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  1. Re:One could argue this only on Why Does Everyone Hate Microsoft? · · Score: 1
    Part of the reason why their job is mind-numbingly complicated is because they need to support legasy software. A whole lot of 16-bit DOS apps written 15 years ago still run on current versions of Windows.

    I have no idea about how well or whether old 16-bit DOS apps still run but my gut tells me no way. But since I haven't tried myself I guess I have no reason to doubt you. But in my experience, very few of the Windows 95/98/Me games I've tried to install work on the XP machines I setup for different family members. Try and run things more secure buy using User Accounts instead of running the default Admin and pretty much nothing works. Hell some of the games are clearly marked as XP compatible and don't work unless you're running as admin. So I find the argument that they work too hard on supporting legacy software hard to believe.

  2. Re:Woohoo I have two options on Company Claims New Chip Converts Heat To Electricity · · Score: 1
    Burn a fiery death of an exploding battery.

    OR

    Massive Freezer burn on my lap and thus gonads.

    Robert Frost pondered the same thing...kind of. (Not to often I get to use my lit geekiness)

  3. Re:The bugs! They are crawling up my legs! on Drugs Eradicate the Need For Sleep · · Score: 1

    So if you had a concussion, did they force you to stay awake for hours to make sure you didn't drop into a coma or something? I'm not even sure if they still do that - prohibit sleep when you have a concussion or if it's just an old wives's tale, but given your situation at the time, it might have been tough to decide which was worse.

  4. Re:Democracy etc on Pete Ashdown on his Run at the Hill · · Score: 1
    In most cases regarding local issues, the feds should be cutting checks to local governments then getting out of the way.

    That sounds like a horrible idea. In the general sense, the federal government should never just cut a check and get out of the way - there should be more oversight not less on how the government is spending my tax money and it's pretty much counter to your goal of more transparency. The whole Katrina debacle is a prime example - billions of dollars spent, yet nobody really knows where it went.

    I do agree that local control is almost always better than federal and that includes education - but why then should the feds be cutting the checks?

  5. Re:Happy Birthday on Wikipedia's $100 Million Dream · · Score: 3, Informative
    According to Wikipedia:

    "The version as we know it was copyrighted in 1935 by the Summy Company as an arrangement by Preston Ware Orem, and is scheduled to expire in 2030. This was the first copyrighted version to include the lyrics. The company holding the copyright was purchased by Warner Chappell in 1990 for $15 million dollars, with the value of "Happy Birthday" estimated at $5 million. "

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_to_You

  6. Re:FoxIt reader is a good interim solution on Acrobat-killer Submitted to Standards Body · · Score: 2, Informative

    I haven't tried this particular PDF, but I had noticed it choking on larger PDFs as well, but since I updated to version 2, it hasn't once failed on anything I've found yet. I recently bought a new machine and even with the crashing on some PDFs I still preferred it to crapping up my clean install with Acrobat and all the garbage that comes with it. And now, since upgrading I've been really happy with it.

  7. Re:There goes my week! on Apple Goes After the Term 'Podcast' · · Score: 1
    I guess it depends on what you define as "familiar with the term." I'm still finding friends & relatives who when I've told them "I was listening to a podcast the other day" say, "I didn't know you had an iPod." There are still a ton of people out there who think that "podcast" is tied directly to an iPod. I admit, I even thought that when I first started hearing about it.

    I'm mostly with Leo on this one, podcast is and always has been a lousy word, and you're right, it's most definitely generic by now. Apple is probably in a bind with the whole "defend it or lose it" requirement on trademarks and the term podcast being taken from iPod, but I don't feel a whole lot of sympathy to them. I do think they have a good argument that my myPodder IS probably confusingly similar to iPod--not becasue they own anything with "pod" but because myPod and iPod sound so similar. Had they called it yourPodder, it would be a different story. But no way do they have any right to restrict usage of podcast.

  8. Re:Wikipedia War Wiki Failure on Wikipedia Wars -- Lake Express Ferry · · Score: 1
    "It's that there's a small set of content generators, a massive amount of wonks and twiddlers, and then a heaping amount of procedural whackjobs. And the mass of twiddlers and procedural whackjobs means that the content generators stop being so and have to become content defenders. Woe be that your take on things is off from the majority."

    I agree right up until the last sentence. It sounds too much like Colbert and I think is inaccurate. Most of the difficulties with Wikipedia aren't because a majority trying to squash opinions that are out of the mainstream. Most of the problems are vandalism plain and simple - people putting information in that they know full well is wrong either for fun (in the case of Colbert) or to promote their own motives.

    The point about there being too many wonks, twiddlers and whackjobs out there causing the good folks to waste too much time being police is ultimately the biggest problem right now. Ultimately I think the solution is to require registration and not take anonymous edits.

  9. Re:your mistaken... on Patent Law Ruling Threatens FOSS · · Score: 1

    Umm that might require elected officials actually write the laws themselves instead of the lobbyists. And if the above statement seems funny or hyperbole to you let me assure it is neither. It is common for the lobbyists to actually write the legislation-that the elected offical in their pockets actually offers up the bill is just a formality.

  10. Re:Numbers on Apple Denies Wi-Fi Flaw, Researchers Confirm · · Score: 1

    Obviously a disclaimer that anectdotal evidence really isn't evidence, but in my experience, Mac users have a much higher rate of doing automatic updates. Like most things, the user experience is better - it's easier and less intrusive. But a major factor is that good, bad or otherwise, Mac users trust Apple immensely more than Windows users trust Microsoft.

  11. Re:Y'all are a bunch of suckers on Apple Denies Wi-Fi Flaw, Researchers Confirm · · Score: 1
    That's always been the part of this I've had the hardest time with, the mixed messages they were sending. On the one hand, they said they used a third party card so it wouldn't be obvious which chipsets were succeptable. That sounded reasonable...until they turned around and said "Oh yeah the built in WiFi in the Apple has the flaw."

  12. Re:Smug Mac users? on Less Than a Minute to Hijack a MacBook's Wireless · · Score: 1
    You don't need to connect to be exploited.

    I was curious about this myself. After watching it again, it sure seemed to me that the way he described it, the Mac needed to connect to the Dell as an access point in order to be exploited. If that's the case, there's a bit of a barrier - though a lot of people will connect to any open access point they find. My Mac always asks me if it's a new one I've never connected to, I and it looks that's the default setting. Connecting willy-nilly to any old access point you find seems like a risk anytime - I mean if you set up an AP, you can already watch traffic anway, this is just a little bit worse.

    What makes you say you don't need to connect to be exploited? Did I miss something in the video?

  13. Re:i'm a colbert fan myself on Stephen Colbert Wikipedia Prank Backfires · · Score: 1

    I have a hard time seeing how this was any different than if he said "go to the park and spray paint something." Wikipedia isn't perfect, but then neither are our public parks. There are some people who will vandalize and litter and their are those that will leave things better than when they came. If you don't like it, don't use it.

  14. Re:Good Products = Success on Apple Reaches 12% Market Share In U.S. Notebooks · · Score: 1

    I think that's a bad counter example. Palm fell apart for very tangible reasons that had nothing to do with market share--the smartest business & tech leaders left, the OS stood still and they stuck with slower processors for too long.

  15. Re:This is such bullshit on Teachers Union Opposes Virtual K-8 Charter School · · Score: 1
    Want to make public schools better? Get rid of charter schools, get rid of computer teachers, make it hard to home-school kids, tax the hell out of private schools. Force the community to care about the public schools, rather than try to find new ways for the best students and families to pull out of them.
    My first concern as a parent, is to see to it my children are educated in the best way possible. I care greatly about other people's kids, but they will always be a distant second to my own.

    Ultimately though, you're asking the wrong question...trying to solve the wrong problem. Rather than thinking about how to fix the public schools (at any cost) the real question is "How do we best educate the most kids?" One public school system no matter how well funded will never be the answer.

  16. Re:MS Word Redaction Tool on More PDF Blackout Follies · · Score: 1

    Probably not a good assumption - believe it or not, many court systems still use WordPefect for legal documents for a variety of reasons. I have no idea to what extent that's changed but it wasn't that long ago that it was a large majority of them using WordPerfect.

  17. Re:Even if they could they shouldn't on Cringely Predicts Apple to Ship OS X for Any PC · · Score: 1
    I agree that Apple has changed, but I don't think they have changed in the direction of becoming a general OS provider.

    Maybe not exactly and certainly not publicly--but I think one lesson learned from Apple's move to Intel is that Jobs is willing to do what some may consider unthinkable and he believes in contingency planning. For example, while there were rumors off and on, it still amazed me that when they announced the move to Intel, he admitted that they'd had OS X running on Intel from the beginning.

    I don't disagree that it's probably not the right financial move to compete with Windows directly. Apple is a very profitable company right now so there's little reason to change that drastically with all of the unknowns. I also think that probably the best opportuntiy for them to do it may have passed--Vista's continual slipping release date (not to mention the confusion having so many versions will cause) might have been a window. Had Apple been strugging for profitability (say the iPod went like the Newton instead) it might been a greater possibility.

  18. Re:Even if they could they shouldn't on Cringely Predicts Apple to Ship OS X for Any PC · · Score: 1
    Your first comment is a good one. It would be a big problem to solve though certainly not impossible.

    But Apple has changed itself drastically the last 4 or 5 years. It is no longer a just hardware company. In 2005, about $6 billion in mac sales, $4.5 billion in iPod sales and $2 billion in iTunes music and software. Total sales were $13.9 billion so some 43% of sales were from computer hardware. Though I can't find profit numbers by product, I'd guess that well under a quarter of Apple's profits are from their mac hardware. The iPods, iTunes sales and especially the sofware sales generate much, much higher profit margins. Not to say things aren't interrelated or that they could dump hardware and be as well as or better off, but the way the company has changed itself financially, it has become more diversified and more of a software company that ever so it's at least an interesting debate.

  19. Re:It had to happen on Podcasting Goes Pay-to-Play · · Score: 1

    But doesn't BitTorrent etc mitigate this issue. If you want to keep it a hobby as far as what you put into it, but get enough fans to run into serious bandwidth cost problems, then lean on p-to-p. If you have enough people interested to require terrabytes of bandwidth, then there should be no problem having enough sources out there.

  20. Re:Yellow Journalist on Apple to 'Switch' to Windows? · · Score: 1

    You are so wrong--Dvorak doesn't actually have any fans.

  21. Re:CAN WE PLEASE GET A SEPARATE DVORAK SECTION on Apple to 'Switch' to Windows? · · Score: 1

    Worse yet, TWIT. It's much easier to not read his articles when posted here, but I generally enjoy listening to Leo and the rest on TWIT and it's pretty tough to ignore him on a podcast.

  22. Re:Buying palm, or buying BeOS? on Apple to Buy out Palm? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well even more so because Jean-Louis Gassee wanted more money than Apple was willing to pay. From what I remember, it was very close to a done deal, Apple offered $120 and later $200 million, while Gassee wanted $400 million. Had he said yes to the lower offers, the computer world would be a very different place.

  23. Re:How much is it going to cost? on Microsoft's Sparkle a Flash Killer? · · Score: 1
    You seem to be neglecting the fact that the Flash plugin is a remarkably low-footprint piece of software that comes bundled with virtually every platform out there, from Web browsers to operating systems to mobile phones, at no cost to the consumer.

    But that's going to come to a screeching halt. Considering their plans are to combine PDF, Flash and HTML into a single player. Yeah that will work well considering the absolute garbage they've made Acrobat Reader into. Straight from the horses as--uh mouth:

    What are Adobe's plans for Flash Player and Adobe Reader? Our long-term plan is to develop a "universal client" by combining PDF, Flash and HTML in a single, integrated runtime. Of course, we will continue delivering the Flash Player as a small, efficient runtime for content and applications on the web, and Adobe Reader for viewing and interacting with PDF documents and forms. The integration of these technologies into a unified framework creates a ubiquitous platform that runs on virtually every device, and dramatically expands the opportunities to create compelling solutions.

    http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/invrelations/adobe andmacromedia_faq.html

  24. Re:Might be OK on Disney Buys Pixar · · Score: 1
    I believe that the current problems at Disney began when Frank Wells died in 1994, and Eisner was left with no one to check his power and a totally clueless board that rubber-stamped almost every decision he made.

    Personally I've always felt that Howard Ashman's death in 1991 was a critical turning point in the quality of Disney's features. The Ashman-Menken movies, especially Beauty & the Beast are stil my favorites. Not to mention in addition to the great collaboration of Ashman's lyrics & Menken's music, Ashman also produced/executive produced Little Mermaid & Beauty & the Beast.

  25. Re:No fancy instructions needed on Geeky Gifts for New Dads, The Goodfather · · Score: 1
    I mean, on the one hand, I got so sick of hearing it, I used to scowl at people. And on the other hand, our lives were going to continue on, we were still going to be the same people... just with the added person in the family.

    I remember getting kind of annoyed by everyone telling us the same thing. It's just one of those things that you can't begin to comprehend until you're actually there so such generic "advice" isn't exactly helpful. But of course that doesn't mean it isn't true--everything does change. I mean from the not being able to just pick up & go anywhere instantly, to the extra junk you have to take everywhere to the extreme lack of sleep and on and on. Aside from lifestyle changes, I think that it's pretty common for people to change in fundamental ways as well. I know people who reversed their view on abortion after having a child. Same for changing views on school funding & the like. It depends on what you mean by still being the same people but I know my priorities changed pretty drastically. Where my job used to be a big part of who I was, after our first child was born, work became much more of a means to and end--the place where I had to go & be away from my daughter to make the money to provide for her.