No but a word document with some vbs script in it might do the trick... I am sure they can get plenty of people to open a word document if titled correctly (like the simpsons example above) but you will have to forgive my lack of creativity right now.
Apples market isn't the hard core geek (not yet anyway) they are trying to puncture the home PC market with the iMac, not the corporate desktop. So far I think they have done suprisingly well.
I just bought a G4 and it comes with: mp3 software, dvd / cd burning software, video editing software, email software, web browser, and a VERY intuituve interface.
Another nice feature is the DVD playback isn't sketchy (I had a creative DVD Player in my old Win2000 machine and could never get the DVD Window to size right.) and you can even tile applications without having any wierd show through from the DVD window.
Straight out of the box, you can do more than any WinXP/2000/ME/98 Box ever did. Then throw on any of the available apps Office / Photoshop / Illustrator / Mozilla / FTP (for those who don't like the command line) etc.
The set up is easy and the "iTools" that mac provides (free for mac users) are actually quite nice.
I have been using intel based machines for a little over 12 years and have always regarded mac's as odd. But now that OS X (BSD) is at the core, its a truely robust system. The only thing I use my PC for is work (we are married to some microsoft technologies like SQL Server.)
I will sacrifice speed for two things:
Usability
Stability
Mac has them both now. And without the need to reboot the machine due to memory leaks if an application crashes. I have this problem all the time on my Thinkpad.
While I agree with your accounting analysis... if the place is going to run Win2K servers though, there is no additional cost in running IIS (its part of the OS distro) and so unless they make the switch to an open OS such as Linux, they still have to captialize the OS and server cost. So they get hit twice.
That said, for 90% of places running web servers out there, there are only about a dozen lines in httpd.conf that need to be edited to get the site up and running in a configuration that will suit their needs!
There are also ton's of great application servers that plug right into it (if they aren't bundled to begin with) and only require minor tweeks. If your developers writing the code can't figure this simple stuff out, they shouldn't call themselves developers.
Interestingly enough, screen white is (even correctly adjusted) still hard on the eyes. Studies on online usability have suggested that a light tan color (websafe #ffffcc) with black text is actually easier to read. This has something to do with the contrast between the two.
However, studies also suggest that people only read about 13% of what they see online anyway, so regardless of colors, you had better make your point quickly.
Under the terms of the definitive agreement, AT&T will spin off AT&T Broadband and simultaneously merge it with Comcast, forming a new company to be called AT&T Comcast Corporation.
AT&T shareholders will receive approximately 0.34 shares of AT&T Comcast Corporation for each share of AT&T they own (subject to adjustment based on the number of AT&T shares at closing). Comcast shareholders will receive one share of AT&T Comcast Corporation for each Comcast share they own.
AT&T shareowners will own a 56 percent economic stake and about a 66 percent voting interest in the new company. The Roberts family, which owns Comcast Class B shares, will control one third of the new company's outstanding voting interest.
AT&T Comcast Corporation's assets will consist of both companies' cable TV systems, as well as AT&T's interests in cable television joint ventures and its 25.5 percent interest in Time Warner Entertainment, and Comcast's interests in QVC, E! Entertainment, The Golf Channel, and other entertainment properties.
The new company will assume nearly $20 billion in debt and other liabilities from AT&T and its subsidiaries, as well as $5 billion of AT&T subsidiary trust convertible preferred securities held by Microsoft Corporation, making the aggregate value of the transaction to AT&T shareholders worth $72 billion, based on the closing price of Comcast Class K stock on December 19.
AT&T shareowners would receive value equivalent to $13.07 per AT&T share based on Comcast's closing share price on Wednesday, December 19, while retaining complete ownership of AT&T's traditional communications businesses.
In conjunction with the transaction, Microsoft Corporation has agreed to convert the $5 billion of AT&T subsidiary trust convertible preferred securities into 115 million shares of AT&T Comcast Corporation.
According to my site logs at work (a large environmental organization), about 88% of all traffic we see (1 million unique visitors / month) are using ie 4.0 and above.
Our demographic is home and k-12 users primarily, so I think its safe to assume, any almost any non-tech person is using it.
Incidently, due to security issues, we use Netscape 4.77 internally!
Although I have never shopped here, TigerDirect has some good prices on DVD-RAM's as well as DVD-R & DVD+RW, well below the $25.00 / disc prices of last year.
What about dish systems, like directTV. I heard about starBand? and some others, but never hear much about the reliability etc. I would really like to see some other solutions other than DSL (which sadly I cannot get beyond 144K IDSL, some fiber optic problem with the local loop according to Verizon, my local carrier.)
With Ricochete dead and @home on the way out, what other options are on the horizon / radar for tomorrow.
I have comcast@home and have been moderately happy with it, I can pull content, but for telecommuting its kinda sketchy if you need to do any large file transfers. I have happily run a server off my static IP for almost 2 years now and never caught greif, so even though the EUA is rough, they don't seem to inforce it here anyway.
Even still, its the best I can do for the price. I would hate to move back to my dialup connection (I'd have to get one first!)
Even still, nice to have this much hardware at your disposal. Too bad they have such a low tech solution for to schedule time on it. Heck, probably take 2-3 days to roll out a full config to test what you wanted anyway.
As anyone who works on systems from day to day knows... as much as I don't like it, each system has strengths and weaknesses.
Linux is a fantastic system for serving web content and doing databases and back end systems stuff
Microsoft, like it or not, has made a desktop and whether by fair play or not, taught most of the world to use it.
Macintosh has incredible strengths in the graphic design world. They have found a way to get the desktop out of the way of creativity.
BSD has great strengths in virtual host setups (down to splitting the processor / memory usage).
Each OS has a strength, the key to a good system is using the *best* tool for a given job and not buying into one system that does it all.
I love Linux and am an advocate for open source. I run Linux machines, but I also run Windows Machines because there are tasks that are easier on each. Both OS's have a place.
Just as there are many styles of education and learning, so too are there different ways of approaching the problem of the desktop. By having choices, we are enabled to choose what works best for our style. Otherwise, you folks running Themes wouldn't bother changing the defaults.
Nitch OS's have a place too... and thank's to the devoted masses who keep their missions alive, we all benefit from them, even if other companies lay off their work force or swallow them whole.
Because of visionaries discovering a great way to do something the collective pool benifits.
Notice that some of the best projects, although usable, are not "mature" software until at least 3-4 years.
Linux has been around about that long, and in the last 2-3 years has really picked up speed (and dollars) from corporations.
Microsofts OS picked up speed around Windows 3.1 & 3.11 (early 90's) and had matured for aproximately 10 years prior to that (DOS 1.0 - DOS 6.22) You get the idea. Now that Windows is aproaching 10 years (Windows 2000) is finally an almost dare I say it "Good" OS.
Although 10 years might not hold true for all applications, it will hold for a large number.
Guru
Web Monkey - Baring any trademark restrictions
Web Guru
Classified
Slacker
Code Monkey
Code Poet - Dont forget the t-shirt if you use this one
Web Tamer
Undefined
Uber Geek - Again the t-shirt here.
Caffine Addict - t-shirt
H4x0r
Script Kiddie
There are endless possibilities with these, as I am sure you have scene. Use a little creativity (If you feel you don't have any, find someone with a copy of PhotoShop or Illustrator on their machine and ask them) and see what works for you.
While I agree that using a keyboard is faster and more intuitive for data entry than using a mouse, might it not be faster to write the application designed with the touch screen interface in mind. You get the best of both worlds with a GUI presentation, and keyboard speed?
Um, my laptop doesn't have a fan on the power supply either (it has a small internal fan if it gets cooking) and is always quite (except for the CD Drive.)
You should aproach your taxes with a little more time to do them. The 15th is a little late to start thinking about tax loop holes, H&R Block doesn't want to waste their time on the busiest tax day of the year covering you but for a few hundred dollars. They will tell you "No don't do it," and move on. This is the sort of thing you should think about in January/February when the real tax pros have time to look into things more carefully.
It's not that much money to spend if you want the technology. A new computer will probably run you more, heck the camcorder you bought was probably half that.
If your in financial straights and can't afford $1200 perhaps your focus should be else where now, and not on the technology to beam images to the ground.
Change your focus, then once you have a few thousand in your capital expenditures budget, use something that is designed for the task you are trying, and don't try to cheap out. From the sounds of it though (see previous article)
Interesting publicitiy day for Skydive DeLand. A veteran Canadian skydiver with over 4700 jumps died there today. And it seems several others have died recently. They're under FAA investigation.
Makes you wonder where else they are cutting corners doesn't it.
A good class C 192.168.1.x will serve 255 clients... all you need is 6, why use a network that gives you thousands?
10.x.x.x MS does like to use 255.0.0.0 for that... you might consider switching that over too. If its a microsoft network you might as well make it happy, even if there is no compeling reason to do so.
If you want tier 1 service, you have to go with a teir 1 provider. Digex, IBM, AT&T... you get the idea. It may cost more, but the service you get is amazing.
The company I work for uses digex, and when a security hole is found, they patch it, immediately.
Sure it costs more, but sometimes (not always) you get what you pay for. $99/month for a server (RAQ pricing) is fine and dandy, but $2000/month will get you a whole lot more than a box. Backups (full backups every 48-72 hours with 2-3 incremental in the interim,) site monitoring (services as well as content,) reduntant network conectivity, generator backup etc.
Also, if we have a problem and any of our tech guys are away on vacation etc (read I am out of the office) another non-tech member of my team can call 24x7 and have things fixed, repaired, or rebooted (unfortunately we run NT).
Take a look at what you are asking for... its possible what you want just isn't something they provide.
Hard Disk's tend to fail after lots of use as well (or just get filled) I had problems with my old laptops hard disk and memory issues. The screen (not even an active matrix display) still works, but its not as nice as the thinkpad I use most of the time.
I have also run into resolution issues (under x windows) as the display can only run 800x600 (old fujitsu lifebook 420) So the display's clarity really isn't the issue so much as the supporting hardware is!
Microsoft issue the patch by exploiting the security hole. Most IE browsers check the MS site on load anyway for a new version, before being let free to go to the default homepage, why don't they use that interim to exploit the hole and correct the problem?
Moreover, they could publish the link and patch up the holes when people visited. This is typical MS BS.
Standards in UI are critical, anyone who doesn't think that has obviously been burned by MS on this one. Error messages, regarless of who they are for, need to be clear, and in a language the user will understand. GPF 234 doesn't help anyone.
Slashdot Mirror
No but a word document with some vbs script in it might do the trick... I am sure they can get plenty of people to open a word document if titled correctly (like the simpsons example above) but you will have to forgive my lack of creativity right now.
Apples market isn't the hard core geek (not yet anyway) they are trying to puncture the home PC market with the iMac, not the corporate desktop. So far I think they have done suprisingly well.
I just bought a G4 and it comes with: mp3 software, dvd / cd burning software, video editing software, email software, web browser, and a VERY intuituve interface.
Another nice feature is the DVD playback isn't sketchy (I had a creative DVD Player in my old Win2000 machine and could never get the DVD Window to size right.) and you can even tile applications without having any wierd show through from the DVD window.
Straight out of the box, you can do more than any WinXP/2000/ME/98 Box ever did. Then throw on any of the available apps Office / Photoshop / Illustrator / Mozilla / FTP (for those who don't like the command line) etc.
The set up is easy and the "iTools" that mac provides (free for mac users) are actually quite nice.
I have been using intel based machines for a little over 12 years and have always regarded mac's as odd. But now that OS X (BSD) is at the core, its a truely robust system. The only thing I use my PC for is work (we are married to some microsoft technologies like SQL Server.)
I will sacrifice speed for two things:
Mac has them both now. And without the need to reboot the machine due to memory leaks if an application crashes. I have this problem all the time on my Thinkpad.
All you would need to do is put together 10 powerMac G4's and you would be at about 150GFlops and bam, your on the list!
While I agree with your accounting analysis... if the place is going to run Win2K servers though, there is no additional cost in running IIS (its part of the OS distro) and so unless they make the switch to an open OS such as Linux, they still have to captialize the OS and server cost. So they get hit twice.
That said, for 90% of places running web servers out there, there are only about a dozen lines in httpd.conf that need to be edited to get the site up and running in a configuration that will suit their needs!
There are also ton's of great application servers that plug right into it (if they aren't bundled to begin with) and only require minor tweeks. If your developers writing the code can't figure this simple stuff out, they shouldn't call themselves developers.
going digital might have made the trip faster. 36miles each roll... thats a thousand rolls of film!
If you ever decide to buy one, I have a manual for this thing still (yes the original manual) complete with RF switch glued to my 3 ring binder.
Interestingly enough, screen white is (even correctly adjusted) still hard on the eyes. Studies on online usability have suggested that a light tan color (websafe #ffffcc) with black text is actually easier to read. This has something to do with the contrast between the two.
However, studies also suggest that people only read about 13% of what they see online anyway, so regardless of colors, you had better make your point quickly.
Terms of the agreement
Under the terms of the definitive agreement, AT&T will spin off AT&T Broadband and simultaneously merge it with Comcast, forming a new company to be called AT&T Comcast Corporation.
AT&T shareholders will receive approximately 0.34 shares of AT&T Comcast Corporation for each share of AT&T they own (subject to adjustment based on the number of AT&T shares at closing). Comcast shareholders will receive one share of AT&T Comcast Corporation for each Comcast share they own.
AT&T shareowners will own a 56 percent economic stake and about a 66 percent voting interest in the new company. The Roberts family, which owns Comcast Class B shares, will control one third of the new company's outstanding voting interest.
AT&T Comcast Corporation's assets will consist of both companies' cable TV systems, as well as AT&T's interests in cable television joint ventures and its 25.5 percent interest in Time Warner Entertainment, and Comcast's interests in QVC, E! Entertainment, The Golf Channel, and other entertainment properties.
The new company will assume nearly $20 billion in debt and other liabilities from AT&T and its subsidiaries, as well as $5 billion of AT&T subsidiary trust convertible preferred securities held by Microsoft Corporation, making the aggregate value of the transaction to AT&T shareholders worth $72 billion, based on the closing price of Comcast Class K stock on December 19.
AT&T shareowners would receive value equivalent to $13.07 per AT&T share based on Comcast's closing share price on Wednesday, December 19, while retaining complete ownership of AT&T's traditional communications businesses.
In conjunction with the transaction, Microsoft Corporation has agreed to convert the $5 billion of AT&T subsidiary trust convertible preferred securities into 115 million shares of AT&T Comcast Corporation.
According to my site logs at work (a large environmental organization), about 88% of all traffic we see (1 million unique visitors / month) are using ie 4.0 and above.
Our demographic is home and k-12 users primarily, so I think its safe to assume, any almost any non-tech person is using it.
Incidently, due to security issues, we use Netscape 4.77 internally!
Although I have never shopped here, TigerDirect has some good prices on DVD-RAM's as well as DVD-R & DVD+RW, well below the $25.00 / disc prices of last year.
What about dish systems, like directTV. I heard about starBand? and some others, but never hear much about the reliability etc. I would really like to see some other solutions other than DSL (which sadly I cannot get beyond 144K IDSL, some fiber optic problem with the local loop according to Verizon, my local carrier.)
With Ricochete dead and @home on the way out, what other options are on the horizon / radar for tomorrow.
I have comcast@home and have been moderately happy with it, I can pull content, but for telecommuting its kinda sketchy if you need to do any large file transfers. I have happily run a server off my static IP for almost 2 years now and never caught greif, so even though the EUA is rough, they don't seem to inforce it here anyway.
Even still, its the best I can do for the price. I would hate to move back to my dialup connection (I'd have to get one first!)
Even still, nice to have this much hardware at your disposal. Too bad they have such a low tech solution for to schedule time on it. Heck, probably take 2-3 days to roll out a full config to test what you wanted anyway.
As anyone who works on systems from day to day knows... as much as I don't like it, each system has strengths and weaknesses.
Linux is a fantastic system for serving web content and doing databases and back end systems stuff
Microsoft, like it or not, has made a desktop and whether by fair play or not, taught most of the world to use it.
Macintosh has incredible strengths in the graphic design world. They have found a way to get the desktop out of the way of creativity.
BSD has great strengths in virtual host setups (down to splitting the processor / memory usage).
Each OS has a strength, the key to a good system is using the *best* tool for a given job and not buying into one system that does it all.
I love Linux and am an advocate for open source. I run Linux machines, but I also run Windows Machines because there are tasks that are easier on each. Both OS's have a place.
Just as there are many styles of education and learning, so too are there different ways of approaching the problem of the desktop. By having choices, we are enabled to choose what works best for our style. Otherwise, you folks running Themes wouldn't bother changing the defaults.
Nitch OS's have a place too... and thank's to the devoted masses who keep their missions alive, we all benefit from them, even if other companies lay off their work force or swallow them whole.
Because of visionaries discovering a great way to do something the collective pool benifits.
its a good thing so many open source advocates are purchasing this software, that should really help their bottom line.
$unitsSold++;
Notice that some of the best projects, although usable, are not "mature" software until at least 3-4 years.
Linux has been around about that long, and in the last 2-3 years has really picked up speed (and dollars) from corporations.
Microsofts OS picked up speed around Windows 3.1 & 3.11 (early 90's) and had matured for aproximately 10 years prior to that (DOS 1.0 - DOS 6.22) You get the idea. Now that Windows is aproaching 10 years (Windows 2000) is finally an almost dare I say it "Good" OS.
Although 10 years might not hold true for all applications, it will hold for a large number.
Fishing licenses are issued by the government, albeit a state or local authority... its still government. Just as an FYI.
Same goes for your drivers license, birth certificate etc...
There are endless possibilities with these, as I am sure you have scene. Use a little creativity (If you feel you don't have any, find someone with a copy of PhotoShop or Illustrator on their machine and ask them) and see what works for you.
While I agree that using a keyboard is faster and more intuitive for data entry than using a mouse, might it not be faster to write the application designed with the touch screen interface in mind. You get the best of both worlds with a GUI presentation, and keyboard speed?
There you have it, there is hope.
You should aproach your taxes with a little more time to do them. The 15th is a little late to start thinking about tax loop holes, H&R Block doesn't want to waste their time on the busiest tax day of the year covering you but for a few hundred dollars. They will tell you "No don't do it," and move on. This is the sort of thing you should think about in January/February when the real tax pros have time to look into things more carefully.
It's not that much money to spend if you want the technology. A new computer will probably run you more, heck the camcorder you bought was probably half that.
If your in financial straights and can't afford $1200 perhaps your focus should be else where now, and not on the technology to beam images to the ground.
Change your focus, then once you have a few thousand in your capital expenditures budget, use something that is designed for the task you are trying, and don't try to cheap out. From the sounds of it though (see previous article)
Makes you wonder where else they are cutting corners doesn't it.
A good class C 192.168.1.x will serve 255 clients... all you need is 6, why use a network that gives you thousands?
10.x.x.x MS does like to use 255.0.0.0 for that... you might consider switching that over too. If its a microsoft network you might as well make it happy, even if there is no compeling reason to do so.
The compeling reason could be your sanity!
If you want tier 1 service, you have to go with a teir 1 provider. Digex, IBM, AT&T... you get the idea. It may cost more, but the service you get is amazing.
The company I work for uses digex, and when a security hole is found, they patch it, immediately.
Sure it costs more, but sometimes (not always) you get what you pay for. $99/month for a server (RAQ pricing) is fine and dandy, but $2000/month will get you a whole lot more than a box. Backups (full backups every 48-72 hours with 2-3 incremental in the interim,) site monitoring (services as well as content,) reduntant network conectivity, generator backup etc.
Also, if we have a problem and any of our tech guys are away on vacation etc (read I am out of the office) another non-tech member of my team can call 24x7 and have things fixed, repaired, or rebooted (unfortunately we run NT).
Take a look at what you are asking for... its possible what you want just isn't something they provide.
I have also run into resolution issues (under x windows) as the display can only run 800x600 (old fujitsu lifebook 420) So the display's clarity really isn't the issue so much as the supporting hardware is!
Microsoft issue the patch by exploiting the security hole. Most IE browsers check the MS site on load anyway for a new version, before being let free to go to the default homepage, why don't they use that interim to exploit the hole and correct the problem?
Moreover, they could publish the link and patch up the holes when people visited. This is typical MS BS.
Standards in UI are critical, anyone who doesn't think that has obviously been burned by MS on this one. Error messages, regarless of who they are for, need to be clear, and in a language the user will understand. GPF 234 doesn't help anyone.