MS would provide a general framework for maintaining installed software which 3rd party vendors could hook into.
Given that some of these updaters use 20MB of memory, require background processes and services, and try to force some stupid browser search plug-in on every update, I'm not sure the vendors would really care about doing things properly through a framework.
Hell, I remember when Windows tried to detect USB devices first and then ask for a driver. Vendors said, "screw that", and insisted that you install their 200+MB bloatware before plugging the USB device in, or else the USB port would be locked and the device wouldn't even be acknowledged, let alone identified.
So, Firefox, got that MSI installer, yet? No? Oh, I see you now have an updater that runs continuously as admin. That's a good start!
Windows programmers are about the least cooperative people in the world. An update framework would be nice, but I think there's a reason Microsoft is paranoid about making one.
They both evolved out of a low-brow, poorly deigned mess, they both blame everything on 3rd party developers, and they are both insanely popular despite their shortcomings.
So, Microsoft used aggressive marketing to become so popular. What's PHP's draw?
In my experience, most network interfaces aren't supported by the distribution disc, so I have to plug in my lone and highly valuable Intel card to gain access to the net.
I know you're talking about a "blank system", but it never ceases to amaze me how geeks seem to lose the driver CDs that came with their network card or mobo. Apparently, though, they have no trouble remembering where the Intel NIC is and going through the process of plugging it in.
If you regularly do service work on other people's computers, you'd be wise to keep a fully slipstreamed and hotfixed Windows disc with you. It generally has a lot of drivers on it that your ancient WinXP SP2 disc doesn't. Nobody ever bitches when their 2006 Ubuntu disc doesn't have a driver for 2011 hardware.
Not to mention the fact that many asteroids are porous and have glass-like properties. They actually don't burn very well, or respond to missile strikes.
I'm most concerned about dust and fragments that would be broken off the asteroid while mining. Fragments falling to the moon surface might make the colonies uncomfortable, seeing how there's no atmosphere to slow down or burn said fragments before impact.
For instance, used cars should be banned; everyone should instead buy brand-new cars, keep them for 2-3 years, then drive them straight to the junkyard to be crushed, and go buy a new car.
Thankfully, what happened to the Saturn EV-1 didn't become a trend.
Not to be a smartass, but I'd say the real problem is that most 3d artists are selling themselves short and stumbling over each other for jobs. In fact, most 20-something hotshots straight out of college seem to have no problem with long hours and only IPO promises to fuel their determination.
It reminds me of those thousands of people lined up hoping to get a job at Foxconn.
I already have USB ports in my monitor, as well as the back of my keyboard and on the front of my PC. I don't even own a USB hub. What kind of garbage, bargain-bin hardware are you using?
If you use a laptop as your primary PC, which is getting increasingly popular, you probably have USB ports on both sides of your keyboard.
Remember when USB first came out? At first, nothing really used it. You'd see printers support it as an option, right next to the old parallel port; you'd see a few USB mice and keyboards, often packaged with a PS/2USB converter. But now, you have to look long and hard to find a computer *without* USB, and finding legacy PS/2 keyboards or parallel cables is rather difficult.
Yeah, PC vendors are really lazy. I remember the USB versions costing an extra $30-$50, too, and I also remember how log it took optical drives to convert to SATA.
However, it's worth nothing that USB had huge advantages over serial ports, much like the transition from VHS to DVD. Even if PC vendors were too slow, lazy, and cheap to make the transition until Apple kicked everyone in the butt, in the end, the move was a no-brainer, and USB didn't really have any competition at the time.
Thunderbolt is more like the move from DVD to Blu-ray, except DVDs are now at version 3.0 and still work in DVD 1.0 players. TB has to make some pretty spectacular claims before anyone will even look at it. Oh, fudge... Thunderbolt cables cost ten times as much as USB, and my USB seems to work just fine to me? No thanks.
Apple also isn't helping anything this time around, seeing how they like to switch video connectors every year or two. But of course, they will stop doing this the instant Thunderbolt is widely available (*cough*).
How many Linux and OSX releases are supported for 12 years?
It's not like old drivers will easily work on the new OSes, kernel upgrades are a sure thing, or your old hardware will be supported by the new OS (such as the move from 32-bit to 64-bit Macs).
Personally, I'm far more interested in how MS is going to handle product activation... or more likely, they just won't. Call me lazy, but I haven't bothered to get myself a corporate edition of XP Pro to replace my regular retail version. What will happen if I swap motherboards?
BTW, I have Win7 on my laptop, but my workstation is still XP, because I just can't stand the new taskbar, among other things. I have reasons for not upgrading that go beyond, "I don't need to."
My experience was exactly the same when I visited the Boston Computer Museum. Many of the displays were run by Amigas, but they were covered with boxes that were either painted or trimmed with colored paper. The Macs had their own room with huge band-awareness banners hung all over the ceiling, and practically everything related to life before PCs revolved around IBM mainframes (though ENIAC and the PDP-11 got a mention).
To the victors go the spoils. Not like anyone is interested in computer history, of course.
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Ah, you young kids and your nutty humor.
MS would provide a general framework for maintaining installed software which 3rd party vendors could hook into.
Given that some of these updaters use 20MB of memory, require background processes and services, and try to force some stupid browser search plug-in on every update, I'm not sure the vendors would really care about doing things properly through a framework.
Hell, I remember when Windows tried to detect USB devices first and then ask for a driver. Vendors said, "screw that", and insisted that you install their 200+MB bloatware before plugging the USB device in, or else the USB port would be locked and the device wouldn't even be acknowledged, let alone identified.
So, Firefox, got that MSI installer, yet? No? Oh, I see you now have an updater that runs continuously as admin. That's a good start!
Windows programmers are about the least cooperative people in the world. An update framework would be nice, but I think there's a reason Microsoft is paranoid about making one.
PHP is the Windows of the scripting world.
They both evolved out of a low-brow, poorly deigned mess, they both blame everything on 3rd party developers, and they are both insanely popular despite their shortcomings.
So, Microsoft used aggressive marketing to become so popular. What's PHP's draw?
In my experience, most network interfaces aren't supported by the distribution disc, so I have to plug in my lone and highly valuable Intel card to gain access to the net.
I know you're talking about a "blank system", but it never ceases to amaze me how geeks seem to lose the driver CDs that came with their network card or mobo. Apparently, though, they have no trouble remembering where the Intel NIC is and going through the process of plugging it in.
If you regularly do service work on other people's computers, you'd be wise to keep a fully slipstreamed and hotfixed Windows disc with you. It generally has a lot of drivers on it that your ancient WinXP SP2 disc doesn't. Nobody ever bitches when their 2006 Ubuntu disc doesn't have a driver for 2011 hardware.
Good idea. I think the war would be cheaper, too.
Oh, it gets worse than that... it's pure idiocy to even try using the things as a defense.
Silly me. All this time I thought it was just more security theater / thinking-of-the-children / penis extension.
Frankly, I find it amusing. Why bother getting a bomb on the plane when you can just shoot one instead?
In the windows world, I'm expected to pay $30 for an application that can rename multiple files at once.
That just means you haven't been looking hard enough, or you haven't used a Mac. ;)
All these years I thought it was about money. Silly me.
Jobs was right about Flash.
The problem was not whether Flash was bad, it was whether Apple had the exclusive right to designate it so.
Import taxes!
Damn foreign imports are stealing all our local mining jobs!
Not to mention the fact that many asteroids are porous and have glass-like properties. They actually don't burn very well, or respond to missile strikes.
I'm most concerned about dust and fragments that would be broken off the asteroid while mining. Fragments falling to the moon surface might make the colonies uncomfortable, seeing how there's no atmosphere to slow down or burn said fragments before impact.
Yeah, that's what I meant. People weren't allowed to own it, because that's the only way the company will sell it to you.
Thankfully, some of the cars were spared from the crusher and ended up in museums.
All you had to do was visit a page with the virulent java applet for your computer to be infected.
Apple maintains Java on their own platform. So, why did they design their Java implementation to always run under root?
For instance, used cars should be banned; everyone should instead buy brand-new cars, keep them for 2-3 years, then drive them straight to the junkyard to be crushed, and go buy a new car.
Thankfully, what happened to the Saturn EV-1 didn't become a trend.
Not to be a smartass, but I'd say the real problem is that most 3d artists are selling themselves short and stumbling over each other for jobs. In fact, most 20-something hotshots straight out of college seem to have no problem with long hours and only IPO promises to fuel their determination.
It reminds me of those thousands of people lined up hoping to get a job at Foxconn.
Second, if you want to drive in a tin can, go ahead. Build one yourself and get it licensed as an experimental/kit car.
Alas, the license fee will cost you a lot more than a new car.
Don't even get me started about building your own electric car.
You're expecting the average soccer mom to respond properly to an emergency situation where the car isn't behaving as she expected.
If you can breathe, but you can't shift into neutral, you can get a driver's license and a 4,500 pound SUV.
It's sad how "automatic" refers more to the brain behind the wheel than the transmission behind the engine.
I already have USB ports in my monitor, as well as the back of my keyboard and on the front of my PC. I don't even own a USB hub. What kind of garbage, bargain-bin hardware are you using?
If you use a laptop as your primary PC, which is getting increasingly popular, you probably have USB ports on both sides of your keyboard.
Remember when USB first came out? At first, nothing really used it. You'd see printers support it as an option, right next to the old parallel port; you'd see a few USB mice and keyboards, often packaged with a PS/2USB converter. But now, you have to look long and hard to find a computer *without* USB, and finding legacy PS/2 keyboards or parallel cables is rather difficult.
Yeah, PC vendors are really lazy. I remember the USB versions costing an extra $30-$50, too, and I also remember how log it took optical drives to convert to SATA.
However, it's worth nothing that USB had huge advantages over serial ports, much like the transition from VHS to DVD. Even if PC vendors were too slow, lazy, and cheap to make the transition until Apple kicked everyone in the butt, in the end, the move was a no-brainer, and USB didn't really have any competition at the time.
Thunderbolt is more like the move from DVD to Blu-ray, except DVDs are now at version 3.0 and still work in DVD 1.0 players. TB has to make some pretty spectacular claims before anyone will even look at it. Oh, fudge... Thunderbolt cables cost ten times as much as USB, and my USB seems to work just fine to me? No thanks.
Apple also isn't helping anything this time around, seeing how they like to switch video connectors every year or two. But of course, they will stop doing this the instant Thunderbolt is widely available (*cough*).
And until very recently (2 years from now) there will still be development on XP.
Whether you like the development they're doing or you think it's adequate is a different situation than it not being supported.
How many Linux and OSX releases are supported for 12 years?
It's not like old drivers will easily work on the new OSes, kernel upgrades are a sure thing, or your old hardware will be supported by the new OS (such as the move from 32-bit to 64-bit Macs).
Personally, I'm far more interested in how MS is going to handle product activation... or more likely, they just won't. Call me lazy, but I haven't bothered to get myself a corporate edition of XP Pro to replace my regular retail version. What will happen if I swap motherboards?
BTW, I have Win7 on my laptop, but my workstation is still XP, because I just can't stand the new taskbar, among other things. I have reasons for not upgrading that go beyond, "I don't need to."
Reminds me of how long it took for peripheral manufacturers to write drivers for Vista, despite how long they had developer previews available.
Hey, just another example besides good ol' IE6.
That's also fairly rare, mercifully.
My experience was exactly the same when I visited the Boston Computer Museum. Many of the displays were run by Amigas, but they were covered with boxes that were either painted or trimmed with colored paper. The Macs had their own room with huge band-awareness banners hung all over the ceiling, and practically everything related to life before PCs revolved around IBM mainframes (though ENIAC and the PDP-11 got a mention).
To the victors go the spoils. Not like anyone is interested in computer history, of course.
Just for the sake of discussion, I wouldn't say that rolling shadows, loud noise, and ground shaking places into the same category as wifi allergies.
Any kind of power plant in your backyard will likely suck, whether it's a cooling tower or a spinning turbine.