Want to solve the parking problem? It is very very easy, wrong parking should cost thousands, not a few measly 40Pounds.
Here in Zurich City if you illegally park it will cost you about 250 Pounds or 500 USD. Result is that very few people park illegally in Zurich. Add on top the costs of towing, and administration and things become very expensive. I often find it amazing that anti-social behaviour can be easily curbed by introducing some targeted expensive fines.
Novell cut a deal with Microsoft and I think Novell and Microsoft are working together to secure the next market of Open Source. Will it work? Probably. If I was an IT exec and you had either Redhat or Novell selling me Open Source I would probably take Novell because there is less risk. Interesting tactic...
> As the sixth person to sign up on that list, I'm not scared in the least if that was Microsoft's reaction. What would happen if Microsoft tried to sue us and won? Court precedent would be set giving them leverage to sue Google, Apple, HP, Sun, IBM, all the big dogs that are using open source software. The moment Microsoft tries to sue one or all of us, the above companies would step in for a few reasons:
Wow you have trust... While I don't agree with the tactics of Microsoft I sure as heck don't want to be a marter. The reality is that this "Sue me first" is downright reckless. Do you and the folks on the list really have the bucks, time and effort to stop Microsoft?
Let's look at this from a legal perspective.
1) Google, Apple, HP, Sun, IBM don't care about the people using Open Source. They are corporations that have shareholders, employees and businesses to run. If it make corporate sense for them to defend open source they will. If not then they will not. Do you really understand how precedence works? A judge could write in the individual lawsuits that the court decision they made should not be used as precedence. Then you are SOL.
2) Why would Google, Apple, HP, Sun, and IBM want to look like a hero? Again these are corporations that will do things that make corporate sense. This is not some sort of good guy, bad guy fairy tale where the shiny white knight comes in to save the princess.
3) Really Microsoft does not have a case? Have you looked at the legal documents? Have you consulted a lawyer? Unless you have done that you know nothing of the case. And if you have I take my questions back.
And the last comment that I want to make is that the general public DOES NOT CARE about Open Source. To the general public they can take or leave Microsoft. They look at their pocket books and if it makes sense for them to buy Windows they will and in most cases they do anyways.
What concerns me in this Microsoft patent thing is that I wonder what their real aim is. Microsoft is clever, as has been shown time and time again. What do they have to gain by talking about these patents? Is it really a bluff? Are they trying to show some rabidness of the community? I am not saying that Microsoft has a case, but I have known Microsoft too long to know what you see is not always what you get.
It is for the SEC, and it is to verify that you don't have a criminal record. I have a few family members who work in the banking and investment industries.
No I am not saying because some dude was wrong somewhere sometime nothing is true. What I am saying is because some dude was right somewhere you can't assume that everything is right. Global warming is such an issue. People are pushing extremely hard the "fact" that CO2 is the problem and thus everything must be changed. I counter and say CO2 is not the problem, and say we have more urgent problems; pollution of the sea, producing food that is not full of toxins, urban sprawl, fair trade so that everyone prospers. Yet these topics are not as sexy!
People are ignoring the hard facts. I outlined in a blog entry (http://www.devspace.com/~christianhgross/?p=296) that even with a 30% cut in CO2 due to the projected growth of the human population CO2 production will increase by 33%. Yet do the leaders of the countries talk about this problem? No people say, "every little thing will help." Well, no every little thing will not help, and in fact will make things worse because we are ignoring the issues that could make a difference in the well being of this planet.
How do you know about what is happening now is almost as bad as a comet? Were you around at that time? Yes we have fossils, but fossils don't tell the complete story and I wish people would understand this. What fossils tell is a probability of something that maybe happened based on interpretation. Its like the Bible. Did it happen, probably, but did it happen how people recounted it? Probably not.
The problem I have with many of these theories is that they attempt to extrapolate to situations that we experience everyday, which is a major mistake. Here is my reason why the dinosaurs died. The reason why the dinosaurs died is because the aliens that kept feeding them left the planet. Don't believe me, right? But am I wrong? You ask where is the proof that there were aliens?
Proof is interesting because until recently we thought Columbus was the first European to reach North America, now we know it was the Vikings, and if you read Farley Mowat he even says it was earlier and not the vikings. There is even a theory that the first Europeans came to North American during the Ice Age and they think this due to the genetic imprints of the Native North Americans.
My point is that we don't even know the exact truth 5000 years ago. History has this odd behavior to become lost and found again. Constructive mostly unbiased history started about 40 years ago. Everything before that was selective information. And now you are telling me, something that happened 65 million years ago is similar to today? Yeah right, maybe it did, maybe it didn't and unless you can say "I was there" everything any scientist says is a formal form of handwaving.
I don't critique the Church of Scientology because they are over the top. I use the almighty buck (which I feel too few consumers do these days.) I refuse to watch, buy, or do anything with folks that go over the top with Scientology. For example Tom Cruise. Ever since his over the top outbursts I decided to stop buying, watching or doing anything with his movies.
Of course me as a single consumer will probably not make much of dent, but I wish more consumers would do the same. Though I am thinking more in general about this and not specifically Scientology. People complain, etc, yet few do anything like stop buying products. If people realized that the buck has more power and sway than a single vote maybe there would be some real change.
I agree here 100%. I read the article and where it said, "And Linux's installation process is much better than that of Solaris, in part because of better hardware support, he said." my jaw dropped. Yes Linux and apt-get is kick ass. No discussion. But when Sun admits that Linux has better hardware support I know Sun is buggered. I used Linux on my laptop and VMWare my Windows, but I also know that driver support still smarts on Linux.
When I think about Intel, AMD with their multi-core CPU's, and Linux/Windows with its operating systems Sun/Solaris really does not stand a chance anymore. Sun is history like that company... SGI? Remember them...
Why is this marked as funny. Believe it or not there is a booming job market for lumber jacks and I myself have thought of it once or twice. Think about it, you are out in the open all the time, breathing in mother nature pure and doing physical labor. And for the hard work you have machines. It does not sound that bad.
Ok, so you expect me to buy a piece of dedicated hardware that only Google can control? Just for the moment, switch Microsoft for Google and what would be your reaction? Monopoly, predatory?
Yes social systems have their failings. BUT and this is a big but there also has to be incentive. What is the incentive to invent? Anybody who invents and tries to patent will get their butts sued by lawyers. It seems to me that the purpose of the invention was to benefit the small guy who could not afford lawyers. Yet now the system has been turned on its head and benefits the developer with the most lawyers. This is simply not right!
Ok, maybe I should not have thrown in the comment from EBay. I was trying to point out that here we have a guy who is probably a rocket scientist building the next great invention from parts on EBay. It is great how innovative he was, but at the same time it is sad how he had to go to these means to show how great American inventors can be.
It seems to me that the American inventors are not appreciated, whereas Paris Hilton her jail term is appreciated. Sad...
Dude this is garbage equating what happened at Virgina Tech and the US and how Europe is better. Sorry, but how do you explain the mass car fires, looting and violence last year in France?
First Sarkozy is not going to get anywhere. The vote was 53% 47%, which is a split opinion. Second Royale has already dropped the first boot on demonstrations if Sarkozy tries anything.
Second Sarkozy thinks the way to get order with the youth is to define moral and authority! Oh yeah, that is going to get far! He thinks kids should wear standard uniforms, and whenever a teacher enters class the students should stand up.
Third Sarkozy is talking rhetoric when he says he wants free trade with other free trade blocks! BS France has been problem number 1 when it comes to agricultural subsidies and EU handouts. What Sarkozy really wants is to rig the market so that the French don't have to change, and everybody who wants to deal with France does.
I don't find Sarkozy a kinder gentler super power. What I see in Sarkozy is a person who will smile and laugh with you, but the moment your back is turned will spit at you. I am not saying that Royale would be better, as I dislike her economic policies even more. I probably could have lived with Bayrou, but the reality is that France is imploding and I am darn glad I don't live there anymore.
Is it really bullying or abuse? Ok, the physical act may be, but I am asking in a bigger context. I am guessing they were the way they were because it was what made them great. I am guessing they were thinking, "heck this is how we became a 10,000 employee company and thus it must be good." And to a degree it is.
Sort of like Google who for some odd reason has this itch to test everybody's ability to fine tune a bubble sort. While I can agree some Google folks needs to know this, most probably don't. Yet I see the same Microsoft attitude, "heck this is how we became a 10,000 employee company and thus it must be good."
What Microsoft and Google often don't get is that they need to adapt, and change. For example, I would love to see Google get smart with their Google apps. For example, why do the Google apps HAVE TO be hosted on Google? Would it not be smarter to have a sort of online, offline application? Heck they tested all of their employees on the merits of the bubble sort I am sure that this online offline application would be a snap.
I am happy for the guy that won, and am happy that the guy had a never say die attitude. BUT, and here is the big but you have to ask yourself what the heck happened here.
I think this guy might quite literally be a rocket scientist who ended up selling computers, then a community services manager, and then became unemployed. If America wants to be the forefront of technology, America needs to ask why does a guy have to buy something at EBay to build the next generation of technology?
Maybe America needs a few more role model "Homers".... instead of some Paris Hilton's who happens to be going to jail for 45 days or ended up shaving their head out of whim!
You ever looked at this.... http://www.dyndns.com/ and their mail forwarding? I love it, and my email server can up and down whenever it wants without having my services interrupted.
Please explain Iceland and Scandinavia? Same conditions, same food (other than the raw seal meat.) Yet those folks are fairly light skinned, and blond?
Ok let's say you are right fish intake. So what happened to the folks from Iceland and Scandinavia? These folks eat fish to the wahzoo and some of it is downright disgusting. Why do they not have dark skin? They have blond hair and burn to crisp?
Considering that my sister lives in Ecuador not all of the country side is jungle. And in many many cases they live beside water which would give them plenty of sunlight.
I don't buy that. Look at the folks from Iceland, and from the Scandinavian countries. They eat the same fatty fish yet they are blond, blue eyes, and very very light skin. The only real difference in diets is that they don't eat raw seal meat.
The Inuit skin is darker because they have historically lived in the snow reflecting light... Huh? Sorry dude, but do you know where the Inuit actually live? They live above the arctic circle meaning that when there is snow for the most part (6 months) it is dark, and thus their Vitamin D reserves would have been used before the sun could replenish it. Then when there is sun the snow melts and there is very little reflection giving them a "sun tan."
And Inuit have been living in the North for many thousands upon thousands of years (50,000 I think). Actually I am always amazed at how dark their skin is comparing to where they live. It's not like you are going to see a bunch of Inuit suntanning on the tundra...
The Amazon is about as close to the equator that you can get and their skin is relatively light colored when compared to say the skin color of an individual from Africa. And last I heard Amazon natives have been there for many many many thousands of years.
So the nutshell is equator = darkness of your skin color is HOGWASH! Want me to prove it even further? How about the aboriginals of Australia when compared to an individual from Malaysia? Aboriginals are much much darker and further away from the equator than individuals from Malaysia....
>> System administrators and database administrators can archive and retrieve large amounts of data on 1 convenient disk. Blu-ray is the next generation of storage technology and it's available today, only from Fastmac.
Really? Last I looked I can now get a terrabyte of hard disk space under 300 USD. If I want a terrabyte of RAID it will probably cost me 400 USD, maybe 500 USD. A terrabyte of blueray is 20 DVD's burning at 8x. Oh yeah I am going to pay 800 USD and 20x CD's + more time to do the same backup... Yeah that sounds like a plan!
CD's, DVD's are history for backing up purposes. Even the original intention of CD's for music is starting to become irrelevant. Times have changed.
Of course you can stash four or five... Let's see one DVD is 45 Gigs? I have two 2.5 Hard disks which is about the size of four or five CD's, and that stores at least 320 Gigs. With five BluRay I have 225 Gigs... Considering that 2.5 drives will cost you less than 200 USD I think hard disks are the better buy....
Regarding failure... Not true. I know for the past five years all I do is buy two drives per year, and copy the old information to the new drives. Beats any other backup system on price, performance, portability.
This argument seems to rear its head every now and then, and IT IS FRIGGEN NUTS!
You say, "oh we are not releasing to Linux, because there is too much choice." BS! If there were 2 million customers for your product implying fifteen different systems I bet you that you would do it. The problem is not choice, but the fact that you don't have a market. Saying that Windows is a mono-culture is also BS because there are so many permutations and variations of operating systems, patches, etc that supporting Windows 100% is a royal pain in the butt. I know because everyday I am confronted with Windows, Linux, and OSX.
I think people should wise up that this is not an operating system problem, but in fact a programming problem. For example you mention wxwidgets, and the likes. Well I have a piece of Java GUI that runs the same on three platforms, and you cannot argue the performance card because my Java program is a realtime stock application from Interactive Brokers.
So people lets stop whining and stop blaming "choice". After all last I remember we all choose our clothes, cars, food and everything. Yet when it comes to computers choice happens to be a bad thing!
Slashdot Mirror
Want to solve the parking problem? It is very very easy, wrong parking should cost thousands, not a few measly 40Pounds.
Here in Zurich City if you illegally park it will cost you about 250 Pounds or 500 USD. Result is that very few people park illegally in Zurich. Add on top the costs of towing, and administration and things become very expensive. I often find it amazing that anti-social behaviour can be easily curbed by introducing some targeted expensive fines.
I think I might see where this game is heading:
m mand=viewArticleBasic&articleId=293181&taxonomyId= 14&intsrc=kc_top
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?co
Novell cut a deal with Microsoft and I think Novell and Microsoft are working together to secure the next market of Open Source. Will it work? Probably. If I was an IT exec and you had either Redhat or Novell selling me Open Source I would probably take Novell because there is less risk. Interesting tactic...
> As the sixth person to sign up on that list, I'm not scared in the least if that was Microsoft's reaction. What would happen if Microsoft tried to sue us and won? Court precedent would be set giving them leverage to sue Google, Apple, HP, Sun, IBM, all the big dogs that are using open source software. The moment Microsoft tries to sue one or all of us, the above companies would step in for a few reasons:
Wow you have trust... While I don't agree with the tactics of Microsoft I sure as heck don't want to be a marter. The reality is that this "Sue me first" is downright reckless. Do you and the folks on the list really have the bucks, time and effort to stop Microsoft?
Let's look at this from a legal perspective.
1) Google, Apple, HP, Sun, IBM don't care about the people using Open Source. They are corporations that have shareholders, employees and businesses to run. If it make corporate sense for them to defend open source they will. If not then they will not. Do you really understand how precedence works? A judge could write in the individual lawsuits that the court decision they made should not be used as precedence. Then you are SOL.
2) Why would Google, Apple, HP, Sun, and IBM want to look like a hero? Again these are corporations that will do things that make corporate sense. This is not some sort of good guy, bad guy fairy tale where the shiny white knight comes in to save the princess.
3) Really Microsoft does not have a case? Have you looked at the legal documents? Have you consulted a lawyer? Unless you have done that you know nothing of the case. And if you have I take my questions back.
And the last comment that I want to make is that the general public DOES NOT CARE about Open Source. To the general public they can take or leave Microsoft. They look at their pocket books and if it makes sense for them to buy Windows they will and in most cases they do anyways.
What concerns me in this Microsoft patent thing is that I wonder what their real aim is. Microsoft is clever, as has been shown time and time again. What do they have to gain by talking about these patents? Is it really a bluff? Are they trying to show some rabidness of the community? I am not saying that Microsoft has a case, but I have known Microsoft too long to know what you see is not always what you get.
It is for the SEC, and it is to verify that you don't have a criminal record. I have a few family members who work in the banking and investment industries.
No I am not saying because some dude was wrong somewhere sometime nothing is true. What I am saying is because some dude was right somewhere you can't assume that everything is right. Global warming is such an issue. People are pushing extremely hard the "fact" that CO2 is the problem and thus everything must be changed. I counter and say CO2 is not the problem, and say we have more urgent problems; pollution of the sea, producing food that is not full of toxins, urban sprawl, fair trade so that everyone prospers. Yet these topics are not as sexy!
People are ignoring the hard facts. I outlined in a blog entry (http://www.devspace.com/~christianhgross/?p=296) that even with a 30% cut in CO2 due to the projected growth of the human population CO2 production will increase by 33%. Yet do the leaders of the countries talk about this problem? No people say, "every little thing will help." Well, no every little thing will not help, and in fact will make things worse because we are ignoring the issues that could make a difference in the well being of this planet.
How do you know about what is happening now is almost as bad as a comet? Were you around at that time? Yes we have fossils, but fossils don't tell the complete story and I wish people would understand this. What fossils tell is a probability of something that maybe happened based on interpretation. Its like the Bible. Did it happen, probably, but did it happen how people recounted it? Probably not.
The problem I have with many of these theories is that they attempt to extrapolate to situations that we experience everyday, which is a major mistake. Here is my reason why the dinosaurs died. The reason why the dinosaurs died is because the aliens that kept feeding them left the planet. Don't believe me, right? But am I wrong? You ask where is the proof that there were aliens?
Proof is interesting because until recently we thought Columbus was the first European to reach North America, now we know it was the Vikings, and if you read Farley Mowat he even says it was earlier and not the vikings. There is even a theory that the first Europeans came to North American during the Ice Age and they think this due to the genetic imprints of the Native North Americans.
My point is that we don't even know the exact truth 5000 years ago. History has this odd behavior to become lost and found again. Constructive mostly unbiased history started about 40 years ago. Everything before that was selective information. And now you are telling me, something that happened 65 million years ago is similar to today? Yeah right, maybe it did, maybe it didn't and unless you can say "I was there" everything any scientist says is a formal form of handwaving.
I don't critique the Church of Scientology because they are over the top. I use the almighty buck (which I feel too few consumers do these days.) I refuse to watch, buy, or do anything with folks that go over the top with Scientology. For example Tom Cruise. Ever since his over the top outbursts I decided to stop buying, watching or doing anything with his movies.
Of course me as a single consumer will probably not make much of dent, but I wish more consumers would do the same. Though I am thinking more in general about this and not specifically Scientology. People complain, etc, yet few do anything like stop buying products. If people realized that the buck has more power and sway than a single vote maybe there would be some real change.
I agree here 100%. I read the article and where it said, "And Linux's installation process is much better than that of Solaris, in part because of better hardware support, he said." my jaw dropped. Yes Linux and apt-get is kick ass. No discussion. But when Sun admits that Linux has better hardware support I know Sun is buggered. I used Linux on my laptop and VMWare my Windows, but I also know that driver support still smarts on Linux.
When I think about Intel, AMD with their multi-core CPU's, and Linux/Windows with its operating systems Sun/Solaris really does not stand a chance anymore. Sun is history like that company... SGI? Remember them...
Why is this marked as funny. Believe it or not there is a booming job market for lumber jacks and I myself have thought of it once or twice. Think about it, you are out in the open all the time, breathing in mother nature pure and doing physical labor. And for the hard work you have machines. It does not sound that bad.
Ok, so you expect me to buy a piece of dedicated hardware that only Google can control? Just for the moment, switch Microsoft for Google and what would be your reaction? Monopoly, predatory?
Yes social systems have their failings. BUT and this is a big but there also has to be incentive. What is the incentive to invent? Anybody who invents and tries to patent will get their butts sued by lawyers. It seems to me that the purpose of the invention was to benefit the small guy who could not afford lawyers. Yet now the system has been turned on its head and benefits the developer with the most lawyers. This is simply not right!
Ok, maybe I should not have thrown in the comment from EBay. I was trying to point out that here we have a guy who is probably a rocket scientist building the next great invention from parts on EBay. It is great how innovative he was, but at the same time it is sad how he had to go to these means to show how great American inventors can be.
It seems to me that the American inventors are not appreciated, whereas Paris Hilton her jail term is appreciated. Sad...
Dude this is garbage equating what happened at Virgina Tech and the US and how Europe is better. Sorry, but how do you explain the mass car fires, looting and violence last year in France?
First Sarkozy is not going to get anywhere. The vote was 53% 47%, which is a split opinion. Second Royale has already dropped the first boot on demonstrations if Sarkozy tries anything.
Second Sarkozy thinks the way to get order with the youth is to define moral and authority! Oh yeah, that is going to get far! He thinks kids should wear standard uniforms, and whenever a teacher enters class the students should stand up.
Third Sarkozy is talking rhetoric when he says he wants free trade with other free trade blocks! BS France has been problem number 1 when it comes to agricultural subsidies and EU handouts. What Sarkozy really wants is to rig the market so that the French don't have to change, and everybody who wants to deal with France does.
I don't find Sarkozy a kinder gentler super power. What I see in Sarkozy is a person who will smile and laugh with you, but the moment your back is turned will spit at you. I am not saying that Royale would be better, as I dislike her economic policies even more. I probably could have lived with Bayrou, but the reality is that France is imploding and I am darn glad I don't live there anymore.
Is it really bullying or abuse? Ok, the physical act may be, but I am asking in a bigger context. I am guessing they were the way they were because it was what made them great. I am guessing they were thinking, "heck this is how we became a 10,000 employee company and thus it must be good." And to a degree it is.
Sort of like Google who for some odd reason has this itch to test everybody's ability to fine tune a bubble sort. While I can agree some Google folks needs to know this, most probably don't. Yet I see the same Microsoft attitude, "heck this is how we became a 10,000 employee company and thus it must be good."
What Microsoft and Google often don't get is that they need to adapt, and change. For example, I would love to see Google get smart with their Google apps. For example, why do the Google apps HAVE TO be hosted on Google? Would it not be smarter to have a sort of online, offline application? Heck they tested all of their employees on the merits of the bubble sort I am sure that this online offline application would be a snap.
I am happy for the guy that won, and am happy that the guy had a never say die attitude. BUT, and here is the big but you have to ask yourself what the heck happened here.
I think this guy might quite literally be a rocket scientist who ended up selling computers, then a community services manager, and then became unemployed. If America wants to be the forefront of technology, America needs to ask why does a guy have to buy something at EBay to build the next generation of technology?
Maybe America needs a few more role model "Homers".... instead of some Paris Hilton's who happens to be going to jail for 45 days or ended up shaving their head out of whim!
You ever looked at this.... http://www.dyndns.com/ and their mail forwarding? I love it, and my email server can up and down whenever it wants without having my services interrupted.
I was always wondering if we would ever find a need for a language like Klingon... I think we might have found one...
Please explain Iceland and Scandinavia? Same conditions, same food (other than the raw seal meat.) Yet those folks are fairly light skinned, and blond?
Ok let's say you are right fish intake. So what happened to the folks from Iceland and Scandinavia? These folks eat fish to the wahzoo and some of it is downright disgusting. Why do they not have dark skin? They have blond hair and burn to crisp?
Considering that my sister lives in Ecuador not all of the country side is jungle. And in many many cases they live beside water which would give them plenty of sunlight.
I don't buy that. Look at the folks from Iceland, and from the Scandinavian countries. They eat the same fatty fish yet they are blond, blue eyes, and very very light skin. The only real difference in diets is that they don't eat raw seal meat.
The Inuit skin is darker because they have historically lived in the snow reflecting light... Huh? Sorry dude, but do you know where the Inuit actually live? They live above the arctic circle meaning that when there is snow for the most part (6 months) it is dark, and thus their Vitamin D reserves would have been used before the sun could replenish it. Then when there is sun the snow melts and there is very little reflection giving them a "sun tan."
Inuit... Inuit have relatively dark colored skins...
n uit-onto-thin-ice/2006/05/26/1148524886121.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/climate-forces-i
And Inuit have been living in the North for many thousands upon thousands of years (50,000 I think). Actually I am always amazed at how dark their skin is comparing to where they live. It's not like you are going to see a bunch of Inuit suntanning on the tundra...
A skin near the equator that is light colored? Hmm... How about Amazon natives? http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/z0302a1700/amazon.jpg
The Amazon is about as close to the equator that you can get and their skin is relatively light colored when compared to say the skin color of an individual from Africa. And last I heard Amazon natives have been there for many many many thousands of years.
So the nutshell is equator = darkness of your skin color is HOGWASH! Want me to prove it even further? How about the aboriginals of Australia when compared to an individual from Malaysia? Aboriginals are much much darker and further away from the equator than individuals from Malaysia....
>> System administrators and database administrators can archive and retrieve large amounts of data on 1 convenient disk. Blu-ray is the next generation of storage technology and it's available today, only from Fastmac.
Really? Last I looked I can now get a terrabyte of hard disk space under 300 USD. If I want a terrabyte of RAID it will probably cost me 400 USD, maybe 500 USD. A terrabyte of blueray is 20 DVD's burning at 8x. Oh yeah I am going to pay 800 USD and 20x CD's + more time to do the same backup... Yeah that sounds like a plan!
CD's, DVD's are history for backing up purposes. Even the original intention of CD's for music is starting to become irrelevant. Times have changed.
Of course you can stash four or five... Let's see one DVD is 45 Gigs? I have two 2.5 Hard disks which is about the size of four or five CD's, and that stores at least 320 Gigs. With five BluRay I have 225 Gigs... Considering that 2.5 drives will cost you less than 200 USD I think hard disks are the better buy....
Regarding failure... Not true. I know for the past five years all I do is buy two drives per year, and copy the old information to the new drives. Beats any other backup system on price, performance, portability.
This argument seems to rear its head every now and then, and IT IS FRIGGEN NUTS!
You say, "oh we are not releasing to Linux, because there is too much choice." BS! If there were 2 million customers for your product implying fifteen different systems I bet you that you would do it. The problem is not choice, but the fact that you don't have a market. Saying that Windows is a mono-culture is also BS because there are so many permutations and variations of operating systems, patches, etc that supporting Windows 100% is a royal pain in the butt. I know because everyday I am confronted with Windows, Linux, and OSX.
I think people should wise up that this is not an operating system problem, but in fact a programming problem. For example you mention wxwidgets, and the likes. Well I have a piece of Java GUI that runs the same on three platforms, and you cannot argue the performance card because my Java program is a realtime stock application from Interactive Brokers.
So people lets stop whining and stop blaming "choice". After all last I remember we all choose our clothes, cars, food and everything. Yet when it comes to computers choice happens to be a bad thing!