Most of the truly great Linux software packages either have Windows versions (GIMP, Inkscape, Blender), or are OSS-variants of proprietary stuff. That leaves the last truly-powerful part of Linux as it's big selling point in Windows - the command line. I'd love to see it convert more people to *nix variant OS's, but in reality I think most will see it as a different PowerShell.
The other big argument is server applications. MS has done a great job of tying up LDAP, Kerberos, SMTP and a few other tools into one user interface with Active Directory and all it's tie-ins to Outlook and other MS products. The IT guys I've talked to that manage Linux servers complain about how finicky it still is to do the simplest of tasks, meanwhile in Windows it takes a minute. Tops.
I'd love to see Linux take over since I find it more efficient and powerful for what I need it to do. I just don't see it happening until Linux gets their config to the same level of MCSE/MCSA certificates for clicking through config wizards.
I don't think it's greedy to want a full game when you paid full price for the game. I paid for Killer Instinct's "Ultra Pack" or whatever, $60 for all of seasons 1-3, including chars and maps. When I bought it, it said "ALL THE CHARACTERS" and such. Then a few months later they release more characters and maps for a not-insignificant $5 each. Even Mario Kart 8 had two DLC packs. Granted it felt pretty complete before them - but who can really resist an extra 16 courses and 4 characters? Of course, now all that and more is all included in the Switch port.
The most egregious of the DLC and lootbox madness is Train Simulator 2016. To get everything for the game requires an over $3000 investment. At what point does it become less of a game and more of a senseless money grab?
My best advice for "being a good programmer" doesn't have anything to do with writing code. One of my professors taught us to "define, defend, and attack" something to show you have a solid understanding of it. Another lesson I've learned is to never come to a manager/leader with a problem. Come to them with a problem and at least 3 well thought-out solutions. I've really taken these lessons to heart in my career. Going into a design meeting, concisely and thoroughly explaining the problem and being able to argue the pros/cons of solutions shows a real understanding of the environment and opens up for a productive debate about which direction the code needs to go.
To that end, it's more than just being able to hand your work off to others. It's about being able to show others *why* something was done - or needs to be done - the way it was done and *how* that is better than the alternatives. This goes way beyond "for loop versus while loop", it promotes learning, discussion and understanding within your team.
One thing people don't realize is that while the DoD budget is an extravagance, part of that funding does eventually end up in the private sector. GPS was DoD funded for military use before becoming widely spread. Your iphone wouldn't be what it is today without DoD spending.
One of the tenets of the DoD Research Labs is to help small businesses get off the ground through SBIR contracts - and then make sure they can grow and sell to the public after that initial investment by the Gov. If you follow the money, a very small portion goes to the guys/gals in uniform. Most of the money goes to defense contractors - keeping those STEM folks employed, or to mom and pop businesses selling supplies through GSA.
It's not so much an extravagance as it is a re-investment in local businesses. You may disagree with the technology being built, but I doubt you disagree with keeping US minds employed.
Google is in a rare position to do exactly what folks have said on here for years.
"STOP MAKING STUPID PEOPLE FAMOUS!"
The sooner idiots like this stop getting attention for being idiots, the better off our society will be. Youtube should just yank his accounts, or at the very least lower his search status so low that you'd have to go into the trenches (10+ pages) to find him.
I'm pretty sure many of them will find some way to game the system. Attach the wristbands to robots, or the ol' "hang the tracker from a ceiling fan" trick to make it look like they're pacing in circles (really fast).
Those same single payer countries also charge a hell of a lot more in personal income tax. The money comes from somewhere, it's just not labelled the same way it is here in the states.
On average, the total spent on healthcare is less because the the young and/or wealthy pay some of the costs for the old and/or poor.
They haven't focused on their own software in quite a while. Mail doesn't handle multiple accounts with any dignity. Safari crashes after 10 tabs, or one heavy one. Music only allows browsing by (Track) Artist, Album and Genre - it's useless if you have a large library of collections. A lot of their stuff is "my way or no way" and buggy as all hell. Maybe this year they can fix some of the braindead decisions they've made on their phones.
I use Spark for email - it handles pop3/gmail/imap accounts with ease and smart filtering. Chrome and Dolphin for browsing - though they aren't immune either. I paid for Cesium to manage my large library and be able to sort by Album Artist.
After a long run of 4 Android phones, I thought the grass was finally greener in the Apple camp. The OS is more stable, though less customizable... but that's about it. I can't think of much I'd actually miss if I went back to android.
People forget a big part of what those publishers do is front money to the band then turn around and advertise for them. Sure, you'll see that they signed "Band X" for 5 albums over N years, but what you don't see is that it is basically all a loan. The publisher will give them some money, but also spend money promoting the band and expect to get a cut of all proceeds.
They get a cut of merchandise, album sales, likely more as the band tours and becomes known. I read somewhere that most artists don't actually become profitable until their third or fourth CD is released. Considering how many one-hit wonders there are out there, you can see how all the power goes to a few rich companies. Not to mention one time people had to buy a whole CD even though they wanted 1 or 2 songs. Today we have that choice thanks to Amazon and iTunes. Here's a couple articles:
Netflix has a kids section, as does Hulu. Amazon has pretty solid selection by age group too. At least on FireTV - you can lock most things down with pin access. I've got a 5 and 7 year old that can turn on the TV themselves and watch assorted kid stuff. The trick is they know they need to ask first, and that we as parents are in control of the TV. We say when it needs to be turned off. It's perfect for when we need an extra hour or so in the morning, or as we get ready and the kids have woken up a bit too early.
It's certainly not perfect since our kids can somehow find the most god awful shows in the mix. It's not that they are age inappropriate, they just kill braincells for any adult in a 10 mile radius.
Add in some fixes to the income gap as well. CEO's in Sweden only make low 7 digits, any more and they are criticized. Stateside, many CEO's make 8 and 9 digit salaries. Not to mention stock options and other nonsense they get. I'd love to see a law that states "A CEO cannot earn more than n times his/her employees average salary". Even better if 'n' were 15, and instead of average it were lowest salary. Give the low-level worker bees a living wage and invest that CEO wallet padding into productivity somewhere.
You can figure with corporate overhead, insurance, lights/power/water and such for a typical worker you're looking at *actual cost* for an employee is 3x their salary. You *could* cut Alphabet's CEO's salary to $100M/yr and afford to pay a whole corporation of 300 people $100k/year including that huge factor of overhead. Realistically it'd be more like 600 folks at $100k a year (assuming 50% overhead instead of 200%). Does one person really contribute that much more than 600 to earn such a crazy high salary?
Apple lost St. Jobs some years ago and has been doing minor "courageous" upgrades for the past few years. Microsoft had an initial flair for innovation back when Bill Gates was at the helm, then they too started down the path of "Me Too". Just look at Windows Phone. Facebook is starting down that road with their intent to compete with Twitch.tv
Now Google is joining the club.
I'm curious what the next big idea that gets these guys off the couch will be.
I'd say Linus' words can influence a lot of purchase decisions. Linux powers a huge part of the internet - those guys shopping for system upgrades for their RHEL/Ubuntu/Debian systems looking to get bang for the buck *could* just move over to AMD.
I was thinking along the same lines. I pick up 10 pounds of potatoes, then go and get 8 pounds of booze. I put the potatoes on the booze shelf, then walk out. Do I get 8 pounds of booze for the price of 2 pounds of potatoes?
Even the *best* surveillance systems have blind spots and replacing/spoofing/jamming RFID is trivial.
I don't know if it was racism reaction to a not quite fully white president or an inevitable reaction to the economy collapsing or some combination of both, but something started stirring in the republican party in 2009 that was just nasty. Combine that with a weak candidate that also triggers the frothing anti-clinton and anti-woman factions, while also pissing off democrats by doing unfair things to Sanders and we got Trump.
The populous is reactionary. It takes at least 2 years for a Presidents fiscal policies to show any effect, but the media often paints it as "National debt hits new peak in Obama administration". Bush spent billions (trillions?) on an unpopular war. Yet Obama is the bad guy because he got the bill, nevermind the guy that at the lobster and forgot his wallet.
There is always a spin on the story, always something that pisses off someone. Here's hoping the Net Neutrality debate stops the public from fighting itself over bipartisan nonsense long enough that we are finally able to rise up and get some voices heard in our government.
I've found companies change names when they no longer want to be associated with whatever crap they tried to pull before. Just look at the Mortgage industry, I've had a house for 10 years and my company has changed names 4 times. Yes, they suck.
Opera Mini is absolutely god awful on iOS and crashes at the thought of a wordpress site, jumbled nonsense on HTML5 sites (if I'm looking at it right). What else is Opera trying to run away from?
I don't know about that. It's true that the Disney-branded offerings on the AppleTV are total crap - limit all shows to the latest 3 episodes and "rent" all movies. With a majority stake in Hulu and their acquisition of that other streaming provider, they finally have a means to reach the couch. They could expand Hulu and make it a real competitor with all of their content. At least their Disney stuff only advertises their own things, much like HBO.
Eh, who am I kidding, they'll probably squeeze every penny they can and still force choke commercials down everyones throat.
That's because Disney actually spends their money. They bought Lucasfilm and Marvel. They constantly upgrade their theme parks. They have a lot of R&D behind *every* attraction at their parks.
Apple sells their wares for 4x cost of materials then hides behind Ireland.
That's because the news is no longer about reporting the days events. It's about chasing ratings and making money. Journalistic integrity went by the wayside years ago once publishers realized they can draw attention to whatever dress was worn on the red carpet (and the resulting advertising money).
Slashdot Mirror
Most of the truly great Linux software packages either have Windows versions (GIMP, Inkscape, Blender), or are OSS-variants of proprietary stuff. That leaves the last truly-powerful part of Linux as it's big selling point in Windows - the command line. I'd love to see it convert more people to *nix variant OS's, but in reality I think most will see it as a different PowerShell.
The other big argument is server applications. MS has done a great job of tying up LDAP, Kerberos, SMTP and a few other tools into one user interface with Active Directory and all it's tie-ins to Outlook and other MS products. The IT guys I've talked to that manage Linux servers complain about how finicky it still is to do the simplest of tasks, meanwhile in Windows it takes a minute. Tops.
I'd love to see Linux take over since I find it more efficient and powerful for what I need it to do. I just don't see it happening until Linux gets their config to the same level of MCSE/MCSA certificates for clicking through config wizards.
I don't think it's greedy to want a full game when you paid full price for the game. I paid for Killer Instinct's "Ultra Pack" or whatever, $60 for all of seasons 1-3, including chars and maps. When I bought it, it said "ALL THE CHARACTERS" and such. Then a few months later they release more characters and maps for a not-insignificant $5 each. Even Mario Kart 8 had two DLC packs. Granted it felt pretty complete before them - but who can really resist an extra 16 courses and 4 characters? Of course, now all that and more is all included in the Switch port.
The most egregious of the DLC and lootbox madness is Train Simulator 2016. To get everything for the game requires an over $3000 investment. At what point does it become less of a game and more of a senseless money grab?
My best advice for "being a good programmer" doesn't have anything to do with writing code. One of my professors taught us to "define, defend, and attack" something to show you have a solid understanding of it. Another lesson I've learned is to never come to a manager/leader with a problem. Come to them with a problem and at least 3 well thought-out solutions. I've really taken these lessons to heart in my career. Going into a design meeting, concisely and thoroughly explaining the problem and being able to argue the pros/cons of solutions shows a real understanding of the environment and opens up for a productive debate about which direction the code needs to go.
To that end, it's more than just being able to hand your work off to others. It's about being able to show others *why* something was done - or needs to be done - the way it was done and *how* that is better than the alternatives. This goes way beyond "for loop versus while loop", it promotes learning, discussion and understanding within your team.
One thing people don't realize is that while the DoD budget is an extravagance, part of that funding does eventually end up in the private sector. GPS was DoD funded for military use before becoming widely spread. Your iphone wouldn't be what it is today without DoD spending.
One of the tenets of the DoD Research Labs is to help small businesses get off the ground through SBIR contracts - and then make sure they can grow and sell to the public after that initial investment by the Gov. If you follow the money, a very small portion goes to the guys/gals in uniform. Most of the money goes to defense contractors - keeping those STEM folks employed, or to mom and pop businesses selling supplies through GSA.
It's not so much an extravagance as it is a re-investment in local businesses. You may disagree with the technology being built, but I doubt you disagree with keeping US minds employed.
Google is in a rare position to do exactly what folks have said on here for years.
"STOP MAKING STUPID PEOPLE FAMOUS!"
The sooner idiots like this stop getting attention for being idiots, the better off our society will be. Youtube should just yank his accounts, or at the very least lower his search status so low that you'd have to go into the trenches (10+ pages) to find him.
How can you tell you're at a zoo in Louisiana?
Next to the description of the animal is a recipe.
I'm pretty sure many of them will find some way to game the system. Attach the wristbands to robots, or the ol' "hang the tracker from a ceiling fan" trick to make it look like they're pacing in circles (really fast).
Those same single payer countries also charge a hell of a lot more in personal income tax. The money comes from somewhere, it's just not labelled the same way it is here in the states.
On average, the total spent on healthcare is less because the the young and/or wealthy pay some of the costs for the old and/or poor.
They haven't focused on their own software in quite a while. Mail doesn't handle multiple accounts with any dignity. Safari crashes after 10 tabs, or one heavy one. Music only allows browsing by (Track) Artist, Album and Genre - it's useless if you have a large library of collections. A lot of their stuff is "my way or no way" and buggy as all hell. Maybe this year they can fix some of the braindead decisions they've made on their phones.
I use Spark for email - it handles pop3/gmail/imap accounts with ease and smart filtering. Chrome and Dolphin for browsing - though they aren't immune either. I paid for Cesium to manage my large library and be able to sort by Album Artist.
After a long run of 4 Android phones, I thought the grass was finally greener in the Apple camp. The OS is more stable, though less customizable... but that's about it. I can't think of much I'd actually miss if I went back to android.
People forget a big part of what those publishers do is front money to the band then turn around and advertise for them. Sure, you'll see that they signed "Band X" for 5 albums over N years, but what you don't see is that it is basically all a loan. The publisher will give them some money, but also spend money promoting the band and expect to get a cut of all proceeds.
They get a cut of merchandise, album sales, likely more as the band tours and becomes known. I read somewhere that most artists don't actually become profitable until their third or fourth CD is released. Considering how many one-hit wonders there are out there, you can see how all the power goes to a few rich companies. Not to mention one time people had to buy a whole CD even though they wanted 1 or 2 songs. Today we have that choice thanks to Amazon and iTunes. Here's a couple articles:
Record sales: Where does the money go?
In Shift to Streaming, Music Industry has Lost Billions
Netflix has a kids section, as does Hulu. Amazon has pretty solid selection by age group too. At least on FireTV - you can lock most things down with pin access. I've got a 5 and 7 year old that can turn on the TV themselves and watch assorted kid stuff. The trick is they know they need to ask first, and that we as parents are in control of the TV. We say when it needs to be turned off. It's perfect for when we need an extra hour or so in the morning, or as we get ready and the kids have woken up a bit too early.
It's certainly not perfect since our kids can somehow find the most god awful shows in the mix. It's not that they are age inappropriate, they just kill braincells for any adult in a 10 mile radius.
Add in some fixes to the income gap as well. CEO's in Sweden only make low 7 digits, any more and they are criticized. Stateside, many CEO's make 8 and 9 digit salaries. Not to mention stock options and other nonsense they get. I'd love to see a law that states "A CEO cannot earn more than n times his/her employees average salary". Even better if 'n' were 15, and instead of average it were lowest salary. Give the low-level worker bees a living wage and invest that CEO wallet padding into productivity somewhere.
You can figure with corporate overhead, insurance, lights/power/water and such for a typical worker you're looking at *actual cost* for an employee is 3x their salary. You *could* cut Alphabet's CEO's salary to $100M/yr and afford to pay a whole corporation of 300 people $100k/year including that huge factor of overhead. Realistically it'd be more like 600 folks at $100k a year (assuming 50% overhead instead of 200%). Does one person really contribute that much more than 600 to earn such a crazy high salary?
Relax, the original scientists that looked at global extinction are long gone. It's now a measure of angry tweets and Starbucks proximity.
Don't make them become game engines!
I can see Epic, Crytek and Id Software yelling "Bullshit! that's our job!"
Apple lost St. Jobs some years ago and has been doing minor "courageous" upgrades for the past few years.
Microsoft had an initial flair for innovation back when Bill Gates was at the helm, then they too started down the path of "Me Too". Just look at Windows Phone.
Facebook is starting down that road with their intent to compete with Twitch.tv
Now Google is joining the club.
I'm curious what the next big idea that gets these guys off the couch will be.
I wish the police would not use battering rams to recover legally purchased property. FTFY
Please oh please let the MAFIAA start fighting with Apple. I'd like to see those two 500lb gorillas fight...
I'd say Linus' words can influence a lot of purchase decisions. Linux powers a huge part of the internet - those guys shopping for system upgrades for their RHEL/Ubuntu/Debian systems looking to get bang for the buck *could* just move over to AMD.
I was thinking along the same lines. I pick up 10 pounds of potatoes, then go and get 8 pounds of booze. I put the potatoes on the booze shelf, then walk out. Do I get 8 pounds of booze for the price of 2 pounds of potatoes?
Even the *best* surveillance systems have blind spots and replacing/spoofing/jamming RFID is trivial.
I don't know if it was racism reaction to a not quite fully white president or an inevitable reaction to the economy collapsing or some combination of both, but something started stirring in the republican party in 2009 that was just nasty. Combine that with a weak candidate that also triggers the frothing anti-clinton and anti-woman factions, while also pissing off democrats by doing unfair things to Sanders and we got Trump.
The populous is reactionary. It takes at least 2 years for a Presidents fiscal policies to show any effect, but the media often paints it as "National debt hits new peak in Obama administration". Bush spent billions (trillions?) on an unpopular war. Yet Obama is the bad guy because he got the bill, nevermind the guy that at the lobster and forgot his wallet.
There is always a spin on the story, always something that pisses off someone. Here's hoping the Net Neutrality debate stops the public from fighting itself over bipartisan nonsense long enough that we are finally able to rise up and get some voices heard in our government.
I've found companies change names when they no longer want to be associated with whatever crap they tried to pull before. Just look at the Mortgage industry, I've had a house for 10 years and my company has changed names 4 times. Yes, they suck.
Opera Mini is absolutely god awful on iOS and crashes at the thought of a wordpress site, jumbled nonsense on HTML5 sites (if I'm looking at it right). What else is Opera trying to run away from?
I don't know about that. It's true that the Disney-branded offerings on the AppleTV are total crap - limit all shows to the latest 3 episodes and "rent" all movies. With a majority stake in Hulu and their acquisition of that other streaming provider, they finally have a means to reach the couch. They could expand Hulu and make it a real competitor with all of their content. At least their Disney stuff only advertises their own things, much like HBO.
Eh, who am I kidding, they'll probably squeeze every penny they can and still force choke commercials down everyones throat.
That's because Disney actually spends their money. They bought Lucasfilm and Marvel. They constantly upgrade their theme parks. They have a lot of R&D behind *every* attraction at their parks.
Apple sells their wares for 4x cost of materials then hides behind Ireland.
I wanna see Hulk smash the Death Star. There's probably some other universe mashups that would be awesome too.
That's because the news is no longer about reporting the days events. It's about chasing ratings and making money. Journalistic integrity went by the wayside years ago once publishers realized they can draw attention to whatever dress was worn on the red carpet (and the resulting advertising money).