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Two words: Interaction Design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interaction_design/

For those interested in it, you can grab a copy of Alan Cooper's "The Inmates are Running the Asylum"

http://www.amazon.com/Inmates-Are-Running-Asylum-P roducts/dp/0672316498/

While the people interviewed do point important matters, their view on how to solve the problem is not, IMHO, adequate.

Also, putting guilt on programmers' shoulders reveals a lack of understanding on the matter. Many programmers are already aware that "YOUR.USER.IS.NOT.YOU." (stupid motto). The fellow just missed the mark. By miles.

Programmers study their whole lives to NOT think like users. They do so to learn how computers "think". To ask someone to understand both the users and the inner idiosyncrasies of the machine is just not reasonable.

What we lack in the software development industry is the role of interaction designers, and, of course, the willingness of the software development companies to PAY so they produce better and more "friendly" software. That does not come without a cost.

Great! Where can I buy it?

Here.

Pretty much all of the features listed in the GP post except the last one or two are in Tiger Server, which has been available since April of 2005.

Next time, remove head from sphincter before posting.

~Philly

Alan Cooper's 1995 book, About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design,explores this. If I remember correctly,
you don't need Save dialog because your document must be persistant (for programmers: simulate with autosave every few seconds);
Delete does not have to be confirmed because there must be a reliable, visible, and easy to use undo mechanism (undelete qualifies).

Grass is too expensive, just give the cows Tums!

On a more serious note, after reading The Omnivore's Dillemma, I started buying grass-fed meat at Whole Foods. Personally, I find the beef tough; but the pork is to die for!

A team of geeks could design their own system, pick their own architecture, load it with Free-as-in-ESR software, and sell it competitively with Windows PC's.

How do I know this?

Cobalt Flux sells an extremely popular dance pad for DDR-type games

design their own system, pick their own architecture, load it with Free-as-in-ESR software, and sell it competitively with Windows PC's...

So why doesn't someone try this? Or does someone?

You're an idiot.

The anthrax attacks originated from the U.S. Army and were most likely ordered by the Bush administration.

http://www.amazon.com/Biowarfare-Terrorism-Francis -Anthony-Boyle/dp/0932863469/

...try feeding invalid parameters to Something Much Bigger, as described here.

So, did they finally find the Sirens?

Okay, so what will prevent companies from abusing tiered service? The free market? There isn't one in telecom and there simply can't be one. Great example of a natural monopoly, no state required.

No there isn't a true freemarket but there is some things that can be done without a new Net Neutrality law. First the landline telcos are regulated as common carriers and can't discriminate based on who the parties are. Then there's isps' clients such as you and me. If my isp tried to throttle some of the websites I wanted to visit I'd raise hell. I pay for my access and by slowing down any website I try to visit they are breaking their contract with me. Then there's those like Google who own lots of dark fiber, and WiMax. Wimax, Like cellphone service, offers people the option to switch providers. Actually my only phone service is cellphonee service, I pay less for it than I did for a landline. And if you combine dark fiber with WiMax businesses can go around isps who throttle traffic, Google is already setting up a wireless system in San Francisco though not WiMax.

As it is now I see no need for a net neutrality law. We don't need more regulations we need less. If only the FCC were to open up the airwaves even more would be able to offer wireless access. Better yet get rid of the FCC.

That's what capitalism is all about right, dog eat dog, devil take the hindmost, screw the poor and powerless neo-social-darwinism sort of thing?

No it isn't. Freetrade capitalism is all about improving everyone's life. To see what capitalism is about Adam Smith's, the father of capitalism, book The Wealth Of Nations is good.

Why yes, yes I do.

Barnes and Noble is selling this book for $18.16, but Amazon.com is only selling it for $15.57!

Save yourself $2.59 by buying the book here: Wikinomics. That's a total savings of 14.26%!

The review links to B & N, but it looks like Amazon has it cheaper if you look at the "Used and new..." listings.

Who modded this off-topic? The title is indeed a clear reference to Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly . As Dick was possibly schizophrenic and much of his work was about human perception and possible alternative functionings of the brain, it makes sense. The parent should've been modded up as informative.

If you're willing to think about the situation then there are books out there that take a fair look at gun control. I only scrounged up two, sorry.

If you're willing to think about the situation then there are books out there that take a fair look at gun control. I only scrounged up two, sorry.

Can your brain project images onto a digital chip or film?

UFOs are not fun and games, they are not delusions. They are real. The phenomenon has involved real technology, doing real things that are not supposed to be possible. This technology, since at least World War Two, has engaged in a confrontational and provocative manner with U.S. military forces on many occasions. It has involved both air space violations and alarmed responses, and has elicited the concern of some of the highest ranking military and intelligence officers in the country.

We know this because, for a relatively brief period in America's history (primarily the late 1970s and into some of the 1980s), the Freedom of Information Act enabled researchers to obtain official documents from government agencies which clearly demonstrated this. Not that FOIA is officially dead today, but it has had its ups and downs over the years. As far as obtaining UFO-related information, FOIA's moment of glory was long ago, in the post-Watergate and post-Vietnam era.

Thus, agencies such as the CIA, DIA, FBI, and pick your alphabet-soup agency, which for years had steadfastly denied having anything to do with UFOs, suddenly released thousands of pages of documentation proving the opposite. It is true that, among these officially released documents, there is no absolute smoking gun - e.g. a memo from the President stating "Okay, what do we do about these pesky aliens, anyhoo?" There are, however, quite a few documents that are one cut below this. That is, documents that describe utterly awesome military encounters with the unexplainable.

Taken individually, such FOIA documents do not prove the existence of UFOs as something "not us." After all, people, even military witnesses, can make mistakes. Radar can be faulty or misinterpreted. But, taken as a whole, the released FOIA documents provide a large body of evidence relating to serious military encounters with UFOs. After you read the first fifty of these, you start to wonder.

Let's review a couple of these documents. . .

You can read the whole of his essay, (in two parts).

The quote from above comes from the second part. The first part is, what I thought, a fascinating historical review of how the world works with regard to secrets.

Or you can read his book. It comes highly recommended. --This is not your average "Woo woo, Leonard Nimoy looks at UFO's!" book. It only looks at cases reported by multiple airforce/military/police witnesses, (due to their typically being selected for being sane and sound individuals as well as the procedural documentation recorded in each case as a requirement of their jobs). Even though civilian accounts are left out, the book still manages to cover a couple hundred cases from the 40's to the 70's. It also deals in depth with the military and political side of the issue, and easily refutes many of the common misnomers about UFO's, (of which several are represented on this site).

He doesn't, however, get into what UFO's are here to do. That's a whole other can of worms.

Here is some channeled work which attempts to shed light on that subject, among others. (Beware, with a group like the one this particular material comes from, a lot of creepy people also come out of the woodwork to spread fear and confusion and lies, etc., in order to stop people from looking. So take everything, including this, with a grain of salt. This is the kind of material and subject matter which makes people want to play a lot of video games and shut out eve

D itself conflicts with a pre-existing language design: a replacement for SQL designed by Hugh Darwen and Chris Date.

"The CEO of the RIAA isn't a lawyer. Neither, I presume, are a lot of the members and officers."

The CEO, Mitch Bainwol, doesn't have a JD, but he does have an MBA, which I believe makes him just as hated by Slashdotters. However, the RIAA"s president, one Cary Sherman, is Harvard Law '71, and was an IP lawyer for several years. FWIW, he's also dabbled in software copyright; he wrote this book which I'm sure is a thrilling page-turner.

By the way, I ran into Cary Sherman a few years back at CES. He's about 5'8". I could probably take him in a fight.

Save yourself some money by buying the book here: Collada.

"We did a migration from LDAP to AD (the customer demanded it--their legacy was AD) and we had ten-thousand more problems getting Active Directory to work."

That's what books like this are for. USE THEM!

There's a terrific book on parasites, including this one, called Parasite Rex". Of course, after reading it, I can't stop washing my hands, and washing, and washing ... there's *way* stranger stuff in nature than Heinlein, etc. every dreamed of :-)

There's a terrific book on parasites, including this one, called Parasite Rex". Of course, after reading it, I can't stop washing my hands, and washing, and washing ... there's *way* stranger stuff in nature than Heinlein, etc. every dreamed of :-)

Lol: I think they should have more scenes where he was lifting up skirts and pulling off clothes, I only saw 2 in the movie and let's be honest,that's the kind of stuff you like to see in an invisible man movie.

On Amazon, of course...

Wasn't there a book about this?

http://www.amazon.com/Deception-Point-Dan-Brown/dp /0671027387

Oh wait, that was the North Pole. My bad!

I think the novel you're referring to is Isaac Asimov's The End of Eternity?

Finding Dr. Schatz:The Discovery of Streptomycin and A Life it Saved; Inge Auerbach & Albert Schatz

My Uncle Al. Thank God that my family has amounted to something, to make up for the fact that I haven't.

However, I must point out that there is a difference between a cure and a prophylactic.

KFG

---- And one day she asked us if there was some way she could get better than number one.

Software development process guru Tom DeMarco wrote a book called The Deadline where he describes that as the mindset of a child abuser: if some is good, more is better, and there's no limit to define 'too much'.

Doesn't matter if it's discipline, search rankings, or 'commitment to the project'. They just want More.

"1. Acquire satellite radio: This would allow apple to sell iTunes over wireless without a computer. Also, satellite radio use digital transmission. iPod can either do built-in transmitter or make it as an accessory. This would allow user to play their iPod on car radio (satellite radio) without wire and without loss of signal quality. I can think of tons of other benefits of Apple-satellite radio merger, but not enough space here. This will also allow wireless song sharing like Zune."

Satellite radio has a high capital cost, high licensing costs, and still not profitable. It would make more sense for Apple to use cellular technology for wireless such as EVDO and Bluetooth for sharing files like Zune. My cell phone already does a better job at wireless transfers to other phones and to my computer using Bluetooth than Zune.

"2. Acquire TiVO or offer similar service. Allow TiVO to download iTunes song and synch with iPod. Agains this will allow people to buy iTunes over broadband without using computer. Also, people can play their iTune songs on home stereo via DVR easily. This would fit in ther iTV or MacMini strategy quite well."

Tivo is dead...It's been on the market for years and still has less than 5 million subscribers and declining especially since DirecTV is no longer using Tivo. There is hope with Comcast though. Besides, iTunes is not a money center for Apple. More likely is iTV/iTunes integration.

"3. iPod remote: Make an iPod remote which looks like iPod nano. It can be synched with real iPod using a computer. Now user can truly do full control of their iPod using this remote control. My biggest problem of current generation of remotes is that I can't select a song, photo, video. I can only do play and then skip it if I don't like it. With a wheel and display, I can exactly select the song and then play. Such a remote should not cost more than 50/60 dollars."

Already available. Not quite the size of the Nano. But what is there to sync on a remote?
http://www.hammacher.com/publish/73001.asp?promo=Q Search&ls=CH#

"4. External memory/battery module for iPod nano: Make an external memory/battery module for iPod which will connect to docking connector. That way, I can expand my iPod nano. How about 8 GB module for $99? Or a 48 hour battery module."

The whole purpose of the Nano is the small size. If you want something larger with a larger capacity, the 30GB iPod is the same price as the 8GB Nano. As far as battery packs there are plenty of them out there....

Rechargeable battery pack that adds 6 hours of video or 10 hours of audio:
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process ?Product_Id=282059

Battery pack that uses standard 9V batteries. $29.00 (not a referral link)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007NZQ2W/ref=dp _cp_ob_title_1/002-0578485-3817628

"5. A camera module expansion."

Do you mean something that allows you to transfer photos from your camera to your ipod? Apple sells the iPod Camera connector.

Just make the components in google colours.

Considering where the robots will be crawling, I think they're more likely to have a Zune inspired color scheme.

I'm guessing that someone who might have thought of getting you a gift, you already gave this rant to and they decided just to get you some nice socks.

You mean like these?

And of course, you'll pay more for DLP -- with the better picture, they do charge a premium and no one really has too much to say about it. Prices seem to be settling at about $3000 for a 1080p system in the coming year;

In addition to a good book on desktop Linux, it comes with a DVD with 7 distros. The DVD also has a bootable Knoppix distro, so you can try it on your computer without installing anything.

I currently use SUSE, which comes with Open Office and a ton of other applications on the DVD. Its YAST tool is the equivilent of Windows Control panel, and is about as easy to use.

I have not used Ubuntu, but from other posts it sounds like it is worth trying.

I have also used Linspire which also has a large library of software, like Ubuntu. It can be bought preinstalled on a computer from Fryes, Walmart, Microcenter and other places. Most of these systems cost about $200-$300 dollars. If you do buy one of these preinstalled systems, make sure you upgrade the memory to at least 512m.

I have found the installation of these distros on a bare-bones system to be easier than Windows, and it has never taken more than about 1/2 hour with any of them. In most cases, hardware (sound cards, network cards, cameras, etc) is recognized by the O/S directly, without having to install drivers for it. A notable exception is the 3D video cards, which are a PITA. If you want to play 3D games, make sure you get one from Nvidea or ATI, which provide Linux drivers for their cards.

This probably wont be relevant to your father but you might want to check out the film radio bikini. If your father is really alright I imagine he should probably consider himself very lucky.

http://www.amazon.com/Radio-Bikini-Robert-Stone-IV /dp/B0000TPAMO

(Most of you know Rey by his much more famous works: he and his wife wrote the Curious George books.)

(Most of you know Rey by his much more famous works: he and his wife wrote the Curious George books.)

(Most of you know Rey by his much more famous works: he and his wife wrote the Curious George books.)

The original rear-projection TVs use individual CRTs for RGB. And yes, it weighs a significant amount. Old electronics generally do. It weighs in around 300#s. Here's a "recent" listing, and here's a write-up closer to what I have.

This reminds me of the book 'Nova' by Samuel R. Delany. The 'science portion of the book involves super-heavy elements that are stable created in a Nova, but very rare, used for interstellar engine fuel. Neat http://www.amazon.com/Nova-Samuel-R-Delany/dp/0375 706704/sr=1-1/qid=1167302216/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-9763 297-9839833?ie=UTF8&s=books

The MPAA has done everything possible in order to NOT get any of my dollars. Nearly every film out is some formulaic droll foisted on a demographic that I am generally not a part of. Nor are any of my friends or family! So not only do they not generally OFFER things for which I can throw hard earned money away, the things they do offer that hold some interest are generally of such low quality acting (Keanu Reeves can NOT act), awful script (The last major blockbuster movie with decent dialog I can't even remember), and then they are charging way too much for it. I know a DVD costs like twenty five cents to make, including the box it comes in. I'm not spending $17.99 on some movie with no plot, no acting, no dialog, and no continuity, even on the rare occasion it IS about something I'm even remotely interested in, which is INCREDIBLY uncommon.

I'm also definitely not going to a theater to watch it once, get way over charged for soda and popcorn, and probably sit by somebody who doesn't turn off their phone, smells bad, is partying loudly with a six pack of beer (which I myself have done at some of these movies, in an attempt to improve their observed quality), or is making out with another teenager in ways that are not only illegal to be watching, but so badly done as to be more embarrassing than erotic.

I generally enjoy documentaries and WELL MADE films. They are almost NEVER available at the theater, and are also extraordinarily rare at Blockbuster, Hollywood, or any of the other cookie cutter corporate rental chains that do not offer any services for individuals like me whatsoever.

If movie makers want to make money again, they are going to have to start making decent movies. It's unbelievable to me that crappy sequels like X-men 3 make as much money as they do, but when the alternative is crappy sequels to "Bridget Jones' Diary", I can't actually say I'm even mildly surprised.

This entire rant can also be copied nearly verbatim for the RIAA and why I don't purchase many albums from corporate labels anymore, either. Just substitute the words movie and album, and swap theater with concert venue, most of which are also shitty corporate owned parks that also over charge for shitty unhealthy beverages.

If you want to see a GREAT movie you've never even heard of, check out http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00000IQC5/ sr=8-1/qid=1167268342/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-4951360- 3451255?ie=UTF8&s=dvd. It's got a great script, plot, dialog, and acting.

This is a shameless plug, but if you want a great album check out http://cdbaby.com/cd/leperkhanz/.

Otherwise, trolling http://www.mininova.org/ and http://btjunkie.org/ are going to yield better music and movie offerings than any local corporate theater or rental house.

rhY

Already, some (like William Dutton of the Oxford Internet Institute) are asking whether even this sanitized experiment is ethical.

The ethical concerns in both the real and virutal experiments appear quite close, as the goal, whether the "victim" is an animated charicature or a human actor screaming as if in pain (or not, as if dead), is to manipulate the emotions of the test volunteer while seeing how far he or she will go in hurting others "in the name of science."
Outside of scientific tests, emotional manipulation of course has a long history, and advertising has always been full of it (no pun intended, but if the shoe fits...). Interesting examples of such strong emotional manipulation are in several of the stories in the book "The Mind's I" by Dennett and Hoftsadter, and there's a controversial example in the UN anti-landmine video at http://stoplandmines.org.

If you've been a procrastinator for years in multiple areas of your life, it's worth spending some time trying to understand root causes, instead of searching for the "do it now!" quick fix (which often produces only fleeting improvements). A good place to start is with the psychological research presented in the venerable Burka and Yuen's Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About It, also available at amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

If you're a pessimist who often frets and fusses at the very beginning of projects when others are working away, worry-free, you might also find useful a read of "The Positive Power of Negative Thinking" bn.com, amazon.com, buy.com. The author makes the case that those of us with a pessimistic explanatory style may be using it to good effect when it comes to getting things done (e.g., worrying can be a form of motivation, and focusing on possible negative outcomes can be an aid to reducing risk of failure).

If you've been a procrastinator for years in multiple areas of your life, it's worth spending some time trying to understand root causes, instead of searching for the "do it now!" quick fix (which often produces only fleeting improvements). A good place to start is with the psychological research presented in the venerable Burka and Yuen's Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About It, also available at amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

If you're a pessimist who often frets and fusses at the very beginning of projects when others are working away, worry-free, you might also find useful a read of "The Positive Power of Negative Thinking" bn.com, amazon.com, buy.com. The author makes the case that those of us with a pessimistic explanatory style may be using it to good effect when it comes to getting things done (e.g., worrying can be a form of motivation, and focusing on possible negative outcomes can be an aid to reducing risk of failure).

compared to legal video sales. The largest target continues to be adult oriented content and TV shows,

Pirated TV shows, eh? Anyone surprised? It's the content provider's fault, and its their problem. No sympathy here. The reason it's pirated so much is that there's no viable alternative. VERY few shows, except a few tokens available on iTunes (The Office, etc), can't be bought legally until the season finishes and the DVD comes out. If it comes out. Months later.
So let's say the DVDs come out. Most shows are $40 a season!! The few episodes available for download cost a whopping $1.99. So however I buy it, chances are, I'm looking at $2 per episode, for something I'm probably only going to watch once. What a ripoff! I mean, I really like Lost, but once you find out what happens in the end, there really isn't much value in rewatching it (IMO). Therefore, it's not quite comparable in value to me purchasing one of my favorite movies on DVD that I'll likely watch over and over again. Sure I could rent it, but that's kind of a pain in the ass. And that doesn't even address technical issues.
I buy my favorite music online, I can buy it in a format that doesn't suck. With mp3, it Plays for Sure (tm) on my iPod, or God forbid off-brand mp3 player. Let's say I decide to buck up for a DVD of one of my favorite TV Shows. Now I have to deal with DVD player region crap. Can I just put it on my PSP/iPod Video, etc? Apparently not. That seems to be illegal under the DMCA. Well, maybe if I pay extra money for it at the time of purchase. Sounds like a crappy deal to me.

So let's recap. I'm a (relatively) honest consumer looking to watch my favorite show because I missed it on TV. It's overpriced, I have to wait as long as months to get it, it's overpriced, I'm probably only going to watch it once, it's overpriced, it comes in a crappy format, and I can't copy it (legally), and I can't put it on my mobile device. Piracy to the rescue! Any questions?

This subject is discussed in Humanity: A Moral History of the 20th Century by Jonathan Glover.

Along those lines, let me point you to one of the books that has most influenced my opinion of US foreign relations, and the CIA in general: The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence by Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks. They were former CIA employees who more or less blew the whistle on some of the despicable practices of the agency, to promote US business interests at the expense of thousands (maybe millions) of lives. The CIA tried to redact much of the book, and there was a court case which decided which pieces of info should be redacted, and which should not. The book has big white spaces where the redacted information was, and boldface text for info that the CIA requested to be redacted, but the courts disagreed. Very interesting.

Your "solution" is simply to ignore the problem... don't bother thinking about logical proof and rigor, don't bother with deep issues of philosophy, simply go out drink a beer go to sleep and go to work driving a taxi in the morning. [...] I think you'll agree that sweeping away all assumptions and starting from the sole bedrock proof "I think therefore I am", there is no pure logic proof you can use to bootstrap the validity of our senses or anything else.

Actually, I do disagree. Given we know that our senses are unreliable, from "I think therefore I am", we can only logically extend it to say "our senses reflect only a facet or transformation of the underlying reality". We must then use the scientific method, or some other sound epistemology, to produce the rest of our knowledge of reality. The philosophy of science is well-grounded logically, so I'm not sure how you can equate this to "going out for a beer and ignoring the problem". If the facet of our reality includes a higher power influencing our view of things (the higher power's influence also being a transformation of underlying reality), that will eventually be reflected in our knowledge. This is the best anyone can ever hope to do given our current understanding.

I took a signifigantly narrower assumption, that there may or may not be a superbeing of various sorts, merely positing no actively deceptive superbeing.

I understand, but this assumption is superfluous; we don't need to it make statements about and build knowledge of reality, as the scientific method is a sufficient epistemological technique. Realistically speaking, just about any proselytizing about reality that philosophy aims to do, science can do better and more rigorously. Philosophy is/was needed only when dealing with knowledge itself (epistemology), as it produced the philosophy of science and initially placed the scientific method on a rigorous footing; but once you realize "I think therefore I am", any further metaphysics is best left to science.

So my "solution" involves continuing our research into reality via scientific exploration, because it is currently a better tool for building knowledge of reality than additional assumptions; it's the best tool we have in fact.

If you want a more rigorous, mathematical treatment of science, see "Probability Theory: The Logic of Science".

http://www.amazon.com/Turtles-Termites-Traffic-Jam s-Explorations/dp/0262680939

My two favorite versions of Linux are Ubuntu and Kubunutu. Kubunutu is actually just a version of Ubuntu that uses the KDE desktop environment instead of the Gnome desktop environment. A person can install either one and then just use the Synaptic package manager to download and install the other one too. After that you can choose to use either KDE or Gnome when you are booting up by clicking on the session button on the login screen and choosing either KDE or Gnome. If someone has already installed Ubuntu and has a high-speed Internet connection they can use the Synaptic package manager to also install the kubuntu-desktop package. If someone started by installing Kubuntu they can add the Gnome stuff by using Adept (or Synaptic if it is already installed) to download and install the gnome-desktop-environment. I have both installed on my computer at home and use KDE most of the time.

Either KDE or Gnome would be a good choice although I have a slight preference for KDE. Most Ubuntu books and on-line instructions assume that your are using Ubuntu with Gnome instead of Kubuntu with KDE so when starting out it is easier to follow the directions when using Ubuntu and Gnome.

There is an on-line discussion forum for Ubuntu users here:

Ubuntu Forum

There are also books about using Ubuntu Linux such as these:

• Ubuntu Unleashed
• Moving to Ubuntu Linux
• The Official Ubuntu Book
• Ubuntu Linux for Non-Geeks

One of my favorite features that the Linux desktop has which Windows lacks is the multiple virtual desktops. What is that? Well, sometimes I have several programs open at once and I want a fresh clean screen to fill up with more stuff but don't want to close any programs or even minimize them. I click on one of the rectangles in the row of rectangles on the taskbar and suddenly, I have another fresh clean empty screen to open more programs in. To return to the other desktop with my other stuff, I just click on the appropriate rectangle. In KDE, each virtual desktop can have its own wallpaper too. Windows doesn't have that, perhaps a barely computer literate Windows user might be confused by a useful feature like that. Sometimes, I have about a dozen programs open at once, all scattered across about 4 or 5 virtual desktops. When using Windows, everything feels much more cramped for space and cluttered without the multiple virtual desktops.

When using a Debian derived Linux distribution such as Ubunutu, Kubunu or Mepis have fun downloading some free new programs from the hundreds of available free programs that are listed for you by the Synaptic package manager. Windows doesn't offer a comparable program that does point-and-click installations of free GPL licensed software programs from the on-line Ubuntu repositories.