My experience is the opposite, and is current. My son must turn in his reports in ms word format. That is what they use at their elementary school.
And other office suites can't read or write in MS compatible formats? Come on. We are all techs here. We know the score.
Open Office, Abiword etc.. You will be hard pressed to find a word processor that doesn't have an option to save as a word compatible document. I just checked, and Abiword even has an OOXML save option. And unless reports of teaching standards are greatly underestimated, and teachers are without exception, power users all of a sudden, the teacher will not be using complex change tracking and embedding corrections and marking in the document before saving and handing it back.
Before you get too excited, be aware that the rejection was primarily due to the absence of several government-party members of parliament. The government intends to re-present the bill after the easter recess, and presumably will make sure that all its members of parliament show up. At that point, the law will presumably be approved.
If that was the case, then why try to sneak it through, which is what got it rejected in the first place. If it was a formality that it would pass, then they would have followed the usual procedure and it would have already been passed.
I don't know why everyone ignores DSL. The telephone lines are already buried underground, and leading to every home, so upgrading everyone to high-speed is extremely easy and cheap. People's speeds could increase from 50k to 2000k, 40 times faster, literally overnight.
I have DSL too. And it is good. Provided you are fairly close to the exchange. I'm about 5 minutes walk from mine, and I get just under 7 if the 8 Meg that the ISP claims. But the further you go from the exchange, the lower the speed.
DSL is fine for city or town use, but once you start going out to the sticks, the speed drops off.
Me too just a few months ago. I really don't like Linux. It has the same flaw as Macintosh OS (tends to be ignored by software vendors), but far far worse. Example: I couldn't get my Netscape Dialup to work, so I called for help and they said "We only support Windows and Mac," and then hung-up on me. Nice.
That sucks. Understandable though. There is a lot of things to support which might cause the problem. Same thing stopped me getting into Linux around 2000. Never did get dialup to work, but I'm on broadband now, as are most users in the UK, so not a problem any more.
I did eventually get my Linux to connect to the ISP, but the compression engine/accelerator refuses to run, which makes everything extremely slow (50k versus ~500k). Another problem happened when I changed my resolution to 1024x800 - when I tried to change it back to 1280x1024 the dialog box was too big, and I couldn't access the OK button since it was offscreen. I'm still stuck at the wrong resolution. (With Windows pressing the enter button auto-selects OK, but not with Linux.)
Foxed me a few times too. Hold down Ctrl and drag the window with your mouse until you can see the bit you need.
So I think I'm going to use the WinXP Restore CD to wipe Linux off my laptop. From what I can see, XP and Mac OS are both more user-friendly than Ubuntu.
Keep an eye out. Things keep getting better. First time I tried Linux, I was just about able to get Mahjong working. Now it's my main OS. It takes a while to get from banging your head against the wall to the fun bits.
Do you really believe any label with an iota of intelligence would pull all of their work from a distribution network like iTunes?
Any one label.. no. Although it isn't unthinkable if Apple get too pushy.
All the big labels, who don't particularly like iTunes telling them what to do anyway, Oh yes. Absolutely. And Apple know this.
There are now plenty of other digital download outlets only too willing to do what ever is asked of them. iTunes is a music store these days. It could only call the shots when it was the music store.
The day the last of the big labels signed up with Amazon and others was the day iTunes stopped mattering. Do you really believe that someone will ignore all the other outlets if Apple don't sell a specific track?
It's beginning to look like MS is being controlled by marketdroids who not only have no clue what their customers want, they have no desire to gain one. It's a shame, really, they used to be able to produce good products that people actually wanted.
Don't forget Uncle Fester is a salesman. And he is also the big boss. Bill Gates, for all his megalomaniac tendencies, was at least technically literate. So he could provide a steering influence to the company on technical grounds rather than purely make money to finance the next version which makes more money to pay for the next version. Selling a technological product requires the people making the decisions to be technical people. Nothing wrong with profits, so long as profits are not the only consideration.
Or to use the beloved car analogy.. When the colour and appearance of a car is the most important aspect for the company, the car is going to eventually be crap if they ignore the trivial things like the engine and the steering. Which is why a Ferarri doesn't just look good, and a Toyota doesn't just run well.
Question is... What happens to Microsoft if the WOW doesn't start with 7?
Drink enough of it and it doesn't make you happy anymore. You start to shake, hallucinate, lash out at people, etc. The kind of results that we associate with serious drugs.
True enough. A caffeine high is not nice. Nicotine is a depressant, Caffeine is a stimulant. I tried giving up cigarettes a few years ago, without modifying my caffeine intake. Not thinking that one drug being removed would increase the effects of the other opposite drug.
Baaaad idea.
Once the nicotine is out of your system, The caffeine comes on full strength. FAST!!! I was bouncing off the walls and everything was in fast forward. A very shaky and out of it fast forward where I had little or no control, couldn't concentrate, couldn't really think straight for a few hours. I do not recommend it.
Joe Author needs a reality check. Abandoned property is no longer "his".
So, does that mean that I can go rummage through your attic and start taking all your stuff because you haven't used it in a while?
It's theft dude.
Yep.. No problem. All you have to do is figure out a way of gaining access to my attic legally. If I am still legally in existence, then entering my home without permission is trespass. Removing any item without my permission is theft.
However..
If I am no longer resident, and I can not be traced, such as if I sold my house, and left the country, and disappeared, then the stuff is yours. Legally free and clear.
It's not always up to the creator/owner of the IP whether or not the works stay available. An author is at the whim of the publishers whether or not their work will stay in print.
What you describe is an out of print book. Not an orphaned work. Very different thing. And they still have the right to opt out if they choose.
Those books are not yours. That's the fundamental thing. THAT PROPERTY IS NOT YOURS. If I am Joe author of a book, and Google scans it, I have every right to demand Google yank it back out. Convenience is not an excuse to violate civil rights.
Then it would not be an orphaned work would it? In which case, Google would have to take it down. Which they do. So what exactly is your objection?
Just because you don't send the entire file does not mean you are not infringing copyright. Any substantial portion will do.
So how much of a file is required for it to be infringing? And is there any case law anywhere that states this? Not trying to be funny or adversarial, just curious.
Why would you admit to writing what has been largely deemed the worst pop song in modern history? If that's the kind of music writers should be paid lots of money for, I'm glad the negotiations broke down.
That much!! He should have given the £11 back in shame. I would love to know how much he makes from the rest of his assembly line crap from that era. I'd imagine that the amount is the same or less. BECAUSE NOBODY WANTS IT ANY MORE!!!
For those who don't know of Mr Waterman, he was responsible for creating a stream of processed repetitive crap that was around in the late 80s to early 90s. It was made to be disposable then, and it was.
At the time, his songs were constantly played on the radio and on TV. Each broadcast and each record sale earning him more money. But the fact that he even got £11 shows that nobody wants it any more. Not that he is being cheated out of rightfully due payment for a commercially viable product.
He has already made millions from the stuff he produced. Like many, he gamed the system where possible and created stuff that was even at the time seen as disposable. Some of the smaller less successful but more talented writers do perhaps deserve more, but they were crowded out of the chance at the time to make the big money by the likes of Pete Waterman's plastic pop creations.
Hopefully Youtube will hold firm, and not give into the PRS gits. Remember this is the organisation that goes around doing such useful work as stopping mechanics listening to radios in case the customers might enjoy the music without paying for it after the radio station has already made a payment.
I love Last.fm I'm a regular listener and found many new interesting bands. Not only have I bought their albums, but also went to local concerts that I wouldn't have heard about otherwise. I will NEVER pay for an internet service. Remains the question: Are there any alternatives?
Last I checked, Deezer seemed ok. Not as many clients, but still fairly good. www.deezer.com
So, it's a container format with two different data streams in it, and you can stuff massively oversized files on your portable player, only you can only play the itty bity portion of that file that's the lossy one.
And the use case for this is?
Isn't the MP3 patent(s) about to run out in a year or two? In which case, would this be a significant enough modification to qualify for a new patent or an extension?
Why are you so arrogant? Some would say it takes MORE faith (belief in something NOT provable) to believe evolution than it takes to believe ID.
Yes... they would be the ID supporters trying to twist the argument to support their creation myth again. Not that it matters.. it's turtles all the way down really.
Slashdot Mirror
My experience is the opposite, and is current. My son must turn in his reports in ms word format. That is what they use at their elementary school.
And other office suites can't read or write in MS compatible formats? Come on. We are all techs here. We know the score.
Open Office, Abiword etc.. You will be hard pressed to find a word processor that doesn't have an option to save as a word compatible document. I just checked, and Abiword even has an OOXML save option. And unless reports of teaching standards are greatly underestimated, and teachers are without exception, power users all of a sudden, the teacher will not be using complex change tracking and embedding corrections and marking in the document before saving and handing it back.
Hungary won't change many attitudes in the U.S.
Why would that matter?
But are Erris, Mactrope, and the rest of the gang any less of a waste of time?
At least Twitter is so obvious that you know when they are around. Does anybody else use M$ any more apart from Twitter's sock puppets?
For home users, Vista/Win7 will happily automatically download drivers for all hardware it can't recognize out of the box via Windows Update.
Unless it can't recognise the network card.
Before you get too excited, be aware that the rejection was primarily due to the absence of several government-party members of parliament. The government intends to re-present the bill after the easter recess, and presumably will make sure that all its members of parliament show up. At that point, the law will presumably be approved.
If that was the case, then why try to sneak it through, which is what got it rejected in the first place. If it was a formality that it would pass, then they would have followed the usual procedure and it would have already been passed.
I don't know why everyone ignores DSL. The telephone lines are already buried underground, and leading to every home, so upgrading everyone to high-speed is extremely easy and cheap. People's speeds could increase from 50k to 2000k, 40 times faster, literally overnight.
I have DSL too. And it is good. Provided you are fairly close to the exchange. I'm about 5 minutes walk from mine, and I get just under 7 if the 8 Meg that the ISP claims. But the further you go from the exchange, the lower the speed. DSL is fine for city or town use, but once you start going out to the sticks, the speed drops off.
It snowed again yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. Consensus in these parts is "Global warming: Bring it on!"
Until crops fail due to bad weather. The snow doesn't actually leave most of the year, and food prices go through the roof.
There is a reason why it is a bad idea to let idiots make important decisions.
Me too just a few months ago. I really don't like Linux. It has the same flaw as Macintosh OS (tends to be ignored by software vendors), but far far worse. Example: I couldn't get my Netscape Dialup to work, so I called for help and they said "We only support Windows and Mac," and then hung-up on me. Nice.
That sucks. Understandable though. There is a lot of things to support which might cause the problem. Same thing stopped me getting into Linux around 2000. Never did get dialup to work, but I'm on broadband now, as are most users in the UK, so not a problem any more.
I did eventually get my Linux to connect to the ISP, but the compression engine/accelerator refuses to run, which makes everything extremely slow (50k versus ~500k). Another problem happened when I changed my resolution to 1024x800 - when I tried to change it back to 1280x1024 the dialog box was too big, and I couldn't access the OK button since it was offscreen. I'm still stuck at the wrong resolution. (With Windows pressing the enter button auto-selects OK, but not with Linux.)
Foxed me a few times too. Hold down Ctrl and drag the window with your mouse until you can see the bit you need.
So I think I'm going to use the WinXP Restore CD to wipe Linux off my laptop. From what I can see, XP and Mac OS are both more user-friendly than Ubuntu.
Keep an eye out. Things keep getting better. First time I tried Linux, I was just about able to get Mahjong working. Now it's my main OS. It takes a while to get from banging your head against the wall to the fun bits.
Do you really believe any label with an iota of intelligence would pull all of their work from a distribution network like iTunes?
Any one label.. no. Although it isn't unthinkable if Apple get too pushy.
All the big labels, who don't particularly like iTunes telling them what to do anyway, Oh yes. Absolutely. And Apple know this.
There are now plenty of other digital download outlets only too willing to do what ever is asked of them. iTunes is a music store these days. It could only call the shots when it was the music store.
The day the last of the big labels signed up with Amazon and others was the day iTunes stopped mattering. Do you really believe that someone will ignore all the other outlets if Apple don't sell a specific track?
It's beginning to look like MS is being controlled by marketdroids who not only have no clue what their customers want, they have no desire to gain one. It's a shame, really, they used to be able to produce good products that people actually wanted.
Don't forget Uncle Fester is a salesman. And he is also the big boss. Bill Gates, for all his megalomaniac tendencies, was at least technically literate. So he could provide a steering influence to the company on technical grounds rather than purely make money to finance the next version which makes more money to pay for the next version. Selling a technological product requires the people making the decisions to be technical people. Nothing wrong with profits, so long as profits are not the only consideration.
Or to use the beloved car analogy.. When the colour and appearance of a car is the most important aspect for the company, the car is going to eventually be crap if they ignore the trivial things like the engine and the steering. Which is why a Ferarri doesn't just look good, and a Toyota doesn't just run well.
Question is... What happens to Microsoft if the WOW doesn't start with 7?
Drink enough of it and it doesn't make you happy anymore. You start to shake, hallucinate, lash out at people, etc. The kind of results that we associate with serious drugs.
True enough. A caffeine high is not nice. Nicotine is a depressant, Caffeine is a stimulant. I tried giving up cigarettes a few years ago, without modifying my caffeine intake. Not thinking that one drug being removed would increase the effects of the other opposite drug.
Baaaad idea.
Once the nicotine is out of your system, The caffeine comes on full strength. FAST!!! I was bouncing off the walls and everything was in fast forward. A very shaky and out of it fast forward where I had little or no control, couldn't concentrate, couldn't really think straight for a few hours. I do not recommend it.
Joe Author needs a reality check. Abandoned property is no longer "his". So, does that mean that I can go rummage through your attic and start taking all your stuff because you haven't used it in a while? It's theft dude.
Yep.. No problem. All you have to do is figure out a way of gaining access to my attic legally. If I am still legally in existence, then entering my home without permission is trespass. Removing any item without my permission is theft. However.. If I am no longer resident, and I can not be traced, such as if I sold my house, and left the country, and disappeared, then the stuff is yours. Legally free and clear.
It's not always up to the creator/owner of the IP whether or not the works stay available. An author is at the whim of the publishers whether or not their work will stay in print.
What you describe is an out of print book. Not an orphaned work. Very different thing. And they still have the right to opt out if they choose.
Those books are not yours. That's the fundamental thing. THAT PROPERTY IS NOT YOURS. If I am Joe author of a book, and Google scans it, I have every right to demand Google yank it back out. Convenience is not an excuse to violate civil rights.
Then it would not be an orphaned work would it? In which case, Google would have to take it down. Which they do. So what exactly is your objection?
You're right, the proper mod is -1 Redundant.
Or +1 Caught in the act?
Didn't Microsoft try out the idea of limiting the number of times a copy of Vista could be installed until a lot of people objected?
Pretty simple formula..
Publish a "really pushing it" TOC revision.
Observe reaction.
If enough people complain and threaten to leave, push out revision 2 and claim horrible mistake. Otherwise, you got away with it.
SCO is the obvious choice.
Yep.. I can just picture Daryl trying to get his head around GPL..
Just because you don't send the entire file does not mean you are not infringing copyright. Any substantial portion will do.
So how much of a file is required for it to be infringing? And is there any case law anywhere that states this? Not trying to be funny or adversarial, just curious.
Why would you admit to writing what has been largely deemed the worst pop song in modern history? If that's the kind of music writers should be paid lots of money for, I'm glad the negotiations broke down.
That much!! He should have given the £11 back in shame. I would love to know how much he makes from the rest of his assembly line crap from that era. I'd imagine that the amount is the same or less. BECAUSE NOBODY WANTS IT ANY MORE!!!
For those who don't know of Mr Waterman, he was responsible for creating a stream of processed repetitive crap that was around in the late 80s to early 90s. It was made to be disposable then, and it was.
At the time, his songs were constantly played on the radio and on TV. Each broadcast and each record sale earning him more money. But the fact that he even got £11 shows that nobody wants it any more. Not that he is being cheated out of rightfully due payment for a commercially viable product.
He has already made millions from the stuff he produced. Like many, he gamed the system where possible and created stuff that was even at the time seen as disposable. Some of the smaller less successful but more talented writers do perhaps deserve more, but they were crowded out of the chance at the time to make the big money by the likes of Pete Waterman's plastic pop creations.
Hopefully Youtube will hold firm, and not give into the PRS gits. Remember this is the organisation that goes around doing such useful work as stopping mechanics listening to radios in case the customers might enjoy the music without paying for it after the radio station has already made a payment.
I love Last.fm
I'm a regular listener and found many new interesting bands. Not only have I bought their albums, but also went to local concerts that I wouldn't have heard about otherwise.
I will NEVER pay for an internet service.
Remains the question: Are there any alternatives?
Last I checked, Deezer seemed ok. Not as many clients, but still fairly good. www.deezer.com
So, it's a container format with two different data streams in it, and you can stuff massively oversized files on your portable player, only you can only play the itty bity portion of that file that's the lossy one. And the use case for this is?
Isn't the MP3 patent(s) about to run out in a year or two? In which case, would this be a significant enough modification to qualify for a new patent or an extension?
Pandora doesn't even work in the UK for IP reasons...
Then use Last FM.
Yeah, what's the point of "better tab handling" and a "niftier search bar" if the results look like crap because it can't render everything properly?
Be fair.. it renders everything perfectly....... Everything written for IE8 that is.
Easy. Put out a story about pedophiles using P2P o get their kiddie porn.
Most people consider internet explorer to be "the internet".
It's all they've ever known.
So are they also limited to the apps that have icons on the desktop because there is no button marked "start" in Vista/7?
Why are you so arrogant? Some would say it takes MORE faith (belief in something NOT provable) to believe evolution than it takes to believe ID.
Yes... they would be the ID supporters trying to twist the argument to support their creation myth again. Not that it matters.. it's turtles all the way down really.