Go Enumclaw! Woot!
That's the way, the only reason they are famous is because of a guy having intercourse with a horse. I knew there was a reason why my family fled that city.
It's still ugly and buggy, though better than it was 6 months ago.
I'll be doing some extensive testing on it over the next few days for a review on my website to see whether it could actually be used as a viable alternative to iTunes.
I haven't used it all that much, but I have been able to crash it. I'm very skeptical about a browser platform for playing Music. I think a VLC derivative would be a much better choice.
I've been doing some testing with Songbird lately. It's still in development stages (.05 release)
However, I think eventually it will make a fairly decent iTunes replacement. Plus you can use your iPod with it and not have to install iTunes.
Along similar lines, my DVD player just crapped out on me. After scouring the consumer reports for about a month or so, it turns out if you want a good Upscaling DVD player, it will cost you between $120 and $160 (Yes I am aware that you can get an upscaling DVD player for $50, but I'm talking good quality ones) So why wouldn't I want to put out an extra $30 for something that will play HD discs plus get 7 free DVDs, at least 4 of which I had been wanting to pick up in regular DVD format. I'm very happy with my purchase and I think this format war is far from over. Likely it will come to a stale mate and everything will be running off of solid state drives.
I know that the whole point is to save lives and all, but we really shouldn't be doing this. As it is we have screwed up the planet a lot. I'm sure there is some natural benefit to hurricanes (not that I know what it is) and by trying to control them, we are screwing with the ecosystem even more than we already have.
At some point we're going to figure out how to control it and some guy is going to wipe out all of Florida in one big swoop because something didn't go exactly as planned.
Don't screw with nature. Karma bites.
I use it but I save in DOC format. Here's the problem: None of the computers I go to have support for ODF. A document that you can't open is absolutely useless. We live in a Microsoft dominated world and since most businesses use DOC format, that is what we, the users of free office software are stuck using until more support for ODF comes to more computers. With Ubuntu on the rise, this may become more and more common, but as of now, we are pretty much stuck using doc format if we want to open these docs on any but our own.
I do web design and honestly there isn't much improvement with IE7 when it comes to CSS support. I still have to manually tweak, disable, and generally design around IE in order for it to work properly.
I test out my site in Firefox 2, IE6, IE7, Opera, Safari, and Konqueror. Generally everything will work correctly in every browser except the two versions of IE and what displays incorrectly generally is the same thing in both browsers. Never have I seen it work correctly in one version of IE and not the other.
I see no bonus whatsoever. You get the same shit in a different package, that's all.
Have you tried doing networking on Vista? The whole system which used to be simple is so convoluted now that it takes forever to set the thing up. Furthermore, when I was using Vista, my shared folders would drop constantly for no reason, the screen saver completely died after about 2 weeks of constant use, on the first round the computer decided it would never go to sleep and on the second round it decided it just would never come out of sleep mode. Not to mention the constant crashing. You call that a great OS?
Not so much. Adding Vista to the list would be like adding Windows ME to the list of the best products for 1999. It's a terrible OS, it hogs resources and there is no innovation.
Go keep an eye on which ones are always being compared together. It's IE, Firefox, and Opera. Safari and Konqueror get left out because they aren't Windows based.
Maybe Microsoft should focus less on "Vista Integration" and more on CSS support for their browser. Among the 3 Big Browsers (IE, Firefox, and Opera) Opera is the only one that actually passes the Acid2 Browser test. Check it out for yourself. http://www.webstandards.org/action/acid2/
Firefox does a decent job, but not one I would expect from a browser such as Firefox. However, IE's support for it is terrible. I'm redesigning my website and the CSS works in every browser I've tried except IE, what is up with that?
Come On MS, I know it's tough, but can you make a browser that at least attempts to comply with web standards? Your browser has been around way longer than Firefox and Opera, but your support is the worst of the three.
Actually that's not true. There are plenty of laptops out there with the Intel Core 2 Duo in them. I sell laptops at an Office Store and at least half of the models that we sell now have the Core 2 Duo in them.
Don't want them to view certain websites? Then edit the hosts file. Most kids don't even know it exists, so you can edit it and effectivly block the websites for web based IM, (I used it on myspace) and any other places you don't want them to go. It's not great for large amounts of sites, but you can block the popular ones that they visit a lot.
Basically it will keep them on their toes and make them realize that you are more tech savy than they thought.
BTW, I don't see what being a non-windows user has to do anything, you can just as easily do that with with windows as you can with the other OS's.
I'm not a parent, but I do feel that these chat loggers are a good idea.
From the adults end:
I know that in the modern lifestyle, parents don't always have time to watch over their kids shoulders every moment of the day to find out who they are talking to and where they are going. It would be better parenting if they did, but lets face it, in a world that is so high tech nowadays, that's just not plausable. I consider chat rooms to be useless, but IM is a useful tool, but there are dangerous people out there, so that just needs to be taken into account. I don't think blocking off IM completely is a good option because I know it saved my ass numerous times throughout school and I would want my kids to have access to it as well.
The logging would allow the parent to keep an eye on what's going on so that they can at least be red flagged and confront their child if they see something headed down the wrong path (such as one could be assumed as an online predator)
From the kids view:
I would have flipped out if my parents had been reading through my conversations as a kid. It's a violation of privacy and would cause me to resent my parents if they were doing that. I always hated it when they were reading over my shoulder too.
In the end, you can either monitor your kids really closely and they'll get pissed at you, or you can log their conversations, and they'll get pissed at you if they find out, or you can just ignore them and hope that they don't get abducted. Personally I think it's better to get them pissed at you.
On the subject of kids being smarter adults being smarter etc.
It varies by household. Looking back, I realize that I was smarter than my parents with computers. I knew how to clean up that computer so they couldn't even tell I'd been online. 6 years later, I've also realized my dad barely knows how to use the internet, much less track me, and my mom doesn't know anything about it either.
That said, I spent 90% of my time on the computer throughout my teenage years learning everything I could about the computer. Now I'm in the IT field. Usually that won't be the case. I work with a lot of kids and a lot of adults. Most of the parents using the computers, really aren't that smart even though they think they are. Most don't know how to check where their kids have been and etc. Actually on the average, the adult users are for the most part computer illiterate except for a few things that they know how to do really well, usually for their job.
Kids claim to be smart to, but most of them really don't know how to clean up their tracks. I repair a lot of computers that adults have for their kids (parents are shocked when they find out where their kids have been) and if they were really as smart as they claim to be, they could have cleaned up their tracks on their computers.
Basically what I'm getting at, is that niether side is as smart as they claim to be, although there are exceptions. Parents need to do what they have to in order to keep tabs on their kids because it isn't plausable in this day and age to keep 24/7 tabs on their kids while they are online. IM logging will help with that, provided they remember to check it regularly.
Personally I love open source software even though I'm a windows user. While I don't try to switch people over to Linux, I do attempt to switch people over to the use of Firefox over IE. I do this through several methods.
Method 1: For people who are just generally browsing the web and come across my site, I have an article on Firefox that I wrote on my website giving the feature/benefit side of switching to Firefox. 80% of the hits on my site are through Firefox.
Method 2: I do computer repair on the side to help pay for college. When I work on somebodies computer, I explain to them the features and benefits of Firefox. I show them what it looks like on my laptop. Then I ask them if they would like to try it. Making sure to tell them that if they don't like it, they can always go back to IE. If they say yes, then I install it on their machine. If they say no, then I don't press the issue. This method works really well. I've had about a 95% success rate on convincing people to switch to Firefox. (I took 3 years of marketing, so I can make a pretty convincing arguement)
I make it a point to keep in contact with the people who I have done work on their computers. Almost every one of those people who has taken me up on the offer to try Firefox is still with it because they like it better.
Getting people to switch is all about how you present yourself and the software. I highly advocate the use of Windows for these people, because I know that as long as they are still using Windows, I still have a job. Once they switch to Linux, I can't fix their computers because I am not strong enough in that area yet.
Plus a complete OS switch is likely to quickly overwhelm a customer unless they are well prepared.
Method 3:
This one works the best of any of them. I have been doing Freelance IT work since I was 14. Over that time, I've gained a repuation as being a very knowledgable and reliable computer geek. Because of this, I often get people coming to me asking for recommendations on software to do certain things. I take these opportunities (that come very often) to recommend open source software if I know of any that will fit their needs. This works well because a lot of the people who come to me are on a college budget and can't afford an expensive program, so free works really well for them. If they like the program that I recommended (which they generally do) they then recommend it to other people.
In general, the best method to encourage people to use open source is to give them the option to use it, show them the features/benefits of it, and *never* try to jam it down their throats that they have to use it.
With 2 exceptions, I always ask before I install the software on their computer. The first being in the case of family. They always tell me, do what you have to and if I recommend that they switch to something, they will. No questions asked. The second exception is if I am using the software to actually fix their computer. In which case they don't get the option of whether or not I install it. I've found they never care if I do that, half the time they don't realize it's there and as long as their computer works, they are good with it.
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Go Enumclaw! Woot! That's the way, the only reason they are famous is because of a guy having intercourse with a horse. I knew there was a reason why my family fled that city.
It's still ugly and buggy, though better than it was 6 months ago. I'll be doing some extensive testing on it over the next few days for a review on my website to see whether it could actually be used as a viable alternative to iTunes. I haven't used it all that much, but I have been able to crash it. I'm very skeptical about a browser platform for playing Music. I think a VLC derivative would be a much better choice.
I've been doing some testing with Songbird lately. It's still in development stages (.05 release) However, I think eventually it will make a fairly decent iTunes replacement. Plus you can use your iPod with it and not have to install iTunes.
Along similar lines, my DVD player just crapped out on me. After scouring the consumer reports for about a month or so, it turns out if you want a good Upscaling DVD player, it will cost you between $120 and $160 (Yes I am aware that you can get an upscaling DVD player for $50, but I'm talking good quality ones) So why wouldn't I want to put out an extra $30 for something that will play HD discs plus get 7 free DVDs, at least 4 of which I had been wanting to pick up in regular DVD format. I'm very happy with my purchase and I think this format war is far from over. Likely it will come to a stale mate and everything will be running off of solid state drives.
I know that the whole point is to save lives and all, but we really shouldn't be doing this. As it is we have screwed up the planet a lot. I'm sure there is some natural benefit to hurricanes (not that I know what it is) and by trying to control them, we are screwing with the ecosystem even more than we already have. At some point we're going to figure out how to control it and some guy is going to wipe out all of Florida in one big swoop because something didn't go exactly as planned. Don't screw with nature. Karma bites.
I use it but I save in DOC format. Here's the problem: None of the computers I go to have support for ODF. A document that you can't open is absolutely useless. We live in a Microsoft dominated world and since most businesses use DOC format, that is what we, the users of free office software are stuck using until more support for ODF comes to more computers. With Ubuntu on the rise, this may become more and more common, but as of now, we are pretty much stuck using doc format if we want to open these docs on any but our own.
I do web design and honestly there isn't much improvement with IE7 when it comes to CSS support. I still have to manually tweak, disable, and generally design around IE in order for it to work properly.
I test out my site in Firefox 2, IE6, IE7, Opera, Safari, and Konqueror. Generally everything will work correctly in every browser except the two versions of IE and what displays incorrectly generally is the same thing in both browsers. Never have I seen it work correctly in one version of IE and not the other.
I see no bonus whatsoever. You get the same shit in a different package, that's all.
Have you tried doing networking on Vista? The whole system which used to be simple is so convoluted now that it takes forever to set the thing up. Furthermore, when I was using Vista, my shared folders would drop constantly for no reason, the screen saver completely died after about 2 weeks of constant use, on the first round the computer decided it would never go to sleep and on the second round it decided it just would never come out of sleep mode. Not to mention the constant crashing. You call that a great OS?
Please note that if you do turn of UAC, this will also disable protected mode on IE7.
Not so much. Adding Vista to the list would be like adding Windows ME to the list of the best products for 1999. It's a terrible OS, it hogs resources and there is no innovation.
Go keep an eye on which ones are always being compared together. It's IE, Firefox, and Opera. Safari and Konqueror get left out because they aren't Windows based.
Maybe Microsoft should focus less on "Vista Integration" and more on CSS support for their browser. Among the 3 Big Browsers (IE, Firefox, and Opera) Opera is the only one that actually passes the Acid2 Browser test. Check it out for yourself.
http://www.webstandards.org/action/acid2/
Firefox does a decent job, but not one I would expect from a browser such as Firefox. However, IE's support for it is terrible. I'm redesigning my website and the CSS works in every browser I've tried except IE, what is up with that?
Come On MS, I know it's tough, but can you make a browser that at least attempts to comply with web standards? Your browser has been around way longer than Firefox and Opera, but your support is the worst of the three.
He said recommend getting the work done at the dealership, not require it.
Perhaps you missed something?
Actually that's not true. There are plenty of laptops out there with the Intel Core 2 Duo in them. I sell laptops at an Office Store and at least half of the models that we sell now have the Core 2 Duo in them.
Don't want them to view certain websites? Then edit the hosts file. Most kids don't even know it exists, so you can edit it and effectivly block the websites for web based IM, (I used it on myspace) and any other places you don't want them to go. It's not great for large amounts of sites, but you can block the popular ones that they visit a lot.
Basically it will keep them on their toes and make them realize that you are more tech savy than they thought.
BTW, I don't see what being a non-windows user has to do anything, you can just as easily do that with with windows as you can with the other OS's.
I'm not a parent, but I do feel that these chat loggers are a good idea.
From the adults end:
I know that in the modern lifestyle, parents don't always have time to watch over their kids shoulders every moment of the day to find out who they are talking to and where they are going. It would be better parenting if they did, but lets face it, in a world that is so high tech nowadays, that's just not plausable. I consider chat rooms to be useless, but IM is a useful tool, but there are dangerous people out there, so that just needs to be taken into account. I don't think blocking off IM completely is a good option because I know it saved my ass numerous times throughout school and I would want my kids to have access to it as well.
The logging would allow the parent to keep an eye on what's going on so that they can at least be red flagged and confront their child if they see something headed down the wrong path (such as one could be assumed as an online predator)
From the kids view:
I would have flipped out if my parents had been reading through my conversations as a kid. It's a violation of privacy and would cause me to resent my parents if they were doing that. I always hated it when they were reading over my shoulder too.
In the end, you can either monitor your kids really closely and they'll get pissed at you, or you can log their conversations, and they'll get pissed at you if they find out, or you can just ignore them and hope that they don't get abducted. Personally I think it's better to get them pissed at you.
On the subject of kids being smarter adults being smarter etc.
It varies by household. Looking back, I realize that I was smarter than my parents with computers. I knew how to clean up that computer so they couldn't even tell I'd been online. 6 years later, I've also realized my dad barely knows how to use the internet, much less track me, and my mom doesn't know anything about it either.
That said, I spent 90% of my time on the computer throughout my teenage years learning everything I could about the computer. Now I'm in the IT field. Usually that won't be the case. I work with a lot of kids and a lot of adults. Most of the parents using the computers, really aren't that smart even though they think they are. Most don't know how to check where their kids have been and etc. Actually on the average, the adult users are for the most part computer illiterate except for a few things that they know how to do really well, usually for their job.
Kids claim to be smart to, but most of them really don't know how to clean up their tracks. I repair a lot of computers that adults have for their kids (parents are shocked when they find out where their kids have been) and if they were really as smart as they claim to be, they could have cleaned up their tracks on their computers.
Basically what I'm getting at, is that niether side is as smart as they claim to be, although there are exceptions. Parents need to do what they have to in order to keep tabs on their kids because it isn't plausable in this day and age to keep 24/7 tabs on their kids while they are online. IM logging will help with that, provided they remember to check it regularly.
Personally I love open source software even though I'm a windows user. While I don't try to switch people over to Linux, I do attempt to switch people over to the use of Firefox over IE. I do this through several methods.
Method 1:
For people who are just generally browsing the web and come across my site, I have an article on Firefox that I wrote on my website giving the feature/benefit side of switching to Firefox. 80% of the hits on my site are through Firefox.
Method 2:
I do computer repair on the side to help pay for college. When I work on somebodies computer, I explain to them the features and benefits of Firefox. I show them what it looks like on my laptop. Then I ask them if they would like to try it. Making sure to tell them that if they don't like it, they can always go back to IE. If they say yes, then I install it on their machine. If they say no, then I don't press the issue. This method works really well. I've had about a 95% success rate on convincing people to switch to Firefox. (I took 3 years of marketing, so I can make a pretty convincing arguement)
I make it a point to keep in contact with the people who I have done work on their computers. Almost every one of those people who has taken me up on the offer to try Firefox is still with it because they like it better.
Getting people to switch is all about how you present yourself and the software. I highly advocate the use of Windows for these people, because I know that as long as they are still using Windows, I still have a job. Once they switch to Linux, I can't fix their computers because I am not strong enough in that area yet.
Plus a complete OS switch is likely to quickly overwhelm a customer unless they are well prepared.
Method 3:
This one works the best of any of them. I have been doing Freelance IT work since I was 14. Over that time, I've gained a repuation as being a very knowledgable and reliable computer geek. Because of this, I often get people coming to me asking for recommendations on software to do certain things. I take these opportunities (that come very often) to recommend open source software if I know of any that will fit their needs. This works well because a lot of the people who come to me are on a college budget and can't afford an expensive program, so free works really well for them. If they like the program that I recommended (which they generally do) they then recommend it to other people.
In general, the best method to encourage people to use open source is to give them the option to use it, show them the features/benefits of it, and *never* try to jam it down their throats that they have to use it.
With 2 exceptions, I always ask before I install the software on their computer. The first being in the case of family. They always tell me, do what you have to and if I recommend that they switch to something, they will. No questions asked. The second exception is if I am using the software to actually fix their computer. In which case they don't get the option of whether or not I install it. I've found they never care if I do that, half the time they don't realize it's there and as long as their computer works, they are good with it.