Exactly. Are we talking about my $500 WD 1TB NAS (2 x 1TB RAID1) or my half-million dollar multi-site WAN replicated EMC storage solution?

And all this time I thought the point of Chatroulette was to dick around...

Are there normal image files we can download? I'm not installing Silverlight just to see pictures...

Here's a summary:

1. Make $100 million dollar movie.
2. Gross $480 million dollars at the box office.
3. ???
4. Epic profit!

Jobs said let there be the iPhone 4 and there was the iPhone 4 and Jobs saw the iPhone 4 and said it was good. Then he sent them forth to multiply.

But he never actually held it and made a call with it. That was the problem.

"We're boned." - Adobe's CEO

at least not until the quantum iPad is released.

I don't know how you got any of that from what I wrote... All I said is that it's not unfathomable for the private sector to do it cheaper.

I think the fact that other countries (like India) can launch into space for a fraction of what it costs NASA shows that a private American company can as well.

It has been structurally different in every company I've been in. Especially smaller ones. Sometimes IT reports to the CFO to keep costs in check. Sometimes to COO to get business processes automated and computerized. And if you're lucky you have a CTO who reports to the CEO/board but is free to make decisions.

Most companies view IT as pure overhead and try to micromanage it's budget out of fear of excess spending. I can't blame them. Once upon a time all you paid for was an office and some basic office supplies. Now your yearly software license costs alone rival your rent.

A better motivation would be to stick close to their IT department to make sure both sides understand what the businesses goals and visions are.

"We want to mobilize out sales force"
"We want a stronger web presence"
"We want ensure 24/7 up time even in the case of a disaster"
"We want to make X process and Y process work together more seemlessly using available technology"

Getting lost in small details or second guessing the decisions of the IT people you pay to make IT decisions for you ends up hurting businesses. Like "Hey! Stop buying $100 antivirus software buy $19.99 ones!" If IT has to waste time cleaning viruses and reformating machines then they have no time to plan for future growth or to research solutions to real business problems. It stifles growth and wastes money in other areas.

No, of course not! I would ask "how high?"

Yes it's true. In some real-world applications an algorithm encounters it's worst case running time more than the predicted theoretical average case running time. This is where case by case optimizations come into play.

Knuth never claimed the algorithm was the best choice in YOUR particular case. Don't drag his name through your sensational mud for the sake of your slashvertisement.

It has office 2007 trial, mcafee security stuff trial, various apps that run in the background to handle multitouch stuff, screen rotation, net book to tablet mode, face recognition, etc.

The most annoying thing is the mcafee since it pops up every time you do something and asks you if you're sure. The other thing that sucks is that it's multitouch. At least with other tablet pcs you have a stylus and can accurately 'click' on things. On this every time I try to hit minimize I end up closing the window lol... It works well in net book mode and it's decently light. Also it comes with win7 starter edition so you'll have to upgrade to pro to get all the multitouch stuff.

With the total cost of ownership people should consider getting a normal net book plus an iPad. Or if you handle IT purchasing like I do, just buy them all under your R&D budget :)

It's tricky. Once a product/service reaches a point where it's widely used and relied upon by users it potentially becomes a marketplace. The question is should it be considered a part of the rest of the "market" and be regulated as a free market like the rest of our market? How do you define what qualifies to be considered a market that should be free and open? By number of users? Value of potential revenue? Or should it all be free and open? I can't run an Ad network on PS3, Wii, etc. So why is the iPhone singled out?

I'm in the market for an affordable mac mini sized computer (with similar specs, i.e. no Atom) to use with my TV. I find my PS3 just doesn't cut it anymore since it won't play ALL media formats (lame).

So ya, I agree with parent. MAKE THE CASES SMALLER!