To add to this: if I wanted a desktop environment with almost no configurability, and the philosophy that the UI designers know better than me and their One True Way is the only correct workflow, I'd go buy a Mac. Linux is not the OS for people like this.
If Kubuntu's implementation is so awful (even worse than Fedora's??), then why have you been using it since 2007?
I used to use Kubuntu too for a while, but I switched to Mint because it was a better implementation. But even Kubuntu's I don't think was as bad as what I saw in this review for the Fedora version.
That's what SkyTran was invented for: it solves most of those issues. It's cheap to build (compared to subways, light rail, etc.), can have stops near everyone's house in suburbia, and has very fast transit times since there's no stops between your entry and exit points. Construction isn't an environmental or logistics problem because it's suspended from utility poles, so it doesn't interfere with existing roads.
Exactly; this is why governments need to give up on buses and start building SkyTran systems instead. No one wants to take the bus when it's going to take almost as long as walking because the bus takes a winding, circuitous route and requites taking 5 transfers to get near where you're going, and then still requires walking a half mile because the bus doesn't actually go there. SkyTran fixes all that by taking you in an isolated shuttle-pod directly to your destination (within 1/4 mile or less), at 75-150 mph without any stops at all, and it does so with far less energy than a car or a bus can since it's riding on a suspended maglev rail, and it does so for a tiny fraction of the installation (per mile) cost of light rail (which has many of the same problems as buses as far as getting you to your destination without transfers). SkyTran is literally the answer to most of our public transit woes in any place which is currently serviced by light rail or bus. It probably isn't quite as useful in an extremely dense city like Manhattan, though it would be a good replacement for all the taxis there: it can be priced higher than the subway so that it doesn't become overcrowded since subways are a better way to move large masses of people around in a dense and elongated environment like that.
The only way for Greece to recover is to leave the monetary union. They can remain a member of the EU without using the euro as their currency, the UK is an example of that; but every story you read in the mainstream media implies otherwise, which simply isn't true.
It isn't just the UK; only 19 of the 28 member states of the EU use the Euro currency. Ones that don't include Denmark, Czech Republic, Romania, and Sweden. According to Wikipedia, however, it does seem that most of these are obliged to switch to the Euro when certain conditions are met; the only countries which have specifically opted out are UK and Denmark. But I do think it's interesting that very few eastern European EU nations have adopted the Euro so far (and instead, a couple of non-EU eastern European nations like Montenegro have unilaterally adopted it). If you look at the map, Greece kinda stands alone as a Euro user in that region, with only Cyprus (EU), Montenegro (non-EU) and Kosovo (non-EU) also using it.
According to your logic, the USA should give up the US Dollar, and instead have all 50 states print their own separate currencies. They tried that way back, and it didn't work out well.
Exactly. Fedora probably has the very worst implementation of KDE out there, so it's no surprise he's found a bunch of things to complain about. I also use KDE on Mint and these things are not a problem there.
I'd like to see him write another article comparing the Mint version of KDE instead. And this time, he needs to get an editor, so he doesn't make dumb grammatical mistakes like "on their marry way", and constantly using apostrophes in plural words.
While KDE isn't their foremost DE, Mint seems to do a pretty good job with it.
I've been using Gnome3 now for a few weeks at work (unfortunately; not my choice) and while I'll admit it's pretty in places, it feels like I'm using a stripped down tablet. There's almost no configurability at all.
Sorry to be blunt and possibly insulting, but think about it: how many gay people are born to other gay people? How many are born to (supposedly) heterosexual parents? Pretty much all of them come from hetero pairings.
If there's really a genetic component to it, most likely what's happening is that people who are bisexual (which is probably a much larger portion of the population than most people realize; it's just repressed) are breeding more bi and homo people while they're in hetero relationships.
Just look at some of the wackiness in Asia: in China and Vietnam, they think rhinoceros tusks cure all kinds of ailments, and this is what's created the demand for poachers who have poached them nearly to extinction.
In South Korea, people actually believe that leaving a fan on in their bedroom at night will "chop up" all the oxygen and suffocate them.
Maybe you don't want those emails, but from a few select retailers, I personally actually do like to get emails from them. I can find out about sales and specials from them that I would otherwise not know about. Obviously you want to be selective about who you allow to send you this stuff, because otherwise it'll clog up your inbox, but if you're a frequent shopper for a retailer it's not unreasonable to sign up for their emails. I'm sure I'm not the only person who feels this way.
One big advantage of this over Transmeta's "code morphing" is that the latter has to be done on-the-fly, and has to be done each time it encounters the code, unless it was recent enough to still be in cache, whereas this approach, like a normal compiler, is only done once, and then the results can be executed over and over (even across different systems).
Partial automation doesn't lead to declining workforces, it leads to expanded capability and larger workloads than could be imagined before.
Not really. The problem is that automation replaces all the jobs at the low end of the skill spectrum; the easier and more mindless the job is, the easier it is to automate (usually). While this can expand the market overall, what are we supposed to do with the people who lost their jobs? Someone who can empty trashcans is not likely to be able to learn the skills necessary to repair the trash robot. More automation is creating more work for people whose work involves building, maintaining, and repairing the automation, but those are all highly skilled workers.
If you want to stay current on watercooler conversation, you may need the service with both revenue streams.
Luckily, in my industry (software) it seems like none of my coworkers ever talk about current shows, except of course for Game of Thrones which they all probably just download on BitTorrent. In the last week, I can only remember one reference to current TV shows, and it wasn't any show in particular, it was just "reality TV", and it was just a comment along the lines of reality TV being trash.
I wonder how hard it'd be for the cableTV operators to allow not a la carte pricing per channel, but per network. So, if Viacom is a dick and basic cable will cost double for that, make subscribers pay double if they want the optional Viacom package with all the channels that Viacom broadcasts, and if the subscribers don't want to pay double, they don't get any Viacom channels. Then when Viacom doesn't get much revenue because not many subscribers are willing to pay double for their basic cable bill, then Viacom will adjust its pricing.
The thing about the email ads is that, with a lot of those, you sign up for those willingly, and they're from places you're interested in buying from. Newegg is a good example here: you probably got those emails because you bought stuff from Newegg, and then clicked on a box to be put on their mailing list so you could see their specials. It's entirely reasonable to think that you, both a former Newegg customer and a Slashdot user, meaning you're most likely a tech worker or the like, would be interested in buying more stuff from Newegg, especially any special sales.
This is entirely different from spam email, or your typical banner ads on websites, which isn't requested and usually not something you're interested in.
Google, with their AdWords, proved long ago that targeted advertisement is far, far more effective than any kind of unrequested ads, for good reason.
I think your quote "the worst software on the planet" is missing some swearing and hookers.
John McAfee is indeed a colorful character, but so was Steve Jobs. If he popped up tomorrow out of hiding, revealed that his death had been faked, and then proceeded to tell the world that Apple products are complete trash, what would that do to Apple's sales? Yet somehow, McAfee keeps selling their crapware.
I very much doubt that the McAfee people were any different and letting people like that into your building is begging for disaster. I suspect the terrible software was just a symptom of a completely degenerate company.
I totally agree. Unfortunately it seems like a lot of companies are run by people just like this. Evil sociopaths tend to climb to the top of many organizations. Though your office gear example seems especially bad.
My fear for Intel is that some psychopathic executives have made the jump from McAfee to Intel and are like ebola being released into a kindergarten. They will flourish and spread while leaving Intel a twitching bleeding from every orifice corpse. I could see Intel executives thinking themselves cunning where they do a huge deal so as to get closer the next promotion whereas a McAfee executive would falsify data to shut down an entire department so that he gets a slightly better parking space.
Actually, that won't work at Intel: there are no assigned parking spaces there, and the executives have cubicles just like everyone else. The CEO has to park in the same parking lot that everyone else does, and fight for a good space with them. It's really a crappy company to work for if you're an executive who's used to generous perks like that.
That is a good analogy with Ebola and kindergarten though. Hopefully McAfee's evil execs won't get out into the rest of the company and ruin it.
As for McAfee's reputation, remember this is the company where their founder, John McAfee, has publicly called their product "the worst software on the planet". What kind of idiot would buy something like that? That would be like buying Microsoft products after Bill Gates himself ran around calling their products crap (not that he'd ever do that in real life), or buying Apple products after Steve Jobs (in an alternate universe where he didn't die of cancer) said that iDevices were the worst products on the planet.
They've also completely failed to consider that just as quickly a one website may rise to prominence, another may equally quickly supplant it. Look at Facebook replacing MySpace for example.
Wouldn't a more relevant example of this be Reddit replacing Digg?
Bluetooth headphones seem to either be wicked uncomfortable (plantronic backbeats) or exquisitely sensitive to sweat (Motorola). So it's nice being able to listen to music over corded headphones, and still have the smartphone available to do whatever in between sets.
I don't know about your phone, but every decent smartphone I've ever seen has a standard 1/4" headphone jack. It doesn't keep you from doing other things with the phone.
Also the mp3 player just fucking 'works' on demand. Spotify seems to crash about 50% of the time and requires a reboot of the phone.
Every decent phone I've seen lets you just put MP3s on it (or even Oggs with Android phones) and play them directly.
Also having the headphone jack come out, then having my phone broadcast my horrible taste of music over its speaker after accidentally touching the screen/volume buttons -- was embarrassing enough to ensure it happened just once:)
Ok now this is definitely something I don't know how to fix on a smartphone...
It might not be about the electronics, but the things you talk about sound like really low-value products. The special thing about electronics is that they're high-value; maybe not as much as in the 80s when a VCR cost $1000 (a large fraction of the price of a car back then), but still usually a lot more than a stick of deodorant.
And TV shows don't get canceled because of lack of popularity, but because of idiotic network executives. It's not like they actually poll viewers to see what's popular (how many Nielsen families do you know?), especially in an age when people use DVRs, Hulu, and Netflix.
Slashdot Mirror
To add to this: if I wanted a desktop environment with almost no configurability, and the philosophy that the UI designers know better than me and their One True Way is the only correct workflow, I'd go buy a Mac. Linux is not the OS for people like this.
If Kubuntu's implementation is so awful (even worse than Fedora's??), then why have you been using it since 2007?
I used to use Kubuntu too for a while, but I switched to Mint because it was a better implementation. But even Kubuntu's I don't think was as bad as what I saw in this review for the Fedora version.
That's what SkyTran was invented for: it solves most of those issues. It's cheap to build (compared to subways, light rail, etc.), can have stops near everyone's house in suburbia, and has very fast transit times since there's no stops between your entry and exit points. Construction isn't an environmental or logistics problem because it's suspended from utility poles, so it doesn't interfere with existing roads.
Exactly; this is why governments need to give up on buses and start building SkyTran systems instead. No one wants to take the bus when it's going to take almost as long as walking because the bus takes a winding, circuitous route and requites taking 5 transfers to get near where you're going, and then still requires walking a half mile because the bus doesn't actually go there. SkyTran fixes all that by taking you in an isolated shuttle-pod directly to your destination (within 1/4 mile or less), at 75-150 mph without any stops at all, and it does so with far less energy than a car or a bus can since it's riding on a suspended maglev rail, and it does so for a tiny fraction of the installation (per mile) cost of light rail (which has many of the same problems as buses as far as getting you to your destination without transfers). SkyTran is literally the answer to most of our public transit woes in any place which is currently serviced by light rail or bus. It probably isn't quite as useful in an extremely dense city like Manhattan, though it would be a good replacement for all the taxis there: it can be priced higher than the subway so that it doesn't become overcrowded since subways are a better way to move large masses of people around in a dense and elongated environment like that.
The only way for Greece to recover is to leave the monetary union. They can remain a member of the EU without using the euro as their currency, the UK is an example of that; but every story you read in the mainstream media implies otherwise, which simply isn't true.
It isn't just the UK; only 19 of the 28 member states of the EU use the Euro currency. Ones that don't include Denmark, Czech Republic, Romania, and Sweden. According to Wikipedia, however, it does seem that most of these are obliged to switch to the Euro when certain conditions are met; the only countries which have specifically opted out are UK and Denmark. But I do think it's interesting that very few eastern European EU nations have adopted the Euro so far (and instead, a couple of non-EU eastern European nations like Montenegro have unilaterally adopted it). If you look at the map, Greece kinda stands alone as a Euro user in that region, with only Cyprus (EU), Montenegro (non-EU) and Kosovo (non-EU) also using it.
According to your logic, the USA should give up the US Dollar, and instead have all 50 states print their own separate currencies. They tried that way back, and it didn't work out well.
Exactly. Fedora probably has the very worst implementation of KDE out there, so it's no surprise he's found a bunch of things to complain about. I also use KDE on Mint and these things are not a problem there.
I'd like to see him write another article comparing the Mint version of KDE instead. And this time, he needs to get an editor, so he doesn't make dumb grammatical mistakes like "on their marry way", and constantly using apostrophes in plural words.
While KDE isn't their foremost DE, Mint seems to do a pretty good job with it.
I've been using Gnome3 now for a few weeks at work (unfortunately; not my choice) and while I'll admit it's pretty in places, it feels like I'm using a stripped down tablet. There's almost no configurability at all.
-1 Stupid.
Sorry to be blunt and possibly insulting, but think about it: how many gay people are born to other gay people? How many are born to (supposedly) heterosexual parents? Pretty much all of them come from hetero pairings.
If there's really a genetic component to it, most likely what's happening is that people who are bisexual (which is probably a much larger portion of the population than most people realize; it's just repressed) are breeding more bi and homo people while they're in hetero relationships.
This isn't the first time, by far.
Just look at some of the wackiness in Asia: in China and Vietnam, they think rhinoceros tusks cure all kinds of ailments, and this is what's created the demand for poachers who have poached them nearly to extinction.
In South Korea, people actually believe that leaving a fan on in their bedroom at night will "chop up" all the oxygen and suffocate them.
Homeopathy was invented in Germany.
Maybe you don't want those emails, but from a few select retailers, I personally actually do like to get emails from them. I can find out about sales and specials from them that I would otherwise not know about. Obviously you want to be selective about who you allow to send you this stuff, because otherwise it'll clog up your inbox, but if you're a frequent shopper for a retailer it's not unreasonable to sign up for their emails. I'm sure I'm not the only person who feels this way.
Just because there's some arbitrary legal age for adulthood doesn't mean reality actually reflects that.
That's crazy talk. Next you'll be telling me that legislators can't actually set the value of pi to be 3 by simply passing a law decreeing it.
One big advantage of this over Transmeta's "code morphing" is that the latter has to be done on-the-fly, and has to be done each time it encounters the code, unless it was recent enough to still be in cache, whereas this approach, like a normal compiler, is only done once, and then the results can be executed over and over (even across different systems).
Partial automation doesn't lead to declining workforces, it leads to expanded capability and larger workloads than could be imagined before.
Not really. The problem is that automation replaces all the jobs at the low end of the skill spectrum; the easier and more mindless the job is, the easier it is to automate (usually). While this can expand the market overall, what are we supposed to do with the people who lost their jobs? Someone who can empty trashcans is not likely to be able to learn the skills necessary to repair the trash robot. More automation is creating more work for people whose work involves building, maintaining, and repairing the automation, but those are all highly skilled workers.
If you want to stay current on watercooler conversation, you may need the service with both revenue streams.
Luckily, in my industry (software) it seems like none of my coworkers ever talk about current shows, except of course for Game of Thrones which they all probably just download on BitTorrent. In the last week, I can only remember one reference to current TV shows, and it wasn't any show in particular, it was just "reality TV", and it was just a comment along the lines of reality TV being trash.
I wonder how hard it'd be for the cableTV operators to allow not a la carte pricing per channel, but per network. So, if Viacom is a dick and basic cable will cost double for that, make subscribers pay double if they want the optional Viacom package with all the channels that Viacom broadcasts, and if the subscribers don't want to pay double, they don't get any Viacom channels. Then when Viacom doesn't get much revenue because not many subscribers are willing to pay double for their basic cable bill, then Viacom will adjust its pricing.
When cable TV was brand-new, it did not have commercials.
So if you BYOD, as many companies now either request or require, then you're safe?
The thing about the email ads is that, with a lot of those, you sign up for those willingly, and they're from places you're interested in buying from. Newegg is a good example here: you probably got those emails because you bought stuff from Newegg, and then clicked on a box to be put on their mailing list so you could see their specials. It's entirely reasonable to think that you, both a former Newegg customer and a Slashdot user, meaning you're most likely a tech worker or the like, would be interested in buying more stuff from Newegg, especially any special sales.
This is entirely different from spam email, or your typical banner ads on websites, which isn't requested and usually not something you're interested in.
Google, with their AdWords, proved long ago that targeted advertisement is far, far more effective than any kind of unrequested ads, for good reason.
I think your quote "the worst software on the planet" is missing some swearing and hookers.
John McAfee is indeed a colorful character, but so was Steve Jobs. If he popped up tomorrow out of hiding, revealed that his death had been faked, and then proceeded to tell the world that Apple products are complete trash, what would that do to Apple's sales? Yet somehow, McAfee keeps selling their crapware.
I very much doubt that the McAfee people were any different and letting people like that into your building is begging for disaster. I suspect the terrible software was just a symptom of a completely degenerate company.
I totally agree. Unfortunately it seems like a lot of companies are run by people just like this. Evil sociopaths tend to climb to the top of many organizations. Though your office gear example seems especially bad.
My fear for Intel is that some psychopathic executives have made the jump from McAfee to Intel and are like ebola being released into a kindergarten. They will flourish and spread while leaving Intel a twitching bleeding from every orifice corpse. I could see Intel executives thinking themselves cunning where they do a huge deal so as to get closer the next promotion whereas a McAfee executive would falsify data to shut down an entire department so that he gets a slightly better parking space.
Actually, that won't work at Intel: there are no assigned parking spaces there, and the executives have cubicles just like everyone else. The CEO has to park in the same parking lot that everyone else does, and fight for a good space with them. It's really a crappy company to work for if you're an executive who's used to generous perks like that.
That is a good analogy with Ebola and kindergarten though. Hopefully McAfee's evil execs won't get out into the rest of the company and ruin it.
As for McAfee's reputation, remember this is the company where their founder, John McAfee, has publicly called their product "the worst software on the planet". What kind of idiot would buy something like that? That would be like buying Microsoft products after Bill Gates himself ran around calling their products crap (not that he'd ever do that in real life), or buying Apple products after Steve Jobs (in an alternate universe where he didn't die of cancer) said that iDevices were the worst products on the planet.
And that's why he moved to Silicon Valley? The model place for affordable housing?? Really?
Yes, really: SV prices are downright affordable compared to Vancouver's. In Vancouver, an actual crack house will cost you over $1M.
They've also completely failed to consider that just as quickly a one website may rise to prominence, another may equally quickly supplant it. Look at Facebook replacing MySpace for example.
Wouldn't a more relevant example of this be Reddit replacing Digg?
Bluetooth headphones seem to either be wicked uncomfortable (plantronic backbeats) or exquisitely sensitive to sweat (Motorola). So it's nice being able to listen to music over corded headphones, and still have the smartphone available to do whatever in between sets.
I don't know about your phone, but every decent smartphone I've ever seen has a standard 1/4" headphone jack. It doesn't keep you from doing other things with the phone.
Also the mp3 player just fucking 'works' on demand. Spotify seems to crash about 50% of the time and requires a reboot of the phone.
Every decent phone I've seen lets you just put MP3s on it (or even Oggs with Android phones) and play them directly.
Also having the headphone jack come out, then having my phone broadcast my horrible taste of music over its speaker after accidentally touching the screen/volume buttons -- was embarrassing enough to ensure it happened just once :)
Ok now this is definitely something I don't know how to fix on a smartphone...
It might not be about the electronics, but the things you talk about sound like really low-value products. The special thing about electronics is that they're high-value; maybe not as much as in the 80s when a VCR cost $1000 (a large fraction of the price of a car back then), but still usually a lot more than a stick of deodorant.
And TV shows don't get canceled because of lack of popularity, but because of idiotic network executives. It's not like they actually poll viewers to see what's popular (how many Nielsen families do you know?), especially in an age when people use DVRs, Hulu, and Netflix.