
Wordless
<weeps>
61 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Jun 2007
It can tell me how far it is London to Sydney, but when you try "Cheapest fare London to Sydney" the result is "Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input".
I can see that mathematicians and some engineers may have a use for this, but the great steaming unwashed (such as myself) - No.
Per James Hughes's comment, I can't see that the audience is big enough to make money.
Lumens per watt is highest from those sodium lamps. LED's are not as efficient.
For everyone though the key question is, who gets paid more ? A graduate accountant, or a graduate engineer ? Even that Kay bloke from Oxford got his degree in Chemistry, but is infact, working one of the Big 4 Accounting firms in Reading. There's a reason for that.
But information requires undertsanding, and a knowldedge of business drivers and indicators. Anyone can do a simple project report, but realistic and useful reports, i.e. information, require people with knowledge and undertsanding to process the data.
It's hard because you need people who have those things, are articulate, and handy with query/report tools. They should have a deep knowledge of the business, some finance and IT literacy. Even then, they may get let down if management doesn't know what it wants.
One statistician fighting another never impresses me. This is a troll article intended to set the pack baying.
Unfortunately, I can't resist....
If we are going to get into this then one point strikes me. Surely a long term trend (100 years) would be more useful to analyse than the last 10 years.
The trends in the first two graphs above agree on the long term trend.
<insert your favourite GW vs Conspiracy theory rant here>
The 15" laptop will probably come with Windows and therefore will require an investment in AV and similar software. Plus hassle of maintenance. The Eee runs Xandros IIRC and comes pre loaded with FF, Open Office etc. It's a quick boot and go device with lower maintenance costs. Over the life of the product I would expect that it's much cheaper.
Sure, you could load Ubuntu on your 15" laptop, but how many people actually do ? Very few in the general population. I certainly wouldn't feel that confident in doing so. But the Eee is preloaded, pre-formatted and <grits teeth> it should 'just work'. This could be where Linux really first penetrates the desktop.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/07/greens_nuke_nuke_debate/comments/
Yes that is the most leading question I have seen in a long time...But in the absence of any alternative means of generating power in the quantities that we demand, it's either nuclear or sitting in the dark. Yes we can delay the inevitable with efficencies and some renewables but given the long lead times of construction we have to get serious now.
<Basil>It's very simple. We need to start building for the future now. Our choices are,
(a) Further fossil fuel plants. Cheap and efficient but produce Gigatonnes of pollutants. Politically unacceptable.
(b) Renewables. Expensive, unreliable and low energy density. Politically acceptable however.
(c) Fission reactors. Expensive, reliable and efficient. Politically less acceptable.
(d) Other. Includes Fusion reactors, microwave solar sateillites et al.. Not a solution in the near future.
So what we to do ? Obviously, buy time with efficency, encourage micro-power generation by property holders and build fission plants. Renewables have a place, but it's never going to be huge with such low output. Plough savings into R&D on renewables and fusion. My money is fusion becoming cost effective long before a wind farm does.
Completely agree - In fact I think a pint may be in order.
I was merely pointing out that even when you have all of those foundations laid, the business will still need the connection to real revenue displayed. This would then form the basis of the the ROI or NPV, and would then be reviewed post implementation.
As far as I can see these lurches from one management banana peel to the next are caused by the CIO trying desperately to meet subjective measures put in place without reference to business outcomes. That is to say - Cash.
at Ben Goldacre's Bad Science.net
http://www.badscience.net/?p=470
Including the following very heartening statement from Graham Phillips of the Powerwatch website. Who until recently was completely in denial over these studies, and made money by selling <cough>protective devices<cough> to those people who seem to suffer from Electro-sensitivity.
"Of course, the help might be entirely placebo, and in a lot of cases I suspect it is - but for some it might be very real, and I for one would have no idea which is the case.
I will certainly look at making sure we have psychological recommendations for treatment on the Powerwatch website, but beyond that I really cannot say for the time being."
Most kids really do have a better grasp of the functionalities of the family PC than their parents. (This readership is an eception, but is not representative of the general public).
I have been to many parents houses where their kids have full untrammelled access to a connected PC, often in their bedroom, simply because their parents don't have a clue. I have seen 13 yr old girls on two or three social sites, IM, email, IRC etc simultaneously, whilst broadcasting from their webcam to whomever. The parents just brusjed it all off as 'kids stuff' that they really didn't undertsand. Partly I think from being too proud to admit their ignorance.
I agree with the parent post - I think that there is a real market out there to educate the <i><b>parents</b></i> on how to keep your kids safe. As far as I can see most of them don't have a clue.