There is an app(more info and links to icons and stuff) that a guy wrote that is basically a stripped-down browser (WebKit) just for GMail. No reason it couldn't be adapted to work with other Google apps too. (And I literally mean no reason--it's BSD licensed and comes with source.)
>...the choice between a machine with your favorite operating system or a machine with your most hated current OS but with access to the internet. > I must admit that I would take the machine that had the connection to the internet regardless of what current OS it had on it. > So, not only is Windows no longer relevant...
Bad conclusion. Hypotheticals like this mean nothing because no one has to make that decision. It's like asking "If you had to be, would you rather be blind or deaf?" and then concluding, from the fact that most people chose 'deaf,' that people want to be deaf. That is obviously not the case.
Am I the only one who remembers Netscape's bold proclamation that they'd reduce windows to an unimportant collection of poorly-written device drivers? Yeah, that worked out well for them. Windows isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I can't believe this Web 2.0 thing--we are literally reliving the 1996-2000 period. Coming up next on Slashdot: an article talking about how Internet Appliances (like 3Com's Audry, the iOpener, Web TV, etc.) are going to be the Next Big Thing.
I also remember the idea a few years ago that the "Windows tax" would become a prohibitively large portion of a computer's cost and no one would pay $300 for a computer when Windows was $100 of that cost. Well, here we are in 2006, and I can go to dell.com any day of the week and buy a computer with Windows (and a flat-panel monitor) for $349. People don't seem to mind. MS makes money at a rate most people can't imagine--I think I heard their profit is a billion dollars a month--so they can just make sweeter and sweeter deals to OEMs to keep their software loaded. No sense mentioning that most business-class computers (their bread and butter) cost about twice that. Basically, MS has a HUGE amount of inertia working for them. In most cases, the headaches of moving away from Windows more than offset the minor cost savings made by going to a free alternative.And as cool as the Web (1.0, 2.0, and the rest) is, people still use binary apps day in, day out. Show me a web app that can burn a CD or make a complex spreadsheet (not just a fancy list, I mean a REAL, complicated, densely-formatted spreadsheet like most companies produce by the hundreds every day) and we'll talk. Meanwhile, the masses will be placated with the fancy new version of Minesweeper and Bill Gates will continue to have more money than he can spend.
It was once explained to me like this: at the time the constitution was written, privacy was a natural right, like gravity. Want to have a private conversation? Walk into the middle of a big open field and have it. The constitution also doesn't say "you have the right to walk on the ground." Privacy didn't need to be explicitly listed. And, as others have pointed out, several other amendments relate to privacy, esp. the 4th and 5th.
I agree that cars of today are worlds better than old ones but I think most appliances have gone downhill. My parents just got rid of the washer & dryer they purchased with their house in 1967. My wife and I just bought a new washer and dryer to replace units that were just over 10 years old. The dishwasher they bought in the early 1980s still works; our newer one died two years ago. Its replacement didn't wash dishes as well, so we replaced it with a more expensive unit (which, I'll admit, is very quiet.) I can't tell you how many toasters, microwaves, etc. we've gone through. They just get smaller, lighter, and flimsier. I'm sure they're move efficient and cost less to produce and ship (by dint of being lighter) but I'd rather trade a little efficiency for 2-3x the lifespan (and with that, less-used landfills) and some user-serviceable parts.
They'd have to sort through hours of "Micr0$0f7 suxx, lam3r!!!" in order to get any useful information.
No, they wouldn't, because million of slashdotters perform the filtering for free. All they have to do is browse at +5. I read lots of MS stories here and I never see plain-vanilla "Micr0$0f7 suxx, lam3r!!!" comments.
However, getting rid of the Borg icon would be good.:-)
Re:Here's what the Fossil looks like
on
Caller ID Watches
·
· Score: 1
c) press the 'TiVo' button on my remote twice to bring up my 'Now Playing' list, which at any given moment has a couple dozen hours of unwatched content on it.
And, if I may stretch "absolutely 0" the other way, bikers in SF have absolutely no regard for the rules of the road. I spent years working on Market Street in SF and have seen literally thousands of unsafe bike activities: cutting back and forth from the sidewalk to the street, going against traffic, weaving through pedestrians, zipping through stoplights and stop signs, and--I'm not exaggerating--sometimes all of the above at once.
Just because you're smaller than a car and faster than a pedestrian does not mean you should squirt through traffic and people like a wet bar of soap. If you want me to be able to see you, be where you're supposed to be.
On a serious, non-antagonistic note, I recommend you take a trip to Chico some day. Nowhere is perfect, but Chico is pretty nice.
= a pretty damn big number--1.5 BILLION songs (at ~$.99 per song) sold. Even if Apple only keeps 5% of that, that's seventy-five MILLION dollars.
And I don't think most users give a shit about "DRM-free music." I think it's this: - buy a CD, rip it: super-easy - buy a song online, burn a CD: not as easy
The plural of "anecdote" is not "data." The last time I installed Windows XP on real hardware (Compaq Deskpro) it found everything (sound, video, networking) out of the box, and I was also able to get a newer version of the video driver by letting Windows look online for it. I've never needed a driver for an onboard IDE controller. I've seen odd hardware that Linux loves and I've seen plain hardware that it hates. Same with Windows. Why do we have to have this "My driver collection is better than your driver collection" pissing contest in every Linux discussion?
I'm still amazed that no one has made a cell phone (officially licensed, etc.) that looks *just* like a communicator and makes that sound when opened. They could even do that shirt badge as a bluetooth thingie.
"The ships hung in the air in much the same way that bricks don't." --Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Your experience exactly DOESN'T match the parent poster's. I'll say it loud and clear once for the cheap seats: BIG BUSINESSES ARE DIFFERENT FROM SMALL BUSINESSES. Your post basically says "You're saying it's hard to move a thousand-pound rock. But I've moved a ten-pound rock and it's easy." Go work for a decades-old Fortune-500 company with an IT staff of over 100 and an entrenched Windows infrastructure and tell me how successful you are in changing anything.
Actually, I hate the new-look apps. The look is WAY overdone, and the behavior is different enough to be annoying. I *like* the fact that Solitaire hasn't changed since Win3.1. Next time I have a Vista test box (had one briefly for Beta 1 but it's currently doing other work) I'll need to copy over sol.exe and freecell.exe from a W2K box and see if they still run.
Vista is aping OS X the same way ricers copy real racers. And doing it just as badly.
Neat, but I recommend HandBrake (my personal favorite to go from DVD to H264 or MP4) or DVDBackup (to get 'clean' VIDEO_TS folders.) Not sure if there's something like DVDShrink (which also makes VIDEO_TS folders but can shrink them to any desired size.) I used a DVMC and some S-Video cables to move my original trilogy from LaserDisc to DVD but I can't think of a good reason to go digital->analog->digital with a DVD.
Also, check to see if your local library for DVDs. Mine has quite a collection. I like to support their efforts by letting a couple discs go overdue every once in a while.
Slashdot Mirror
There is an app (more info and links to icons and stuff) that a guy wrote that is basically a stripped-down browser (WebKit) just for GMail. No reason it couldn't be adapted to work with other Google apps too. (And I literally mean no reason--it's BSD licensed and comes with source.)
> ...the choice between a machine with your favorite operating system or a machine with your most hated current OS but with access to the internet.
> I must admit that I would take the machine that had the connection to the internet regardless of what current OS it had on it.
> So, not only is Windows no longer relevant...
Bad conclusion. Hypotheticals like this mean nothing because no one has to make that decision. It's like asking "If you had to be, would you rather be blind or deaf?" and then concluding, from the fact that most people chose 'deaf,' that people want to be deaf. That is obviously not the case.
Am I the only one who remembers Netscape's bold proclamation that they'd reduce windows to an unimportant collection of poorly-written device drivers? Yeah, that worked out well for them. Windows isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I can't believe this Web 2.0 thing--we are literally reliving the 1996-2000 period. Coming up next on Slashdot: an article talking about how Internet Appliances (like 3Com's Audry, the iOpener, Web TV, etc.) are going to be the Next Big Thing.
I also remember the idea a few years ago that the "Windows tax" would become a prohibitively large portion of a computer's cost and no one would pay $300 for a computer when Windows was $100 of that cost. Well, here we are in 2006, and I can go to dell.com any day of the week and buy a computer with Windows (and a flat-panel monitor) for $349. People don't seem to mind. MS makes money at a rate most people can't imagine--I think I heard their profit is a billion dollars a month--so they can just make sweeter and sweeter deals to OEMs to keep their software loaded. No sense mentioning that most business-class computers (their bread and butter) cost about twice that. Basically, MS has a HUGE amount of inertia working for them. In most cases, the headaches of moving away from Windows more than offset the minor cost savings made by going to a free alternative.And as cool as the Web (1.0, 2.0, and the rest) is, people still use binary apps day in, day out. Show me a web app that can burn a CD or make a complex spreadsheet (not just a fancy list, I mean a REAL, complicated, densely-formatted spreadsheet like most companies produce by the hundreds every day) and we'll talk. Meanwhile, the masses will be placated with the fancy new version of Minesweeper and Bill Gates will continue to have more money than he can spend.
Like the man said, "We'll have solar power when the government figures out how to tax a sunbeam." Looks like they're getting closer.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that Netscape and Java reduced Windows to a collection of buggy device drivers about nine years ago. Oh, wait, that didn't happen? Hmm...
It was once explained to me like this: at the time the constitution was written, privacy was a natural right, like gravity. Want to have a private conversation? Walk into the middle of a big open field and have it. The constitution also doesn't say "you have the right to walk on the ground." Privacy didn't need to be explicitly listed. And, as others have pointed out, several other amendments relate to privacy, esp. the 4th and 5th.
And all extremists should be shot.
You guys made it to the summary? I'm still counting the buzzwords in the title.
I agree that cars of today are worlds better than old ones but I think most appliances have gone downhill. My parents just got rid of the washer & dryer they purchased with their house in 1967. My wife and I just bought a new washer and dryer to replace units that were just over 10 years old. The dishwasher they bought in the early 1980s still works; our newer one died two years ago. Its replacement didn't wash dishes as well, so we replaced it with a more expensive unit (which, I'll admit, is very quiet.) I can't tell you how many toasters, microwaves, etc. we've gone through. They just get smaller, lighter, and flimsier. I'm sure they're move efficient and cost less to produce and ship (by dint of being lighter) but I'd rather trade a little efficiency for 2-3x the lifespan (and with that, less-used landfills) and some user-serviceable parts.
Wow, I'm sure nobody will ever find a way to print it out or take a screenshot of it.
Or take a picture of the screen. My monitor is 1600x1200 and my camera is 2048x1536. It takes "screenshots" just fine.
They'd have to sort through hours of "Micr0$0f7 suxx, lam3r!!!" in order to get any useful information.
:-)
No, they wouldn't, because million of slashdotters perform the filtering for free. All they have to do is browse at +5. I read lots of MS stories here and I never see plain-vanilla "Micr0$0f7 suxx, lam3r!!!" comments.
However, getting rid of the Borg icon would be good.
Wow, what a totally ugly faux-commando piece of shit. Fossil makes lots of nice watches but this ain't one of 'em.
c) press the 'TiVo' button on my remote twice to bring up my 'Now Playing' list, which at any given moment has a couple dozen hours of unwatched content on it.
Your PC reboots in 2 seconds? Wow, I really need to upgrade.
[x] 4-6
And, what's more, I bought the actual albums--as in, on vinyl. Back in the 1980s.
'Cause, you know, you really need the warmth that only analog can deliver when listening to "My Bologna" or "Dare to be Stupid."
Mmm, accordion... *aaaggghhh*
PS: Does taping them off Dr. Demento count? 'Cause that's my only copy of "School Cafeteria."
And, if I may stretch "absolutely 0" the other way, bikers in SF have absolutely no regard for the rules of the road. I spent years working on Market Street in SF and have seen literally thousands of unsafe bike activities: cutting back and forth from the sidewalk to the street, going against traffic, weaving through pedestrians, zipping through stoplights and stop signs, and--I'm not exaggerating--sometimes all of the above at once.
Just because you're smaller than a car and faster than a pedestrian does not mean you should squirt through traffic and people like a wet bar of soap. If you want me to be able to see you, be where you're supposed to be.
On a serious, non-antagonistic note, I recommend you take a trip to Chico some day. Nowhere is perfect, but Chico is pretty nice.
= a pretty damn big number--1.5 BILLION songs (at ~$.99 per song) sold. Even if Apple only keeps 5% of that, that's seventy-five MILLION dollars.
And I don't think most users give a shit about "DRM-free music." I think it's this:
- buy a CD, rip it: super-easy
- buy a song online, burn a CD: not as easy
I think he knows that.
Jebediah: [on film] A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.
Edna: Embiggens? I never heard that word before I moved to Springfield.
The plural of "anecdote" is not "data." The last time I installed Windows XP on real hardware (Compaq Deskpro) it found everything (sound, video, networking) out of the box, and I was also able to get a newer version of the video driver by letting Windows look online for it. I've never needed a driver for an onboard IDE controller. I've seen odd hardware that Linux loves and I've seen plain hardware that it hates. Same with Windows. Why do we have to have this "My driver collection is better than your driver collection" pissing contest in every Linux discussion?
Over at Pixar, one frame from Finding Nemo took 4500 computers over 90 hours to render.
Cite? That's gotta be one scene, not one frame. No way can a single frame needs 16,875 cpu-days. (And that's assuming single-CPU boxes.)
I'm still amazed that no one has made a cell phone (officially licensed, etc.) that looks *just* like a communicator and makes that sound when opened. They could even do that shirt badge as a bluetooth thingie.
"The ships hung in the air in much the same way that bricks don't."
--Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Your experience exactly DOESN'T match the parent poster's. I'll say it loud and clear once for the cheap seats: BIG BUSINESSES ARE DIFFERENT FROM SMALL BUSINESSES. Your post basically says "You're saying it's hard to move a thousand-pound rock. But I've moved a ten-pound rock and it's easy." Go work for a decades-old Fortune-500 company with an IT staff of over 100 and an entrenched Windows infrastructure and tell me how successful you are in changing anything.
Actually, I hate the new-look apps. The look is WAY overdone, and the behavior is different enough to be annoying. I *like* the fact that Solitaire hasn't changed since Win3.1. Next time I have a Vista test box (had one briefly for Beta 1 but it's currently doing other work) I'll need to copy over sol.exe and freecell.exe from a W2K box and see if they still run.
Vista is aping OS X the same way ricers copy real racers. And doing it just as badly.
Neat, but I recommend HandBrake (my personal favorite to go from DVD to H264 or MP4) or DVDBackup (to get 'clean' VIDEO_TS folders.) Not sure if there's something like DVDShrink (which also makes VIDEO_TS folders but can shrink them to any desired size.) I used a DVMC and some S-Video cables to move my original trilogy from LaserDisc to DVD but I can't think of a good reason to go digital->analog->digital with a DVD.
Also, check to see if your local library for DVDs. Mine has quite a collection. I like to support their efforts by letting a couple discs go overdue every once in a while.
This is a totally bogus policy. Most neologisms are perfectly cromulent words.
(BTW, am I the only one who has added 'cromulent' to his spellchecker's list of good words?)
And the summary doesn't make much sense. Anyone got a mirror?