So...anything 99% of my users at work won't be doing on a normal basis is protected by the popup boxes you so loathe. In fact, from your quote here, in a normal work day all but one of my users will never see or use any of the items on that list. Yet your claim is that the boxes are so ubiquitous they interfered with the normal operation of the computer.
Oddly enough, this is exactly how my standalone, which I alone admin, Desktop Linux install behaves.
Isn't this the very sort of behavior I rely on to keep my system secure? Hell, by default my system even nags at me when I, assuming I am actually the legitimate admin, try to log in as root. Ok, I shut that off, but I did give my default root GUI a "Danger Red" theme so I can never forget that I'm operating as root.
There are a lot of things I'm not going to like about Vista, but I don't see strictly enforcing the root/user distinction as being among them. That's one of the things I would demand before I installed it.
Google is in the software business, they just finance it through advertising . ..
This is the fundamental conceptual mistake of business.
. ..they are in the advertising business because they finance their operation by ads rather than charging their consumers directly.
A business is defined by what provides it with profit. The source of the profit is the "consumer."
The source of Google's profit is advertising. The advertisers are the "consumer" of Google's product. You, as a user of Google's services are the "product" being marketed, not the software used to do the marketing. A carpenter is not in the hammer business, even if he makes his own hammers.
Why do you think commercial television sucks so badly? Why do you think there are so many infomercials on cable?
It's because you are not the "consumer" of the product. You are the resource being exploited. Ya ever see what a mountain looks like after it has been exploited for coal?
Until you get this into your head properly you are not really a "consumer." You are what is known as a "mark."
Is Micrsoft admitting that they dropped the ball on this one like the Internet in 1995?
No. Microsoft is admitting that their proposed model of charging a per use fee for a word processor was stillborn.
The problem is that they don't seem to realize that quite yet. The "software as service" market is in areas entirely independant of traditional, standalone applications, which continue to work just fine standalone. A standalone search engine is just as stupid an idea as an "as service" word processor.
Basically they're still dropping the ball on the Internet. They don't "get it," because they only understand centralized control. The very structure of the Internet is outside the realm of the corporate meme, so they don't even know how to think about it properly.
Nah, not treason. Let's not expand the application of law beyond its purview. That's a Bad Thing. The very problem.
That doesn't mean that your idea is not valid, because what they have done is violate their oath of office to serve the interests of The People and uphold the Constitution.
Assuming no other criminal offense is involved $100,000 fine, being barred from holding public office and five years probation ought to cover it.
And Congress shall pass no law infringing upon the right of The People to refer to anybody convicted of such a violation as "That asshole," because doing so would be held as prima facie evidence of violation.
Google exists in an entirely different sphere of influence than Microsoft. Microsoft is not protecting its base against competition so much as it is doing what it has always done:
Found out that someone else is making money and trying to muscle in on it.
Microsoft is in the software business. Google is not in the software as service business. They are in the advertising business, just as a billboard company is not in the real estate business, even though they must interact with the real estate market in order to sell their advertising product.
And the only people demanding "software as a service" are the advertising buyers/sellers.
"Tom's Hardware" is nearly indistinguishable from "PC Magazine".
I pretty much stopped buying magazines a few years ago. They have been infected with the "web model" of presenting "content."
Back in the day a magazine contained these things called articles; which consisted mainly of a few pages of text and maybe an illustration or three.
Now an "article" contains a few pages of "graphical presentation" and a paragraph of text; presumably to provide some justification for the inclusion of the graphics.
. ..requires custom installation of jacks anywhere you'd use it.
Like, at your desk?
limited standalone capability (designed to leverage Terminal Services)
Well, yes. It is overtly a thin client. The cpu is really just a "cache" of computing power with the real computing power residing elsewhere. But that receptionist and bank of data entry people on the eigth floor are wasting the power of their PC anyway and still have to be connected to the central server to accomplish their jobs.
This isn't a box for programmers or engineers. It's a simple tool for working schlubs. There's more of them then there are of us and most of them do nothing but simple data entry and a smidgeon of data retrieval. Reservation clerk, med tech, POS, DMV registration, insurance claims processing
price (not really that inexpensive, no bargain over current desktop prices
5w vs.80w+. Multiply by the eigth floor. Check your electric bill for the savings. Why do you think almost all businesses have gone over to LCD screens even though they may have been twice the price of a CRT? It ain't for the form factor.
I'm guessing it's more of a business solution. ..
Well who else would have a cube farm full of thin clients?
I can't imagine it in any of the business settings I've experienced.
I can only suggest that your experience has been limited. If I ever do the brick and mortar thing again I can see myself going for a half dozen or so of these things.
In fact I could see myself sticking one of these things in the back panel of my desk at home and connecting it to the big box in the closet; if it weren't for:
. ..about $20,000 US. I guess inexpensive is a relative term. ..
$20,000 is where "cheap" ends in the violin market. The sort of thing you might send your kid to college with, or have made as a "cheap" copy of your "good" violin (a common practice for insurance purposes). I was looking at a mandolin last year that was made in the year I was born, in the city I was born in. It was going for $25,000. Just some bits of carved wood, baroque era tech.
Slashdot Mirror
I am among those who is not against DRM, per se. What do you think encryption is?
What concerns me is whose rights are being managed on my system.
KFG
So...anything 99% of my users at work won't be doing on a normal basis is protected by the popup boxes you so loathe. In fact, from your quote here, in a normal work day all but one of my users will never see or use any of the items on that list. Yet your claim is that the boxes are so ubiquitous they interfered with the normal operation of the computer.
Oddly enough, this is exactly how my standalone, which I alone admin, Desktop Linux install behaves.
Isn't this the very sort of behavior I rely on to keep my system secure? Hell, by default my system even nags at me when I, assuming I am actually the legitimate admin, try to log in as root. Ok, I shut that off, but I did give my default root GUI a "Danger Red" theme so I can never forget that I'm operating as root.
There are a lot of things I'm not going to like about Vista, but I don't see strictly enforcing the root/user distinction as being among them. That's one of the things I would demand before I installed it.
KFG
Soylent Green is politicians!
KFG
Google is in the software business, they just finance it through advertising . . .
.they are in the advertising business because they finance their operation by ads rather than charging their consumers directly.
This is the fundamental conceptual mistake of business.
. .
A business is defined by what provides it with profit. The source of the profit is the "consumer."
The source of Google's profit is advertising. The advertisers are the "consumer" of Google's product. You, as a user of Google's services are the "product" being marketed, not the software used to do the marketing. A carpenter is not in the hammer business, even if he makes his own hammers.
Why do you think commercial television sucks so badly? Why do you think there are so many infomercials on cable?
It's because you are not the "consumer" of the product. You are the resource being exploited. Ya ever see what a mountain looks like after it has been exploited for coal?
Until you get this into your head properly you are not really a "consumer." You are what is known as a "mark."
KFG
Can we at least tattoo "That Asshole" on their forehead?
My mother's family is Jewish. The idea makes me twitch.
That doesn't mean I don't like the idea, just that it makes me twitch.
KFG
Isn't that what an oath of office is for?
Yes.
Otherwise, what does such an oath mean?
Nothing.
And that's just the way they like it.
KFG
Is Micrsoft admitting that they dropped the ball on this one like the Internet in 1995?
No. Microsoft is admitting that their proposed model of charging a per use fee for a word processor was stillborn.
The problem is that they don't seem to realize that quite yet. The "software as service" market is in areas entirely independant of traditional, standalone applications, which continue to work just fine standalone. A standalone search engine is just as stupid an idea as an "as service" word processor.
Basically they're still dropping the ball on the Internet. They don't "get it," because they only understand centralized control. The very structure of the Internet is outside the realm of the corporate meme, so they don't even know how to think about it properly.
KFG
Nah, not treason. Let's not expand the application of law beyond its purview. That's a Bad Thing. The very problem.
That doesn't mean that your idea is not valid, because what they have done is violate their oath of office to serve the interests of The People and uphold the Constitution.
Assuming no other criminal offense is involved $100,000 fine, being barred from holding public office and five years probation ought to cover it.
And Congress shall pass no law infringing upon the right of The People to refer to anybody convicted of such a violation as "That asshole," because doing so would be held as prima facie evidence of violation.
KFG
Downside?
The competition is an illusion.
Google exists in an entirely different sphere of influence than Microsoft. Microsoft is not protecting its base against competition so much as it is doing what it has always done:
Found out that someone else is making money and trying to muscle in on it.
Microsoft is in the software business. Google is not in the software as service business. They are in the advertising business, just as a billboard company is not in the real estate business, even though they must interact with the real estate market in order to sell their advertising product.
And the only people demanding "software as a service" are the advertising buyers/sellers.
KFG
"Tom's Hardware" is nearly indistinguishable from "PC Magazine".
I pretty much stopped buying magazines a few years ago. They have been infected with the "web model" of presenting "content."
Back in the day a magazine contained these things called articles; which consisted mainly of a few pages of text and maybe an illustration or three.
Now an "article" contains a few pages of "graphical presentation" and a paragraph of text; presumably to provide some justification for the inclusion of the graphics.
I outgrew Classic Comics when I was about 6.
KFG
. . .requires custom installation of jacks anywhere you'd use it.
.
Like, at your desk?
limited standalone capability (designed to leverage Terminal Services)
Well, yes. It is overtly a thin client. The cpu is really just a "cache" of computing power with the real computing power residing elsewhere. But that receptionist and bank of data entry people on the eigth floor are wasting the power of their PC anyway and still have to be connected to the central server to accomplish their jobs.
This isn't a box for programmers or engineers. It's a simple tool for working schlubs. There's more of them then there are of us and most of them do nothing but simple data entry and a smidgeon of data retrieval. Reservation clerk, med tech, POS, DMV registration, insurance claims processing
price (not really that inexpensive, no bargain over current desktop prices
5w vs.80w+. Multiply by the eigth floor. Check your electric bill for the savings. Why do you think almost all businesses have gone over to LCD screens even though they may have been twice the price of a CRT? It ain't for the form factor.
I'm guessing it's more of a business solution. .
Well who else would have a cube farm full of thin clients?
I can't imagine it in any of the business settings I've experienced.
I can only suggest that your experience has been limited. If I ever do the brick and mortar thing again I can see myself going for a half dozen or so of these things.
In fact I could see myself sticking one of these things in the back panel of my desk at home and connecting it to the big box in the closet; if it weren't for:
WinCE
IE6
The show stopper.
KFG
. . .DRM isn't to be completely bullet proof (there's always the analog hole). . .
Until they chip your vestibulocochlear nerve.
KFG
This is a review?
Welcome to Intarweb 2.0
KFG
. . .the ones where the parents don't want to take responsibilities for the actions of their kids they don't bother monitoring...
Just hire a private dick to follow them around.
Ummmmmm, maybe I could have phrased that differently.
KFG
. . .does the information required to prove one is an adult provide yet more ways for one's online activity to be tracked?
Isn't that the point?
KFG
Go after paedophiles, gag all the paeds.
Yeah, makes sense.
KFG
. . .about $20,000 US. I guess inexpensive is a relative term. . .
$20,000 is where "cheap" ends in the violin market. The sort of thing you might send your kid to college with, or have made as a "cheap" copy of your "good" violin (a common practice for insurance purposes). I was looking at a mandolin last year that was made in the year I was born, in the city I was born in. It was going for $25,000. Just some bits of carved wood, baroque era tech.
Yes, it's all relative.
KFG
Place your bets...
http://www.walottery.com/
KFG
. . . not worry that I will see men in black that will carry me away.
They're invisible.
KFG
Funny, they never get labeled as lazy.
Actually, they do. Ironically, by lazy Americans.
Does America need more work or more slack?
Yes.
To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose
Under Heaven
KFG
Was it just that I was young and naive and believed in a good country that stuck to its principles?
Yes.
To the Person Sitting in Darkness - Mark Twain
KFG
Alexander the Great . . .flower arranger.
KFG
What's the appeal of brawling?
Depends on how big an asshole you are.
KFG
What was the point in changing it? Just to change it?
Yes.
KFG
Keep insulting my tree gods. . .
Quite the contrary, I was insulting Christians, because my name is Rex Cramer; Danger Seeker!
KFG