how do we define the "demos": developpers ? users ? admins ? companies too ? stakeholders ? anyone who wants to ?
does representative democracy count as democracy ? When I see the huge disconnect between the election campaign and the happenings during a congress session, I sometimes think not.
who controls the agenda ? being free to vote is fine, being free to decide on what to vote on is better.
is there any need for non-democratic basic "stuff" ?
Oh, and I'm not even sure what Linux is: the bare kernel ? one distro ? all the distros ?
My take right now is that Linux is not a democracy.
1- You can't trust users to be honest, nor working, nor knowledgeable. That means educating them is probably a waste. You need to remove admin rights, block all non-controlled data sources. That means USB, CD, FD, Bluetooth, Wifi, card readers....
2- In some cases, you may be able/have to use disk images or remote desktops. You can configure those so the users cannot write anything to the disk image, thus ensuring that the OS and Apps are always clean at boot.
you're forgetting all the upcoming devices, especially the ARM+Android ones. Comparing older tablets based on the Wintel architecture is really not the point.
Are you sure about the iPad handles bluetooth keyboards ? link please ? As far as I know, the iPhone doesn't. Wifi is built into the iPad... to access the Internet. I'm really not sure what you can do in terms of browsing a LAN. If I can get 3G for free, I'll take that, thank you. I'll let you pay $130( 90% margin for apple) + a monthly rent. I'm not overly concerned about reboots, none of my Windows or Linux machines crashes these days.
I'm seeing ARM-based tablets that have removable memory cards, a screen readable in direct sunlight, 3g tethering, full LAN access, a camera, an open OS... and feel like waiting for them, prolly 2-3 months.
I don't understand your closing sentence since we agree that tablets are fine. I'm just trying to make the point that the iPad has severe limitations, but I'll stop my efforts now.
laptops also have folding screen/keyboard. netbooks were named because they were smaller (so closer to books), and because a new name was needed to differentiate this new product category (smaller, less powerful, initally not even windows...). Tablet can fall in the same category because they are also small, relatively underpowered, and not sufficient as a main PC.
pricing like a netbook means $250-350ish, which is the range of most netbooks.
content consumption (web, video, books, social networks...)
plus netbook-light with a bluetooth keyboard. You can add a BT keyboard to a tablet (except if it's an Apple one); you can't take the keyboard away from a netbbok.
i'd rather have my choice of bluetooth keyboards (credit card-, blackberry-, netbook-, full-sized) than have to carry a specific one at all times. Anything but the iPad will allow me that choice and capability.
I agree with your arguments in favor of tablets in general, but I have issues with your specific choice of an iPad: any other tablet will let you do all that, and more. I'm holding out because even though Apple's pricing is aggressive, I'm fairly sure the competition will come up with something similarly priced that will also let me do tethering to my 3g phone, add a bluetooth keyboard, access my LAN...
Apple's interface is probably going to be a bit better. To me that doesn't make up for all the missing features.
1- you probably already have one: what's a smartphone if not a small tablet on which you can browse the web, read books, view video, type emails... on top of placing calls ? There's not that much difference between a 4"3 HD2 and a 5" Archos. It's very telling that Dell is marketing the upcoming mini 5 as a tablet, not a phone, though it is.. well... both.
2- At last, content. The success of smaller and bigger content-consumption devices (smartphones and PCs) has enabled the creation of plenty of downloadable content. Tablets are the perfect medium to consume that, with fast downloads, portability, comfortable viewing... This is a relatively recent development, basically impulsed by the iTunes Store, especially for video.
3- The right devices. Upcoming ARM-based tablets have the power to handle any media including video, at a very reasonable price ($150-$500). Form factor is essentially a marketing choice, from 3" to 11", with extra features at will (wifi, 3g, bluetooth, cameras, built-in or detached or wireless keyboard, battery life...). Compare that to the clunky, over-expensive, fragile rotating touchscreen $2000 laptops masquerading as tablets of yore, and watch them getting "netbooked".
4- The right UI and ecosystem. Apple, Android, even Windows Mobile have evolved interfaces and content distribution systems as well as dev toolchains that make using, populating, and developing for tablets very easy and convenient. Tablets are no longer notebooks with a touchscreen no OS nor Apps know what to do with, but oversized smartphones with more breathing space for UI and content.
5- Apple is hyping one. Watch them presell in 2 months more than MS managed to sell in 5 years, and shake up the tablet market like they shook up the smartphone one. Only this time the competitors are reacting faster and better, mostly because they're no longer in thrall to MS "let's copy iPhone OS 1.0, warts and all, 5 years late" thanks to Android, and because the changes from smartphone to tablet are mainly cosmetic ones. Competition from below (smaller screen/specs), above (bigger screen//specs) and sideways (more features, same size) will help build a complete range of products ato fit every niche, almost overnight.
What your bosses want to do (go fully paperless, including all correspondence, contracts, worksheets...) is a very big project, that requires much thought, planning, management support, time, and money.
By asking you to do it on the cheap, your bosses show that they really don't understand what this is about, and when the whole thing blows, it will of course be your fault.
The one vital thing you must do is findexamples of companies of a comparable size / business that did it, with a broad idea of what it took it terms of money, time, manpower, glitches... Don't even touch the technical side, products... until you have those case studies. Pass them on to your bosses, and see if they want to go ahead.
As for getting a hold of such examples, try classmates, business partners, ask the bosses where they got the idea from, ask slashdot that question (instead of the technical one), ask potential providers for references (if you're an MS shop, MS may help)...
the current version of Windows (7) automatically downloads updated WHQL drivers via WIndows update at install time, if your PC is connected to the net.
If you're not connected at the time of install, you'll get driver updates along with windows updates next time an update completes successfully.
WHQL drivers are not the most current, but they usually are good enough.
it's about control. read the terms and conditions: whatever you post, you know longer own. Can't complain if it's lost, hijacked, un deletable, accessible by anyone even though you tried to restrict it to "friends", still there in 20 yrs, defaced, misused, resold, repurposed...
That's what I do. Waiting before buying games has one big drawback: you're out of synch with the rest of the market. And several advantages: - less/no DRM - lower price - patches - mature community/forum - more feedback on how good the game is - opportunity to try it at friends
I'm not so sure. Maybe "good enough" would be good enough ? Quality is just one feature. Free-ness and Open-ness are 2 other, quite important ones. I'm fairly sure most videos on the web and on PCs in general are not artistic in nature. Slightly lower quality for no cost and freedom to do whatever you want with them may still be a winning proposition.
The main issue is network effects: supporting 1 video format is a no-brainer, supporting 2 of them...
MS has quite a lot of competing agendas: - keep backwards compatibility, v1. That means a bunch a old APIs, services, apps... Not only was security not much of a concern back when those were written, but any change in the environment risks unveiling new vulns. These pooor guys are actually supposed to maintain IE 6, IE7, and IE 8. - keep backwards compatibility, v2. MS can't really change the security model or the way they expose it without, again, breaking apps. Since NT, Windows's security model is not bad. But MS can't really implement it fully (no apps changing system-wide ressources, no writing outside of a handful of approved dirs...) without, again, breaking apps. - add features - maintain an incredibly wide array of software. MS = Oracle + Linux+ php + Apache + OOo + Firefox +...
So yes, I really hate the pain that managing MS systems is. I, and they, know they could make things better by breaking a lot of apps. They choose not to... prolly because their customers want them not to. I can understand that.
Please do provide us with examples of democracy at work within the church. Or do you mean that though internally anti-democratic the church respects the democracies which harbour it so much that it would never try and avoid secular law via non-reporting of crimes, influence elections from the pulpit, lobby elected officials and the press... ?
Regarding freedom of speech (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_versus_blasphemy): "In 2005 Marithé and François Girbaud's parodied Leonardo's religious painting The Last Supper in a publicity poster. The Catholic Church initiated a lawsuit against the Girbauds, sparking concerns regarding freedom of expression and blasphemy.", for example. There are plenty.
As far as it still being a scientology-like racket, it clearly was in the middle ages and afterwards. Recent info is hard to come by, though the Banco Ambrosiano thingy hints at juicy stuff. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banco_Ambrosiano).
The catholic church feels to me like a successful sect, no more, no less, no better.
'cept the lawyers, who were probably on a % of max payout. Which is why we get a huge total amount, made of negligible individual payouts: lawyers win big, classmates pays nothing besides the lawyers.
Slashdot Mirror
what a democracy is.
how do we define the "demos": developpers ? users ? admins ? companies too ? stakeholders ? anyone who wants to ?
does representative democracy count as democracy ? When I see the huge disconnect between the election campaign and the happenings during a congress session, I sometimes think not.
who controls the agenda ? being free to vote is fine, being free to decide on what to vote on is better.
is there any need for non-democratic basic "stuff" ?
Oh, and I'm not even sure what Linux is: the bare kernel ? one distro ? all the distros ?
My take right now is that Linux is not a democracy.
I second that, with some additions.
1- You can't trust users to be honest, nor working, nor knowledgeable. That means educating them is probably a waste. You need to remove admin rights, block all non-controlled data sources. That means USB, CD, FD, Bluetooth, Wifi, card readers....
2- In some cases, you may be able/have to use disk images or remote desktops. You can configure those so the users cannot write anything to the disk image, thus ensuring that the OS and Apps are always clean at boot.
you're forgetting all the upcoming devices, especially the ARM+Android ones. Comparing older tablets based on the Wintel architecture is really not the point.
Are you sure about the iPad handles bluetooth keyboards ? link please ? As far as I know, the iPhone doesn't.
Wifi is built into the iPad... to access the Internet. I'm really not sure what you can do in terms of browsing a LAN.
If I can get 3G for free, I'll take that, thank you. I'll let you pay $130( 90% margin for apple) + a monthly rent.
I'm not overly concerned about reboots, none of my Windows or Linux machines crashes these days.
I'm seeing ARM-based tablets that have removable memory cards, a screen readable in direct sunlight, 3g tethering, full LAN access, a camera, an open OS... and feel like waiting for them, prolly 2-3 months.
I don't understand your closing sentence since we agree that tablets are fine. I'm just trying to make the point that the iPad has severe limitations, but I'll stop my efforts now.
laptops also have folding screen/keyboard. netbooks were named because they were smaller (so closer to books), and because a new name was needed to differentiate this new product category (smaller, less powerful, initally not even windows...). Tablet can fall in the same category because they are also small, relatively underpowered, and not sufficient as a main PC.
pricing like a netbook means $250-350ish, which is the range of most netbooks.
so basically you want a tablet with a back stand, and the ability to connect a bluetooth keyboard.
content consumption (web, video, books, social networks...)
plus netbook-light with a bluetooth keyboard. You can add a BT keyboard to a tablet (except if it's an Apple one); you can't take the keyboard away from a netbbok.
i'd rather have my choice of bluetooth keyboards (credit card-, blackberry-, netbook-, full-sized) than have to carry a specific one at all times. Anything but the iPad will allow me that choice and capability.
I agree with your arguments in favor of tablets in general, but I have issues with your specific choice of an iPad: any other tablet will let you do all that, and more. I'm holding out because even though Apple's pricing is aggressive, I'm fairly sure the competition will come up with something similarly priced that will also let me do tethering to my 3g phone, add a bluetooth keyboard, access my LAN...
Apple's interface is probably going to be a bit better. To me that doesn't make up for all the missing features.
1- you probably already have one: what's a smartphone if not a small tablet on which you can browse the web, read books, view video, type emails... on top of placing calls ? There's not that much difference between a 4"3 HD2 and a 5" Archos. It's very telling that Dell is marketing the upcoming mini 5 as a tablet, not a phone, though it is.. well... both.
2- At last, content. The success of smaller and bigger content-consumption devices (smartphones and PCs) has enabled the creation of plenty of downloadable content. Tablets are the perfect medium to consume that, with fast downloads, portability, comfortable viewing... This is a relatively recent development, basically impulsed by the iTunes Store, especially for video.
3- The right devices. Upcoming ARM-based tablets have the power to handle any media including video, at a very reasonable price ($150-$500). Form factor is essentially a marketing choice, from 3" to 11", with extra features at will (wifi, 3g, bluetooth, cameras, built-in or detached or wireless keyboard, battery life...). Compare that to the clunky, over-expensive, fragile rotating touchscreen $2000 laptops masquerading as tablets of yore, and watch them getting "netbooked".
4- The right UI and ecosystem. Apple, Android, even Windows Mobile have evolved interfaces and content distribution systems as well as dev toolchains that make using, populating, and developing for tablets very easy and convenient. Tablets are no longer notebooks with a touchscreen no OS nor Apps know what to do with, but oversized smartphones with more breathing space for UI and content.
5- Apple is hyping one. Watch them presell in 2 months more than MS managed to sell in 5 years, and shake up the tablet market like they shook up the smartphone one. Only this time the competitors are reacting faster and better, mostly because they're no longer in thrall to MS "let's copy iPhone OS 1.0, warts and all, 5 years late" thanks to Android, and because the changes from smartphone to tablet are mainly cosmetic ones. Competition from below (smaller screen/specs), above (bigger screen//specs) and sideways (more features, same size) will help build a complete range of products ato fit every niche, almost overnight.
I'm getting one.
This is a trap.
What your bosses want to do (go fully paperless, including all correspondence, contracts, worksheets...) is a very big project, that requires much thought, planning, management support, time, and money.
By asking you to do it on the cheap, your bosses show that they really don't understand what this is about, and when the whole thing blows, it will of course be your fault.
The one vital thing you must do is findexamples of companies of a comparable size / business that did it, with a broad idea of what it took it terms of money, time, manpower, glitches... Don't even touch the technical side, products... until you have those case studies. Pass them on to your bosses, and see if they want to go ahead.
As for getting a hold of such examples, try classmates, business partners, ask the bosses where they got the idea from, ask slashdot that question (instead of the technical one), ask potential providers for references (if you're an MS shop, MS may help)...
What would you recommend then ?
the current version of Windows (7) automatically downloads updated WHQL drivers via WIndows update at install time, if your PC is connected to the net.
If you're not connected at the time of install, you'll get driver updates along with windows updates next time an update completes successfully.
WHQL drivers are not the most current, but they usually are good enough.
You tube ans its employees were the only ones on earth not aware of the stolen content. Oh, and Googlers too.
Next scoop: bittorrent creator WAS aware of copyrighted content being shared via his protocol.
it's about control. read the terms and conditions: whatever you post, you know longer own. Can't complain if it's lost, hijacked, un deletable, accessible by anyone even though you tried to restrict it to "friends", still there in 20 yrs, defaced, misused, resold, repurposed...
aren't you missing something, in between closed source and custom ? like .. open source ? which is what TFA is about ?
with MS, you've got the pleasure of renewing licenses and/or upgrading every few years ?
Nokia ? RIM ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Smartphone_share_2009_full.png
this is pure vaporware, but pixel qi's screens aren't: http://www.pixelqi.com/products
how many non-slashdot-readers do you think know that ?
That's what I do. Waiting before buying games has one big drawback: you're out of synch with the rest of the market. And several advantages:
- less/no DRM
- lower price
- patches
- mature community/forum
- more feedback on how good the game is
- opportunity to try it at friends
I'm not so sure. Maybe "good enough" would be good enough ? Quality is just one feature. Free-ness and Open-ness are 2 other, quite important ones. I'm fairly sure most videos on the web and on PCs in general are not artistic in nature. Slightly lower quality for no cost and freedom to do whatever you want with them may still be a winning proposition.
The main issue is network effects: supporting 1 video format is a no-brainer, supporting 2 of them...
Let's play devil's advocate:
MS has quite a lot of competing agendas: ...
- keep backwards compatibility, v1. That means a bunch a old APIs, services, apps... Not only was security not much of a concern back when those were written, but any change in the environment risks unveiling new vulns. These pooor guys are actually supposed to maintain IE 6, IE7, and IE 8.
- keep backwards compatibility, v2. MS can't really change the security model or the way they expose it without, again, breaking apps. Since NT, Windows's security model is not bad. But MS can't really implement it fully (no apps changing system-wide ressources, no writing outside of a handful of approved dirs...) without, again, breaking apps.
- add features
- maintain an incredibly wide array of software. MS = Oracle + Linux+ php + Apache + OOo + Firefox +
So yes, I really hate the pain that managing MS systems is. I, and they, know they could make things better by breaking a lot of apps. They choose not to... prolly because their customers want them not to. I can understand that.
As soon as politicians and the people around them start carrying 24x7 mikes.
Please do provide us with examples of democracy at work within the church. Or do you mean that though internally anti-democratic the church respects the democracies which harbour it so much that it would never try and avoid secular law via non-reporting of crimes, influence elections from the pulpit, lobby elected officials and the press... ?
Regarding freedom of speech (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_versus_blasphemy): "In 2005 Marithé and François Girbaud's parodied Leonardo's religious painting The Last Supper in a publicity poster. The Catholic Church initiated a lawsuit against the Girbauds, sparking concerns regarding freedom of expression and blasphemy.", for example. There are plenty.
As far as it still being a scientology-like racket, it clearly was in the middle ages and afterwards. Recent info is hard to come by, though the Banco Ambrosiano thingy hints at juicy stuff. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banco_Ambrosiano).
The catholic church feels to me like a successful sect, no more, no less, no better.
'cept the lawyers, who were probably on a % of max payout. Which is why we get a huge total amount, made of negligible individual payouts: lawyers win big, classmates pays nothing besides the lawyers.