With YellowDog, wifi worked 'right out of the box'. The only issue I had with it was that it got confused as to which adapter it was. That was simply fixed by telling the wi-fi specifically to bind the proper mac address.
YDL & Panther peacefully co-exist with no problem. I love my Tibook. I will probably never buy another kind of laptop. Well worth the money.
Oh, and another thing, the screen is excellent. Probably the best laptop screen I've seen. Apple's parts are all pretty much top notch.
I have a friend that really likes his. He got one of the new Hondas.
I haven't owned a car for years - the bike is the friend. However, for money and environmental reasons, my next car will definitely be a hybrid. My girlfriend's sister and another friend are looking into the Honda and Toyota models.
I suspect, we'll possibly see something similar to the 80's Japanese car explosion - maybe not on the same scale - since they are, once again, ahead and making better cars.
I had my identity stolen about 8 years ago. It suuuuuked!
In San Francisco, when some people move out, they throw all this crap they don't need anymore on the curb. I saw this thoughout the city, time and time again, so when it came time for me to move, I did the same.
I got rid of almost everything! This included, tons of old papers - possibly old pay stubs. Big NO NO! At one point, I even noticed some people looking through the big pile. "Just people who like crap", I thought.
Six months later, the Postmaster General Attorney's office in San Jose calls me saying they've arrested someone on postal fraud that had my name and info in his little black book. It was under a section that basically was ready to have a drivers license and social security card issued in my name with this guy's picture!
To make a long story short, the guy went to prison and I had to notify all agencies where I had any type of id or credit/bank card to put a watch on them for the next six months.
My lesson learned: shread everything.
However, online, this is a totally different issue and the only thing I can suggest and do about that is to check into companies and try to make sure they are responsible about how they store your credit-card information. I've personally written to all the online companies I use to ask as how they protect my information. If it ever seemed like they weren't up to snuff, I explained my concerns and asked for some sort of reassurences. Although, I must admit, that's not the best thing and sometimes letters to the BBB and other groups/agencies are necessary.
Yah. All the track did was drop samples. Frankly, I as hoping for some weird morphing of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but alas, all I got was dropouts. I hope the author does not write a paper on this as it is unstupendous in the least. Boo...
#6 on the report is very real. While I still have a choice, I chose DSL - sepcifically so I could host my own servers - over cable. But I paid more, not just in the service, but also due to the fact that phone line charges are separate.
I suspect, however, that the average American household will go with cable because it is cheaper, there are no line charges per say, and it rolls up nicely in one bill from the cable company along with their cable service. And as #6 says, there are fewer and fewer cable companies that control this access, which should worry most.
I chose Speakeasy.net as my DSL provider because they've had a pretty good presence on the west and east coast and they've always maintained that they're a large 'local isp'. For me, I won't have to worry about having access to a site blocked, such as the recent AOL/MSN fiasco.
But for the average American, these things cannot be promised. There have been more than a few reports of cable companies monitoring and logging traffic of their users and honestly, as time rolls on, I see this becoming more and more of an issue for mega-corps like TimeWarner - they'll be encouraged to tap into this 'gold mine'. Most users probably won't care either.
Since I don't think the policies of these companies will change much in regards to this, the only alternative for those that care about such things - besides lobbying and the like - will be to vote with their pocketbooks. This will not only affect (albiet, realistically, probably little) the mega-corps bottom line, but will help to ensure that those 'other' companies will still be able to provide quality and non-censored access to their paying subscribers.
"Take for instance a relatively simple GUI application. Say that it takes two weeks to develop the application under a free toolkit like GTK. Now say that it takes only one week to develop that same application under VB. If we use a $60k developer salary (which is only about half of what it actually costs to employ a developer), then we see that one week of time is worth approx. $1154. After one month, the license for VB and Windows has quickly paid for itself."
Let's really look at company A (the GNULinux company) in a real world example, because like always, when people cite Windowze development-office stuff, they only present part of the picture.
First off, let's use a office with 50 people, of which there are 2 full time developers and 3 full time IS people. The below are current prices from MicroWarehouse at their non-discounted prices.
Now, for office B, first, the Windoze office (I'll leave hardware out of this cuz, especially with Exchange, that's a whole other cost issue):
* 50 copies of XP Pro: $21,747.50 * 1 Win2k file and print server with 50 CALS: $3018.72 * 1 Win2k with Exchange Ent. with 50 CALS: $12,107.44 * 2 copies of VS.NET Ent 2003: $4657.86 * 50 copies of Office XP Pro: $21,747.50
This doesn't assume any consulting fees, whatever, since we'll assume the 3 IS guys are Windoze experts and know how to set up everything.
Total just to get office B up and running so that said developers can develop code: approx. $63,279.02
Now, let's look at office A, the GNULinux office. For basic comparisons, we'll use Redhat 9 deployed.
* 50 copies of RH 9: $0 (cost of 3 cd-r's: approx. $1.50) * Samba for file and print for all 50 users: $0 * Kroupware (I know, not the best Exchange equiv, but the only free thing really avail strongly for GNU/Linux that delivers scheduling that works) for 50 users: $0 * 2 copies of development environment for GTK-Java-whatever: $0 * Ximian XD2 with Ximian Open Office: $0
Cost (not including hardware or labor) to deploy office B to make snazzy app: $1.50
Cost diff between office A & B: B: $63277.52
Now, plugging in your formula of $1154 for two weeks of development which supposedly pay for VS.NET & Windows server ACLs and Windows Clients, we come up with this:
Office A has no deficit, since their software didn't cost them anything. In fact, they probably had one less sysadmin, so they might have already saved $60k.
Office B has a deficit of $62,125.02. Their developer, to make them money to cover said expenses will need to work an additional: 2118.71 hours.
Obviously, company B should call M$ or MicroWarehouse and try to get deals on this stuff, but regardless, they're still going to need more people, more licenses, which translate into more costs to even start a system where 2 developers can program something.
So, I call bullshit on this entire forumla and the like because they only take one fraction of the puzzle in to play. This is typical with most Windows vs. GNULinux comparisons. I've seen it happen in the real world over and over.
Not blinded at all. And in fact, I would say that I feel it's the other way around.
This donation of M$ dollars (not the school itself) is bad for 3 reasons:
1. Regardless of the kindness, M$ is an unethical company. Period! A free lunch today will not be one tomorrow. You need no more evidence of this than to scan the various news source headlines for the last few years. Corporations don't give anything out unless there is a business or tax reason. And while some in the opulent halls of M$ may see this as a worthy cause, more see it as a business opportunity. Ugh, open your eyes. There is obviously some tax write off or future opportunity to hook more people on their products - or both. This is the nature of big business/capitalism, plain and simple. Get 'em while they're young.
2. A public school should not be financed in any way by a corporation. However, these things can happen because so many people in this country do not put as much emphasis on quality public education as they should.
I'm horrified by the stories my sister tells me of the parents having to contribute money and supplies to her kids school because the school can't afford it! Personally, when I have kids, they're going to public schools and I'm going to PTA meetings, etc., and I'm gonna put my time in and at least if things still continue to go down hill, at least I'll say I did something. My parents never did that. There is a complete lack of caring and responsibility of the majority of voting public and our esteemed leaders on this subject. It needs to change and that change would benefit everyone. Why this doesn't horrify anyone else is beyond me. If you don't have an educated public, then you have close to nothing.
While I'm sure most kids will have to work at some point in their life using M$ tools, I see no reason, being the company M$ is, to promote their usage before their professional career. Why muddy up their most impressionable years with the horrors and inflexibilities of an M$ world? They'll have plenty of time to see that on their own when they can make their own choice on what OS and tools they want to use. I'd rather my kids and my sister's kids learn about history, math, etc.., instead of service packs.
3. All this 'neat' stuff, being an expirement and all, will go right back to benefit M$ and no one else. It would be such a better idea to use free software and open standards because the creation (the mind of someone young is a wonderful thing!) and fixing of said technology would go back into the common good - royalty and patent free (one would hope). This is a no brainer; using public funds not just for educating our kids properly, but also improving technology - that anyone can have - will in turn, give us more control over how and when we access information.
You know, the general public/govt./us did this before when we paid for the copper for phones to be laid down in the early/middle part of the 20th century. The govt. laid all the wire and let AT&T use it for next to nothing. Over the years, AT&T got 0wnership of it. Then, in the latter part of the 20th century, the baby bells used that free (as in beer) resource to stop local competition in their local markets. They cited the argument "why should we be made to lease our lines for little money to local competition?" So I say the opposite, why should public funds go to helping figure out technical issues for the richest software company in the world? Because kids will be bug testing (and possibly fixing) on publicly funded time which is not what I or anyone else pay tax dollars for!
Nah, this is a sham and public relations magic hand waving. It's a $46mil bug test and fixit it school. Like the reality of the M$ office in which you're not amazed by all the marvels of the modern world and how much time and money they save you, but rather how you're locked into a buggy platform with escalating costs, little or no choice, and no c
First off, Linux is a kernel. Nothing more, nothing less. For him to say it is an OS and not an operating environment is half true. It is neither.
Now, to the choice vs. standardization.
Choice: ---------- This is important, like he says, to two types: end-user companies and developers.
Companies, because a lot of the time, they can leverage in-house talent and avoid costly toolkits and APIs. Simple. You complete the project and save money, everyone will probably like you in the office. You might even get a bonus.;)
Developers because they can code in and for the environment that are most used to. Simple. I've done a lot of coding in Java and while I like it for some things, it's really too complicated for more simple jobs that Perl, Python, or PHP can do well.
Standardization -------------------- This is only useful to end-users and end-user companies. While standards are important a lot of the time for developers to code to, there is ample proof and example that this is not adheared to as much as it maybe should be. And there is plenty industry noise about why integrated propreitary is better.
For end users, yes, they want something familiar. For home users, the browser is irrelevant - a browser is a browser and anyone, even my parents, can figure out Mozilla or IE.
What else do home users use? Well, AOL, Quicken, Word, Excel and maybe a few others. Mind you, I'm talking aobut the end-end users, not business or power end-users.
I would also argue that if they used GnuCash instead of Quicken or OpenOffice vs. Office, that there would be a little bit of a learning curve, but it wouldn't be traumatic. They just need to be able to get the data from one platform to the other, which that, though, can be a problem. Open file formats are much more important, to me, than GUI standardizations, but that's a whole other issue.
As for company end-users, they have training sessions specifically to educate them on how to use an app. If it costs a company less to use GNU/Linux distro and re-train vs. pay for another product and os upgrade, then they'll do it. And all those people will go to class. And then they'll get back to work. I've set stuff like that up before way back when I had to send people off to learn Office when we switched from DOS based 1-2-3 & Wordperfect. And guess what? The company survived and the world went on.
So what it really seems is this guy's point is for the home end-user, i.e., my parents. And yah, they'd benefit from what they already know. And really, GNU/Linux is not there yet, so that point, to me, is irrelevant.
However, for the business market it is entirely relevant. And I feel that businesses will choose flexibility and saving money and having stability over usability.
Now, if some developer want to write for the two most popular GNU/Linux GUIs - KDE & GNOME, then that doesn't have to be impossibly hard. They just employ MVC. Separate out the view and the rest should not be much of an issue.
Just because M$ does it one way does not mean it's the best way. And just because people think one size fits all does not mean that that's the case for everyone. Sure, let companies that want to use Windows keep using it. They probably have a lot of time and money invested in it. A lot of money.
But I really believe that if you give a customer/developer/end-user a choice, then you leave it up to them to decide what works for them and doesn't. User interfaces are pretty trivial in the whole grand scheme of things. If someone had to and your business depended on it (like many still do) you could require someone to use a Curses/DOS based interface to get the job done. And for most businesses, it's about getting the job done.
It's like this guy is more wrapped up in the aspects of what the user sees instead of the solving the problem. I personally believe there is a tool well suited for each specific task. With that said, why would I want to pound a nail in with a drill or cut a hole in a wall with a hammer just because one construction company adheres to those rules?
You seem to conviently forget/ignore the various monopoly and other similar lawsuits M$ has been involved in over the past decade.
I don't necessairly have a beef about the shottyness of M$ products. I'm much more against their monopoly and predatory business practices. For all those 'successes' inside Redmond over the likes of Netscape, Novell, etc, other, smaller companies and individuals have lost out big time and not on the merits of better products, but sheer market and money power. To me, that doesn't make a healthy company/ecosystem in any industry.
Of course, on the fluff, Windoze media player, server, os, word, excel, ppt, etc, allow people to do great things. But, on the fluff of so many things the world looks like a great place. It is only when those, who aren't satisfied with the status quo, peel away the fluff and uncover the stink and putrification that are so many unethical companies and governments nowadays.
M$ is not a ethical company. There is ample documentation and proof of this. I, for one, accept that and choose to speak out against this. Along the way, I also expect certain standards and concepts and ideals from the software that I take part in writing. When, INMO, M$ time and time again choose the almighty dollar over proven industry and scientific best practices (I won't even delve into the importance of open file formats and information sharing for the greater good of society), then I'm gonna speak up on that too. When I'm not allowed to do something with my machine and hardware that I own (think Xbox, and no I don't own one), then I'm gonna have an issue about that.
You conviently have bought into the lie, but it looks you you are ok with that and I'm not going to riduicule you for it. Hell, we all buy into various lies all the time. For me, though, M$ and my life with computers - something I've grown up with for the past 20 years - is something I cannot buy into and something I have to and will live with. I will continue to support people who like to think and program and buy products that let them do what we want to do with them - for the sake of ideas - and not what some untethical company thinks we should.
So therefore, I must expose the lie that M$ can be good to, because, like I said before, there is ample evidence that they are not. It is only when you turn off your critical thinking and start believing in slick (and not so) marketing campaigns that you will think otherwise.
I somewhat agree and disagree. You probably don't want a fanatic from any side.
However, I have to question someone who would just put just MFC or just Swing in their curriculum. It would probably be a much more interesting class to do both. And possibly some GTK as well. I mean, I would probably find a class much more interesting and useful in life if I was shown the concepts and how they differed and how they were similar. Issues you might actually have to consider in the real world.
But, maybe this is not the goal of the course and it probably falls to what the Professor/Instructor deems appropriate. Which is an entirely different issue in itself.
Yah, except there's a huge difference between Apple, Sun, and M$:
* None of them, except M$, have $40bil in the bank
- this is of course, due to monopoly activities * None of them, except M$, have monopolies * All of them, except M$, make very reliable software * All of them, except M$, have made innovative contributions to the computer industry * All of them, except M$, embrace - NOT EXTEND - open standards
I actually would have little problem with M$ if things in the computer industry were somewhat level and fair. But we're so far beyond that that it's very hard for me to see anything the M$ does as good, impartial, or for the good of humanity/country/industry/individual. There's always a string attached and somewhere down the line you will pay. And in the end, that's all they want is your money and nothing else.
Expect this to change if M$ ever is in need of ca$h, ala SCO.
Yah, I'm a bit disappointed in the EU. I figured they'd have figured out soft-patents uber alles would not be a good thing. Maybe it'll change at the last minute. One can hope.
All I have to say tho, is that once China and India start flexing their IT muscle, then that's going to be interesting. 2+ billion people is a lot of licensees or a lot of non-licensees.
And I could further that by bringing out a total hypothetical, yet believable programming and company culture.
For instance, when I did my MCSE way back (yah, well, whatever), there was the way protocols and things worked and then the way M$ 'added value' to things. This really makes sense if you think of how it follows the M$ lock-in mentality.
Now, also, think then if there are programmers who think re-inventing the wheel is the way to go and M$ is a grand company, then you start to have programmers who don't like 'arcane' *nix, yet, also have 'programmer deadlines' and thusly bugs galore. This especially because there are probably no hard core security people doing QA.
Anyway, the *nix way of doing things is probably the anthesis of M$ culture and thusly considered old, bad, lame, or just plain cheesy.
This is specifically because *nix has grown up and matured with the Internet, thusly, networked security was built not by a company only concerned with putting money in the bank, but people who understood operating systems and networks.
With security in M$ products *still* an after thought, I have no sympathy for businesses and individuals who get hit with these things. They ask for it when they buy from an unethical company as M$. If there was a building that people lived in where they were continually mugged and eveyone knew it, it would seem silly to live there.
There *is* choice out there. It's pretty small, but it exists. People will put up with this crap (for whatever the reasons) for only so long and then finally get a clue and switch.
It's gonna happen. If not, then welcome to the part of the Internet that works and the part that continually complains they're being attacked, brought down and losing money. Meh.
Actually, this would be a better analogy (hypothetical, of course).
In 2001, Ford produced the 'Everyone' car. Later that year, 4 defects were found. The first is the car explodes if a child runs their tricycle into license plate. When asked specifically about why only the license plate and the tricycle have thise issue Ford said they are looking into the issue. The second, the back door falls off if not opened with a key (which later showed that after 25 uses, the lock mechanism stopped working all together). The third was the floor board would drop out the bottom of the car if soda was spilled on it - which would also, subsequently if corrected, make the license plate fall off, resulting in the car exploding. The fourth was the steering wheel came detached when the drive sped up over 30 mph in 2nd gear. This was complicated by a later known issue where the brakes would fail if the steering wheel came off and the speed was over 25mph.
Many Chevy drivers found this amusing since they considered their cars to be like rocks (this was, however, proven wrong as Ford owners saught revenge). Chevy owners in 2002 and 2003 found over 20 more defects in the cars and some even, out of sheer hatred for Ford, released these defects onto the internet and their local cities and neighborhoods.
Ford, through its' lawyers, said it would fix any and all the defects that were known, but the licensees of their automobiles had to drive them into the local Ford dealership. Of course, there are no more Ford owned dealerships, only those Ford resellers, who often charge hefty fees to rid the cars of said defects.
Many Ford owners, however, plead ignorance to these problems since their email and snail mail boxes are so overfilled with junk mail of all kinds.
In Detroit, one friend of a family who just died due to 'Tuff-Enuff.5' defect, had this to say: "We'll miss them so much. Little Jimmy used to play with our son all the time. How could anyone do this?!" However, at the same time they held reservation about Ford and their resellers fixing known 'issues'. The man, who asked not to be identified said "no one touches my Ford. No one."
In the end, the previous Cyber Security dude in the Whitehouse, Richard Clarke, noted that if something big were to happen due to lax, specifically, M$ security, that the gov wouldn't hesitate to regulate.
A nuke plant and public transit system seem, in my book, to be pretty big time. Although, the admins are responsible for locking down those systems (shame on them!), M$ still is somewhat responsible for shotty coding.
that's what I'm sayin. I've been reading post after crappy post about this and that and to actually read one of the few that takes a sound approach is refreshing.
A few companies back we had email that ran on Redhat 5 that just worked. Day in and day out. Then, some smarty IS peeps come in with their MSCE's and the like and we turned in to every other shop that crashed weekly. F-ing pathetic. I got 'the look' for asking a few times why we just can't get email reliably anymore. All the same while, my email,web, etc.., servers at home ran without a hitch.
Yah, people need to kinda wake up and think about running their application and not paying for some company's 'support'. In my experience, you do exactly what the poster said which is hire a few kick ass sysadmins that know their shit. The reason there are still so many CodeRed and like worms are because companies treat this stuff like it's a toaster - just plug it in and it will go. But that's just plain irresponsible because IT security is a complex beast and nothing will change that in the foreseeable future. You could pay 2 sysadmins 100k a year and they would be your humble network guards that would have no problem patching systems when they need patching and helping to develop IT policies that work and aren't decided by waving the magic hands. Esp. in light of that 150k you'll be saving.
You just have to have top people with the vision to hire the right minds and then to let them do the work the right way. Unfortunately, as the poster mentioned, in the corporate world this is tough to come by. It's possible tho.
As far as the original question goes, I would not run AS or Oracle. I'm sure that kills a lot of people but there has to be a 100% perfect argument for throwing away all that cash and if it can't be found, then that action plan should probably not be followed.
unless you're the uber-man at configuring Oracle, it's a nightmare. And I would even go as far to say that Oracle is not a necessity.
Granted, Postgres is lacking in failover and cluster support and Mysql might not be 'enterprise' ready, but my experience over the past decade of using Oracle, MSSQL, DB2, Postgres, and MySQL, is I prefer the two latter dbms.
You could have people froth at the mouth all night on this one and I'm sure there's reasons for each. But, like any big, propreitary package, you get what u pay for and if that's small compared to the money you bring in, then I guess you're cool.
I just have a bad taste in my mouth from the last company I worked with. They completely tied their business to Oracle and PL/SQL and instead of going with a lot of small servers to distribute load, they went with the big monolith.
Unless there is proof, there is no need to pony up to SCO and fork out the dough.
And let's be reminded, that there is NO PROOF whatsoever. Only accusations, NDAs, press releases.
Honestly, I'm not worried one bit and all my half a dozen servers are Linux. If you are worried about this for your business, then by all means, switch. But you've not been served any papers stating you're breaking some law, so screw it.
Go live and do business stuff instead of worrying about all this bs.
You should browse the MIT, Georgia Tech, Urbana Super Computing Center, CMU, SDSU (bioinformatics & clustering), the NIH, etc. There's still quite a bit goin on. It's just not always reported in paper.
That said, one of the things that bugs me most is m$'s 'innovation' only being on windows. I mean, yeah, they have a vested interest in that, but do you think the cell phone elevator thing is gonna run on anything but a m$ phone? Or the equivalent pda.
Or the thing that really gets me, Fabric. This sounds exactly like Apple's expose (which I might add, is uber eye candy to everyone I show;).
I dunno, it's typical. I think the Seattle Times had a piece the other month talking about a new secure computer from m$ and Hp that looked suspiciously like a Mac. And the way they described the hardware - being that it would only be manufactured by one or only a few of the pc vendors - it's not that far off from what Apple is doing and always has done; uniting the hardware and software into an 'experience'.
Frankly I find most m$ innovation I read about, not very innovative, a copy of something else that already exists, or just plain tired..
Ah, but that's exctly the point!
on
Nat Demos Dashboard
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· Score: 4, Insightful
So what exactly is wrong with.NET? If you need to work on the Windows platform it's a godsend!
Precisely. And that's where it will stay - on a Win platform. At least until Win is made much smaller (think Novell) and the platform becomes less important compared to the app and development technologies.
Anyway, I have to say that I'm a huge Ximian fan. I think they've contributed a great desktop. So my hat's off to them.
However, as someone who has done some hacking on dotGNU, I am pessimistic about the whole.NET thing.
Besides domination, what is m$'s ultimate goal: lock in. This has been documented and has hit people over the head for years so I don't need to go into a lengthy discussion about it. Coupled with the fact that even from a clean room implementation standpoint, m$ will pull ip claims. No question about it. Especially when GNU/Linux starts making more and more inroads. I mean, if it's (.NET) supported on *nix, why go with costly m$?
Like I said, I think Nat, Miguel and co. have done an excellent job. They're doing great things. But unless there is some strict, free, licensing agreement submitted along with the.NET ECMA stuff (to my knowledge, only C# has been submitted), then I just can't see how m$ will stay away from shutting Mono down.
Also, while I think Mono is cool, I still have a problem supporting a language/platform that was created by a company such as m$ for the reasons they did. It still feels tainted and dirty to me. m$ has not become the largest software company in the world by being 'compatible'. There's a documented history that goes back well over a decade that proves this.
Good luck guys! The dashboard looks reall cool, btw.
For users of Kazaa-Lite, where every user is called kazaa-lite-tk (or something like that), this won't help much. While 99% of lite users will be ok, there will be that 1 person who's gonna get nabbed.
It's interesting to have that much backup space avail for a non-server computer. I got a Powerbook last December with the Super-drive and the only thing I can find to use it for is mostly cd-r. Dvd-r is nice to have, but I don't have much use for it. Maybe someone who d/l's movies or something can do it, but...
Otoh, for making movies and stuff, this is very useful via the whole iMovie (or PC equiv) thing. But where this would really come in handy is on a server of some sort where you have big amounts of data. But even then, you need to back up more than 4 or 5 gigs worth usually, so..
But for the end user, I guess it's nicer to have more than less. Who knows, I might start needing to back up more than 665MB soon..
Honestly tho, who fucking cares!? I mean, I'm sorry to those that lost their jobs, definitely - this is not directed at them. But as far as the AOL shitbag goes, you had to see this stuff coming from a mile away. They are not even remotely the same AOL that Case or jwz worked for. They are one of the largest media companies in the world!
All these biz guys understand the M$ biz guys. They're all about numbers and not innovation, so the bloodletting is beginning; nothing anyone can do about it.
Now, that said, Mozilla is the key here. I don't think it will die in the forseeable future. Combined with Linux gaining more and more ground, there must exist a free, open browser. Sure, Konqueror will hang around, but Mozilla will still have a larger user base. And companies that depend on that, like Redhat, IBM, Sun (once they ditch Netscape 4), and others, they will put development efforts into it. And if the Moz Foundation gets really strapped for cash, then just move it to SourceForge or Savannah.
Point is is that there is no use thinking or worrying about AOL or Netscape anymore. They've been goners for some time. Mozilla is the focus and given the 'freeness' of the code, it will continue to live on regardless of cut funding and developers. Granted, it might slow, but no worse than IE.
I for one am sorry my fellow coders are out of a job, but I have all the faith in the world for Moz cuz I think it's a great browser. I mean, c'mon, if the C=64 (long live the C=64!) can still live after all these years, why not Moz?
All true. Altho I never had a cube, I remember reading about Zilla in some computing mag. Back then I was totally blown away by NeXT.
But, I think it was their high price and Jobs' attitude that ultimately killed the company. Plus, they were in debt to Hitachi by like, $400mil or something.
A good audio book to get about Jobs, which talks quite a bit about NeXT is called The Second Coming of Steve Jobs via audible.com. Talks about how he tried to get NeXT into various companies and how he would try to woo execs on features - features they wouldn't really need or understand - while they just saw a high price tag vs. pc's. Interesting stuff.
But, yah, apps are a big problem too. If you look at NeXT back then and Apple today, some of the same attitude still plays out. All the little 'cool' features like built in PDF to the OS (most people in the pc world probably don't give a shit about this), the animation on the fast user switching, booting off external fw drives, etc... It's almost like it's all just too far ahead and whatever M$ makes, the dumb herd will accept.
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With YellowDog, wifi worked 'right out of the box'. The only issue I had with it was that it got confused as to which adapter it was. That was simply fixed by telling the wi-fi specifically to bind the proper mac address.
YDL & Panther peacefully co-exist with no problem. I love my Tibook. I will probably never buy another kind of laptop. Well worth the money.
Oh, and another thing, the screen is excellent. Probably the best laptop screen I've seen. Apple's parts are all pretty much top notch.
I have a friend that really likes his. He got one of the new Hondas.
I haven't owned a car for years - the bike is the friend. However, for money and environmental reasons, my next car will definitely be a hybrid. My girlfriend's sister and another friend are looking into the Honda and Toyota models.
I suspect, we'll possibly see something similar to the 80's Japanese car explosion - maybe not on the same scale - since they are, once again, ahead and making better cars.
I had my identity stolen about 8 years ago. It suuuuuked!
In San Francisco, when some people move out, they throw all this crap they don't need anymore on the curb. I saw this thoughout the city, time and time again, so when it came time for me to move, I did the same.
I got rid of almost everything! This included, tons of old papers - possibly old pay stubs. Big NO NO! At one point, I even noticed some people looking through the big pile. "Just people who like crap", I thought.
Six months later, the Postmaster General Attorney's office in San Jose calls me saying they've arrested someone on postal fraud that had my name and info in his little black book. It was under a section that basically was ready to have a drivers license and social security card issued in my name with this guy's picture!
To make a long story short, the guy went to prison and I had to notify all agencies where I had any type of id or credit/bank card to put a watch on them for the next six months.
My lesson learned: shread everything.
However, online, this is a totally different issue and the only thing I can suggest and do about that is to check into companies and try to make sure they are responsible about how they store your credit-card information. I've personally written to all the online companies I use to ask as how they protect my information. If it ever seemed like they weren't up to snuff, I explained my concerns and asked for some sort of reassurences. Although, I must admit, that's not the best thing and sometimes letters to the BBB and other groups/agencies are necessary.
Yah. All the track did was drop samples. Frankly, I as hoping for some weird morphing of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but alas, all I got was dropouts. I hope the author does not write a paper on this as it is unstupendous in the least. Boo...
#6 on the report is very real. While I still have a choice, I chose DSL - sepcifically so I could host my own servers - over cable. But I paid more, not just in the service, but also due to the fact that phone line charges are separate.
I suspect, however, that the average American household will go with cable because it is cheaper, there are no line charges per say, and it rolls up nicely in one bill from the cable company along with their cable service. And as #6 says, there are fewer and fewer cable companies that control this access, which should worry most.
I chose Speakeasy.net as my DSL provider because they've had a pretty good presence on the west and east coast and they've always maintained that they're a large 'local isp'. For me, I won't have to worry about having access to a site blocked, such as the recent AOL/MSN fiasco.
But for the average American, these things cannot be promised. There have been more than a few reports of cable companies monitoring and logging traffic of their users and honestly, as time rolls on, I see this becoming more and more of an issue for mega-corps like TimeWarner - they'll be encouraged to tap into this 'gold mine'. Most users probably won't care either.
Since I don't think the policies of these companies will change much in regards to this, the only alternative for those that care about such things - besides lobbying and the like - will be to vote with their pocketbooks. This will not only affect (albiet, realistically, probably little) the mega-corps bottom line, but will help to ensure that those 'other' companies will still be able to provide quality and non-censored access to their paying subscribers.
dude, this just doesn't make sense:
.NET Ent 2003: $4657.86
.NET & Windows server ACLs and Windows Clients, we come up with this:
"Take for instance a relatively simple GUI application. Say that it takes two weeks to develop the application under a free toolkit like GTK. Now say that it takes only one week to develop that same application under VB. If we use a $60k developer salary (which is only about half of what it actually costs to employ a developer), then we see that one week of time is worth approx. $1154. After one month, the license for VB and Windows has quickly paid for itself."
Let's really look at company A (the GNULinux company) in a real world example, because like always, when people cite Windowze development-office stuff, they only present part of the picture.
First off, let's use a office with 50 people, of which there are 2 full time developers and 3 full time IS people. The below are current prices from MicroWarehouse at their non-discounted prices.
Now, for office B, first, the Windoze office (I'll leave hardware out of this cuz, especially with Exchange, that's a whole other cost issue):
* 50 copies of XP Pro: $21,747.50
* 1 Win2k file and print server with 50 CALS: $3018.72
* 1 Win2k with Exchange Ent. with 50 CALS: $12,107.44
* 2 copies of VS
* 50 copies of Office XP Pro: $21,747.50
This doesn't assume any consulting fees, whatever, since we'll assume the 3 IS guys are Windoze experts and know how to set up everything.
Total just to get office B up and running so that said developers can develop code: approx. $63,279.02
Now, let's look at office A, the GNULinux office. For basic comparisons, we'll use Redhat 9 deployed.
* 50 copies of RH 9: $0 (cost of 3 cd-r's: approx. $1.50)
* Samba for file and print for all 50 users: $0
* Kroupware (I know, not the best Exchange equiv, but the only free thing really avail strongly for GNU/Linux that delivers scheduling that works) for 50 users: $0
* 2 copies of development environment for GTK-Java-whatever: $0
* Ximian XD2 with Ximian Open Office: $0
Cost (not including hardware or labor) to deploy office B to make snazzy app: $1.50
Cost diff between office A & B: B: $63277.52
Now, plugging in your formula of $1154 for two weeks of development which supposedly pay for VS
Office A has no deficit, since their software didn't cost them anything. In fact, they probably had one less sysadmin, so they might have already saved $60k.
Office B has a deficit of $62,125.02. Their developer, to make them money to cover said expenses will need to work an additional: 2118.71 hours.
Obviously, company B should call M$ or MicroWarehouse and try to get deals on this stuff, but regardless, they're still going to need more people, more licenses, which translate into more costs to even start a system where 2 developers can program something.
So, I call bullshit on this entire forumla and the like because they only take one fraction of the puzzle in to play. This is typical with most Windows vs. GNULinux comparisons. I've seen it happen in the real world over and over.
Not blinded at all. And in fact, I would say that I feel it's the other way around.
This donation of M$ dollars (not the school itself) is bad for 3 reasons:
1. Regardless of the kindness, M$ is an unethical company. Period! A free lunch today will not be one tomorrow. You need no more evidence of this than to scan the various news source headlines for the last few years. Corporations don't give anything out unless there is a business or tax reason. And while some in the opulent halls of M$ may see this as a worthy cause, more see it as a business opportunity. Ugh, open your eyes. There is obviously some tax write off or future opportunity to hook more people on their products - or both. This is the nature of big business/capitalism, plain and simple. Get 'em while they're young.
2. A public school should not be financed in any way by a corporation. However, these things can happen because so many people in this country do not put as much emphasis on quality public education as they should.
I'm horrified by the stories my sister tells me of the parents having to contribute money and supplies to her kids school because the school can't afford it! Personally, when I have kids, they're going to public schools and I'm going to PTA meetings, etc., and I'm gonna put my time in and at least if things still continue to go down hill, at least I'll say I did something. My parents never did that. There is a complete lack of caring and responsibility of the majority of voting public and our esteemed leaders on this subject. It needs to change and that change would benefit everyone. Why this doesn't horrify anyone else is beyond me. If you don't have an educated public, then you have close to nothing.
While I'm sure most kids will have to work at some point in their life using M$ tools, I see no reason, being the company M$ is, to promote their usage before their professional career. Why muddy up their most impressionable years with the horrors and inflexibilities of an M$ world? They'll have plenty of time to see that on their own when they can make their own choice on what OS and tools they want to use. I'd rather my kids and my sister's kids learn about history, math, etc.., instead of service packs.
3. All this 'neat' stuff, being an expirement and all, will go right back to benefit M$ and no one else. It would be such a better idea to use free software and open standards because the creation (the mind of someone young is a wonderful thing!) and fixing of said technology would go back into the common good - royalty and patent free (one would hope). This is a no brainer; using public funds not just for educating our kids properly, but also improving technology - that anyone can have - will in turn, give us more control over how and when we access information.
You know, the general public/govt./us did this before when we paid for the copper for phones to be laid down in the early/middle part of the 20th century. The govt. laid all the wire and let AT&T use it for next to nothing. Over the years, AT&T got 0wnership of it. Then, in the latter part of the 20th century, the baby bells used that free (as in beer) resource to stop local competition in their local markets. They cited the argument "why should we be made to lease our lines for little money to local competition?"
So I say the opposite, why should public funds go to helping figure out technical issues for the richest software company in the world? Because kids will be bug testing (and possibly fixing) on publicly funded time which is not what I or anyone else pay tax dollars for!
Nah, this is a sham and public relations magic hand waving. It's a $46mil bug test and fixit it school. Like the reality of the M$ office in which you're not amazed by all the marvels of the modern world and how much time and money they save you, but rather how you're locked into a buggy platform with escalating costs, little or no choice, and no c
First off, Linux is a kernel. Nothing more, nothing less. For him to say it is an OS and not an operating environment is half true. It is neither.
;)
Now, to the choice vs. standardization.
Choice:
----------
This is important, like he says, to two types: end-user companies and developers.
Companies, because a lot of the time, they can leverage in-house talent and avoid costly toolkits and APIs. Simple. You complete the project and save money, everyone will probably like you in the office. You might even get a bonus.
Developers because they can code in and for the environment that are most used to. Simple. I've done a lot of coding in Java and while I like it for some things, it's really too complicated for more simple jobs that Perl, Python, or PHP can do well.
Standardization
--------------------
This is only useful to end-users and end-user companies. While standards are important a lot of the time for developers to code to, there is ample proof and example that this is not adheared to as much as it maybe should be. And there is plenty industry noise about why integrated propreitary is better.
For end users, yes, they want something familiar. For home users, the browser is irrelevant - a browser is a browser and anyone, even my parents, can figure out Mozilla or IE.
What else do home users use? Well, AOL, Quicken, Word, Excel and maybe a few others. Mind you, I'm talking aobut the end-end users, not business or power end-users.
I would also argue that if they used GnuCash instead of Quicken or OpenOffice vs. Office, that there would be a little bit of a learning curve, but it wouldn't be traumatic. They just need to be able to get the data from one platform to the other, which that, though, can be a problem. Open file formats are much more important, to me, than GUI standardizations, but that's a whole other issue.
As for company end-users, they have training sessions specifically to educate them on how to use an app. If it costs a company less to use GNU/Linux distro and re-train vs. pay for another product and os upgrade, then they'll do it. And all those people will go to class. And then they'll get back to work.
I've set stuff like that up before way back when I had to send people off to learn Office when we switched from DOS based 1-2-3 & Wordperfect. And guess what? The company survived and the world went on.
So what it really seems is this guy's point is for the home end-user, i.e., my parents. And yah, they'd benefit from what they already know. And really, GNU/Linux is not there yet, so that point, to me, is irrelevant.
However, for the business market it is entirely relevant. And I feel that businesses will choose flexibility and saving money and having stability over usability.
Now, if some developer want to write for the two most popular GNU/Linux GUIs - KDE & GNOME, then that doesn't have to be impossibly hard. They just employ MVC. Separate out the view and the rest should not be much of an issue.
Just because M$ does it one way does not mean it's the best way. And just because people think one size fits all does not mean that that's the case for everyone. Sure, let companies that want to use Windows keep using it. They probably have a lot of time and money invested in it. A lot of money.
But I really believe that if you give a customer/developer/end-user a choice, then you leave it up to them to decide what works for them and doesn't. User interfaces are pretty trivial in the whole grand scheme of things. If someone had to and your business depended on it (like many still do) you could require someone to use a Curses/DOS based interface to get the job done. And for most businesses, it's about getting the job done.
It's like this guy is more wrapped up in the aspects of what the user sees instead of the solving the problem. I personally believe there is a tool well suited for each specific task. With that said, why would I want to pound a nail in with a drill or cut a hole in a wall with a hammer just because one construction company adheres to those rules?
You seem to conviently forget/ignore the various monopoly and other similar lawsuits M$ has been involved in over the past decade.
I don't necessairly have a beef about the shottyness of M$ products. I'm much more against their monopoly and predatory business practices. For all those 'successes' inside Redmond over the likes of Netscape, Novell, etc, other, smaller companies and individuals have lost out big time and not on the merits of better products, but sheer market and money power. To me, that doesn't make a healthy company/ecosystem in any industry.
Of course, on the fluff, Windoze media player, server, os, word, excel, ppt, etc, allow people to do great things. But, on the fluff of so many things the world looks like a great place. It is only when those, who aren't satisfied with the status quo, peel away the fluff and uncover the stink and putrification that are so many unethical companies and governments nowadays.
M$ is not a ethical company. There is ample documentation and proof of this. I, for one, accept that and choose to speak out against this. Along the way, I also expect certain standards and concepts and ideals from the software that I take part in writing. When, INMO, M$ time and time again choose the almighty dollar over proven industry and scientific best practices (I won't even delve into the importance of open file formats and information sharing for the greater good of society), then I'm gonna speak up on that too. When I'm not allowed to do something with my machine and hardware that I own (think Xbox, and no I don't own one), then I'm gonna have an issue about that.
You conviently have bought into the lie, but it looks you you are ok with that and I'm not going to riduicule you for it. Hell, we all buy into various lies all the time. For me, though, M$ and my life with computers - something I've grown up with for the past 20 years - is something I cannot buy into and something I have to and will live with. I will continue to support people who like to think and program and buy products that let them do what we want to do with them - for the sake of ideas - and not what some untethical company thinks we should.
So therefore, I must expose the lie that M$ can be good to, because, like I said before, there is ample evidence that they are not. It is only when you turn off your critical thinking and start believing in slick (and not so) marketing campaigns that you will think otherwise.
Money can't give what the truth takes away..
I somewhat agree and disagree. You probably don't want a fanatic from any side.
However, I have to question someone who would just put just MFC or just Swing in their curriculum. It would probably be a much more interesting class to do both. And possibly some GTK as well. I mean, I would probably find a class much more interesting and useful in life if I was shown the concepts and how they differed and how they were similar. Issues you might actually have to consider in the real world.
But, maybe this is not the goal of the course and it probably falls to what the Professor/Instructor deems appropriate. Which is an entirely different issue in itself.
Yah, except there's a huge difference between Apple, Sun, and M$:
* None of them, except M$, have $40bil in the bank
- this is of course, due to monopoly activities
* None of them, except M$, have monopolies
* All of them, except M$, make very reliable software
* All of them, except M$, have made innovative contributions to the computer industry
* All of them, except M$, embrace - NOT EXTEND - open standards
I actually would have little problem with M$ if things in the computer industry were somewhat level and fair. But we're so far beyond that that it's very hard for me to see anything the M$ does as good, impartial, or for the good of humanity/country/industry/individual. There's always a string attached and somewhere down the line you will pay. And in the end, that's all they want is your money and nothing else.
Expect this to change if M$ ever is in need of ca$h, ala SCO.
Yah, I'm a bit disappointed in the EU. I figured they'd have figured out soft-patents uber alles would not be a good thing. Maybe it'll change at the last minute. One can hope.
All I have to say tho, is that once China and India start flexing their IT muscle, then that's going to be interesting. 2+ billion people is a lot of licensees or a lot of non-licensees.
And I could further that by bringing out a total hypothetical, yet believable programming and company culture.
For instance, when I did my MCSE way back (yah, well, whatever), there was the way protocols and things worked and then the way M$ 'added value' to things. This really makes sense if you think of how it follows the M$ lock-in mentality.
Now, also, think then if there are programmers who think re-inventing the wheel is the way to go and M$ is a grand company, then you start to have programmers who don't like 'arcane' *nix, yet, also have 'programmer deadlines' and thusly bugs galore. This especially because there are probably no hard core security people doing QA.
Anyway, the *nix way of doing things is probably the anthesis of M$ culture and thusly considered old, bad, lame, or just plain cheesy.
This is specifically because *nix has grown up and matured with the Internet, thusly, networked security was built not by a company only concerned with putting money in the bank, but people who understood operating systems and networks.
With security in M$ products *still* an after thought, I have no sympathy for businesses and individuals who get hit with these things. They ask for it when they buy from an unethical company as M$. If there was a building that people lived in where they were continually mugged and eveyone knew it, it would seem silly to live there.
There *is* choice out there. It's pretty small, but it exists. People will put up with this crap (for whatever the reasons) for only so long and then finally get a clue and switch.
It's gonna happen. If not, then welcome to the part of the Internet that works and the part that continually complains they're being attacked, brought down and losing money. Meh.
Actually, this would be a better analogy (hypothetical, of course).
In 2001, Ford produced the 'Everyone' car. Later that year, 4 defects were found.
The first is the car explodes if a child runs their tricycle into license plate. When asked specifically about why only the license plate and the tricycle have thise issue Ford said they are looking into the issue.
The second, the back door falls off if not opened with a key (which later showed that after 25 uses, the lock mechanism stopped working all together).
The third was the floor board would drop out the bottom of the car if soda was spilled on it - which would also, subsequently if corrected, make the license plate fall off, resulting in the car exploding.
The fourth was the steering wheel came detached when the drive sped up over 30 mph in 2nd gear. This was complicated by a later known issue where the brakes would fail if the steering wheel came off and the speed was over 25mph.
Many Chevy drivers found this amusing since they considered their cars to be like rocks (this was, however, proven wrong as Ford owners saught revenge). Chevy owners in 2002 and 2003 found over 20 more defects in the cars and some even, out of sheer hatred for Ford, released these defects onto the internet and their local cities and neighborhoods.
Ford, through its' lawyers, said it would fix any and all the defects that were known, but the licensees of their automobiles had to drive them into the local Ford dealership. Of course, there are no more Ford owned dealerships, only those Ford resellers, who often charge hefty fees to rid the cars of said defects.
Many Ford owners, however, plead ignorance to these problems since their email and snail mail boxes are so overfilled with junk mail of all kinds.
In Detroit, one friend of a family who just died due to 'Tuff-Enuff.5' defect, had this to say:
"We'll miss them so much. Little Jimmy used to play with our son all the time. How could anyone do this?!" However, at the same time they held reservation about Ford and their resellers fixing known 'issues'. The man, who asked not to be identified said "no one touches my Ford. No one."
In the end, the previous Cyber Security dude in the Whitehouse, Richard Clarke, noted that if something big were to happen due to lax, specifically, M$ security, that the gov wouldn't hesitate to regulate.
A nuke plant and public transit system seem, in my book, to be pretty big time. Although, the admins are responsible for locking down those systems (shame on them!), M$ still is somewhat responsible for shotty coding.
The whole program is viewable online here.
that's what I'm sayin. I've been reading post after crappy post about this and that and to actually read one of the few that takes a sound approach is refreshing.
A few companies back we had email that ran on Redhat 5 that just worked. Day in and day out. Then, some smarty IS peeps come in with their MSCE's and the like and we turned in to every other shop that crashed weekly. F-ing pathetic. I got 'the look' for asking a few times why we just can't get email reliably anymore. All the same while, my email,web, etc.., servers at home ran without a hitch.
Yah, people need to kinda wake up and think about running their application and not paying for some company's 'support'. In my experience, you do exactly what the poster said which is hire a few kick ass sysadmins that know their shit. The reason there are still so many CodeRed and like worms are because companies treat this stuff like it's a toaster - just plug it in and it will go. But that's just plain irresponsible because IT security is a complex beast and nothing will change that in the foreseeable future. You could pay 2 sysadmins 100k a year and they would be your humble network guards that would have no problem patching systems when they need patching and helping to develop IT policies that work and aren't decided by waving the magic hands. Esp. in light of that 150k you'll be saving.
You just have to have top people with the vision to hire the right minds and then to let them do the work the right way. Unfortunately, as the poster mentioned, in the corporate world this is tough to come by. It's possible tho.
As far as the original question goes, I would not run AS or Oracle. I'm sure that kills a lot of people but there has to be a 100% perfect argument for throwing away all that cash and if it can't be found, then that action plan should probably not be followed.
unless you're the uber-man at configuring Oracle, it's a nightmare. And I would even go as far to say that Oracle is not a necessity.
Granted, Postgres is lacking in failover and cluster support and Mysql might not be 'enterprise' ready, but my experience over the past decade of using Oracle, MSSQL, DB2, Postgres, and MySQL, is I prefer the two latter dbms.
You could have people froth at the mouth all night on this one and I'm sure there's reasons for each. But, like any big, propreitary package, you get what u pay for and if that's small compared to the money you bring in, then I guess you're cool.
I just have a bad taste in my mouth from the last company I worked with. They completely tied their business to Oracle and PL/SQL and instead of going with a lot of small servers to distribute load, they went with the big monolith.
Meh..
Unless there is proof, there is no need to pony up to SCO and fork out the dough.
And let's be reminded, that there is NO PROOF whatsoever. Only accusations, NDAs, press releases.
Honestly, I'm not worried one bit and all my half a dozen servers are Linux. If you are worried about this for your business, then by all means, switch. But you've not been served any papers stating you're breaking some law, so screw it.
Go live and do business stuff instead of worrying about all this bs.
You should browse the MIT, Georgia Tech, Urbana Super Computing Center, CMU, SDSU (bioinformatics & clustering), the NIH, etc. There's still quite a bit goin on. It's just not always reported in paper.
;).
That said, one of the things that bugs me most is m$'s 'innovation' only being on windows. I mean, yeah, they have a vested interest in that, but do you think the cell phone elevator thing is gonna run on anything but a m$ phone? Or the equivalent pda.
Or the thing that really gets me, Fabric. This sounds exactly like Apple's expose (which I might add, is uber eye candy to everyone I show
I dunno, it's typical. I think the Seattle Times had a piece the other month talking about a new secure computer from m$ and Hp that looked suspiciously like a Mac. And the way they described the hardware - being that it would only be manufactured by one or only a few of the pc vendors - it's not that far off from what Apple is doing and always has done; uniting the hardware and software into an 'experience'.
Frankly I find most m$ innovation I read about, not very innovative, a copy of something else that already exists, or just plain tired..
So what exactly is wrong with .NET? If you need to work on the Windows platform it's a godsend!
.NET thing.
.NET ECMA stuff (to my knowledge, only C# has been submitted), then I just can't see how m$ will stay away from shutting Mono down.
Precisely. And that's where it will stay - on a Win platform. At least until Win is made much smaller (think Novell) and the platform becomes less important compared to the app and development technologies.
Anyway, I have to say that I'm a huge Ximian fan. I think they've contributed a great desktop. So my hat's off to them.
However, as someone who has done some hacking on dotGNU, I am pessimistic about the whole
Besides domination, what is m$'s ultimate goal: lock in. This has been documented and has hit people over the head for years so I don't need to go into a lengthy discussion about it.
Coupled with the fact that even from a clean room implementation standpoint, m$ will pull ip claims. No question about it. Especially when GNU/Linux starts making more and more inroads. I mean, if it's (.NET) supported on *nix, why go with costly m$?
Like I said, I think Nat, Miguel and co. have done an excellent job. They're doing great things. But unless there is some strict, free, licensing agreement submitted along with the
Also, while I think Mono is cool, I still have a problem supporting a language/platform that was created by a company such as m$ for the reasons they did. It still feels tainted and dirty to me. m$ has not become the largest software company in the world by being 'compatible'. There's a documented history that goes back well over a decade that proves this.
Good luck guys! The dashboard looks reall cool, btw.
For users of Kazaa-Lite, where every user is called kazaa-lite-tk (or something like that), this won't help much. While 99% of lite users will be ok, there will be that 1 person who's gonna get nabbed.
It's interesting to have that much backup space avail for a non-server computer. I got a Powerbook last December with the Super-drive and the only thing I can find to use it for is mostly cd-r. Dvd-r is nice to have, but I don't have much use for it. Maybe someone who d/l's movies or something can do it, but...
Otoh, for making movies and stuff, this is very useful via the whole iMovie (or PC equiv) thing. But where this would really come in handy is on a server of some sort where you have big amounts of data. But even then, you need to back up more than 4 or 5 gigs worth usually, so..
But for the end user, I guess it's nicer to have more than less. Who knows, I might start needing to back up more than 665MB soon..
Honestly tho, who fucking cares!? I mean, I'm sorry to those that lost their jobs, definitely - this is not directed at them. But as far as the AOL shitbag goes, you had to see this stuff coming from a mile away. They are not even remotely the same AOL that Case or jwz worked for. They are one of the largest media companies in the world!
All these biz guys understand the M$ biz guys. They're all about numbers and not innovation, so the bloodletting is beginning; nothing anyone can do about it.
Now, that said, Mozilla is the key here. I don't think it will die in the forseeable future. Combined with Linux gaining more and more ground, there must exist a free, open browser. Sure, Konqueror will hang around, but Mozilla will still have a larger user base. And companies that depend on that, like Redhat, IBM, Sun (once they ditch Netscape 4), and others, they will put development efforts into it. And if the Moz Foundation gets really strapped for cash, then just move it to SourceForge or Savannah.
Point is is that there is no use thinking or worrying about AOL or Netscape anymore. They've been goners for some time. Mozilla is the focus and given the 'freeness' of the code, it will continue to live on regardless of cut funding and developers. Granted, it might slow, but no worse than IE.
I for one am sorry my fellow coders are out of a job, but I have all the faith in the world for Moz cuz I think it's a great browser. I mean, c'mon, if the C=64 (long live the C=64!) can still live after all these years, why not Moz?
All true. Altho I never had a cube, I remember reading about Zilla in some computing mag. Back then I was totally blown away by NeXT.
But, I think it was their high price and Jobs' attitude that ultimately killed the company. Plus, they were in debt to Hitachi by like, $400mil or something.
A good audio book to get about Jobs, which talks quite a bit about NeXT is called The Second Coming of Steve Jobs via audible.com. Talks about how he tried to get NeXT into various companies and how he would try to woo execs on features - features they wouldn't really need or understand - while they just saw a high price tag vs. pc's. Interesting stuff.
But, yah, apps are a big problem too. If you look at NeXT back then and Apple today, some of the same attitude still plays out. All the little 'cool' features like built in PDF to the OS (most people in the pc world probably don't give a shit about this), the animation on the fast user switching, booting off external fw drives, etc... It's almost like it's all just too far ahead and whatever M$ makes, the dumb herd will accept.