The PDA and the modern cell phones are designed to "sync" your data with your computer. If we'd lived in an open standards world there'd be half a dozen plug ins for sending the data to and from your cell phone and/or PDA every time you sync up. If managers didn't get paranoid becouse of a tech story on CNN (If your not able to check up on the story report every rummor... this is for tech and medical news alike.. swap storys with your doctor with the PS that passes for news)
Just sync your PDA and cell phone with your computer and you'll have nothing more than multi-redundent copys of the same data with no need to worry.
I like this anyway. I keep all my important files on my PDA and computer even if my PDA can't use em just to have a redundent copy. (and then back up)
Smileys appear in the Quantium Link manual as part of Q speak. By that time no doupt smileys were already in commen use. By 1992 Quantum Link had shut down and the parent company would later be renamed America OnLine.
A note for future arceologests. Recomendations of this sort are usually for long tested slang. It's often recomended that a person say jk or:) after a joke so this is hardly a unique request.
Users want with computers what they want with everything else. Something that will do the job for the least amount of money.
The Macintosh is a lovely peace of hardware as is the Sun Ultra Sparc. If money were not an issue Windows and Linux wouldn't exist.
If user friendly was an issue the Macintosh would have crushed Ms Dos and Windows 286/386, Windows 2.X, Windows 3.X would have no chance. As is however Windows 2.x and 3.X the user hostile versions of Windows beat out the Macintosh. The UI sucked but it ran the software and for the users thats ALL that matters.
Oh I acually doupt more than 1% of the preinstalled 3.X users actually used Windows at first. Microsoft slammed that one on PC users. Before that the demand was for XTs running MsDos.
Now on to Linux. It runs on the cheapest hardware PCs plus it runs all the software titles you need (not all the populare ones mind you sorry but remember free to $150 vs $200 to $3,000... People pick low cost over populare most of the time)
And a bonus.. Your not locked into a single hardware. Linux runs on Macs, Atari STs, Amigas, Sun Sparcs. If something new comes out that dose the job better at a cheaper price Linux will be there Windows will not and MacOs won't unless Apple makes the newer better system. So your upgrade path is exploded wide open.
The Macintosh is great and I'd own one if it didn't cost so much. But it dose and I'm not going to throw money into the trash.
The avrage user only seems less thrifty than the avrage geek only becouse the avrage geek knows what (s)he is looking at. The avrage user has to error on the side of caution just so (s)he can get the job done. They already have Windows preinstalled and it get's the job done.
In the office environment it's the same story. They want to get the job done. They care about user friendly like they care about the pritty case. Throw it in an ugly ivory box install the business software that get's the job done and don't think about it.
Linux wins converts for one reason... more and more Windows is NOT getting the job done. Downtine is becomming a major issue. Companys paying more and more overtime to catch up on lost productivity becouse a defective printer driver crashed the whole office network or someone openned an e-mail worm or any number of other unexpected strangenesses that could happen to ANY networked Windows environment.
All companys have two overiding responsability. To the CONSUMMER. Not shareholders not employees. The second is to make a proffit
Thies two complament each other.
Provide for the connsumer UNLESS it hurts proffits. Enhance proffits UNLESS it hurts the consummer.
Let me add something to this. Shareholders who have an agenda that is counter to eather or both are what destory companys. Shareholders have two intrests the logevity and proffitability of the company.
If you piss off your connsummers for proffits your proffits are short term and your business is dead your stock holders are SOL. If you screw up the proffits your unable to stay in business and your stock holders are SOL.
Companys are responsable for how they hurt the world becouse anyone they hurt is a potental costummer lost. There are few exceptions. Screw the environment... do your custummers breath, eat, drink? Are they harmmed by holes in the o zone? Do they mind the smell? Even if your costummers are immortals who can live in a waist land your screwing with there quality of life with the stench and if death is no longer a consern quality of life becomes the first consern. Trust me however your costummers are NOT immortal and more than they are elvis clones or sock puppet armys.
Your costummers are the world when your in business. They are your world and anything you do to them you do to your business.
In my experence companys that make great software make horrable hardware and visa versa.
Example: Microsoft Software: Windows (Need I say more?) Hardware: Side winder, Microsoft Sound System, etc...
Companys tend to expect one side to cominsate for the other. Like when Microsoft expects drivers to be perfict rather than design Windows so drivers don't cause it to puke.
A larg precentage of spam is advertsing illegal services or scams. Examples: All those get rich quick scams especally the piramid scams that were done on-line and in e-mail long before the famous grean card spam. Viagra with out prescription or with a rubber stamp prescription. Etc.
The non-scam spam I get is: Porn spam (Now if it was any good they wouldn't need to spam in the first place) Printer toner spam Windows software spam (However it's lower quality than whats already available for free for Windows anyway.. and usually compleatly useless to me, or occasionally piracy so it fits in the illegal catagory again) And spam marketting (However they usually make false clames)
Even the lagit spam tends to make outragously false clames. When ever I try and verify a clammed business relationship I find the other party is absolutly denying it or in a few cases "Anyone who buys our products is a business partner including you"
Spam has proven to be far more expensive than it clames to be (Sorry but when people say "Good bye I'll never use your services again" it's a major loss...) The advantage is the FTC dosen't watch spam for illegal stuff like scames, false advertising and outright illegal offers (Hay if people sold wepons grade plutonium today they'd be spamming Sadam Husain)
So my guess is the FTC is looking spam over for illegal stuff and going after them. It's a good idea and will likely get an FTC report to congress saying "Well umm it's pritty much all illegal anyway" while halling all the spammers off to jail..:)
Make Cable networks pay for content: Most people watch TV via cable so it seems cable companys are effectively doing TV stations and networks a favor in carrying the content for the consumer. HOWEVER a Clinton era law requires cable networks to pay tv stations for carying this content. So in short this is already being done.
TV stations could carry infomertals or content for shop at home late at night when they aren't airing normal programming. TiVO users aren't going to record this content even with out commertal zapping becouse it's not mixed in with the tv programming. You have to want to watch commertals. Strangely enough it seems to work as long as it's something people want to watch.
Obveously they are doing this already.
They could sell spin off products. Like talking purple dino dolls or Pokemon cards or video games. Or make tv shows that are spin offs of products like the Sonic TV show that is nothing more than a 30 minute commertal.
They could scamble the programming like they do on satlight programming and require a standard decoder on all TVs.. unless the content is being pulled in by cable where the cable company repacages and decodes it for you.
This isn't being done universally but it's what they do when you try to pull in shows via larg sat dish (not DSS but the older system)
They could try to open source it... Just kidding don't kill me.
They could do a lot of diffrent things up to and including a PBS style or a BBC moddle.
(Not very diffrent however PBS is volintary and a US BBC would give the federal government total control over the content.. Get ready for fundimentalist TV 24-7 where as PBS is totally begging us to help them carry the best shows... Dr Who, The prisononer... yeah...)
TV stations use TV ads becouse they provide the most funding. But TV networks unlike the music industry saw the writing on the wall and improved. That dosen't mean they won't let go. But lose the ads and we won't lose TV. However the more expensive shows will have to shift to cable becouse there is yet more money in subscriber based funding.
AiM bots and ICQ bots been around for a while. When I first joinned the Internet in 1993 IRC bots were all over the place. My first attempt an OS was an AI.. my first test was to write an chat bot for a local chat BBS. This may not count the OS was defective so the bot never worked.
Eliza bots would chat with users in some cases if you paged the sysop and the sysop wasn't there the BBS would switch you over to an Eliza bot so you could chat with somebody... (People were SOOO board back then)
So this racks up bots to say 1980's... and some refrences to Apple// chat bots suggest we can go back to 1970's. Eliza itself I believe was a project in the 1960's thow it was talking with itself so maybe it dosen't count.
Chat bot's date back years.. This is a known.. But Active Buddy dosen't know about it?
Ok my question is "How can you know internet programming and NOT know about bots?" To the patent office "Do you have any technology experts who know something more advanced than the wheel? Or can I get a patent on that?"
It's a commen practace to sell government develuped technology and information to companys that donate to a senitor who finds himself in a possition of desiding what to do with government assets. The technology is always sold at a massive discount vs how much the public tax doller paid to create it.
CU See Me and Mosaic were scooped up when people thought there'd be big money in Internet software. Both were created with your tax dollars.
THAT is why government develuped software SHOULD be develuped under GPL liccenses or never released in any way shape or form. (Some software should fall under state secrets.. But we have no provission for this so ANY software may become private sector property)
The fact is a number of companys do buy fully develuped technology this way. By requiring government projects eather be GPLed or never released this prevents companys from using the united states government for software R&D on a discount.
Microsofts opposition to Linux is more philosofical than compeditive and visa versa.
Linux is "Free speach" philosophy and Microsoft is "Intelectual property" philosophy.
At the extream "Free Speach" and IP can not co-exist.. The copyright clame on the "I have a dream" speach makes makes it difficult to have a sereous and relivent debate on the details and meaning of the speach. At the core IP sillences speach.
however free speach makes it difficult to impossable to make a proffit on intectual works.
It's hard to have a relivent discussion of the ideas presented in Gean Rodenburys work with out clips of Star Trek and scripts of his other works. Yet... the same matereal being distributed would result in a loss. Actually when he was alive he alowed unoffical merchandice by fans to be created and it's quite likely he did lose money as a result.
So it's an issue of those who wish to learn understand discuss and educate themselfs vs people who wish to make a living on what they know.
Microsoft on the side of making a living and Linux on the side of learning.
That's actually pritty logical considering Linux was made as a project to learn something and Microsoft came into being to pay bills.
So anywho on to a Linux PDA.
Well the PDA is a bit diffrent from a desktop or server. It's much harder to violate IP laws with. You need to compile your code on your desktop or server. It folows the Microsoft philosophy of making money with what you know quite nicely while firmly imbeded in the idea of free speach.
So Microsoft is more inclined to welcome a Linux PDA.
Additionally Microsoft plays a nasty game in compeating of using a third party to wedge. Linux is not going to be an effective compeditor in the PDA market. It dosen't sereously satisfy the wants and needs of an avrage PDA user (For that reason I have a Palm Os PDA).
The user friendly thing is mostly a farce from what I've seen of users. They'll jump at the cheapest price and complain how hard it is AFTER they have it. They don't care when it costs them money.
For that reason Macintosh dosen't sell as well as Windows. The PC hardware simply costs less. Once they have Windows and the money is paid Linux isn't cheaper than already paid for Windows. However the Macintosh is easyer than Windows and more powerful.
On the PDA the user wants cheap. They don't want a full power computer they want a simple interpreter of data.. a web browser, e-mail, and something to carry databases and speadsheat files. The Palm Os PDAs do this perfictly. With some additional games and other neat applications a Palm Os PDA is everything a business user would need. The stuff that's missing is movie and music players.. enteratinment. Entertainment is not the purpous of a PDA. Personal Digital Assistant... a PDA that plays music is a secretary that dose strip tease. It would be cool to have but would you really honnestly want to pay extra for it? Ok some of you said yes.. I know you did.. pick up your Zaurus and go..
But for me a PDA is a simple effecent business tool. Not a video game system or a movie player. Those are nice extras that I would not want to pay for.
A lot of you will use a Linux PDA becouse it runs the same software that runs on your Linux workstation. That's the same reason people bought WinCE systems.. but those units didn't sell very well and there are fewer Linux users to want the same advantage.
When Apple made the Newtion they could have just made a MacOs PDA. It was the populare thing to do.. with PenTops running Dos, Windows 3.11 and the Zoomer to run Geoworks. But apple knew they needed something specal. Sadly the kinda goofed on the price..
A Linux PDA is a very compact cheap portable computer. Neat. But it isn't the portable business tool that Palm Os is.
Microsoft can use Linux PDAs to pull users away from Palm Os. They know some won't switch to Pocket PCs but most would.
I think the persons who made the first Linux to run on a PDA were right when they said it's great for the coolness factor and improvements to Linux but it's douptful a Linux PDA would be very useful.
Linux TiVO yes, Linux kits yes, Linux in car yes, Linux on a PDA... ummm no...
The needed processing power to make Linux useful is waisted on a PDA. But I guess untill perl is ported to the Palm... it's not a total waist.
I believe the original "Green card" spam violated that ISPs Acceptable use agreement by using to much bandwith. (He tried the "I didn't sign the agreement" stunt where as the ISP says something like "We don't have to provide service then" apparently the ISP could cut service at any time with out that contract...)
I am not a legal expert in any way and to suggest otherwise is BAKA (Yes I added the word Baka becouse it's a fun word to say...)
I sereously doupt you could make a person libal for gifts.
Yes RedHat is hurt but not as a free software company but as a software vender. RedHat often releases versions of RedHat that are by the authors own standards "Not ready" as part of RedHats compleate product.
What this means is Microsoft can't dodge responsability and RedHat can't get away with defective releases. Both companys compeate for worst os release ever.
Free software itself won't be effected. Unless RedHat masters FUD as they seem to be getting a grip on it with this issue.
If you give a friend a present your not libal for defects in the present even if you made it.
Oh yeah... I am not a legal expert of any sort what so ever prioid and to suggest otherwise is Baka. (Yes I had to throw in the word Baka)
Linux gainned note early in life but only in the Internet industry. From there it pushed Sun Microsystems aside.
At the same time Microsoft created Windows NT and was unable to gain the same results untill AFTER Linux gainned a strong foothold.
Microsoft often likes to portray Linux as an alternitive to Windows NT. Sun likes to set the record streight (with an antiLinux spin on the truth)
But reality check... Ask the avrage user what "Seagate" is and again ask what "Linux" is.. 9 times out of 10 they'll think Seagate is something to do with boats and Linux is an alternitive to Windows. (Not that they'll know what that really means)
Linux is obscure compaired to populare fassions and major brands like Coke and Pepsi. But then my grandmother knows more about Linux than she knows about USA Today... and she reads the news... and won't touch computers
17 hours on a 1960s mainframe (about as powerful as a PDA) to calcuate the issues of the 1960s ecconomics and 1960s bank regulations.
vs
11 minutes to calculate the same using 2002 bank regulations (after S&L scandals that resulted in boat loads of new laws) and ecconomics of 2002 (A more complex world ecconomy with more complex issues and more complex details)
This means?
The math co-process of your avrage pentium is more powerful than the bulky analog math logic unit.
Typical. Can't anybody admit a defect in Windows with out clamming it's universal or blamming the users.
Universal: Over the years thies problems have not surfaced in other operating systems.
Users: Mac Os has the same kind of users as Windows and Linux actually shares the same userbase.
Only a precentage of Linux users don't like 'take over' software..
Also Ms Dos itself never degraded.
Just look at how each defect happends in Windows and how other operating systems work and you'll see thies problems are unique to Windows or at least not normal.
Stop blamming the users for using features Microsoft included. Stop blamming "the nature of computers" Put the blame where it belongs.... Poor design...
More over most problems could be fixed easly if Microsoft would just stop making excuses.
Ok a hobby of mine was checking out conspericy theroies. (They get old after a while. Same stuff and once your familure with the matereal you don't even need to lift a finger to find the flaws)
Crop circles are one of the few compelling storys.
Firstly the two hoaxters probably got the idea from storys hence it's quite possable there were cicrlces before this.
Aliens: Sorry just makes no sence. The original idea of alien landings dosn't fit the crop circles be they fake or "real"
As far as I know they all fit the patern of "fake" the real crop circles are created by altering the plants so say the pro-Circle side.
The original idea is that UFOs lanneded there and created the circles on landing. That dies with the fact that only the FAKE are crushed plants.
Alien signs. Ok I see a number of problems with this. First it's dam complex. Second how freaking hard would it be to transmit a radio signal? It took hoaxters to get our attention in the first place. So if there are real circles they aren't signs.
So then what? Disease?
My own theroy is some of the hoaxters don't want to damage the crops so they created crop circles by come cemical means. Spray plants and they bend over a piriod of time. Easy simple. Instant hoax and it takes less time.
Or...
They are all crushed plants and the pro side is lying... and it wouldn't be the first time.
You get a laptop you want full function computer. You get a PDA you want a low cost pocket device.
Remember the days of half sized screens? The whole reason for the note book computer is so we can have a full keyboard and a full screen. It's nothing more than a full computer that you take away from the desk becouse where your going you won't have a computer.
The PDA is diffrent. It's a pocket sized device for a low price. A reminder clock note pad and you carry your data with you so you can look it up on the go. But your not going to be using it for heavy work loads.
You don't want the full processing power of a desk top in a PDA... The cost of the reduced components added battery power and cramming the reslution into a PDA screen would make a very expensive device.
It's not worth it...
The Pocket PC itself makes a fine pocket sized notebook. It's my opinion that this is the only reason people buy those things.
I hear it time and time again.. "Linux can do everything. Linux is great" Well... no. Linux misses a number of things you'll quickly forget ever existsed after a while of using it.
Windows isn't garbage it's loaded with nice things and really if the underlying technology and corprate addatude were diffrent I'd probably use it.
BUT...
I hear this all the time too... "Linux uptime is just a penis contest most people shut down at the end of the day and don't need uptime"
Bizz wrong... Everyone needs uptime... computer is useless with out it... But the user needs uptime of 30 minuts to 8 hours...
Look at WHY Linux has so much uptime or better yet why Windows dosen't.
Windows isn't reliable. It slowly wears down. This is software it shouldn't wear down. Shutting down dosen't reset the clock.
Some of it is memery fragmenting.. shut down reboot everything good.
Some of it is configuration some of it is defects.
Every time you update the system, add drivers, add updates, add software your altering the system and usually many of the changes are done wrong. Those mistakes built up over time and eventually you'll have problems.
Also defects in applications as well as the operating system pop up at random. The longer your up the more likely they'll happen. But it's random chance. Sooner or later it will happen.
He's ok becouse it's fresh out the box on todays hardware. It's well tested to give a long uptime today so he can get the same uptime as Linux right now. But give him time for the system to wear down and start to crash not once every 3 years or once a month but every time he trys to pull up his favoret database.
Most people will be stuck at this point. Thats the sneaky part. By the time the defects set in Microsoft has you. But the avrage Linux person can extract those claws with presission.
He'll be back when he remembers that with the neat features you CAN live with out if you HAD to... comes the loss of a feature you CAN NOT live with out... Reliability.
Some day I might actually make an open source operating system as nice as Windows that is reliable. It won't be Linux. It'll be something else and I already have a few ideas on how it should work.
One idea is no binarys... load compile and run.. easier on the avrage user and really gives the user the advantage of using what ever hardware the user wants. Right now Linux supplys that advantage only to the geeks who compile source code.
My greatest fear of expert system dignosis is they'll more likely just mimic existing the norm. If doctors often misdignose a disorder the expert system will continue to folow that patern. If a rare disorder shows up often doctors misdignose it as it's well.. rare... I've read an artical about this tendency. But then doctors are only human. However they'll see the incorrect dignosis as incorrect keep trying untill they get it right OR piss off patent so much they'll go to annother doctor who might do it right.
Expert computers however will ALWAYS misdignose an NEVER give consideration for the rare. Some times rare disorders are trendy so doctors will look for them more. It's a human thing. The computers won't. Being rare the computers continue to miss it.
The idea of expert systems is nice but right now the technology is more "folow the trend" so it can't do any better than a majority of doctors. Your better off to find a good doctor.
Linux suffers from three phonomon and that I believe is the source of all it's pains.
First that Linux is not a commertal product: For all the advantages this brings it means there is no pool of money to do things like TV ads and pay software companys to port software to Linux and other old industry tactics that Microsoft dosen't have to do.
Then Linux dosen't have it's own platform: Linux lives mostly on other peoples hardware. Microsoft pritty much owns the PC now so all PC hardware is for Windows alone. If Linux had it's own system all hardware made for it would be for Linux 100% all the time. No more guess work.
Linux is open source: Right now the computer industry dosen't know what to make of that. Many companys like Microsoft and RIAA would like to think "Free" really means "Stolen". It scares develupers as well becouse a free program could easly compeate with commertal software and they know it.
Microsoft Windows has less free software than preveous systems did mostly by a trick of making the software develupment tools so expensive it's out of the hands of the avrage user. Only professional develupers can make professional software under Windows. Not becouse they are better programmers but becouse the software tools for the avrage user are primitive. The avrage programmer on Windows has sticks the avrage professioal programmer on Windows has a replicator.
But Linux everyone gets the replicator built in.
That makes programmers very fearful. Add the Linux community's famous ability to gather together and even the professional infinate monkeys can't compeate as we have our own infinate monkeys... and ours don't take breaks for anything. I mean NOTHING!!!! Not even DEATH! Well ok once dead someone takes over but.... No company is evil enough to even permit a programmer to code at his death bed.
Solutions: Marketting, donation pool for money stuff and only time will heal the open source fears.
Windows isn't perfict but for a number of things it works pritty well.
I know one guy who can't read. Well he can read but his brain is wired so if he dose it for to long he has sesures.
Right now Linux even in GUI form requires reading. Lot's of it. Linux never gets away from text EVER.
Windows however runs the other way trying to leave the user in the dark. Thats why the cerebral types hate it. Microsofts whole addatude is "your to stupid to understand". Apple runs on the more "You shouldn't need to understand" Linux is "You MUST understand"
I tend to think of it this way...
Linux is a moter cycle... You MUST know what your doing or you'll never be allowed on the road. Apple is a bike... Some basic rules of the road and you are ok.
Windows is an electric scooter. You can drive it with out knowing how but it's not street legal and it's dangerous could fall apart and leave you dead due entirely to defects in the design. People see you laying on the street walk over you as you blead and say "Be more careful"
I'm ok with electric scooters but if you demand I replace my minivan for one I'll kick your ass...
On the other hand I'm looking at a nice street legal colapsable. I wonder if I can pack it in my luggage if I ever fly someplace. I loath taking a taxi
I've noticed from time to time a "feature" is burried and said to not exist becouse it's not supported in the typical way.
PalmOs provides some support for flash rom and no doupt the Handspring units lack that support. There are some good reasons for not announcing this fact.
I've noticed on my Handspring Visor while I have 2 meg memory it's actually 2 meg total memory.. including the rom. This could be Handspring goofing around and giving less ram to cut costs. But I doupt they could easly do that. More likely the rom was copied to ram. This is a trick to speed things up a tad done on some PCs.
If Handspring dose this will ALL the devices they sell then the flashrom would automaticly be cut off when it wasn't needed anymore.
It makes sense to me. Handspring provides software updates from defects in PalmOs on older visors. Yet they don't have flash. This suggests to me that the patch is being done in ram and not to the rom itself. This also suggests that if you hard reset the unit your patch is vaperised. A good thing when you think about it... Viruses? Yeah you remember those. Palm isn't evil like Microsoft but they aren't totally benine. Just as evil as Kelloggs.. (Or do you believe coco puffs are actually a healthy breakfast? I don't.. Never did.. not even as a kid.. Good to expose kids to obveous marketting lies)
So basicly yeah it may be there but just not supported enough to tell the costummer. The'd expect it to be supported in the usual ways and when it's not they'd be pritty angry.
Slashdot Mirror
Hay don't be cheap. Recast the hull and update other parts as well.
:)
Maybe a lazer upgrade.
Then your army reaches intact.
Unless they send in the millitary. So you want the final battle to happen at MSHQ...
The PDA and the modern cell phones are designed to "sync" your data with your computer.
If we'd lived in an open standards world there'd be half a dozen plug ins for sending the data to and from your cell phone and/or PDA every time you sync up.
If managers didn't get paranoid becouse of a tech story on CNN (If your not able to check up on the story report every rummor... this is for tech and medical news alike.. swap storys with your doctor with the PS that passes for news)
Just sync your PDA and cell phone with your computer and you'll have nothing more than multi-redundent copys of the same data with no need to worry.
I like this anyway. I keep all my important files on my PDA and computer even if my PDA can't use em just to have a redundent copy.
(and then back up)
Muahahaha...
Smileys appear in the Quantium Link manual as part of Q speak.
:) after a joke so this is hardly a unique request.
By that time no doupt smileys were already in commen use.
By 1992 Quantum Link had shut down and the parent company would later be renamed America OnLine.
A note for future arceologests. Recomendations of this sort are usually for long tested slang.
It's often recomended that a person say jk or
Users want with computers what they want with everything else. Something that will do the job for the least amount of money.
The Macintosh is a lovely peace of hardware as is the Sun Ultra Sparc.
If money were not an issue Windows and Linux wouldn't exist.
If user friendly was an issue the Macintosh would have crushed Ms Dos and Windows 286/386, Windows 2.X, Windows 3.X would have no chance. As is however Windows 2.x and 3.X the user hostile versions of Windows beat out the Macintosh. The UI sucked but it ran the software and for the users thats ALL that matters.
Oh I acually doupt more than 1% of the preinstalled 3.X users actually used Windows at first. Microsoft slammed that one on PC users. Before that the demand was for XTs running MsDos.
Now on to Linux. It runs on the cheapest hardware PCs plus it runs all the software titles you need (not all the populare ones mind you sorry but remember free to $150 vs $200 to $3,000... People pick low cost over populare most of the time)
And a bonus.. Your not locked into a single hardware. Linux runs on Macs, Atari STs, Amigas, Sun Sparcs. If something new comes out that dose the job better at a cheaper price Linux will be there Windows will not and MacOs won't unless Apple makes the newer better system. So your upgrade path is exploded wide open.
The Macintosh is great and I'd own one if it didn't cost so much. But it dose and I'm not going to throw money into the trash.
The avrage user only seems less thrifty than the avrage geek only becouse the avrage geek knows what (s)he is looking at. The avrage user has to error on the side of caution just so (s)he can get the job done. They already have Windows preinstalled and it get's the job done.
In the office environment it's the same story. They want to get the job done. They care about user friendly like they care about the pritty case.
Throw it in an ugly ivory box install the business software that get's the job done and don't think about it.
Linux wins converts for one reason... more and more Windows is NOT getting the job done. Downtine is becomming a major issue. Companys paying more and more overtime to catch up on lost productivity becouse a defective printer driver crashed the whole office network or someone openned an e-mail worm or any number of other unexpected strangenesses that could happen to ANY networked Windows environment.
All companys have two overiding responsability. To the CONSUMMER. Not shareholders not employees.
The second is to make a proffit
Thies two complament each other.
Provide for the connsumer UNLESS it hurts proffits.
Enhance proffits UNLESS it hurts the consummer.
Let me add something to this. Shareholders who have an agenda that is counter to eather or both are what destory companys. Shareholders have two intrests the logevity and proffitability of the company.
If you piss off your connsummers for proffits your proffits are short term and your business is dead your stock holders are SOL.
If you screw up the proffits your unable to stay in business and your stock holders are SOL.
Companys are responsable for how they hurt the world becouse anyone they hurt is a potental costummer lost. There are few exceptions.
Screw the environment... do your custummers breath, eat, drink? Are they harmmed by holes in the o zone? Do they mind the smell?
Even if your costummers are immortals who can live in a waist land your screwing with there quality of life with the stench and if death is no longer a consern quality of life becomes the first consern. Trust me however your costummers are NOT immortal and more than they are elvis clones or sock puppet armys.
Your costummers are the world when your in business. They are your world and anything you do to them you do to your business.
In my experence companys that make great software make horrable hardware and visa versa.
Example: Microsoft
Software: Windows (Need I say more?)
Hardware: Side winder, Microsoft Sound System, etc...
Companys tend to expect one side to cominsate for the other. Like when Microsoft expects drivers to be perfict rather than design Windows so drivers don't cause it to puke.
A larg precentage of spam is advertsing illegal services or scams.
:)
Examples: All those get rich quick scams especally the piramid scams that were done on-line and in e-mail long before the famous grean card spam.
Viagra with out prescription or with a rubber stamp prescription.
Etc.
The non-scam spam I get is:
Porn spam (Now if it was any good they wouldn't need to spam in the first place)
Printer toner spam
Windows software spam (However it's lower quality than whats already available for free for Windows anyway.. and usually compleatly useless to me, or occasionally piracy so it fits in the illegal catagory again)
And spam marketting (However they usually make false clames)
Even the lagit spam tends to make outragously false clames. When ever I try and verify a clammed business relationship I find the other party is absolutly denying it or in a few cases "Anyone who buys our products is a business partner including you"
Spam has proven to be far more expensive than it clames to be (Sorry but when people say "Good bye I'll never use your services again" it's a major loss...)
The advantage is the FTC dosen't watch spam for illegal stuff like scames, false advertising and outright illegal offers (Hay if people sold wepons grade plutonium today they'd be spamming Sadam Husain)
So my guess is the FTC is looking spam over for illegal stuff and going after them.
It's a good idea and will likely get an FTC report to congress saying "Well umm it's pritty much all illegal anyway" while halling all the spammers off to jail..
Futurama (FOX: weak ratings)
I admit I'm not a faithful folower of the show so if they go into reruns I'm not gona notice.
But it's still on every sunday on Fox..
Make Cable networks pay for content:
Most people watch TV via cable so it seems cable companys are effectively doing TV stations and networks a favor in carrying the content for the consumer.
HOWEVER a Clinton era law requires cable networks to pay tv stations for carying this content.
So in short this is already being done.
TV stations could carry infomertals or content for shop at home late at night when they aren't airing normal programming. TiVO users aren't going to record this content even with out commertal zapping becouse it's not mixed in with the tv programming. You have to want to watch commertals. Strangely enough it seems to work as long as it's something people want to watch.
Obveously they are doing this already.
They could sell spin off products. Like talking purple dino dolls or Pokemon cards or video games. Or make tv shows that are spin offs of products like the Sonic TV show that is nothing more than a 30 minute commertal.
They could scamble the programming like they do on satlight programming and require a standard decoder on all TVs.. unless the content is being pulled in by cable where the cable company repacages and decodes it for you.
This isn't being done universally but it's what they do when you try to pull in shows via larg sat dish (not DSS but the older system)
They could try to open source it... Just kidding don't kill me.
They could do a lot of diffrent things up to and including a PBS style or a BBC moddle.
(Not very diffrent however PBS is volintary and a US BBC would give the federal government total control over the content.. Get ready for fundimentalist TV 24-7
where as PBS is totally begging us to help them carry the best shows...
Dr Who, The prisononer... yeah...)
TV stations use TV ads becouse they provide the most funding. But TV networks unlike the music industry saw the writing on the wall and improved.
That dosen't mean they won't let go. But lose the ads and we won't lose TV.
However the more expensive shows will have to shift to cable becouse there is yet more money in subscriber based funding.
AiM bots and ICQ bots been around for a while.
// chat bots suggest we can go back to 1970's. Eliza itself I believe was a project in the 1960's thow it was talking with itself so maybe it dosen't count.
When I first joinned the Internet in 1993 IRC bots were all over the place.
My first attempt an OS was an AI.. my first test was to write an chat bot for a local chat BBS. This may not count the OS was defective so the bot never worked.
Eliza bots would chat with users in some cases if you paged the sysop and the sysop wasn't there the BBS would switch you over to an Eliza bot so you could chat with somebody...
(People were SOOO board back then)
So this racks up bots to say 1980's... and some refrences to Apple
Chat bot's date back years.. This is a known..
But Active Buddy dosen't know about it?
Ok my question is "How can you know internet programming and NOT know about bots?"
To the patent office "Do you have any technology experts who know something more advanced than the wheel? Or can I get a patent on that?"
It's a commen practace to sell government develuped technology and information to companys that donate to a senitor who finds himself in a possition of desiding what to do with government assets.
The technology is always sold at a massive discount vs how much the public tax doller paid to create it.
CU See Me and Mosaic were scooped up when people thought there'd be big money in Internet software.
Both were created with your tax dollars.
THAT is why government develuped software SHOULD be develuped under GPL liccenses or never released in any way shape or form.
(Some software should fall under state secrets.. But we have no provission for this so ANY software may become private sector property)
The fact is a number of companys do buy fully develuped technology this way. By requiring government projects eather be GPLed or never released this prevents companys from using the united states government for software R&D on a discount.
Microsofts opposition to Linux is more philosofical than compeditive and visa versa.
Linux is "Free speach" philosophy and Microsoft is "Intelectual property" philosophy.
At the extream "Free Speach" and IP can not co-exist..
The copyright clame on the "I have a dream" speach makes makes it difficult to have a sereous and relivent debate on the details and meaning of the speach.
At the core IP sillences speach.
however free speach makes it difficult to impossable to make a proffit on intectual works.
It's hard to have a relivent discussion of the ideas presented in Gean Rodenburys work with out clips of Star Trek and scripts of his other works.
Yet... the same matereal being distributed would result in a loss. Actually when he was alive he alowed unoffical merchandice by fans to be created and it's quite likely he did lose money as a result.
So it's an issue of those who wish to learn understand discuss and educate themselfs vs people who wish to make a living on what they know.
Microsoft on the side of making a living and Linux on the side of learning.
That's actually pritty logical considering Linux was made as a project to learn something and Microsoft came into being to pay bills.
So anywho on to a Linux PDA.
Well the PDA is a bit diffrent from a desktop or server. It's much harder to violate IP laws with. You need to compile your code on your desktop or server. It folows the Microsoft philosophy of making money with what you know quite nicely while firmly imbeded in the idea of free speach.
So Microsoft is more inclined to welcome a Linux PDA.
Additionally Microsoft plays a nasty game in compeating of using a third party to wedge. Linux is not going to be an effective compeditor in the PDA market. It dosen't sereously satisfy the wants and needs of an avrage PDA user (For that reason I have a Palm Os PDA).
The user friendly thing is mostly a farce from what I've seen of users. They'll jump at the cheapest price and complain how hard it is AFTER they have it. They don't care when it costs them money.
For that reason Macintosh dosen't sell as well as Windows. The PC hardware simply costs less. Once they have Windows and the money is paid Linux isn't cheaper than already paid for Windows.
However the Macintosh is easyer than Windows and more powerful.
On the PDA the user wants cheap. They don't want a full power computer they want a simple interpreter of data.. a web browser, e-mail, and something to carry databases and speadsheat files.
The Palm Os PDAs do this perfictly. With some additional games and other neat applications a Palm Os PDA is everything a business user would need.
The stuff that's missing is movie and music players.. enteratinment. Entertainment is not the purpous of a PDA. Personal Digital Assistant... a PDA that plays music is a secretary that dose strip tease. It would be cool to have but would you really honnestly want to pay extra for it?
Ok some of you said yes.. I know you did.. pick up your Zaurus and go..
But for me a PDA is a simple effecent business tool. Not a video game system or a movie player. Those are nice extras that I would not want to pay for.
A lot of you will use a Linux PDA becouse it runs the same software that runs on your Linux workstation. That's the same reason people bought WinCE systems.. but those units didn't sell very well and there are fewer Linux users to want the same advantage.
When Apple made the Newtion they could have just made a MacOs PDA. It was the populare thing to do.. with PenTops running Dos, Windows 3.11 and the Zoomer to run Geoworks. But apple knew they needed something specal. Sadly the kinda goofed on the price..
A Linux PDA is a very compact cheap portable computer. Neat. But it isn't the portable business tool that Palm Os is.
Microsoft can use Linux PDAs to pull users away from Palm Os. They know some won't switch to Pocket PCs but most would.
I think the persons who made the first Linux to run on a PDA were right when they said it's great for the coolness factor and improvements to Linux but it's douptful a Linux PDA would be very useful.
Linux TiVO yes, Linux kits yes, Linux in car yes, Linux on a PDA... ummm no...
The needed processing power to make Linux useful is waisted on a PDA.
But I guess untill perl is ported to the Palm... it's not a total waist.
I believe the original "Green card" spam violated that ISPs Acceptable use agreement by using to much bandwith.
(He tried the "I didn't sign the agreement" stunt where as the ISP says something like "We don't have to provide service then" apparently the ISP could cut service at any time with out that contract...)
I am not a legal expert in any way and to suggest otherwise is BAKA
(Yes I added the word Baka becouse it's a fun word to say...)
I sereously doupt you could make a person libal for gifts.
Yes RedHat is hurt but not as a free software company but as a software vender.
RedHat often releases versions of RedHat that are by the authors own standards "Not ready" as part of RedHats compleate product.
What this means is Microsoft can't dodge responsability and RedHat can't get away with defective releases. Both companys compeate for worst os release ever.
Free software itself won't be effected. Unless RedHat masters FUD as they seem to be getting a grip on it with this issue.
If you give a friend a present your not libal for defects in the present even if you made it.
Oh yeah...
I am not a legal expert of any sort what so ever prioid and to suggest otherwise is Baka.
(Yes I had to throw in the word Baka)
Linux gainned note early in life but only in the Internet industry. From there it pushed Sun Microsystems aside.
At the same time Microsoft created Windows NT and was unable to gain the same results untill AFTER Linux gainned a strong foothold.
Microsoft often likes to portray Linux as an alternitive to Windows NT. Sun likes to set the record streight (with an antiLinux spin on the truth)
But reality check... Ask the avrage user what "Seagate" is and again ask what "Linux" is..
9 times out of 10 they'll think Seagate is something to do with boats and Linux is an alternitive to Windows.
(Not that they'll know what that really means)
Linux is obscure compaired to populare fassions and major brands like Coke and Pepsi.
But then my grandmother knows more about Linux than she knows about USA Today...
and she reads the news... and won't touch computers
Major product manufactor warns major compeditor threat to a populare issue.
Ziplock wans Glad a threat to food safty
Ford warns Honda a threat to environment
Time Mag warns USA Today a threat to reporting accuracy.
and with reporting like this and AoL/Time Warrner rummored flirtations with Linux... and USA today reports like this...
17 hours on a 1960s mainframe (about as powerful as a PDA) to calcuate the issues of the 1960s ecconomics and 1960s bank regulations.
vs
11 minutes to calculate the same using 2002 bank regulations (after S&L scandals that resulted in boat loads of new laws) and ecconomics of 2002 (A more complex world ecconomy with more complex issues and more complex details)
This means?
The math co-process of your avrage pentium is more powerful than the bulky analog math logic unit.
Typical. Can't anybody admit a defect in Windows with out clamming it's universal or blamming the users.
Universal:
Over the years thies problems have not surfaced in other operating systems.
Users:
Mac Os has the same kind of users as Windows and Linux actually shares the same userbase.
Only a precentage of Linux users don't like 'take over' software..
Also Ms Dos itself never degraded.
Just look at how each defect happends in Windows and how other operating systems work and you'll see thies problems are unique to Windows or at least not normal.
Stop blamming the users for using features Microsoft included.
Stop blamming "the nature of computers"
Put the blame where it belongs....
Poor design...
More over most problems could be fixed easly if Microsoft would just stop making excuses.
Ok a hobby of mine was checking out conspericy theroies.
(They get old after a while. Same stuff and once your familure with the matereal you don't even need to lift a finger to find the flaws)
Crop circles are one of the few compelling storys.
Firstly the two hoaxters probably got the idea from storys hence it's quite possable there were cicrlces before this.
Aliens: Sorry just makes no sence. The original idea of alien landings dosn't fit the crop circles be they fake or "real"
As far as I know they all fit the patern of "fake" the real crop circles are created by altering the plants so say the pro-Circle side.
The original idea is that UFOs lanneded there and created the circles on landing. That dies with the fact that only the FAKE are crushed plants.
Alien signs. Ok I see a number of problems with this. First it's dam complex. Second how freaking hard would it be to transmit a radio signal?
It took hoaxters to get our attention in the first place. So if there are real circles they aren't signs.
So then what? Disease?
My own theroy is some of the hoaxters don't want to damage the crops so they created crop circles by come cemical means. Spray plants and they bend over a piriod of time. Easy simple. Instant hoax and it takes less time.
Or...
They are all crushed plants and the pro side is lying... and it wouldn't be the first time.
You get a laptop you want full function computer.
You get a PDA you want a low cost pocket device.
Remember the days of half sized screens?
The whole reason for the note book computer is so we can have a full keyboard and a full screen.
It's nothing more than a full computer that you take away from the desk becouse where your going you won't have a computer.
The PDA is diffrent. It's a pocket sized device for a low price. A reminder clock note pad and you carry your data with you so you can look it up on the go.
But your not going to be using it for heavy work loads.
You don't want the full processing power of a desk top in a PDA...
The cost of the reduced components added battery power and cramming the reslution into a PDA screen would make a very expensive device.
It's not worth it...
The Pocket PC itself makes a fine pocket sized notebook. It's my opinion that this is the only reason people buy those things.
I hear it time and time again..
"Linux can do everything. Linux is great"
Well... no. Linux misses a number of things you'll quickly forget ever existsed after a while of using it.
Windows isn't garbage it's loaded with nice things and really if the underlying technology and corprate addatude were diffrent I'd probably use it.
BUT...
I hear this all the time too...
"Linux uptime is just a penis contest most people shut down at the end of the day and don't need uptime"
Bizz wrong...
Everyone needs uptime... computer is useless with out it... But the user needs uptime of 30 minuts to 8 hours...
Look at WHY Linux has so much uptime or better yet why Windows dosen't.
Windows isn't reliable. It slowly wears down. This is software it shouldn't wear down.
Shutting down dosen't reset the clock.
Some of it is memery fragmenting.. shut down reboot everything good.
Some of it is configuration some of it is defects.
Every time you update the system, add drivers, add updates, add software your altering the system and usually many of the changes are done wrong. Those mistakes built up over time and eventually you'll have problems.
Also defects in applications as well as the operating system pop up at random. The longer your up the more likely they'll happen.
But it's random chance. Sooner or later it will happen.
He's ok becouse it's fresh out the box on todays hardware. It's well tested to give a long uptime today so he can get the same uptime as Linux right now. But give him time for the system to wear down and start to crash not once every 3 years or once a month but every time he trys to pull up his favoret database.
Most people will be stuck at this point. Thats the sneaky part. By the time the defects set in Microsoft has you.
But the avrage Linux person can extract those claws with presission.
He'll be back when he remembers that with the neat features you CAN live with out if you HAD to... comes the loss of a feature you CAN NOT live with out...
Reliability.
Some day I might actually make an open source operating system as nice as Windows that is reliable. It won't be Linux. It'll be something else and I already have a few ideas on how it should work.
One idea is no binarys... load compile and run.. easier on the avrage user and really gives the user the advantage of using what ever hardware the user wants. Right now Linux supplys that advantage only to the geeks who compile source code.
Ahh yes people have died from software viruses for years.
Microsoft is being sued for the deaths of millions of loved ones due to software defects.
This stinks like more of that "Terrorist use encryption so ban encryption" garbage.
Terrorists use paper and I can make a paper knife. Muahaha watch we kill with paper cuts...
Well... it makes as much sence.
My greatest fear of expert system dignosis is they'll more likely just mimic existing the norm.
If doctors often misdignose a disorder the expert system will continue to folow that patern.
If a rare disorder shows up often doctors misdignose it as it's well.. rare... I've read an artical about this tendency. But then doctors are only human. However they'll see the incorrect dignosis as incorrect keep trying untill they get it right OR piss off patent so much they'll go to annother doctor who might do it right.
Expert computers however will ALWAYS misdignose an NEVER give consideration for the rare.
Some times rare disorders are trendy so doctors will look for them more. It's a human thing. The computers won't. Being rare the computers continue to miss it.
The idea of expert systems is nice but right now the technology is more "folow the trend" so it can't do any better than a majority of doctors. Your better off to find a good doctor.
Linux suffers from three phonomon and that I believe is the source of all it's pains.
First that Linux is not a commertal product:
For all the advantages this brings it means there is no pool of money to do things like TV ads and pay software companys to port software to Linux and other old industry tactics that Microsoft dosen't have to do.
Then Linux dosen't have it's own platform:
Linux lives mostly on other peoples hardware. Microsoft pritty much owns the PC now so all PC hardware is for Windows alone.
If Linux had it's own system all hardware made for it would be for Linux 100% all the time.
No more guess work.
Linux is open source:
Right now the computer industry dosen't know what to make of that.
Many companys like Microsoft and RIAA would like to think "Free" really means "Stolen".
It scares develupers as well becouse a free program could easly compeate with commertal software and they know it.
Microsoft Windows has less free software than preveous systems did mostly by a trick of making the software develupment tools so expensive it's out of the hands of the avrage user. Only professional develupers can make professional software under Windows. Not becouse they are better programmers but becouse the software tools for the avrage user are primitive.
The avrage programmer on Windows has sticks the avrage professioal programmer on Windows has a replicator.
But Linux everyone gets the replicator built in.
That makes programmers very fearful.
Add the Linux community's famous ability to gather together and even the professional infinate monkeys can't compeate as we have our own infinate monkeys...
and ours don't take breaks for anything. I mean NOTHING!!!! Not even DEATH! Well ok once dead someone takes over but.... No company is evil enough to even permit a programmer to code at his death bed.
Solutions: Marketting, donation pool for money stuff and only time will heal the open source fears.
Windows isn't perfict but for a number of things it works pritty well.
I know one guy who can't read.
Well he can read but his brain is wired so if he dose it for to long he has sesures.
Right now Linux even in GUI form requires reading. Lot's of it. Linux never gets away from text EVER.
Windows however runs the other way trying to leave the user in the dark. Thats why the cerebral types hate it. Microsofts whole addatude is "your to stupid to understand".
Apple runs on the more "You shouldn't need to understand"
Linux is "You MUST understand"
I tend to think of it this way...
Linux is a moter cycle... You MUST know what your doing or you'll never be allowed on the road.
Apple is a bike... Some basic rules of the road and you are ok.
Windows is an electric scooter. You can drive it with out knowing how but it's not street legal and it's dangerous could fall apart and leave you dead due entirely to defects in the design.
People see you laying on the street walk over you as you blead and say "Be more careful"
I'm ok with electric scooters but if you demand I replace my minivan for one I'll kick your ass...
On the other hand I'm looking at a nice street legal colapsable. I wonder if I can pack it in my luggage if I ever fly someplace.
I loath taking a taxi
I've noticed from time to time a "feature" is burried and said to not exist becouse it's not supported in the typical way.
PalmOs provides some support for flash rom and no doupt the Handspring units lack that support.
There are some good reasons for not announcing this fact.
I've noticed on my Handspring Visor while I have 2 meg memory it's actually 2 meg total memory.. including the rom. This could be Handspring goofing around and giving less ram to cut costs. But I doupt they could easly do that.
More likely the rom was copied to ram. This is a trick to speed things up a tad done on some PCs.
If Handspring dose this will ALL the devices they sell then the flashrom would automaticly be cut off when it wasn't needed anymore.
It makes sense to me. Handspring provides software updates from defects in PalmOs on older visors. Yet they don't have flash. This suggests to me that the patch is being done in ram and not to the rom itself.
This also suggests that if you hard reset the unit your patch is vaperised. A good thing when you think about it... Viruses? Yeah you remember those. Palm isn't evil like Microsoft but they aren't totally benine. Just as evil as Kelloggs.. (Or do you believe coco puffs are actually a healthy breakfast? I don't.. Never did.. not even as a kid.. Good to expose kids to obveous marketting lies)
So basicly yeah it may be there but just not supported enough to tell the costummer.
The'd expect it to be supported in the usual ways and when it's not they'd be pritty angry.