not many people will pay good money for completely broken crap that doesn't work.
That's exactly what corporate people do all the time. Salespeople blitz into big corporation/government manager's offices and sell a bill of goods. The managers are hardly competent enough to know if anything is any good. Then later when staff complains the same salespeople are back to sell upgrades or consulting.
Granted that open source projects sometimes lack something in the user interface, I'm not sure that closed-source proprietary products are necessarily better, although the big companies do have the resources for significant usability testing and design.
But that can be seriously abused, too. MS changes interfaces at will. Look at the "ribbon" and even worse, Windows 8. Where was the usability testing there?
"Because when you are handicapped and you do something great it's not the great thing they talk about it's the being handicapped part.
It's patronizing"
You have a point and I can't myself speak to that aspect. However, the rest of us can learn something from these stories, which is that you can overcome the odds and saying "I can't" is just an excuse. This woman would have had all kinds of excuses but she doesn't think that way. Like I said, something big to learn from that.
I think all the warming/no-warming climate-change/no-change argument misses an important point. There may be controversy and uncertainty, but it's got to be to our advantage to act prudently and reduce emissions. In other words, do we dare take a chance?
It's a shame this has been reduced to politics instead of objective science.
"While the anti-Americans world-wide are wagging their fingers at the US, China is killing itself with pollution"
Of course fingers are wagged at the U.S. Isn't the U.S. responsible for every evil ever created, past, present and future?
As a former owner of a small studio back in the 90s I regret the loss of quality as reflected in poor playback conditions (ear buds, bad headphones etc.) and the ubiquity of MP3s (no they do not sound the same, and it's the difference between pretty good and superb). I recorded to 16 channels of analog tape with Dolby S, and it was fantastic quality sound.
The other side of this, though, is the easy availability of very good digital processing equipment. Now that the standard is 24 bit, there are no longer headroom problems and the noise floors are low. A studio like the one I had would be today largely superfluous, or at the least not very busy. (Good mics still cost, and, leaving aside possible questions of technique, that's where many home recordists seem to fall back in quality.) Music is easy to distribute.
So it's hardly all a black picture. The marketplace delivers what the market demands. Live with it.
This is the usual argument, which has two points. (1) There is (are) killer feature(s) in Word that Writer doesn't have. (2) I need Word compatibility.
As to item 1, I won't presume to tell you what features you need. If there is something in Word that Writer lacks, and you can't do your work without it, then your choice is made for you. (At times, of course, those important features either do really exist in Writer or are not truly mission critical, but I can't judge that for someone else.)
As to item 2, compatibility, that is a real issue in organizations that do any amount of exchanging documents outside of their own sphere of control. Writer compatibility has vastly improved, but I know there are issues and I know sending a PDF is not always an option (and you probably won't get the other party to switch to Writer).
That said, as a retiree (without an office to deal with, praise heaven), I go with LO at home because it runs on Linux and it has no cost. I do run into compatibility issues at times but I just live with them. It isn't worth a few hundred dollars and the unpleasant experience of working on a Windows system.
Yep, and I wonder what the prices would be if there were no Linux or BSDs, and people had to choose between MS, solaris, some other flavours of unix, OSX.
Free software helps even those not adopting it.
That's a really good point. If MS had no competition at all just think what they could--- and would--- charge.
This is not the politically correct answer. You are supposed to blame Sandy on global warming.
Mind you, that may be the scientifically correct answer too. I certainly don't have the background to make that judgment. And I am definitely not a global warming naysayer by any means.
But if you publish a study saying Sandy was due only to various things other than global warming, I think you're in politically dangerous territory, even if the study is an honest one.
Of course, this defines the problem. When science is politicized, no good comes of it.
I have been a Vine reviewer for several years, and I take great care with my reviews. I do sometimes review a technical book, but I make sure it is in an area in which I have sufficient expertise. While I'll review a book about audio engineering, I won't review one about, for instance, organic chemistry.
My reviews are not fake. I make every effort to give a fair evaluation. I write positive reviews and negative reviews (even though it's well known that a reviewer's ranking on Amazon goes down with negative reviews, as they are generally not well received by readers).
I don't know if I'm typical of Vine reviewers; the ones I've interacted with on the Vine forums seem about the same as me. Of course, there are bound to be bad apples in the group. In addition, Amazon has been making review requirements for Vine members ever more strict, and this undoubtedly has lead to decreased quality.
But I do sincerely hope things are not quite as bad as portrayed here, or the program should indeed be discontinued.
In 1968 I took an introductory circuit theory class from Dr. Bose (I was in the 2nd semester of my freshman year at MIT). It was a fantastic class but far from easy, and Dr. Bose liked to teach in a manner that implied you were as smart as he was. (Few if any of us were.) And I only got a "B" in the class:( The final exam was a killer.
The only Bose product I've ever owned over the years was a set of Bose 10.2 speakers. I liked them very much; they made music sound great but they were not accurate. I was running a 16-track studio and while the clients loved the sound, I always had to explain that the speakers were no good for mixing because they seriously overemphasized the bass. My JBL monitors were much better in terms of flat response.
Yes, I understand that, mathematically there is "nothing lost with additional transactions". But, I think that we both agree there are some sales lost, some people would have bought the work if they couldn't get their hands on them for free.
I don't know what the studies show on this (it's kind of hard to find an unbiased study), but I would guess just offhand that the number of truly lost sales due to downloading and downloading alone are small. High prices (relative to what a person can afford) cause lost sales (and possible acquisition by downloading). (Ridiculous DRM restrictions also cause some lost sales. I won't buy iTunes stuff for this reason.)
How many people do you know say they'd love to buy X or Y but they just can't afford it? I am not saying that makes downloading "right" but I am saying that this isn't a true "lost sale" due to downloading.
I think music industry prices and policies cause many more lost sales than simple illegal downloads. They are their own worst enemies by far.
Microsoft opened a store today (13 June 2013) in Honolulu's Ala Moana Shopping Center (I skipped on going to the opening ceremonies). There is also an Apple store in the same shopping center. Alas, I haven't heard of any plans for a Linux store:)
When oh when will someone write an updated version of Lotus Agenda?
Don't some of us wish... but I still use the original Lotus Agenda (ironically enough with DOSBox on Linux!). See my Agenda site, agenda.bobnewell.net, where I have the program, some add-ons, and complete docs, for what it's worth. Text-only is a big limitation these days, but Agenda was indeed unique.
In my own experience, at least, this is a common scenario. Upper management has figured it out, but they need or want an outside stamp of approval to "prove" them right.
All the OP really needs to do is (as said above) document the situation and draw the conclusions that senior management wants drawn. (If you think this is intellectually dishonest, you may be right, but you won't last long in the consulting business.)
If you ever had cancer yourself you would not make unfunny, insensitive comments.
A real loss --- Iain Banks was a terrific writer with a lot to say to us.
Political attempts to understand it only tell us if the consequences are desirable, thus they must come after scientific attempt to understand it.
I too cannot determine on my own whether the science supporting the conclusions being discussed here is sound. On the face of it I don't have strong reason to simply discard the conclusions; presumably the work was done by intellectually honest, competent scientists.
It's the political attempts at understanding that give me some trouble. Studies like this are eagerly taken up by those who want to believe that we are "bad" people and America is a "bad" country, to be blamed for anything and everything wrong in the world... while they (the blamers) continue to enjoy their comforts and luxuries, and a lifestyle only dreamed of by much of the rest of the world.
Of course, it's possible to program carefully in spreadsheets, just not necessarily all that easy or obvious.
What scares me, though, is seeing spreadsheets in mission critical applications -- as you say, happens all the time -- and not subject to any sort of software practices rigor at all. Disasters can and do happen this way.
I think the point is not that there is anything wrong with gaming, but that gaming should not be the one and only criterion for evaluation of the worth of a desktop environment.
If someone is a gamer, great! Enjoy. Run Windows if that's what's required. It won't affect what I do much as what I do doesn't affect you.
But I'm not a gamer, and evaluate my desktop for its ability to help me get my work done. This is just as valid.
Slashdot Mirror
not many people will pay good money for completely broken crap that doesn't work.
That's exactly what corporate people do all the time. Salespeople blitz into big corporation/government manager's offices and sell a bill of goods. The managers are hardly competent enough to know if anything is any good. Then later when staff complains the same salespeople are back to sell upgrades or consulting.
Granted that open source projects sometimes lack something in the user interface, I'm not sure that closed-source proprietary products are necessarily better, although the big companies do have the resources for significant usability testing and design. But that can be seriously abused, too. MS changes interfaces at will. Look at the "ribbon" and even worse, Windows 8. Where was the usability testing there?
"Because when you are handicapped and you do something great it's not the great thing they talk about it's the being handicapped part. It's patronizing"
You have a point and I can't myself speak to that aspect. However, the rest of us can learn something from these stories, which is that you can overcome the odds and saying "I can't" is just an excuse. This woman would have had all kinds of excuses but she doesn't think that way. Like I said, something big to learn from that.
I think all the warming/no-warming climate-change/no-change argument misses an important point. There may be controversy and uncertainty, but it's got to be to our advantage to act prudently and reduce emissions. In other words, do we dare take a chance? It's a shame this has been reduced to politics instead of objective science.
"While the anti-Americans world-wide are wagging their fingers at the US, China is killing itself with pollution" Of course fingers are wagged at the U.S. Isn't the U.S. responsible for every evil ever created, past, present and future?
As a former owner of a small studio back in the 90s I regret the loss of quality as reflected in poor playback conditions (ear buds, bad headphones etc.) and the ubiquity of MP3s (no they do not sound the same, and it's the difference between pretty good and superb). I recorded to 16 channels of analog tape with Dolby S, and it was fantastic quality sound.
The other side of this, though, is the easy availability of very good digital processing equipment. Now that the standard is 24 bit, there are no longer headroom problems and the noise floors are low. A studio like the one I had would be today largely superfluous, or at the least not very busy. (Good mics still cost, and, leaving aside possible questions of technique, that's where many home recordists seem to fall back in quality.) Music is easy to distribute.
So it's hardly all a black picture. The marketplace delivers what the market demands. Live with it.
It's something all slashdotters can agree on, Mr. Pohl was true greatness and has left a legacy that will last for generations upon generations.
This is the usual argument, which has two points. (1) There is (are) killer feature(s) in Word that Writer doesn't have. (2) I need Word compatibility.
As to item 1, I won't presume to tell you what features you need. If there is something in Word that Writer lacks, and you can't do your work without it, then your choice is made for you. (At times, of course, those important features either do really exist in Writer or are not truly mission critical, but I can't judge that for someone else.)
As to item 2, compatibility, that is a real issue in organizations that do any amount of exchanging documents outside of their own sphere of control. Writer compatibility has vastly improved, but I know there are issues and I know sending a PDF is not always an option (and you probably won't get the other party to switch to Writer).
That said, as a retiree (without an office to deal with, praise heaven), I go with LO at home because it runs on Linux and it has no cost. I do run into compatibility issues at times but I just live with them. It isn't worth a few hundred dollars and the unpleasant experience of working on a Windows system.
Yep, and I wonder what the prices would be if there were no Linux or BSDs, and people had to choose between MS, solaris, some other flavours of unix, OSX. Free software helps even those not adopting it.
That's a really good point. If MS had no competition at all just think what they could--- and would--- charge.
Except ... well, we have politicians in the mix. That was/is as true with the atomic weapons issue as it is with climate change.
One thing we have today that's different is political correctness. That wasn't such a big thing during the peak of the arms race and the cold war.
I can see little possible good coming from the politicization of science. Nor can, frankly, I see much good in making science "politically correct."
Science should just be science, objective and dispassionate. The conclusions are whatever they are without regard to popularity.
I am no Microsoft fan but I have to ask why this is being flagged as a problem that Microsoft didn't fix?
This is not the politically correct answer. You are supposed to blame Sandy on global warming.
Mind you, that may be the scientifically correct answer too. I certainly don't have the background to make that judgment. And I am definitely not a global warming naysayer by any means.
But if you publish a study saying Sandy was due only to various things other than global warming, I think you're in politically dangerous territory, even if the study is an honest one.
Of course, this defines the problem. When science is politicized, no good comes of it.
I have been a Vine reviewer for several years, and I take great care with my reviews. I do sometimes review a technical book, but I make sure it is in an area in which I have sufficient expertise. While I'll review a book about audio engineering, I won't review one about, for instance, organic chemistry.
My reviews are not fake. I make every effort to give a fair evaluation. I write positive reviews and negative reviews (even though it's well known that a reviewer's ranking on Amazon goes down with negative reviews, as they are generally not well received by readers).
I don't know if I'm typical of Vine reviewers; the ones I've interacted with on the Vine forums seem about the same as me. Of course, there are bound to be bad apples in the group. In addition, Amazon has been making review requirements for Vine members ever more strict, and this undoubtedly has lead to decreased quality. But I do sincerely hope things are not quite as bad as portrayed here, or the program should indeed be discontinued.
In 1968 I took an introductory circuit theory class from Dr. Bose (I was in the 2nd semester of my freshman year at MIT). It was a fantastic class but far from easy, and Dr. Bose liked to teach in a manner that implied you were as smart as he was. (Few if any of us were.) And I only got a "B" in the class :( The final exam was a killer.
The only Bose product I've ever owned over the years was a set of Bose 10.2 speakers. I liked them very much; they made music sound great but they were not accurate. I was running a 16-track studio and while the clients loved the sound, I always had to explain that the speakers were no good for mixing because they seriously overemphasized the bass. My JBL monitors were much better in terms of flat response.
Yes, I understand that, mathematically there is "nothing lost with additional transactions". But, I think that we both agree there are some sales lost, some people would have bought the work if they couldn't get their hands on them for free.
I don't know what the studies show on this (it's kind of hard to find an unbiased study), but I would guess just offhand that the number of truly lost sales due to downloading and downloading alone are small. High prices (relative to what a person can afford) cause lost sales (and possible acquisition by downloading). (Ridiculous DRM restrictions also cause some lost sales. I won't buy iTunes stuff for this reason.)
How many people do you know say they'd love to buy X or Y but they just can't afford it? I am not saying that makes downloading "right" but I am saying that this isn't a true "lost sale" due to downloading. I think music industry prices and policies cause many more lost sales than simple illegal downloads. They are their own worst enemies by far.
Microsoft opened a store today (13 June 2013) in Honolulu's Ala Moana Shopping Center (I skipped on going to the opening ceremonies). There is also an Apple store in the same shopping center. Alas, I haven't heard of any plans for a Linux store :)
When oh when will someone write an updated version of Lotus Agenda?
Don't some of us wish ... but I still use the original Lotus Agenda (ironically enough with DOSBox on Linux!). See my Agenda site, agenda.bobnewell.net, where I have the program, some add-ons, and complete docs, for what it's worth. Text-only is a big limitation these days, but Agenda was indeed unique.
In my own experience, at least, this is a common scenario. Upper management has figured it out, but they need or want an outside stamp of approval to "prove" them right. All the OP really needs to do is (as said above) document the situation and draw the conclusions that senior management wants drawn. (If you think this is intellectually dishonest, you may be right, but you won't last long in the consulting business.)
Joking about your own cancer may be stress relief ... joking about someone else's is insensitive at the least.
If you ever had cancer yourself you would not make unfunny, insensitive comments. A real loss --- Iain Banks was a terrific writer with a lot to say to us.
citizens of Japanese-decent
Yes, in my experience, most Japanese are very decent.
Political attempts to understand it only tell us if the consequences are desirable, thus they must come after scientific attempt to understand it.
I too cannot determine on my own whether the science supporting the conclusions being discussed here is sound. On the face of it I don't have strong reason to simply discard the conclusions; presumably the work was done by intellectually honest, competent scientists.
It's the political attempts at understanding that give me some trouble. Studies like this are eagerly taken up by those who want to believe that we are "bad" people and America is a "bad" country, to be blamed for anything and everything wrong in the world ... while they (the blamers) continue to enjoy their comforts and luxuries, and a lifestyle only dreamed of by much of the rest of the world.
What scares me, though, is seeing spreadsheets in mission critical applications -- as you say, happens all the time -- and not subject to any sort of software practices rigor at all. Disasters can and do happen this way.
I think the point is not that there is anything wrong with gaming, but that gaming should not be the one and only criterion for evaluation of the worth of a desktop environment.
If someone is a gamer, great! Enjoy. Run Windows if that's what's required. It won't affect what I do much as what I do doesn't affect you.
But I'm not a gamer, and evaluate my desktop for its ability to help me get my work done. This is just as valid.
Yeah, maybe your favorite game is available on another platform, but what happens when you get bored w/ it?
I go back to work.