"Do you really want developers all installing versions of the browser core all over the OS with their applications?"
It would make more sense to me if they simply didn't require a web browser application.
If an application really did require a web browser, however, then it can ask for a browser application to be installed in a central location where the app and other apps can make use of any libraries. Doesn't seem silly to me.
In the old days there were plenty of application that would tell me "This program requires Internet Explorer to be installed". After MS started bundling it, developers seemed to get lazier and just assumed it was installed and/or that I would want to install it.
"Windows would require massive retrofitting to make IE that replacable"
Which really says a lot about how far they have gone to maintain their dominance since the Win9X days when IE could still be exorcised by programs like 98lite.
While they might just have to hide IE for the short term, I think in the long term they should be forced to correct Windows and IE to make IE a properly uninstallable program. It is how it should have been from day one.
Sure many third party apps that made the poor decision to embed IE will break too and will need to be fixed, but that just needs to happen. It's not like this is the first time either MS removed a library or bundled app that someone else depends on.
The European Commission were the ones that actually got them to make "Windows N" without media player. And in that case I think MS could have actually left a few core "system-ish" files and still have met their requirements.
This time let's see a version of Windows that doesn't have MSHTML.DLL, SHDOCVW.DLL, or even WININET.DLL. Then perhaps developer finally will stop embedding IE or calling these files bypassing users choice of browser... Or perhaps not. Did Windows N actually ship to stores or get preloaded anywhere?
Well, I guess I will just have to stick with Windows NT 3.51 and Windows 95 if I want that sort of thing.:P (BTW, Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.1.14 works great on these!)
Except during all of this video format shifting a good number of people will go "screw it, I'm just going to sign up for overpriced cable", which may be the most simple solution for them. Sure, many people will stay with OTA and use a convert box, but it seems to me that the overall expectation of the availability of OTA programming will be lowered. And if stations eventually begin to believe there are few enough viewers or that they are unimportant, they would happily shut off their OTA signals all together to save a buck.
What exactly is alleged benefit of switching to digital anyway? This is Slashdot, so I would think somebody here would know. Is there a real technical benefit? What reason, real or not, convinced the government to force this switch?
To show my frustration with this, when February 18 comes around I plan on dumping a bunch of old TVs I have by the dumpster. I encourage anyone else who has an old TV that needs to go out to wait until that day and do the same.
"A major problem during a test run in Wilmington, N.C., was the inability of over-the-air viewers to receive new digital signals"
I thought that was the entire idea behind this digital TV shift. A government sanctioned way to kill off one of the major competitors to the almighty cable company.
BTW, I have an old "pocket television" that I have used for ages that will no longer work after analog is dropped. A digital converter box would be larger than this tiny TV! Does anybody make a modern pocket sized TV with a built in digital tuner? Perhaps I should just take a step backwards and get a pocket radio.
I've noticed people often put absolute faith in their doctors. People need to realize it's not like on TV where at the end of the hour (after being badgered by an old curmudgeon that insists you are lying about everything) they know exactly what the culprit disease is.
In the real world doctors are human. They have to make best guesses, make mistakes, and they don't know everything. (And unlike a computer they can't just pull you apart and swap out pieces until they pinpoint the problem)
This reminds me of people driving off of cliffs because their car navigation system said there was supposed to be a road there.
I think this is great Wine is finally reaching "1.0". I am hoping this version will be treated as a longer lived, stable, supported branch. This way developers might seriously target Wine as a platform or at least consider it a real "Microsoft Windows Compatible" target (Yea, it would be better if ports of apps were targeted to be Linux or Mac OS X native)
Sure it won't run all Windows apps perfectly - but then again, neither does Windows! There are lots of apps out there that have various bad code that often shouldn't even run at all but somehow gets away with working under a generic Windows XP install. Then they crash under Wine, Windows Vista, or even XP under odd configurations. And then there are the ones that do things different under different versions of Windows to get around bugs or varying behavior in Windows.
Also having a longer lived "1.0" branch would mean tips and tricks to getting individual programs to run would not become obsolete quite as quickly, and a Wine "1.0" users would not have to worry as much about apps breaking every few weeks.
At any rate, Wine has come a very long way - I remember when it was just trying to be a Windows 3.1 clone!
I have been visiting the Dilbert Zone web site almost since it was created (I remember submitting stuff to the old List Of The Day before they shut that down)
When I saw this new site the first thing that came to my mind was that the developers had lived up to the standards of Dilbert's Pointy Haired Boss.
My system can't run Flash 9 (it has Flash 7 and works great with most flash sites and Youtube) so when I visit their new shite I get nothing but this HUGE gray box with large lettering saying "You are trying to install Adobe Flash Player on an unsupported operating system for system requirements please visit...."
All this just to display a simple GIF!!! (And I happened to notice if you disable JavaScript it is still served up as a GIF)
And to top if off they had increased the annoyingness of their advertisements recently which was the last straw that made me install that wonderful Adblock extension.
I don't have to visit this site. But now I simply can't. (It's not like I am still expecting it to work in Netscape 3!)
I've always though some kind of frustration detection system would be kind of cool to have - perhaps some sensors in the keyboard to tell how hard I have hit it, or an audio recognition system that is triggered when I yell "FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!!!!!111!", and then have it automatically send an electric shock to the appropriate computer programmer and/or their manager.
* Always use cute icons, buttons, and graphics. Everyone loves big red hearts, pink bunnies, and yellow smiley faces.
* Don't be afraid to experiment with colors!
* Your application should play fun sounds while operating to keep the users entertained.
* Never, ever, under any circumstance use the OS-native graphical controls or widgets. Users get bored of the same old buttons, text boxes, and stuff.
* When possible, disable window management and use unusual, oddly placed graphics for the windowing functions such as the window close option.
* When writing your own controls or widgets, make absolutely sure they look and feel nothing like the OS-native widgets or anything else the user might expect. Otherwise you might accidentally make the user think that your application is actually designed for their OS.
* Use your own creative ideas on how a "save as" dialog should look and work. Built in ones are always too limiting.
* It is important that the user should never be able to tell the difference between a checked and unchecked check box or option box.
* Always use obscure or poorly drawn graphics for your tool bar buttons, and never put text on them.
* Avoid including a preferences or options dialog. Instead, let the user use the standard OS provided text editor or an editor of their choosing to edit text configuration files..
* Users need time to think about what they are doing and get coffee. Your application should always take at least 5 minutes to load even on the fastest available computer.
* Make sure an accidental double-click on a single-click item does something really nasty or unexpected.
* Tool tips are the perfect way to display critical information.
* To get the most screen space, force your application to always run maximized.
* Always make the default positions of floating properties windows cover something important.
* Use the most exotic fonts you can find.
* Your application's user interface should be flexible and customizable to the point where if the user accidentally sneezes on the mouse or keyboard they will have to spend the next half an hour setting things back.
* Let a 5-year old draw your graphics, including your corporate logo.
* File browsing dialogs are not needed, users can easily remember and type in long file paths.
* Design your application so it requires the user to set their tiny monitor to 10512*7430.
* Always crash at a critical step and then display a fake apology to the user.
* It is a mistake to make use of application hooks in the native desktop environment such as new file templates, file associations, or program menu icons.
* The exception to the above is placing icons in the system tray. Place as many icons as you can in the system tray and make sure that the user can not remove them.
* If your program implements keyboard shortcuts be original and make them completely different from any other applications.
* Rent extra UI space in your application out for advertising. Advertising benefits the users and y
How am I going to download an Internet browser if my Operating System has no way of browsing the Internet?
The ideal way would be for IE to be a fully add/removable program. Lets say you install a fresh copy of Windows without IE and realize you don't happen to have a Firefox CD (they sell them on the Mozilla store, buy one today!). You go to add/remove programs, add IE just long enough to download Firefox, install Firefox, then go back to add/remove programs and remove IE. Should be simple enough.
Of course most people would get their web browser pre-installed when they buy a computer. Why doesn't anyone currently bundle Firefox? Because IE is already installed and the average user gets confused when they have two programs installed that do basically the same thing. If IE could be fully uninstalled, then bundling Firefox could probably be more popular.
The real reason we haven't heard anything from them lately is because they tried to re-open the gateway to hell they used to bring about IE 4, and all the developers got sucked in.
I can tell you why nobody has heard anything from MS about IE 8 lately - THEY AREN'T DEVELOPING IT. It doesn't make them any money.
Remember, after IE 6 came out they virtually stopped development and let it become a cesspool for spyware, malware, and viruses. They only redecorated and slapped a "7" on it when Firefox started kicking them in the butt. This has happened before and is what is happening again now.
Personally I wish people would just shut up and forget about IE 8. It isn't happening any time soon. Just... get... Firefox! (Or Safari or Opera or anything else if you prefer)
I think the proper name that every knowledgeable should use for it is "Microsoft Office XML (MSOXML)".
Ask anyone who is NOT knowledgeable and what do they call it? "Microsoft Office 2007 format". And what does it work with? "Microsoft Office 2007". THAT is what it is. Even the Blow Joe's of with world know it's Microsoft propitiatory Office 2007 format and nothing more.
I see some people saying that this isn't news, but I am glad to see Firefox get some attention. Some people may have disabled auto update and forgotten to update for a while. (I personally don't like apps that automatically phone home even with good intentions).
This specific release only fixes a canvas regression from the previous one, (Whoops! And I thought I was having a bad day trying to rush out some software) but altogether previous releases fix many security issues and it is nice to see a reminder elsewhere once and a while. If nothing else it seems like a good time to download a fresh set of installation files.
Wow, I have been downloading SouthPark since the days of SOXMAS.MPG. I regularly downloaded them until our cable provider at the time finally got Comedy Central.
(SOXMAS.MPG, The Spirit of Christmas was a widely distributed copy of the original 5 minute South Park short, well technically second short)
Slashdot Mirror
"Do you really want developers all installing versions of the browser core all over the OS with their applications?"
It would make more sense to me if they simply didn't require a web browser application.
If an application really did require a web browser, however, then it can ask for a browser application to be installed in a central location where the app and other apps can make use of any libraries. Doesn't seem silly to me.
In the old days there were plenty of application that would tell me "This program requires Internet Explorer to be installed". After MS started bundling it, developers seemed to get lazier and just assumed it was installed and/or that I would want to install it.
"Windows would require massive retrofitting to make IE that replacable"
Which really says a lot about how far they have gone to maintain their dominance since the Win9X days when IE could still be exorcised by programs like 98lite.
While they might just have to hide IE for the short term, I think in the long term they should be forced to correct Windows and IE to make IE a properly uninstallable program. It is how it should have been from day one.
Sure many third party apps that made the poor decision to embed IE will break too and will need to be fixed, but that just needs to happen. It's not like this is the first time either MS removed a library or bundled app that someone else depends on.
How about a non-browser dependent package manager? Someone, please introduce Bill Gates to 2009!
Of course I still prefer buying a nice shiny CD from the Mozilla Store. (Buy one! Better yet, buy a dozen!)
The European Commission were the ones that actually got them to make "Windows N" without media player. And in that case I think MS could have actually left a few core "system-ish" files and still have met their requirements.
This time let's see a version of Windows that doesn't have MSHTML.DLL, SHDOCVW.DLL, or even WININET.DLL. Then perhaps developer finally will stop embedding IE or calling these files bypassing users choice of browser... Or perhaps not. Did Windows N actually ship to stores or get preloaded anywhere?
Well, I guess I will just have to stick with Windows NT 3.51 and Windows 95 if I want that sort of thing. :P (BTW, Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.1.14 works great on these!)
Integrated? Does that mean it can no longer be uninstalled?
What about Unicron? He would eat the death star for breakfast. And shit it out by lunch.
I like planet eaters!
So what brand of deodorant will these guys be plugging?
That's odd. When I try spending more than what I have, my city improvements start disappearing.
Are these guys using cheats?
Except during all of this video format shifting a good number of people will go "screw it, I'm just going to sign up for overpriced cable", which may be the most simple solution for them. Sure, many people will stay with OTA and use a convert box, but it seems to me that the overall expectation of the availability of OTA programming will be lowered. And if stations eventually begin to believe there are few enough viewers or that they are unimportant, they would happily shut off their OTA signals all together to save a buck.
What exactly is alleged benefit of switching to digital anyway? This is Slashdot, so I would think somebody here would know. Is there a real technical benefit? What reason, real or not, convinced the government to force this switch?
To show my frustration with this, when February 18 comes around I plan on dumping a bunch of old TVs I have by the dumpster. I encourage anyone else who has an old TV that needs to go out to wait until that day and do the same.
"A major problem during a test run in Wilmington, N.C., was the inability of over-the-air viewers to receive new digital signals"
I thought that was the entire idea behind this digital TV shift. A government sanctioned way to kill off one of the major competitors to the almighty cable company.
BTW, I have an old "pocket television" that I have used for ages that will no longer work after analog is dropped. A digital converter box would be larger than this tiny TV! Does anybody make a modern pocket sized TV with a built in digital tuner? Perhaps I should just take a step backwards and get a pocket radio.
I've noticed people often put absolute faith in their doctors. People need to realize it's not like on TV where at the end of the hour (after being badgered by an old curmudgeon that insists you are lying about everything) they know exactly what the culprit disease is.
In the real world doctors are human. They have to make best guesses, make mistakes, and they don't know everything. (And unlike a computer they can't just pull you apart and swap out pieces until they pinpoint the problem)
This reminds me of people driving off of cliffs because their car navigation system said there was supposed to be a road there.
I think this is great Wine is finally reaching "1.0". I am hoping this version will be treated as a longer lived, stable, supported branch. This way developers might seriously target Wine as a platform or at least consider it a real "Microsoft Windows Compatible" target (Yea, it would be better if ports of apps were targeted to be Linux or Mac OS X native)
Sure it won't run all Windows apps perfectly - but then again, neither does Windows! There are lots of apps out there that have various bad code that often shouldn't even run at all but somehow gets away with working under a generic Windows XP install. Then they crash under Wine, Windows Vista, or even XP under odd configurations. And then there are the ones that do things different under different versions of Windows to get around bugs or varying behavior in Windows.
Also having a longer lived "1.0" branch would mean tips and tricks to getting individual programs to run would not become obsolete quite as quickly, and a Wine "1.0" users would not have to worry as much about apps breaking every few weeks.
At any rate, Wine has come a very long way - I remember when it was just trying to be a Windows 3.1 clone!
I have been visiting the Dilbert Zone web site almost since it was created (I remember submitting stuff to the old List Of The Day before they shut that down)
When I saw this new site the first thing that came to my mind was that the developers had lived up to the standards of Dilbert's Pointy Haired Boss.
My system can't run Flash 9 (it has Flash 7 and works great with most flash sites and Youtube) so when I visit their new shite I get nothing but this HUGE gray box with large lettering saying "You are trying to install Adobe Flash Player on an unsupported operating system for system requirements please visit...."
All this just to display a simple GIF!!! (And I happened to notice if you disable JavaScript it is still served up as a GIF)
And to top if off they had increased the annoyingness of their advertisements recently which was the last straw that made me install that wonderful Adblock extension.
I don't have to visit this site. But now I simply can't. (It's not like I am still expecting it to work in Netscape 3!)
I've always though some kind of frustration detection system would be kind of cool to have - perhaps some sensors in the keyboard to tell how hard I have hit it, or an audio recognition system that is triggered when I yell "FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!!!!!111!", and then have it automatically send an electric shock to the appropriate computer programmer and/or their manager.
If you want to whiz off your users...
.
From http://toastytech.com/guis/uirant.html
General application user interface guidelines:
* Always use cute icons, buttons, and graphics. Everyone loves big red hearts, pink bunnies, and yellow smiley faces.
* Don't be afraid to experiment with colors!
* Your application should play fun sounds while operating to keep the users entertained.
* Never, ever, under any circumstance use the OS-native graphical controls or widgets. Users get bored of the same old buttons, text boxes, and stuff.
* When possible, disable window management and use unusual, oddly placed graphics for the windowing functions such as the window close option.
* When writing your own controls or widgets, make absolutely sure they look and feel nothing like the OS-native widgets or anything else the user might expect. Otherwise you might accidentally make the user think that your application is actually designed for their OS.
* Use your own creative ideas on how a "save as" dialog should look and work. Built in ones are always too limiting.
* It is important that the user should never be able to tell the difference between a checked and unchecked check box or option box.
* Always use obscure or poorly drawn graphics for your tool bar buttons, and never put text on them.
* Avoid including a preferences or options dialog. Instead, let the user use the standard OS provided text editor or an editor of their choosing to edit text configuration files.
* Users need time to think about what they are doing and get coffee. Your application should always take at least 5 minutes to load even on the fastest available computer.
* Make sure an accidental double-click on a single-click item does something really nasty or unexpected.
* Tool tips are the perfect way to display critical information.
* To get the most screen space, force your application to always run maximized.
* Always make the default positions of floating properties windows cover something important.
* Use the most exotic fonts you can find.
* Your application's user interface should be flexible and customizable to the point where if the user accidentally sneezes on the mouse or keyboard they will have to spend the next half an hour setting things back.
* Let a 5-year old draw your graphics, including your corporate logo.
* File browsing dialogs are not needed, users can easily remember and type in long file paths.
* Design your application so it requires the user to set their tiny monitor to 10512*7430.
* Always crash at a critical step and then display a fake apology to the user.
* It is a mistake to make use of application hooks in the native desktop environment such as new file templates, file associations, or program menu icons.
* The exception to the above is placing icons in the system tray. Place as many icons as you can in the system tray and make sure that the user can not remove them.
* If your program implements keyboard shortcuts be original and make them completely different from any other applications.
* Rent extra UI space in your application out for advertising. Advertising benefits the users and y
How am I going to download an Internet browser if my Operating System has no way of browsing the Internet?
The ideal way would be for IE to be a fully add/removable program. Lets say you install a fresh copy of Windows without IE and realize you don't happen to have a Firefox CD (they sell them on the Mozilla store, buy one today!). You go to add/remove programs, add IE just long enough to download Firefox, install Firefox, then go back to add/remove programs and remove IE. Should be simple enough.
Of course most people would get their web browser pre-installed when they buy a computer. Why doesn't anyone currently bundle Firefox? Because IE is already installed and the average user gets confused when they have two programs installed that do basically the same thing. If IE could be fully uninstalled, then bundling Firefox could probably be more popular.
The real reason we haven't heard anything from them lately is because they tried to re-open the gateway to hell they used to bring about IE 4, and all the developers got sucked in.
I can tell you why nobody has heard anything from MS about IE 8 lately - THEY AREN'T DEVELOPING IT. It doesn't make them any money.
Remember, after IE 6 came out they virtually stopped development and let it become a cesspool for spyware, malware, and viruses. They only redecorated and slapped a "7" on it when Firefox started kicking them in the butt. This has happened before and is what is happening again now.
Personally I wish people would just shut up and forget about IE 8. It isn't happening any time soon. Just... get... Firefox! (Or Safari or Opera or anything else if you prefer)
Ask anyone who is NOT knowledgeable and what do they call it? "Microsoft Office 2007 format". And what does it work with? "Microsoft Office 2007". THAT is what it is. Even the Blow Joe's of with world know it's Microsoft propitiatory Office 2007 format and nothing more.
Seriously, there is a way to fix this mess. Get everybody to use Firefox (Ok, Opera and Safari are good too).
There is some holiday involving gift giving coming up. Perhaps somebody would like a nice shiny fiery CD from the Mozilla store?
I see some people saying that this isn't news, but I am glad to see Firefox get some attention. Some people may have disabled auto update and forgotten to update for a while. (I personally don't like apps that automatically phone home even with good intentions).
This specific release only fixes a canvas regression from the previous one, (Whoops! And I thought I was having a bad day trying to rush out some software) but altogether previous releases fix many security issues and it is nice to see a reminder elsewhere once and a while. If nothing else it seems like a good time to download a fresh set of installation files.
Wow, I have been downloading SouthPark since the days of SOXMAS.MPG. I regularly downloaded them until our cable provider at the time finally got Comedy Central.
(SOXMAS.MPG, The Spirit of Christmas was a widely distributed copy of the original 5 minute South Park short, well technically second short)
Janie Crane: "Edison... an off switch!"
Metrocop: "She'll get years for that. Off switches are illegal!"
In a way I'm surprised this hasn't become a reality yet.
Let me guess, it electrocutes you every time you try and look at pr0n?
"Daaaaahhling!!! No baka!" ZAAAAAAAPPP!