I'm guessing you don't experience the 'grouped buttons' phenominon very often then. Take an example: I have half a dozen IE windows open, three instances of Visual Studio, a few command windows, and some other miscellaneous apps, tools, utilities, and what not. Every window has its own indivdual button (my taskbar is two buttons high).
Now, I open one more app, and suddenly all the apps with multiple windows/instances collapse all their buttons into grouped buttons. UGH. Okay, so I close the app I just opened... but do the buttons spring back the way they were? Nope. In fact, I can continue closing and closing and closing, and the grouped buttons remain grouped. It's a royal pain in the arse.
Like I said, there isn't a SINGLE DAY that goes buy that I am not wishing, praying, and screaming for a way to tell one of those damn grouped buttons to ungroup already. The whole grouping/ungrouping algorithm is just gorped in the extreme.
I'll check out those links you provided. But really, why isn't this annoying people AT MS? Why should it take someone like me to point out an omission so glaringly obvious?
Back on topic: so, when a new revision of the CLR comes out, it won't be CLR 3.0? And when a new revision of C# comes out, it won't be C# 3.0? Or will the version numbers become a jumble, i.e. "The.Net framework 4.0 consists of the CLR 3.0, C# 3.0, WPF 2.0, etc)? Or will everything skip and sync version numbers (i.e. CLR 3.0 will never exist and will jump straight to CLR 4.0 to match the.Net 4.0 nomenclature). Has any thought been given to the future strategy of naming/versioning these things?
MUCH more, actually. I've already mentioned most of this stuff to some other MS employee here on Slashdot the last time this subject came up, but I'm perfectly willing to repeat it here.
As far as I'm concerned, Visual Studio is worthless without ReSharper installed. It's like using stone knives and bear skins in a world where I'm used to modern conveniences. Look at Eclipse. Look at IntelliJ IDEA. Look at all the standard features that I, as a developer, have been used to for four or so years. Two years ago when I changed jobs and became a.Net developer, it was like going back to the stone age. Visual Studio 2005 didn't even help that much. I actually turn off most of Visual Studio 2005's additions and use Resharper 2.0 because VS2005's implementations are so vastly inferior.
And it goes way beyond refactoring, but before I leave refactoring, I have to say that VS2005 refactoring "looks" cool (I like the tags that pop up when you rename a variable), but beyond that, the function is barbaric. After repeated problems with me renaming a local variable and having VS2005 try to rename variables in OTHER methods (i.e. acting more like a global search and replace than a true refactoring) I finally gave up on it. And a bunch of my standard and favorite refactorings are just missing.
But the most important things include:
1) Syntax coloring highlighting as I type. No need to compile to see if there are errors. No need to compile to fix the errors. It's always there, all the time, right on the screen. MAJOR time savor. I can't imagine why this isn't in there yet.
2) Code navigation. There's no GO TO type function in Visual Studio. This is unbelievable to me. In Resharper, it's just Ctrl-N and then type the first few characters (or use capital casing for long class names... type FBB to narrow down the completion list to classes like "FooBarBaz") and wild cards to go directly to classes. Jump directly to a class by name without having to remove the hands from the keyboard. No having to search through potentially HUGE tree-view lists, or numerous tabs, or long lists. The Go-To definition and navigating up and down the inheritance hierarchy is also much, much better with Resharper. Go directly to a method name using the "File Structure" pop-up or window.
3) Code restructuring/formatting. VS2005 finally handles adding using statements, but not as well as Resharper. No over view that shows you the file structure with regions and methods (collapsable) allowing you to drag methods around and move them to the proper regions, or keystrokes to move methods up and down a class hierarchy, or before or after the current method.
And let's be honest... the 'code snippets' feature of 2005 is a laughable joke. Compare it to Resharper's, where it can accurately guess appropriate variables and types and names for the various subsitution points. I took one look at the 'foreach' snippet and after laughing and rolling my eyes in disgust, never looked back. It saved me almost zero effort. Meanwhile, resharper's foreach "live template" as see how it should be done.
I could go on and on and on. Developing with VS2003 was a chore. Developing with VS2005 is annoying. Developing with IntelligJ IDEA or Eclipse or VS with Resharper is a pleasure. I can concentrate on the ideas and the functionality and not have to constantly worry about the petty details that computers are typically so good at keeping track of.
I switched from Java to.Net, and actually I like it. The Visual Studio 2003 and 2005 development environments kind of suck compared to what I'm used to in the Java world (Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA), but you can add Jetbrain's "Resharper" add in, and it makes it a lot better.
As for C#, it's actually a very decent language. I actually like it better than Java once I got used to it.
Sometimes it annoys me how much "magic" happens under the covers, but for the most part, it's pretty slick. And they solved the "DLL Hell" problem as far as I'm concerned... side-by-side versions of the same DLL can exist, with different applications using the versions they were compiled against. No need to update, and things don't break when you DO upgrade if you don't want them to. You only run into the incompatabilities when you want to upgrade, say, your.Net 1.1 app to.Net 2.0.
Re:Microsoft just seems to be kind of flailing.
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Web 2.0, Meet .Net 3.0
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· Score: 0, Redundant
Totally off topic (and I'll probably get modded down) but this annoys me so much I have to bitch to someone: Windows XP groups taskbar buttons for you automagically when you have a lot of windows open... but there is no way to right-click and say "ungroup these buttons" when you close some other windows and make more room. Never a day goes by that I don't wish for an "ungroup" ability. I don't turn off the 'grouping' function completely because I do like it... i just hate that I can't undo it when I want. Why implement only HALF a feature? Ugh.
Now, back on topic... possibly one of the issues of confusion with.Net 3.0 is that one wonders if the existing 2.0 stuff is obsoleted in favor of the new things added? Or is existing stuff upgraded? Or what? Is something a "new version" of an API if it includes a 100% new set of APIs, but also includes the "old" ones just for backwards compatibility? Is WinForms being abandoned in favor of the new stuf? Is there some more detail (I haven't been following) on exactly what is going on?
A partial list cribbed from another site (an admittedly Windows fan-boyish site) of the major changes, updates, new features, and enchancements of Windows Vista:
* 64-bit support * Aero Taskbar and live taskbar thumbnails * Automatic Backup and hard-disk defrag * Backup and Recovery Center and image-based backup and recovery * BitLocker Drive Encryption and Encrypting File System (EFS) * ClearType * Games Explorer and new Windows games * Internet Explorer 7.0 Anti-Phishing, tabs, quick tabs, integrated search, "fix my settings", RSS, protected mode * Internet Information Server * Network Center * Network Projection * Networking capabilities - new TCP/IP stack, diagnostics & troubleshooting, VPN, peer networking * Power management * Remote Desktop * Service hardening * Setup and installation improvements * Subsystem for Unix-based Applications * Sync Center and PC-to-PC sync * System Search and file tagging * Themed slide shows * User Account Control * Virtual PC Express * Windows Anytime Upgrade * Windows Calendar, Collaboration, DVD Maker, Collaboration, Fax and Scan * Windows Defender * Windows Easy Transfer * Windows Explorer shell * Windows Firewall * Windows Flip and Windows Flip 3D * Windows HotStart * Windows Mail, and Anti-Phishing support * Windows Media Center, CableCard support, HD support, XBox360 support * Windows Media Player 11 * Windows Mobility Center * Windows Movie Maker, and Movie Maker HD * Windows Photo Gallery * Windows ReadyBoost * Windows Rights Management Services (Windows RMS) client * Windows Security Center * Windows ShadowCopy * Windows Sidebar and Gadgets * Windows SideShow * Windows SuperFetch * Windows Tablet PC functionality and touch screens upport * Windows Ultimate Extras * Windows Vista Aero, Basic, and Classic user interfaces * Windows Vista Fonts, Screensavesrs, Sound Schemes * WinFX * Wireless networking capabilities * XPS document support
And this list doesn't touch on things that are 'internal', like more efficient memory allocation, rewritten kernel, moving of drivers to user level, removal of several required-reboot scenereos, more efficient multi-tasking, etc. You may not care about all of these things, but the sum-total does seem to be a realtively compelling package, providing they don't totally screw it up (and it looks so far like they've totally screwed up the "User Account Control" aspect, but it's possible they'll fix that before release). It's also true that some of these features will be made available to run on existing XP (like IE7, WMP11, and even the Side-bar). But all of those items will have enhanced functionality on Vista. With any luck, the security of the 'default installation' will be significantly better as well, which will also be a good thing. ANY improvement on that will be a good thing.
It's most likely utilized for the higher resolution, larger, more pervasive use of graphic images and icons. All those little utilities that have been given graphic face-lifts can swell the disk-space requirements. I don't know that that would explain the majority of it, but that's going to be a large part. Oh, and the fact that the disk de-fragmenter will be running full time, and it needs at least 10% free space to do its job, so they probably inflate requirements a bit to allow for that.
I saw the "mars face" photos that showed it was just a trick of the light, and they were totally believable. Higher resolution, different angle, different time of 'day', and viola, mystery solved.
I've also seen this newly released video tape, and it doesn't solve anything. It still looks more like a missle than a plane. It could be either. It's not definitive. This video won't do a thing to change anyone's mind. Whatever you believe now will likely be reinforced by the video. I doubt it'll change anyone's mind either way.
The question is: why was this kept so secret for so long? What was the point in that? More than the images themselves, it's THIS fact that caused many of the conspiracy theories. If there is no conspiracy, what's to cover up and hide and keep top-secret?
It's within all this secrecy and darknesss that so much festers and grows.
I can only assume they meant the "buttons" on the running task bar along the bottom. Close all the apps, all those buttons go away, and you have fewer running processes.
The only other option I can think of is right-cliking on the Start button and removing things from the "startup" folder, which will also reduce the number of running processes.
As will right-clicking and closing things in the system tray of the taskbar, in the bottom right.
I wonder if the percentage going to the artists has changed. Already they were getting the short end of the stick (the smallest cut of the "Industry", "Apple", and "Artists").
They aren't "just as much" for sale. Oh, they're for sale all right, no argument there, but don't try to equate two things that differ by orders of magnitude. I really hate false equivalencies like that.
And the fact will be that Democrats will at best gain one house of Congress, and the opposing party will be in the Presidency, and thus the Democrats will actually have *some* power to check the excesses of the Republicans, and power to actually investigate those things that desperately need investigations, charges, indictments, and convictions. But they won't have anything close to the "abosolute power" that is currently utterly corrupting the Republicans.
I read a study once that some of the best economies are those that are governed by a split Federal government, where the checks and balances actually work to restrain the excesses of both parties.
Exactly. With deficit spending at record levels, and with this administration borrowing more money from foreign nations than all previous administrations combined, it'd be hard NOT to have some sort of numerical "economic growth" on paper. Imagine what the economy would be like if Federal spending weren't at record levels. Eventually the credit card is going to max out, and the economic house of cards is going to come tumbling down...
Very true. The concentration of media outlets into the hands of giant corporations is one of the serious problems that has lead to the current state of affairs. The other aspect is the elimination of the "Fairness Doctrin" in broadcasting... it was removed during the Reagan Administration, and it certainly helped lay the groundwork for the lop-sided spin-filled "news" we get today as well.
And the result? The best news sources now seem to be fake news shows, as real news shows are all spin or lies-by-omission. Thank god for John Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
I felt a similar feeling in my gut watching this as I did when watching the movie "V for Vendetta"... that painful truths were being told in the guise of entertainment. And not enough attention has been paid to either, I'm afraid.
In honor of Colbert's speech, I went and saw "V for Vendetta" again, and it's even better the second time. Given it's relatively lukewarm box-office numbers, here's hoping it does better on DVD. "Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November... The gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason why the gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot..."
I thought he was doing a horrible job 6 and 7 years ago. But then I lived in Texas under his inept Governorship. And I think he's still doing a crappy job now... it's just that he's managed to lower the bar so far that "crappy" seems to be really improved or even approaching competent. But it's really nothing of the sort. Frankly, the only thing to surprise me over these last few years is the lack of imagination on my part for just how bad he'd actually be as President. I knew he'd be horrible, but never in my wildest imagination did I imagine he'd be as bad as he's been, or do as much damage as he has. It's sad and frustrating.
Thank God for people like Colbert, who hasn't let himself be intimidated into silence like so many in the media and even the general public have.
For the record, MS didn't choose the slash direction (I believe that came from CP/M which grew into the original DOS that MS bought and labeled MS-DOS). It's a legacy thing.
Additionally, I've used MKS Toolkit and other such add-on utilities to get completely compatable scripting, shells, and utilities across Unix, WinNT/2k/XP, etc.
I can't imagine in what way you think Windows 2000 is better than Windows XP. I really can't.
If it's just that you dont' want to take the time to get used to the new UI look-and-feel, you can turn on "classic mode" with the flip of a switch, and it looks much like Win2000, while still having all the improvements in XP.
I hate the default blue/red XP skin, so I use the "silver" version. Though I also use the "Win2000" look at feel on the PC at work.
At any rate, the underlying system is a lot better in my experience, and I was someone who worked on Win2k for a long, long time and really liked it.
On WinXP, you can go to the Power Toys website at Microsoft.com and download TweakUI for WinXP. After you instal it, and run it, you can go to the "General | Focus " area and check "Prevent Applications from Grabbing Focus", and specify how you want the taskbar to notify you of an application that wants attention ("flash until I click on it" or "flash a specified number of times").
There are also some other cool power toys there... I love the Alt-Tab Replacement they have, and of course I use "CMD From Here" a lot as well.
Lets not lose sight of some of the decent things going on in Vista:
1) the Kernel and memory manager improvements (incremental though they may be)
2) The new sound management system (rocks)
3) The new driver model (fewer reboots required, drivers run in user space)
4) The new graphics subsystem
5) In concert with 4, the new gaming/graphics API (DirectX10)
6) WMP 10 and IE7 (both siginficant improvements)
There's a lot that sucks, but there are also many good things under the covers, whose praises aren't really being sung enough, mostly because they're not alawys "in your face" like the UI and some other features are. There's a lot in there that may not be readily apparent on the surface.
It's just too bad they're crapping all over that good stuff with the rest of it.
Re:If you think Vista disappoints, wait for Blackc
on
How Vista Disappoints
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· Score: 1
From the sounds of things, they're going to need a Vista SP1 within 6-9 months after Vista release, and probably an SP2 within 12-18 months. And if they don't have a follow-on ready around 24-28 months, they're going to be in a world of hurt.
(Let's face it, the frequent OS X updates are almost equivalent so "SP" with a few refinements in features... MS needs to step up to what Apple is doing with frequent, stable, incremental improvements in their point releases... Apple is busy cleaning MS's clock here).
1) Apple doesn't have to worry about a myriad of hardware configurations, devices, and setups that Windows has to take into account. They pretty much tightly couple their OS to their specific hardware and keep control over the whole thing top-to-bottom.
2) Microsoft made the decision to try and remain backwards compatible with its entire huge installed base. Apples installed base is much smaller and more narrow, and the company made the decision to not concern itself too much with ensuring every application can run on its latest and greatest OS. Apple, several times now, has jettisoned the old and moved on, which makes their software much leaner and meaner, as well as their testing process. Microsoft is lugging around a hell of a lot of history and compatibility layers and modes, and that significantly slows it down and allows more and more bugs to creep in as it becomes more and more unwieldy to test and maintain.
You're aware that the Server version doesn't give a priority boost to the foreground application process like regular XP does, right? So if the server is actually busy doing something, the UI expereince will *seem* to be vastly inferior to regular XP because the OS is giving priority to the background server threads rather than the dumb human sitting at the UI trying to listen to MP3s:-)
Slashdot Mirror
I'm guessing you don't experience the 'grouped buttons' phenominon very often then. Take an example: I have half a dozen IE windows open, three instances of Visual Studio, a few command windows, and some other miscellaneous apps, tools, utilities, and what not. Every window has its own indivdual button (my taskbar is two buttons high).
... but do the buttons spring back the way they were? Nope. In fact, I can continue closing and closing and closing, and the grouped buttons remain grouped. It's a royal pain in the arse.
.Net framework 4.0 consists of the CLR 3.0, C# 3.0, WPF 2.0, etc)? Or will everything skip and sync version numbers (i.e. CLR 3.0 will never exist and will jump straight to CLR 4.0 to match the .Net 4.0 nomenclature). Has any thought been given to the future strategy of naming/versioning these things?
Now, I open one more app, and suddenly all the apps with multiple windows/instances collapse all their buttons into grouped buttons. UGH. Okay, so I close the app I just opened
Like I said, there isn't a SINGLE DAY that goes buy that I am not wishing, praying, and screaming for a way to tell one of those damn grouped buttons to ungroup already. The whole grouping/ungrouping algorithm is just gorped in the extreme.
I'll check out those links you provided. But really, why isn't this annoying people AT MS? Why should it take someone like me to point out an omission so glaringly obvious?
Back on topic: so, when a new revision of the CLR comes out, it won't be CLR 3.0? And when a new revision of C# comes out, it won't be C# 3.0? Or will the version numbers become a jumble, i.e. "The
Is there more?
.Net developer, it was like going back to the stone age. Visual Studio 2005 didn't even help that much. I actually turn off most of Visual Studio 2005's additions and use Resharper 2.0 because VS2005's implementations are so vastly inferior.
MUCH more, actually. I've already mentioned most of this stuff to some other MS employee here on Slashdot the last time this subject came up, but I'm perfectly willing to repeat it here.
As far as I'm concerned, Visual Studio is worthless without ReSharper installed. It's like using stone knives and bear skins in a world where I'm used to modern conveniences. Look at Eclipse. Look at IntelliJ IDEA. Look at all the standard features that I, as a developer, have been used to for four or so years. Two years ago when I changed jobs and became a
And it goes way beyond refactoring, but before I leave refactoring, I have to say that VS2005 refactoring "looks" cool (I like the tags that pop up when you rename a variable), but beyond that, the function is barbaric. After repeated problems with me renaming a local variable and having VS2005 try to rename variables in OTHER methods (i.e. acting more like a global search and replace than a true refactoring) I finally gave up on it. And a bunch of my standard and favorite refactorings are just missing.
But the most important things include:
1) Syntax coloring highlighting as I type. No need to compile to see if there are errors. No need to compile to fix the errors. It's always there, all the time, right on the screen. MAJOR time savor. I can't imagine why this isn't in there yet.
2) Code navigation. There's no GO TO type function in Visual Studio. This is unbelievable to me. In Resharper, it's just Ctrl-N and then type the first few characters (or use capital casing for long class names... type FBB to narrow down the completion list to classes like "FooBarBaz") and wild cards to go directly to classes. Jump directly to a class by name without having to remove the hands from the keyboard. No having to search through potentially HUGE tree-view lists, or numerous tabs, or long lists. The Go-To definition and navigating up and down the inheritance hierarchy is also much, much better with Resharper. Go directly to a method name using the "File Structure" pop-up or window.
3) Code restructuring/formatting. VS2005 finally handles adding using statements, but not as well as Resharper. No over view that shows you the file structure with regions and methods (collapsable) allowing you to drag methods around and move them to the proper regions, or keystrokes to move methods up and down a class hierarchy, or before or after the current method.
And let's be honest... the 'code snippets' feature of 2005 is a laughable joke. Compare it to Resharper's, where it can accurately guess appropriate variables and types and names for the various subsitution points. I took one look at the 'foreach' snippet and after laughing and rolling my eyes in disgust, never looked back. It saved me almost zero effort. Meanwhile, resharper's foreach "live template" as see how it should be done.
I could go on and on and on. Developing with VS2003 was a chore. Developing with VS2005 is annoying. Developing with IntelligJ IDEA or Eclipse or VS with Resharper is a pleasure. I can concentrate on the ideas and the functionality and not have to constantly worry about the petty details that computers are typically so good at keeping track of.
I switched from Java to .Net, and actually I like it. The Visual Studio 2003 and 2005 development environments kind of suck compared to what I'm used to in the Java world (Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA), but you can add Jetbrain's "Resharper" add in, and it makes it a lot better.
.Net 1.1 app to .Net 2.0.
As for C#, it's actually a very decent language. I actually like it better than Java once I got used to it.
Sometimes it annoys me how much "magic" happens under the covers, but for the most part, it's pretty slick. And they solved the "DLL Hell" problem as far as I'm concerned... side-by-side versions of the same DLL can exist, with different applications using the versions they were compiled against. No need to update, and things don't break when you DO upgrade if you don't want them to. You only run into the incompatabilities when you want to upgrade, say, your
Totally off topic (and I'll probably get modded down) but this annoys me so much I have to bitch to someone: Windows XP groups taskbar buttons for you automagically when you have a lot of windows open... but there is no way to right-click and say "ungroup these buttons" when you close some other windows and make more room. Never a day goes by that I don't wish for an "ungroup" ability. I don't turn off the 'grouping' function completely because I do like it... i just hate that I can't undo it when I want. Why implement only HALF a feature? Ugh.
.Net 3.0 is that one wonders if the existing 2.0 stuff is obsoleted in favor of the new things added? Or is existing stuff upgraded? Or what? Is something a "new version" of an API if it includes a 100% new set of APIs, but also includes the "old" ones just for backwards compatibility? Is WinForms being abandoned in favor of the new stuf? Is there some more detail (I haven't been following) on exactly what is going on?
Now, back on topic... possibly one of the issues of confusion with
Heck, $20 won't last you 5 minutes in Campus or L'Adonis :-)
A partial list cribbed from another site (an admittedly Windows fan-boyish site) of the major changes, updates, new features, and enchancements of Windows Vista:
* 64-bit support
* Aero Taskbar and live taskbar thumbnails
* Automatic Backup and hard-disk defrag
* Backup and Recovery Center and image-based backup and recovery
* BitLocker Drive Encryption and Encrypting File System (EFS)
* ClearType
* Games Explorer and new Windows games
* Internet Explorer 7.0 Anti-Phishing, tabs, quick tabs, integrated search, "fix my settings", RSS, protected mode
* Internet Information Server
* Network Center
* Network Projection
* Networking capabilities - new TCP/IP stack, diagnostics & troubleshooting, VPN, peer networking
* Power management
* Remote Desktop
* Service hardening
* Setup and installation improvements
* Subsystem for Unix-based Applications
* Sync Center and PC-to-PC sync
* System Search and file tagging
* Themed slide shows
* User Account Control
* Virtual PC Express
* Windows Anytime Upgrade
* Windows Calendar, Collaboration, DVD Maker, Collaboration, Fax and Scan
* Windows Defender
* Windows Easy Transfer
* Windows Explorer shell
* Windows Firewall
* Windows Flip and Windows Flip 3D
* Windows HotStart
* Windows Mail, and Anti-Phishing support
* Windows Media Center, CableCard support, HD support, XBox360 support
* Windows Media Player 11
* Windows Mobility Center
* Windows Movie Maker, and Movie Maker HD
* Windows Photo Gallery
* Windows ReadyBoost
* Windows Rights Management Services (Windows RMS) client
* Windows Security Center
* Windows ShadowCopy
* Windows Sidebar and Gadgets
* Windows SideShow
* Windows SuperFetch
* Windows Tablet PC functionality and touch screens upport
* Windows Ultimate Extras
* Windows Vista Aero, Basic, and Classic user interfaces
* Windows Vista Fonts, Screensavesrs, Sound Schemes
* WinFX
* Wireless networking capabilities
* XPS document support
And this list doesn't touch on things that are 'internal', like more efficient memory allocation, rewritten kernel, moving of drivers to user level, removal of several required-reboot scenereos, more efficient multi-tasking, etc. You may not care about all of these things, but the sum-total does seem to be a realtively compelling package, providing they don't totally screw it up (and it looks so far like they've totally screwed up the "User Account Control" aspect, but it's possible they'll fix that before release). It's also true that some of these features will be made available to run on existing XP (like IE7, WMP11, and even the Side-bar). But all of those items will have enhanced functionality on Vista. With any luck, the security of the 'default installation' will be significantly better as well, which will also be a good thing. ANY improvement on that will be a good thing.
Is it known that Conroe will significantly improve floating point performance, relative to Yonah?
It's most likely utilized for the higher resolution, larger, more pervasive use of graphic images and icons. All those little utilities that have been given graphic face-lifts can swell the disk-space requirements. I don't know that that would explain the majority of it, but that's going to be a large part. Oh, and the fact that the disk de-fragmenter will be running full time, and it needs at least 10% free space to do its job, so they probably inflate requirements a bit to allow for that.
I saw the "mars face" photos that showed it was just a trick of the light, and they were totally believable. Higher resolution, different angle, different time of 'day', and viola, mystery solved.
I've also seen this newly released video tape, and it doesn't solve anything. It still looks more like a missle than a plane. It could be either. It's not definitive. This video won't do a thing to change anyone's mind. Whatever you believe now will likely be reinforced by the video. I doubt it'll change anyone's mind either way.
The question is: why was this kept so secret for so long? What was the point in that? More than the images themselves, it's THIS fact that caused many of the conspiracy theories. If there is no conspiracy, what's to cover up and hide and keep top-secret?
It's within all this secrecy and darknesss that so much festers and grows.
I can only assume they meant the "buttons" on the running task bar along the bottom. Close all the apps, all those buttons go away, and you have fewer running processes.
The only other option I can think of is right-cliking on the Start button and removing things from the "startup" folder, which will also reduce the number of running processes.
As will right-clicking and closing things in the system tray of the taskbar, in the bottom right.
Mod parent up!!
I wonder if the percentage going to the artists has changed. Already they were getting the short end of the stick (the smallest cut of the "Industry", "Apple", and "Artists").
I'd rather send my money to the artists too.
They aren't "just as much" for sale. Oh, they're for sale all right, no argument there, but don't try to equate two things that differ by orders of magnitude. I really hate false equivalencies like that.
And the fact will be that Democrats will at best gain one house of Congress, and the opposing party will be in the Presidency, and thus the Democrats will actually have *some* power to check the excesses of the Republicans, and power to actually investigate those things that desperately need investigations, charges, indictments, and convictions. But they won't have anything close to the "abosolute power" that is currently utterly corrupting the Republicans.
I read a study once that some of the best economies are those that are governed by a split Federal government, where the checks and balances actually work to restrain the excesses of both parties.
Exactly. With deficit spending at record levels, and with this administration borrowing more money from foreign nations than all previous administrations combined, it'd be hard NOT to have some sort of numerical "economic growth" on paper. Imagine what the economy would be like if Federal spending weren't at record levels. Eventually the credit card is going to max out, and the economic house of cards is going to come tumbling down...
Very true. The concentration of media outlets into the hands of giant corporations is one of the serious problems that has lead to the current state of affairs. The other aspect is the elimination of the "Fairness Doctrin" in broadcasting ... it was removed during the Reagan Administration, and it certainly helped lay the groundwork for the lop-sided spin-filled "news" we get today as well.
And the result? The best news sources now seem to be fake news shows, as real news shows are all spin or lies-by-omission. Thank god for John Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
You're certainly not the first person to make that recommendation. I'll certainly pick it up.
I felt a similar feeling in my gut watching this as I did when watching the movie "V for Vendetta" ... that painful truths were being told in the guise of entertainment. And not enough attention has been paid to either, I'm afraid.
In honor of Colbert's speech, I went and saw "V for Vendetta" again, and it's even better the second time. Given it's relatively lukewarm box-office numbers, here's hoping it does better on DVD. "Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November... The gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason why the gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot..."
I thought he was doing a horrible job 6 and 7 years ago. But then I lived in Texas under his inept Governorship. And I think he's still doing a crappy job now... it's just that he's managed to lower the bar so far that "crappy" seems to be really improved or even approaching competent. But it's really nothing of the sort. Frankly, the only thing to surprise me over these last few years is the lack of imagination on my part for just how bad he'd actually be as President. I knew he'd be horrible, but never in my wildest imagination did I imagine he'd be as bad as he's been, or do as much damage as he has. It's sad and frustrating.
Thank God for people like Colbert, who hasn't let himself be intimidated into silence like so many in the media and even the general public have.
For the record, MS didn't choose the slash direction (I believe that came from CP/M which grew into the original DOS that MS bought and labeled MS-DOS). It's a legacy thing.
Additionally, I've used MKS Toolkit and other such add-on utilities to get completely compatable scripting, shells, and utilities across Unix, WinNT/2k/XP, etc.
I can't imagine in what way you think Windows 2000 is better than Windows XP. I really can't.
If it's just that you dont' want to take the time to get used to the new UI look-and-feel, you can turn on "classic mode" with the flip of a switch, and it looks much like Win2000, while still having all the improvements in XP.
I hate the default blue/red XP skin, so I use the "silver" version. Though I also use the "Win2000" look at feel on the PC at work.
At any rate, the underlying system is a lot better in my experience, and I was someone who worked on Win2k for a long, long time and really liked it.
On WinXP, you can go to the Power Toys website at Microsoft.com and download TweakUI for WinXP. After you instal it, and run it, you can go to the "General | Focus " area and check "Prevent Applications from Grabbing Focus", and specify how you want the taskbar to notify you of an application that wants attention ("flash until I click on it" or "flash a specified number of times").
There are also some other cool power toys there... I love the Alt-Tab Replacement they have, and of course I use "CMD From Here" a lot as well.
Check them out.
Lets not lose sight of some of the decent things going on in Vista:
1) the Kernel and memory manager improvements (incremental though they may be)
2) The new sound management system (rocks)
3) The new driver model (fewer reboots required, drivers run in user space)
4) The new graphics subsystem
5) In concert with 4, the new gaming/graphics API (DirectX10)
6) WMP 10 and IE7 (both siginficant improvements)
There's a lot that sucks, but there are also many good things under the covers, whose praises aren't really being sung enough, mostly because they're not alawys "in your face" like the UI and some other features are. There's a lot in there that may not be readily apparent on the surface.
It's just too bad they're crapping all over that good stuff with the rest of it.
From the sounds of things, they're going to need a Vista SP1 within 6-9 months after Vista release, and probably an SP2 within 12-18 months. And if they don't have a follow-on ready around 24-28 months, they're going to be in a world of hurt.
... MS needs to step up to what Apple is doing with frequent, stable, incremental improvements in their point releases... Apple is busy cleaning MS's clock here).
(Let's face it, the frequent OS X updates are almost equivalent so "SP" with a few refinements in features
A couple of points on that:
1) Apple doesn't have to worry about a myriad of hardware configurations, devices, and setups that Windows has to take into account. They pretty much tightly couple their OS to their specific hardware and keep control over the whole thing top-to-bottom.
2) Microsoft made the decision to try and remain backwards compatible with its entire huge installed base. Apples installed base is much smaller and more narrow, and the company made the decision to not concern itself too much with ensuring every application can run on its latest and greatest OS. Apple, several times now, has jettisoned the old and moved on, which makes their software much leaner and meaner, as well as their testing process. Microsoft is lugging around a hell of a lot of history and compatibility layers and modes, and that significantly slows it down and allows more and more bugs to creep in as it becomes more and more unwieldy to test and maintain.
You're aware that the Server version doesn't give a priority boost to the foreground application process like regular XP does, right? So if the server is actually busy doing something, the UI expereince will *seem* to be vastly inferior to regular XP because the OS is giving priority to the background server threads rather than the dumb human sitting at the UI trying to listen to MP3s :-)