...privatization. The government continually proves that it is unaware of the value of a dollar (which is ironic since they print them). The private sector could accomplish much more for less money than the government. Cut NASA loose to the private sector.
I got a 60GB deskstar a few months ago for $107.00. Cheaper than anyone else's drive.
-Sam
Couldn't give a rat's patooey...
on
PC Prices to Rise?
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· Score: 1, Informative
...about the price of flat panels. CRTs are fine for now. I've yet to see a flat panel display that can equal or rival a CRT. Not to say that it won't happen, it just ain't here yet.
-Sam
Re:Alternative to Death Penalty?
on
Time Travel
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· Score: 1
Check this out for an eerie answer to your question.
-Sam
Re:you just dont get it
on
Time Travel
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· Score: 1
This is like the time travel theorem in the Marvel Universe. Basically, it goes like this. Assuming one pristine "virgin" timeline, any time (no pun intended) someone travels in time, either forward or backward, they create a "divergent" timeline. This timeline has bo effect on the virgin timeline, but instead is a coexisting, parallel branch. Every time travel trip creates yet another divergent timeline. A much more detailed and anal account can be found here.
I agree somewhat, but not everyone needs all the applications in Office. Most people only use Word and (shudder) Power Point. Then there are the number crunchers who do EVERYTHING in Excel. Writing a memo - Excel. Keeping track of inventory - Excel. One hurdle is to get people to use the applications in the manner they were designed to be used. That said, would it be too much trouble to get someone to write a modular office suite? You know, a suite that has the bare essentials and then offers plugin features. You could charge a minimal fee for the basic suite and then a smaller charge for each feature that the user needed. I'd like a WP that just let me write a fricking letter. Then, if at some point down the line, I needed the ability to graph stuff and draw widgets (not that I would EVER use a WP for such a thing... that's what illustration applications are for), I could pony up a couple of bucks for those features and download them and plug them into my current setup. This seems so obvious to me with the bloat that's crept into MS's (and, to be fair, almost every other) office suite. Just a thought.
I know the slashdot sentiment is to hate on all things Microsoft, but it's easy to use and does damn near everything you'd want it to.
Actually, this is the leading problem with Office in my opinion. It does TOO much of everything. I think it's pretty safe to say that the overwhelming (not just the average) majority of MS Office users use about 1% of the suite. And that's all they need. And that's assuming they use all the applications in the suite. The problem is that there's no way to get Office (Works is just horrible) or even Word without the other 99% of the crap that MS has thrown in to "encourage" people to upgrade. This has lead to a suite that requires hundreds of megabytes of hard drive space. Yes, I'm aware at how cheap HDs are now, but no matter how much free space I still manage to hang onto, it doesn't help with the speed of the applications and their effect on the speed and resources of the OS. Why should I have to install all of that crap just to bang out a letter or a memo? All I want in a word processor is basic page control, spell check, thesaurus (maybe), and filters for any other format of document I suppose I might encounter. Right now, I do most of my WP in AbiWord. It does everything I need from a word processor and it's not as bloated as Word. Even it's too big, though. Excellence! for the Amiga fit on one DD floppy disk and it worked great.
The other issue I have with Office (and Windows, for that matter) is that with eace new release, stuff moves. I don't have a problem with changing the location of something to enhance usability, but it seems like the only motivation tha MS has for moving menu items or acces to features is to keep people buying Office help books (you know, the books that have the information that the user manuals USED to have, not that I read User Manuals, ahem, cough, cough). It's really irritating. If you're supporting three versions of Office (97, 2000, XP) or Windows (98/Me/2000/XP), it's nearly impossible to keep track of where MS hid the access to the same features across each version. Craziness.
-Sam
I actually agree with Ebert on this one...
on
Review: Panic Room
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Unusually lately, I agree with Roger Ebert on this one. Fincher's camera work is very impressive, and the story is engrossing. The criminals make the sort of mistakes that I would probably make given the situation (everyone always says the criminals in movies are unrealistically stupid. Yeah, just like everyone on agameshows are idiots. Consider the situation folks). They also are not complete dolts (well, Jared Leto's character is, but he's consistent). Was it a perfect movie? Absolutely not. There were a couple of times where I questioned the actions of the participants, but overall, the characters were more believable than the usual Hollywood drivel. Will there ever be a movie that is completely technologically accurate? God I hope not. I am knee deep in technology every day and most of this stuff could make a coma patient explode in boredom. Face it folks, while there are undoubtedly some very exciting things about the tech industry, a lot of what we do is mindnumbing.
* Even doing something that should be simple like changing your timezone is done with an overcomplicated application with no help of any kind (You see a screen with a world map, and you have to *guess* where your city is located by tapping on the worldmap to set the timezone correctly).
I don't have to *guess* where my city is located on *any* map. It's hardly the computer's problem if you don't know geography.
All he knows is that his other CEO buddies have WINCE and PalmOS PDAs and wants to know why his company isn't doing what everybody else is.
By that logic, WinCE should have never acheived ANY market share and Linux is a completely lost cause. Palm OWNED the palmtop (and still pretty much does), yet M$ has slowly been chipping away at market share. There's (almost) always room for a better mouse trap as long as it's not too far ahead of the curve (Amiga).
The problem with loud places is not the person yelling, it's the ambient noise. Hemos calling from the disco wouldn't have to yell, but you still wouldn't be able to hear his "muscle voice" over the Villiage People blaring over the speakers in the club.
Actually, I think the AROS (Amiga Replacement Operating System)project is cool, but I have my doubts that it will ever reach a state of usability. Even if it does, it'll, by nature, always lag behind the "official" release which FINALLY is the real AmigaOS being ported to the PPC.
Well, half the performance at twice the price for the hardware is stretching it a little, but the coup de' grace is that AmigaOS flat out destroys Windows (and Linux for that matter) for speed and tightness. So the race may not be as clear as one would think. I'd take a look at the board running the OS before I made any judgements. And the OS is scheduled to become more optimized for the PPC in the Not Too Distant Future (r). So that coupled with a faster G4 or G5 might just blow thw x86 out of the water. So, wait and see.
Actually, if anything, the userbase has been the ONLY thing that's kept it alive. How many other platforms have gone through four parent companies after two have gone bankrupt to emerge with new hardware? I can't think of any. The Eyetech board is not perfect (soldered CPUs, and the such), but it is close to what the USERS have been asking for for years. Yeah, the users have killed the Amiga. Right. Where would it be without us?
Oh yeah, government agents are always sooooo professional. The federalization of airport security is going to LOWER the standard of these folks. Not to mention that airport security was NOT THE PROBLEM on September 11th. INS (a government agency) was. The security hounds at the airport had no reason to detain the terrorists as they weren't doing anything that was against the rules (boxcutters were allowed on the planes)!!!
If anyone is interested, there is another professor that has gone the way of the cyborg (his first implant was in August of 1998). His name is Kevin Warwick and he is planning on installing new implants that will allow his nervous system to communicate with a computer (doesn't know which OS he will use yet). Check it out here.
Re:Adobe vs. Corel -- I'll take Corel, please
on
Photoshop for OS X
·
· Score: 1
Then you get to the stability issues and support problems of Corel software. I used to work in the design department for a company that relied on CorelDRAW! for designing the main product. Every single designer lost at least one entire drawing because of a problem with DRAW! I'd always go through the same rigamaroll with Corel, too. I'd call them and tell them what error we were getting. They'd tell me to delete the same two or three DRAW! files and restart DRAW! so that it could recreate them. It NEVER had any effect. Upon telling the support monkey that their suggestion didn't retrieve our lost artwork, they would invariably tell me that we were out of luck. I have NEVER lost a file in either Freehand (my favorite vector app) or Illustrator. And I HATE Corel's big, blocky interface. And I hate all the CRAP that comes with Corel software. Photoshop mops the floor with PhotoPaint and even Illustrator kills DRAW!
I'm 32. I got my first computer when I was in elementary school. It was a Timex/Sinclair 1000. It was interesting, and started my interest in computers . My next machine was a Commodore 64, then two Amigas. Maybe it's because of the creative opportunities these machines offered, maybe it was that I was always artistic, maybe it was because I was musically inclined, or maybe it was because MY DAD PAID ATTENTION, but I think I turned out fine. I draw, paint, play sax, write, and think logically. Exposure to computers didn't stifle any of this, it enhanced it. Computers are a tool and a creative outlet for me. The problem with computers comes at the same time that it does with TV, or games, or daycare. If a parent thinks that all little Johnny needs is a computer and Internet access to learn everything he needs to know, sure, the kid will probably fail. But if the parent takes an active part in the development of the child, computers can be a valuable resource. As can the other media listed above. I'm getting really sick of the current crop of parents looking for outside influences to blame for thier kids not turning out right. John Walker Lind, Dillon Clevold, etc... These guys didn't exactly have the most attentive parents in the world.
I'd join in a heartbeat if they offered PS2 and GameCube games. There's a link on their site to another similar service that only does games, but I don't want that either. I want to pay on company for games and DVDs.
Re:Take yourself off passport? (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 24, @07:03AM (#2471435) I had contacted the Passport folks and was informed that if you do not use your account for one year you will automatically be removed.
I found this out because I had to get into a friends web site that they had developed on Hotmail (or whatever the M$FT web stuff is). At the very end I was asked to register for Passport which I of course did not. It was at that point that I too pondered how to get myself out of their database and sent the email.
===
I was ticked when I found this out, too. I have a PP account that I set up when I was using MSNMessenger (had asome friends that were on it). I now don't use ANY MS services, so hopefully the year will come sooner rather than later. Rat Bastards. It'd be nice to have the choice to STOP using a service. I'm an IT consultant and I don't even tie my customers into contracts because I want them to continue using me because they WANT to use me. I wish MS would take a similar tack.
Absolutely the BEST remote out there. It aint cheap, coming in at $250.00, but it is the only remote I've found that replaces ALL of my other remotes for EVERY function. It's big, but not too big, it has programmable buttons, it has macros, and its entirely backlit. Awesome remote.
Slashdot Mirror
...privatization. The government continually proves that it is unaware of the value of a dollar (which is ironic since they print them). The private sector could accomplish much more for less money than the government. Cut NASA loose to the private sector.
-Sam
-Sam
-Sam
-Sam
-Sam
Actually, this is the leading problem with Office in my opinion. It does TOO much of everything. I think it's pretty safe to say that the overwhelming (not just the average) majority of MS Office users use about 1% of the suite. And that's all they need. And that's assuming they use all the applications in the suite. The problem is that there's no way to get Office (Works is just horrible) or even Word without the other 99% of the crap that MS has thrown in to "encourage" people to upgrade. This has lead to a suite that requires hundreds of megabytes of hard drive space. Yes, I'm aware at how cheap HDs are now, but no matter how much free space I still manage to hang onto, it doesn't help with the speed of the applications and their effect on the speed and resources of the OS. Why should I have to install all of that crap just to bang out a letter or a memo? All I want in a word processor is basic page control, spell check, thesaurus (maybe), and filters for any other format of document I suppose I might encounter. Right now, I do most of my WP in AbiWord. It does everything I need from a word processor and it's not as bloated as Word. Even it's too big, though. Excellence! for the Amiga fit on one DD floppy disk and it worked great.
The other issue I have with Office (and Windows, for that matter) is that with eace new release, stuff moves. I don't have a problem with changing the location of something to enhance usability, but it seems like the only motivation tha MS has for moving menu items or acces to features is to keep people buying Office help books (you know, the books that have the information that the user manuals USED to have, not that I read User Manuals, ahem, cough, cough). It's really irritating. If you're supporting three versions of Office (97, 2000, XP) or Windows (98/Me/2000/XP), it's nearly impossible to keep track of where MS hid the access to the same features across each version. Craziness.
-Sam
-Sam
I don't have to *guess* where my city is located on *any* map. It's hardly the computer's problem if you don't know geography.
-Sam
By that logic, WinCE should have never acheived ANY market share and Linux is a completely lost cause. Palm OWNED the palmtop (and still pretty much does), yet M$ has slowly been chipping away at market share. There's (almost) always room for a better mouse trap as long as it's not too far ahead of the curve (Amiga).
-Sam
-Sam
...Mandrake had waited a few weeks and included KDE3.
-Sam
Actually, I think the AROS (Amiga Replacement Operating System)project is cool, but I have my doubts that it will ever reach a state of usability. Even if it does, it'll, by nature, always lag behind the "official" release which FINALLY is the real AmigaOS being ported to the PPC.
Sam
-Sam
-Sam
Waiting on the socketed version of the PPC board.
Not more ridiculous than Nsync being in EpII.
Sam
-Sam Dunham
And talented and a babe... Schweet!
Then you get to the stability issues and support problems of Corel software. I used to work in the design department for a company that relied on CorelDRAW! for designing the main product. Every single designer lost at least one entire drawing because of a problem with DRAW! I'd always go through the same rigamaroll with Corel, too. I'd call them and tell them what error we were getting. They'd tell me to delete the same two or three DRAW! files and restart DRAW! so that it could recreate them. It NEVER had any effect. Upon telling the support monkey that their suggestion didn't retrieve our lost artwork, they would invariably tell me that we were out of luck. I have NEVER lost a file in either Freehand (my favorite vector app) or Illustrator. And I HATE Corel's big, blocky interface. And I hate all the CRAP that comes with Corel software. Photoshop mops the floor with PhotoPaint and even Illustrator kills DRAW!
I'm 32. I got my first computer when I was in elementary school. It was a Timex/Sinclair 1000. It was interesting, and started my interest in computers . My next machine was a Commodore 64, then two Amigas. Maybe it's because of the creative opportunities these machines offered, maybe it was that I was always artistic, maybe it was because I was musically inclined, or maybe it was because MY DAD PAID ATTENTION, but I think I turned out fine. I draw, paint, play sax, write, and think logically. Exposure to computers didn't stifle any of this, it enhanced it. Computers are a tool and a creative outlet for me. The problem with computers comes at the same time that it does with TV, or games, or daycare. If a parent thinks that all little Johnny needs is a computer and Internet access to learn everything he needs to know, sure, the kid will probably fail. But if the parent takes an active part in the development of the child, computers can be a valuable resource. As can the other media listed above. I'm getting really sick of the current crop of parents looking for outside influences to blame for thier kids not turning out right. John Walker Lind, Dillon Clevold, etc... These guys didn't exactly have the most attentive parents in the world.
-Sam
I'd join in a heartbeat if they offered PS2 and GameCube games. There's a link on their site to another similar service that only does games, but I don't want that either. I want to pay on company for games and DVDs.
-Sam
===
Re:Take yourself off passport? (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 24, @07:03AM (#2471435) I had contacted the Passport folks and was informed that if you do not use your account for one year you will automatically be removed.
I found this out because I had to get into a friends web site that they had developed on Hotmail (or whatever the M$FT web stuff is). At the very end I was asked to register for Passport which I of course did not. It was at that point that I too pondered how to get myself out of their database and sent the email.
===
I was ticked when I found this out, too. I have a PP account that I set up when I was using MSNMessenger (had asome friends that were on it). I now don't use ANY MS services, so hopefully the year will come sooner rather than later. Rat Bastards. It'd be nice to have the choice to STOP using a service. I'm an IT consultant and I don't even tie my customers into contracts because I want them to continue using me because they WANT to use me. I wish MS would take a similar tack.
-Sam
-Sam
Ohhhhh, now I get it. The terrorists would have been pacifists were they not watching too much Gundam.