Agreed. The author makes the assumption that aliens would only want to meet us for utilitarian reasons and since they would have no use for us puny, unsophisticated humans, they'd just thumb their nose at our solar system and continue their journey without stopping to say hello. Maybe instead they would want to meet us to actually befriend us, in a "United Federation of Planets" sort of way. Isn't this the main source of our own curiousity? Just to see "who's out there"?
Agreed on just all points except this one: "Home users and younger generation have stopped buying PCs/Laptops..." This is simply not true. I know plenty of people in those same demographics who still buy and use full-sized PCs and laptops. They still want a real keyboard and mouse. PCs and laptops are lasting longer though. Consumers and (especially) businesses just don't see the need to go buy a new one every 3 years. One also needs to consider the fact that just 10-15 years ago, PCs were nowhere near as ubiquitous as they are today. Back then, many people were buying their very first PC. Sales have dropped off since then in part due to the fact that just about everyone already has one.
All it would take is a service pack. Let users decide if they want Metro or not. Let users decide if they want the start menu taking over their entire screen. I can't see how this would be complicated. The biggest hurdle is getting a marketing department to admit they made a mistake. The only time I can remember that ever happening was with New Coke. Coca-Cola sucked it up, gave the consumers what they wanted, and saved their brand. The ball is in Microsoft's court.
Pardon my retail ignorance, but the manufacturers can't just put Windows 7 on the machines? Personally, I build my own computers so I put whatever OS on them I want and sometimes that's Xubuntu.
what a particular company or organization does. "Kickstarter" isn't exactly a household name.
First line of article re-write: "Kickstarter, an online pledge system for funding creative projects, has really taken off in the past year, raising big money for a wide variety of projects."
If you are attempting to smuggle in drugs and they catch you at the border, you still get arrested and charged with a crime. It's nice to see the court side in favor of liberty for a change.
If you really want to hear them howl, let's go back to Clinton-level spending. Adjust it for inflation if you like and they'll still cry bloody murder about how children will starve and seniors will die on the streets.
The day it becomes apparent to most users that google is manipulating results is the day a new search engine will take over. Let's not forget how google got so popular to begin with: they had the most relevant search results around. Water this down and they lose value. They're not invincible and their future is by no means guaranteed. Ain't that right AOL?
Exactly the same here. I happily used Windows 95 until 2004 and then XP until 2010 when I got 7. I've also gotten quite accustomed to Xubuntu so I'll be using it exclusively after Win 7 if MS keeps this up.
I have a feeling that MS has run into a similar problem as the CPU manufacturers. Moore's Law has pretty much run its course so all they can do is add more cores. However at some point, more cores make no difference for most users. Over the years, MS has perfected the Windows desktop to the point where there really doesn't seem to be much room for improvement over what we have in XP and 7 (with the major eye candy improvement in 7 being Aero Glass and Aero-Flip). They can't make the wheel better, so they throw out the wheel and try to get us to use an oval. The problem is, we were quite happy with the wheel and we want it back because it works better.
Not true. There is a common fallacy on/. that everyday computer users are computer illiterate and unable to do much more than post on Facebook and this is just not the case. Regular, non-technical users customize stuff all the time.
I predict the iPad (and all tablets for that matter) are little more than a fad. I know people who bought them(iPad as well as Samsung Galaxy). They were a fun toy for a couple of weeks and now they collect dust (except for when the kids play an occasional game). These same people who bought them are back to using their laptops and full-sized PCs. The rumors of their demise have been greatly exaggerated.
I also really couldn't care less. Thanks to the news media, people are way too paranoid about their personal information. If you don't go around giving out your SSN or bank account numbers, what difference does it make? I suppose if you're posting semi-nude pictures of yourself acting like a fool then you may want to reconsider what kinds of things you put on FB.
I keep reading about companies spending all kinds of money on research, data mining, customer surveys, etc. yet in the end, they come up with some of most asinine ideas that are guaranteed to drive customers away.
Most of them don't hire entry-level either. I've been trying to find just such a job for the past 3 years. I'm in a similar boat as the OP. 40 years old, half-way through a BS degree in Information Systems and I the "entry level" jobs are practically non-existent. All the ads I see demand at least 1-2 years experience. Nevermind the 15+ years I've spend doing inside sales and sales support.
Yes, because proper summary with definitions, used everywhere else in journalism, is not used on/. If you don't already know what it means, you're either an uninformed moron who has no business even reading/. or you're too lazy to google it. Prepare to be flogged and voted down.
I know, I can Google it. My point is, unless a company's name is as well-known as Wal-Mart or Coca Cola, the author should always tell the reader what the company does.
I did some Googling. Is SCO a patent troll? A legitimate software company? Southern College of Optometry? Further research shows the first two guesses are probably correct. Readers shouldn't have to look up or guess these kinds of things.
It's $50 a month for unlimited talk/text and you're still stuck paying for data (included in the price) even if you never use it. I've been wondering the same thing as the author and I still haven't found it. Not everyone needs mobile data.
And even if it didn't smudge up my screen, I still don't want to touch my screen. The ergonomics are just not there. Touch is good for very small screens, like on my Android phone. Not large ones. I bought a 23" monitor for my main PC and the last thing I want to do is have to touch any part of it to operate the machine. I'm typing this on a Thinkpad with a 14" screen and even that is too big for touch.
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Agreed. The author makes the assumption that aliens would only want to meet us for utilitarian reasons and since they would have no use for us puny, unsophisticated humans, they'd just thumb their nose at our solar system and continue their journey without stopping to say hello. Maybe instead they would want to meet us to actually befriend us, in a "United Federation of Planets" sort of way. Isn't this the main source of our own curiousity? Just to see "who's out there"?
...will no longer sell any business machines. Interesting.
Agreed on just all points except this one: "Home users and younger generation have stopped buying PCs/Laptops..." This is simply not true. I know plenty of people in those same demographics who still buy and use full-sized PCs and laptops. They still want a real keyboard and mouse. PCs and laptops are lasting longer though. Consumers and (especially) businesses just don't see the need to go buy a new one every 3 years. One also needs to consider the fact that just 10-15 years ago, PCs were nowhere near as ubiquitous as they are today. Back then, many people were buying their very first PC. Sales have dropped off since then in part due to the fact that just about everyone already has one.
All it would take is a service pack. Let users decide if they want Metro or not. Let users decide if they want the start menu taking over their entire screen. I can't see how this would be complicated. The biggest hurdle is getting a marketing department to admit they made a mistake. The only time I can remember that ever happening was with New Coke. Coca-Cola sucked it up, gave the consumers what they wanted, and saved their brand. The ball is in Microsoft's court.
Pardon my retail ignorance, but the manufacturers can't just put Windows 7 on the machines? Personally, I build my own computers so I put whatever OS on them I want and sometimes that's Xubuntu.
This.
That is all.
what a particular company or organization does. "Kickstarter" isn't exactly a household name.
First line of article re-write: "Kickstarter, an online pledge system for funding creative projects, has really taken off in the past year, raising big money for a wide variety of projects."
...the $600 price tags on phones. As a T-Mobile customer, I hope this isn't a sign of them about to go out of business.
If you are attempting to smuggle in drugs and they catch you at the border, you still get arrested and charged with a crime. It's nice to see the court side in favor of liberty for a change.
Take it all there and sell it.
"...trotting out politicians (Bill Clinton, Mike Bloomberg, Marco Rubio, Al Gore) and celebrities (Chris Bosh, will.i.am, Ashton Kutcher)..."
Why not trot out someone famous who knows something about the subject, like Bill Gates or Steve Wozniak?
If you really want to hear them howl, let's go back to Clinton-level spending. Adjust it for inflation if you like and they'll still cry bloody murder about how children will starve and seniors will die on the streets.
The day it becomes apparent to most users that google is manipulating results is the day a new search engine will take over. Let's not forget how google got so popular to begin with: they had the most relevant search results around. Water this down and they lose value. They're not invincible and their future is by no means guaranteed. Ain't that right AOL?
Exactly the same here. I happily used Windows 95 until 2004 and then XP until 2010 when I got 7. I've also gotten quite accustomed to Xubuntu so I'll be using it exclusively after Win 7 if MS keeps this up.
I have a feeling that MS has run into a similar problem as the CPU manufacturers. Moore's Law has pretty much run its course so all they can do is add more cores. However at some point, more cores make no difference for most users. Over the years, MS has perfected the Windows desktop to the point where there really doesn't seem to be much room for improvement over what we have in XP and 7 (with the major eye candy improvement in 7 being Aero Glass and Aero-Flip). They can't make the wheel better, so they throw out the wheel and try to get us to use an oval. The problem is, we were quite happy with the wheel and we want it back because it works better.
Not true. There is a common fallacy on /. that everyday computer users are computer illiterate and unable to do much more than post on Facebook and this is just not the case. Regular, non-technical users customize stuff all the time.
I predict the iPad (and all tablets for that matter) are little more than a fad. I know people who bought them(iPad as well as Samsung Galaxy). They were a fun toy for a couple of weeks and now they collect dust (except for when the kids play an occasional game). These same people who bought them are back to using their laptops and full-sized PCs. The rumors of their demise have been greatly exaggerated.
They've been in the political dickwaving contest for a long time now. Guess who's side they're on?
I also really couldn't care less. Thanks to the news media, people are way too paranoid about their personal information. If you don't go around giving out your SSN or bank account numbers, what difference does it make? I suppose if you're posting semi-nude pictures of yourself acting like a fool then you may want to reconsider what kinds of things you put on FB.
I keep reading about companies spending all kinds of money on research, data mining, customer surveys, etc. yet in the end, they come up with some of most asinine ideas that are guaranteed to drive customers away.
Most of them don't hire entry-level either. I've been trying to find just such a job for the past 3 years. I'm in a similar boat as the OP. 40 years old, half-way through a BS degree in Information Systems and I the "entry level" jobs are practically non-existent. All the ads I see demand at least 1-2 years experience. Nevermind the 15+ years I've spend doing inside sales and sales support.
Yes, because proper summary with definitions, used everywhere else in journalism, is not used on /. If you don't already know what it means, you're either an uninformed moron who has no business even reading /. or you're too lazy to google it. Prepare to be flogged and voted down.
I know, I can Google it. My point is, unless a company's name is as well-known as Wal-Mart or Coca Cola, the author should always tell the reader what the company does.
I did some Googling. Is SCO a patent troll? A legitimate software company? Southern College of Optometry? Further research shows the first two guesses are probably correct. Readers shouldn't have to look up or guess these kinds of things.
It's $50 a month for unlimited talk/text and you're still stuck paying for data (included in the price) even if you never use it. I've been wondering the same thing as the author and I still haven't found it. Not everyone needs mobile data.
THIS.
And even if it didn't smudge up my screen, I still don't want to touch my screen. The ergonomics are just not there. Touch is good for very small screens, like on my Android phone. Not large ones. I bought a 23" monitor for my main PC and the last thing I want to do is have to touch any part of it to operate the machine. I'm typing this on a Thinkpad with a 14" screen and even that is too big for touch.
And Asus, makers of the only router I could find at Fry's that takes aftermarket antennas and flashes Tomaato.