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Mac OS 9 and earlier only had "co operative" multitasking and Mac zealots of the day used to proclaim it was better than "true" multitasking and came up with all sorts of rationales for it

Like... it actually fulfilled the main need Mac users had for multitasking: i.e. having multiple apps running and being able to switch between them, without imposing the extra overhead of proper preemptive multitasking? Or that the main competition, Windows 95, only had half-baked multitasking anyway?

Anyway, only the most rabid Mac zealots would deny that, by the end of the 90s, Mac OS 9 had passed its sell-by date.

Uncomfortable truth: if you're running interactive applications, you don't need full multitasking. If you've got a system with limited CPU/RAM you don't want full multitasking.

Multitasking on Windows Mobile: epic fail. Multitasking on Android: sorry folks, I actually use an Android phone and it grinds to a halt unless you use a third-party task killer app. Me, I don't want to miss phone calls because I've forgot to kill my GPS app (and it doesn't matter that the radio is independent - the phone UI still needs the main CPU).

"Windows95 had full preemptive multitasking .. mainstream MS users enjoyed preemptive multitasking from 1995 on"

'Because Microsoft built Windows 95 using the same System Virtual Machine (VM) model found in Windows 3.1, the operating system is at the mercy of legacy 16-bit applications. If a Win16 program hangs, it can tie up critical 16-bit code modules located in the System VM. All other processing is halted'

'Microsoft has chosen to rely on its existing, Windows 3.1-era USER (window management) and Graphics Device Interface (GDI) modules rather than create new, 32-bit versions. In order to utilize this older, 16-bit code in potentially preemptive (with regard to Win32 applications), 32-bit multitasking environment of Windows 95, Microsoft was forced to serialize access to USER and GDI.

As a result, only a single Win32 or Win16 program can access these critical modules at any given time. This hurts application performance on heavily loaded systems as programs are forced to "line-up" and wait for a chance to execute a USER or GDI routine. All USER calls (for both 16 and 32-bit applications) are serialized and handled by the 16-bit code, while the majority of GDI calls are similarly handled (the other 50 percent are handled by newer 32-bit routines). BOTTOM LINE: WINDOWS 95'S MULTITASKING IS BEST DESCRIBED AS PREEMPTIVELY CHALLENGED'

Verizon won't even sell me an ISDN circuit. Bastards.

Not like I'm bitter. See my other post on this thread for my bitch-session on satellite Internet access.

The real kicker is that the county a couple miles to the south line has DSL access available for every home from its telco cooperative (Shentel). But not Verizon. Verizon will wire up FiOS all day long to its precious consumer base in densely-populated Northern Virginia and the DC suburbs, but will hardly lift a finger to provide even decent dial-up service out in rural areas.

Universal Service Fee, my ass.

Y'know what modem speed I get when I dial up my local Verizon access number? 23.4kbps if I'm lucky, 19.2kbps if I'm not. Not even a 28.8kbps connection. Welcome to 1995.

This is a situation like Cyberwings. In that case the owner ended up doing time in prison.

http://www.dotjournal.com/web-hosting-down-cyberwings-story

Every time any adult tries to be cool in order to get kids to pay attention to a subject in school that they hate, they fail miserably.

If you read TFA you will find that she ran drafts of the book past actual middle-school girls to see what those actual girls thought about it. And she incorporated their feedback.

So it's actually possible that teen girls will like her book.

And since you haven't actually read the book and you are just waving your hands around and speaking in generalities, you haven't convinced me her book will fail.

If she could lose the cheesy teen-mag look, I'm sure we'd see some progress.

And I'm sure that if the "...for Dummies" series lost that stupid "...for Dummies" tag, it might be successful. Oh wait, it is hugely successful.

So let's wait and see how the book actually does before analyzing why it's a failure.

Jason's been working on the documentary for four years.

This is an interview with Jason Scott at the beginning where he explains the goals and the reasons why he did it.