Technically Closed standards can be understood and used by anyone/any program that implements them too.
There are plenty of libraries out that that can read and write locked down file formats, such as the Biff-8 fileformat that used to be used by Excel.
But are you differentiating between a file format and a standard, or just using the two terms interchangeably?
Why not just change the icon? And why do you change things for people they clearly do not want. You are forcing you choice upon them just as Microsoft does. I give people the alternative and if they don't want it, fine by me, but please do not come by and ask for any further help.
Good idea if it is being done by an informal tech support person (one of us on a friend's PC).. For professional support, not a good idea. The customer has not invited you to change their browser for them.
As to why?
Ever work on a PC owned by an autoclicker? All those "Your browser is infected with a really really nasty virus.. Click here to fix this" windows" and the "make your internet connection faster"popups still show up, but not nearly as much on Firefox. IE7/8 may have improved, but the problem still exists.And autoclicking is a hard habit to break.
Would that be the same post office that the government seems to be doing everything in its power to shut down? (despite the fact that Post Office Counters is a private company)
Yes. So they will realise what they have done a month or so after they privatise it.
What if the vendor doesn't want to pay the 3-5% fees that using credit and debit cards cost a company?
The same thing as if they only accept gold bullion. They lose business because they are unable to take payment for goods and services. And there is still cash.
A cheque paid into a business account is not free either..
Recently I had to send payment to the DVLA (UK version of DMV), and the payment had to be enclosed with the form.
Cash was not acceptable (obviously) so I had to send a cheque or a postal order. How will this work now?
One time direct debit, cash transfer, credit card payment into an agreed account with a one shot user name and password, charge made on your phone bill.. Lots of ways that could be used.
Simply put.. If Cheques go away, they can only do so if all cases in which there is no alternative are eliminated. So DVLA will by then have to come up with a new method.
Easiest and most universal way I can see is to have a deal with the post office, so you go in with your form, pay the post office, who give you a receipt, and accept the form, which is then posted to the DVLA with a receipt of payment either physically stapled to the form, or electronically transmitted. Several organisations already use the post office system to accept payments. Why would DVLA be unable to.
Ironically IE was once the hip new upstart with better features and a minority share to the old dinosaur that was netscape. What makes you so sure that if FF obliterated IE it wouldn't make the same mistakes? (And trust me I'm no big IE fan, I've used FF since '04, just playing devil's advocate)
Simple.. Because the issue is not one of browser features. It's cross platform, cross browser compatibility. Microsoft's kryptonite.
IE is the least compatible browser in the mainstream market. Some features are deliberately non standard and closed methods, others are the remains of workarounds that they used to support in previous versions. So basically, if everybody decided to take down the pages specifically written for IE tomorrow, millions would be howling at the web sites when IE couldn't display them properly, and then at Microsoft,before dumping it's browser. The user doesn't see the incompatibility though, so they don't complain.
It took Firefox about 5 years to get enough user base to be impractical to ignore, so now the bulk of sites have at the very least, got a standards complaint version too. Which also paved the way for all the Safari and Chrome compatible sites. If Firefox pulled a Microsoft, and started getting complacent, there are plenty more browsers who can provide competition. Because this is what real competition is.. Constant innovation and refinement. Not your product "winning".
And if something went wrong, most people would have called IBM for technical support.
Why? Would they have not called the manufacturer or the seller of the equipment instead? And as these were business machines, they would have had a support contract in place. Why call IBM?
2nd largest share is misleading. isn't their market share around 10% (and a majority of that 10% also own a system with MS)? Apple is more of a countess...
And if these get blister packed as MID/PDA/PMP devices for around $/£100 they will fly of the shelves.
I'd happily pay about £150-200 for the model you linked to based on the assumption of it being a pocket sized competent media player with a few extra features. Even if the OS was in ROM..
Because they think at first that they will be fine with Linux. And they are not. Linux fanboys can continue claiming that it's Windows users that are deluding themselves, but they still won't see 30% of even their geek friends running Linux on their netbooks. Of the six Netbooks I saw my friends purchase, four came with Linux. None are running Linux as the primary OS now. I know, anecdoted v.s data, but I'm hearing the same all around.
Why would someone purchase a linux based laptop at around equal price as a windows one to go through the extra steps to avoid paying $7 for a Windows XP Home License ?
So insecure Windows fanboys can feel better about themselves..
Perhaps it is my slashdot bias, but the story about Kindles having books removed from readers' machines still strikes a sour chord with me. I recognize that most consumers don't know a thing about and many don't care. I don't see much difference between book burning and book deleting. To me the reasons, are irrelevant. Abuse will always emerge when opportunity is given.
Don't be so sure the public are blissfully ignorant. I'm pretty sure it made mainstream press. Plus, this isn't exactly the kind of thing you get as an impulse buy, so people will look into it a bit more closely.
Should Microsoft release a install that you can't use for anything? No of course not. People want and need a browser, a email program, a notepad and a calculator. They actually paid for getting it.
Didn't you hear? Windows 7 doesn't come with an email app. Where do we apply for our refunds? I mean.. we actually paid for it after all...
Translation: Skiff gives periodical publishers tools to mix advertisements within content and to shove said ads down the throats of their subscribers.
I agree that the Kindle is far from perfect, but I can't say I'm too excited for this Skiff thing either.
Didn't Amazon take out a patent on inserting advertising in books recently?
"This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our "solution" to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we've received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.
Translation.. Sorry I shot your dog and ran over it five times in front of your kids. Here's the money for a new dog. Next time' I'll wait for the kids to be at school before I shoot it and run over it again.
One thing that made "The Road" striking was indeed the unique font, which shared a touch of the same depressing tone as the terse text. Times New Roman et al would have degraded the reading experience.
When might we see eBook readers which allow inclusion of text-specific fonts?
Right now. The Cybook gen3. Any true type font you like.
First the Catholics with child rape, now the Scientologists with slavery and human trafficking.
Any wagers on which one true religion will be busted next?
Slashdot Mirror
Technically Closed standards can be understood and used by anyone/any program that implements them too. There are plenty of libraries out that that can read and write locked down file formats, such as the Biff-8 fileformat that used to be used by Excel.
But are you differentiating between a file format and a standard, or just using the two terms interchangeably?
Why not just change the icon? And why do you change things for people they clearly do not want. You are forcing you choice upon them just as Microsoft does. I give people the alternative and if they don't want it, fine by me, but please do not come by and ask for any further help.
Good idea if it is being done by an informal tech support person (one of us on a friend's PC).. For professional support, not a good idea. The customer has not invited you to change their browser for them. As to why? Ever work on a PC owned by an autoclicker? All those "Your browser is infected with a really really nasty virus.. Click here to fix this" windows" and the "make your internet connection faster"popups still show up, but not nearly as much on Firefox. IE7/8 may have improved, but the problem still exists.And autoclicking is a hard habit to break.
Would that be the same post office that the government seems to be doing everything in its power to shut down? (despite the fact that Post Office Counters is a private company)
Yes. So they will realise what they have done a month or so after they privatise it.
What if the vendor doesn't want to pay the 3-5% fees that using credit and debit cards cost a company?
The same thing as if they only accept gold bullion. They lose business because they are unable to take payment for goods and services. And there is still cash.
A cheque paid into a business account is not free either..
Recently I had to send payment to the DVLA (UK version of DMV), and the payment had to be enclosed with the form. Cash was not acceptable (obviously) so I had to send a cheque or a postal order. How will this work now?
One time direct debit, cash transfer, credit card payment into an agreed account with a one shot user name and password, charge made on your phone bill.. Lots of ways that could be used. Simply put.. If Cheques go away, they can only do so if all cases in which there is no alternative are eliminated. So DVLA will by then have to come up with a new method. Easiest and most universal way I can see is to have a deal with the post office, so you go in with your form, pay the post office, who give you a receipt, and accept the form, which is then posted to the DVLA with a receipt of payment either physically stapled to the form, or electronically transmitted. Several organisations already use the post office system to accept payments. Why would DVLA be unable to.
Ironically IE was once the hip new upstart with better features and a minority share to the old dinosaur that was netscape. What makes you so sure that if FF obliterated IE it wouldn't make the same mistakes? (And trust me I'm no big IE fan, I've used FF since '04, just playing devil's advocate)
Simple.. Because the issue is not one of browser features. It's cross platform, cross browser compatibility. Microsoft's kryptonite. IE is the least compatible browser in the mainstream market. Some features are deliberately non standard and closed methods, others are the remains of workarounds that they used to support in previous versions. So basically, if everybody decided to take down the pages specifically written for IE tomorrow, millions would be howling at the web sites when IE couldn't display them properly, and then at Microsoft,before dumping it's browser. The user doesn't see the incompatibility though, so they don't complain. It took Firefox about 5 years to get enough user base to be impractical to ignore, so now the bulk of sites have at the very least, got a standards complaint version too. Which also paved the way for all the Safari and Chrome compatible sites. If Firefox pulled a Microsoft, and started getting complacent, there are plenty more browsers who can provide competition. Because this is what real competition is.. Constant innovation and refinement. Not your product "winning".
Good luck with that. IE is still a huge chunk of the shell and is shipped with XP weather you like it or not. (can't comment on win7/vista)
Which for the five millionth time, was not the issue here. And I seem to remember reading that the browser ballot will come as an update to XP too.
And if something went wrong, most people would have called IBM for technical support.
Why? Would they have not called the manufacturer or the seller of the equipment instead? And as these were business machines, they would have had a support contract in place. Why call IBM?
2nd largest share is misleading. isn't their market share around 10% (and a majority of that 10% also own a system with MS)? Apple is more of a countess...
About 3-5% worldwide.
If that's the case, how do you define "free"?
How ever he is told to.
Here's one (and I have the SmartQ7 model): http://www.smartdevices.com.cn/ Nice and cheap.
And if these get blister packed as MID/PDA/PMP devices for around $/£100 they will fly of the shelves. I'd happily pay about £150-200 for the model you linked to based on the assumption of it being a pocket sized competent media player with a few extra features. Even if the OS was in ROM..
So what motivation is there for anyone to come up with any new ideas? Where do you get the idea that there are new ideas?
Because they think at first that they will be fine with Linux. And they are not. Linux fanboys can continue claiming that it's Windows users that are deluding themselves, but they still won't see 30% of even their geek friends running Linux on their netbooks. Of the six Netbooks I saw my friends purchase, four came with Linux. None are running Linux as the primary OS now. I know, anecdoted v.s data, but I'm hearing the same all around.
Thanks for proving my statement..
Why would someone purchase a linux based laptop at around equal price as a windows one to go through the extra steps to avoid paying $7 for a Windows XP Home License ?
So insecure Windows fanboys can feel better about themselves..
What do you mean? RIAA of real-world numbers?
Real world. making my point with RIAA figures would make me feel dirty.
Perhaps it is my slashdot bias, but the story about Kindles having books removed from readers' machines still strikes a sour chord with me. I recognize that most consumers don't know a thing about and many don't care. I don't see much difference between book burning and book deleting. To me the reasons, are irrelevant. Abuse will always emerge when opportunity is given.
Don't be so sure the public are blissfully ignorant. I'm pretty sure it made mainstream press. Plus, this isn't exactly the kind of thing you get as an impulse buy, so people will look into it a bit more closely.
Vinyl didn't account for 1% of the entire recorded music market. It was 1% of full album sales, which have been dropping precipitously.
And how much was made on full albums?
You only have to sell a couple albums more than usual to claim huge percentage increases.
But a small part of a big market is still worth having. Any idea what 1% of the entire recorded music market is worth?
Should Microsoft release a install that you can't use for anything? No of course not. People want and need a browser, a email program, a notepad and a calculator. They actually paid for getting it.
Didn't you hear? Windows 7 doesn't come with an email app. Where do we apply for our refunds? I mean.. we actually paid for it after all...
Translation: Skiff gives periodical publishers tools to mix advertisements within content and to shove said ads down the throats of their subscribers. I agree that the Kindle is far from perfect, but I can't say I'm too excited for this Skiff thing either.
Didn't Amazon take out a patent on inserting advertising in books recently?
I felt a great disturbance in the Smug, as if millions of fanboys suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Don't be daft.. Nothing can silence fanboys.
"Lose," not "loose," for Christ's sake!
Don't be so sure. Imagine if Steve switched from chairs to pointy cornered Windows logos...Ouch..
"This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our "solution" to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we've received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.
Translation.. Sorry I shot your dog and ran over it five times in front of your kids. Here's the money for a new dog. Next time' I'll wait for the kids to be at school before I shoot it and run over it again.
One thing that made "The Road" striking was indeed the unique font, which shared a touch of the same depressing tone as the terse text. Times New Roman et al would have degraded the reading experience. When might we see eBook readers which allow inclusion of text-specific fonts?
Right now. The Cybook gen3. Any true type font you like.
First the Catholics with child rape, now the Scientologists with slavery and human trafficking. Any wagers on which one true religion will be busted next?
Capitalism?