Remind me again how did Linux come into existance?
Came into existence? Sure there's the romanticized thought of Linus single handedly pounding away code at home. However there's a lot of paid Linux development going on. Here's a random cite: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open...
While The top ten contributors, including the groups "unknown" and "none" make up over 60% of the total contributions to the kernel, the Foundation points out that even if you assume that "all of the 'unknown' contributors were working on their own time, over 75% of all kernel development is demonstrably done by developers who are being paid for their work."
I stick with Fluke - or if in a pinch and need to buy locally (i.e., if I left my Fluke DMM and testers behind), Extech, but I try to avoid the Extech stuff at least as primary tools. It (Extech) might be one of the best of the cheap meters, but they are still short of the quality and reliability of Fluke's products.
I commented on the last article that at work I had a piece of shit Ideal meter (with an inverted yellow in gray color scheme) that measured 380V when connected to 460V. The buzzer for the ohm reading also broke, such that it stuck on all the time (even when it wasn't on ohms). The vendor for some of our 4160V equipment said that we could in fact measure the capacitance of the 4160V capacitors using the capacitance mode of a DMM (obviously with the 4160 deenergized, and verified safe using a proper tool, which isn't a Fluke DMM). My piece of shit Ideal wouldn't measure fuck all, but my Fluke measured the right value.
In my experience (in the real world, outside mom's basement) Fluke has earned their rep for being a quality product.
Fluke devices can range from a few hundred to a few thousand a piece, depending on what all you are getting. They're solid devices, too.
Their software is absolutely awful, though, IMO.
So true. We got some Fluke wireless logging current meters (part of the Fluke CNX series). Well built meter, surprisingly cheap, easy to use (hardware), good battery life, but the software to connect wireless is dreadful. Frequent crashes, no way to resume transfers, etc.
Calling support for a multimeter? What planet are you from? Short of it breaking and needing a replacement under warranty, you plug it in, spin the dial to the mode you want, and away you go.
Do people call Sears for tech support on a Craftsman wrench? I’ll grant a multimeter is *slightly* more complicated of a tool, but really only slightly to someone who’s the least bit experienced in that area of tech. I think I got my first MM when I was six years old. Took Dad about 10 minutes to show me how to measure voltage and resistance, and that was when you had to set the range yourself.
Ever buy a $200-$500 multimeter? And then have problems with it? Maybe you'd be more apt to call support.
So if a hazard were found on the meters they donated, Fluke would have to pay to ship and repair the meters. Because they are a real organization that stands by their equipment, not some Chinese knockoff outfit that couldn't care less if the meter failed to detect voltage when present or exploded when connected to voltage.
Yep. A big thing people don't get is safety. Have you ever had a cheap multimeter fuse blow and toss shards of glass through the case, avoiding your hand only because you weren't holding the meter there? I have.
I'm amazed when I note that my "cheap" Fluke 373 for home has voltage ratings: CATIII 600V CATIII300V, and a whole fleet of certifications on the back. I don't see these ratings on cheap meters at Canadian tire. At work metering 650VAC on a 1200A bus? I'd want something with a CAT rating for 1000V and CSA/UL logos. Certainly not a cheap knockoff. Some of us use meters in the real world, not just mom's basement.
Just because the case looks like the real thing doesn't mean the hardware is worth shit.
I regularly perform automotive circuit diagnosis with a $3 meter, because it is of a convenient size. Don't hate on cheap electronics if they work. Granted, cheap electronics are like a box of chocolates, but unless you've tried these meters...
A cheap meter works great until it doesn't. Also cheap meters might not have the voltage safety ratings of a quality meter.
I was commissioning a new 460V system at work. Used my Ideal meter (which interestingly has inverted colour scheme from Fluke) to verify the voltage. 380V. Borrowed another colleague's Ideal meter. 385V. Used a Fluke meter: 462V. All sorts of people at work would tell stories about the problems they had with those meters. One guy threw his meter off a scissor lift because it pissed him off so much. That was the first time I had serious problems with that meter. Since replaced it with a Fluke 376. Has a nice flexible current probe. Clamp will also read DC current. Nice meter.
Ok. I'll ask. What possible safety function does coloring a multimeter yellow serve? Do you need to see multimeters coming at you so you can defend yourself? Don't pick up a multimeter because it might bite you? "Red touch yellow, friend of fellow..."?
I think Parent means the meter is yellow (bright, easy to see) because it's a safety device. Eg: In industry multimeters are used to verify the lack of voltage before beginning work.
Stuff like replacing the roof or windows, or boiler is far outside the scope of what the custodial department could do. It requires capital investment from the board. Why do that when you could ignore it and wait for roof leaks to cause mould growths that condemn the building, or the boiler to fail and flood out the bottom floor?
Teachers are usually in a similar boat. Here in Canada I don't think they are as underpaid as the US, but it's not uncommon for them to spend personal money to buy supplies for their classroom.
You're choosing what you focus on to justify your cynicism. Or maybe elitism. The NFL for example, is not all brute force and no thinking. There's a reason the sports talk shows are TALK and not just movies of players lifting heavy weights. Sports fans who yell at the TV seem to be yelling more about strategy than about "TACKLE THAT GUY HARDER!!!!"
Likewise I'm sure you can point to specific examples of where jocks were rewarded more than nerds, but I could point at just as many examples of the opposite. The dumb kid who can run and catch good is perhaps more well known outside of the school because football is a spectator sport, while high-school debate is tough to follow even if you're one of the competitors.
The dumb isn't even as much the players as it is the spectators. The player must have good hand-eye coordination, be able to make split second decisions based on location of players, and be able to follow an exercise / training plan to stay physically fit. More so the spectators are the ones that drink beer and go "Tackle that guy harder". Look at how much of a following NASCAR gets, yet the cars just drive in a counterclockwise oval for a while. Spectators are usually just waiting for the crashes.
When I was getting my degree, our school would close off parking for academic purposes so the football spectators could park. Nevermind that we had group assignments to complete; there be a bunch of young boys moving their balls across the field!
Our society is slitting its own throat.
Was your college experience so miserable that you couldn't take a few hours off on a Sat to either go to a football game or even just relax instead of doing homework? I played college football and was in my school's honors program. I was never so busy that football interfered with my homework or study. I still made Dean's List, made my conference's Honor Roll, and was on my team's Academic Top 10. Just because you wanted to always study doesn't mean that other people, including many intelligent people, want to be able to unwind by watching or even participate in sports.
The engineering school I went to was almost as busy on weekends as weekdays. Close to finals you'd have to show up at opening to get a seat in the library, computer labs, or study halls.
Arts students weren't allowed to take more than 5 classes per term. We had to take 6. Plus labs. Plus endless assignments and lab reports.
Basically a lowest common denominator approach. Because we might miss some of the late bloomers, we better slow down the whole system to the pace of the slowest kid.
At this point I'm not sure what exactly is left for them to cut where I used to work.
Was building maintenance differed? That's popular here. Ignore fixing the roof, ignore fixing the windows, and before you know it you have to buy a new school.
Yeah, whoever comes up with names at Microsoft really needs to get promoted to somewhere useless. The Xbox One, which is not the same as the Xbox one, and is in fact the Xbox three, being the sequel to the Xbox 360... that one is so stupid it makes me angry.
my galaxy note 3 is microusb, but i think it needs more ma
at work we were looking at the chargers for different android phones and they were all different specs
Galaxy Note 3 uses MicroUSB 3.0 as standard charger (2.0A), but should still charge at a slower rate using a standard MicroUSB cord.
Most devices will draw the max the charger will allow if they see the data channels shorted. I assume the charger will go into current limit (voltage will start to drop) once the maximum output of the charger is reached. Different charges from different phones may be rated different, but most still should provide a charge (even if slower). If plugged into a USB host (computer) it may be limited to 500mA or less.
True, but what Rob Ford only admitted to it because a video was obtained of him doing it. Before that, he denied everything. I'm not an expert on Canadian politics, but depending on the political climate, he might weather the storm and keep his job. Or not. Still, I'm sure he'd much rather this all stayed quiet. An NSA that listens to everyone all the time (even if not actively but storing data for future possible analysis) can - either for the purposes of the NSA retaining their power or for other political purposes - look up information on anyone and leak or threaten to leak information on people who don't sit down and keep quiet. The mere threat of doing this will be enough to silence some critics who would have something to lose (wives, children, family, jobs, etc.).
People line up around the block to buy a Rob Ford Bobblehead. He admits he smokes crack and his popularity goes up. Unfortunately it looks like he will probably weather the storm and get re-elected.
Then they decided that it needed to run some form of Windows.
The End.
OLPC didn't decide it needed to run some form of Windows... Microsoft decided it needed some form of Windows. To not be left out, Microsoft ported WindowsXP. All OLPC did to support that was made sure OpenFirmWare would boot Windows (and subsequently standard Linux distros) to prevent Microsoft from completely overwriting the firmware with standard BIOS code preventing Sugar from booting ever again. http://lists.laptop.org/piperm... OLPC still pushed for Linux / Sugar. All the stories I read were about the Sugar installs. Microsoft also pushed the Classmate to be a Windows platform.
Although OLPC had great intentions I feel there were several problems: -Sugar was ridiculously slow. I know it's running on a crappy AMD Geode, but it was real slow.
-Assumption that everyone wants to be a programmer. One of the reasons Sugar is so slow is it's written in Python. Easy to modify, but being an interpreted language, it's slow. How high a priority is being able to modify the OS's GUI?
-Poor selection of apps. Poor selection of actual learning materials. Instead there's a million "learn to program" type apps, and some crappy games. Yes I think accessibility of learning to program is good, and lots of people on/. will talk about how hacking away on Basic on an Apple//, or POKE on C64 at their school got them into CompSci, you really are the minority. With the amount of money being spent on the things, they better really help with the basics of education (3 R's) first.
-Poor support of the deployments. In many cases it seemed they were dropped off, and it was up to the teachers to figure out. These are teachers not very familiar with computers, so what are they supposed to do with them?
-The platform doesn't age well with the students. Sugar is really targeted for young elementary students. I think if it was designed to have access to a standard Linux desktop (Xfce maybe? I think that's the one that hasn't gone to crap like KDE, Gnome, Unity and will run well on old junk) it would be good for older students, as well as opening up the platform to a lot more applications and resources. XO-1.5 at least was designed to dual boot Sugar and Fedora 11.
-Trying to be too much: Ground up building a new GUI, ground up building a new boot mechanism (OFW), wandering goal (XO-1, XO-1.5, XO-1.75, XO-2, XO-3, XO-4), means they're not dedicated to supporting a certain platform for a longer period of time. With the amount of money these poor countries are spending on it, it should be a solid supported platform for a while.
Really I find a lot of these problems are shared with conventional technology platforms in education. At some point TV was going to be the be all and end all to education. Nope. Growing up my school had Apple//, Mac Classic, iMac, and eventually Windows PCs. Still questionable how much they added to the educational experience. I remember playing games and typing tutor on the Apple//, but there were three of them in the back of a class of 20 students. Although I could use a word processor / Spreadsheet programs (as a commonly toted example of why computers in school are important), it wasn't till University, or later "Real world" / workplace that I learned proper way of doing things (such as styles). At the very least in developing countries any push for computers (OLPC, Tablets, etc) should be a good ebook reader first, with tons of "open textbooks" / lesson plans, but I didn't see that materialize in OLPC.
In the developed world I see it continue. Look at the amount of schools spending ridiculous amounts of money on either laptops for each child, or tablets for each child. Do they actually do anything? In my Junior/Senior year in University there were students that did their Freshman/Sophmore year at a collage that re
It is more like a traditional GNU/Linux distribution. Just to take an example; if you want to install an app then nothing stops you from ssh:ing into the phone and install the rpm directly or through a frontend like yum or zypper.
The lack of appeal in doing such things just highlights some bad points that Linux developers don't get if they want to have it used more. Yum? Zypper? The names make zero sense as to the function of the service, plus they are odd/wanting to sound l33t as well. Intuitive it is not.
Windows 8 requires processors with NX instructions, dropping earlier Pentium 4 (Willamette and Northwood) support, even when the systems have compatible hardware, run Windows 7 great, and could run the betas.
This is what a bubble feels like to users; to dispassionate observers, the similarities to the 1997-1999 period are striking with respect to the hubris of software writers/producers/peddlers. The general public does not like to be so coerced, and, eventually, use some relatively minor but well-publicized event to abandon the scam.
Someday, abandoning apps and maybe the internet itself will seem cool to youth. Why not a network made up of only known friends? It would be the ultimate clique -- a paradise for 15-year-olds.
History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes (thankyoo Mark Twain.)
I don't know if the internet will be abandoned, but we do go through cycles of mainframe-local-thin client-local-cloud-local.
There's nothing to understand or care about.. If an app wants access to my contacts it needs to ask me. If I say no then it doesn't get access. If I say yes.. it does. The answer from the first request is remembered. If I want/need to change my answer I can go into settings and do so. But by default an application exists in a state of "can't access anything until the user approves".
I'm not sure how much easier it could possibly get for a user.
See also: the popularity of UAC in Vista, and the fact that users try to dismiss any dialogs as quick as possible, by answering what will presumably make it work, without reading. Thus the reason Ask toolbar gets installed on computers, scareware fake antiviruses get installed, etc.
I never even liked the stupid tiles in the first place. What's the point in setting a "Home page" if you never see it (since opening a new tab happens a lot more than restarting the browser). The last thing I want is to open a new tab with other people there to see JustUsBoys, Gaytube, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
Remind me again how did Linux come into existance?
Came into existence? Sure there's the romanticized thought of Linus single handedly pounding away code at home. However there's a lot of paid Linux development going on. Here's a random cite:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open...
1. No company affiliation:17.9% 2. Red Hat: 11.9% 3. Novell/SUSE: 6.4% 4. Intel: 6.2% 5. IBM: 6.1% 6. Unknown: 5.1% 7. Consultant: 3.0% 8. Oracle: 2.1% 9. Academia: 1.3% 10. Nokia: 1.2%
While The top ten contributors, including the groups "unknown" and "none" make up over 60% of the total contributions to the kernel, the Foundation points out that even if you assume that "all of the 'unknown' contributors were working on their own time, over 75% of all kernel development is demonstrably done by developers who are being paid for their work."
I stick with Fluke - or if in a pinch and need to buy locally (i.e., if I left my Fluke DMM and testers behind), Extech, but I try to avoid the Extech stuff at least as primary tools. It (Extech) might be one of the best of the cheap meters, but they are still short of the quality and reliability of Fluke's products.
I commented on the last article that at work I had a piece of shit Ideal meter (with an inverted yellow in gray color scheme) that measured 380V when connected to 460V. The buzzer for the ohm reading also broke, such that it stuck on all the time (even when it wasn't on ohms). The vendor for some of our 4160V equipment said that we could in fact measure the capacitance of the 4160V capacitors using the capacitance mode of a DMM (obviously with the 4160 deenergized, and verified safe using a proper tool, which isn't a Fluke DMM). My piece of shit Ideal wouldn't measure fuck all, but my Fluke measured the right value.
In my experience (in the real world, outside mom's basement) Fluke has earned their rep for being a quality product.
Fluke devices can range from a few hundred to a few thousand a piece, depending on what all you are getting. They're solid devices, too.
Their software is absolutely awful, though, IMO.
So true. We got some Fluke wireless logging current meters (part of the Fluke CNX series). Well built meter, surprisingly cheap, easy to use (hardware), good battery life, but the software to connect wireless is dreadful. Frequent crashes, no way to resume transfers, etc.
Calling support for a multimeter? What planet are you from? Short of it breaking and needing a replacement under warranty, you plug it in, spin the dial to the mode you want, and away you go.
Do people call Sears for tech support on a Craftsman wrench? I’ll grant a multimeter is *slightly* more complicated of a tool, but really only slightly to someone who’s the least bit experienced in that area of tech. I think I got my first MM when I was six years old. Took Dad about 10 minutes to show me how to measure voltage and resistance, and that was when you had to set the range yourself.
Ever buy a $200-$500 multimeter? And then have problems with it? Maybe you'd be more apt to call support.
As well there's certainly liability. Here's a case where Fluke recalled meters:
http://www.fluke.com/fluke/cae...
So if a hazard were found on the meters they donated, Fluke would have to pay to ship and repair the meters. Because they are a real organization that stands by their equipment, not some Chinese knockoff outfit that couldn't care less if the meter failed to detect voltage when present or exploded when connected to voltage.
Yep. A big thing people don't get is safety. Have you ever had a cheap multimeter fuse blow and toss shards of glass through the case, avoiding your hand only because you weren't holding the meter there? I have.
I'm amazed when I note that my "cheap" Fluke 373 for home has voltage ratings: CATIII 600V CATIII300V, and a whole fleet of certifications on the back. I don't see these ratings on cheap meters at Canadian tire. At work metering 650VAC on a 1200A bus? I'd want something with a CAT rating for 1000V and CSA/UL logos. Certainly not a cheap knockoff. Some of us use meters in the real world, not just mom's basement.
Just because the case looks like the real thing doesn't mean the hardware is worth shit.
I regularly perform automotive circuit diagnosis with a $3 meter, because it is of a convenient size. Don't hate on cheap electronics if they work. Granted, cheap electronics are like a box of chocolates, but unless you've tried these meters...
A cheap meter works great until it doesn't. Also cheap meters might not have the voltage safety ratings of a quality meter.
I was commissioning a new 460V system at work. Used my Ideal meter (which interestingly has inverted colour scheme from Fluke) to verify the voltage. 380V. Borrowed another colleague's Ideal meter. 385V. Used a Fluke meter: 462V. All sorts of people at work would tell stories about the problems they had with those meters. One guy threw his meter off a scissor lift because it pissed him off so much. That was the first time I had serious problems with that meter. Since replaced it with a Fluke 376. Has a nice flexible current probe. Clamp will also read DC current. Nice meter.
safety.
Ok. I'll ask. What possible safety function does coloring a multimeter yellow serve? Do you need to see multimeters coming at you so you can defend yourself? Don't pick up a multimeter because it might bite you? "Red touch yellow, friend of fellow..."?
I think Parent means the meter is yellow (bright, easy to see) because it's a safety device. Eg: In industry multimeters are used to verify the lack of voltage before beginning work.
Stuff like replacing the roof or windows, or boiler is far outside the scope of what the custodial department could do. It requires capital investment from the board. Why do that when you could ignore it and wait for roof leaks to cause mould growths that condemn the building, or the boiler to fail and flood out the bottom floor?
Teachers are usually in a similar boat. Here in Canada I don't think they are as underpaid as the US, but it's not uncommon for them to spend personal money to buy supplies for their classroom.
You're choosing what you focus on to justify your cynicism. Or maybe elitism. The NFL for example, is not all brute force and no thinking. There's a reason the sports talk shows are TALK and not just movies of players lifting heavy weights. Sports fans who yell at the TV seem to be yelling more about strategy than about "TACKLE THAT GUY HARDER!!!!"
Likewise I'm sure you can point to specific examples of where jocks were rewarded more than nerds, but I could point at just as many examples of the opposite. The dumb kid who can run and catch good is perhaps more well known outside of the school because football is a spectator sport, while high-school debate is tough to follow even if you're one of the competitors.
The dumb isn't even as much the players as it is the spectators. The player must have good hand-eye coordination, be able to make split second decisions based on location of players, and be able to follow an exercise / training plan to stay physically fit. More so the spectators are the ones that drink beer and go "Tackle that guy harder". Look at how much of a following NASCAR gets, yet the cars just drive in a counterclockwise oval for a while. Spectators are usually just waiting for the crashes.
When I was getting my degree, our school would close off parking for academic purposes so the football spectators could park. Nevermind that we had group assignments to complete; there be a bunch of young boys moving their balls across the field!
Our society is slitting its own throat.
Was your college experience so miserable that you couldn't take a few hours off on a Sat to either go to a football game or even just relax instead of doing homework? I played college football and was in my school's honors program. I was never so busy that football interfered with my homework or study. I still made Dean's List, made my conference's Honor Roll, and was on my team's Academic Top 10. Just because you wanted to always study doesn't mean that other people, including many intelligent people, want to be able to unwind by watching or even participate in sports.
The engineering school I went to was almost as busy on weekends as weekdays. Close to finals you'd have to show up at opening to get a seat in the library, computer labs, or study halls.
Arts students weren't allowed to take more than 5 classes per term. We had to take 6. Plus labs. Plus endless assignments and lab reports.
And he told me how the coaches would give the football players lists of classes and which professors to take because they were easier to pass.
At my collage we made fun of Geology for being "Rocks for Jocks"
Basically a lowest common denominator approach. Because we might miss some of the late bloomers, we better slow down the whole system to the pace of the slowest kid.
At this point I'm not sure what exactly is left for them to cut where I used to work.
Was building maintenance differed? That's popular here. Ignore fixing the roof, ignore fixing the windows, and before you know it you have to buy a new school.
Yeah, whoever comes up with names at Microsoft really needs to get promoted to somewhere useless. The Xbox One, which is not the same as the Xbox one, and is in fact the Xbox three, being the sequel to the Xbox 360... that one is so stupid it makes me angry.
They have a history of terrible names:
Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs: (Replaced by Windows 7 based "Windows Thin PC ")
Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP before someone thankfully gave it a real name: Windows SteadyState
Their consumer AV is called "Microsoft Security Essentials". At least the business version has a real name: "Forefront"
Windows Live Essentials
Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Messenger service (source of SPAM).
You missed Win95 & Windows 2000.
Parent was looking at Consumer OS's. They arbitrarily chose Win95. Why not Win 3.11/Win3.1/Win 3.0, Win 2.11/Win2.0/Win 1.0?
Windows 2000 was on the business Side:
NT 3.1/ NT3.5/ NT3.51/ NT4/ Windows 2000 / (merge with Consumer at Windows XP)
my galaxy note 3 is microusb, but i think it needs more ma
at work we were looking at the chargers for different android phones and they were all different specs
Galaxy Note 3 uses MicroUSB 3.0 as standard charger (2.0A), but should still charge at a slower rate using a standard MicroUSB cord.
Most devices will draw the max the charger will allow if they see the data channels shorted. I assume the charger will go into current limit (voltage will start to drop) once the maximum output of the charger is reached. Different charges from different phones may be rated different, but most still should provide a charge (even if slower). If plugged into a USB host (computer) it may be limited to 500mA or less.
I thought this article was a dupe from 2009/2011 http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...
True, but what Rob Ford only admitted to it because a video was obtained of him doing it. Before that, he denied everything. I'm not an expert on Canadian politics, but depending on the political climate, he might weather the storm and keep his job. Or not. Still, I'm sure he'd much rather this all stayed quiet. An NSA that listens to everyone all the time (even if not actively but storing data for future possible analysis) can - either for the purposes of the NSA retaining their power or for other political purposes - look up information on anyone and leak or threaten to leak information on people who don't sit down and keep quiet. The mere threat of doing this will be enough to silence some critics who would have something to lose (wives, children, family, jobs, etc.).
People line up around the block to buy a Rob Ford Bobblehead. He admits he smokes crack and his popularity goes up. Unfortunately it looks like he will probably weather the storm and get re-elected.
Then they decided that it needed to run some form of Windows.
The End.
OLPC didn't decide it needed to run some form of Windows... Microsoft decided it needed some form of Windows. To not be left out, Microsoft ported WindowsXP. All OLPC did to support that was made sure OpenFirmWare would boot Windows (and subsequently standard Linux distros) to prevent Microsoft from completely overwriting the firmware with standard BIOS code preventing Sugar from booting ever again. http://lists.laptop.org/piperm... OLPC still pushed for Linux / Sugar. All the stories I read were about the Sugar installs. Microsoft also pushed the Classmate to be a Windows platform.
Although OLPC had great intentions I feel there were several problems:
-Sugar was ridiculously slow. I know it's running on a crappy AMD Geode, but it was real slow.
-Assumption that everyone wants to be a programmer. One of the reasons Sugar is so slow is it's written in Python. Easy to modify, but being an interpreted language, it's slow. How high a priority is being able to modify the OS's GUI?
-Poor selection of apps. Poor selection of actual learning materials. Instead there's a million "learn to program" type apps, and some crappy games. Yes I think accessibility of learning to program is good, and lots of people on /. will talk about how hacking away on Basic on an Apple //, or POKE on C64 at their school got them into CompSci, you really are the minority. With the amount of money being spent on the things, they better really help with the basics of education (3 R's) first.
-Poor support of the deployments. In many cases it seemed they were dropped off, and it was up to the teachers to figure out. These are teachers not very familiar with computers, so what are they supposed to do with them?
-The platform doesn't age well with the students. Sugar is really targeted for young elementary students. I think if it was designed to have access to a standard Linux desktop (Xfce maybe? I think that's the one that hasn't gone to crap like KDE, Gnome, Unity and will run well on old junk) it would be good for older students, as well as opening up the platform to a lot more applications and resources. XO-1.5 at least was designed to dual boot Sugar and Fedora 11.
-Trying to be too much: Ground up building a new GUI, ground up building a new boot mechanism (OFW), wandering goal (XO-1, XO-1.5, XO-1.75, XO-2, XO-3, XO-4), means they're not dedicated to supporting a certain platform for a longer period of time. With the amount of money these poor countries are spending on it, it should be a solid supported platform for a while.
Really I find a lot of these problems are shared with conventional technology platforms in education. At some point TV was going to be the be all and end all to education. Nope. Growing up my school had Apple //, Mac Classic, iMac, and eventually Windows PCs. Still questionable how much they added to the educational experience. I remember playing games and typing tutor on the Apple //, but there were three of them in the back of a class of 20 students. Although I could use a word processor / Spreadsheet programs (as a commonly toted example of why computers in school are important), it wasn't till University, or later "Real world" / workplace that I learned proper way of doing things (such as styles). At the very least in developing countries any push for computers (OLPC, Tablets, etc) should be a good ebook reader first, with tons of "open textbooks" / lesson plans, but I didn't see that materialize in OLPC.
In the developed world I see it continue. Look at the amount of schools spending ridiculous amounts of money on either laptops for each child, or tablets for each child. Do they actually do anything? In my Junior/Senior year in University there were students that did their Freshman/Sophmore year at a collage that re
It is more like a traditional GNU/Linux distribution. Just to take an example; if you want to install an app then nothing stops you from ssh:ing into the phone and install the rpm directly or through a frontend like yum or zypper.
The lack of appeal in doing such things just highlights some bad points that Linux developers don't get if they want to have it used more. Yum? Zypper? The names make zero sense as to the function of the service, plus they are odd/wanting to sound l33t as well. Intuitive it is not.
Can you install GIMP?
They did.
Windows 8 requires processors with NX instructions, dropping earlier Pentium 4 (Willamette and Northwood) support, even when the systems have compatible hardware, run Windows 7 great, and could run the betas.
This is what a bubble feels like to users; to dispassionate observers, the similarities to the 1997-1999 period are striking with respect to the hubris of software writers/producers/peddlers. The general public does not like to be so coerced, and, eventually, use some relatively minor but well-publicized event to abandon the scam.
Someday, abandoning apps and maybe the internet itself will seem cool to youth. Why not a network made up of only known friends? It would be the ultimate clique -- a paradise for 15-year-olds.
History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes (thankyoo Mark Twain.)
I don't know if the internet will be abandoned, but we do go through cycles of mainframe-local-thin client-local-cloud-local.
There's nothing to understand or care about.. If an app wants access to my contacts it needs to ask me. If I say no then it doesn't get access. If I say yes.. it does. The answer from the first request is remembered. If I want/need to change my answer I can go into settings and do so. But by default an application exists in a state of "can't access anything until the user approves".
I'm not sure how much easier it could possibly get for a user.
See also: the popularity of UAC in Vista, and the fact that users try to dismiss any dialogs as quick as possible, by answering what will presumably make it work, without reading. Thus the reason Ask toolbar gets installed on computers, scareware fake antiviruses get installed, etc.
How about 169? :)
I notice there are only 168 hours in a week - please share your time technology!
Fall DST changeover week gets an extra hour.
I beg to differ - IPv6 is still found only in most expensive consumer routers.
The $39 DLink DIR-601 router I bought 3 years ago supports IPv6. It only supports 2.4Ghz 150Mbps Wireless N, but it supports IPv6.
I never even liked the stupid tiles in the first place. What's the point in setting a "Home page" if you never see it (since opening a new tab happens a lot more than restarting the browser). The last thing I want is to open a new tab with other people there to see JustUsBoys, Gaytube, etc.