The two biggest sticking points are patents and digital rights management. HP's objection is a part of the license that says anything touched by GPL code becomes open source. In other words, if a company bundles its hardware with open-source software and ships it to customers, it surrenders rights to enforce patents.
The author of the article has confused a lot of old FUD with the issues dug up by Tivo. Patens and DRM are the focus of GPL 3 because they undermine the intentions of the GPL. The enemies of free software have bought a lot of bad legislation and piles of bogus patents. That's why a change in the GPL is happening. Let's keep looking.
When Stallman says "free" he doesn't mean price, he means freedom. He believes all software should be freely available to be modified by the public. And for him, this is nothing short of a moral fight. On the other is Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux. He and others in his open-source camp believe that freely sharing code simply produces the best software
It's amazing how the copyright warriors can be so heavy about author intentions and control of work on one hand and then so completely misrepresent this issue on the other. The issue that GPL 3 is trying to fix is best represented by Tivo. Tivo runs GPL'd software and the makers have enjoyed great quality and savings by doing that. The problem is that they have managed to completely thwart all of the GPL's and the software author's intentions with DRM. Tivo will give you a copy of the source code for their device. You can compile it but you can't run it because Tivo locked the hardware with software keys. It won't run your changes. This might not seem like a big deal to people who are used to non free video boxes, until they realize that the Tivo is not very different from any other computer. Without GPL 3, non free software companies can freely use the entire GPL codebase but lock out their users worse than Bill Gates ever imagined. This is an issue that the copyright warriors can't win if they pretend any respect for the author.
I suppose that's why the specter of "big business" is brought up. IBM, Chrysler and others can tell you there's nothing anti-business about the present GPL. They are making and saving tons of money without stepping on their users or the authors of the software they use. When you drop user rights and author rights all you are left with to argue is "non free is better for business" which is something few people will believe.
jellomizer, in a long and insulting rant tells us:
GPL 3 is basicly a way to make the midless Stallman followers to be more zealot about the things Stallman disaproves of.
but fails to tell us any of the "minless" "zealot" goals. Seeing as you can think for yourself, jello man, why don't you tell us why you object to GPL 3.0, besides it's association with RMS. I suggest you start with tivo and GPL 2 intentions. When you get around to explaining how Tivo eliminates the freedom indended by the GPL and all of the authors who contributed code, you might then tell us how "people who can think for themselves" and chose GPL should prevent DRM abuse of their work.
The story drones on asserting that 50 and 60 year old bands are resisting the itunes move for artistic reasons like not being able to force the album format. Anyone who wants me to listen to a whole album is free to put it all on line anytime they want. I'll be happy to check it out, and then add it to whatever playlist I feel like. The story also mentions the artists not getting a fair share of the earnings and this key point:
For musicians, it's another way to resell their entire catalogs to fans who want the songs in multiple formats, he said.
Musicians my ass, this is being driven by the media companies. They are dying for a change of formats like album to CD. Album to tape did not do it for them and CD to lossy format outside of DRM and device maker collusion won't either. Yeah, I'd like the artist to get their fair share too. Reselling DRM'd versions of the exact same thing every 10 years is not my idea of a fair share. Only a few RIAA poster boys think iTunes is really a fair deal.
The device collusion is not happening, so it's all a dead issue.
Taking advice from people who can't keep their server running isn't advised.
Yeah, yeah, they are using M$ for their server at LSU, so I imagine they don't know what they are doing webwise. They don't use that junk for their instrumentation or any other place they care about.
An oversized rat tells me to think, and offers an lesson in proportions and exponents:
Re-read my post, and then think. Some Linux servers will be vulnerable. Even if only 0.1% of Linux systems are vulnerable thru SysAdmin neglect or unfixed bugs, if there are 10^6 systems there will be 1000 vulberable systems.
So what? You want to replace that with systems that are ALL vulnerable to multiple attacks regardless of the competence of the administrator? Help me out Nutria, what are you trying to tell me? I don't see anything worth pondering above.
This should give you a lot of help. They fly instrumented balloons in Antarctica. The server does not seem to be responding right now, but that should help you find what you need.
Congratulations, you noticed the reason that studies show Windows has a 12 minute half life on any network.
The ISP would be far better off supplying hardware router/firewalls to their customers gratis because of the reduced traffic load from zombie computers.
The cable modem already does that but it does not work. They block outbound ports and limit the upload speed. You can't block the inbound ports because you would block services users would actually notice. Even if you could lock up everything and only use one port for inbound and one port for outbound, the root would come through your browser or email. The bottom line is the computer on the other end has Windoze and Windoze has problems you can't fix with a router or an anti virus program. Without Windoze, you would not need any of the above, performance limiting crap.
Just by the virtue of the large number of x86 Linux servers exposed to the Intarweb, there must be thousands of systems just waiting to be rooted. Fortunately for "us", there are millions of exposed Windows client PCs running as Adminstator, begging to be owned.
As if the only difference was numbers. The other difference, or so claim the FUDsters, is that "Linux is for servers." You know, like banks and businesses that handle real money. Given the profile and importance of those targets, you would think they would be hit all the time and that we would hear about it as we hear of IIS exploits. For some reason we don't hear anything, despite the very open nature of the people running the software. It would seem that there's more at work than numbers here.
On the desktop there's another crucial difference, the ease of recovery. In the Windoze world, you pull out your ancient "original" CD and put the same broken crap right back on your machine. It wipes out all your documents and setting so you suffer a loss for no gain. Then you are rooted again in about 12 minutes after hooking up to a network. In the free world, you do a net install and get the latest and greatest of everything, without losing anything at all. A few extra steps can make sure the root kit is not in your home directory. The easiest is to chmod file in your home directory to no execute. In the very worst case you can chmod and then tar up the documents you worry about and start fresh with your settings, like in the windoze world but much easier.
Don't worry. We can trust the people who brought us BSE, growth hormones, high fructose corn syrup and the current obesity epidemic can't we? Ronald loves you.
A few discouraging words does nothing for the problem but it makes me feel better. This mostly happens at work where I have to use Windoze for data collection.
I can set up a house-wide streaming media server with the click of an app icon.
Wow.
I've been sharing my music with myself worldwide by SSH for a long time now. Housewide, I use an FM transmitter which works great to connect Amarok to my "entertainment center". No button press or extra $500 computer required for either.
I'm told gstreamer does streaming for audio and video and has been used on devices as small as a hand held, but I've never bothered.
At best, weve heard predictions that Zune will fight for the same fraction of tech geek market share (15%) that Apple hasnt yet taken.
That sounds reasonable, but there's no way it's going to happen. People who have have avoided iPod have done so because they are getting the same functionality from cheaper devices and don't want DRM crippled music. According to the article, M$ has DRM crippled Zune's wifi sharing with some kind of silly "one day" only listening for other people with a Zune. Prediction: big flop.
... The company has offices in Colorado and New Jersey, and the plan was for employees to fly there and keep working. The company expected to lose use of its data center, but by taking copies of its backup tapes and CDs of its software and software licenses, planned to create a new data center in Colorado, according to Jeremiah Tangen, IT administrator at the firm.
Data - check
Customized applications - check
Licenses - get out of here!
Don't forget the licenses as your save your ass! What kind of BS is that? Doesn't the company that sold you the stuff know what you have? What are they going to do, sue you? Those are rhetorical questions, obviously it matters to someone.
That's the beauty of free software. It's much easier to walk away when all you have to worry about is your data and the small collection of stuff you might have customized. It's going to work on whatever hardware you find and no is going to bug you about licenses.
iTunes lets one painlessly burn, share, listen to and buy music.
You are so suckered by the music industry. iTunes gives you DRM garbage without long term credibility. It's a step backward from analog, except for convenience of play. Free media is technically superior and easier to use than non free.
Burn? Why? CDs are an input and an archive. I save my wavs as gziped tar archives and play them as oggs.
Amazingly enough, I can buy CDs and listen to my music with Amarok. Reasonable services will sell you FLAC without DRM. Reasonable bands let you trade their concerts without charge. iTunes does not live up to the Amarok + Wikipedia + Lyrics experience, nor is it's database as good. As time goes by, the gap in quality will widen.
As usual, non free is getting it's ass kicked and people are routing around it. Artist and users are getting a better deal elsewhere. When they fold and leave you without a key to what you purchased, you will understand why the deal was raw to begin with. I've digitized my parents and my grandparents music collections and will be able to give them to my kids. I'm not buying into something that will prevent that. Your player won't last forever, but the music and the culture it represents should.
An individual stocker (or cheer-squad) could be rounded up or curbed, but an unorganized, nation-wide mob can harbor any number of unhinged groups and factions could truly make life hell for someone.
You would be surprised at how many "nation-wide" mobs are nothing more than one asshole with a botnet. Witness anti-slash.org, a site founded by one person with the sole intent of harassing Slashdot and it's members. How many people do you think are stupid enough to waste their lives doing that? Yeah, they brag about their botnets.
I doubt anyone besides twitter would install a whole new operating system just for spreadsheet software. Personally, I'd go for OpenOffice...
Not even I'd recommend that. I'd install a whole new OS for the whole new OS and all that comes with it. That includes OpenOffice which insures compatibility with all the zombies who still M$==Standard.
Translation: Big dumb companies value propaganda more than function and don't value their employees. Notice that training is close to the bottom of the list. Technical competence and familiarity with fundamentals of the field should be the thing they look for in new hires. Business school is something a company should pay for it's own employees if it wants to promote them to upper management. For a new employee it's a place where they can forget what they need to know. Looking for detailed business knowledge outside of the company is an admission that you are not willing to train and have not trained your own people adequately in a long time. Prediction: Big dumb companies are going to get dumber and people working there will continue to be forced to waste their overworked lives on mind numbing nonsense instead of getting things done right. You will be worn out and discarded like a rubber gasket.
True familiarity with the way a company works can only come from working in the company and keeping up with your competitor's actions. Business school case studies, while interesting, generally don't apply outside the specific case except for obvious general principles. Sure, some business schools are very good at understanding industry but I'm not convinced that's going to be useful to some guy who's there to make a better network or information sharing tool for the company. Someone who's been at the company long enough is going to know who needs what information from who an how best to get it there. If they have had the time to keep up with the field, they are a company's best resource.
Yes, I've worked for a fortune 100 company. It got nothing but worse and this survey shows that the trend continues. Notice how the smaller companies valued skill more than propaganda?
Gosh, that was easy. I don't have a machine to test the above, but I'm sure at least one of them would work well. Running Debian would be the easiest way to get an alternative if it has been made to work with your current machine (x86 or PowerPC). Any are sure to run better and be more frequently updated than the two year old kludge that is Office of OSX:
Both Office v. X and 2004 Standard Edition run non-natively on Intel Macs through the Rosetta Emulation layer. Microsoft does not intend to update Office 2004 for Intel Macs, and has announced that the next version of Office for Mac will have universal binaries, capable of running natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs.
Excel doesn't require Windows...
Wooo-hoo! Freedom and choice in crappy and expensive software. My horizons in non free have been broadened. M$ emulation is everywhere.
Microsoft's claims that it makes great software are open to dispute, but the Excel spreadsheet is here to stay. Nearly everyone is touched by it.
I'm amazed that he put Apollo's command module and Excel in the same article. Excel ten years ago had some simplicity and virtue. Today, it is choked with M$'s horrific auto-wrong features. Worse, it requires an OS he dismisses just one paragraph up.
There are plenty of examples of Excel costing everyone lots of time and money, and not just because someone used it the wrong way. I've read stories about gentic code sequences at the Center for Disease control being turned into date codes. I've seen what happens between versions. Putting your work into a secret format, of course, puts you into a position where the owners of the secret can lead you around. Then there are the cases of misuse. No, not using it for obtuse things, like a blog formatter (yes, I just read about someone doing that), flexibility is what makes spreadsheets great. Misuse is creating the monster that's so big and complex it will eat you alive. When you combine misuse with auto-wrong you get a real disaster.
I use Gnumeric now. It's light and won't tax your computer. The input is functional, so it won't tax you. It has all the functions Excel does but they all give you the right answer. Most important, it won't auto-wrong you. The formats you enter are the formats it uses and you can go back and forth between them without losing information. Gnumeric is everything Excel used to be and more. It's grown useful features like perl scripting, but not bloat like silly drawing tools.
After such a blatant contradiction, Excel as a simple tool, I'm going to read the rest of the article with a grain of salt. If I see Power Point or Word, I'll quit reading.
It's not an awesome idea because as much as it has it's good use there is also the darker side with pedophile, snuff and other crap that should not be tolerated.
Yeah, better kill the children now. Afterall, some of them will grow up to be axe murderers and that's just horrible. Baby, bathwater, freedom what's the difference?
Did you catch the bit where I said all batteries can catch fire?
Can catch fire and are catching fire are different things.
Dell made a $300 million recall, Sony is doing the honourable thing, and your comment is "look[s] very bad for Dell and Sony". The first fire was April last year, and you go on to say "...a year late."
For some reason, you don't get it. When the former Dell tech said hundreds per year, he's talking about something that's been going on for more than a year. He also implies that this was unusual. When you are getting dozens of melted and burnt laptops a month, you need to launch an investigation. Dell might have and understood the problem or they might not have. What ever they did does not matter because they continued to ship. That's irresponsible.
look at all the Dell, Sony, Apple, etc. etc. conspiracy theorists and wingnuts come out of the woodwork!
Wingnuts like former Dell tech, Robert Day? Did you read the article? You might have caught this little piece:
Although Dell told the agency that only six incidents had occurred, a reporter viewed almost 100 photos of melted notebooks that were returned to the company from 2002 to 2004. The photos, from a Dell database, were supplied by a former Dell technician, Robert Day, who said such damage was more of a common thing than they are letting on. As many as several hundred a year were returned. Mr. Day said, I did see so many pallets of stuff coming in that they had to use my lab for overflow storage.
Did you also catch the little bit about FIVE previous battery fires on airplanes in the last two years? One in a UPS jet destroyed the plane after landing. One had to be chucked out before take off. The other three FAA cases were not so interesting, except for the fact that smoking batteries now placed in cargo holds will take the plane down instead of being contained because the Department of Homeland Security is saving us all from exploding laptops. Do some research on the gruesome details of the ValueJet crash sometime. It was caused by a fire in the cargo hold and people were really outraged at the that someone would put an obvious fire risk down in the cargo.
If you want to jump up and down about unsafe products, then go nuts about SUVs.
That's a good idea too, but it has nothing to do with the issue, which is an obviously flawed product being sold for two years. SUVs do not have such obvious flaws for the most part and when they do, a recall happens.
Perspective is that no one's life is less important than company profits and you will get caught. When there's a clear problem, like hundreds of melted laptops a year, you need to act. The problem is not going to go away until it's fixed. When a third party does something as simple as taking an xray to identify your problem for you, you look very bad.
The story was well researched and things look very bad for both Dell and Sony here. The recall is a good idea but it sounds like it's coming a year late. It will take care of 4.1 million fire hazards.
Slashdot Mirror
The two biggest sticking points are patents and digital rights management. HP's objection is a part of the license that says anything touched by GPL code becomes open source. In other words, if a company bundles its hardware with open-source software and ships it to customers, it surrenders rights to enforce patents.
The author of the article has confused a lot of old FUD with the issues dug up by Tivo. Patens and DRM are the focus of GPL 3 because they undermine the intentions of the GPL. The enemies of free software have bought a lot of bad legislation and piles of bogus patents. That's why a change in the GPL is happening. Let's keep looking.
When Stallman says "free" he doesn't mean price, he means freedom. He believes all software should be freely available to be modified by the public. And for him, this is nothing short of a moral fight. On the other is Linus Torvalds, the father of Linux. He and others in his open-source camp believe that freely sharing code simply produces the best software
It's amazing how the copyright warriors can be so heavy about author intentions and control of work on one hand and then so completely misrepresent this issue on the other. The issue that GPL 3 is trying to fix is best represented by Tivo. Tivo runs GPL'd software and the makers have enjoyed great quality and savings by doing that. The problem is that they have managed to completely thwart all of the GPL's and the software author's intentions with DRM. Tivo will give you a copy of the source code for their device. You can compile it but you can't run it because Tivo locked the hardware with software keys. It won't run your changes. This might not seem like a big deal to people who are used to non free video boxes, until they realize that the Tivo is not very different from any other computer. Without GPL 3, non free software companies can freely use the entire GPL codebase but lock out their users worse than Bill Gates ever imagined. This is an issue that the copyright warriors can't win if they pretend any respect for the author.
I suppose that's why the specter of "big business" is brought up. IBM, Chrysler and others can tell you there's nothing anti-business about the present GPL. They are making and saving tons of money without stepping on their users or the authors of the software they use. When you drop user rights and author rights all you are left with to argue is "non free is better for business" which is something few people will believe.
GPL 3 is basicly a way to make the midless Stallman followers to be more zealot about the things Stallman disaproves of.
but fails to tell us any of the "minless" "zealot" goals. Seeing as you can think for yourself, jello man, why don't you tell us why you object to GPL 3.0, besides it's association with RMS. I suggest you start with tivo and GPL 2 intentions. When you get around to explaining how Tivo eliminates the freedom indended by the GPL and all of the authors who contributed code, you might then tell us how "people who can think for themselves" and chose GPL should prevent DRM abuse of their work.
For musicians, it's another way to resell their entire catalogs to fans who want the songs in multiple formats, he said.
Musicians my ass, this is being driven by the media companies. They are dying for a change of formats like album to CD. Album to tape did not do it for them and CD to lossy format outside of DRM and device maker collusion won't either. Yeah, I'd like the artist to get their fair share too. Reselling DRM'd versions of the exact same thing every 10 years is not my idea of a fair share. Only a few RIAA poster boys think iTunes is really a fair deal.
The device collusion is not happening, so it's all a dead issue.
Yeah, yeah, they are using M$ for their server at LSU, so I imagine they don't know what they are doing webwise. They don't use that junk for their instrumentation or any other place they care about.
An oversized rat tells me to think, and offers an lesson in proportions and exponents:
Re-read my post, and then think. Some Linux servers will be vulnerable. Even if only 0.1% of Linux systems are vulnerable thru SysAdmin neglect or unfixed bugs, if there are 10^6 systems there will be 1000 vulberable systems.
So what? You want to replace that with systems that are ALL vulnerable to multiple attacks regardless of the competence of the administrator? Help me out Nutria, what are you trying to tell me? I don't see anything worth pondering above.
This should give you a lot of help. They fly instrumented balloons in Antarctica. The server does not seem to be responding right now, but that should help you find what you need.
Congratulations, you noticed the reason that studies show Windows has a 12 minute half life on any network.
The ISP would be far better off supplying hardware router/firewalls to their customers gratis because of the reduced traffic load from zombie computers.
The cable modem already does that but it does not work. They block outbound ports and limit the upload speed. You can't block the inbound ports because you would block services users would actually notice. Even if you could lock up everything and only use one port for inbound and one port for outbound, the root would come through your browser or email. The bottom line is the computer on the other end has Windoze and Windoze has problems you can't fix with a router or an anti virus program. Without Windoze, you would not need any of the above, performance limiting crap.
... because that's where the money is.
You write about root kits and declare:
Just by the virtue of the large number of x86 Linux servers exposed to the Intarweb, there must be thousands of systems just waiting to be rooted. Fortunately for "us", there are millions of exposed Windows client PCs running as Adminstator, begging to be owned.
As if the only difference was numbers. The other difference, or so claim the FUDsters, is that "Linux is for servers." You know, like banks and businesses that handle real money. Given the profile and importance of those targets, you would think they would be hit all the time and that we would hear about it as we hear of IIS exploits. For some reason we don't hear anything, despite the very open nature of the people running the software. It would seem that there's more at work than numbers here.
On the desktop there's another crucial difference, the ease of recovery. In the Windoze world, you pull out your ancient "original" CD and put the same broken crap right back on your machine. It wipes out all your documents and setting so you suffer a loss for no gain. Then you are rooted again in about 12 minutes after hooking up to a network. In the free world, you do a net install and get the latest and greatest of everything, without losing anything at all. A few extra steps can make sure the root kit is not in your home directory. The easiest is to chmod file in your home directory to no execute. In the very worst case you can chmod and then tar up the documents you worry about and start fresh with your settings, like in the windoze world but much easier.
Yes, irritants cause cancer.
Don't worry. We can trust the people who brought us BSE, growth hormones, high fructose corn syrup and the current obesity epidemic can't we? Ronald loves you.
Wow.
I've been sharing my music with myself worldwide by SSH for a long time now. Housewide, I use an FM transmitter which works great to connect Amarok to my "entertainment center". No button press or extra $500 computer required for either.
I'm told gstreamer does streaming for audio and video and has been used on devices as small as a hand held, but I've never bothered.
At best, weve heard predictions that Zune will fight for the same fraction of tech geek market share (15%) that Apple hasnt yet taken.
That sounds reasonable, but there's no way it's going to happen. People who have have avoided iPod have done so because they are getting the same functionality from cheaper devices and don't want DRM crippled music. According to the article, M$ has DRM crippled Zune's wifi sharing with some kind of silly "one day" only listening for other people with a Zune. Prediction: big flop.
This really struck me:
Don't forget the licenses as your save your ass! What kind of BS is that? Doesn't the company that sold you the stuff know what you have? What are they going to do, sue you? Those are rhetorical questions, obviously it matters to someone.
That's the beauty of free software. It's much easier to walk away when all you have to worry about is your data and the small collection of stuff you might have customized. It's going to work on whatever hardware you find and no is going to bug you about licenses.
You are so suckered by the music industry. iTunes gives you DRM garbage without long term credibility. It's a step backward from analog, except for convenience of play. Free media is technically superior and easier to use than non free.
Burn? Why? CDs are an input and an archive. I save my wavs as gziped tar archives and play them as oggs.
Amazingly enough, I can buy CDs and listen to my music with Amarok. Reasonable services will sell you FLAC without DRM. Reasonable bands let you trade their concerts without charge. iTunes does not live up to the Amarok + Wikipedia + Lyrics experience, nor is it's database as good. As time goes by, the gap in quality will widen.
As usual, non free is getting it's ass kicked and people are routing around it. Artist and users are getting a better deal elsewhere. When they fold and leave you without a key to what you purchased, you will understand why the deal was raw to begin with. I've digitized my parents and my grandparents music collections and will be able to give them to my kids. I'm not buying into something that will prevent that. Your player won't last forever, but the music and the culture it represents should.
An individual stocker (or cheer-squad) could be rounded up or curbed, but an unorganized, nation-wide mob can harbor any number of unhinged groups and factions could truly make life hell for someone.
You would be surprised at how many "nation-wide" mobs are nothing more than one asshole with a botnet. Witness anti-slash.org, a site founded by one person with the sole intent of harassing Slashdot and it's members. How many people do you think are stupid enough to waste their lives doing that? Yeah, they brag about their botnets.
no
I doubt anyone besides twitter would install a whole new operating system just for spreadsheet software. Personally, I'd go for OpenOffice ...
Not even I'd recommend that. I'd install a whole new OS for the whole new OS and all that comes with it. That includes OpenOffice which insures compatibility with all the zombies who still M$==Standard.
Better have a very good case when the inspector's final task is to check it in for you. Don't bother tipping, it will make them angry.
Translation: Big dumb companies value propaganda more than function and don't value their employees. Notice that training is close to the bottom of the list. Technical competence and familiarity with fundamentals of the field should be the thing they look for in new hires. Business school is something a company should pay for it's own employees if it wants to promote them to upper management. For a new employee it's a place where they can forget what they need to know. Looking for detailed business knowledge outside of the company is an admission that you are not willing to train and have not trained your own people adequately in a long time. Prediction: Big dumb companies are going to get dumber and people working there will continue to be forced to waste their overworked lives on mind numbing nonsense instead of getting things done right. You will be worn out and discarded like a rubber gasket.
True familiarity with the way a company works can only come from working in the company and keeping up with your competitor's actions. Business school case studies, while interesting, generally don't apply outside the specific case except for obvious general principles. Sure, some business schools are very good at understanding industry but I'm not convinced that's going to be useful to some guy who's there to make a better network or information sharing tool for the company. Someone who's been at the company long enough is going to know who needs what information from who an how best to get it there. If they have had the time to keep up with the field, they are a company's best resource.
Yes, I've worked for a fortune 100 company. It got nothing but worse and this survey shows that the trend continues. Notice how the smaller companies valued skill more than propaganda?
If Excel is over, point out to me a good replacement for it on my Mac. ... There isn't one.
Gosh, that was easy. I don't have a machine to test the above, but I'm sure at least one of them would work well. Running Debian would be the easiest way to get an alternative if it has been made to work with your current machine (x86 or PowerPC). Any are sure to run better and be more frequently updated than the two year old kludge that is Office of OSX:
Both Office v. X and 2004 Standard Edition run non-natively on Intel Macs through the Rosetta Emulation layer. Microsoft does not intend to update Office 2004 for Intel Macs, and has announced that the next version of Office for Mac will have universal binaries, capable of running natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs.
Excel doesn't require Windows...
Wooo-hoo! Freedom and choice in crappy and expensive software. My horizons in non free have been broadened. M$ emulation is everywhere.
I'm amazed that he put Apollo's command module and Excel in the same article. Excel ten years ago had some simplicity and virtue. Today, it is choked with M$'s horrific auto-wrong features. Worse, it requires an OS he dismisses just one paragraph up.
There are plenty of examples of Excel costing everyone lots of time and money, and not just because someone used it the wrong way. I've read stories about gentic code sequences at the Center for Disease control being turned into date codes. I've seen what happens between versions. Putting your work into a secret format, of course, puts you into a position where the owners of the secret can lead you around. Then there are the cases of misuse. No, not using it for obtuse things, like a blog formatter (yes, I just read about someone doing that), flexibility is what makes spreadsheets great. Misuse is creating the monster that's so big and complex it will eat you alive. When you combine misuse with auto-wrong you get a real disaster.
I use Gnumeric now. It's light and won't tax your computer. The input is functional, so it won't tax you. It has all the functions Excel does but they all give you the right answer. Most important, it won't auto-wrong you. The formats you enter are the formats it uses and you can go back and forth between them without losing information. Gnumeric is everything Excel used to be and more. It's grown useful features like perl scripting, but not bloat like silly drawing tools.
After such a blatant contradiction, Excel as a simple tool, I'm going to read the rest of the article with a grain of salt. If I see Power Point or Word, I'll quit reading.
Yeah, better kill the children now. Afterall, some of them will grow up to be axe murderers and that's just horrible. Baby, bathwater, freedom what's the difference?
Did you catch the bit where I said all batteries can catch fire?
Can catch fire and are catching fire are different things.
Dell made a $300 million recall, Sony is doing the honourable thing, and your comment is "look[s] very bad for Dell and Sony". The first fire was April last year, and you go on to say "...a year late."
For some reason, you don't get it. When the former Dell tech said hundreds per year, he's talking about something that's been going on for more than a year. He also implies that this was unusual. When you are getting dozens of melted and burnt laptops a month, you need to launch an investigation. Dell might have and understood the problem or they might not have. What ever they did does not matter because they continued to ship. That's irresponsible.
look at all the Dell, Sony, Apple, etc. etc. conspiracy theorists and wingnuts come out of the woodwork!
Wingnuts like former Dell tech, Robert Day? Did you read the article? You might have caught this little piece:
Although Dell told the agency that only six incidents had occurred, a reporter viewed almost 100 photos of melted notebooks that were returned to the company from 2002 to 2004. The photos, from a Dell database, were supplied by a former Dell technician, Robert Day, who said such damage was more of a common thing than they are letting on. As many as several hundred a year were returned. Mr. Day said, I did see so many pallets of stuff coming in that they had to use my lab for overflow storage.
Did you also catch the little bit about FIVE previous battery fires on airplanes in the last two years? One in a UPS jet destroyed the plane after landing. One had to be chucked out before take off. The other three FAA cases were not so interesting, except for the fact that smoking batteries now placed in cargo holds will take the plane down instead of being contained because the Department of Homeland Security is saving us all from exploding laptops. Do some research on the gruesome details of the ValueJet crash sometime. It was caused by a fire in the cargo hold and people were really outraged at the that someone would put an obvious fire risk down in the cargo.
If you want to jump up and down about unsafe products, then go nuts about SUVs.
That's a good idea too, but it has nothing to do with the issue, which is an obviously flawed product being sold for two years. SUVs do not have such obvious flaws for the most part and when they do, a recall happens.
Perspective is that no one's life is less important than company profits and you will get caught. When there's a clear problem, like hundreds of melted laptops a year, you need to act. The problem is not going to go away until it's fixed. When a third party does something as simple as taking an xray to identify your problem for you, you look very bad.
The story was well researched and things look very bad for both Dell and Sony here. The recall is a good idea but it sounds like it's coming a year late. It will take care of 4.1 million fire hazards.