbooks did serve the function of bringing laptop prices down for a lot of people. Personally, I'd rather have a Thinkpad X230 with a 9-cell battery on a long trip, and I know a lot of people like the 11" Macbook Air, because a computer should be capable. People will put up with tablets not doing some things a computer does because to them it's not a computer. If it looks like a notebook they want it to be powerful enough to do what they need, and they want it to run their favorite software.

Harry Potter director takes on Doctor Who movie

Paul C
Coat

Low expectations

So I'd hate to see any actor take the blame. I just hope this doesn't end up as a cross between the 1996 TV movie and Peter Cushing's "Dr. Who and the Daleks".

It also makes me wonder about the future of the TV show. The timing on this would certainly put it past the 50th anniversary, and Matt Smith's run on the show. End the series and relaunch it as a movie franchise? The BBC Worldwide will still make a fortune on licensing and merchandise.

In terms of a "fun" choice, what about Hugh Laurie? I doubt he'd do it, but it might work.

Googler squeals: 'We don't get platforms'

Paul C

SGI memo from the 90's

This was posted to RISKS Digest back in 1994, a 1993 memo attributed to Tom Davis.

http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/15.80.html#subj4.1

It's basically an overview of what's wrong with IRIX 5.1 performance, and what needs to be done to fix it. It includes gems such as "The complexity of our system software has surpassed the ability of average SGI programmers to understand it. And perhaps not just average programmers."

Cloud startup's business model defies laws of physics

Paul C
Thumb Down

The dedup and encryption

Can't work across users unless it's a common keypair - if it can, they can retrieve the data, can't they?

I'm glad to see they moved onto another slam-dunk product after the raging success that was the CrunchTablet.

Two Larrys to go head-to-head in Google-Oracle case

Paul C
Coat

I'm eagerly awaiting

A Taiwanese animation of this meeting.

Skype: Microsoft's $8.5 billion identity tool

Paul C

The same logic may make Hulu valuable to Google as well

If you're paying for Hulu Plus, you're providing them with actual identity (billing) data. And the paying customers are worth a lot more than the "freeloaders", especially to advertisers.That might be enough to get Google to buy.

By the way, Amazon also has that information.

Sweden rolls out invisible infrared tank

Paul C
Coat

The really neat part

They're flat packed for deployment, and the tank crews assemble them in an hour with a hex key and a small hammer.

Post-Jobs run on overpriced Apple shares fails to occur

Paul C

It's none of the above

It's not dropping much because he's retaining the title of Chairman, and the company has been running fine with his already-reduced role. As long as he's in the picture at all, investors will have confidence. They're going to believe that he's setting the direction for the company and keeping upper management in line.

Once he steps down as Chairman - or passes away - attitudes may change more dramatically.

Apple after Steve Jobs is still Steve Jobs' Apple

Paul C
Holmes

It's not about products in the pipeline, or even the culture

And it's not going to change now, because he's still chairman, and still alive.

Once Jobs has left as Chairman, they've got a bigger problem. Who points the company in a particular direction? When different executives, product managers, etc. don't agree, who can really wrangle them? Jobs. It's not clear that anyone else can make decisions that step on toes and not drive out talented people at the same time. We've seen that happen at any number of companies, including Microsoft. It's easier to put up with s**t when you think you're working for a Messiah. And, having some idea of group dynamics, you're going to start to see a cultural divide (caused mostly by existing employees) between those who were hired during the Jobs era and those hired post-Jobs. And human nature being what it is, they may be insufferable jerks about it.

Then there's the question of negotiating with other companies - studios, music labels, publishers, wireless carriers, etc. They're not going to be "afraid" of Apple without Jobs. They're going to push back, and push back harder then the newspaper and magazine publishers did over the subscription fees.

And then there's the media. Prepare for an onslaught of "Has Apple lost its way" articles. Missteps smaller than some that Jobs made will be blown out of proportion and be seen as signs that the company is adrift. A fawning press has been part of the Apple PR machine, and they may turn on the company quickly once Jobs is completely out of the pictures.

So, in the short run, no change since he's still a presence. After that? They've got a problem.

HP ProLiant power supplies 'may die when dormant'

Paul C

DL380 G5 power supplies had a problem

We went through a number of them in the first year. Repeated failures (the replacement part gave out after an initial failure). Some time in (might've been about a year) we started getting replacement power supplies that were obviously a different revision than the previous part, and we had almost no problems after that. Our newest DL380 G5's have never had a ps failure. We had 10 or so of them, mostly used as VMware hosts.

We haven't had any issues with the G6/G7 models.

I'd start comparing power supplies that failed vs. ones that haven't. There may be obvious differences you can spot in the power supplies (labeling or visible components).,