Younger people are picked because they are more flexible ( bullied more easily, have fewer commitments outside of work ).
On the positive view, if you were an engineer at NASA asked to work every waking moment aside from one day off, to produce something the whole world would value, would you consider that to be drudge or an opportunity?
Apple isn't NASA, but the iPad is something seen and soon valued by many people, possibly being a culture changer.
If the 90 hrs a week was to get some ordinary obscure something done for an ordinary job with ordinary rewards I would agree with you.
If I have a beef with the iPad, it's that while it's a lovely device for consuming content, it doesn't do much to facilitate its creation. The computer is the greatest all-purpose creativity tool since the pen. It put a music studio, a movie studio, a darkroom and a publishing house on everybody's desk. The iPad shifts the emphasis from creating content to merely absorbing and manipulating it. It mutes you, turns you back into a passive consumer of other people's masterpieces. In that sense, it's a step backward. Not much of a fairy-tale ending. Except for the people who are selling content.
I don't own any Apple products. I am not a fanboy. I use Ubuntu.
The author gets it wrong. The iPad is not a home computer replacement. It is a consumption device so that you can consume other people's content comfortably away from home ( or at home on a couch ). If you want to do the things you do on a computer, you go to your computer and I am sure Apple is hoping people will buy both.
If I ever buy anything like iPad that is how I will do it. If I have one it will be for reading the web on a plane ride, not a place where I will likely be doing photoshop or composing music.
My opinion will probably get modded down, simply because someone on slashdot disagrees with it.
I think giving up on manned space flight is a mistake. I think MORE money put into it will eventually bring new technologies and new technologies bring economic success as American CEOs love outsourcing the economic benefits of existing technology.
That said, I really think people have lost a sense of gravity for where the country is right now.
A year ago the world and the US was on the edge of falling into an economic depression. Unemployment is almost 10%, the worst it has been since the Regan years in 1981. There is no money, anywhere. Turn on the news any given day of the week and you will hear that.
Now is not the time for more government spending.
It would be like a person deciding to buy a new car (without a need) after getting fired and after having their savings account depleted by a health care expense.
Everyone who takes the time to point out that they choose not to OWN a TELEVISION is a pretentious ass. Triply so when they then ask where they can view TV shows.
I took the time to write that I don't keep a TV in my home so some "pretentious ass" on the internet wouldn't answer my request for help by telling me to buy cable or spend money on something else I would need a television for.
As for your second point I don't have a problem with watching television shows.
Some people can keep a candy dish on their desk without gobbling it up, others can't. I don't keep a television in my home, because if I did I would end up watching content that I don't care about just because the TV is there. Watching content on the computer gives me the best of all worlds.
I'm currently on a Linux box and it is my understanding that getting anything from iTunes involves a lot of heavy lifting. To be fair, so does downloading from Netflix.
Later this summer I'm thinking about giving a Mac a try.
To be clear, the 2010 Car Buying Guide of The Consumer Reports was based on everything known about Toyotas through 2009, before the problems became big in the press. Consumer Reports acknowledge this and the bad press did not effect their ratings......which were based on the past.
So, looking through the guide I saw the Civic rated higher in many categories so I couldn't see why I was torturing myself with anxiety over trying to decide between a Corolla and Civic. The Civic had more of what I wanted in terms of reliability and safety......my two primary criteria for a new car.
I started car shopping shortly after the bad press about Toyota broke. I always wanted a Corolla because of its great reputation.
I tried researching the issue, but nobody had hard numbers to firmly establish that the hype was hype. All I got were anecdotal accounts along the lines of "we've had Toyotas for years we love them". The only numbers I did get were that Toyotas got in more accidents per a given number of cars than Hondas, though it wasn't established if it was the car or the driver.
It occurred to me that the main reason I started thinking about the Corolla was reliability....in other words, not having to think about my car and here I was scouring the internet doing research.
Finally, the 2010 Car Buying Guide of The Consumer Reports came out. Everything that attracted me to the Corolla, reliability and safety seemed to rated slightly higher in the 2010 Civic.
If my current car was in better shape I probably would have waited 6 months for the smoke to clear before giving up on getting a Corolla.
My intuition is that a significant amount of bad hype is involved( though not the only issue going on ), but when it comes time to put down tens of thousands of dollars of your own money and take risks that could hurt you personally, your attitude changes.
I don't like spending more money for a Honda, but I can and given what is at risk it is not worth it to take a chance on a Corolla in the next few weeks.
I think getting their electronics analyzed by NASA is the smartest thing Toyota can do. They need a detached third party body with a stellar reputation to reassure people to clear their name.
If you mean offended or treated unfairly, the U.S. labor force lives on planet Earth.
If you mean child labor, slave labor, sweatshop labor or living in squalor you will have to go to Asia, like Apple did, to find it.
I'm not singling Apple out. If this story is more than public relations they care, at least a bit.
However, if their standards of ethics were their first concern, they would be doing their manufacturing in their home country, not exporting it to the 3rd world.
That will work for people who do not play particular games, who do not use an iPod, who do not use streaming netflix and who do not use ABC's proprietary streaming viewer.
It is an extremely smart strategy. I'm serious.
Starting back in college I made it a point to only use multiplatform apps as much as possible.
I have avoided so much trouble environment hoping.
I'm a Linux zealot, I have been using it for over 10 years and I do not see your post as inflammatory. People on slashdot and linux enthusiasts really have no perspective on how much they know and how non-tech users see windows.
To non-tech windows users ms windows isn't ONE way to do an operating system, it *is* "computers".
You will get honest questions like "Where is Internet Explorer" instead of "where is my browser".
Converting someone over he isn't burning up from their own motivation to go is pain in the ass that will become a lingering back ache.
This is true even getting Windows users to go Mac. I convinced my father and a friend to NOT buy Vista, but get a Mac instead. Thankfully Apple has Mac classes with instructors trained to do deal with that type of user, the classes are cheap and fun.
if you have to ask this question on/. you'd better not start
Every single Ask Slashdot story gets a response like this, and it's always a jackass thing to say. The whole reason Ask Slashdot exists is to allow technically competent people to share their expertise, and help others get up to speed. "RTFM n00b" responses like this are a major contributor to the negative geek stereotypes we all claim to hate, and in this specific case, a major barrier to Linux use. If you like seeing yourself as a member of a small, impenetrable elite possessed of special and arcane knowledge, go right ahead, but don't expect the rest of us to play along.
Daniel, you have just given yourself an answer to your own question. If *YOU* are getting this kind of crap, imagine what your friends who know far less than you will be getting when they look for help with elementary questions and you are not around.
I've been using Linux at home for 10 years.
The replies you are getting to your question on slashdot are 100% more polite and helpful than what your friends as non-tech users will get in the Linux community. There are many sincere and helpful people in the Linux community, but to get help from them your friends will have to endure men without lives who will take it on your friends with snotty comments.
Do you want to expose your friends to that or have them contacting you with questions about everything that is not 100% like windows?
Yep. My current computer is about 7 years old. I'm thinking of getting a Mac this summer just for those reasons. I'm tired of having access to cool new things only when they are not cool or new anymore. iPods, streaming netflix, ABC's streaming shows etc. Plus with with a Mac I will get support from things I have been used to not getting support for and I will get Unixy goodness.
I've been using Linux at home for 10 years, Ubuntu since it came out. My current computer is pushing 8 years old. I'm thinking of getting a Mac this summer to get Unixy goodness and avoid just this kind of problem. I'm tired of being shut out of support for things or getting cool new stuff last.
Seriously,....I'm an Ubuntu zealot, but I have learned my lesson "nation building" with tech stuff. You are never really done, people call for help and questions years later.
If they don't like windows they just need to pony up a little more cash, get a Mac and get rid of the hassles.
It shows that Microsoft hasn't been significantly successful in diversifying the sources of its profits. MS Windows/Server tools aren't going anywhere soon. However, there are a number of alternative office suites out there, some low cost, that are user friendly. If a company with marketing intelligence and financial resources got behind one of them Microsoft could be in serious trouble.
If you spend all of your time on the internet you will not be spending time on building a life, so when you get off of the computer and see that you have nothing going on you are going to feel depressed.
I hate to say it, but I don't blame him for this decision.
I would love to see more space exploration, particularly manned space exploration.
However, I read the news. The country is hanging on by a financial shoe lace. We've borrowed money and taken donations to go to wars. The banking industry via the government is running of borrowed money from China.
People have lost homes and have been out of work for over a year.
Now is not the time to be getting spendy unless the spending will help the country recover.
Blame AIG, Goldman Sachs, the rest of Wall Street, the politicians who deregulated to let it happen and the politicians who didn't fight to put the regulations back.
President Obama is just trying to put the country back together first.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been using various distros of Linux at home for about 12 years.
I've been using Ubuntu for years, I think it is the best distro and I think it has easiest upgrades.
Having said that, a few times I've upgraded I have had my video or audio messed up afterward as well as smaller sundry issues.
For a few years now I wait at least a month after the upgrades get released. Haven't had a problem yet doing this.
That depends on how you view it.
Younger people are picked because they are more flexible ( bullied more easily, have fewer commitments outside of work ).
On the positive view, if you were an engineer at NASA asked to work every waking moment aside from one day off, to produce something the whole world would value, would you consider that to be drudge or an opportunity?
Apple isn't NASA, but the iPad is something seen and soon valued by many people, possibly being a culture changer.
If the 90 hrs a week was to get some ordinary obscure something done for an ordinary job with ordinary rewards I would agree with you.
I disagree here is that paragraph
I don't own any Apple products. I am not a fanboy. I use Ubuntu.
The author gets it wrong. The iPad is not a home computer replacement. It is a consumption device so that you can consume other people's content comfortably away from home ( or at home on a couch ). If you want to do the things you do on a computer, you go to your computer and I am sure Apple is hoping people will buy both.
If I ever buy anything like iPad that is how I will do it. If I have one it will be for reading the web on a plane ride, not a place where I will likely be doing photoshop or composing music.
My opinion will probably get modded down, simply because someone on slashdot disagrees with it.
I think giving up on manned space flight is a mistake. I think MORE money put into it will eventually bring new technologies and new technologies bring economic success as American CEOs love outsourcing the economic benefits of existing technology.
That said, I really think people have lost a sense of gravity for where the country is right now.
A year ago the world and the US was on the edge of falling into an economic depression. Unemployment is almost 10%, the worst it has been since the Regan years in 1981. There is no money, anywhere. Turn on the news any given day of the week and you will hear that.
Now is not the time for more government spending.
It would be like a person deciding to buy a new car (without a need) after getting fired and after having their savings account depleted by a health care expense.
I took the time to write that I don't keep a TV in my home so some "pretentious ass" on the internet wouldn't answer my request for help by telling me to buy cable or spend money on something else I would need a television for.
As for your second point I don't have a problem with watching television shows.
Some people can keep a candy dish on their desk without gobbling it up, others can't. I don't keep a television in my home, because if I did I would end up watching content that I don't care about just because the TV is there. Watching content on the computer gives me the best of all worlds.
Thanks.
I'm currently on a Linux box and it is my understanding that getting anything from iTunes involves a lot of heavy lifting. To be fair, so does downloading from Netflix.
Later this summer I'm thinking about giving a Mac a try.
If I do I will check out iTunes.
Thanks again.
You have a great point and you are correct. The deals are there.
Like I wrote, you preferences change when it comes time to put YOUR money down.
Even if I don't get hurt in Corolla I don't want to have the potential of having to call a tow truck or hassles in getting the car usable.
That is why I'm buying a new car in the first place.
What about the alleged faulty steering and the engine stalling in some of the Corolla?
Thanks, but I am not in the UK :)
I don't keep a TV in my house because it is a time suck. Maybe I will ask Netflix to carry the inevitable DVDS so I can download it.
To be clear, the 2010 Car Buying Guide of The Consumer Reports was based on everything known about Toyotas through 2009, before the problems became big in the press. Consumer Reports acknowledge this and the bad press did not effect their ratings......which were based on the past.
So, looking through the guide I saw the Civic rated higher in many categories so I couldn't see why I was torturing myself with anxiety over trying to decide between a Corolla and Civic. The Civic had more of what I wanted in terms of reliability and safety......my two primary criteria for a new car.
I started car shopping shortly after the bad press about Toyota broke. I always wanted a Corolla because of its great reputation.
I tried researching the issue, but nobody had hard numbers to firmly establish that the hype was hype. All I got were anecdotal accounts along the lines of "we've had Toyotas for years we love them". The only numbers I did get were that Toyotas got in more accidents per a given number of cars than Hondas, though it wasn't established if it was the car or the driver.
It occurred to me that the main reason I started thinking about the Corolla was reliability....in other words, not having to think about my car and here I was scouring the internet doing research.
Finally, the 2010 Car Buying Guide of The Consumer Reports came out. Everything that attracted me to the Corolla, reliability and safety seemed to rated slightly higher in the 2010 Civic.
If my current car was in better shape I probably would have waited 6 months for the smoke to clear before giving up on getting a Corolla.
My intuition is that a significant amount of bad hype is involved( though not the only issue going on ), but when it comes time to put down tens of thousands of dollars of your own money and take risks that could hurt you personally, your attitude changes.
I don't like spending more money for a Honda, but I can and given what is at risk it is not worth it to take a chance on a Corolla in the next few weeks.
I think getting their electronics analyzed by NASA is the smartest thing Toyota can do. They need a detached third party body with a stellar reputation to reassure people to clear their name.
did Toyota claim it was floor mats, then a defective pedal part and is now having its electronic analyzed along with GM at NASA?
Surely Toyota, the NHTSA and NASA have statisticians?
I don't keep a television in my house. Is there anywhere on the net to watch Dr. Who streaming that anyone could recommend?
If you mean offended or treated unfairly, the U.S. labor force lives on planet Earth.
If you mean child labor, slave labor, sweatshop labor or living in squalor you will have to go to Asia, like Apple did, to find it.
I'm not singling Apple out. If this story is more than public relations they care, at least a bit.
However, if their standards of ethics were their first concern, they would be doing their manufacturing in their home country, not exporting it to the 3rd world.
Catcalls:
Um, if you outsource your business to the 3rd world you know from the start your workers will not be treated like kings.
Kudos:
Apple HAS *some* standards and DID something about it. You can't say that about too many businesses, especially IT businesses, these days.
That will work for people who do not play particular games, who do not use an iPod, who do not use streaming netflix and who do not use ABC's proprietary streaming viewer.
It is an extremely smart strategy. I'm serious.
Starting back in college I made it a point to only use multiplatform apps as much as possible.
I have avoided so much trouble environment hoping.
I'm a Linux zealot, I have been using it for over 10 years and I do not see your post as inflammatory. People on slashdot and linux enthusiasts really have no perspective on how much they know and how non-tech users see windows.
To non-tech windows users ms windows isn't ONE way to do an operating system, it *is*
"computers".
You will get honest questions like "Where is Internet Explorer" instead of "where is my browser".
Converting someone over he isn't burning up from their own motivation to go is pain in the ass that will become a lingering back ache.
This is true even getting Windows users to go Mac. I convinced my father and a friend to NOT buy Vista, but get a Mac instead. Thankfully Apple has Mac classes with instructors trained to do deal with that type of user, the classes are cheap and fun.
Every single Ask Slashdot story gets a response like this, and it's always a jackass thing to say. The whole reason Ask Slashdot exists is to allow technically competent people to share their expertise, and help others get up to speed. "RTFM n00b" responses like this are a major contributor to the negative geek stereotypes we all claim to hate, and in this specific case, a major barrier to Linux use. If you like seeing yourself as a member of a small, impenetrable elite possessed of special and arcane knowledge, go right ahead, but don't expect the rest of us to play along.
Daniel, you have just given yourself an answer to your own question. If *YOU* are getting this kind of crap, imagine what your friends who know far less than you will be getting when they look for help with elementary questions and you are not around.
I've been using Linux at home for 10 years.
The replies you are getting to your question on slashdot are 100% more polite and helpful than what your friends as non-tech users will get in the Linux community. There are many sincere and helpful people in the Linux community, but to get help from them your friends will have to endure men without lives who will take it on your friends with snotty comments.
Do you want to expose your friends to that or have them contacting you with questions about everything that is not 100% like windows?
Yep. My current computer is about 7 years old. I'm thinking of getting a Mac this summer just for those reasons. I'm tired of having access to cool new things only when they are not cool or new anymore. iPods, streaming netflix, ABC's streaming shows etc. Plus with with a Mac I will get support from things I have been used to not getting support for and I will get Unixy goodness.
I will miss Ubuntu though
Asking people is not enough.
Many people will say "yes" without knowing what they are getting into, thinking it will be just like windows.
You will forever be answering questions and giving help long after it has stopped being fun.
I've been using Linux at home for 10 years, Ubuntu since it came out. My current computer is pushing 8 years old. I'm thinking of getting a Mac this summer to get Unixy goodness and avoid just this kind of problem. I'm tired of being shut out of support for things or getting cool new stuff last.
Seriously,....I'm an Ubuntu zealot, but I have learned my lesson "nation building" with tech stuff. You are never really done, people call for help and questions years later.
If they don't like windows they just need to pony up a little more cash, get a Mac and get rid of the hassles.
This graph impressed me.
It shows that Microsoft hasn't been significantly successful in diversifying the sources of its profits. MS Windows/Server tools aren't going anywhere soon. However, there are a number of alternative office suites out there, some low cost, that are user friendly. If a company with marketing intelligence and financial resources got behind one of them Microsoft could be in serious trouble.
If you spend all of your time on the internet you will not be spending time on building a life, so when you get off of the computer and see that you have nothing going on you are going to feel depressed.
I hate to say it, but I don't blame him for this decision.
I would love to see more space exploration, particularly manned space exploration.
However, I read the news. The country is hanging on by a financial shoe lace. We've borrowed money and taken donations to go to wars. The banking industry via the government is running of borrowed money from China.
People have lost homes and have been out of work for over a year.
Now is not the time to be getting spendy unless the spending will help the country recover.
Blame AIG, Goldman Sachs, the rest of Wall Street, the politicians who deregulated to let it happen and the politicians who didn't fight to put the regulations back.
President Obama is just trying to put the country back together first.