Like when Explorer.exe GPF's user.exe or gdi.exe...that's just the application. Has nothing to do with the underlying OS, right? Windows98/95 are completely stable...until you try to use them. Or leave 'em running for 45.86 (is that the right number?) days straight.
Or just like one of those, erm, Apple II's. Or Apple I's. Or Apple IIGX's. Or Apple IIC's. Or Apple///'s. Yeah, those separate-monitor-idea stealing bastards...they stole it even before IBM got a chance to ship one!
I speak from experience. My school allowed, even encouraged, me to use email for small (floppy sized) files.
If a school buys computers without floppy drives, and doesn't allow people to email files in or out, and doesn't allow people to connect external storage media, and doesn't allow you to connect a laptop, then what the hell good are the computers? Sounds like the school's fault, not a design flaw on Apple's part. If you can't use CD's, what's to say that they'd let you use floppies even if the computers DID have floppy drives? Come on.
Seems to me that the schools need to be reminded that the students BOUGHT the computers.
Nobody cares about MP3 for MP3's sake. Everybody cares about MP3 for MP3's utility. When something better (that is, better enough to make converting worth the trouble) comes along, everybody will switch. Fast. We don't have the inertia of having to have assembly lines build machines here. Computer code is MUCH easier to modify.
.XLS is NOT a universal format. The only thing that can write and read reliably from it are Microsoft products, and it changes every two years or so. That's a Bad Thing.
Note that Excel has many known bugs importing and exporting other spreadsheet formats...why do you suppose that is? Because Microsoft wants to foster the ignorant end user's dependence on them. That's a Bad Thing too.
Of course file formats aren't important. My DATA is important. I wouldn't care if computers recorded my data on wet clay tablets with a pointy stick as long as it was fast, durable, portable, inexpensive, and reliable (all of which would present substantial engineering challenges for wet clay storage). MP3s (or whatever good fidelity portable digital music format exists this week) ARE going to be around for as long as I have an audio source and a ripper. I have zero loyalty to the MP3 file format...it's here now, it does the job, and there's currently nothing better. Tomorrow is probably going to be quite different.
This is SUCH a tired dead horse. Want a floppy drive? Buy one. Don't want one? Don't. I think it's a GREAT idea to get people out of the habit of using unreliable floppies. TEACH the students to email floppy-sized files to themselves.
By what measure do you say that USB hasn't taken off? What would a "taken off" USB implementation do that the current one does not? I don't understand your objection.
Yeah, it would have been a lot better if Apple supported ActiveX and Direct3D, right? Everybody knows that those technologies are better than anything else out there.
Come on. Apple finally kicked their NIH syndrome, and went out and found the best solutions to the problems. And somehow, this is a reason to dog on 'em because they didn't do it the way MS did? That's patently ridiculous.
-Too big: It's how big it needs to be. If it were any smaller, you'd have grognards carping about the lack of internal expandability. If you want a small case, get an iMac or a powerbook.
-Security: If somebody can't be bothered to use a lock, they're not worried about security. Note that I have a key for just about every other computer on my person at all times...it's called a Phillips screwdriver.
-Upgradability: Users who don't want to upgrade buy iMacs. Users who DO want to upgrade buy PowerMac G3's.
You needn't have a tight case to have an elegant case. For those people (the PowerMac G3's target audience) who DO know their way around the inside of a computer, the easy accessibility is a boon.
Better parallel would be Chevy a threat to Shell Oil. If Chevrolet (Linux) comes out with a car that uses 1/10 as much gas, and has higher performance, you better belive that the oil company (Intel) is going to be right nervous.
People, there's a critical point being missed here. There's nothing wrong with having a monopoly. There IS something wrong with wielding massive market influence (like a monopoly) to try to force other competitors out of the market. It is also something wrong with using domination of one market (operating systems) to try to stifle competition in other markets (word processors). THAT is why Microsoft is wrong, and Oracle/Sybase/Apple/Be/Whoever are not (at least not in the same way).
Oracle's evil, but for a whole different set of reasons. : )
Upon rereading my post, I discovered that I totally left out the (to me) critical feature. Integration should not be "I'm microsoft and I'm going to bundle together this bolus of useless creeping featuritis and cram it down the throats of my customers, regardless of their needs". Integration should be "I'm OpenDoc, and I'm going to build an open, extensible framework in which you can choose from a variety of tools that work together harmoniously, that you can customize at your leisure". I think I'm using "integrated" in a misleading (or maybe bass-ackwards) sense. The more I think about it, "modular" fits better. But I want to differentiate between the slapdash "Netscape/Photoshop plugin" stuff, and a more elegant, easier to manage, more flexible architecture. I want to be able to use the same spell checker in ALL my applications. I want to use the same drawing and page layout tools in ALL my documents. This focus that we (computer users) have on using a certain application is somewhat mis-directed. When I fix a car motor (yeah, right!) my objective isn't "Use this socket set to fix the car", it's "Use the appropriate tool to fix the car". If I'd rather use an impact wrench, or Bob Vila's Craftsman Clench Wrench, I shouldn't have to get another motor.
It's late, and I'm rambling. There's a cogent point in there somewhere.
This doesn't make sense. Certainly, it's ideal for people to not send executibles to each other, but sometimes there's no other alternative. It's the only widely-available peer-to-peer file sharing system that is currently available. As far as DOC files go, I'd LOVE to be able to get users to understand what file formats are, and how they can be converted and exchanged easily.
That's just not going to happen. Ignorance is no defense, but it's also just about inevitable. Engineering needs to be done on these systems to make it more difficult to do bad things inadvertantly.
Sure safe computing requires education...look how well education works nowadays.
I don't understand what the Melissa fiasco has to do with "integration". Integration IS good for the customer. I'm really really glad I don't have a different pull-chain under my dashboard to control the spark advance, fuel delivery, valve timing, and all the other wonky stuff that makes my car make pretty noises and go fast. Bad engineering (in the form of MS's VBA implementation) is not good for the customer. Integration (that is, the combination of modular parts into a seamless whole) is the best possible way to run computer. I'd LOVE for Apple to release OpenDoc under GPL. That'd be a very cool thing indeed!
I saw that trailer for 13th Floor, but as far as I'm concerned Roland/Emmerich is still in the penalty box for destroying Stargate (last third of the movie), Independence Day (for hype and butt ugly SFX) and Godzilla (which started bad, continued bad, had a brief moment where Jean Reno was cool, and ended bad. 'Course, NOBODY can make Jean Reno look bad ALL the time.) If EVERYBODY I KNOW tells me that 13th Floor is the best movie since TPM, I might bother with it. Otherwise, I'll wait until somebody else rents it. : )
I think that these yokels are the Chupacabra of hollywood.
Absolutely true, and I wouldn't be able to tell one from the other with the proverbial both hands and a flashlight. Gonna be an interesting trial either way.
Counterexample. User friendly does NOT correlate to not secure. Bad engineering can make not secure. I don't know if it's still true, but MacOS web servers in the past have been demonstrably more secure than many other implementations. That's not to say that it is impossible to secure a UNIX server, only that it takes a great deal of expertise (like, for instance, way more than I have).
Unix requires an expert to make it secure MacOS requires somebody who can double click an icon to make it secure
Is Unix supposed to be UNIX or Unix? Am I being compulsive? : )
I'm impressed. They managed to find lots of talking heads to exonerate Microsoft from their responsibility. It's almost like the site carrying the article has some sort of vested interest in making MS look as good as possible.
There is a difference between "I accidentally killed you with my car" and "I meant to run you over with my car". 2nd and 1st degree murder, respectively. Intent IS a factor.
Miracle Max: Have fun storming the castle! His wife: Think it'll work? Miracle Max: It'll take a miracle!
Writing a virus that's designed to interrupt email transmissions is exactly the same as going to a business and taking bolt cutters to their phone lines. It is not nice, it's not OK with me, and it is illegal (note that any correlation between these three properties is coincidental). Just because the interruption happened to be caused by a hunk of computer code instead of a hacksaw doesn't make it any less malicious or destructive.
As far as the argument that people should know how to prevent these infections, I agree. People should also stand by their phone trunks with a gun to protect their communication lines, right? Does that make sense?
Two important differences. Happy99 doesn't have a GUID. It's also not as destructive. The confluence of trackability and virulence have made law enforcement reply.
Slashdot Mirror
Like when Explorer.exe GPF's user.exe or gdi.exe...that's just the application. Has nothing to do with the underlying OS, right? Windows98/95 are completely stable...until you try to use them. Or leave 'em running for 45.86 (is that the right number?) days straight.
Oops! My foot was on the sarcasm button again.
Or just like one of those, erm, Apple II's. Or Apple I's. Or Apple IIGX's. Or Apple IIC's. Or Apple ///'s. Yeah, those separate-monitor-idea stealing bastards...they stole it even before IBM got a chance to ship one!
Whatever.
I speak from experience. My school allowed, even encouraged, me to use email for small (floppy sized) files.
If a school buys computers without floppy drives, and doesn't allow people to email files in or out, and doesn't allow people to connect external storage media, and doesn't allow you to connect a laptop, then what the hell good are the computers? Sounds like the school's fault, not a design flaw on Apple's part. If you can't use CD's, what's to say that they'd let you use floppies even if the computers DID have floppy drives? Come on.
Seems to me that the schools need to be reminded that the students BOUGHT the computers.
Nobody cares about MP3 for MP3's sake. Everybody cares about MP3 for MP3's utility. When something better (that is, better enough to make converting worth the trouble) comes along, everybody will switch. Fast. We don't have the inertia of having to have assembly lines build machines here. Computer code is MUCH easier to modify.
.XLS is NOT a universal format. The only thing that can write and read reliably from it are Microsoft products, and it changes every two years or so. That's a Bad Thing.
Note that Excel has many known bugs importing and exporting other spreadsheet formats...why do you suppose that is? Because Microsoft wants to foster the ignorant end user's dependence on them. That's a Bad Thing too.
Of course file formats aren't important. My DATA is important. I wouldn't care if computers recorded my data on wet clay tablets with a pointy stick as long as it was fast, durable, portable, inexpensive, and reliable (all of which would present substantial engineering challenges for wet clay storage). MP3s (or whatever good fidelity portable digital music format exists this week) ARE going to be around for as long as I have an audio source and a ripper. I have zero loyalty to the MP3 file format...it's here now, it does the job, and there's currently nothing better. Tomorrow is probably going to be quite different.
I think WinAmp is pretty cool, though. : )
Dell is moving BEHIND them...and that's where theyr'e going to stay.
This is SUCH a tired dead horse. Want a floppy drive? Buy one. Don't want one? Don't. I think it's a GREAT idea to get people out of the habit of using unreliable floppies. TEACH the students to email floppy-sized files to themselves.
By what measure do you say that USB hasn't taken off? What would a "taken off" USB implementation do that the current one does not? I don't understand your objection.
Yeah, it would have been a lot better if Apple supported ActiveX and Direct3D, right? Everybody knows that those technologies are better than anything else out there.
Come on. Apple finally kicked their NIH syndrome, and went out and found the best solutions to the problems. And somehow, this is a reason to dog on 'em because they didn't do it the way MS did? That's patently ridiculous.
The G3 isn't aimed at the "average user".
-Too big: It's how big it needs to be. If it were any smaller, you'd have grognards carping about the lack of internal expandability. If you want a small case, get an iMac or a powerbook.
-Security: If somebody can't be bothered to use a lock, they're not worried about security. Note that I have a key for just about every other computer on my person at all times...it's called a Phillips screwdriver.
-Upgradability: Users who don't want to upgrade buy iMacs. Users who DO want to upgrade buy PowerMac G3's.
You needn't have a tight case to have an elegant case. For those people (the PowerMac G3's target audience) who DO know their way around the inside of a computer, the easy accessibility is a boon.
Better parallel would be Chevy a threat to Shell Oil. If Chevrolet (Linux) comes out with a car that uses 1/10 as much gas, and has higher performance, you better belive that the oil company (Intel) is going to be right nervous.
People, there's a critical point being missed here. There's nothing wrong with having a monopoly. There IS something wrong with wielding massive market influence (like a monopoly) to try to force other competitors out of the market. It is also something wrong with using domination of one market (operating systems) to try to stifle competition in other markets (word processors). THAT is why Microsoft is wrong, and Oracle/Sybase/Apple/Be/Whoever are not (at least not in the same way).
Oracle's evil, but for a whole different set of reasons. : )
You're awfully free with that "you all" notion. Your point would probably be more well received if it were better aimed.
Upon rereading my post, I discovered that I totally left out the (to me) critical feature. Integration should not be "I'm microsoft and I'm going to bundle together this bolus of useless creeping featuritis and cram it down the throats of my customers, regardless of their needs". Integration should be "I'm OpenDoc, and I'm going to build an open, extensible framework in which you can choose from a variety of tools that work together harmoniously, that you can customize at your leisure". I think I'm using "integrated" in a misleading (or maybe bass-ackwards) sense. The more I think about it, "modular" fits better. But I want to differentiate between the slapdash "Netscape/Photoshop plugin" stuff, and a more elegant, easier to manage, more flexible architecture. I want to be able to use the same spell checker in ALL my applications. I want to use the same drawing and page layout tools in ALL my documents. This focus that we (computer users) have on using a certain application is somewhat mis-directed. When I fix a car motor (yeah, right!) my objective isn't "Use this socket set to fix the car", it's "Use the appropriate tool to fix the car". If I'd rather use an impact wrench, or Bob Vila's Craftsman Clench Wrench, I shouldn't have to get another motor.
It's late, and I'm rambling. There's a cogent point in there somewhere.
In short, you're absolutely right. : )
Yeah, Macs are the only servers that can be slashdotted. No other servers fail under catastrophically heavy loads.
It's a UNIX server anyway.
This doesn't make sense. Certainly, it's ideal for people to not send executibles to each other, but sometimes there's no other alternative. It's the only widely-available peer-to-peer file sharing system that is currently available. As far as DOC files go, I'd LOVE to be able to get users to understand what file formats are, and how they can be converted and exchanged easily.
That's just not going to happen. Ignorance is no defense, but it's also just about inevitable. Engineering needs to be done on these systems to make it more difficult to do bad things inadvertantly.
Sure safe computing requires education...look how well education works nowadays.
I don't understand what the Melissa fiasco has to do with "integration". Integration IS good for the customer. I'm really really glad I don't have a different pull-chain under my dashboard to control the spark advance, fuel delivery, valve timing, and all the other wonky stuff that makes my car make pretty noises and go fast. Bad engineering (in the form of MS's VBA implementation) is not good for the customer. Integration (that is, the combination of modular parts into a seamless whole) is the best possible way to run computer. I'd LOVE for Apple to release OpenDoc under GPL. That'd be a very cool thing indeed!
I saw that trailer for 13th Floor, but as far as I'm concerned Roland/Emmerich is still in the penalty box for destroying Stargate (last third of the movie), Independence Day (for hype and butt ugly SFX) and Godzilla (which started bad, continued bad, had a brief moment where Jean Reno was cool, and ended bad. 'Course, NOBODY can make Jean Reno look bad ALL the time.) If EVERYBODY I KNOW tells me that 13th Floor is the best movie since TPM, I might bother with it. Otherwise, I'll wait until somebody else rents it. : )
I think that these yokels are the Chupacabra of hollywood.
Absolutely true, and I wouldn't be able to tell one from the other with the proverbial both hands and a flashlight. Gonna be an interesting trial either way.
Counterexample. User friendly does NOT correlate to not secure. Bad engineering can make not secure. I don't know if it's still true, but MacOS web servers in the past have been demonstrably more secure than many other implementations. That's not to say that it is impossible to secure a UNIX server, only that it takes a great deal of expertise (like, for instance, way more than I have).
Unix requires an expert to make it secure
MacOS requires somebody who can double click an icon to make it secure
Is Unix supposed to be UNIX or Unix? Am I being compulsive? : )
I'm impressed. They managed to find lots of talking heads to exonerate Microsoft from their responsibility. It's almost like the site carrying the article has some sort of vested interest in making MS look as good as possible.
Oh, wait, what was that URL again?
There is a difference between "I accidentally killed you with my car" and "I meant to run you over with my car". 2nd and 1st degree murder, respectively. Intent IS a factor.
Reminds me of a line from The Princess Bride.
Miracle Max: Have fun storming the castle!
His wife: Think it'll work?
Miracle Max: It'll take a miracle!
Writing a virus that's designed to interrupt email transmissions is exactly the same as going to a business and taking bolt cutters to their phone lines. It is not nice, it's not OK with me, and it is illegal (note that any correlation between these three properties is coincidental). Just because the interruption happened to be caused by a hunk of computer code instead of a hacksaw doesn't make it any less malicious or destructive.
As far as the argument that people should know how to prevent these infections, I agree. People should also stand by their phone trunks with a gun to protect their communication lines, right? Does that make sense?
Two important differences. Happy99 doesn't have a GUID. It's also not as destructive. The confluence of trackability and virulence have made law enforcement reply.
That's what the trial is for.
To me, the logical thing to do is arrange a vacation day. Which I did. : )