As administrators drink the Kool-Aid® we see the SaaS fetish in action in labs, with online testing and content delivery, in text books, with DRM'd PDF files that must be read, or verified as "authorized", online, and I'm sure that more will come as marketers move to embrace the new paradigm.
The obvious problem arises when the network goes down,
But there are other "gotchas":
Students with no internet connection at home to "verify" purchased content
Students on *gasp* dial-up
Labs or onsite facilities unable to deal with separate installations of proprietary applications for each user
Bandwith hits taken when ebook download and validation peak
Lack of portability of purchased content
Students without printers unable to... well, you get the idea
Again, I'm sure there are more that will come up as time goes on.
IMO, any time there's a move to vendor control, let alone remote, removed, vendor control, the end user will lose.
Installing is possible on a Tungsten, of course with Vista Home it was "Allow? Deny? - Allow? Deny?" for every freakin' file added *and* the Palm Desktop help file was in.chm, so it wouldn't display with the hh.exe download.
Which leads me to say, the more I support Windows, the more I love my Mac.:P
I demonstrated months ago to the "Powers-That-Be" that a comparably equipped Dell, both notebook and desktop, configured to the same out of the box spex as an Apple cost $600 to $1500 more, since their issue was Windows/Most Bang for the Buck.
The last documents I kept were from a Macbook Pro vs. a Precision M65, and the Mac Pro Dual Core Xeon vs. a Precision 490.
Both were specced from their respective websites. In all cases, in order to get a Dell to feature parity, I had to add to the base configuration.
If anyone is interested I'll post the PDFs to a file sharing site.
BTW, as is oft times the case, facts did not win out over marketing and we are still buying Dells.
There seems to be a fair amount of denial going on, not only at the geopolitical level, but here as well.
Cries of "It will hurt the economy!"... "Those are our jobs you're talking about!"... "It aids the terrorists!"... "It's fuzzy math/science/reporting!" fly from both sides.
So rather than focusing on who-said-what games, maybe it's time to quit clicking the heels of our ruby slippers, and begin cleaning up the mess we've made.
I've said this for years now, that we will be mining old dumps of all sorts for refined materials which will have become too rare or too costly to extract conventionally.
"Currently, if you fabricate a medical device that is labelled This is how you kill someone via an intellectual property crime.
You can think up 100 other situations today involving aircraft parts, automotive parts, electronic devices and other things that if they fail can cause people to die.
I would say life in prison for being responsible for people dying isn't all that bad an idea."
Unfortunately, given the history of governments and bureaucracies, the chances that an improved/new/expanded law would be used to effectively prosecute corporate or trade partners responsible for wrong doing seem to me to be vanishingly small.
More likely we would see them abused to protect those interests. Along the lines of the 1975 statute which was put into place with the best of intentions in the state of California.
"Currently there are very weak laws protecting against such counterfit merchandise outside of a few restricted areas."
Since IANAL, if you could provide some examples of those I would appreciate it.
But, how many have called their Congresscritter to let them know how they feel about this?
If you don't know yours, you can go here to find out...it's less likely to be a frustrating experience than using this web site.
Unfortunately I feel it's unlikely to make much difference in the long run, against the moneyed lobbyists fronting for the copynazis, but it's always good to go on record as a voice of sanity.
Copyright infringement should *not* be criminalized to an extent that allows asset forfeiture to be part of the legal remedies.
What, like people weren't using FM radio as "an excuse to get around copyright" in the 60s and 70s?
Feh!
This "fear" that the great unwashed masses would somehow use netradio as a means to obtain "free" content is the same shibboleth trotted out by the *AAs to enforce unreasonable copyright extension and maintain an outmoded business model whose only design is to continue fattenning the coffers of middlemen and executives, not "The Artists".
Kudos to the representatives for showing a semblance of sanity, brickbats to the Copyright Royalty Board for being the sellouts that they are.
Now configure the Dell to match the Apple, to feature parity and see how much it costs (hint: $4097)
But wait! There's more!
With the Dell pre-installed option you get to take advantage of tens of thousands of malware installations that will happily take advantage of your purchase within 12 minutes of it being hooked to the internet *and* the most amazing array of destablizing crapware on the planet!
With the Apple pre-installed option you get a working computer, with few exploitable openings that will keep working for you for years to come. Not only that, it's *dead* sexy lookin'!
Mom was right.
Yeah, I know in your post, it's all about that mid-range, not the professional gear, AFAYC.
But the mid-range is just that, middle, non, center of the bell curve, and no matter how many garlands and bangles you hang on it, it'll always be just a middlin' machine.
I made my purchase, and am quite happy with it, thanks.
"Windows Vista more than doubled its market share in March..."
Duh! It's the only thing most people have a choice of buying. MS isn't about to let XP continue as an option, so that statement is farcical at best.
"Now ranked the fifth-most popular operating system by Net Applications..."
Who is Net Applications? Who are they owned by? Google them and see if you're any more successful than I am in answering those questions. As far as that being a meaningful metric, it seems Vista has bested Win98 for that honor.
"The share of PowerPC-based Macs fell, though, from 4.29% in February to 3.94% in March"
Clearing the product channel and people can smell the roses?
"That dip was not fully offset by an increase in Intel-based Mac hardware, leading to a overall net decline in Mac share of 0.3%, to 6.08% in March."
With major applications still non-native this is again a no-brainer for softer sales...but *it*is*only*three*tenths*of*one*percent* fer cryin' out loud!
Get Chicken Little and circle the wagons!
Come back to us in six months or a year with full percentage points of errosion and that will be meaningful.
Until then Computerworld is just guilty of trying to grab eyeballs and trafficking in the same sort of "Apple is gonna DIE" rumor mongering that's been around since the 90s.
I felt the same way, until I got an MBP, due to the demise of my PBA's video subsystem.
I found that Apple *had* loaded Dashboard with 3 widgets that are quite handy, and for which I'd either had third party addons installed or icons in my dock since X.1.
i.e. : Calendar Widget::MenuCalendarClock
Calculator Widget::Calculator Icon in Dock
Weather Widget::Meteorologist > Forecastfox
All in all a quick F12 to do a calculation, or check stats when the browser's not open is a time saver; though I'm with many scratching my head over the Googlebar vs. Spotlight.
That's one I *don't* see the point for, and wonder if it's not a security issue in the making.
"Frank! I *told* you you should get the cable backup, but noooo....they'd mess up the line of your suit". Shakes head dolefully and flutters hands ineffectually "At least I could have plugged that pacemaker in".
In an age of personal un-responsibility Americans have seemingly abdicated their will to use the most obvious control....the bloody OFF switch on the TV.
Of course this would mean losing the electronic baby-sitter so many have come to rely on.
When a blinking *toy* fergawhdzfuggin' sake can be construed as a security threat, how is it that we keep missing the most glaringly obvious one in the nation, the occupant of the Oval Office?
A big ugly howl should come when the American (shrinking) middle class realizes that they were tapped for the $'s to provide the converters for the unwashed masses to continue receiving their dose of corporate shillage.
This whole forced march to HD-TV is a farce.
For decades media companies resisted migrating to technology that European and Asian markets already enjoyed, due to cost. It was only after the the meme of "consumer as continual revenue stream" took hold, coupled with a wholly sold-out political climate, that *any* of this shite became more than a marketer wet dream.
Slashdot Mirror
Edxor, which supports encryption and if *fast*. Find it along with other Win32 stuff at http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/fr eeware/.
What's convenient to businesses only.
You little revenue trickles shut up, pull out your wallets, empty your purses, then return to your wage slavery until we want you again.
The obvious problem arises when the network goes down,
But there are other "gotchas":
Again, I'm sure there are more that will come up as time goes on.
IMO, any time there's a move to vendor control, let alone remote, removed, vendor control, the end user will lose.
As long as you have the judiciary and legislative branches covering your @sses.
It's a win/win for those at the top since RIAA/MPAA/lobbyists==Campaign$$.
In the meantime, let them eat cake.
Installing is possible on a Tungsten, of course with Vista Home it was "Allow? Deny? - Allow? Deny?" for every freakin' file added *and* the Palm Desktop help file was in .chm, so it wouldn't display with the hh.exe download.
:P
Which leads me to say, the more I support Windows, the more I love my Mac.
It's good for you.
It would also demonstrate, yet again, that in the world of technology marketing trumps quality every time.
And has been for some time.
I demonstrated months ago to the "Powers-That-Be" that a comparably equipped Dell, both notebook and desktop, configured to the same out of the box spex as an Apple cost $600 to $1500 more, since their issue was Windows/Most Bang for the Buck.
The last documents I kept were from a Macbook Pro vs. a Precision M65, and the Mac Pro Dual Core Xeon vs. a Precision 490.
Both were specced from their respective websites. In all cases, in order to get a Dell to feature parity, I had to add to the base configuration.
If anyone is interested I'll post the PDFs to a file sharing site.
BTW, as is oft times the case, facts did not win out over marketing and we are still buying Dells.
There seems to be a fair amount of denial going on, not only at the geopolitical level, but here as well.
... "Those are our jobs you're talking about!" ... "It aids the terrorists!" ... "It's fuzzy math/science/reporting!" fly from both sides.
Cries of "It will hurt the economy!"
But the cold, hard fact remains, we *are* changing our environment, as a look at these articles, some of which are decades old, will attest. Taken as a whole many of those changes are not at all beneficial.
So rather than focusing on who-said-what games, maybe it's time to quit clicking the heels of our ruby slippers, and begin cleaning up the mess we've made.
then the QC went to hell in a hand basket, now they are partnering with the single most malefic retail entity on the planet.
So the next commercial should say "Dude! Why the hell get a Dell?"
I've said this for years now, that we will be mining old dumps of all sorts for refined materials which will have become too rare or too costly to extract conventionally.
"Currently, if you fabricate a medical device that is labelled This is how you kill someone via an intellectual property crime.
You can think up 100 other situations today involving aircraft parts, automotive parts, electronic devices and other things that if they fail can cause people to die.
I would say life in prison for being responsible for people dying isn't all that bad an idea."
Unfortunately, given the history of governments and bureaucracies, the chances that an improved/new/expanded law would be used to effectively prosecute corporate or trade partners responsible for wrong doing seem to me to be vanishingly small.
More likely we would see them abused to protect those interests. Along the lines of the 1975 statute which was put into place with the best of intentions in the state of California.
"Currently there are very weak laws protecting against such counterfit merchandise outside of a few restricted areas."
Since IANAL, if you could provide some examples of those I would appreciate it.
But, how many have called their Congresscritter to let them know how they feel about this?
If you don't know yours, you can go here to find out...it's less likely to be a frustrating experience than using this web site.
Unfortunately I feel it's unlikely to make much difference in the long run, against the moneyed lobbyists fronting for the copynazis, but it's always good to go on record as a voice of sanity.
Copyright infringement should *not* be criminalized to an extent that allows asset forfeiture to be part of the legal remedies.
You don't get to work "shibboleth" into conversation very often.
Nor do the opportunities to do so alliteratively present themselves often. '^)
What, like people weren't using FM radio as "an excuse to get around copyright" in the 60s and 70s?
Feh!
This "fear" that the great unwashed masses would somehow use netradio as a means to obtain "free" content is the same shibboleth trotted out by the *AAs to enforce unreasonable copyright extension and maintain an outmoded business model whose only design is to continue fattenning the coffers of middlemen and executives, not "The Artists".
Kudos to the representatives for showing a semblance of sanity, brickbats to the Copyright Royalty Board for being the sellouts that they are.
The density of Administratium is second to none.
In Amerika you are held hostage by your OS vendor.
Heh...OK, remember, you get what you pay for.
In both the laptop and desktop lines, "professional grade", please follow these links:
Apple laptop
Dell laptop
Now configure the Dell to match the Apple, to feature parity and see how much it costs (hint: $3101)
__
Apple tower
Dell tower
Now configure the Dell to match the Apple, to feature parity and see how much it costs (hint: $4097)
But wait! There's more!
With the Dell pre-installed option you get to take advantage of tens of thousands of malware installations that will happily take advantage of your purchase within 12 minutes of it being hooked to the internet *and* the most amazing array of destablizing crapware on the planet!
With the Apple pre-installed option you get a working computer, with few exploitable openings that will keep working for you for years to come. Not only that, it's *dead* sexy lookin'!
Mom was right.
Yeah, I know in your post, it's all about that mid-range, not the professional gear, AFAYC.
But the mid-range is just that, middle, non, center of the bell curve, and no matter how many garlands and bangles you hang on it, it'll always be just a middlin' machine.
I made my purchase, and am quite happy with it, thanks.
Let's see...
"Windows Vista more than doubled its market share in March..."
Duh! It's the only thing most people have a choice of buying. MS isn't about to let XP continue as an option, so that statement is farcical at best.
"Now ranked the fifth-most popular operating system by Net Applications..."
Who is Net Applications? Who are they owned by? Google them and see if you're any more successful than I am in answering those questions. As far as that being a meaningful metric, it seems Vista has bested Win98 for that honor.
"The share of PowerPC-based Macs fell, though, from 4.29% in February to 3.94% in March"
Clearing the product channel and people can smell the roses?
"That dip was not fully offset by an increase in Intel-based Mac hardware, leading to a overall net decline in Mac share of 0.3%, to 6.08% in March."
With major applications still non-native this is again a no-brainer for softer sales...but *it*is*only*three*tenths*of*one*percent* fer cryin' out loud!
Get Chicken Little and circle the wagons!
Come back to us in six months or a year with full percentage points of errosion and that will be meaningful.
Until then Computerworld is just guilty of trying to grab eyeballs and trafficking in the same sort of "Apple is gonna DIE" rumor mongering that's been around since the 90s.
'Nuff said!
I felt the same way, until I got an MBP, due to the demise of my PBA's video subsystem.
I found that Apple *had* loaded Dashboard with 3 widgets that are quite handy, and for which I'd either had third party addons installed or icons in my dock since X.1.
i.e. : Calendar Widget::MenuCalendarClock
Calculator Widget::Calculator Icon in Dock
Weather Widget::Meteorologist > Forecastfox
All in all a quick F12 to do a calculation, or check stats when the browser's not open is a time saver; though I'm with many scratching my head over the Googlebar vs. Spotlight.
That's one I *don't* see the point for, and wonder if it's not a security issue in the making.
"Frank! I *told* you you should get the cable backup, but noooo....they'd mess up the line of your suit". Shakes head dolefully and flutters hands ineffectually "At least I could have plugged that pacemaker in".
Oh well, didn't really want to read a retraction anyway.
Sacrificed on the Altar of Commerce, to appease the great Gawhd Greed.
/Shakes head and rolls eyes as he walks away
In an age of personal un-responsibility Americans have seemingly abdicated their will to use the most obvious control....the bloody OFF switch on the TV.
Of course this would mean losing the electronic baby-sitter so many have come to rely on.
Geez! What's a parent to do?
When a blinking *toy* fergawhdzfuggin' sake can be construed as a security threat, how is it that we keep missing the most glaringly obvious one in the nation, the occupant of the Oval Office?
A big ugly howl should come when the American (shrinking) middle class realizes that they were tapped for the $'s to provide the converters for the unwashed masses to continue receiving their dose of corporate shillage.
This whole forced march to HD-TV is a farce.
For decades media companies resisted migrating to technology that European and Asian markets already enjoyed, due to cost. It was only after the the meme of "consumer as continual revenue stream" took hold, coupled with a wholly sold-out political climate, that *any* of this shite became more than a marketer wet dream.