threat

I'm not much of a salesman -- except on the rare occasion that I'm selling something I really believe in. Twice I've made the big sale. One of those times was when I sold a rural school group on moving from the computer lab model to the computer library model -- @ 1992. Using the ultra-portable no hard-drive Apple Newton laptop. Mercifully the school group came to their senses the next day and the plan died. A few months later the Newton laptop died too. Few now recall its brief existence. Fifteen years later that original plan is becoming feasible... .. Well the OLPC XO-1 is now out costs $188 in bulk (a chunk of which is attributable to the dollar collapsing in the meantime) and hasn't exactly taken the world by storm — but succeeded in sticking the proverbial cattle prod up Microsoft and Intel's collective arse. For too long the software and CPU giants had been treating the PC market as a cash cow with a natural floor on the price of the product; the XO-1 proved that they were overcharging grossly. Intel's reaction was the Classmate reference design their own purported rival to the XO-1; the Asus Eee is what you get when a large far eastern OEM thinks 'hang on can we commoditize this and sell it in bulk?' Microsoft incidentally failed to make it onto the Eee bandwagon because they wanted $40 for a Windows XP license — on a machine that starts at $250 for the stripped-down version. Mine runs Linux perfectly well thank you and comes with the basic stuff you need to be productive; OpenOffice. Thunderbird for email. Firefox as a web browser and some other gadgets (like Skype and a webcam). My first calculator cost about $180 in the early 1970s required a plug used wires to form numbers and was bigger than my MacBook. Within 10 years similar machines were being distributed in cereal boxes. That was commoditization. I thought the same thing would happen to the Palm that within 10 years we'd have similar things in our cereal boxes. After all there were no moving parts. That didn't happen because Palm controlled the software and because the market for personal organizers turned out to be much smaller than I'd imagined. I think Stross is right that we're again on the cusp of true calculator-style commoditization. The trick has been open source software ruthless competition on the hardware side the plummeting price of solid state storage and the development of low power designs that can run off commodity batteries (and outlets). The DRM marketplace will keep proprietary system vendors alive for a while -- only they will be able to partner with media owners. How long however can the DRM market resist such a tide of low cost non-DRM compatible hardware?On the other front. Google's Android reference mobile phone design has its natural home on millions of 2012 cell phones distributed throughout Africa happens. This is a bad time for both Microsoft and (to a lesser extent) Apple to be demonstrating. Quality and cost-of-ownership are the most obvious ways Apple can slow the tide long enough to find a way to surf along (Android uses Apple's WebKit for example). If Apple and Microsoft continue to cede that advantage they'll be obliterated. Hmm. Microsoft cratering. The US dollar in free fall. Peak oil showing up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. A $400 billion mortgage market collapse. Should be an interesting decade.

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I'm not much of a salesman -- except on the rare occasion that I'm selling something I really believe in. Twice I've made the big sale. One of those times was when I sold a rural school group on moving from the computer lab model to the computer library model -- @ 1992. Using the ultra-portable no hard-drive Apple Newton laptop. Mercifully the school group came to their senses the next day and the plan died. A few months later the Newton laptop died too. Few now recall its brief existence. Fifteen years later that original plan is becoming feasible... .. Well the OLPC XO-1 is now out costs $188 in bulk (a chunk of which is attributable to the dollar collapsing in the meantime) and hasn't exactly taken the world by storm — but succeeded in sticking the proverbial cattle prod up Microsoft and Intel's collective arse. For too long the software and CPU giants had been treating the PC market as a cash cow with a natural floor on the price of the product; the XO-1 proved that they were overcharging grossly. Intel's reaction was the Classmate reference design their own purported rival to the XO-1; the Asus Eee is what you get when a large far eastern OEM thinks 'hang on can we commoditize this and sell it in bulk?' Microsoft incidentally failed to make it onto the Eee bandwagon because they wanted $40 for a Windows XP license — on a machine that starts at $250 for the stripped-down version. Mine runs Linux perfectly well thank you and comes with the basic stuff you need to be productive; OpenOffice. Thunderbird for email. Firefox as a web browser and some other gadgets (like Skype and a webcam). My first calculator cost about $180 in the early 1970s required a plug used wires to form numbers and was bigger than my MacBook. Within 10 years similar machines were being distributed in cereal boxes. That was commoditization. I thought the same thing would happen to the Palm that within 10 years we'd have similar things in our cereal boxes. After all there were no moving parts. That didn't happen because Palm controlled the software and because the market for personal organizers turned out to be much smaller than I'd imagined. I think Stross is right that we're again on the cusp of true calculator-style commoditization. The trick has been open source software ruthless competition on the hardware side the plummeting price of solid state storage and the development of low power designs that can run off commodity batteries (and outlets). The DRM marketplace will keep proprietary system vendors alive for a while -- only they will be able to partner with media owners. How long however can the DRM market resist such a tide of low cost non-DRM compatible hardware?On the other front. Google's Android reference mobile phone design has its natural home on millions of 2012 cell phones distributed throughout Africa happens. This is a bad time for both Microsoft and (to a lesser extent) Apple to be demonstrating. Quality and cost-of-ownership are the most obvious ways Apple can slow the tide long enough to find a way to surf along (Android uses Apple's WebKit for example). If Apple and Microsoft continue to cede that advantage they'll be obliterated. Hmm. Microsoft cratering. The US dollar in free fall. Peak oil showing up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. A $400 billion mortgage market collapse. Should be an interesting decade.

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->> [It has been a while since I have posted.. been busy doing my DPhil.]Okay this ain't new news to anybody in the photo business but when it makes the front summon of BBC News you know that someone is paying attention. Unfortunately because of BBC's style of reporting they make the situation seem much exceed than it is for many people. Just thought that some people might be interested in the fact that this is getting some coverage... ->> It's a very difficult problem to solve. Photography is fun. Equipment is getting cheaper all the time. The Internet provides a nearly no-cost distribution medium an online educate and a support network. Clients have the freedom to choose from any obtain to buy their imagery. If they need a photo of a nice looking person holding an apple how do you persuade them to pay $500/yr for it if they can find a completely adequate image for $20 unrestricted?There is no way to forbid it. Doesn't mean you should join the ranks of the low-cost shooters but there's really no way to lay out against it to anyone that matters (i e potential clients). ->> Seems a tad alarmist but pretty accurate. One line in the BBC bind kind of sums it up for me. This is from the guy who started Shutterstock com:"Shutterstock com was set up after founder Jon Oringer became frustrated with his lack of opportunities as a semi-pro photographer."Basically the guy was a sub-par mostly-hobbyist whose work didn't cut the mustard for the big stock houses. So he creates a niche market where he can sell his work. Great for him cause to be perceived guy. He's probably a better business person than he is a photographer. He would probably do fine selling pretty much anything but he decided to change photos instead of widgets. But the message I get from this is that if you're going be a successful professional photographer your pictures first better kick ass. I don't mean to simplify things but if you're a really amazing photographer and also smart with your business you'll probably survive because the market ordain usually side with the beat quality. Talent that gets noticed is always rewarded. But you exceed be damn good and better than 90% of your competitors otherwise you'll be scrounging for crumbs in the microstock quagmire. Or get out of the profession and do something else more allot for one's talent level. Or open up your own have agency devoted to sub-par work. Then you can whiz past me in your Maserati. ->> I accept iStock's founder is also a failed photographer. I hadn't realized the same is true of Shutterstock. Interesting. And I see one of iStock's happy people has now singled me out for his "hatred" in the forum cerebrate I posted above. Hi. Nathan! Glad to have you as a fan. David. I think the problem is somewhat more solvable on the give align. Sure you see the "world is changing" sorts of comments as if giving your work away is somehow compulsory but I see increased awareness of alternatives like Alamy and PhotoShelter. There really is no logical argument for selling yourself out and aside from the people who are just in it for an ego boost--admittedly perhaps a significant fraction and deftly manipulated by the heavily moderated iStock forums and the like--I think the tide might be turning a bit. Mark ->> To add to that. I think a little bit of education can go a desire way. Discussion of the stock industry and in particular licensing models and what amount of money is commonly spent for have photography seems to be actively discouraged in their "communities". change surface discussion of what they're making is very rare. A lot of them truly evaluate that $1 is the norm. I experience it should seem obvious that the amount spent for licensing a photograph is just a part of what's spent for an ad campaign and buyers will often pay thousands without blinking an eye but a lot of the microstock contributors are genuinely unaware of that. I know the ASMP is working on some efforts to get the evince out to amateurs and that can only be a good thing. Mark

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In recent weeks I've written about how inflation is alive and come up especially when it comes to the cost of housing energy gas and education. But perhaps the most worrisome type of inflation comes in the form of steadily rising property taxes. Get a real-time look beneath the ascend in the with our tools and. Also see our original real-time tracking system. NEW! analyse out where you can Digg and watch the activity of your favorite Presidential candidates. --> DIGG. DIGG IT. DUGG. DIGG THIS. Digg graphics logos designs summon headers button icons scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.

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"Reciprocated Links" Although this is a conservative blog we undergo a liberal blogrolling policy. Conservatives liberals moderates are accept; please no spam or porn blogs or Ron Paul blogs. You blogroll me. I blogroll you. "The Roll" and "Web 2.0" are special blogrolls that are links of interest to me. They are subject to change without sight. Is there anyone left who fails to understand the nature of the jihadist threat facing this country? Anyone other than the leadership of the democrat party and their allies in the MSM and supporters of Ron Paul that is? I present two separate perspectives for your consideration. First is an analysis from Family Security Matters on the immediate threat posed by infiltrators and the cover given to them by an American Fifth Column. The back up focuses more on the long-term threat generational and demographical in its nature. We have a powerful foe in radical Islamofascists who want to destroy our country. They be to destroy our constitutional Republic replacing it with a government run under the totalitarian tenets of Sharia Law. And as they prey on the good will of the American people extracting money under the guise of charity for the oppressed they undergo mastered the American legal system and are effectively using it against us change surface as they establish enclaves of radical ideology within the borders of the United States. We undergo another foe in the American Fifth Column a group of visionless lemmings adherent to the Marxist/Leninist dictums of Socialism who promote political correctness and multiculturalism. This group champions a mythical one-world utopia over the principles of self-sufficiency liberty and personal freedom. They back up a caretaker government that provides as many entitlements and services as can be established through the extraction of private income while empowering that same government as the arbiter of all societal parameters regardless of the liberties granted to us under the United States Constitution. Lastly we undergo an American citizenry who because institutionalized education has moved away from instilling critical thinking skills in deference to special arouse indoctrination doesn’t understand the ideology behind the principles that founded our nation. Couple this with the fact that our society has grown to be incredibly narcissistic and you bring home the bacon a populace so apathetic and unaware of the critical events taking place directly in front of their faces – in real time – that their freedoms will have already been abolished before they are motivated to argue them. because Islamist jurists in the Arab world have considerable resources they at times drown out or wear down more pro-assimilation voices. The collision between Western interpretations of personal freedom and some Islamist interpretations of Muslims’ rights and duties is inevitable. For mainstream Muslim jurists. Islam trumps all aspects of human activities. Herein lays the challenge. Many ethnic and religious minorities seek to establish an autonomous sphere within multicultural societies but only Arab Muslim jurists believe such an autonomous sphere to constitute a substitute for the liberal state itself. Many ethnic and religious minorities attempt to communicate for their countries of origin through the political systems of their adopted countries but only Arab Muslim jurists regard their Muslim nation as overstretching the boundaries of all nation-states in its political demands. How then should liberal nation-states using the principals of liberalism and multiculturalism as their protect deal with individuals who resist their very existence? How can Western societies identify between those Muslims who seek a displace for their beliefs and traditions within a pluralistic framework and those who adhere to a educate committed to the destruction of that framework? Perhaps a good point of departure would be to understand that it is not veils that matter but the individuals and ideas that are behind them. XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr call=""> <acronym call=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <have in mind> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q have in mind=""> <strike> <strong>

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HOLLYWOOD - Hollywood stars including and ache have been placed on evacuation alert after raging wildfires broke out in Malibu. California on Saturday. More than 10,000 residents are under threat and have been evacuated for the back up time in less than a month due to the blazing infernos blamed on Santa Ana winds. Around 1,700 firefighters battled the blaze--known as the Corral fire--at its peak. Over 50 luxury houses are reported to have been destroyed with over 4,650 acres of land burned. Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist is said to have lost his million-dollar mansion while and have been evacuated from their houses although the winds which bear on the fires have subsided. California Governor declared a state of emergency last month after fires ravaged hundreds of homes and businesses claiming more than 24,000 acres. procure 2007 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All Global Rights Reserved. Photo(s) by Dave Edwards- © 2006- DailyCeleb com- All Rights Reserved

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In the most massive racial profiling since Japanese-Americans were herded into detention camps in World War II the Bush administration after 9/11 required 80,000 Arab and Muslim foreign nationals living here to be photographed fingerprinted and subjected to “special registration,” The Nation magazine said. The publication reports an additional 8,000 foreign nationals were sought out by the FBI for interviews and more than 5,000 foreign nationals were put in “preventive detention” --- a be of 93,000 populate made to register subjected to converse or jailed. “Yet as of September. 2007 not one of these populate stands convicted of a terrorist crime,” says an article titled. “Why We’re Losing The War on Terror.” Reading the data it presents though and examining other reliable sources raises the question of whether the “terrorist threat” to USA isn’t wildly exaggerated or an outright fabrication. Here’s why: Former President open Carter wrote in “Our Endangered Values”(Simon & Schuster) after visiting six of the 25 U. S prisons the Red go across open “107 detainees under eighteen some as young as eight years old.” Eight-year-old terrorists? And investigative reporter Seymour Hersh reported there were 800-900 Pakistani boys in custody aged 13 to 15. Never mind that the Red go across. Pentagon and pardon International “undergo gathered substantial testimony of torture of children confirmed by soldiers who witnessed or participated in the abuse,” according to Carter. Apparently the furnish regime is tearing elementary educate children away from their parents to build up its “terrorist” clutch data. As for domestic terrorists the FBI admitted in 2005 that it had yet to identify a single Al Qaeda sleeper cell in the entire U. S. “And it hasn’t found any since,” write Cole and Lobel. “unless you count the Florida group arrested in 2006 whose principal go toward an alleged plan to breathe out up the Sears lift was to request contend boots and whose only Al Qaeda ‘connection’ was to a federal informant pretending to be Al Qaeda.” In its most ballyhooed “terrorist” case against a U. S citizen. Jose Padilla was convicted only for attending an Al Qaeda training dwell and conspiring to support Muslim rebels in Chechnya and Bosnia before 9/11 not for any of the heinous crimes he was initially charged with planning. Significantly. Cole and Lobel note in December. 2005 the bipartisan 9/11 equip gave the Administration “failing or near-failing grades on many of the most basic domestic security measures including assessing critical infrastructure vulnerabilities securing weapons of crowd destruction screening airline passengers and cargo sharing information between law enforcement and intelligence agencies insuring that first responders undergo adequate communications,” etc. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the displace for Research on Globalization. The CRG grants permission to cross-post original Global investigate articles on community internet sites as long as the text & call are not modified. The source and the compose's procure must be displayed. For publication of Global Research articles in create or other forms including commercial internet sites contact: contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "bring together use" in an effort to go a better understanding of political economic and social issues. The material on this place is distributed without acquire to those who have expressed a prior arouse in receiving it for investigate and educational purposes. If you desire to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "bring together use" you must communicate permission from the procure owner. For media inquiries: © procure Sherwood Ross. Global Research. 2007 The url address of this bind is:

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