the user cannot see the blue "e" icon on the desktop when he first turns on his PC, then he is free to make the conscious choice to use whatever browser he wants
And the vast majority of users will go straight back to the shop and ask "why is there no Internet ?"
He might be able to make a conscious choice, but actually downloading and installing the browser of his choice is going to be like pulling teeth for most users.
Damn, you mentioning 555's takes me back... in 1981 when I was just 13 years old, I got a little project published in Everyday Electronics, on just such a premise... an oscillator made from two gates of a 4001 feeding into a 1 of 6 counter (4022 ?) and 6 LEDs cycling in sequence. I'd abandoned the 555 in favour of the NOR gates as it was bloody unstable and used to do horrible things to the power supply.
I got paid 12 pounds for getting that published, which was like a kings ransom for a 13 year old.
I think you live in an insulated world. Most (non IT) businesses print reams of paper every day
Well yes this might be true, I am indeed in the IT business, and my boss was adamant that we be paperless office... also as a lot of us work remotely, sending stuff by snail mail just isn't a viable option... perhaps his motives are not due to any particular environmental bent, but simply because it makes no sense when there are so many alternatives that work.
Maybe non IT businesses could benefit from applying this also... I'm sure a lot of inefficiency and errors comes from one department processing something, and then printing it out, just for the next department to transcribe it back into another system for further processing.
Consistently, every new version of Firefox comes with a larger installation footprint, larger use of resources, larger lock in to Google who "sponsor" their development in return for a default search etc etc. They seem to have lost their way from version 1, which was a great little browser.
By the time they reach version 7, do you think they'll be any less corporate influenced, any less bloated and any more useful than anything MS will have to offer at that point ?
With E-Mail both and Instant Messaging supporting file transfer, and every man and his dog armed with a PDA or Mobile that can read typical document formats, I'd argue that NOT printing anything has become the standard these days.
In the link (2) cited below, the article mentions "the world is becoming warmer and drier, and this means there is less water to support plants and animals". This is not necessarily true. In fact, long range forecasting models predict that along with global warming comes a wetter world. Although the moisture may not be spread equally across the globe, while some deserts might expand, so too would some rain forests. Furthermore, according the US Environmental Protection Agency, little research has been done on how global warming might affect deserts. The EPA even points out that while one model shows an increase in deserts by 185%, another shows a decrease by 56% (4).With such uncertainty I believe it is too difficult to determine how much if any of desertification is due to global warming.
Seems to me like the author of the article has missed the point entirely.
When something is broken, a savvy user will surf the net, look on newsgroups and forums for solutions, even go to MS itself and try to find a solution in the KB.
The people who actually NEED a "Fix It" button are NOT in the above category. These are the people who don't know whether they are running XP or Vista, or whether it's home, premium, enterprise, professional etc...
All they know is their "windows" is broken, and want to click one button to fix it. So how is going through a questionairre to determine which download is appropriate going to help them ?
They need a single click, single download, and then let the MSI itself determine the OS and version, and make the appropriate patch.
Nethertheless, the article itself is an obvious troll just to associate "Microsoft" and "fail" in the same headline.
So what you are saying is that I'm NOT going to vapourize into a cloud of ions, but I may get a little cooked around the edges (ever put an egg in a microwave for lulz) ?
Oh, that's just fine th... hang on, someone is calling my mobile.
Although I never worked out why the closing music to the original was "we are the self preservation society"... right after they'd just driven over a fucking cliff ?
I mean, if they were interested in self preservation, they wouldn't have used a big unwieldy bus on mountain goat roads now would they ?
I have to admit, I think this is one of those rare situations where the remake was far better than the original... and i'm old enough to remember both.
No, XML is not a programming language, it is a data encapsulation method at best, and a markup "language" at worst (the very worst)...
Even HTML manages to have standards like <head> and <body>... XML can have whatever you want, even <Apples>, <Pears>, and <DavesVariableICouldntThinkOfANameFor>
It might be flexible, but without the associated specs and documentation, the tag names and content data are usually meaningless. And when a spec takes 10 times longer to write than the data itself, you just know you are in for trouble.
There is nothing, anywhere in the whole universe, that wouldn't be better wrapped up in XML format <sarcasm>
Really, XML has got to be the MOST proprietary format of them all, as none of the tags have standardised names or meanings, everything is flexible, everything is left to the whims of the individual service suppliers, and every poor developer (me included) has to learn another structure and it's naming conventions before we can do anything else useful with the XML feed itself.
You mean the way they gave away "free" Internet Explorer and Media Player with every purchase on XP ?
Can you imagine the field day the antitrust proponents would have with that, if they gave away the whole O/S ?
Already, there are people who "claim" that MS turns a blind eye to piracy because it increases their overall share of the market, what more if they give the whole thing away ?
Slashdot Mirror
the user cannot see the blue "e" icon on the desktop when he first turns on his PC, then he is free to make the conscious choice to use whatever browser he wants
And the vast majority of users will go straight back to the shop and ask "why is there no Internet ?"
He might be able to make a conscious choice, but actually downloading and installing the browser of his choice is going to be like pulling teeth for most users.
Shenanigans, Shenanigans !!!
Just opened Firefox 3.06 and Internet Explorer 7.0, both clean with no add-ons, and loaded google homepage into each one.
Hmm ...
firefox.exe = 21,628k Private Memory
iexplore.exe = 6,060k Private Memory
There is never enough time to watch porn!
Yup, those 1 button mice can be hellish expensive.
All you can find these days is cheap-and-nasty 2 button mice with scroll wheels and handy single click double click buttons.
I thought Russia didn't need help, weren't invalids and didn't have limited mental capacity
Well at least not until they open that third lunchtime bottle of vodka ...
In quantum chicken physics, the two states are :-
1) About to cross the road
2) Groaning at the awful punchline
The trick is to try and observe the former state, thus collapsing the waveform so that the latter state cannot happen.
Damn, you mentioning 555's takes me back ... in 1981 when I was just 13 years old, I got a little project published in Everyday Electronics, on just such a premise ... an oscillator made from two gates of a 4001 feeding into a 1 of 6 counter (4022 ?) and 6 LEDs cycling in sequence. I'd abandoned the 555 in favour of the NOR gates as it was bloody unstable and used to do horrible things to the power supply.
I got paid 12 pounds for getting that published, which was like a kings ransom for a 13 year old.
Microcontroller pfft ... can you say overkill ?
Yes thank you I do know the difference ... kindling is a noun, and kindle is the derivative verb.
I was just making a point about what the name "inspired" in me, and possibly others.
Sorry for upsetting the pedantic grammar nazis amongst you, it won't happen again mein fuhrer.
I think you live in an insulated world. Most (non IT) businesses print reams of paper every day
Well yes this might be true, I am indeed in the IT business, and my boss was adamant that we be paperless office ... also as a lot of us work remotely, sending stuff by snail mail just isn't a viable option ... perhaps his motives are not due to any particular environmental bent, but simply because it makes no sense when there are so many alternatives that work.
Maybe non IT businesses could benefit from applying this also ... I'm sure a lot of inefficiency and errors comes from one department processing something, and then printing it out, just for the next department to transcribe it back into another system for further processing.
Is it just me that thinks naming a device after a bunch of waste wood suitable only for burning, is possibly a huge marketing mistake ?
I'm sure nobody would need 3 applications ?
2 would be plenty ...
BitTorrent (to download a pirate copy) .torrent file required)
Browser (to find the
Shouldn't that be "jump the shark".
Consistently, every new version of Firefox comes with a larger installation footprint, larger use of resources, larger lock in to Google who "sponsor" their development in return for a default search etc etc. They seem to have lost their way from version 1, which was a great little browser.
By the time they reach version 7, do you think they'll be any less corporate influenced, any less bloated and any more useful than anything MS will have to offer at that point ?
With E-Mail both and Instant Messaging supporting file transfer, and every man and his dog armed with a PDA or Mobile that can read typical document formats, I'd argue that NOT printing anything has become the standard these days.
Are deserts expanding from global warming ?
In the link (2) cited below, the article mentions "the world is becoming warmer and drier, and this means there is less water to support plants and animals". This is not necessarily true. In fact, long range forecasting models predict that along with global warming comes a wetter world. Although the moisture may not be spread equally across the globe, while some deserts might expand, so too would some rain forests. Furthermore, according the US Environmental Protection Agency, little research has been done on how global warming might affect deserts. The EPA even points out that while one model shows an increase in deserts by 185%, another shows a decrease by 56% (4).With such uncertainty I believe it is too difficult to determine how much if any of desertification is due to global warming.
(1) http://www.ieca.org/Resources/Article/ArticleChinaAdvancingDeserts.asp
(2)http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/ontheline/explore/nature/deserts/prtconserve_desertification.htm
(3) http://www.mrdowling.com/607-deserts.html
(4) http://yosemite.epa.gov/OAR/globalwarming.nsf/content/ImpactsDeserts.html
Oh, and by the way, London had the worst snow in 50 years at the start of February. Your point was ???
For every example you can Google, I can Google a counterexample !
Seems to me like the author of the article has missed the point entirely.
When something is broken, a savvy user will surf the net, look on newsgroups and forums for solutions, even go to MS itself and try to find a solution in the KB.
The people who actually NEED a "Fix It" button are NOT in the above category. These are the people who don't know whether they are running XP or Vista, or whether it's home, premium, enterprise, professional etc ...
All they know is their "windows" is broken, and want to click one button to fix it. So how is going through a questionairre to determine which download is appropriate going to help them ?
They need a single click, single download, and then let the MSI itself determine the OS and version, and make the appropriate patch.
Nethertheless, the article itself is an obvious troll just to associate "Microsoft" and "fail" in the same headline.
Computers are SO unneccessary, yes ....
So how did you post this ? Chisel it out on a block of granite, and Fedex it to slashdot headquarters ?
What a whackjob !
So what you are saying is that I'm NOT going to vapourize into a cloud of ions, but I may get a little cooked around the edges (ever put an egg in a microwave for lulz) ?
Oh, that's just fine th... hang on, someone is calling my mobile.
device that draws information from the environment
I thought it was a story about someone trying to patent the 5 senses we already have.
Although I never worked out why the closing music to the original was "we are the self preservation society" ... right after they'd just driven over a fucking cliff ?
I mean, if they were interested in self preservation, they wouldn't have used a big unwieldy bus on mountain goat roads now would they ?
I have to admit, I think this is one of those rare situations where the remake was far better than the original ... and i'm old enough to remember both.
No, XML is not a programming language, it is a data encapsulation method at best, and a markup "language" at worst (the very worst) ...
Even HTML manages to have standards like <head> and <body> ... XML can have whatever you want, even <Apples>, <Pears>, and <DavesVariableICouldntThinkOfANameFor>
It might be flexible, but without the associated specs and documentation, the tag names and content data are usually meaningless. And when a spec takes 10 times longer to write than the data itself, you just know you are in for trouble.
I heard a sound like a thousand slashdot editors crying "fr33 st00f pl0x", and then were suddenly silenced.
Who's going to give them freebies for promoting their latest crap as news stories now ? I suppose they can all just go and live in your basement eh ?
That's the trouble with do-gooders, they never think things through ... shakes head.
mod parent +1 something, for using "miscombobulation of bullshit".
Best laugh I had all day reading that gem.
it's about innovation, and Microsoft gets low marks in that area
When they innovate, they are accused of adding proprietary extensions onto existing standards.
Just look at HTML and the whole ActiveX hatred.
There is nothing, anywhere in the whole universe, that wouldn't be better wrapped up in XML format <sarcasm>
Really, XML has got to be the MOST proprietary format of them all, as none of the tags have standardised names or meanings, everything is flexible, everything is left to the whims of the individual service suppliers, and every poor developer (me included) has to learn another structure and it's naming conventions before we can do anything else useful with the XML feed itself.
Grrrr ... okay rant over.
You mean the way they gave away "free" Internet Explorer and Media Player with every purchase on XP ?
Can you imagine the field day the antitrust proponents would have with that, if they gave away the whole O/S ?
Already, there are people who "claim" that MS turns a blind eye to piracy because it increases their overall share of the market, what more if they give the whole thing away ?