Well if the baby's breastfed then it's a little hard for a man. I know I know I'm a "sexist pig" for suggesting that there's things woman can do (and want to do) regarding child rearing that men can't physically do....
- Has two children under the age of 2 and am unthinkably lucky to have woman who bravely embraces her motherly instinct in the face of the never ending assault on it by (mostly) other females who seem to wish that they were men.
Wait... what? Do you mean to say that you never got up at 3 AM to feed your children so your wife could get a good night's sleep? Never took the time to rock your kids to sleep after they woke up crying after a nightmare?
Do you really think you're doing his wife a favor by letting her "bravely embrace her motherly instinct in the face of the never ending assault on it" instead of actually, I don't know, pitching in and helping out with the kids and the housework so SHE can have a career too? What is she going to do if you get hit by a bus? She'll have to rejoin the workforce years behind her peers, you know. Worst case, she'll be stuck with no chance of promotion for most of her professional life.
You're right, you're a great guy for doing all that for her. [/sarcasm]
I never said that _all_ of Google or Pixar's code was Python. I only highlighted them as two companies that are successfully managing large Python codebases as part of their production application base. (See the NYSE post as a good example of the kind of mixed language environment that I was referring to.)
Yeah, I'm sure that I want my programmers to waste their time writing SQL stored procedures in C. Or a transactional system in assembler. Or a graphic driver in Perl. Or format a book using just Java.
So, Python is just a toy language, eh? One unsuited to use for any heavy lifting or by large programming teams? Funny, someone should tell Google so they can replace all of their code. Same goes for Pixar, too, I suppose.
Look, you're making a classic mistake in assuming that your experience is the sum total of all programming tasks. The truth is that we have lots of programming languages because no single language or class of language can do all things equally well. There's a time and a place for a strongly typed, dynamic language. You simply haven't been exposed to the kinds of jobs where that's common, that's all.
I'm guessing that if you give a reasonably smart person a Windows CD and a CD with all the correct drivers (either as executables, or just a big folder with inf files that they can point the Device Manager to), they can figure it out. It's just a matter of navigating through very familiar GUIs - Next, next, install. If you can install software on Windows, you can install drivers.
Well, a fairer comparison from a user's perspective would be comparing someone purchasing, for example, a Dell laptop with Win 7 versus the same laptop with Ubuntu. I would contend in that case that you would find that the typical end user would never drop to the command line in either case. I think it likely that the end user would find the Ubuntu installation a much snappier experience, too.
Now, about the example you post above. Have you tried to install Linux in the past 2 or 3 years? It's been FAR easier to do so using a LiveCD than it has been to install WinXP this way. I just went through this exercise rebuilding a dual boot XP/Ubuntu box less than a month ago when my hard drive failed.
WinXP? Slide in my slipstreamed SP3 disk (which I had to build myself), next, next, next, reboot.
Oops, I need my driver disk for my motherboard because the drivers aren't available from Microsoft's site. No prob, it's right here. Slide that in, next, next, next, reboot.
Now, time to add in my personal firewall suite before I connect this beastie to the network. Slide in the CD, next, next, next, reboot. Set up the firewall with the basic configuration.
Connect to the network. First things first; visit Microsoft's website and pick up all of the OS updates. Meanwhile, my firewall/anti-spyware/anti-virus/anti-malware suite is automatically updating. Reboot (I'm not kidding here!) three more times while my system adds everything.
Oops, I need my driver disk for my video card. Nahh, I'd rather use the updated drivers off the website. Let's see, here's my download link. DL, doubleclick the install, next, next, next, reboot.
Time to add my favorite apps. Visit (in no particular order), mozilla.com, openoffice.org, and cygwin (for those nasty CLI apps that you hate.;) ). Load them all up.
Now to add the games that are the only reason that I keep this OS around for. Hunt around for various CDs, websites, and what have you to find first the original programs, then the updates.
Bleah. FINALLY, after nine or ten hours of mucking around spread over two or three days I've got a working system with the app mix that I want. Seven reboots before I was done. SEVEN!
Ubuntu? Slide in the latest LiveCD, next, next, next, reboot. Log in for the first time and the system pops up an update notification. Click yes, enter my admin password, wait for the download to complete, reboot. (Unlike XP, this is only necessary for a kernel update. Even drivers can generally be loaded without rebooting.)
Now, how about software? Well, Firefox and OpenOffice are loaded by default, so those aren't an issue. I don't need cygwin because my beloved CLI shell tools are also loaded by default.
I suppose I should add a personal firewall, so let's fire up Synaptic (a GUI front end for package management) and choose one. Let Synaptic load it up. Fire up the GUI for the firewall and choose the basic settings (a task that was also required for my Windows one to get it to run properly, btw.) Hmmm, no reboot needed. That's nice, isn't it?
While I'm at it, let's add the additional repositories that Ubuntu maintains that aren't enabled by default. That's just a matter of selecting them in the GUI.
There are also apps and games that I want that weren't loaded by default, so fire up Synaptic again and browse through the incredibly long list of apps to find my favorites. The built-in Search function is very fast, btw.
Hmmm, this app that I really like isn't in the default repository. However, I've found instructions on the
Anyone referencing MSI's lousy distribution and support on their netbooks as a reason for Linux not being a viable offering while simultaneously ignoring Dell's continued success in selling Ubuntu based netbooks, laptops, and desktops is either (a) ignorant of the facts or (b) a deliberate troll. On the off chance that you are the former, I suggest you google Dell, linux, netbook and read through a few stories. (One of my personal favorites is the second one that showed up when I just tried the search. This one.) It is not only possible to successfully sell Linux, apparently Dell has found it to be very easy.:-)
So, who am I going to believe who understands the Linux market? A copmpany that threw out a half hearted, poorly thought out attempt to jump into a new market, or a company that actually/asked/ people what they wanted and then crafted a business strategy to capitalize on what people told them?
But now we have lazy folks like Sony or Toshiba putting-out Bluray or HD DVD players that require upgrading every month, else they won't play the latest movies.
That's just DRM working as designed. It's a feature! Ain't it great?
That's just stupid.
I couldn't agree more.
However, the rest of your concerns don't really fit all that well. We live in a world that is orders of magnitude more complex than what we grew up in. Much (most? virtually all?) of that complexity is due to features provided through software. All that complexity means that human errors will inevitably creep in no matter how much testing the developers do ahead of tiem. Therefore, in today's world having an easy to use (better yet, automatic!) update tool isn't just a nice to have feature, it's a necessity.
Finally, I will challenge your assertion that all products in the past never needed updates. Ever work on the monstrosity that was the engine in a Fiat Spyder 850? Try to sync the carbs in a '70s model MG Midget? Do a tune up on an early model Yamaha RD motorcycle? Heck, just open the door on a '97 Ford F150?
The reality was that successful companies figured out ways to update their models to eliminate flaws found in their older lines. They never had an easy way to go back and retro fit those earlier models, though. So, while things sometimes Just Worked, sometimes they didn't.
The printed book itself seems most likely. IANAL, though, so I'm not sure how much change is required to get it treated as a transformative work. For all I know, the mere act of printing it is enough.
BTW, have you checked to see if the book is already carried at Project Gutenberg or another library of public domain works?
If Total Cost of Ownership had been a common process, Apple should have owned the business market after it introduced the Mac (shorter training, fewer crashes, etc.). But people looked at Macs, saw a $3500 price, looked at a PC-AT, saw a $2500 price, and the rest, as Bill Gates might say, is history.
No, not really. You're forgetting how locked down Macs have always been. The first Macs had no expansion capability at all; just one floppy drive, a minimal amount of RAM, and a tiny black and white screen. This, at a time when people were already getting used to much larger color screens to do their word processing and spreadsheets in. Standard PCs of the day had two floppy drives. Hard drives had just gone from being an extremely expensive option to just barely affordable for a standard desktop.
In addition, you're forgetting the very active expansion market. People were plugging all kinds of peripherals and cards into PCs. Doing so with a Mac was difficult if not impossible. That made Macs a non-starter for a lot of markets.
...real, usable laptop with an 8.9-11.1" display, readable outdoors in daylight, with a real keyboard, that will be everything that all netbooks to date have emphatically not been.
Funny, I've been using my EEE 901 (running Ubuntu 8.10, not Xandros) outside ever since I've gotten it. I have no trouble touch typing on it, so I'd say it's got enough of a real keyboard for me.:)
No, it can't go 20 hours on battery, but it'll go 5 to 6. That is plenty for my needs.
You were saying? Ohhh, you want VENDORs to offer this kind of box. Well, I'm with you there. The hardware was there on my 901 but the software wasn't until I swapped distros. Not the kind of thing that 99% of the population want to mess with.
Barring corruption and direct conflict of interest checks (which are mandatory), if I were in charge of regulating an industry I would insist on hiring people with experience. Why is this so hard to understand???
Oh, it's not hard to understand at all. What you and the other apologists are forgetting is that in this particular instance, the lawyers who have been appointed to posts within the DoJ happen to come from firms who have consistently demonstrated a track record of unethical, immoral, and possibly illegal behavior. Why on earth should we assume that they've all suddenly found the light and will never sin again?
Consumers today are a lot different from how they were 20 years ago. They aren't passive any more. The spread of the Internet has given them the power to dictate how products are used, and an increasing number of people are discovering new ways to have fun, such as by creating their own content.
A diverse range of electronics will be connecting to the Internet in the near future, tapping Web-based services, and we have to think about what we need to do to make our customers - the king - like our products. I think the key to this lies in watching our customers. If a Sony employee were to ask me what a reasonable market price might be for distributing video to the home, I would tell him, "Don't listen to me; watch our customers."...
Five years ago content companies were regarded as king in our industry, but that was wrong: the customer is king.
Sure, some people might say, "This guy doesn't know what he's talking about." But I reached this conclusion after spending more time on the road, worldwide, than most executives....
That's right. Customers will refuse to accept it unless the technology is open. Youth in particular really dislikes closed technologies, closed systems and the like....
Customers today want to be able to freely access content via the Internet, information technology. This requirement represents a threat to our content business, and to existing frameworks for rights management. I don't see that we have any choice, though. We have to create a sanctuary which provides customers an environment for their enjoyment. That is how we can change a threat to the content business into an opportunity.
I must admit, my first introduction to styles was similar to yours. Except mine was in Word 1.0 on a Tandy 1000.:)
That said, though, I rapidly learned to hate the way that progressively newer versions of Word would either refuse to open old.doc files or worse, corrupt them. I tend to use OOo for most tasks these days. I must say that this thread has me thinking about checking out the latest version of LyX.
Extremadura is the poorest region of Spain, lagging behind the rest of the country in both the economic and technological arena. Though short on financial resources, the region has set very high goals for itself in its Regional Strategy on Information Society. This paper briefly describes the region's strategy and continues to discuss how the use of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) aids the regional government in achieving its goals.
The fun part is the link that I provide comes from the EU's site! lol
Re:The Achilles heel of this...
on
Phoenix BIOSOS?
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· Score: 1
I have an EEE 901 that has been running 8.10 since the week it was delivered (I got bored with the included Xandros pretty quickly). Everything, including wireless, has worked flawlessly the entire time.
Please don't make such sweeping generalizations based upon your anecdotal evidence.
Re:The Achilles heel of this...
on
Phoenix BIOSOS?
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· Score: 1
I have an EEE 901 that has been running 8.10 since the week it was delivered (I got bored with the included Xandros pretty quickly). Wireless has worked flawlessly the entire time.
Please don't make such sweeping generalizations based upon your anecdotal evidence.
Giant spiders, drop bears, and hoop snakes. Yep, Australia's got it bad alright. Here in Minnesota, all we have to deal with are squadrons and squadrons of our state bird.
Now, you might think that mosquitoes aren't anything to get excited about. That's only because you haven't seen a swarm of our larger ones carrying off a small child before. One time, and I swear to you that I heard this from my cousin, who heard it from his best friend, who heard it from his brother in law, who heard it from/his/ best friend, who heard it from his uncle (so you know it's true), a swarm of our more vicious mosquitoes made off with a pregnant Holstein. When they found the cow, it had been drained dry and the newborn calf had developed a strange and disturbing taste for blood.
Yeah, but a well designed OS doesn't page to disk when it's not necessary. If the entire OS and the app suite can be held in RAM, then it should be. If Win7 is generating page faults, then either the entire memory requirement is greater than the installed RAM or Win7 is swapping stuff out when it shouldn't. Either way, Win7 doesn't come out looking all that great as far as I'm concerned.
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Wait... what? Do you mean to say that you never got up at 3 AM to feed your children so your wife could get a good night's sleep? Never took the time to rock your kids to sleep after they woke up crying after a nightmare?
Do you really think you're doing his wife a favor by letting her "bravely embrace her motherly instinct in the face of the never ending assault on it" instead of actually, I don't know, pitching in and helping out with the kids and the housework so SHE can have a career too? What is she going to do if you get hit by a bus? She'll have to rejoin the workforce years behind her peers, you know. Worst case, she'll be stuck with no chance of promotion for most of her professional life.
You're right, you're a great guy for doing all that for her. [/sarcasm]
His comment is right on target.
I never said that _all_ of Google or Pixar's code was Python. I only highlighted them as two companies that are successfully managing large Python codebases as part of their production application base. (See the NYSE post as a good example of the kind of mixed language environment that I was referring to.)
Yeah, I'm sure that I want my programmers to waste their time writing SQL stored procedures in C. Or a transactional system in assembler. Or a graphic driver in Perl. Or format a book using just Java.
See what I mean? :)
So, Python is just a toy language, eh? One unsuited to use for any heavy lifting or by large programming teams? Funny, someone should tell Google so they can replace all of their code. Same goes for Pixar, too, I suppose.
Look, you're making a classic mistake in assuming that your experience is the sum total of all programming tasks. The truth is that we have lots of programming languages because no single language or class of language can do all things equally well. There's a time and a place for a strongly typed, dynamic language. You simply haven't been exposed to the kinds of jobs where that's common, that's all.
Well, a fairer comparison from a user's perspective would be comparing someone purchasing, for example, a Dell laptop with Win 7 versus the same laptop with Ubuntu. I would contend in that case that you would find that the typical end user would never drop to the command line in either case. I think it likely that the end user would find the Ubuntu installation a much snappier experience, too.
Now, about the example you post above. Have you tried to install Linux in the past 2 or 3 years? It's been FAR easier to do so using a LiveCD than it has been to install WinXP this way. I just went through this exercise rebuilding a dual boot XP/Ubuntu box less than a month ago when my hard drive failed.
WinXP? Slide in my slipstreamed SP3 disk (which I had to build myself), next, next, next, reboot.
Oops, I need my driver disk for my motherboard because the drivers aren't available from Microsoft's site. No prob, it's right here. Slide that in, next, next, next, reboot.
Now, time to add in my personal firewall suite before I connect this beastie to the network. Slide in the CD, next, next, next, reboot. Set up the firewall with the basic configuration.
Connect to the network. First things first; visit Microsoft's website and pick up all of the OS updates. Meanwhile, my firewall/anti-spyware/anti-virus/anti-malware suite is automatically updating. Reboot (I'm not kidding here!) three more times while my system adds everything.
Oops, I need my driver disk for my video card. Nahh, I'd rather use the updated drivers off the website. Let's see, here's my download link. DL, doubleclick the install, next, next, next, reboot.
Time to add my favorite apps. Visit (in no particular order), mozilla.com, openoffice.org, and cygwin (for those nasty CLI apps that you hate. ;) ). Load them all up.
Now to add the games that are the only reason that I keep this OS around for. Hunt around for various CDs, websites, and what have you to find first the original programs, then the updates.
Bleah. FINALLY, after nine or ten hours of mucking around spread over two or three days I've got a working system with the app mix that I want. Seven reboots before I was done. SEVEN!
Ubuntu? Slide in the latest LiveCD, next, next, next, reboot. Log in for the first time and the system pops up an update notification. Click yes, enter my admin password, wait for the download to complete, reboot. (Unlike XP, this is only necessary for a kernel update. Even drivers can generally be loaded without rebooting.)
Now, how about software? Well, Firefox and OpenOffice are loaded by default, so those aren't an issue. I don't need cygwin because my beloved CLI shell tools are also loaded by default.
I suppose I should add a personal firewall, so let's fire up Synaptic (a GUI front end for package management) and choose one. Let Synaptic load it up. Fire up the GUI for the firewall and choose the basic settings (a task that was also required for my Windows one to get it to run properly, btw.) Hmmm, no reboot needed. That's nice, isn't it?
While I'm at it, let's add the additional repositories that Ubuntu maintains that aren't enabled by default. That's just a matter of selecting them in the GUI.
There are also apps and games that I want that weren't loaded by default, so fire up Synaptic again and browse through the incredibly long list of apps to find my favorites. The built-in Search function is very fast, btw.
Hmmm, this app that I really like isn't in the default repository. However, I've found instructions on the
Anyone referencing MSI's lousy distribution and support on their netbooks as a reason for Linux not being a viable offering while simultaneously ignoring Dell's continued success in selling Ubuntu based netbooks, laptops, and desktops is either (a) ignorant of the facts or (b) a deliberate troll. On the off chance that you are the former, I suggest you google Dell, linux, netbook and read through a few stories. (One of my personal favorites is the second one that showed up when I just tried the search. This one.) It is not only possible to successfully sell Linux, apparently Dell has found it to be very easy. :-)
So, who am I going to believe who understands the Linux market? A copmpany that threw out a half hearted, poorly thought out attempt to jump into a new market, or a company that actually /asked/ people what they wanted and then crafted a business strategy to capitalize on what people told them?
Umm, no. He said he didn't _want_ to touch computer parts. Not whether he knew how. :)
That's just DRM working as designed. It's a feature! Ain't it great?
I couldn't agree more.
However, the rest of your concerns don't really fit all that well. We live in a world that is orders of magnitude more complex than what we grew up in. Much (most? virtually all?) of that complexity is due to features provided through software. All that complexity means that human errors will inevitably creep in no matter how much testing the developers do ahead of tiem. Therefore, in today's world having an easy to use (better yet, automatic!) update tool isn't just a nice to have feature, it's a necessity.
Finally, I will challenge your assertion that all products in the past never needed updates. Ever work on the monstrosity that was the engine in a Fiat Spyder 850? Try to sync the carbs in a '70s model MG Midget? Do a tune up on an early model Yamaha RD motorcycle? Heck, just open the door on a '97 Ford F150?
The reality was that successful companies figured out ways to update their models to eliminate flaws found in their older lines. They never had an easy way to go back and retro fit those earlier models, though. So, while things sometimes Just Worked, sometimes they didn't.
The printed book itself seems most likely. IANAL, though, so I'm not sure how much change is required to get it treated as a transformative work. For all I know, the mere act of printing it is enough.
BTW, have you checked to see if the book is already carried at Project Gutenberg or another library of public domain works?
So, you're saying that FP displays the broken page as seen by everyone? Cool! (not!)
BTW, have you ever used Quanta Plus? While I don't live in it, I quite like its final display option. :-)
No, not really. You're forgetting how locked down Macs have always been. The first Macs had no expansion capability at all; just one floppy drive, a minimal amount of RAM, and a tiny black and white screen. This, at a time when people were already getting used to much larger color screens to do their word processing and spreadsheets in. Standard PCs of the day had two floppy drives. Hard drives had just gone from being an extremely expensive option to just barely affordable for a standard desktop.
In addition, you're forgetting the very active expansion market. People were plugging all kinds of peripherals and cards into PCs. Doing so with a Mac was difficult if not impossible. That made Macs a non-starter for a lot of markets.
No, that's how power works. What? You think it's any different in Iran? China? Russia? North Korea?
Not saying it's right, mind you. But it is how the world works.
Funny, I've been using my EEE 901 (running Ubuntu 8.10, not Xandros) outside ever since I've gotten it. I have no trouble touch typing on it, so I'd say it's got enough of a real keyboard for me. :)
No, it can't go 20 hours on battery, but it'll go 5 to 6. That is plenty for my needs.
You were saying? Ohhh, you want VENDORs to offer this kind of box. Well, I'm with you there. The hardware was there on my 901 but the software wasn't until I swapped distros. Not the kind of thing that 99% of the population want to mess with.
Oh, it's not hard to understand at all. What you and the other apologists are forgetting is that in this particular instance, the lawyers who have been appointed to posts within the DoJ happen to come from firms who have consistently demonstrated a track record of unethical, immoral, and possibly illegal behavior. Why on earth should we assume that they've all suddenly found the light and will never sin again?
Lynton really should >listen to his own boss, Howard Stringer, now and again. From the _same_ _week_ that Lynton made is incredibly ignorant statement:
I must admit, my first introduction to styles was similar to yours. Except mine was in Word 1.0 on a Tandy 1000. :)
That said, though, I rapidly learned to hate the way that progressively newer versions of Word would either refuse to open old .doc files or worse, corrupt them. I tend to use OOo for most tasks these days. I must say that this thread has me thinking about checking out the latest version of LyX.
Tell me: How on Earth is Microsoft going to eliminate a typesetting language released under such a permissive license?
Extramdura. Quoting the paper's abstract:
The fun part is the link that I provide comes from the EU's site! lol
I have an EEE 901 that has been running 8.10 since the week it was delivered (I got bored with the included Xandros pretty quickly). Everything, including wireless, has worked flawlessly the entire time.
Please don't make such sweeping generalizations based upon your anecdotal evidence.
I have an EEE 901 that has been running 8.10 since the week it was delivered (I got bored with the included Xandros pretty quickly). Wireless has worked flawlessly the entire time.
Please don't make such sweeping generalizations based upon your anecdotal evidence.
You'll notice that neither the builder or the grocer expect to get paid for 10 years past the point that work was completed...
[groan] You've been waiting 20 years to use that, haven't you? lol
Giant spiders, drop bears, and hoop snakes. Yep, Australia's got it bad alright. Here in Minnesota, all we have to deal with are squadrons and squadrons of our state bird.
Now, you might think that mosquitoes aren't anything to get excited about. That's only because you haven't seen a swarm of our larger ones carrying off a small child before. One time, and I swear to you that I heard this from my cousin, who heard it from his best friend, who heard it from his brother in law, who heard it from /his/ best friend, who heard it from his uncle (so you know it's true), a swarm of our more vicious mosquitoes made off with a pregnant Holstein. When they found the cow, it had been drained dry and the newborn calf had developed a strange and disturbing taste for blood.
Yeah, but a well designed OS doesn't page to disk when it's not necessary. If the entire OS and the app suite can be held in RAM, then it should be. If Win7 is generating page faults, then either the entire memory requirement is greater than the installed RAM or Win7 is swapping stuff out when it shouldn't. Either way, Win7 doesn't come out looking all that great as far as I'm concerned.