You are absolutely correct for the majority of users.
I value the source being open and it does factor strongly into my choices, but I'm not typical. Thankfully as you said many common open source apps on linux are very much better than the alternatives, but OOo isn't one of them, not even close.
Also luckily I have no use for Office software other than to open documents that people send me; when I need to compose a document I often use LyX, and I have little need for the other apps.
It amazes me how much all Office software still sucks when it does something so completely trivial. We've been doing spreadsheets and word processing on computers for the last 20 years+, and it really hasn't hardly advanced.
AOL is sending out a lot less disks these days. I actually collect AOL CDs, so I signed up on their web site to make sure I get every mailing of AOL disks, even though I was already getting some anyway. They have really tapered off in the last year or so. I might have gotten one disk all year.
I think they realized that carpet bombing people with AOL disks is stupid, especially in light of them trying to sell it to people already with broadband, who can download it themselves.
What makes you think all users are viewing your site at the same resolution, on a desktop computer, using a GUI browser?
Good web design is all about not having complete control over presentation. Instead of trying to set absolute font sizes, you use things like H1 for headings. Instead of explicit font names you use generic group names like "serif".
All the sites I design work fine in a text browser, for blind people with screen readers, for people on non-desktop-computer devices, etc. The user is free to choose the font that their browser uses to render my pages.
No one made that much money. They only sold for about 20% below the intended price. IITA (It's in the article... I hate that RTFA acronym, so I'm making a new one)
Confirmation boxes are the worst sort of validation. Especially if you pop up the confirmation box too often or with every operation (like windows file delete crap). Of course people are sure, they just typed it in. They wouldn't have typed it if they weren't sure. They hit OK without reading.
What's with these asian traders? Does their software just suck or are they all fumble fingers? Didn't this just happen a few months ago in a similar story?
You need to differentiate between getting them to work the same way, and getting them to look the same way. You, as a web designer, are not supposed to have complete control over presentation. Trying to force the issue only causes grief.
Yeah, surprisingly I don't really agree with using the blacklist for anything important. Maybe a slight bump in a scoring system.
I'm mostly just playing devil's advocate in this thread. I do keep full valid whois information on my domains, but it's not something I feel passionate about.
To go back to the radio callsign analogy, you can locate any transmitter with triangulation fairly easily, and you can do disruptive things with a transmitter without a callsign.
But we still require callsigns and public information associated with callsigns, because often people are not aware of problems originating from their station.
If you want anonymity, as you said you don't need a domain to do most things on the net, so just don't get one. If you do get a domain though, follow the rules like everyone else does.
The guy implied he wouldn't read abuse or postmaster mail, he expects operators to jump through hoops and find and use his web form to email him. Assumedly he also uses false whois data, so there's really no standard way to notify him of problems.
No, you didn't understand. It's another case of developers assuming the user is stupid, unable to handle simple abstractions, and wanting to cripple their software to make it "easier to use".
Sorta the way they hide all the configuration options in firefox, because all those big scary buttons are too much for my tiny brain to deal with.
They can also list you in the rfc-ignorant blacklist for violating the RFCs.
For someone dealing with hundreds of spam reports it's just not possible to go to every person's site with a different mail form.
Other network operators need to be able to contact you regarding problems in a uniform way, that's why it's important to have standard email addresses available at every domain, such as postmaster, abuse, etc.
The public resource is an intangible one, the same as "airwaves" is an intangible concept. The public resource is "the internetwork".
And how exactly can my domain affect anybody else's ability to use this "public resource" you speak of?
Sending spam, bouncing viruses to forged From:, worm infection scanning, misconfigured software, DNS problems redirecting traffic to other places or causing bogus queries, Originating DoS attacks, Illegal content hosted by one of your users, that's just a few examples.
And if I'm attacking you, you can track me down by my ip address
I can figure out your ISP or hosting service at best. Then I have to count on them contacting you. In the case of bogus DNS information I may not be able to figure out your IP.
The whole point is to get the information to the public so they can contact you regarding your domain.
It's the same as having a radio callsign, your address and information are public whether you want it to be or not.
You are using a public resource and can easily interfere with other people's ability to use it, just like radio. There needs to be a way to contact you if there is a problem with your domain.
Most anti-spam people are strongly in favor of having fully up to date domain contact information. Looks like you want to have it both ways, you want to hide your own information but you want to stop spam, which requires contact information on domains.
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You are absolutely correct for the majority of users.
I value the source being open and it does factor strongly into my choices, but I'm not typical. Thankfully as you said many common open source apps on linux are very much better than the alternatives, but OOo isn't one of them, not even close.
Also luckily I have no use for Office software other than to open documents that people send me; when I need to compose a document I often use LyX, and I have little need for the other apps.
It amazes me how much all Office software still sucks when it does something so completely trivial. We've been doing spreadsheets and word processing on computers for the last 20 years+, and it really hasn't hardly advanced.
AOL is sending out a lot less disks these days. I actually collect AOL CDs, so I signed up on their web site to make sure I get every mailing of AOL disks, even though I was already getting some anyway. They have really tapered off in the last year or so. I might have gotten one disk all year.
I think they realized that carpet bombing people with AOL disks is stupid, especially in light of them trying to sell it to people already with broadband, who can download it themselves.
What makes you think all users are viewing your site at the same resolution, on a desktop computer, using a GUI browser?
Good web design is all about not having complete control over presentation. Instead of trying to set absolute font sizes, you use things like H1 for headings. Instead of explicit font names you use generic group names like "serif".
All the sites I design work fine in a text browser, for blind people with screen readers, for people on non-desktop-computer devices, etc. The user is free to choose the font that their browser uses to render my pages.
I'd hate to be forced to use a site you design.
Wow I am beginning to think this may just be an urban legend that keeps cycling around. That's spooky in the similarities.
Well the actual figure being reported here is $225 million, so it's not that far off. It is suspiciously similar to the previous story though.
I wonder why I got modded down as troll. I guess that mod didn't remember the old story that was almost exactly like this one.
No one made that much money. They only sold for about 20% below the intended price. IITA (It's in the article... I hate that RTFA acronym, so I'm making a new one)
Confirmation boxes are the worst sort of validation. Especially if you pop up the confirmation box too often or with every operation (like windows file delete crap). Of course people are sure, they just typed it in. They wouldn't have typed it if they weren't sure. They hit OK without reading.
They still lost a big chunk of money, the headline here should be the $224 million dollar typo.
What's with these asian traders? Does their software just suck or are they all fumble fingers? Didn't this just happen a few months ago in a similar story?
He really should have said so in the submission if so.
He could at least reply to my question in-thread, otherwise this whole discussion is kinda silly.
This is slashdot, we don't bump, we grind.
Why would you want to stay an extra year without a degree? If you want to take non-required classes, just take them after you get the degree.
You need to differentiate between getting them to work the same way, and getting them to look the same way. You, as a web designer, are not supposed to have complete control over presentation. Trying to force the issue only causes grief.
Yeah, surprisingly I don't really agree with using the blacklist for anything important. Maybe a slight bump in a scoring system.
I'm mostly just playing devil's advocate in this thread. I do keep full valid whois information on my domains, but it's not something I feel passionate about.
I think you are right. Bogus information is not the solution, a new standard is what is needed.
To go back to the radio callsign analogy, you can locate any transmitter with triangulation fairly easily, and you can do disruptive things with a transmitter without a callsign.
But we still require callsigns and public information associated with callsigns, because often people are not aware of problems originating from their station.
If you want anonymity, as you said you don't need a domain to do most things on the net, so just don't get one. If you do get a domain though, follow the rules like everyone else does.
The guy implied he wouldn't read abuse or postmaster mail, he expects operators to jump through hoops and find and use his web form to email him. Assumedly he also uses false whois data, so there's really no standard way to notify him of problems.
No, you didn't understand. It's another case of developers assuming the user is stupid, unable to handle simple abstractions, and wanting to cripple their software to make it "easier to use".
Sorta the way they hide all the configuration options in firefox, because all those big scary buttons are too much for my tiny brain to deal with.
Just elitism crap.
They can also list you in the rfc-ignorant blacklist for violating the RFCs.
For someone dealing with hundreds of spam reports it's just not possible to go to every person's site with a different mail form.
Other network operators need to be able to contact you regarding problems in a uniform way, that's why it's important to have standard email addresses available at every domain, such as postmaster, abuse, etc.
The public resource is an intangible one, the same as "airwaves" is an intangible concept. The public resource is "the internetwork".
And how exactly can my domain affect anybody else's ability to use this "public resource" you speak of?
Sending spam, bouncing viruses to forged From:, worm infection scanning, misconfigured software, DNS problems redirecting traffic to other places or causing bogus queries, Originating DoS attacks, Illegal content hosted by one of your users, that's just a few examples.
And if I'm attacking you, you can track me down by my ip address
I can figure out your ISP or hosting service at best. Then I have to count on them contacting you. In the case of bogus DNS information I may not be able to figure out your IP.
The whole point is to get the information to the public so they can contact you regarding your domain.
It's the same as having a radio callsign, your address and information are public whether you want it to be or not.
You are using a public resource and can easily interfere with other people's ability to use it, just like radio. There needs to be a way to contact you if there is a problem with your domain.
Most anti-spam people are strongly in favor of having fully up to date domain contact information. Looks like you want to have it both ways, you want to hide your own information but you want to stop spam, which requires contact information on domains.
How would MS make money off secondary market? Unless you are implying they are selling them on ebay themselves covertly.
How many use IE3 or 4 though?
How many turned off all scripting like they were warned to do after the latest IE scripting exploit?
It wouldn't surprise me that AJAX is broken on 22% of browsers.
Results 1 - 10 of about 564,000 for IE vulnerability disable scripting.
Yeah, that speaks for itself.
Dogs can't look up, but they can use Google instead.
I guess there is only so much money to go around in the economy, if Google is making a huge profit, someone else is getting less.
Economics is not zero-sum. That's a myth made up by people that want to force socialism down everyone's throat.