The only thing that gets me is why they are using the Itanium instead of the excellent MIPS chip? Given that Linux has been compiled for so many different archectures, I am sure the MIPS chip is on the list. Maybe this is the case of SGI doing a Motorola, ie using a competitors chip, instead of realising that they too have a CPU division.
Oh well, I'll go back to smoking my joint, at least that way I can start seeing stuff from the marketing perspective;-)
Actually the card in the airport is you standard wireless card sold by Lucent. The only difference is that Lucent charges about twice as much, when selling to end-useres.
Sure you get a parodox, but it is possible that in 100 yrs there will be some genious capable of breaking the parodox. Time will be the only judge whether something is possible or impossible - to be truly impossible, it must not have been proved possible by the time the universe ends.
Or maybe the motherbaord manufacturer is one of these Korean companies with no offices in the USA. It would be much easier to sue Palm who has a known USA address, than get wound up in an international law-suit.
I have hot plugged SCSI cables before ( I know it isn't meant to be hot-pluggable ), and I have never experienced a dead motherboard or SCSI connector. The most I have got is the OS wondering what happened to the SCSI drive.
If the connector is not tollerant, then it was probably a cheap SCSI card or connector on the computer.
Since you have left the company, and your are posting anonymously, surely you could let us know who this company is? My investment is important and I would rather avoid a motherboard from a company with such a policy.
Re:My G4 / How many FPS do you want?
on
Case Tweaking
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· Score: 1
Don't forget that it will also happily run Linux and BSD aswell, okay and Darwin too.
One thing that Einstein tried working out was the Unified Theory, where somehow garvity and magnetism are somehow related. He was never able to do that, but there are still people trying to work out the connection. I suppose as we delve deeper into the sub-atomic universe we will probably start to find the connection. I won't bother trying to share any of my own theories as thet aren't tested and are probably a load of bull;-)
When doing science it is almost impossible to prove something is impossible. The fact that you think it is impossible is probably because you haven't tried the 'right' approach and that the necessary technology or understanding is not yet in place. For example, while I don't personally believe in time-travel, there is no way I can prove it is impossible.
I don't know what the tester used, but you could easily throw something together in 10 min using Java. You could probably do this just as easily with some other language, but Java is the one I know best and offers a good API for accessing http servers ( java.net.UrlConnection ).
I don't know too much about HyperTransport, but reading your post, I would say that it probably due to more of that excellent communication between the technical department and marketing. Imagine the following scenario:
Tech Dept: This product is a high speed add on.
Marketing: It is the future in computing and a replacement for all your other hardware
Tech Dept: Nope, its complimentary
Marketing: It doesn't sound so good if we say that
Yep, and now we have yet another possibility of getting out computers hacked. Hmm, with all IE, IIS, JavaScript and now this, it is turining into hacker heaven;-)
As said by other posters this is probably not such a bad thing, as it ensures that driver developers do better quality control before they release the driver. The problem, like anything it is open to abuse. For example do we know for sure that MS will be putting the same limitations on home grown drivers, or that they won't use this in anti-comptetitve manner? We don't, but this doesn't mean they will (only time will tell).
I believe that if there was an option to disactivate this feature, or have a admin control-panel which lists the software that has been perceived as causing the problems, with an over-ride, then I am sure users would appreciate this feature a bit more. The FUD comes from the fact that the user, as I understand, has no control over this feature and has to trust MS is not abusing their position - given past history it would take a lot of faith to put 100% trust in them.
Being to turn off this featue would also mean that you don't need an MS certified development environment to develop your software.
The other question I ask myself, is what do you do if you don't have an internet connection?
I think part of the issue is that of control. Companies like to know that they are in control in the end results, like a dictator. The internet is not like that and it scares them.
Other things which are worth noting is that, while I don't have any figures for this, the number of dot coms going bust is probably around the same for any number of real world business in the same geographic zone, ie world-wide. Another is banner ads and the complaint people don't click on them. Heck, nobody clicks on adverts in a paper magazine, so how an earth can they say that the final response rate is any less?
This goes back to the orginal point, a company will try to adapt the market to their own ends, if they can't then they will complain that the environment is not tailored to their needs. Life is chaos, and if you can't stand the chaos, you are better playing elsewhere, IMHO.
On top of what you are paying to the provider there may be an extra cost. For example in N. America most local phone calls are free, cross the Atlantic and you find yourself paying by the second for you phone call. Ironically while Europeans are the people that have the most to gain from cable modems and DSL modems, the aspects of the old monopolies still stand and prevent the customer from getting a fast internet connection - this is chaning but very slowly.
Now if you downloaded your copy of Linux for free ( monthly charges excluded ), you have more of an incentive to pay for something that didn't cost you a thing. As soon as you have had to pay for the download then incentive to give back disappears, or at least diminishes.
The OEM is usually the publisher and they usually have a distribution strategy independent to the software developers. It is rare for the software house to handle the publishing as they are usually too small and don't have the market presence needed to get into the shops. Take as an example Myst 3 - Exile, was developed by Presto Studios, but published by Ubi Soft. If Presto wanted to relase to Linux, but Ubi Soft didn't believe that it was a viable market, then Presto would be forced to find another publisher for that platform.
My short-sightedness. Apart from the token-ring and the microdrive my computer has most of the things so I didn't really think of the othe possibilities ( I am not trying to show off ). I am probably also prejudiced by some of the nightmares I have had trying to get PCMCIA devices working with Windows.
Maybe there should be an OS exchange program? The ide is if you don't like Windows, then you could get a refund for Windows in the form of a Linux ( or maybe another OS ) purchase voucher from Red Hat or one of the other Linux distributors.
I would tend to agree with this. Any techies will find a way to install Linux whether it is vendor approved or not. Don't get me wrong I like Linux and use it myself, the problem is that for your average workstation user it just doesn't have the polished edges that it could. At the moment I think of Linux vs Windows, as the mechanic's off road vehicle vs a Ford Echo - sure Windows is not 100% reliable, but it is comfortable and does what the user wants without having to fight too much.
One OS that Linux needs to emulate is MacOS X. Sure the OS still has some maturing to do, but it has given a relativley friendly interface to the Unix underlays. The user needs never use the command line to configure the machine, though if they do it is there ready to be revealed.
I am not wanting to start a flame-war, rather I am trying to give real world view point of the situation. Sometimes it helps to leave the computer alone for a few weeks and see where everyone else is coming from.
Linux is still far from being mainstream capable. Installing that, for the common folk, is NOT easy.
This is even true for a techie. I have a friend who is a Linux competant sys admin and had problems installing Linux on the his Dell Latitude because the PCMCIA slots were causing problems. This he ended up sorting out with a BIOS tweak and going via the 'advanced' installation method. There also was a problem with USB mice until he modified a value in the BIOS. These problems may no longer be an issue with newer versions of Linux installers, but at that point in time it proved to be a big time waster. Had he not been so convinced to get Linux running, I don't think he would have gone the mile.
BTW Once you have built in a built in modem and ethernet port I am not sure what use PCMCIA ports really have? I have removed the blanker cards to allow better air flow.
On the one had you have the EU (European Union), and on the other you have European countries which aren't part of the EU. Currently none of the countries in Eastern Europe are part of the EU. If these CDs do make their way onto the shelves of EU countries, then we might see an uproar, especially since consumer rights are considered very important - even more so than in the USA.
As said by others you letter is too technical. Imagine what your reaction would be if a doctor wote you a letter with all the medical jargin intact, rather than adapting it to layman's terms.
The sort of points in this reply would probably make good fodder for arguments in such a letter.
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The only thing that gets me is why they are using the Itanium instead of the excellent MIPS chip? Given that Linux has been compiled for so many different archectures, I am sure the MIPS chip is on the list. Maybe this is the case of SGI doing a Motorola, ie using a competitors chip, instead of realising that they too have a CPU division.
;-)
Oh well, I'll go back to smoking my joint, at least that way I can start seeing stuff from the marketing perspective
Actually the card in the airport is you standard wireless card sold by Lucent. The only difference is that Lucent charges about twice as much, when selling to end-useres.
Sure you get a parodox, but it is possible that in 100 yrs there will be some genious capable of breaking the parodox. Time will be the only judge whether something is possible or impossible - to be truly impossible, it must not have been proved possible by the time the universe ends.
Or maybe the motherbaord manufacturer is one of these Korean companies with no offices in the USA. It would be much easier to sue Palm who has a known USA address, than get wound up in an international law-suit.
I have hot plugged SCSI cables before ( I know it isn't meant to be hot-pluggable ), and I have never experienced a dead motherboard or SCSI connector. The most I have got is the OS wondering what happened to the SCSI drive.
If the connector is not tollerant, then it was probably a cheap SCSI card or connector on the computer.
Since you have left the company, and your are posting anonymously, surely you could let us know who this company is? My investment is important and I would rather avoid a motherboard from a company with such a policy.
Don't forget that it will also happily run Linux and BSD aswell, okay and Darwin too.
BTW Aren't floating cars what are known as amphibious and went out of fashion in the 70s?
When doing science it is almost impossible to prove something is impossible. The fact that you think it is impossible is probably because you haven't tried the 'right' approach and that the necessary technology or understanding is not yet in place. For example, while I don't personally believe in time-travel, there is no way I can prove it is impossible.
I don't know what the tester used, but you could easily throw something together in 10 min using Java. You could probably do this just as easily with some other language, but Java is the one I know best and offers a good API for accessing http servers ( java.net.UrlConnection ).
Tech Dept: This product is a high speed add on.
Marketing: It is the future in computing and a replacement for all your other hardware
Tech Dept: Nope, its complimentary
Marketing: It doesn't sound so good if we say that
Yep, and now we have yet another possibility of getting out computers hacked. Hmm, with all IE, IIS, JavaScript and now this, it is turining into hacker heaven ;-)
The BBC also has an article on the subject.
Now how long will it be before this guy gets arrested? Stupid Laws!
As said by other posters this is probably not such a bad thing, as it ensures that driver developers do better quality control before they release the driver. The problem, like anything it is open to abuse. For example do we know for sure that MS will be putting the same limitations on home grown drivers, or that they won't use this in anti-comptetitve manner? We don't, but this doesn't mean they will (only time will tell).
I believe that if there was an option to disactivate this feature, or have a admin control-panel which lists the software that has been perceived as causing the problems, with an over-ride, then I am sure users would appreciate this feature a bit more. The FUD comes from the fact that the user, as I understand, has no control over this feature and has to trust MS is not abusing their position - given past history it would take a lot of faith to put 100% trust in them.
Being to turn off this featue would also mean that you don't need an MS certified development environment to develop your software.
The other question I ask myself, is what do you do if you don't have an internet connection?
I think part of the issue is that of control. Companies like to know that they are in control in the end results, like a dictator. The internet is not like that and it scares them.
Other things which are worth noting is that, while I don't have any figures for this, the number of dot coms going bust is probably around the same for any number of real world business in the same geographic zone, ie world-wide. Another is banner ads and the complaint people don't click on them. Heck, nobody clicks on adverts in a paper magazine, so how an earth can they say that the final response rate is any less?
This goes back to the orginal point, a company will try to adapt the market to their own ends, if they can't then they will complain that the environment is not tailored to their needs. Life is chaos, and if you can't stand the chaos, you are better playing elsewhere, IMHO.
And it didn't take long for someone to post an ASCII goatse.cx.
On top of what you are paying to the provider there may be an extra cost. For example in N. America most local phone calls are free, cross the Atlantic and you find yourself paying by the second for you phone call. Ironically while Europeans are the people that have the most to gain from cable modems and DSL modems, the aspects of the old monopolies still stand and prevent the customer from getting a fast internet connection - this is chaning but very slowly.
Now if you downloaded your copy of Linux for free ( monthly charges excluded ), you have more of an incentive to pay for something that didn't cost you a thing. As soon as you have had to pay for the download then incentive to give back disappears, or at least diminishes.
The OEM is usually the publisher and they usually have a distribution strategy independent to the software developers. It is rare for the software house to handle the publishing as they are usually too small and don't have the market presence needed to get into the shops. Take as an example Myst 3 - Exile, was developed by Presto Studios, but published by Ubi Soft. If Presto wanted to relase to Linux, but Ubi Soft didn't believe that it was a viable market, then Presto would be forced to find another publisher for that platform.
My short-sightedness. Apart from the token-ring and the microdrive my computer has most of the things so I didn't really think of the othe possibilities ( I am not trying to show off ). I am probably also prejudiced by some of the nightmares I have had trying to get PCMCIA devices working with Windows.
Maybe there should be an OS exchange program? The ide is if you don't like Windows, then you could get a refund for Windows in the form of a Linux ( or maybe another OS ) purchase voucher from Red Hat or one of the other Linux distributors.
I would tend to agree with this. Any techies will find a way to install Linux whether it is vendor approved or not. Don't get me wrong I like Linux and use it myself, the problem is that for your average workstation user it just doesn't have the polished edges that it could. At the moment I think of Linux vs Windows, as the mechanic's off road vehicle vs a Ford Echo - sure Windows is not 100% reliable, but it is comfortable and does what the user wants without having to fight too much.
One OS that Linux needs to emulate is MacOS X. Sure the OS still has some maturing to do, but it has given a relativley friendly interface to the Unix underlays. The user needs never use the command line to configure the machine, though if they do it is there ready to be revealed.
I am not wanting to start a flame-war, rather I am trying to give real world view point of the situation. Sometimes it helps to leave the computer alone for a few weeks and see where everyone else is coming from.
This is even true for a techie. I have a friend who is a Linux competant sys admin and had problems installing Linux on the his Dell Latitude because the PCMCIA slots were causing problems. This he ended up sorting out with a BIOS tweak and going via the 'advanced' installation method. There also was a problem with USB mice until he modified a value in the BIOS. These problems may no longer be an issue with newer versions of Linux installers, but at that point in time it proved to be a big time waster. Had he not been so convinced to get Linux running, I don't think he would have gone the mile.
BTW Once you have built in a built in modem and ethernet port I am not sure what use PCMCIA ports really have? I have removed the blanker cards to allow better air flow.
On the one had you have the EU (European Union), and on the other you have European countries which aren't part of the EU. Currently none of the countries in Eastern Europe are part of the EU. If these CDs do make their way onto the shelves of EU countries, then we might see an uproar, especially since consumer rights are considered very important - even more so than in the USA.
The sort of points in this reply would probably make good fodder for arguments in such a letter.