I thought I was watching some new show on Fox which could be called ‘Dumb and dumber’, but, I was wrong. It was the Bush daughters talking at the Republic National Convention.
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An article published in the Forbes magazine talks about Cheapware. There are many open source and other alternatives for proprietary software available at a very cheap price. These range from operating systems (Linux competing with Microsoft, Sun Microsystems) to webservers (Apache competing with Microsoft and Sun) to databases (MySQL competing with Oracle and IBM) to user apps such as word processors (Staroffice competing with Microsoft). People in the software industry scoffed at them till recently as ‘toys of hobbyists’. But, more and more corporations are slowly moving to the cheaper software alternatives.
The article highlights Sabre’s move from Oracle to MySQL databases. Sabre is not a small company, they manage a big chunk of airline reservation system. They are slowly moving their whole operation to MySQL at a saving of more than 80% in software costs. CEO of MySQL tries to explain this switch to cheaper software.
“There’s just no reason for customers to be paying so much for software,” says Marten Mickos, chief executive of MySQL AB, in Uppsala, Sweden. “Software is not rocket science. It’s a commodity. The business has been overglorified for 20 years.”
…
Executives at Microsoft and Oracle dismiss MySQL as too puny to handle serious corporate projects. The Swedish company will likely gross $20 million in 2004; Oracle generates that much every 17 hours. “You don’t want to use products from companies that perceive themselves as commodity suppliers to handle your data,” says Robert Shimp, vice president of technology marketing at Oracle in Redwood Shores, Calif.Mickos says he’s glad bigger rivals dismiss his company. While they’re not looking he has been winning business in the data centers of FedEx, Ingram Entertainment, Lufthansa, NASA, Omaha Steaks, Sony, Suzuki and UPS.
If this trend continues (I think it will), there are difficult days ahead for software companies unless they slash prices drastically and get competitive with the cheapies. Companies like IBM and Microsoft have diversified their business in other areas as well and they’ll do OK. But, this could spell doom for software-only businesses like Oracle, Adobe etc.
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Volkswagen Jetta! According to Tom and Ray Magliozzi of Car Talk, a NPR show that is wildly funny and yet full of useful information.
I have been driving a Jetta since 1996 and haven’t had any accident or even a speeding ticket while driving it. Does it say something about my good driving skills or is it my timid approach to driving a car that can be driven recklessly? I wonder why other cars move out of the way when I come up behind them…
I usually listen to this show every Saturday, don’t know how I missed this particular show. Thanks for the link, Sujit!
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Here is one of the coolest optical illusions that I have ever seen. It comes from Dr. Edward Adleson of MIT. There are more illusions on his website.
The squares named ‘A’ and ‘B’ are of the same color. Click on the link below to see an explanation.
Read more…
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With supporters like this, there is no doubt that Bush and Cheney are going to win again this year…
George W. Bush supporter Joe Piazza, who said he will attend this week’s Republican National Convention, shows off his pro-Bush costume as he walks through a hallway in the Landmark 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City on August 29, 2004.
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Lunar Farside from Apollo 11. The far side of the Moon is rough and filled with craters. By comparison, the near side of the Moon (the side we always see) is relatively smooth. The large crater is Daedalus. It spans about 93 kilometers (58 miles) and was photographed by the crew of Apollo 11 as they circled the Moon in 1969. NASA Photo, reference AS11-44-6611.
Note that the diameter given on the web reference below (30 km) is wrong.
CREDIT: Apollo 11 Crew, NASA .
SOURCE: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030312.html
COPYRIGHT: “NASA images generally are not copyrighted. You may use NASA imagery, video and audio material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits and Internet Web pages.”PREPARED BY Scott Sandlin in March 2004.
It is interesting that the far side of Moon is rougher and has more craters. But, if you think about it, it makes sense. The period for rotation around its own axis and around Earth is almost identical for Moon. That is why we never see the far side of Moon from Earth. The near side of the moon is always facing the earth and hence shielded from asteroids.
The photo and information about it is taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is a great online resource. Check it out if you haven’t heard about it already.
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Vice President Dick Cheney remarked on Tuesday on a campaign townhall forum in Davenport, Iowa that he is against a constitutional ban on Gay marriage. This issue should be addressed by States as all the other civil matters. One of his daughters is gay and hence gay rights is a very familiar issue to him. He went on to say that “freedom means freedom for everyone” to enter “into any kind of relationship they want to.”
Everyone was surprised to see him not following the party line that is supported by the President. But, he had expressed the same opinion 4 years ago during a debate with Joe Lieberman and hasn’t changed his position.
Way to go, Mr. Cheney!
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Definition of an optimist: A pessimist without enough information.
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This article appeared in Little India earlier this month. I was going to just ignore it because it is full of whiners that are wallowing in self-pity. Shanti wrote a nice post about it. For the last week or so, I keep seeing posts by bloggers feeling sorry for the people described in the article. That made me write this post to support the opposing opinion.
IMHO, these whiners will not be happy anywhere in the world. Whining about everything around them and how life is difficult, defines their personality. This life that they complain about is not forced upon them by someone. They have chosen it themselves for jobs, money or whatever. If they don’t like it, they should do something to change it rather than just complain about it.
Here are whinings of Aparna, the first example in this article…
Most wounding to her was the loss of her independence: Her H4 visa robbed her of her identity – she was not allowed to work, and did not have a bank balance or credit card – and to even take a trip back home, she was dependent on her husband.
Irrespective of your gender, aren’t you supposed to lose independence when you get married? Why is she complaining about being dependent on her husband? Her status as a ‘dependent’ was defined when she applied for the H4 visa. If she is so proud of being independent, didn’t she have a say when her husband decided to come to US? What stopped her from protesting? I can bet that she was busy complaining about India and couldn’t wait to get out of country at that time.
She had been driving for years in India, but here she failed the crucial road test because she was used to driving on the left.
Who is responsible for that? If you aren’t ready for such a minor change in life, you should never leave the security of your parent’s house, forget about going to another country.
She recalls the utter hopelessness she felt then: “When I come out of the car, I sit and cry and cry. I don’t believe this. I’ve been driving for years and now they tell me I can’t drive? I’m crying like a baby. I don’t want to live in this country. I mean, every day you’re struggling.”
What? She gave up after one driving test. Couldn’t she go back for another test? Why did she want to leave everything and go back to India after failing the test? This kind of defeatist attitude will not take you anywhere. But, her going back may be better in the long run. I don’t want to see accidents caused by some cars going in wrong direction on roads because of morons like this.
If you read the article, you’ll find that all the other examples are of similar whiners. I hope their spouces, family members or friends will slap them and make them do something to better their lives rather than whining.
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