Wow talk about not getting the joke. But the grand parent isn't really that crazy. While there is a pilot in the cockpit, he's not necessarily flying the plain. Two years ago while embarking on a spring break trip to the Bahamas, we ran into the pilot for our flight while waiting to board at the gate. Just for kicks, we asked for a tour of the cockpit. Turns out, he doesn't need to touch a thing during the entire flight if he doesn't want to and normally doesn't touch a whole lot. The plan has it's flight plan programmed in and all controls are "by-wire." The plane can take-off and land all by itself and the pilot only does it manually during extreme conditions where pilot insticts and feel might better cope. We asked if he would be manually flying at all that day. He said he was probably going to take off just because he felt like it.
Great list of ideas. Going with just one or two of any of those ideas would be a huge improvement over what they released. All of those ideas are perfectly feasible with the current technology available. It's just a matter of someone offering it in the proper form factor. In fact, just today I read that Verizon has taken your youtube idea already. You can now log in to youtube through Verizon's Vcast service and both view and submit videos from your Vcast enabled Mobile phone.
Sony and Microsoft would pay a pretty penny for that kind of information. Maybe they have, maybe they haven't, but either way, Nintendo doesn't want them to have it, so neither will you.
They know how to type google.com into their search bars when they want to use a real search engine.
Actually I have come across many users who do not understand the whole typing of URLs in the address bar and are completely dependent on Google for ALL web browsing because someone (probably one of us) set it as the default page. In fact one person I know was having a problem where Google was not opening up, so I asked if it was just google or if it was every page. He replied that google was the default page and that he can't get to any other page without it. When I asked if he tried typing in another web address into the address bar, he returned a blank and confused stare. I encountered other people who used this same method of web browsing and my head almost exploded the first time I encountered this.
My point being (and I do have a point), that if the user is running vista, and he or she opens up IE7 (cause that's the default) and the first page they see is MS Live (cause that's the default), and MS Live is conveniently modeled to look almost exactly like google (can you blame them?), they probably won't even realize that it is NOT google. They will assume that this is the new Google Vista edition or something, and just continue on using MS Live. This is a serious threat to Google. Google needs to come up with a way to either compete directly in the way that MS is (which is what this article is about), or they need to educate users that they need to type in WWW.GOOGLE.COM for that Genuine Google Advantage (GGA, accept no substitutes. This would be interesting as it would involve some kind of media advertising which to my knowledge google has never done.
Seriously did someone really need to do a whole study to determine this and then write an article telling the world? Or is this just a advertisement to all of the clueless CIOs out there who have never heard of MySQL or PostgreSQL?
Really eager to use Ubuntu
on
Free Geek Robbed
·
· Score: 3, Funny
These guys must have been so eager to use Ubuntu that they couldn't wait long enough to download and burn their own copy or order one in the mail. While I admire their enthusiasm over Linux, I can't condone stealing stealing a copy.
You make some excellent points, but you have to keep the setting in perspective. Your comments are definitely valid in a corporate setting, but this is a library setting with computers open for free public access. My mother works in a public library in the US and I have volunteered my time assisting the sysadmin in support.
The first thing to remember, is that the public user does not need any specialized applications. The staff may need a special app for their check-in/out cataloguing system, but as for the public user, they need access to only two things: Office suite and web browser. Sure there are lots of other apps that we've provided (mostly some games) but the only things people do on these public machines is office related and web related. Now with the web portion, there are a lot of apps that may go along, as in flash, acrobat, etc. We even broke down and installed all of the popular instant messenging clients (I objected, but was over-ruled and had to install aim, yahoo, and msn on every pc in the place). The only exception I can think of is tax software, but the demand for it was usually low (only on a couple pc's and only used around April 15th).
You also argue about support. You and the parent are both correct in your assessments of support in Windows. Corporate support for Windows (from what I've been told) is pretty good and have gotten some previous co-workers out of some pack-up-your-things-cause-your-probably-fired type of jams. But these are for servers. A public library is already stretched for funds and does not have a support contract with MS. That's why they have their IT guy (and yes it's usually just one guy running the show). In cases where the IT guy is stumped, he's on google searching for a solution. Usually he ends up at support.microsoft.com, but the answers aren't there. The linux users have the support of not just those who wrote the software, but of everyone else using it. Comparing general desktop, non-corporate, Linux wins big time.
Chinese Gov: What? You mean you can't access the site? Oh we're terribly sorry, there must be a technical problem. We have identified the problem and we are working on it. Expect to be back on Wikipedia in six to eight years.
Great little comic. I think that is exactly what is going to happen, that is of course if Nintendo does in fact deliver on the supply end. It reminds me of a simulation I took part in in my business policy course back in college:
The idea was that our class was split into five different "shoe companies". Each week we would enter information on how much to produce, how much they cost, and other business decisions that go into selling a shoe. At the end of the week, the simulation runs and we see who sold the most. The intersting part for my team was that we ended up selling the most shoes most weeks, but we were not necessarily the most demanded. The most demanded company stocked out at a fairly low number. Everyone who wanted that shoe, then bought our shoe because it was relatively close in value to their number one choice. As this happened week after week, we then started stocking out because our demand started increasing beyond our capacity. In the end, we were able to have the largest production capacity, while still holding on to our demand and sold two times the amount of our nearest competitor. We got an A on the project and I think Nintendo is setting themselves up for an A as well.
For every lunitic that endured horrible weather and violence to get a PS3, there is at least 30 people that decided to wait it out. At least half of those 30 will probably not really care if they get a PS3 or a Wii, and go with the one that is available right now for them to buy.
Ubuntu is a good choice, although if you really want to get a feel for how linux works, you might want to go with something that is actually less user friendly and has less "pollish". I started out with Fedora Core and found it to be really good starter just because it forced me to learn some of the old methods. Fedora has become more advanced since then though, so maybe something like Slackware or Gentoo, where it's a real Do It Yourself kind of distro. My cousin once recommended Suse because it was very cutting edge for developer tools (i'm not a developer so I wouldn't know), but I think he contributed most of that to KDE. But you are probably good not to go with SUSE just for the reasons you mentioned.
It seems Microsoft has been doing a lot of following and not much leading. Google really lead the way with the whole free public WiFi and now Microsoft is jumping in the ring. Apple revolutionizes the digital music scene, so Microsoft answers (years later mind you) with the Zune. Google launches a hosted word processor and spreadsheet app. and Microsoft just announced that they too will be releasing such apps with Office Live. Now I understand that Microsoft needs to either get on board or get left behind, but we hardly ever see Microsoft actually lead the way. To me it seems odd that the largest software company in the world relies on other companies ideas. You would think with their size and their cash, they would have more fresh, industry leading ideas coming out of their R&D department. I'm not too shocked though, because this has been the model Microsoft has taken since the beginning of their existence. MS-DOS was a ripoff of CP/M or (insert DOS-like OS here) and the idea of the mouse driven GUI was ripped off from Apple.
Does anyone have an example of a truly original idea that came out of Microsoft AND was successful industry leader?
Leave the advertising to the computer manufacturers like Dell and HP. Now that Dell is going to carry AMD, they could start putting in AMD logos with whatever "chime" AMD has at the end of every one of their commercials. On their website, they can even say, "Now we bring you more savings by offering you the option of an AMD processor." Followed by an explanation that AMD is on par with intel when it comes to speed and is fully compatible with all software designed for intels. If I were in charge, I'd probably drop the Celeron as the low cost alternative and just push AMD's. In general the AMD costs as much, if not less than a Celeron and outperforms it like gangbusters.
Welcome to Slashdot, where no one reads the fucking article but comments anyway. I hope you enjoy your stay.
On a less cynical note...I did end up reading the article after commenting, and my initial assumptions were vindicated. There was no mention of any baseline or control group for any comparison.
I do apologize for not reading the fucking article first though. As much as I think it's stupid to comment without reading it, I still do it all the time. Oh well. Can the greater Slashdot community ever forgive me?
Well that's nice, but why do I need this? It certainly has a nice wow factor to it. The only practical uses I see are for nefarious purposes. You know, stalkers, spying, making sure the bitch isn't messing around on you. But is this really an important feature, or a feature we want? While it might be nice to know that the wife/girlfriend is or is not cheating or lying about her whereabouts, do you really want the wife/girlfriend to know if YOU are cheating or lying about your whereabouts?
Anyone have any ideas for some good uses that don't require certain levels of paranoia?
Nice new tech, but I don't see it becoming a standard, let alone popular, feature in most phones.
4 Billion is pretty insane. In fact, it's ridiculously uber-insane. I work for one of the big tech. consulting companies. The largest project (in terms of $$$) in the history of the company was $300 Million. That is for the software, the labor, other expenses, and finally the profit. Considering my company is one of the more expensive options out there, I can even to begin to understand how they ended up spending 4 billion.
Exactly. I have not RTFA, but anywhere does this study have a control sample or some other baseline for comparision? How do people the in the same age demographic that are NOT in college compare? How do people who graduated at least five years ago compare? What about high school kids. I think a better study would be done in multiple phases. First, test high school students. Then when those same students have graduated high school, test them again. Compare the ones in college with the ones not in college and then compare both of those with the first high school scores. Another test post-college would also be helpful. Without any kind of broad study to cover all demographics, you could come to any conclusion you want. For instance, do a study, only on African Americans on their ability to understand Einstein's theory of relativity. The conslusion would most likely be that African Americans are idiots when it comes to Einstein's theories. Then you could go further by comparing this to white rocket scientists. This just in white rocket scientists have a far better understanding of the theory of relativity than black people in general! News at eleven!
I could go DSL now, too, for far cheaper, but don't want to get a land line.
A land line can be a lot cheaper than you think. In areas where you can't get naked DSL, you are required to have an active landline. You don't need to have long distance or anything else special, just an active line. I did this where I lived last year. I was able to get a telephone line ofr $12 a month (I had to do a custom package, the "basic" package has a lot more capabilites and costs twice as much. Do some digging on the telecom's website. Mine was Verizon). The place a 3Mbit DSL service on top for $29.99 a month. Now we're talking roughly $42 a month for my DSL. Compare that to what Comcast wanted ($50 a month plus rental fees for the modem and router and *mandatory* $200 installation fee even though I don't need it) and I was still saving big bucks over cable.
If you want the stability of RHEL with the free-as-in-beerness of Fedora, then you should probably try CentOS. From what I understand about this OS is that it's RHEL without proprietary artwork and you don't get the Red Hat support, which is what you are actually paying for in RHEL, which makes CentOS free as in beer.
"Can't help you with your spelling, but perhaps your grammar will improve when you stop writing IT IS in the wrong place."
You could use some help as well. I am sure what you meant to say is "I can't help you with your spelling..." Also, using contractions in formal writing is generally frowned upon. Normally I would not consider a Slashdot post to be formal, but your nitpicking indicates otherwise.
Actually I've got it correct. Yes "Lazy Sunday" was made by Samberg and Parnell after they were already part of the SNL cast and the skit was originally written for and broadcast on SNL. However, Samberg was "discovered" by Lorne Micheals from his internet short films and parodies.
From the SNL castmember bio:
A native of Berkley, Calif., Samberg was one of three LA-based writer-performer-filmmakers (all childhood friends) dubbed "The Lonely Island" whose short films were showcased on the popular "untelevised television network" show and website: Channel 101.com. Some of their popular shorts included the "O.C." parody "The 'Bu" and their full length pilot "Awesometown." Samberg's "Lonely Island" cohorts Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer now write for SNL as well.
This isn't exactly new. SNL recruited one of it's latest cast members from the internet, Andy Samberg (spelling?). He's the shaggy haired one that wrote the "Chronic-cles of Narnia" skit. I hadn't heard of him before, and I definitely have not heard of this lady, but it does prove that the internet can be useful as a place to audition your skills. You can direct casting directors to your web site for a more robust showing of your skills.
Texting is not cheaper, at least in the US. Unless you have a plan with unlimited text messages, it will cost you 10 cents to send, and another 10 cents to receive. This is on top of the flat monthly rate you pay for your voice minutes. Plus a lot of plans include unlimited nights and weekends, or a close alternative, 1000 nights and weekend minutes on top of your regular minutes. Actually dialing a number and speaking to the person in real time is much cheaper, and much more courteous than texting (when appropriate of course).
I agree with the parent and would like to request that the Slashdot editors stop editorializing in the summaries. Editorializing is what the comments section is for. By saying "Like a true spinner" you have just spun the spin. You are no better than him (but I'm not sure he's bad, cause my reason for believing he is spinning is because of negative spin -- oh crap my head is spinning now). I've noticed this a lot lately and think it's ridiculous. If editors want to include some talking points to help direct a more meaningful discussion, that is perfectly fine, but by starting off a summary by saying "this is spin" or "The person writing the article is a complete idiot," you are undermining the intelligence of the Slashdot community. If it's spin, I'm sure someone will call him on it, but let the collective come to that conclusion, not a random editor (with questionable editing skills). Who are you to make such conclusions. From now on, please, Summarize the article with the facts, include the links, and if it's really necessary (such as some of the recurring stories that have new developments).
Slashdot Mirror
WHOOOOOOSSSHH!!!!!
Wow talk about not getting the joke. But the grand parent isn't really that crazy. While there is a pilot in the cockpit, he's not necessarily flying the plain. Two years ago while embarking on a spring break trip to the Bahamas, we ran into the pilot for our flight while waiting to board at the gate. Just for kicks, we asked for a tour of the cockpit. Turns out, he doesn't need to touch a thing during the entire flight if he doesn't want to and normally doesn't touch a whole lot. The plan has it's flight plan programmed in and all controls are "by-wire." The plane can take-off and land all by itself and the pilot only does it manually during extreme conditions where pilot insticts and feel might better cope. We asked if he would be manually flying at all that day. He said he was probably going to take off just because he felt like it.
Great list of ideas. Going with just one or two of any of those ideas would be a huge improvement over what they released. All of those ideas are perfectly feasible with the current technology available. It's just a matter of someone offering it in the proper form factor. In fact, just today I read that Verizon has taken your youtube idea already. You can now log in to youtube through Verizon's Vcast service and both view and submit videos from your Vcast enabled Mobile phone.
Sony and Microsoft would pay a pretty penny for that kind of information. Maybe they have, maybe they haven't, but either way, Nintendo doesn't want them to have it, so neither will you.
My point being (and I do have a point), that if the user is running vista, and he or she opens up IE7 (cause that's the default) and the first page they see is MS Live (cause that's the default), and MS Live is conveniently modeled to look almost exactly like google (can you blame them?), they probably won't even realize that it is NOT google. They will assume that this is the new Google Vista edition or something, and just continue on using MS Live. This is a serious threat to Google. Google needs to come up with a way to either compete directly in the way that MS is (which is what this article is about), or they need to educate users that they need to type in WWW.GOOGLE.COM for that Genuine Google Advantage (GGA, accept no substitutes. This would be interesting as it would involve some kind of media advertising which to my knowledge google has never done.
This just in, 0 is less than 100!
Seriously did someone really need to do a whole study to determine this and then write an article telling the world? Or is this just a advertisement to all of the clueless CIOs out there who have never heard of MySQL or PostgreSQL?
These guys must have been so eager to use Ubuntu that they couldn't wait long enough to download and burn their own copy or order one in the mail. While I admire their enthusiasm over Linux, I can't condone stealing stealing a copy.
You make some excellent points, but you have to keep the setting in perspective. Your comments are definitely valid in a corporate setting, but this is a library setting with computers open for free public access. My mother works in a public library in the US and I have volunteered my time assisting the sysadmin in support.
The first thing to remember, is that the public user does not need any specialized applications. The staff may need a special app for their check-in/out cataloguing system, but as for the public user, they need access to only two things: Office suite and web browser. Sure there are lots of other apps that we've provided (mostly some games) but the only things people do on these public machines is office related and web related. Now with the web portion, there are a lot of apps that may go along, as in flash, acrobat, etc. We even broke down and installed all of the popular instant messenging clients (I objected, but was over-ruled and had to install aim, yahoo, and msn on every pc in the place). The only exception I can think of is tax software, but the demand for it was usually low (only on a couple pc's and only used around April 15th).
You also argue about support. You and the parent are both correct in your assessments of support in Windows. Corporate support for Windows (from what I've been told) is pretty good and have gotten some previous co-workers out of some pack-up-your-things-cause-your-probably-fired type of jams. But these are for servers. A public library is already stretched for funds and does not have a support contract with MS. That's why they have their IT guy (and yes it's usually just one guy running the show). In cases where the IT guy is stumped, he's on google searching for a solution. Usually he ends up at support.microsoft.com, but the answers aren't there. The linux users have the support of not just those who wrote the software, but of everyone else using it. Comparing general desktop, non-corporate, Linux wins big time.
I prefer the term United Statesman over American. It makes me sound important.
Chinese Gov: What? You mean you can't access the site? Oh we're terribly sorry, there must be a technical problem. We have identified the problem and we are working on it. Expect to be back on Wikipedia in six to eight years.
Great little comic. I think that is exactly what is going to happen, that is of course if Nintendo does in fact deliver on the supply end. It reminds me of a simulation I took part in in my business policy course back in college:
The idea was that our class was split into five different "shoe companies". Each week we would enter information on how much to produce, how much they cost, and other business decisions that go into selling a shoe. At the end of the week, the simulation runs and we see who sold the most. The intersting part for my team was that we ended up selling the most shoes most weeks, but we were not necessarily the most demanded. The most demanded company stocked out at a fairly low number. Everyone who wanted that shoe, then bought our shoe because it was relatively close in value to their number one choice. As this happened week after week, we then started stocking out because our demand started increasing beyond our capacity. In the end, we were able to have the largest production capacity, while still holding on to our demand and sold two times the amount of our nearest competitor. We got an A on the project and I think Nintendo is setting themselves up for an A as well.
For every lunitic that endured horrible weather and violence to get a PS3, there is at least 30 people that decided to wait it out. At least half of those 30 will probably not really care if they get a PS3 or a Wii, and go with the one that is available right now for them to buy.
Ubuntu is a good choice, although if you really want to get a feel for how linux works, you might want to go with something that is actually less user friendly and has less "pollish". I started out with Fedora Core and found it to be really good starter just because it forced me to learn some of the old methods. Fedora has become more advanced since then though, so maybe something like Slackware or Gentoo, where it's a real Do It Yourself kind of distro. My cousin once recommended Suse because it was very cutting edge for developer tools (i'm not a developer so I wouldn't know), but I think he contributed most of that to KDE. But you are probably good not to go with SUSE just for the reasons you mentioned.
It seems Microsoft has been doing a lot of following and not much leading. Google really lead the way with the whole free public WiFi and now Microsoft is jumping in the ring. Apple revolutionizes the digital music scene, so Microsoft answers (years later mind you) with the Zune. Google launches a hosted word processor and spreadsheet app. and Microsoft just announced that they too will be releasing such apps with Office Live. Now I understand that Microsoft needs to either get on board or get left behind, but we hardly ever see Microsoft actually lead the way. To me it seems odd that the largest software company in the world relies on other companies ideas. You would think with their size and their cash, they would have more fresh, industry leading ideas coming out of their R&D department. I'm not too shocked though, because this has been the model Microsoft has taken since the beginning of their existence. MS-DOS was a ripoff of CP/M or (insert DOS-like OS here) and the idea of the mouse driven GUI was ripped off from Apple.
Does anyone have an example of a truly original idea that came out of Microsoft AND was successful industry leader?
Touche Salesman
Leave the advertising to the computer manufacturers like Dell and HP. Now that Dell is going to carry AMD, they could start putting in AMD logos with whatever "chime" AMD has at the end of every one of their commercials. On their website, they can even say, "Now we bring you more savings by offering you the option of an AMD processor." Followed by an explanation that AMD is on par with intel when it comes to speed and is fully compatible with all software designed for intels. If I were in charge, I'd probably drop the Celeron as the low cost alternative and just push AMD's. In general the AMD costs as much, if not less than a Celeron and outperforms it like gangbusters.
Obligatory...
Welcome to Slashdot, where no one reads the fucking article but comments anyway. I hope you enjoy your stay.
On a less cynical note...I did end up reading the article after commenting, and my initial assumptions were vindicated. There was no mention of any baseline or control group for any comparison.
I do apologize for not reading the fucking article first though. As much as I think it's stupid to comment without reading it, I still do it all the time. Oh well. Can the greater Slashdot community ever forgive me?
Well that's nice, but why do I need this? It certainly has a nice wow factor to it. The only practical uses I see are for nefarious purposes. You know, stalkers, spying, making sure the bitch isn't messing around on you. But is this really an important feature, or a feature we want? While it might be nice to know that the wife/girlfriend is or is not cheating or lying about her whereabouts, do you really want the wife/girlfriend to know if YOU are cheating or lying about your whereabouts?
Anyone have any ideas for some good uses that don't require certain levels of paranoia?
Nice new tech, but I don't see it becoming a standard, let alone popular, feature in most phones.
4 Billion is pretty insane. In fact, it's ridiculously uber-insane. I work for one of the big tech. consulting companies. The largest project (in terms of $$$) in the history of the company was $300 Million. That is for the software, the labor, other expenses, and finally the profit. Considering my company is one of the more expensive options out there, I can even to begin to understand how they ended up spending 4 billion.
Exactly. I have not RTFA, but anywhere does this study have a control sample or some other baseline for comparision? How do people the in the same age demographic that are NOT in college compare? How do people who graduated at least five years ago compare? What about high school kids. I think a better study would be done in multiple phases. First, test high school students. Then when those same students have graduated high school, test them again. Compare the ones in college with the ones not in college and then compare both of those with the first high school scores. Another test post-college would also be helpful. Without any kind of broad study to cover all demographics, you could come to any conclusion you want. For instance, do a study, only on African Americans on their ability to understand Einstein's theory of relativity. The conslusion would most likely be that African Americans are idiots when it comes to Einstein's theories. Then you could go further by comparing this to white rocket scientists. This just in white rocket scientists have a far better understanding of the theory of relativity than black people in general! News at eleven!
If you want the stability of RHEL with the free-as-in-beerness of Fedora, then you should probably try CentOS. From what I understand about this OS is that it's RHEL without proprietary artwork and you don't get the Red Hat support, which is what you are actually paying for in RHEL, which makes CentOS free as in beer.
"Can't help you with your spelling, but perhaps your grammar will improve when you stop writing IT IS in the wrong place."
You could use some help as well. I am sure what you meant to say is "I can't help you with your spelling..." Also, using contractions in formal writing is generally frowned upon. Normally I would not consider a Slashdot post to be formal, but your nitpicking indicates otherwise.
From the SNL castmember bio:
This isn't exactly new. SNL recruited one of it's latest cast members from the internet, Andy Samberg (spelling?). He's the shaggy haired one that wrote the "Chronic-cles of Narnia" skit. I hadn't heard of him before, and I definitely have not heard of this lady, but it does prove that the internet can be useful as a place to audition your skills. You can direct casting directors to your web site for a more robust showing of your skills.
Texting is not cheaper, at least in the US. Unless you have a plan with unlimited text messages, it will cost you 10 cents to send, and another 10 cents to receive. This is on top of the flat monthly rate you pay for your voice minutes. Plus a lot of plans include unlimited nights and weekends, or a close alternative, 1000 nights and weekend minutes on top of your regular minutes. Actually dialing a number and speaking to the person in real time is much cheaper, and much more courteous than texting (when appropriate of course).
I agree with the parent and would like to request that the Slashdot editors stop editorializing in the summaries. Editorializing is what the comments section is for. By saying "Like a true spinner" you have just spun the spin. You are no better than him (but I'm not sure he's bad, cause my reason for believing he is spinning is because of negative spin -- oh crap my head is spinning now). I've noticed this a lot lately and think it's ridiculous. If editors want to include some talking points to help direct a more meaningful discussion, that is perfectly fine, but by starting off a summary by saying "this is spin" or "The person writing the article is a complete idiot," you are undermining the intelligence of the Slashdot community. If it's spin, I'm sure someone will call him on it, but let the collective come to that conclusion, not a random editor (with questionable editing skills). Who are you to make such conclusions. From now on, please, Summarize the article with the facts, include the links, and if it's really necessary (such as some of the recurring stories that have new developments).