Given the quality of your average bank website, I seriously doubt the quality of any application they would write. Plus it would be Windows only of course and barely maintained...
It would be Javascript. That still doesn't make it right.
You don't need to be a business major to see that a high margin business buying up a low margin business means lower margins. Never mind that Sharp doesn't make the best displays. But I'd love to see Tim Cook do this, to extend his string of blunders.
After we get done with laughing at Apple we will help them fight the patent trolls. After all, we don't need help from patent trolls to defeat thug Apple, Android is doing it nicely.
It's too early to say whether Apple is heading for a wall, as many predict...
I don't think it is too early at all. Just scan the comments to media articles on Apple's recent product introductions. They are just full of comments of the form "I am an Apple fan, I have apple products X, Y and Z, I love them but I am not going buy this Apple product because I disagree with their patent suits, their profiteering on the backs of oppressed workers, and thumbing their noses at EPEAT." Oh, and "this thing costs too much". And "but I just bought the iPad 3, I'm so upset". Easy to verify, you don't need to believe me.
Let's clear that up right now. The proper technical term for what Apple and Amazon do is "Patent Thuggery". Let's not get sidetracked on issues of whether they practice their patents or not, but whether or not they are thugs.
...war costs that are far smaller than the legislation Obama passed...
Oh I don't know about that. The costs of intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan is in the $3-4 trillion range, roughly similar to the financial intervention that arguably save the world from a second Great Depression. And I just don't buy the platitude that war is good for the economy. Look what war did to Russia versus what industriously pumping out their oil does for them today. Mind you... selling war materiel to foreign combatants, yes, that's great for the economy. Working out the associated morality issues is left as an exercise for the interested reader.
The text would have to both be legible and no smaller than the smallest informative text that appears elsewhere on the sign.
I think you meant "no smaller than the biggeset informative text", otherwise they would certainly game that. And don't forget to specify a contrasting color, and prominent placement otherwise they will pull an Apple on that too.
AT&T has a duty, as a huge, multinational cororation, to play by the rules, I agree. All such entities do. But this anti-business atmosphere in this country is not good for business.
This is not anti-business, it is anti-AT&T. With good reason. I currently get broadband access from that cynical old monopolist. AT&T's service has the worst reliability I have ever experienced. They have some weird spyware DNS scheme that constantly fails. Their modem has to be rebooted on a regular basis when it slows to a crawl or fails completely. There are literally thousands of complaints out there on the web and AT&T has done nothing about it. To add insult to injury, they overcharge for their crappy modems which of course you have to throw away if you do the sensible thing and switch to the one other provider in the area (a major metropolitan area I might add). Oh yes, did I mention that there are only two noncommercial broadband providers in the area? Both descended from the Bell breakup. Choose which one to be screwed by. But that's another story.
Anyway, I misread your post above. It was what should a publisher do. One suggestion: have a credible forum where real people can review the software, complain about it, love it, whatever. Also, try to encourage third party commentary, and link it. Walk and talk like a company whose most valuable asset is its reputation.
Thanks for sharing that. Perhaps it rankles that RMS has earned himself a place in the history books as a great benefactor of society, while your snarky Slashdot posts have accomplished no such thing?
The main advantage of LLVM is that it will provide much needed competition for GCC which for the last decade has only had VCC to spur it on. Note that LLVM code can be freely transplanted into GCC while the reverse is not allowed, probably enough in itself to ensure GCC's continued preeminence even with Apple's fat checkbook backing LLVM.
I have a problem with Stallman's (aka RMS) model, which says charge for hardware and give the software with source away for free.
Richard Stallman's model says such thing. It says "if you want to save costs by using this source code then you must make your changes available to whoever uses it."
Investors are not confident that Apple's high margin business model can be sustained in the face of strong competition. Amazon is a high volume, low margin business with plenty of room still to grow, thus loved by investors.
And there are also plenty of binaries out there that do come from trusted sources, Opera for example
So what should a software publisher do to prove its trustworthiness, especially if the publisher is a startup that hasn't been operating long enough to draw the attention of a major distributor like Valve?
That's your call. The fact that they're shipping a Linux binary is a good start, it's up to you to satisfy yourself that the company is reputable. The thing is, the vast majority of software you need is already available for free in you distribution. You will just be picking up a few "big" items like CAD software or a VPN client. Not scurrying around the net downloading the mp3 player of the week like Windows users do. What an excellent way to get powned.
The difference in drive access is amazing. In windows it's constant, where on a Linux machine running the same software it never even flickers. I'd swear the drive manufacturers pay them to reduce their life expectancy.
that's most likely related to indexing for full-text search...
Definitely not. This was continuous over the two weeks before I put Windows out of its misery. I'll put it down to incomprehensibly bad design.
Another alternative is to buy Linux pre-installed.
I would, but I don't know of any dealers with showrooms in Fort Wayne, Indiana, so that I can try out a laptop's keyboard and screen before I buy. Mail ordering is fine for desktop PCs, but it has its drawbacks for laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
I buy nearly all my electronics online now. I don't think I'm unusual in that respect. My online experience has in general been much better than my retail store experience lately and you just can't beat the convenience. Usually, you can't beat the online prices either, even with delivery. Factor in the time spent travelling to/from the store, parking, getting new door dents etc, and the deal is sealed.
If you want to know if the keyboard is ergnonomic, read the reviews. I find it especially helpful to look at the photos. Finally, if you really care about ergonomic, don't get a laptop, there is no such thing as an ergonomic laptop. Laptops are pure carpal tunnel zone.
That was true in the Windows 7 era. PCs that come with Windows 8, on the other hand, ship with UEFI secure boot turned on, and users may need to figure out how to disable secure boot first.
Microsoft will no doubt get dragged into court over that. Count on the EU if no one else. In the mean time if I have to boot to the bios to switch it off I will, and Linux vendors have various workarounds. Another alternative is to buy Linux pre-installed. Endpcnoise has some fine machines with Ubuntu preinstalled. Their discount for choosing LInux instead of Windows is quite attractive. I call this dying gasp time for Microsoft. They haven't hit the really steep part of the cliff yet, but they will and they know it.
Gnome was never going to turn into a desktop that your mom would want to use, in spite of all the political pressure from Red Hat. To Gnome 3 is actually a blessing because it makes it very obvious that Gnome is a dead end. Use KDE, it's fine.
Trying to find software in a search engine is also extremely risky if you are not technically competent, and results in large numbers of such users being tricked into installing malware. Installing software by hand should be strongly discouraged, and left to people who know what they're doing
Excellent advice. And there are also plenty of binaries out there that do come from trusted sources, Opera for example, which does an excellent job of installing smoothly and painlessly on pretty much every known x86 Linux distro.
I'm glad that GNU/Linux works for you. It also works for me on my 10" laptop. But I'm sort of referring to manufacturers of desktop and laptop PCs sold in U.S. brick-and-mortar chains, which pretty much always come with Windows unless they're made by Apple.
I picked up a very current Ivy Bridge PC from Fry's a few weeks ago and after a couple of weeks experiencing and being horrified with what Windows users have to put up with on a daily basis (countless virus nags, disk drive constantly churning, crazy menues, endless reboots etc etc) I booted Ubuntu live off a usb key, it worked perfectly, did the full install and that worked perfectly too. Then apt-get install kubuntu-desktop to put the icing on the cake. Now my OS isn't in my face, it just works. And plus, I've got the thousands of trustworthy, free packages a minute's install away. Blessed relief.
It's just amazing how far Windows has fallen behind Linux.
Slashdot Mirror
Given the quality of your average bank website, I seriously doubt the quality of any application they would write. Plus it would be Windows only of course and barely maintained...
It would be Javascript. That still doesn't make it right.
You don't need to be a business major to see that a high margin business buying up a low margin business means lower margins. Never mind that Sharp doesn't make the best displays. But I'd love to see Tim Cook do this, to extend his string of blunders.
After we get done with laughing at Apple we will help them fight the patent trolls. After all, we don't need help from patent trolls to defeat thug Apple, Android is doing it nicely.
It's too early to say whether Apple is heading for a wall, as many predict...
I don't think it is too early at all. Just scan the comments to media articles on Apple's recent product introductions. They are just full of comments of the form "I am an Apple fan, I have apple products X, Y and Z, I love them but I am not going buy this Apple product because I disagree with their patent suits, their profiteering on the backs of oppressed workers, and thumbing their noses at EPEAT." Oh, and "this thing costs too much". And "but I just bought the iPad 3, I'm so upset". Easy to verify, you don't need to believe me.
Do you know what a patent troll is?
Let's clear that up right now. The proper technical term for what Apple and Amazon do is "Patent Thuggery". Let's not get sidetracked on issues of whether they practice their patents or not, but whether or not they are thugs.
...war costs that are far smaller than the legislation Obama passed...
Oh I don't know about that. The costs of intervention in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan is in the $3-4 trillion range, roughly similar to the financial intervention that arguably save the world from a second Great Depression. And I just don't buy the platitude that war is good for the economy. Look what war did to Russia versus what industriously pumping out their oil does for them today. Mind you... selling war materiel to foreign combatants, yes, that's great for the economy. Working out the associated morality issues is left as an exercise for the interested reader.
The text would have to both be legible and no smaller than the smallest informative text that appears elsewhere on the sign.
I think you meant "no smaller than the biggeset informative text", otherwise they would certainly game that. And don't forget to specify a contrasting color, and prominent placement otherwise they will pull an Apple on that too.
AT&T has a duty, as a huge, multinational cororation, to play by the rules, I agree. All such entities do. But this anti-business atmosphere in this country is not good for business.
This is not anti-business, it is anti-AT&T. With good reason. I currently get broadband access from that cynical old monopolist. AT&T's service has the worst reliability I have ever experienced. They have some weird spyware DNS scheme that constantly fails. Their modem has to be rebooted on a regular basis when it slows to a crawl or fails completely. There are literally thousands of complaints out there on the web and AT&T has done nothing about it. To add insult to injury, they overcharge for their crappy modems which of course you have to throw away if you do the sensible thing and switch to the one other provider in the area (a major metropolitan area I might add). Oh yes, did I mention that there are only two noncommercial broadband providers in the area? Both descended from the Bell breakup. Choose which one to be screwed by. But that's another story.
Anyway, I misread your post above. It was what should a publisher do. One suggestion: have a credible forum where real people can review the software, complain about it, love it, whatever. Also, try to encourage third party commentary, and link it. Walk and talk like a company whose most valuable asset is its reputation.
Thanks for sharing that. Perhaps it rankles that RMS has earned himself a place in the history books as a great benefactor of society, while your snarky Slashdot posts have accomplished no such thing?
The main advantage of LLVM is that it will provide much needed competition for GCC which for the last decade has only had VCC to spur it on. Note that LLVM code can be freely transplanted into GCC while the reverse is not allowed, probably enough in itself to ensure GCC's continued preeminence even with Apple's fat checkbook backing LLVM.
I have a problem with Stallman's (aka RMS) model, which says charge for hardware and give the software with source away for free.
Richard Stallman's model says such thing. It says "if you want to save costs by using this source code then you must make your changes available to whoever uses it."
If AAPL was priced like a typical tech stock, with typical growth, they would have a PE of about 50.
AAPL has been rather short on innovation lately, preferring to coast on its fat margins while Android grabs more and more of the market.
Investors are not confident that Apple's high margin business model can be sustained in the face of strong competition. Amazon is a high volume, low margin business with plenty of room still to grow, thus loved by investors.
And there are also plenty of binaries out there that do come from trusted sources, Opera for example
So what should a software publisher do to prove its trustworthiness, especially if the publisher is a startup that hasn't been operating long enough to draw the attention of a major distributor like Valve?
That's your call. The fact that they're shipping a Linux binary is a good start, it's up to you to satisfy yourself that the company is reputable. The thing is, the vast majority of software you need is already available for free in you distribution. You will just be picking up a few "big" items like CAD software or a VPN client. Not scurrying around the net downloading the mp3 player of the week like Windows users do. What an excellent way to get powned.
The difference in drive access is amazing. In windows it's constant, where on a Linux machine running the same software it never even flickers. I'd swear the drive manufacturers pay them to reduce their life expectancy.
that's most likely related to indexing for full-text search ...
Definitely not. This was continuous over the two weeks before I put Windows out of its misery. I'll put it down to incomprehensibly bad design.
Another alternative is to buy Linux pre-installed.
I would, but I don't know of any dealers with showrooms in Fort Wayne, Indiana, so that I can try out a laptop's keyboard and screen before I buy. Mail ordering is fine for desktop PCs, but it has its drawbacks for laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
I buy nearly all my electronics online now. I don't think I'm unusual in that respect. My online experience has in general been much better than my retail store experience lately and you just can't beat the convenience. Usually, you can't beat the online prices either, even with delivery. Factor in the time spent travelling to/from the store, parking, getting new door dents etc, and the deal is sealed.
If you want to know if the keyboard is ergnonomic, read the reviews. I find it especially helpful to look at the photos. Finally, if you really care about ergonomic, don't get a laptop, there is no such thing as an ergonomic laptop. Laptops are pure carpal tunnel zone.
It's a shame Skype got bought out. It's already getting bloaty and beginning to suck in various ways.
Skype is the new Hotmail. Skypers are migrating to Google Talk in droves.
That was true in the Windows 7 era. PCs that come with Windows 8, on the other hand, ship with UEFI secure boot turned on, and users may need to figure out how to disable secure boot first.
Microsoft will no doubt get dragged into court over that. Count on the EU if no one else. In the mean time if I have to boot to the bios to switch it off I will, and Linux vendors have various workarounds. Another alternative is to buy Linux pre-installed. Endpcnoise has some fine machines with Ubuntu preinstalled. Their discount for choosing LInux instead of Windows is quite attractive. I call this dying gasp time for Microsoft. They haven't hit the really steep part of the cliff yet, but they will and they know it.
IBM is a has-been of technology companies? Do tell.
IBM rescued itself with Linux. I don't think Microsoft is that way inclined.
Gnome was never going to turn into a desktop that your mom would want to use, in spite of all the political pressure from Red Hat. To Gnome 3 is actually a blessing because it makes it very obvious that Gnome is a dead end. Use KDE, it's fine.
Haha, you're really funny. Try reporting a bug or making a feature request to Microsoft.
As a rule of thumb, one can safely ignore any post after the word "zealot".
Trying to find software in a search engine is also extremely risky if you are not technically competent, and results in large numbers of such users being tricked into installing malware. Installing software by hand should be strongly discouraged, and left to people who know what they're doing
Excellent advice. And there are also plenty of binaries out there that do come from trusted sources, Opera for example, which does an excellent job of installing smoothly and painlessly on pretty much every known x86 Linux distro.
I'm glad that GNU/Linux works for you. It also works for me on my 10" laptop. But I'm sort of referring to manufacturers of desktop and laptop PCs sold in U.S. brick-and-mortar chains, which pretty much always come with Windows unless they're made by Apple.
I picked up a very current Ivy Bridge PC from Fry's a few weeks ago and after a couple of weeks experiencing and being horrified with what Windows users have to put up with on a daily basis (countless virus nags, disk drive constantly churning, crazy menues, endless reboots etc etc) I booted Ubuntu live off a usb key, it worked perfectly, did the full install and that worked perfectly too. Then apt-get install kubuntu-desktop to put the icing on the cake. Now my OS isn't in my face, it just works. And plus, I've got the thousands of trustworthy, free packages a minute's install away. Blessed relief.
It's just amazing how far Windows has fallen behind Linux.