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Comment Re:overpaid? (Score 1) 323

by jholder (#27822781) Attached to: Pentagon Lost Billions, Pennies At a Time

You are incorrect, because you failed to take into account the fact the the size of houses now are much larger than the size of houses then. Some data, partly from census.gov, and some other trending sites:

Recent statistics from the National Association of Home Builders show that the average American home grew from 983 square feet in 1950 to 2,434 square feet in 2005... and increase in size of about 2.5... The average house price in 1950 was $8,450.00, while average wages per year was $3,210.00 (house cost = about 2.6 time more than salary).

In 2004, the average house price was $221,000 and median salary (didn't find the average, but the median in 1950 was in the mid 7k range, making this comparison skew even more in favor of the argument I'm advancing) was $48,934... (house cost = about 4.5 times more than salary).

If we adjust that by price per square foot, the price per square foot of a house in 1950 was about $8.60. The price per square foot in 2004 was about $90.80.

The change from 1950 to 2004 in salary is a factor of 15.2 times larger in 2004. The change in cost per square foot for a house was a factor only 10.56 times larger.

My conclusion? We are getting more house for our money now than we were in 1950. They only cost so much more because they are 2.6 times larger houses! Or, conversely, our houses are currently undervalued. Or they are 'just right' because the land the house is built on, on average, is a smaller lot.
Worms

Conficker Worm Strike Reports Start Rolling In 508

Posted by Soulskill from the be-on-the-lookout dept.
Nieriko writes "Reports are trickling in about the impact from the Conficker worm, as infected systems passed zero hour at midnight and began downloading additional malicious components. Here are a couple of the more notable incidents caused by Conficker so far, according to published reports: — '... shortly after midnight local time, an ATM in the capital city of Reykjavik began spewing 100-Krona notes. ... A nuclear missile installation near Elmendorf Air force Base outside of Anchorage, Alaska briefly went on a full-scale military alert after technicians manning the bunker suspected that several of their control systems were infected with Conficker.'"
Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Review: Apple's New Mac Mini More Versatile (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: "Apple's fourth iteration of the Mac Mini — it's low-end desktop — may not be the fastest computer going but with the latest updates Apple has added some solid firepower under the hood, while leaving the Mini's basic nature intact, according to a Computerworld review. The price still starts at $599 but it now boasts better graphics, faster DDR3 RAM, a SuperDrive that's now standard in the lesser model, 802.11n Wi-Fi, five USB ports, a FireWire 800 port and a MiniDisplay Port. The stock processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo running at an even 2 GHz, though you can opt for a marginally faster 2.26-GHz chip if you want to spend another $150."
Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Apple Sues $399 Mac Clone Maker Psystar (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
CWmike
CWmike writes: "Gregg Keizer reports that Apple has sued Psystar, the computer maker that in April started selling Intel-based systems with Mac OS X pre-installed for $399, for copyright and software licensing violations, according to court records and a Florida attorney, Jorge Espinosa, who says Apple's lawsuit charges Psystar with violating its shrink wrap license, as well as with trademark and copyright infringement. "Psystar has been manufacturing and selling a line of computers which sell pre-installed with Apple's OSX operating system," Espinosa noted in an entry to his blog today. "Apple's shrink wrap license which comes with OSX specifically requires that the software be installed only on Apple branded computers.""
The Media

Newspaper Ad Network Shuns Google, Yahoo, MS 71

Posted by Zonk from the anything-you-can-do-we-can-do-better dept.
Ian Lamont writes "The New York Times, and the Tribune, Gannett, and Hearst companies have launched their own ad network, called QuadrantOne. It will let advertisers place ads on media sites in 27 major markets, and let them target readers by content type, demographic information, and online behavior. Notably absent from the deal: Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Both Google and Yahoo have their own ad networks focused on newspapers, but, as the article says, 'if newspapers develop better ways to sell their own online ads, they may not have to share revenue with their Web counterparts such as Yahoo and Google.'"

$150 Linux Laptop for the Masses 434

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the on-the-cheap dept.
Xemu writes "Inspired by Negroponte's laptop for children, the Swedish company Medison is now taking orders for their US$150 Linux laptop, the Medison Celebrity. The laptop is a 1.5 GHz Celeron M 370 with 14 inch screen, wireless network and it comes with Fedora Red Hat pre-installed." Update 2035 GMT by SM: As many readers have pointed out, the more you dig into the details of this company the more fishy it starts to seem. I would suggest any potential buyers be wary on this one.
Programming

Submission + - Microsoft do Ruby (iunknown.com)

Submitted by Etrigoth
Etrigoth writes: Following on from their Silverlight/DLR announcement recently, Microsofts John Lam has released the first preview of IronRuby, a Ruby compiler targetting the .Net CLR. Early benchmarks claim that IronRuby is already significantly faster then Ruby 1.8.6 in Method Invocation and on a par for Library performance.
Interestingly, Microsoft have released this under what is their essentially open source Permissive License and a further suprise comes from Microsofts intention to release IronRuby to the popular Ruby community Ruby Forge instead of their own Open Source hosting network CodePlex. Microsoft intend to accept Source Code submissions for IronRuby but presently, one may only submit code for the IronRuby libraries. John Lam says "once the DLR matures and reaches 1.0 status with fully supported public interfaces, we will fully open up all parts of the IronRuby project for external contributions."
A Mono developer, Seo Sanghyeon, has already created a kit to allow the IronRuby preview to function under Mono/Linux. More information on that here.
Google

Submission + - Google Sends Disgruntled Blogger Superman Cape

Submitted by
rulesaremyenemy
rulesaremyenemy writes: "Google's sense of humor strikes once again:

"While at SXSW, I tried out the new Google Transit service. I was far away from the hotel and wanted to find an efficient way to get back. Well, Google got me close, then expected me to cross an eight-lane highway on foot. Um, no. I had to explore for a long time to find a way to get across the damn thing and back to my hotel. I bitched at my blog.
Today, I got a package from Google at my workplace. At first, I saw the hand-written "Google" return address and thought "anthrax", but figured, what the hell. I ripped it open. I was treated to the single greatest customer service experience I had ever had. Enclosed was a hand-written note from Joe Hughes at Google. The note said:

Dear Superman, Reading your blog post about Google Transit at SXSW made us wonder if you were losing your powers — I mean, how hard could it be to leap over a simple 8-lane highway intersection, man of steel? We've enclosed a new cape — hopefully it will help you find your powers again.
...seriously, though, Adam, we're sorry that Google Transit sent you on such an expedition, and we wanted to let you know that we've since improved our routing, so that it returns more plausible walking sections at the start & end of transit routes.

Cheers, Joe Hughes Google Transit"

(Picture of the Cape and Letter on Flickr)"

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