True for whatever your company competes on, but not for everything else (the so called "hygiene" factors, that don't need to be great, just basically work. e.g. Apple doesn't compete on their internal payroll software).

Your point on complexity is spot on. The abstractions and symbolic references that make programming so difficult handle complexity far better than the blocks and connectors of FBP and visual programming.

OTOH the two roles of component-maker and assembler is realized in the massive standard libraries and open source libraries of all mainstream languages.

cloudy

This is a sensible business move for Microsoft - like Google's massive server farms, it's a capital investment that is a barriers for newcomers to breach. For MS/Google, it's a reasonably small percentage of xbox/LIVE revenue; but for a newcomer with small sales, it's prohibitively expensive.

But this only works if the server farm actually helps users... For google, the instant google-suggest is a pretty impressive and convenient feature - good enough for the barrier to be reasonably effective (though not absolutely compelling, IMHO). For Microsoft, the benefit is yet to be seen. Streaming video games would be helped but it, but that has had only modest success. That would help massive multiplayer games - but that's not MS's present market.

In other words: huge server farms for a game console is a great technology platform... all it needs is its "killer app".

Apparently in Japan, legislation requires that camera-like devices make a camera-like noise when used. So smartphones in Japan sound like a camera when you take a pic.

Office is 30 years old? Or the improving and worsening overlapped...
EDIT 22 years old http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office

In soviet russia, home entertainment system watches YOU!

    > 1080p camera... 60 FPS. Field of view increased by 60%....
    > motion tracking... detect skin pigmentation changes related to heart rate

Seriously, imagine being able to measure consumers' emotional reaction to advertisements... if you were worried about information being gathered about you, with google adwords targeting you by search, or facebook data-mining your social network, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Oh, OK. I got the x1,000 approximation from the top of page 59.

BTW: Moore's Law approximates to x10 in 5 years, as 2**(5/1.5)=10.0793683992 A nice rule of thumb, so x100 in 10 years, x1,000 in 15 years etc.

He sells the exaFLOP dream; but it's x1,000 faster than today. At Moore's faux Law, that takes 15 years - so, due in 2028, not 2020.

Writing correct concurrent code is like understand quantum mechanics, if you think you do you don't.

Maybe he just won't write concurrent code, and therefore his junior thought his skills weren't con-current.

You must write a thesis that will draw in 20 more students, or you are worthless. Their fees pay your salary. They in turn must write a thesis to draw in 20 more etc.

ogooglebar: thought or concept forbidden by google

1. white noise - download a program onto your PC, or there's some websites. To be really effective, wear headphones.

2. keep a fan running (it also produces white noise).

3. earplugs (the foam kind that you roll up).

4. don't think they "should" be quieter and more considerate - this dramatically increases your sense of annoyance. Don't do the "right" thing and carefully "be quiet" yourself. Instead, be relaxed about making ordinary noise yourself. It will make others noise seem less annoying.

They know the benefits of piracy, that's why they allow windows and office to work even when not validated. Same reason adobe doesn't crack down on photoshop piracy.

But the reason this is especially dangerous for them at the moment is that mobile devices are fast approaching console quality, and so gamers will switch to it (the PowerVR series6 rogue is apparently on par with xbox360's xeno GPU, around 210GPixel/s - if it ever actually arrives). There's also Ouya and steam's console. Additionally, casual games have increasing importance (which suits mobile better). Finally, it does seem that graphics have overshot what the market demand - this is what has enabled the current console generation to last so long, and why gaming PCs are increasingly niche (and thus not targeted by studios).

So, even though these next-gen consoles are much more powerful than next-gen mobile devices, if consumers don't want it, it doesn't matter.

Economists don't answer questions because they know what the answer is. They answer because they are asked.