Right! I've buy cheap laptops for work, (I travel a lot, so destroy them regularly). With the money I save on fast processors and video cards that you just don't need, (and I do statistical modelling & analysis!), I add plenty of fast main memory and a decent 7200 drive. My 'cheap' PCs then typically outpace all my client's expensive stuff in 'real world' testing, (application & data loading). Many PCs spend most of their time (and battery power) swapping stuff into & out of memory, so lots of memory and a fast HDD make a huge difference.
For really heavy stuff, hey - that's what the big iron at home is for...
Yes, that's true. But the users know how to fix it. Also, we're not talking about professional typesetters - if the margins are a bit out, or a font's not right, that's OK, they can adapt to that...
Right. But - the problem is that, like it or not, 'Word' has become a de facto standard for exchanging editable text. Same for PPT and XL. I get PPT files containing 100s of slides from my clients to use in training. Look at 'em in OO - oops, not the same as in PPT. Not on the screen, not printed. Game over, right there.
Who's going to learn how to use proper DTP software, (which, sorry, is traditionally a real bitch for non-experts), when they can use a tool they are familiar with? The marketplace has voted. As the man said, "when you're buying, they speak your language. When you're selling, you'd better speak theirs". OO has to learn to speak M$ Office *perfectly*, not just *well*...
And of course, our friends at Redmond are going to keep making that as hard as possible, whilst professing support for 'open' standards...my ass.
As someone kindly pointed out to me in an earlier, related post, "interaction" includes just opening the pdf in Foxit, (which I use, and works very well for simple pdf viewing & printing). Don't even have to fill in a form field. So, just as bad as an executable, then. BTW, use CutePDF Writer to make 'em, although many options exist, including Open Office..
C'mon - the same tired rehash with people getting modded 'interesting' for saying one of either...
1. If you're not guilty, you've nothing to hide, think of the children, terrorists, blah, blah...
-OR-
2. The Govt. or others, (normally Google), should not have the right to know *everything* about you, rant, rave, loss of civil liberties...
Surely it's rather more nuanced than that? I've got 'nothing to hide', but I'm not about to publish my e-mail here, any more than I am about to leave my car in the street with the keys in it. As always, the lawmakers lag behind technology, so it's up to us to act responsibly - both as custodians of information, and citizens. Don't capture and store more personal information than you really need, and don't tolerate others doing it either.
"But why would anyone want to use Linux, an open-source operating system, to run a PC? "For a lot of people," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, "Linux is a political idea -- an idea of freedom. They don't want to be tied to Microsoft or Apple. They want choice. To them it's a greater cause."
and,
"That's not the most compelling reason for consumers. There is the price: Linux is free, or nearly so. "
How about "it's BETTER than windows, because it's easier to use and more secure..."
And I can dream,
"more applications run on Linux, and it has better driver support, than Windows..."
Until we get opinion-formers like this, writing things like that, Linux ain't ready for prime time.
And, oh noes, "To watch a movie, the Linux user must install necessary codecs, or decoders. One way to do that is to first download a program called Automatix from www.getautomatix.com."
Ooops - Automatix, (as documented here), is NOT a great way to go...
Still, let's not complain, it's a step in the right direction, and something to wave in people's faces as we try and stop them signing the contract to upgrade to Vista...
Hmmmm. Agree, (except I use NOD, which has a better detection & protection record than Avast, although it is a good free option), but I'd mention the essential ad-ins to Firefox, (which, as documented here, is not invulnerable). Noscript, Phishtank...
Also, if you're a laptop user, the firewall which is probably integrated in your home or office internet connection will not protect you when connecting to hotspots. Disable the poor windows xp integrated one, for sure. But then install one of the plenty of free options for XP, (zone alarm...). You'll be surprised how often things try and 'dial out'...and how often you are 'attacked' (look at the logs).
Finally, no need to use IE to get updates for XP - you can use the option 'download updates automatically, but let me decide when to apply them' in the security centre.
As you've found out, it's a good idea to regularly check your pages, using many browsers, (or - at least - the main ones like IE, Firefox...) Your host can screw things up for you - even simple things like breaking links, let alone stuff lie this.
There are 3rd parties that can do this for you also.
Just to add, (I was working at IBM at the time), many IBM people were really upset by the reverse-engineering of the BIOS, (that really enabled the cloners to break through), but it was deemed that IBM could not sue & win.
It was a conseqence of using off-the-shelf components, itself a consequence of the very short development cycle of the PC. IBM just did not have enough patents in there. Hell, we even bought the software from some small outfit... A lot of people opposed this from the start, FYI, since they could see where it was going.
Was not lack of focus due to 'big iron' mentality, (although that certainly existed, and does explain why PCs were a bitch to network - apart from to a/360 - for ages). In reality, the big iron & mini boys were soon shitting their pants about it, especially when 3rd party networking solutions appeared...by then it was too late to stuff Pandora back into the box, and the PS/2 was always going to lose, fine machine that it was. The market was not dumb enough to go back to closed architectures and prices.
Reminds me of when, (way back when), I stopped by a stranded Yamaha biker who immediately said, "Great, you're on a Triumph so you *must* have a good toolkit!" He was right, of course...
Hi, thanks for the reply. Agree on that - I prefer to manually update servers for the reasons you state.
In this instance was talking more about desktop users - a lot of the people here seem to think that BSD, Debian, SUSE etc are only for servers. Why? They work fine for desktop users - nice & stable, (OK, you don't get all the drivers & eye candy that's bundled with Ubuntu/Kunbuntu, but who cares?)
You're right about the command line - much easier that saying, "you see that box on the bottom left, well click on on that, then there's a radio button..." For added fun, throw a bad phone line, different versions of the software and a user who is not a native English speaker...
But that was not my point, which was, I think that some things should not require this kind of intervention at all. Helping a user recover after they've nuked their app or data? Yup. Having to manually install some stuff, (OK, in reality you'd remote push to deploy), just to make sure they have the right time? Not good. Still, let's not carried away with *nix knocking, older versions of Windows had the same problems recently when they changed the daylight saving in the USA. For the record, I thought that was bullshit too.
You don't understand, all you have to do is..."apt-get update && apt-get -u install tzdata"
Right. Let's see my Granny - or the average Corporate Joe - doing that.
This is why people are NOT switching to Linux...people here bitch about stealth windows updates, (quite correctly, in my opinion), but don't always recognise the upside.
I keep trying to promote BSD (server), Ubuntu (desktop) etc. to my customers, (which include Gov. departments) and friends, and this kind of bs just does not help. It's fine having Redhat support, but that's no good if the people deciding what goes into the core product don't make good calls.
You're right about repeatability & reproducibility. But note from TFA:
'The signal was spread out, with higher frequencies arriving at the telescope before the lower frequencies. This effect, called dispersion, is caused by the signal passing through ionized gas in interstellar and intergalactic space. The amount of this dispersion, the astronomers said, indicates that the signal likely originated about three billion light-years from Earth.'
Sound too precise to be an equipment malfunction, which hopefull they also checked as possible cause Also:
No previously-detected cosmic radio burst has the same set of characteristics. "This burst represents an entirely new astronomical phenomenon," Bailes said. The astronomers estimate on the basis of their results that hundreds of similar events should occur over the sky each day. "Few radio surveys have the necessary sensitivity to such short-duration bursts, which makes them notoriously difficult to detect with current instruments," added Crawford. The next generation of radio telescopes currently under development should be able to detect many of these bursts across the sky.
1. No, (editing Wikipedia), well, that was my point. Kinda like the posting here (funny) ages ago where - faced with Wikip's cash probs., somebody edited their entry to say that they had gazillions of bucks. Funny, but dunna make it true, Cap'n.
2. Yeah, for Chroot, what do you do? People will always use their superficial knowledge to look for superficial solutions, and then complain that it does not work as they wanted. But then again, as an old fart, (started on a S/3), what would I say. These kiddies have it too easy, GUIs are for fags, blah blah...
I think that most people here live by generating value - either by developing product or providing a service. So, why would they disagree with the concept of paying fair value? Don't think they do. Don't think that's the point being made.
When legitimate users - even expert ones, as here - are totally fucked-off by inept DRM (uh, not actually the case here, I think), copyright systems, license agreements whatever, it really defeats the purpose. See my, and others, posts here ad nauseam. It's often simply easier and faster to download a torrent than it is to buy some stuff, (and I am speaking as someone who has access to MSDN, Corp. soft and the whole 9 yards..) I've even gone out and bought WinXP 'home' retail in an attempt to restore a friend's or neightbour's PC, (shipped without original install CD, natch). Oh, the balls-ache...(edit the registry to put the 'right' serial in, to reflect the number on the sticker...) Then, when the damn thing stops working days or months down the line, because the whole M$ thing has fucked-up again - what do you do? Well, my friend, you say, "fuck it", and install something 'illegal' in 10 minutes that work fine...
Damn these editable sources! How can a decent man win an argument anymore! More seriously, although wikipedia is great, as with any reference doc., I'd never use as a sole source for info.
Know how you feel. It's just so much easier for these bozos to say "you're dumb", rather than risk getting flamed themselves by offering a 'solution' that exposes their own incompetence. I see lots of comments (when being asked to meta-mod here) that have been marked 'flamebait' etc. that were really quite honest or, at worse, just a little naïve...
Wish I could mod you 6. I'd add that 'comfortable' also means 'knows how to use', and by extension means 'not ready to change'.
Many of my (middle-aged) friends download songs and films illegally, not because they cannot pay, (some of them are lawyers!), or even do not want to. It's just what they are used to doing. My kids buy - yes, for cash - CDs. But they tell me it's easier to download a torrent than to rip the CD to their computer / iPod. Having struggled for ages with iTunes for my kids iPods, and finally throwing it away and installing Mediamonkey, which works fine and does not rename all of my mp3s, I understand them. It's just so much easier to download torrents than it is to buy via iTunes etc. NOTE: I am NOT supporting piracy here.
You're right. It's hard to feel sorry for M$, but as software improves with each release, it's more difficult to differentiate from previous versions. Like many people, I was delighted with 98SE, since 95 was so crap. What's compelling in Vista for me? Nothing...since XP does the job fine.
Slashdot Mirror
Right! I've buy cheap laptops for work, (I travel a lot, so destroy them regularly). With the money I save on fast processors and video cards that you just don't need, (and I do statistical modelling & analysis!), I add plenty of fast main memory and a decent 7200 drive. My 'cheap' PCs then typically outpace all my client's expensive stuff in 'real world' testing, (application & data loading). Many PCs spend most of their time (and battery power) swapping stuff into & out of memory, so lots of memory and a fast HDD make a huge difference.
For really heavy stuff, hey - that's what the big iron at home is for...
Yes, that's true. But the users know how to fix it.
Also, we're not talking about professional typesetters - if the margins are a bit out, or a font's not right, that's OK, they can adapt to that...
I'm not saying it's good, but that's the reality.
Right. But - the problem is that, like it or not, 'Word' has become a de facto standard for exchanging editable text. Same for PPT and XL. I get PPT files containing 100s of slides from my clients to use in training. Look at 'em in OO - oops, not the same as in PPT. Not on the screen, not printed. Game over, right there.
Who's going to learn how to use proper DTP software, (which, sorry, is traditionally a real bitch for non-experts), when they can use a tool they are familiar with? The marketplace has voted. As the man said, "when you're buying, they speak your language. When you're selling, you'd better speak theirs". OO has to learn to speak M$ Office *perfectly*, not just *well*...
And of course, our friends at Redmond are going to keep making that as hard as possible, whilst professing support for 'open' standards...my ass.
Hell, even Hollywood thought of this one http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337978/, let alone Uncle Sam and various other private corporations.
This smacks of 'patent defense' - Theyve got one, so others, (ahem - Sun?), will perhaps prefer horse-trading to frontal assault.
Still, pretty disappointing from the 'elite brains' @ Google.
As someone kindly pointed out to me in an earlier, related post, "interaction" includes just opening the pdf in Foxit, (which I use, and works very well for simple pdf viewing & printing). Don't even have to fill in a form field. So, just as bad as an executable, then. BTW, use CutePDF Writer to make 'em, although many options exist, including Open Office..
/. post complete without oblig. Wiki karma-whore:
Alternatives?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DjVu
A great open source, (except under Windows, see Lizardtech), format for scanned files.
Not for Mac users, tho', see:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/20/1449226
For a discussion of this and other pdf 'alternatives'. Still, 'security by obscurity'?
Finally, no
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PDF_software
"he only way to apply the last service pack for IE 5.01"
Apart from installing the ultimate SP - Linux!
...if you choose not to use WGA?
C'mon - the same tired rehash with people getting modded 'interesting' for saying one of either...
1. If you're not guilty, you've nothing to hide, think of the children, terrorists, blah, blah...
-OR-
2. The Govt. or others, (normally Google), should not have the right to know *everything* about you, rant, rave, loss of civil liberties...
Surely it's rather more nuanced than that? I've got 'nothing to hide', but I'm not about to publish my e-mail here, any more than I am about to leave my car in the street with the keys in it. As always, the lawmakers lag behind technology, so it's up to us to act responsibly - both as custodians of information, and citizens. Don't capture and store more personal information than you really need, and don't tolerate others doing it either.
"Or is it all just a ruse, to lull you into a false sense of INsecurity?"
Fixed that for you.
Here we go again, FTFA:
"But why would anyone want to use Linux, an open-source operating system, to run a PC? "For a lot of people," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, "Linux is a political idea -- an idea of freedom. They don't want to be tied to Microsoft or Apple. They want choice. To them it's a greater cause."
and,
"That's not the most compelling reason for consumers. There is the price: Linux is free, or nearly so. "
How about "it's BETTER than windows, because it's easier to use and more secure..."
And I can dream,
"more applications run on Linux, and it has better driver support, than Windows..."
Until we get opinion-formers like this, writing things like that, Linux ain't ready for prime time.
And, oh noes, "To watch a movie, the Linux user must install necessary codecs, or decoders. One way to do that is to first download a program called Automatix from www.getautomatix.com."
Ooops - Automatix, (as documented here), is NOT a great way to go...
Still, let's not complain, it's a step in the right direction, and something to wave in people's faces as we try and stop them signing the contract to upgrade to Vista...
Hmmmm. Agree, (except I use NOD, which has a better detection & protection record than Avast, although it is a good free option), but I'd mention the essential ad-ins to Firefox, (which, as documented here, is not invulnerable). Noscript, Phishtank...
Also, if you're a laptop user, the firewall which is probably integrated in your home or office internet connection will not protect you when connecting to hotspots. Disable the poor windows xp integrated one, for sure. But then install one of the plenty of free options for XP, (zone alarm...). You'll be surprised how often things try and 'dial out'...and how often you are 'attacked' (look at the logs).
Finally, no need to use IE to get updates for XP - you can use the option 'download updates automatically, but let me decide when to apply them' in the security centre.
As you've found out, it's a good idea to regularly check your pages, using many browsers, (or - at least - the main ones like IE, Firefox...) Your host can screw things up for you - even simple things like breaking links, let alone stuff lie this.
There are 3rd parties that can do this for you also.
Just to add, (I was working at IBM at the time), many IBM people were really upset by the reverse-engineering of the BIOS, (that really enabled the cloners to break through), but it was deemed that IBM could not sue & win.
/360 - for ages). In reality, the big iron & mini boys were soon shitting their pants about it, especially when 3rd party networking solutions appeared...by then it was too late to stuff Pandora back into the box, and the PS/2 was always going to lose, fine machine that it was. The market was not dumb enough to go back to closed architectures and prices.
It was a conseqence of using off-the-shelf components, itself a consequence of the very short development cycle of the PC. IBM just did not have enough patents in there. Hell, we even bought the software from some small outfit... A lot of people opposed this from the start, FYI, since they could see where it was going.
Was not lack of focus due to 'big iron' mentality, (although that certainly existed, and does explain why PCs were a bitch to network - apart from to a
Reminds me of when, (way back when), I stopped by a stranded Yamaha biker who immediately said, "Great, you're on a Triumph so you *must* have a good toolkit!" He was right, of course...
Hi, thanks for the reply. Agree on that - I prefer to manually update servers for the reasons you state.
In this instance was talking more about desktop users - a lot of the people here seem to think that BSD, Debian, SUSE etc are only for servers. Why? They work fine for desktop users - nice & stable, (OK, you don't get all the drivers & eye candy that's bundled with Ubuntu/Kunbuntu, but who cares?)
You're right about the command line - much easier that saying, "you see that box on the bottom left, well click on on that, then there's a radio button..." For added fun, throw a bad phone line, different versions of the software and a user who is not a native English speaker...
But that was not my point, which was, I think that some things should not require this kind of intervention at all. Helping a user recover after they've nuked their app or data? Yup. Having to manually install some stuff, (OK, in reality you'd remote push to deploy), just to make sure they have the right time? Not good. Still, let's not carried away with *nix knocking, older versions of Windows had the same problems recently when they changed the daylight saving in the USA. For the record, I thought that was bullshit too.
You don't understand, all you have to do is..."apt-get update && apt-get -u install tzdata"
Right. Let's see my Granny - or the average Corporate Joe - doing that.
This is why people are NOT switching to Linux...people here bitch about stealth windows updates, (quite correctly, in my opinion), but don't always recognise the upside.
I keep trying to promote BSD (server), Ubuntu (desktop) etc. to my customers, (which include Gov. departments) and friends, and this kind of bs just does not help. It's fine having Redhat support, but that's no good if the people deciding what goes into the core product don't make good calls.
You're right about repeatability & reproducibility. But note from TFA:
'The signal was spread out, with higher frequencies arriving at the telescope before the lower frequencies. This effect, called dispersion, is caused by the signal passing through ionized gas in interstellar and intergalactic space. The amount of this dispersion, the astronomers said, indicates that the signal likely originated about three billion light-years from Earth.'
Sound too precise to be an equipment malfunction, which hopefull they also checked as possible cause Also:
No previously-detected cosmic radio burst has the same set of characteristics. "This burst represents an entirely new astronomical phenomenon," Bailes said. The astronomers estimate on the basis of their results that hundreds of similar events should occur over the sky each day. "Few radio surveys have the necessary sensitivity to such short-duration bursts, which makes them notoriously difficult to detect with current instruments," added Crawford. The next generation of radio telescopes currently under development should be able to detect many of these bursts across the sky.
So, we'll have to wait...
In Excel or whatever - these things were replaced for a reason.
Thank for the reply.
No & Yes.
1. No, (editing Wikipedia), well, that was my point. Kinda like the posting here (funny) ages ago where - faced with Wikip's cash probs., somebody edited their entry to say that they had gazillions of bucks. Funny, but dunna make it true, Cap'n.
2. Yeah, for Chroot, what do you do? People will always use their superficial knowledge to look for superficial solutions, and then complain that it does not work as they wanted. But then again, as an old fart, (started on a S/3), what would I say. These kiddies have it too easy, GUIs are for fags, blah blah...
I think that most people here live by generating value - either by developing product or providing a service.
So, why would they disagree with the concept of paying fair value? Don't think they do. Don't think that's the point being made.
When legitimate users - even expert ones, as here - are totally fucked-off by inept DRM (uh, not actually the case here, I think), copyright systems, license agreements whatever, it really defeats the purpose. See my, and others, posts here ad nauseam. It's often simply easier and faster to download a torrent than it is to buy some stuff, (and I am speaking as someone who has access to MSDN, Corp. soft and the whole 9 yards..) I've even gone out and bought WinXP 'home' retail in an attempt to restore a friend's or neightbour's PC, (shipped without original install CD, natch). Oh, the balls-ache...(edit the registry to put the 'right' serial in, to reflect the number on the sticker...) Then, when the damn thing stops working days or months down the line, because the whole M$ thing has fucked-up again - what do you do? Well, my friend, you say, "fuck it", and install something 'illegal' in 10 minutes that work fine...
Damn these editable sources! How can a decent man win an argument anymore! More seriously, although wikipedia is great, as with any reference doc., I'd never use as a sole source for info.
Know how you feel. It's just so much easier for these bozos to say "you're dumb", rather than risk getting flamed themselves by offering a 'solution' that exposes their own incompetence. I see lots of comments (when being asked to meta-mod here) that have been marked 'flamebait' etc. that were really quite honest or, at worse, just a little naïve...
Wish I could mod you 6. I'd add that 'comfortable' also means 'knows how to use', and by extension means 'not ready to change'.
Many of my (middle-aged) friends download songs and films illegally, not because they cannot pay, (some of them are lawyers!), or even do not want to. It's just what they are used to doing. My kids buy - yes, for cash - CDs. But they tell me it's easier to download a torrent than to rip the CD to their computer / iPod. Having struggled for ages with iTunes for my kids iPods, and finally throwing it away and installing Mediamonkey, which works fine and does not rename all of my mp3s, I understand them. It's just so much easier to download torrents than it is to buy via iTunes etc. NOTE: I am NOT supporting piracy here.
You're right. It's hard to feel sorry for M$, but as software improves with each release, it's more difficult to differentiate from previous versions. Like many people, I was delighted with 98SE, since 95 was so crap. What's compelling in Vista for me? Nothing...since XP does the job fine.