Yep, more hidden menus, more clicks to get to the same old dialog box, more dumbing down of the whole experience is assured. Trying to make Windows more like Apple without getting sued must be really challenging...
For you young folks and millennials... Back in the 70's the polar vortex was absolutely, positively, scientifically PROVEN to be the result of Global Cooling, and an ice age was coming, no doubt about it.
Last week in another thread I posted the exact words from Time Magazine in 1974 and 2014 regarding the polar vortex, allegedly from scientists. They completely contradicted each other, of course. I was, of course, engaged by passionate flame throwers who accused me of all kinds of crimes. Please, save your fingers, I was alive then, lived through it, and remember it well.
The point is that the whole "The Earth's Climate is Changing we must take action now" is older than you think... As is the bitter ideological debate between the sacred never to be questioned narratives of the left and the right. Do some research outside of your comfort zone, talk to a few older folks, keep an open mind, that's all I ask. I am, for the record, strongly in favor of clean air, clean water, and good environmental stewardship.
Or, people who consume excessive amounts of any drug have what we now classify as "mental illness"; e..g. psychosis, neurosis, personality disorder, etc. It doesn't take many hours reading history books - or even watching PBS/Cable/Satellite TV to discover that people have been seeking out these substances, and consuming them, for a very long time. Some people can tolerate them, others cannot, and others take them to excess (and their ultimate detriment). Given that evolution has not eradicated this desire from humans after a few million years, perhaps, just perhaps, we are wasting our time trying to "fix" humanity here, and the trillions of dollars spent trying to eradicate drug use would be better spent understanding how to prevent it, and treat it, and keep the abusers from committing crimes that destroy innocent people.
In other words, some people are going to get high too often no matter what you try and to about it.
Our insistence on eradicating this behavior by throwing insane amounts of money at eradication, which isn't working, is foolish. When the fix doesn't work, you do something else, not apply the fix more vigorously. Doing something over and over with the same result is, in fact, is form if neurosis.
I'm no expert in the field, but I don't think engine management has made any huge leaps and bounds over the technology used in mid-90s fuel injection.
You'd be surprised. Look at the mileage/horsepower/torque the pickup truck and large luxury car manufactures are getting these days. That's all being done with computers, not iron.
My 2013 Ford has large black boxes "modules" all over the place, with large wire harnesses going inside. My bet is that they are sealed, and that finding the GPS chip would not be easy. The two biggest ones are under the cab, snuggled up next to the frame rails.
Airliners send a constant stream of data back to the manufacturers. They use this to predict failures, monitor performance, etc.
By 2015, most cars will be equipped with wi-fi routers - it's part of the marketing pitch to millennials to integrate the in vehicle experience with the user's smart phone, phablets, and tablets. So your car will commune with other cars of the same make while you are driving, all that data will be collected at the time of service, or when you pull into your driveway, because you'll connect the vehicle to your home network, and your manufacturer's web sites.
Its inevitable, and has already occurred to some degree. In my 2013 Ford I can issue a voice command, that sends me an email through my smart phone, that gives me a diagnostic report on all the vehicle subsystems. The "My Ford" identity connects me to the vehicle, the Ford Community website, the dealer, etc. So Ford Sync already knows how to use the Wi-Fi capabilities of my iPhone.
It won't be long before you are driving down the road, see a cute girl next to you, wave, and ask your car if she's on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/SnapChat whatever and it will send her the message, that she receives through the in vehicle LCD screen, announced by voice. Believe it or not, focus groups say consumers want this capability. You'll be able to telnet to your car, or, in the case of Ford, Remote Desktop... My 2013 Ford allegedly runs Windows CE under the covers.
I spent years in the Microsoft world and have my Jeddi Robes to prove it (The old MCSD, MCAD.net) + SQL Server and Oracle.
A robust PHP framework, such as Yii, does all these things - the primary advantage is licensing cost (zero) and many, many more users per sever. For example, a DELL R410 fourth generation server with plenty of memory and 15K drives running Windows Server 2008, SQL Server Standard, and ASP.net you'll be lucky to support 1000 concurrent users without getting 404's, the same box will give you triple that running Yii. Run a.net CMS like SiteCore and you'll need two servers, one for the web, one for the database, and you'll get around 600 users before it comes crashing down.
Drupal, and it's half brother Word Press are, as you say, big ugly hacks. Ruby is OK, and it has it's fanatical followers, but Ruby guys are not as plentiful as senior PHP folks are. No, the IDE doesn't compare to Visual Studio...
Ah the old "My neighbor's kid stole a candy bar from 7-11, so I am justified in being a serial killer" argument.
Combined with the "When W was in charge, he was responsible for EVERYTHING the government did down to the mail carrier, and everything was HIS plan, but now that Obama is in charge, he's hardly responsible for anything at all"
All in one posting.
Nice work but nobody really buys this line of thinking except committed ideologues, and these folks are not interested in the truth, they just want to shout their opinions at you and call you names.
Accenture, IBM, Booz Allen , Lockheed Martin , SAIC are all very similar when it comes to large project execution. The name of the game is to win a proposal by any means necessary then control the costs.
Would be better stated as:
Accenture, IBM, Booz Allen , Lockheed Martin , SAIC are all very similar when it comes to large project execution. The name of the game is to win a proposal by any means necessary then maximize the margin. Profit is highest on artifacts (reports, big diagrams, project plans) so produce as many of those as possible. Then write change order after change order to increase the profit post sale.
So the new Federal Procurement process is that Tovarich Obama anoints a new contractor by Imperial decree with the price a secret?
Remember the press howling about Dick Cheney and Halliburton? That was a medicine dropper in the ocean compared to this. Where are all the libs howling about no bid contracts? My liberal friends bring up Halliburton to this day.
So Accenture will create a thousand page artifact describing everything that is wrong with the system. This document will be a political bombshell for the Democrats, so it will be hidden. To keep it a secret, all of the work will be off shored, insuring that no American ever works on this ever again. Trouble is, the White House has more leaks in it than a cheese grater, so you know the analysis will be leaked. This should provide entertainment for years to come.
So if you want to survive, learn to manage offshore teams. Somebody has to collect the requirements, write technical specs, explain them to the developers, check the deliverable s, make small patches when the offshore guys are sleeping, manage the communication, etc.
If you have this skill, you will be rewarded with a good income and will be in high demand.
As the rollout and implementation of Obamacare continues to be a train wreck... what do to, what do to...
Pivot to income inequality, evil corporations, the middle class...
Now the FACTS are that under Obama & the Democrats, the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, the middle class has shrunk. But it can;'t possibly be the fault of the administrations economic policy, it can't indicate that perhaps the policy should be re-evaluated, or change, no that can't be it. So quick, let's start a propaganda war and see who we can find to blame for this.
Meanwhile, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class continue to decline. So let's blame outsourcing, evil Republicans, evil Corporations, racism, globalization, Bush, Reagan, the Internet, the Weather, climate change, Universities, obstructionism, politicking, anything.... but the policies that after five years have only made things worse.
My second quote is from the this month's Time Magazine.
In 1974, decades of study as well as the "scientific consensus" phrase (still used today) were taught in schools - That we were headed into an ice age. Something tells me you weren't alive then. I was. I'm not sure how that is "petty political ends". I lived it. One can learn a lot from the past, as history often repeats itself, and what is old, becomes new again.
I am not at all playing a game with you. I respect that you believe what you believe, and that you are very passionate about this.
My whole point, that was lost on you, is that some of us have quite a different perspective on all of this based on what we have personally lived through.
Consider these two quotes about the "polar vortex" from Time Magazine:
From 1974:
Scientists have found other indications of global cooling. For one thing there has been a noticeable expansion of the great belt of dry, high-altitude polar winds —the so-called circumpolar vortex—that sweep from west to east around the top and bottom of the world.
From this month's edition:
But not only does the cold spell not disprove climate change, it may well be that global warming could be making the occasional bout of extreme cold weather in the U.S. even more likely. Right now much of the U.S. is in the grip of a polar vortex, which is pretty much what it sounds like: a whirlwind of extremely cold, extremely dense air that forms near the poles.
So the "polar vortex" was the result of global cooling in 1974, whereas now the same "polar vortex" must be related to global warming? Sure looks like whatever the conditions are, they support the popular theory of the time. In my opinion, this isn't science, this is politics and trolling for money. That's my opinion, please try to understand that in 1974 I was a senior in High School and very passionate about these things. I was the one arguing about climate change and how we have do to something about it. Today I believe my personal concerns about the coming ice age were the result of youth and gullibility.... and I just can't get on board with the populist theory of today, having lived through all this. That doesn't mean I am against clean air and water, or want to abolish the EPA, or any such thing.
So perhaps you can take a moment to consider my life experience, and where I coming from, instead of assuming I am some kind of ideologue who simply shouts his opinions, and considers everyone else to be the enemy. That's how I behaved in 1974, but that's not who I am now. All I ask is that you respect my opinion. That is the basis of getting things done. Hurling accusations at each other solves absolutely nothing.
Scientists have found other indications of global cooling. For one thing there has been a noticeable expansion of the great belt of dry, high-altitude polar winds —the so-called circumpolar vortex—that sweep from west to east around the top and bottom of the world.
This was proof that the next ice age was coming.
Time Magazine, 2014:
But not only does the cold spell not disprove climate change, it may well be that global warming could be making the occasional bout of extreme cold weather in the U.S. even more likely. Right now much of the U.S. is in the grip of a polar vortex, which is pretty much what it sounds like: a whirlwind of extremely cold, extremely dense air that forms near the poles.
Please send me $1,000 soon to fight this growing crisis, I promise it will be used to ask other people for more money to fight this urgent cause. Don't delay, the future survival of the planet depends on you!
You can't make this stuff up. To the incessant flamers who attack every post I make on this subject, accusing me of all kinds of horrible crimes and behavior, and wanting to argue please, don't...
Thanks. I graduated from NAU in '79, was there in the fall. Central/Northern Arizona is a really nice area. I was stunned at the growth in Sedona - thrilled that Jerome had remained about the same.
I have yet to see a single Leaf in Detroit - or an advertised charging station. I go there for client meetings a dozen or so times a month. There are probably several in Ann Arbor.
I accept, and respect that you believe with all your heart that unless some transformation in human behavior occurs, we're all doomed in some way.
My point that this kind of thinking has gone on for a lot longer than either of us has been alive, it is nothing new. If someone older than me comes along, they can educate us on the horrific tales being told in the 1950's.
Arguing with you would be akin to convincing a Muslim that his God was no good, and he should choose mine. Or trying to convince an Oracle DBA as to the wondrous capabilities in SQL Server. Or selling a MAC user on Windows 8.
What you need to understand is that not everybody in this world has altruistic intentions, and that money, and greed, motivate people to do some pretty astounding things. That being said, please try to have faith in humanity - We are capable of pretty amazing things when presented with problems.
I was in grade school in the sixties, and we were taught two indisputable scientific consensus facts:
That the "Malthusian Dilemma" theory PROVED we would all starve to death by the year 2000 or there about. Funny thing, they had a hockey stick graph too.
That the great ice age was coming. In the early 70's, this was on the cover of Time Magazine.
The folks selling this stuff then were just as certain as the folks harking this crap now. Then, as now, the lefties claimed the evil right wing was spreading propaganda. What does this teach us about ourselves?
Nobody ever got rich by telling people that things will probably turn out just fine, and that we as a species are remarkably adept at solving problems
Chicken Little stories attract a lot of highly emotional, intelligent, and supremely arrogant people who want to dictate their version of reality to the rest of us.
The minute somebody tells you in a dire voice that "If we don't do X then we are all doomed... and if you dare question their position they start insulting you... they... are full of crap and are to be ignored.
Microsoft has been going backwards with UI design for some time (Remember the Office ribbon bar). I think they start each design meeting with "Let's take something that works perfectly well and completely f*ck it up for everyone"
Windows 8 is, of course, Windows 7 with a half baked navigation scheme on top of it - Which proves that Microsoft UX focus groups are carefully selected from the lowest common denominator of society at large, or a bunch of eggheads with double doctorates in usability who don't actually USE computers themselves. The "metro" versions of everything are downright horrible on a desktop, it makes zero sense why they are even there, and less sense that they can't be turned off with a single control panel check box. Skype in metro mode, in particular, is so unusable it's hard to believe it was built at all - I have yet to find a way to not run two Skype versions at once. I have learned to be very careful when answering a call, or I'll get trapped in Skype Metro.
One does get used to yet another clunky interface filled with secret swipes and hot spots - This is, after all, what makes MAC & iOS users so proud of themselves. (That's a JOKE please let's not get into THAT flame war again). The secret hot spots suck no mater what device/OS you are using. Who came up with this idea?
What is most galling, however, is the new Microsoft that's pay to play for everything. I was forced to Windows 8.1 in order to do our first Windows Phone project. The SDK on Windows 7 comes up "Sorry, you need Windows 8.1". We all know the core Windows API hasn't changed since it was ripped off from VAX/VMS in Windows NT... $199.00 later I have Windows 8.1 (You pay a penalty for not upgrading to 8 initially, there is no upgrade discount to 8.1). Then you discover you can't put the app on the phone unless you pay a yearly fee for the privilege.. even in development mode with the phone tethered! Next, each compile will require a credit card.
It's the same strategy for Office. It's cheaper to purchase a monthly Office 365 subscription than to upgrade it every year - which means without the subscription, none of your old documents/spreadsheets will be accessible unless you pay Microsoft forever. Some of us remember when Ellison floated this idea years ago, that you'd pay a fee every time you used an app - and we all laughed at how that would never happen.
For these monthly fees what support do you get? The privilege of asking questions on a community forum, same as Linux. Soon, we'll have to pay a fee for a Windows Live! ID, Microsoft's botched attempt at SSO.
Sure, I'd love to dump it all and run Linux - Except that the clients are all running Microsoft, and expect word docs (latest version), excel spreadsheets (latest version), power point decks (latest version) and go to meeting (no Linux client). Goto meeting is the only meeting program that's universally unblocked by corporate firewalls.
Apple's an option, certainly, and a superior one - but it's even more expensive - and I have to run a slightly crippled not quite the same version of Microsoft Office on it.
In my daily dealings, the large corporate clients are adopting the Surface in droves... I cannot explain this, given how beautiful the iPad is in every respect, and how overpriced the Surface is. So the death of Microsoft, predicted by all the anti-Microsoft forces, is a long time away yet. We're now in a world where even if it sucks, the Mickeysoft Borg will find a way to force us to use it, like it or not. It's a miracle they are able to pull this off, it really is.
Slashdot Mirror
Yep, more hidden menus, more clicks to get to the same old dialog box, more dumbing down of the whole experience is assured. Trying to make Windows more like Apple without getting sued must be really challenging...
For you young folks and millennials... Back in the 70's the polar vortex was absolutely, positively, scientifically PROVEN to be the result of Global Cooling, and an ice age was coming, no doubt about it.
Last week in another thread I posted the exact words from Time Magazine in 1974 and 2014 regarding the polar vortex, allegedly from scientists. They completely contradicted each other, of course. I was, of course, engaged by passionate flame throwers who accused me of all kinds of crimes. Please, save your fingers, I was alive then, lived through it, and remember it well.
The point is that the whole "The Earth's Climate is Changing we must take action now" is older than you think... As is the bitter ideological debate between the sacred never to be questioned narratives of the left and the right. Do some research outside of your comfort zone, talk to a few older folks, keep an open mind, that's all I ask. I am, for the record, strongly in favor of clean air, clean water, and good environmental stewardship.
Or, people who consume excessive amounts of any drug have what we now classify as "mental illness"; e..g. psychosis, neurosis, personality disorder, etc. It doesn't take many hours reading history books - or even watching PBS/Cable/Satellite TV to discover that people have been seeking out these substances, and consuming them, for a very long time. Some people can tolerate them, others cannot, and others take them to excess (and their ultimate detriment). Given that evolution has not eradicated this desire from humans after a few million years, perhaps, just perhaps, we are wasting our time trying to "fix" humanity here, and the trillions of dollars spent trying to eradicate drug use would be better spent understanding how to prevent it, and treat it, and keep the abusers from committing crimes that destroy innocent people.
In other words, some people are going to get high too often no matter what you try and to about it.
Our insistence on eradicating this behavior by throwing insane amounts of money at eradication, which isn't working, is foolish. When the fix doesn't work, you do something else, not apply the fix more vigorously. Doing something over and over with the same result is, in fact, is form if neurosis.
I'm no expert in the field, but I don't think engine management has made any huge leaps and bounds over the technology used in mid-90s fuel injection.
You'd be surprised. Look at the mileage/horsepower/torque the pickup truck and large luxury car manufactures are getting these days. That's all being done with computers, not iron.
My 2013 Ford has large black boxes "modules" all over the place, with large wire harnesses going inside. My bet is that they are sealed, and that finding the GPS chip would not be easy. The two biggest ones are under the cab, snuggled up next to the frame rails.
Airliners send a constant stream of data back to the manufacturers. They use this to predict failures, monitor performance, etc.
By 2015, most cars will be equipped with wi-fi routers - it's part of the marketing pitch to millennials to integrate the in vehicle experience with the user's smart phone, phablets, and tablets. So your car will commune with other cars of the same make while you are driving, all that data will be collected at the time of service, or when you pull into your driveway, because you'll connect the vehicle to your home network, and your manufacturer's web sites.
Its inevitable, and has already occurred to some degree. In my 2013 Ford I can issue a voice command, that sends me an email through my smart phone, that gives me a diagnostic report on all the vehicle subsystems. The "My Ford" identity connects me to the vehicle, the Ford Community website, the dealer, etc. So Ford Sync already knows how to use the Wi-Fi capabilities of my iPhone.
It won't be long before you are driving down the road, see a cute girl next to you, wave, and ask your car if she's on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/SnapChat whatever and it will send her the message, that she receives through the in vehicle LCD screen, announced by voice. Believe it or not, focus groups say consumers want this capability. You'll be able to telnet to your car, or, in the case of Ford, Remote Desktop... My 2013 Ford allegedly runs Windows CE under the covers.
I spent years in the Microsoft world and have my Jeddi Robes to prove it (The old MCSD, MCAD.net) + SQL Server and Oracle.
.net CMS like SiteCore and you'll need two servers, one for the web, one for the database, and you'll get around 600 users before it comes crashing down.
A robust PHP framework, such as Yii, does all these things - the primary advantage is licensing cost (zero) and many, many more users per sever. For example, a DELL R410 fourth generation server with plenty of memory and 15K drives running Windows Server 2008, SQL Server Standard, and ASP.net you'll be lucky to support 1000 concurrent users without getting 404's, the same box will give you triple that running Yii. Run a
Drupal, and it's half brother Word Press are, as you say, big ugly hacks. Ruby is OK, and it has it's fanatical followers, but Ruby guys are not as plentiful as senior PHP folks are. No, the IDE doesn't compare to Visual Studio...
How do you run the .net framework on *nix distros? If that's possible I'd love to know, Thanks
Ah the old "My neighbor's kid stole a candy bar from 7-11, so I am justified in being a serial killer" argument.
Combined with the "When W was in charge, he was responsible for EVERYTHING the government did down to the mail carrier, and everything was HIS plan, but now that Obama is in charge, he's hardly responsible for anything at all"
All in one posting.
Nice work but nobody really buys this line of thinking except committed ideologues, and these folks are not interested in the truth, they just want to shout their opinions at you and call you names.
Accenture, IBM, Booz Allen , Lockheed Martin , SAIC are all very similar when it comes to large project execution. The name of the game is to win a proposal by any means necessary then control the costs.
Would be better stated as:
Accenture, IBM, Booz Allen , Lockheed Martin , SAIC are all very similar when it comes to large project execution. The name of the game is to win a proposal by any means necessary then maximize the margin. Profit is highest on artifacts (reports, big diagrams, project plans) so produce as many of those as possible. Then write change order after change order to increase the profit post sale.
So the new Federal Procurement process is that Tovarich Obama anoints a new contractor by Imperial decree with the price a secret?
Remember the press howling about Dick Cheney and Halliburton? That was a medicine dropper in the ocean compared to this. Where are all the libs howling about no bid contracts? My liberal friends bring up Halliburton to this day.
So Accenture will create a thousand page artifact describing everything that is wrong with the system. This document will be a political bombshell for the Democrats, so it will be hidden. To keep it a secret, all of the work will be off shored, insuring that no American ever works on this ever again. Trouble is, the White House has more leaks in it than a cheese grater, so you know the analysis will be leaked. This should provide entertainment for years to come.
So if you want to survive, learn to manage offshore teams. Somebody has to collect the requirements, write technical specs, explain them to the developers, check the deliverable s, make small patches when the offshore guys are sleeping, manage the communication, etc.
If you have this skill, you will be rewarded with a good income and will be in high demand.
As the rollout and implementation of Obamacare continues to be a train wreck... what do to, what do to...
Pivot to income inequality, evil corporations, the middle class...
Now the FACTS are that under Obama & the Democrats, the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, the middle class has shrunk. But it can;'t possibly be the fault of the administrations economic policy, it can't indicate that perhaps the policy should be re-evaluated, or change, no that can't be it. So quick, let's start a propaganda war and see who we can find to blame for this.
Meanwhile, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class continue to decline. So let's blame outsourcing, evil Republicans, evil Corporations, racism, globalization, Bush, Reagan, the Internet, the Weather, climate change, Universities, obstructionism, politicking, anything.... but the policies that after five years have only made things worse.
My second quote is from the this month's Time Magazine.
In 1974, decades of study as well as the "scientific consensus" phrase (still used today) were taught in schools - That we were headed into an ice age. Something tells me you weren't alive then. I was. I'm not sure how that is "petty political ends". I lived it. One can learn a lot from the past, as history often repeats itself, and what is old, becomes new again.
This is clearly hopeless and I am sorry. I do have a lot of friends just like you though, so I get it.
My whole point, that was lost on you, is that some of us have quite a different perspective on all of this based on what we have personally lived through.
Consider these two quotes about the "polar vortex" from Time Magazine:
From 1974:
Scientists have found other indications of global cooling. For one thing there has been a noticeable expansion of the great belt of dry, high-altitude polar winds —the so-called circumpolar vortex—that sweep from west to east around the top and bottom of the world.
From this month's edition:
But not only does the cold spell not disprove climate change, it may well be that global warming could be making the occasional bout of extreme cold weather in the U.S. even more likely. Right now much of the U.S. is in the grip of a polar vortex, which is pretty much what it sounds like: a whirlwind of extremely cold, extremely dense air that forms near the poles.
So the "polar vortex" was the result of global cooling in 1974, whereas now the same "polar vortex" must be related to global warming? Sure looks like whatever the conditions are, they support the popular theory of the time. In my opinion, this isn't science, this is politics and trolling for money. That's my opinion, please try to understand that in 1974 I was a senior in High School and very passionate about these things. I was the one arguing about climate change and how we have do to something about it. Today I believe my personal concerns about the coming ice age were the result of youth and gullibility.... and I just can't get on board with the populist theory of today, having lived through all this. That doesn't mean I am against clean air and water, or want to abolish the EPA, or any such thing.
So perhaps you can take a moment to consider my life experience, and where I coming from, instead of assuming I am some kind of ideologue who simply shouts his opinions, and considers everyone else to be the enemy. That's how I behaved in 1974, but that's not who I am now. All I ask is that you respect my opinion. That is the basis of getting things done. Hurling accusations at each other solves absolutely nothing.
Scientists have found other indications of global cooling. For one thing there has been a noticeable expansion of the great belt of dry, high-altitude polar winds —the so-called circumpolar vortex—that sweep from west to east around the top and bottom of the world.
This was proof that the next ice age was coming.
Time Magazine, 2014:
But not only does the cold spell not disprove climate change, it may well be that global warming could be making the occasional bout of extreme cold weather in the U.S. even more likely. Right now much of the U.S. is in the grip of a polar vortex, which is pretty much what it sounds like: a whirlwind of extremely cold, extremely dense air that forms near the poles.
Please send me $1,000 soon to fight this growing crisis, I promise it will be used to ask other people for more money to fight this urgent cause. Don't delay, the future survival of the planet depends on you!
You can't make this stuff up. To the incessant flamers who attack every post I make on this subject, accusing me of all kinds of horrible crimes and behavior, and wanting to argue please, don't...
Thanks. I graduated from NAU in '79, was there in the fall. Central/Northern Arizona is a really nice area. I was stunned at the growth in Sedona - thrilled that Jerome had remained about the same.
I have yet to see a single Leaf in Detroit - or an advertised charging station. I go there for client meetings a dozen or so times a month. There are probably several in Ann Arbor.
I win. I accepted your opinion, and expressed my respect for it - You accuse me of being a liar.
Impressive. Here in Michigan I have yet to see a single Leaf - where are you located?
I accept, and respect that you believe with all your heart that unless some transformation in human behavior occurs, we're all doomed in some way.
My point that this kind of thinking has gone on for a lot longer than either of us has been alive, it is nothing new. If someone older than me comes along, they can educate us on the horrific tales being told in the 1950's.
Arguing with you would be akin to convincing a Muslim that his God was no good, and he should choose mine. Or trying to convince an Oracle DBA as to the wondrous capabilities in SQL Server. Or selling a MAC user on Windows 8.
What you need to understand is that not everybody in this world has altruistic intentions, and that money, and greed, motivate people to do some pretty astounding things. That being said, please try to have faith in humanity - We are capable of pretty amazing things when presented with problems.
Correct, and we have Clapper lying to Congress - under oath - ZERO prosecution, ZERO press outrage, ZERO liberal indignation, barely reported.
The message: It's OK to LIE if you're a big shot, or discussing National Security.
Please take out a map... and look at those big lakes. Some people even go as far as to call them "Great".
I was in grade school in the sixties, and we were taught two indisputable scientific consensus facts:
That the "Malthusian Dilemma" theory PROVED we would all starve to death by the year 2000 or there about. Funny thing, they had a hockey stick graph too.
That the great ice age was coming. In the early 70's, this was on the cover of Time Magazine.
The folks selling this stuff then were just as certain as the folks harking this crap now. Then, as now, the lefties claimed the evil right wing was spreading propaganda. What does this teach us about ourselves?
Nobody ever got rich by telling people that things will probably turn out just fine, and that we as a species are remarkably adept at solving problems
Chicken Little stories attract a lot of highly emotional, intelligent, and supremely arrogant people who want to dictate their version of reality to the rest of us.
The minute somebody tells you in a dire voice that "If we don't do X then we are all doomed... and if you dare question their position they start insulting you... they... are full of crap and are to be ignored.
Microsoft has been going backwards with UI design for some time (Remember the Office ribbon bar). I think they start each design meeting with "Let's take something that works perfectly well and completely f*ck it up for everyone"
Windows 8 is, of course, Windows 7 with a half baked navigation scheme on top of it - Which proves that Microsoft UX focus groups are carefully selected from the lowest common denominator of society at large, or a bunch of eggheads with double doctorates in usability who don't actually USE computers themselves. The "metro" versions of everything are downright horrible on a desktop, it makes zero sense why they are even there, and less sense that they can't be turned off with a single control panel check box. Skype in metro mode, in particular, is so unusable it's hard to believe it was built at all - I have yet to find a way to not run two Skype versions at once. I have learned to be very careful when answering a call, or I'll get trapped in Skype Metro.
One does get used to yet another clunky interface filled with secret swipes and hot spots - This is, after all, what makes MAC & iOS users so proud of themselves. (That's a JOKE please let's not get into THAT flame war again). The secret hot spots suck no mater what device/OS you are using. Who came up with this idea?
What is most galling, however, is the new Microsoft that's pay to play for everything. I was forced to Windows 8.1 in order to do our first Windows Phone project. The SDK on Windows 7 comes up "Sorry, you need Windows 8.1". We all know the core Windows API hasn't changed since it was ripped off from VAX/VMS in Windows NT... $199.00 later I have Windows 8.1 (You pay a penalty for not upgrading to 8 initially, there is no upgrade discount to 8.1). Then you discover you can't put the app on the phone unless you pay a yearly fee for the privilege.. even in development mode with the phone tethered! Next, each compile will require a credit card.
It's the same strategy for Office. It's cheaper to purchase a monthly Office 365 subscription than to upgrade it every year - which means without the subscription, none of your old documents/spreadsheets will be accessible unless you pay Microsoft forever. Some of us remember when Ellison floated this idea years ago, that you'd pay a fee every time you used an app - and we all laughed at how that would never happen.
For these monthly fees what support do you get? The privilege of asking questions on a community forum, same as Linux. Soon, we'll have to pay a fee for a Windows Live! ID, Microsoft's botched attempt at SSO.
Sure, I'd love to dump it all and run Linux - Except that the clients are all running Microsoft, and expect word docs (latest version), excel spreadsheets (latest version), power point decks (latest version) and go to meeting (no Linux client). Goto meeting is the only meeting program that's universally unblocked by corporate firewalls.
Apple's an option, certainly, and a superior one - but it's even more expensive - and I have to run a slightly crippled not quite the same version of Microsoft Office on it.
In my daily dealings, the large corporate clients are adopting the Surface in droves... I cannot explain this, given how beautiful the iPad is in every respect, and how overpriced the Surface is. So the death of Microsoft, predicted by all the anti-Microsoft forces, is a long time away yet. We're now in a world where even if it sucks, the Mickeysoft Borg will find a way to force us to use it, like it or not. It's a miracle they are able to pull this off, it really is.