Let's put it another way... Digital zoom = cropping. In other words, there is no point to it when you can easily crop in any photo manipulation program.
You would be right except for the fact that MS's overall marketshare in the EU has increased significantly since the EU began this whole thing... So the problem is worse now.
Talk about failing... The courts found MS to be a monopoly. In the eyes of the law, you don't have to have 100% market share to be a monopoly. Microsoft's 90%+ on the desktop is enough. Legal definitions and dictionary definitions don't always mesh.
Not "should intervene", it must intervene as its duty to the citizens that elected the government. It's unfortunate that the US government has failed its basic mission of protecting its people from abuse, and has now turned into the abuser.
The EU doesn't want the source code. They want documentation, and have repeatedly told this to MS. If MS didn't really have proper documentation (and I REALLY don't believe this) then it was up to MS to write it, as ordered by the court. MS has plenty of time, money, and staff to get the job done. They are stalling while their market share continues to rise due to lack of interoperability.
the DRM that may be in it doesn't bother me personally.
Don't worry, it will eventually - vista hasn't been out long enough for the restrictions to become obvious and troublesome.
As for vista "winning" in the long term, I do believe that vista will become the dominant home-user OS because of forced integration (no more OEM sales of XP and EOL date for XP) than for any other reason.
The problem is that perfect security is IMPOSSIBLE, especially since the data "needs" to be available to a large portion of the company in order for work to be done.. We can certainly be better though. Forbid the storage of personal data on laptops with jail time for anyone that transfers such data to a laptop or other portable media (with the exception of backup media.)
How about restricting the collection and storage of personal information in the first place? How many companies REALLY need your SSN? How about schools? Do THEY need it? Really? Can we ban the use of SSN's as primary identifiers? How about a federal registry where collectors would have to register that they have personal information about someone, and allow the person to request that the info be removed (obviously need exceptions to this...) How about requiring written approval for businesses wanting to share your data with others? The honest truth is that most businesses have no need to store all that data in the first place. How many web sites want your birth date? Do any of them really need it? with VERY few exceptions, the answer is a definitive NO.
Which is why you don't run the bulk of the graphics driver in kernel space... You run it in userland where it belongs. I wish more drivers for Linux were in userspace too - many modern USB device drivers Can be run in userspace - see libusb. Graphics drivers are special in a couple ways but the biggest is that you don't need graphics for the core of the OS, unlike disk drivers for example. It's possible that you may need a thin shim in kernel space to talk to the low-level hardware, but you certainly don't need to run the entire driver in kernel space.
Except epsons, where most now have permanent heads that can't be cleaned without totally disassembling the printer. Taking the ink out and storing it separate may be great for the cartridges, but the poor heads are going to be left with residual ink that will dry and harden in the printer resulting in the printer going in the garbage.
... And the problem with most Epsons is that you can't clean the printhead without totally disassembling the printer. If you don't print very frequently, you have to run the head-cleaning utility a lot which uses tons of ink, and usually requires half a dozen cycles to work. If you go on vacation and don't use your printer for a while, chances are that you will NOT be able to get it clean with the utility. Only the very expensive epsons are designed to be serviced - the others are purely disposable.
No, no more than a train track is an attractive nuisance to people who want to commit suicide. The benefits of open free wifi outweigh the negative aspects.
Many airports also now have free wifi... For example, the JetBlue terminal at JFK. It's a valuable service.
Inkjet's still have a market - very wide format (larger than 11x17.) Also, they are better for photos than laser, although I prefer my Kodak thermal transfer printer for photos.
Color lasers also tend to to be freakin huge, and noisy. My last inkjet went into the garbage can a couple months ago, when I picked up a Ricoh SP C410dn that works VERY well. At 100 pounds and 19wx25dx19h, it wants a dedicated table. I specifically avoided color lasers that work on the carousel system, where color prints are one fourth the speed of black and white. The quality of color output on modern color lasers is VERY good. I would term it "near photo quality." A good modern 6 color inkjet will still be better for photos however. Just avoid Epson, and their printheads that can't be cleaned without tearing the whole printer apart...
Or maybe they are giving cheap standard software to school children because they believe in charity.
Only the people who have either been hiding their heads in the sand or have not been around long enough to know MS's historical behavior would think that.
You are missing the fact that every single microsoft product except for Windows and Office loses money. They HAVE to charge a lot for Windows and Office to support that fact. This is why the cost of Windows and Office is going up every release - it's their only source of profit.
The education standards for computers in most states cover this. In fact, from standards I've read, teachers should NOT be using computers just as typewriters or teaching "Word", but as creative tools to augment the core curriculum. That means research on the web, multimedia projects, etc. The document I read (not available online) actually pushes the theory that limiting instruction to standard office applications is "damaging."
The OLPC box running linux is somewhere around $100-200 depending on the phase of the moon. A minimum PC (with monitor) for running XP will be at LEAST double that, and nowhere near as durable or able to run on low power as the OLPC box. This is no threat to the OLPC program or box itself.
A transaction is different that a tax return. A return may contain hundreds of different pieces if information, and then connect to the IRS servers to actually submit the return.
In other words, apples and oranges.
If you are talking about database transactions, performance depends on what the transaction IS. It's one thing to process 1500 TPS where your transaction consists of updating a single column in one row, completely another if it updates dozens of tables with triggers and stored procedures.
Lucky you. Despite the legal deadline of Jan 31 for reporting companies to send you interest statements and such, I didn't get all mine until late Feb. I got all my stuff to the CPA by the end of Feb, and had my refunds 2 weeks later.
So yeah - simple returns can be easy, and you can get done early. Better make sure you have ALL those reporting statements though so you don't have to file an amended return later.
Oh I agree. My tax situation is plenty complicated, frequently with a lot of special cases... (real estate transactions, investments, AMT, etc.) I have had a CPA do it for the past 7 years. The other thing a good CPA will do is suggest ways of handing your finances / savings for maximum benefit. You aren't going to get that from a piece of software... In fact, I would bet that my CPA has saved me 10 times what he charges me. In fact, the first year, he checked my prior three years returns that I did with turbotax and found that I had paid several thousand too much. A few amended returns later and I had my refund.
My opinion on the whole thing is that if you can file the 1040EZ, or have VERY simple tax status (no investments, you rent, etc.) go for the software. Otherwise, get a professional, and I don't mean one of these "tax only" companies who hire people just for tax season to do data entry... Use a real CPA.
The solution is to eliminate "software" and "business process" patents. There is no reasonable way that patent examiners can possibly identify all possible prior art and identify cases where something is "obvious to someone in the field." To be very honest, when faced with a problem there is very little that wouldn't be "obvious" to a competent developer. Additionally, software has specialties much like medicine, and the USPTO can't reasonably have people on staff or pay enough consultants to do the research on it. Remember - an individual can get a patent for as little as $100. Even the corporate filing fees are not NEARLY enough to do due diligence on an application. We need to realize that it's not possible and that these patents are not reasonable to grant at all.
Let's get back to patents on real physical stuff again, where real innovation still exists. I don't like the mathematical algorithm patents either. Again, we have about 5 billion people in the world - anything one person can think up has got to be pretty obvious to a few hundred thousand at least if faced with solving the same problem.
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Let's put it another way... Digital zoom = cropping. In other words, there is no point to it when you can easily crop in any photo manipulation program.
And of course nobody has EVER cropped a picture, right??? Oh, wait...
You would be right except for the fact that MS's overall marketshare in the EU has increased significantly since the EU began this whole thing... So the problem is worse now.
Talk about failing... The courts found MS to be a monopoly. In the eyes of the law, you don't have to have 100% market share to be a monopoly. Microsoft's 90%+ on the desktop is enough. Legal definitions and dictionary definitions don't always mesh.
Not "should intervene", it must intervene as its duty to the citizens that elected the government. It's unfortunate that the US government has failed its basic mission of protecting its people from abuse, and has now turned into the abuser.
The EU doesn't want the source code. They want documentation, and have repeatedly told this to MS. If MS didn't really have proper documentation (and I REALLY don't believe this) then it was up to MS to write it, as ordered by the court. MS has plenty of time, money, and staff to get the job done. They are stalling while their market share continues to rise due to lack of interoperability.
A month or so after the one programmer left at apple finishes the iPhone.
Oh come now... It can be rephrased much more simply...
It's like a 3-ring binder, but "on the internet!"®©
All rights reserved. "on the internet!" is a registered trademark of Patent Trolls Inc.
the DRM that may be in it doesn't bother me personally.
Don't worry, it will eventually - vista hasn't been out long enough for the restrictions to become obvious and troublesome.
As for vista "winning" in the long term, I do believe that vista will become the dominant home-user OS because of forced integration (no more OEM sales of XP and EOL date for XP) than for any other reason.
The problem is that perfect security is IMPOSSIBLE, especially since the data "needs" to be available to a large portion of the company in order for work to be done.. We can certainly be better though. Forbid the storage of personal data on laptops with jail time for anyone that transfers such data to a laptop or other portable media (with the exception of backup media.)
How about restricting the collection and storage of personal information in the first place? How many companies REALLY need your SSN? How about schools? Do THEY need it? Really? Can we ban the use of SSN's as primary identifiers? How about a federal registry where collectors would have to register that they have personal information about someone, and allow the person to request that the info be removed (obviously need exceptions to this...) How about requiring written approval for businesses wanting to share your data with others? The honest truth is that most businesses have no need to store all that data in the first place. How many web sites want your birth date? Do any of them really need it? with VERY few exceptions, the answer is a definitive NO.
Which is why you don't run the bulk of the graphics driver in kernel space... You run it in userland where it belongs. I wish more drivers for Linux were in userspace too - many modern USB device drivers Can be run in userspace - see libusb. Graphics drivers are special in a couple ways but the biggest is that you don't need graphics for the core of the OS, unlike disk drivers for example. It's possible that you may need a thin shim in kernel space to talk to the low-level hardware, but you certainly don't need to run the entire driver in kernel space.
Except epsons, where most now have permanent heads that can't be cleaned without totally disassembling the printer. Taking the ink out and storing it separate may be great for the cartridges, but the poor heads are going to be left with residual ink that will dry and harden in the printer resulting in the printer going in the garbage.
... And the problem with most Epsons is that you can't clean the printhead without totally disassembling the printer. If you don't print very frequently, you have to run the head-cleaning utility a lot which uses tons of ink, and usually requires half a dozen cycles to work. If you go on vacation and don't use your printer for a while, chances are that you will NOT be able to get it clean with the utility. Only the very expensive epsons are designed to be serviced - the others are purely disposable.
Unfortunately, they don't make them like that anymore.
No, no more than a train track is an attractive nuisance to people who want to commit suicide. The benefits of open free wifi outweigh the negative aspects.
Many airports also now have free wifi... For example, the JetBlue terminal at JFK. It's a valuable service.
It is true, but maybe I misunderstood what you were saying.
Inkjet's still have a market - very wide format (larger than 11x17.) Also, they are better for photos than laser, although I prefer my Kodak thermal transfer printer for photos.
Color lasers also tend to to be freakin huge, and noisy. My last inkjet went into the garbage can a couple months ago, when I picked up a Ricoh SP C410dn that works VERY well. At 100 pounds and 19wx25dx19h, it wants a dedicated table. I specifically avoided color lasers that work on the carousel system, where color prints are one fourth the speed of black and white. The quality of color output on modern color lasers is VERY good. I would term it "near photo quality." A good modern 6 color inkjet will still be better for photos however. Just avoid Epson, and their printheads that can't be cleaned without tearing the whole printer apart...
Or maybe they are giving cheap standard software to school children because they believe in charity.
Only the people who have either been hiding their heads in the sand or have not been around long enough to know MS's historical behavior would think that.
You are missing the fact that every single microsoft product except for Windows and Office loses money. They HAVE to charge a lot for Windows and Office to support that fact. This is why the cost of Windows and Office is going up every release - it's their only source of profit.
The education standards for computers in most states cover this. In fact, from standards I've read, teachers should NOT be using computers just as typewriters or teaching "Word", but as creative tools to augment the core curriculum. That means research on the web, multimedia projects, etc. The document I read (not available online) actually pushes the theory that limiting instruction to standard office applications is "damaging."
The OLPC box running linux is somewhere around $100-200 depending on the phase of the moon. A minimum PC (with monitor) for running XP will be at LEAST double that, and nowhere near as durable or able to run on low power as the OLPC box. This is no threat to the OLPC program or box itself.
Nothing to see here...
A transaction is different that a tax return. A return may contain hundreds of different pieces if information, and then connect to the IRS servers to actually submit the return.
In other words, apples and oranges.
If you are talking about database transactions, performance depends on what the transaction IS. It's one thing to process 1500 TPS where your transaction consists of updating a single column in one row, completely another if it updates dozens of tables with triggers and stored procedures.
Lucky you. Despite the legal deadline of Jan 31 for reporting companies to send you interest statements and such, I didn't get all mine until late Feb. I got all my stuff to the CPA by the end of Feb, and had my refunds 2 weeks later.
So yeah - simple returns can be easy, and you can get done early. Better make sure you have ALL those reporting statements though so you don't have to file an amended return later.
Oh I agree. My tax situation is plenty complicated, frequently with a lot of special cases... (real estate transactions, investments, AMT, etc.) I have had a CPA do it for the past 7 years. The other thing a good CPA will do is suggest ways of handing your finances / savings for maximum benefit. You aren't going to get that from a piece of software... In fact, I would bet that my CPA has saved me 10 times what he charges me. In fact, the first year, he checked my prior three years returns that I did with turbotax and found that I had paid several thousand too much. A few amended returns later and I had my refund.
My opinion on the whole thing is that if you can file the 1040EZ, or have VERY simple tax status (no investments, you rent, etc.) go for the software. Otherwise, get a professional, and I don't mean one of these "tax only" companies who hire people just for tax season to do data entry... Use a real CPA.
The solution is to eliminate "software" and "business process" patents. There is no reasonable way that patent examiners can possibly identify all possible prior art and identify cases where something is "obvious to someone in the field."
To be very honest, when faced with a problem there is very little that wouldn't be "obvious" to a competent developer. Additionally, software has specialties much like medicine, and the USPTO can't reasonably have people on staff or pay enough consultants to do the research on it. Remember - an individual can get a patent for as little as $100. Even the corporate filing fees are not NEARLY enough to do due diligence on an application. We need to realize that it's not possible and that these patents are not reasonable to grant at all.
Let's get back to patents on real physical stuff again, where real innovation still exists. I don't like the mathematical algorithm patents either. Again, we have about 5 billion people in the world - anything one person can think up has got to be pretty obvious to a few hundred thousand at least if faced with solving the same problem.