Sunday, March 25. 2007
Real Estate Wealth Expo
I just got back from the Real Estate and Wealth Expo in Toronto. I was really looking forward to presentations from Tony Robbins, James Ray and Loral Langemeier and I wasn't disappointed. All of them were amazing. Any one of these speakers would have justified the cost of the weekend - being able to see them all was a real bonus.
I hadn't realized that Bill Bartmann was also speaking there so this was a happy surprise. He talked about getting a loan for your business and I got some very good tips out of this. This is my third time hearing Bill talk and he's always great.
James Smith was a real surprise. I'd never even heard of him before the Expo and was really impressed. He's based in Toronto and was talking about Real Estate here. He puts on a very amusing and informative presentation.
Richard Branson's talk was very interesting although not really useful as I didn't take away anything that I can use in my own business. Still interesting in any case.
A number of the talks I went to were duds. I don't mind the speakers pitching their products but I do expect that they're going to provide the information listed in the abstract before doing that. Some of the speakers chose to spend most of the session pitching their product without covering the material they were supposed to. I wonder if they realize how this makes people less interested in their product.
Overall, it was a great weekend. There were five exceptional talks and one interesting one and they definitely outweigh the duds.
I hadn't realized that Bill Bartmann was also speaking there so this was a happy surprise. He talked about getting a loan for your business and I got some very good tips out of this. This is my third time hearing Bill talk and he's always great.
James Smith was a real surprise. I'd never even heard of him before the Expo and was really impressed. He's based in Toronto and was talking about Real Estate here. He puts on a very amusing and informative presentation.
Richard Branson's talk was very interesting although not really useful as I didn't take away anything that I can use in my own business. Still interesting in any case.
A number of the talks I went to were duds. I don't mind the speakers pitching their products but I do expect that they're going to provide the information listed in the abstract before doing that. Some of the speakers chose to spend most of the session pitching their product without covering the material they were supposed to. I wonder if they realize how this makes people less interested in their product.
Overall, it was a great weekend. There were five exceptional talks and one interesting one and they definitely outweigh the duds.
Saturday, March 17. 2007
Ignorance can be amazing
I find the ignorance in this comment absolutely astounding. This is from a discussion of Linux vs Windows operating systems.
The poster seems articulate and appears to have some understanding of what's going on in the industry so it completely mystifies me as to how he got so much of his basic information wrong. Wow.
Link from James Robertson.
You are kidding arent you?
Are you saying that this linux can run on a computer without windows underneath it, at all ? As in, without a boot disk, without any drivers, and without any services?
That sounds preposterous to me.
If it were true (and I doubt it), then companies would be selling computers without a windows. This clearly is not happening, so there must be some error in your calculations. I hope you realise that windows is more than just Office ? Its a whole system that runs the computer from start to finish, and that is a very difficult thing to acheive. A lot of people dont realise this.
Microsoft just spent $9 billion and many years to create Vista, so it does not sound reasonable that some new alternative could just snap into existence overnight like that. It would take billions of dollars and a massive effort to achieve. IBM tried, and spent a huge amount of money developing OS/2 but could never keep up with Windows. Apple tried to create their own system for years, but finally gave up recently and moved to Intel and Microsoft.
Its just not possible that a freeware like the Linux could be extended to the point where it runs the entire computer fron start to finish, without using some of the more critical parts of windows. Not possible.
I think you need to re-examine your assumptions.
Are you saying that this linux can run on a computer without windows underneath it, at all ? As in, without a boot disk, without any drivers, and without any services?
That sounds preposterous to me.
If it were true (and I doubt it), then companies would be selling computers without a windows. This clearly is not happening, so there must be some error in your calculations. I hope you realise that windows is more than just Office ? Its a whole system that runs the computer from start to finish, and that is a very difficult thing to acheive. A lot of people dont realise this.
Microsoft just spent $9 billion and many years to create Vista, so it does not sound reasonable that some new alternative could just snap into existence overnight like that. It would take billions of dollars and a massive effort to achieve. IBM tried, and spent a huge amount of money developing OS/2 but could never keep up with Windows. Apple tried to create their own system for years, but finally gave up recently and moved to Intel and Microsoft.
Its just not possible that a freeware like the Linux could be extended to the point where it runs the entire computer fron start to finish, without using some of the more critical parts of windows. Not possible.
I think you need to re-examine your assumptions.
The poster seems articulate and appears to have some understanding of what's going on in the industry so it completely mystifies me as to how he got so much of his basic information wrong. Wow.
Link from James Robertson.
Wednesday, March 7. 2007
Microsoft Asirra Project
Microsoft Research has come out with a really neat way to prevent spam bots while at the same time helping find home for pets that need one.
Other companies have done similar captchas with pictures for people to evaluate. What makes this one particularly interesting is that they're providing an adoption service for these animals at the same time that they're performing a valuable service for the sites they're protecting. Click here for a sample.
Web services are often protected with a challenge that's supposed to be easy for people to solve, but difficult for computers. Such a challenge is often called a CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) or HIP (Human Interactive Proof). HIPs are used for many purposes, such as to reduce email and blog spam and prevent brute-force attacks on web site passwords.
HIP Example Today, the most common HIPs ask users to identify text that has been distorted or obscured. Unfortunately, such challenges can be difficult and frustrating for people, yet are often easily solved by computers.
Asirra (Animal Species Image Recognition for Restricting Access) is a HIP that works by asking users to identify photographs of cats and dogs. This task difficult for computers, but our user studies have shown that people can accomplish it quickly and accurately. Many even think it's fun!
HIP Example Today, the most common HIPs ask users to identify text that has been distorted or obscured. Unfortunately, such challenges can be difficult and frustrating for people, yet are often easily solved by computers.
Asirra (Animal Species Image Recognition for Restricting Access) is a HIP that works by asking users to identify photographs of cats and dogs. This task difficult for computers, but our user studies have shown that people can accomplish it quickly and accurately. Many even think it's fun!
Other companies have done similar captchas with pictures for people to evaluate. What makes this one particularly interesting is that they're providing an adoption service for these animals at the same time that they're performing a valuable service for the sites they're protecting. Click here for a sample.
About me
Email: mbowler
@GargoyleSoftware.com
Mobile: (289) 385-0120
Skype: mikebowler-soc
My businesses
- I'm a distributor for Send Out Cards, which is a phenomenal way for businesses to improve customer retention and increase profits. It's also a great way for individuals to create an extra source of revenue. I use it both ways and can't recommend it highly enough.
- I'm the founder of Gargoyle Software Inc, a Canadian company focused on improving the software development process. We offer consulting around Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP) and technologies such as Ruby on Rails and Java.
[More...]. - I'm one of the founders of EasyBrandingTools.com
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Open source projects I started:
- HtmlUnit a project to simulate a web browser for testing
- GSBase which contains lots of common pieces for UI's and testing and ...
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