Just a quick side-note for you; I found that Cyberduck was good but had some freaky memory leaks that meant when I downloaded a 1Gb or greater file (I do a lot of media work) my hard drive would be thrashing hard... and this with 2Gb of RAM. Killing Cyberduck dropped me back to normal. I've reported bugs repeatedly, but in several version iterations they never did seem to fix the problem.
I switched to Fetch, which while not quite as "friendly" as Cyberduck in some ways, is much more functional. I also think the SFTP performance is better (which is primarily what I use it for) and resume seems to work lovely even with Windows boxes running OpenSSH.
Fetch costs money... but it's worth it! Try it out. Other than, I agree with everything you just said. However, I'm now on day two of running Safari 3 Beta, and it's much better than 2 for basic browsing. Firefox is in serious danger of being uninstalled (or at least retired from my dock):)
I have a PocketPC phone; an HTC TyTN. I love the fact that I can install... let me see here...
OK... I have a third party set of networking tools... namely WiFiFoFum (wireless scanner) and VXUtil (includes stuff like IP subnet calculator and so on). Oh, and not to mention a copy of Putty when I need to SSH to a box. Damn that keyboard is nice when I have an urgent need for SSH. Finally, I have a Remote Desktop Client and VNC installed so I can remote control just about anything (within reason).
I have pRSSReader, which I use to read my RSS feed when I'm sitting at a coffee shop so I don't have to whip out my laptop (thoug I still do sometimes). It's handy sometimes, and better than a newspaper 'cos it's more targeted to my needs.
Oh, and yes... my cellphone came with a location app; Telenav. I tried it out, and immediately went out, invested in a 2Gb MicroSD card and installed TomTom (coupled with a Bluetooth GPS device). If I choose to, I can change that for different software.
You see my point? None of these are "Killer Apps", but every one of them increases my productivity in a SINGLE DEVICE. If I desire, I can have (and do have) another 2Gb MicroSD card with a selection of MP3's on it that I can play back at will. And no, I don't use Windows Media Player... there are better solutions out there. My TyTN has actually reduced my reliance on lugging my laptop around with me, because if I happen to be out and about and a customer calls me with a problem, I can sometimes even resolve the problem from the touchscreen of my phone without ever having to run back to the car to grab my laptop. Obviously, wifi is best for this kind of stuff... but HSDPA works like a champ in most of the areas I frequent (St. Louis, MO... Chicago, IL etc.). In a crunch, I have used Edge... but it's rather sad and pathetic... and not because of the browser! Oh yeah... that's Third Party as well: Opera.
It's about CHOICE. Quite frankly, I may be somewhat of the exception rather than the rule... but my cellphone is a business tool for me. As such, I have tools installed on it that facilitate my job as a consultant and "technical guru". Each of these is a third party application that provides functionality that Microsoft does not. Their tools are OK... there are better tools out there.
By the way, I also happen to be a Mac user. You might think that I would be all over the iPhone, being technical and a Mac guy... but I'm not. Quite simply, even on my Mac my applications are third party: My web browser of choice is Firefox (though today I happen to be testing Safari 3 and will be going back to Firefox soon...). My mail app of choice is not mail.app but rather Entourage. I don't use iCal, or Address Book... and I use Microsoft Word instead of Pages. Despite having some decent apps out of the gate, Apple does not produce the be all and end all of applications on my Mac. I even have Fink and X11 installed so I can download and compile a bunch of Linux and BSD apps any time I feel the need for them. The only software I use that came "out of the box" on my Mac is iTunes... and even that's just for managing playlists that are synced to my TyTN through "The Missing Sync". Oh look... more third party.
If you're a Mac user and can honestly say that everything you use on it was created by Apple and came out of the box with it, then the iPhone might be a good match for you. If you're a Mac user who actually wants to have some choice in his applications, then perhaps you should rethink your desire for the iPhone.
I'll admit, I like the iPhone's style... and I like the interface. However, neither of these is worth $500 of my hard-earned cash. Even until recently, a Mac wasn't worth my hard-earned cash even though I had a soft spot for OSX; I only bought into the Mac world with a first gen Macbook Pro because I had a choice; I could install and run Windows either in a VM or on the hard drive directly (I do both, by the way). Choice is way more important to me than v
I'm truly sorry you had a bad experience, but as a contrast let me tell you mine.
I installed XUbuntu on an aged Toshiba Portege 3490CT laptop; PIII-700, 256Mb of RAM (max) and a 20Gb hard drive. Oh, and a D-Link wireless card. Despite everything theoretically working against me with this laptop (like it's not the friendliest laptop to OSS anyway), I put in the CD that I had burned from the Internet. Good. Then I selected some defaults. Then I let it run for a while (slow machine, so it took a while to install). Finally, I returned, rebooted and started using it. No command line, no tinkering, no screwing around. Even I was amazed at the abject simplicity of the Ubuntu desktop, the tools that were already installed and the speed at which the system ran.
I started up Abiword and was able to edit some documents off a USB stick. I stuck in the PCMCIA Wireless Card (DWL-650 FYI) and it just worked. I was able to surf the Internet and use the laptop... I was able to connect to share points on my home server... it was almost a week before I even went hunting for a command prompt, and even then that was only so I could use SSH to get to another server and do some admin work.
The only thing that didn't work out of the box was the hibernate and standby; they were quirky. However, I didn't use them anyway. Most of the time, the laptop was basically a workstation and I typically didn't mind the relatively short lag time to boot the OS if I was transferring it around. Most of the time, though it was up.
Now ask me about my experience installing Vista on an HP NC6320 laptop; a dual-core laptop that's NOT EVEN A YEAR OLD! That was a hell I don't particularly wish to repeat; with driver hell, application hell, compatibility hell and finally an expensive upgrade to 4Gb of RAM so that I could even support the applications I wanted to run under Vista. It works now, but it took me the better part of two weeks, and I do Windows systems for a living!
That wasn't the first time rules were made up on the fly in the show, and it wasn't the last. The regeneration thing was really fabricated at the last minute to explain a change of Doctor. There have also been enough hints dropped in the series, novels (though not all of them could be considered canon) and audio plays that Who is not "just" a time-lord but maybe something else entirely. He might reach regeneration 13 and pronounce "Well, that was unexpected." That would probably then allow a new storyline where Who tries to find out WHY he regenerated a 13th time.
But it doesn't really matter that much; most of the rules that were set in the series have changed over time or been outright ignored. The regeneration thing might be enough of a "biggie" that they'll have to find a reason for it, but I suspect it could be easily pulled off. After all, this is Doctor Who; part science fiction, part dinner theatre and part mystical fantasy. All bets are off.
Oh, and as for the story? Codswollop. I no longer live in England but when I was a teen living in England the only two reasons I read The Sun were (a) for the entertainment value and (b) for the breasts on page 3.
Why is everyone making a big deal that the CG looks crap? BFD! It's about the stories, not the CG. I couldn't care less if it's done with bits of paper on a glass sheet background so long as the stories are written and voiced reasonably well.
No, the CG doesn't look real... you really want it to? I'd prefer something with a little style, a little "not real". Have you watched Polar Express? The characters looked real, and moved realistically alright... but they also looked like propped up corpses because despite all the work of the artists they STILL couldn't quite get it real enough.
There's only so far you can go along the path of making CG realistic. At a certain point you have to start thinking about the look and the flow of the thing instead of whether or not you're rendering 1000 different pores on a human nose. I personally liked the trailer, I think it looked pretty good. The CG doesn't look realistic, and I for one am glad of it. It gives the CG animated series a certain flair.
Did anyone here watch TMNT at the theatres recently? I did with my 6-year-old son and loved it. The story was strong, the characters were well rendered... but realistic it wasn't. It was stylized, but in a way that to me and my son made the characters MORE believable. It's hard to accept an unreal world when there are real people up on the screen. Similarly, it's hard to accept the real world with unreal characters... we use what's called willing suspension of disbelief in order to take some aspects on faith.
Now, whether or not they can actually get some good stories in this is open to be seen. I won't make any quick judgments; sure Lucas has created some tripe like Episode 1... but mostly because it was more about him experimenting with what he could do with CG than writing a good story. Episodes 2 and 3 both improved on this formula but still didn't quite match Empire Strikes Back (though I still think Episode 3 was better (or at least equal) in almost every respect than Return of the Jedi). Since this is going to be all CG, there are no limits and nothing to prove. The only thing he CAN prove with a CG Star Wars is that he can still write. If he can't, the show will fail since there are million and one "also-rans" in this race.
I'll wait and see. The trailer gives is little to go on as far as whether or not the writing is better here than in the prequels. Lucas has written good stuff in his life; look at THX-1138. If he can do it again, this'll be good. If not, then maybe it'll get an audience with the current pre-teen crowd who enjoyed the prequels. However, without strong stories you'll lose them and there'll be no "rewatching" ability.
I'm sorry, but if you believe that worship services encourage people to be nicer to one another, you've obviously not been to a church in many years. One of the primary reasons I stopped attending church is because of the petty, snide and generally foul attitudes of most of the patrons. I tried several different churches and found that generally the people who attended those churches were exactly the kind of people I wanted to be far away from.
Generally I find they tend to believe that they and only they know the true path to salvation, and that any differing opinion that you hold automatically brands you as an heretic.
You know, looking at that device I think that's the way you need to go. Simple, commercially supported (if she has a problem she can call their support line) and relatively inexpensive:) I might buy one or two of these for my family in the UK so we can video-conference as well:D
Funnily enough, I also have a Cingular 8525 (well, actually an HTC TyTN; the device the 8525 was branded from). I use it for everything you said... EXCEPT MP3's. The reason? Well, partly because I need the storage on my card for work data (PDF's, Word files and stuff like that), but mostly because the Windows Mobile player isn't really all that good.
I have an iPod Nano that I use as my MP3 player. Although conceptually I like the idea of having "One Ring to Rule Them All" in my devices, it just doesn't work out that way. The TyTN/8525's interface is tuned to be a multi-purpose PDA/Phone. It's not the best MP3 player. The iPod is designed to do ONE job, and do that job the best that it can. I like that, particularly when I am driving in my car listening to music (love the iPod Dock on my head unit!). The interface is simple, even if you're not looking at it. I have my iPod set to shuffle music, and if I don't want to listen to a particular song at that moment I just hit "Next". Simple. With the TyTN, I have to look at the screen to do the same thing. Touch screens suck on MP3 players (which is one of the reasons I think the idea that the iPhone will replace the iPod is a fundamentally flawed idea).
There's also the fact that I have my phone attached to my hip constantly. My iPod? Well, if I have it hooked up in my car I can leave it in my car. Since it's, what, $100 on eBay to replace it I won't freak out if someone steals it out of my car (has happened before)... but I'd be a lot more stressed about losing a $500 phone. Yes, I realize that I should take my phone out of the car, but what if you forget? I've done that before; worked for hours at a location before realizing my phone was in the car. This is back when I did the same thing as you (phone as MP3 player) with my old MPx220. Thankfully, it never went missing, either... but it would've sucked if it had.
Different missions, maybe... but the iPod's mission is simple; play music and play it well. Although my Nano is cramped these days due to size constraints, I'm still not likely to buy an 8Gb MicroSD card and stick it in my TyTN to become an MP3 player too. In fact, more than likely I'll end up buying another iPod sooner or later... and again it'll do its single mission for me.
In Japan, the fact is the solutions are already available, and ubiquitous: Cellphones. Most of the mid range and higher cell phones in Japan already have front-mounted cameras for video-conferencing and can integrate pretty well with software-based video conference systems (though you may want to do a lot of research).
Now, obviously the resolution isn't great and you're at the mercy of signal... but I've already used a cellphone in Europe with a front-mounted camera to keep in touch with my family back in the US and it worked like a champ. It was connecting to my home MythTV system so the kids could see me on the screen. It wasn't perfect, but it was a far better communications medium for me since I was always on-the-go and didn't feel like carrying around a device all the time other than a cellphone.
Now, if you wanted something more permanent there are other net-connected solutions out there. However, few of them would give the kind of freedom a cellphone does.
I don't know about anyone else here... well, I probably do... but I loved Tron when I was a kid. Hell, I was 9 when it came out in the US (I lived in the UK, so it was a year or so later that I saw it). I remember being blown away by the visuals, and really getting a kick out of the movie. I also remember going home and loading up a game on my ZX Spectrum and all of a sudden the concepts of programs "living" inside the computer as active entities really clicked with me. The religious overtones of the "user" (actually the programmer) as a "god figure" became extremely alluring to my probably sugar-addled 10 year old brain.
Jump forward a few years, and as I got deeper into a computers and started REALLY creating programs on my Atari ST and Amiga I would be sitting there coding in 68K assembly and still I visualized each of these programs as "people" living inside my computer. It helped me visualize coding flow, interaction, even helped me visualize the "handing off" of data from one program to another in order to get a job done. Hell, the movie even helped me to visualize multi-tasking.
I've never forgotten Tron, and to this day even though I work as a Systems Engineer and not a programmer, every time I write something in PHP, ASP or some other language depending on requirements I still seem them in my minds eye as "people" in neon blue.
I also have to say that particularly as the world became networked the vision of Tron fits quite well with the world of computers that came much later. In a way, Tron was somewhat prophetic as at the time most computers were really single-tasking monsters. Tron to me really depicted a networked, multi-tasking advanced system that really wasn't commercially available for many years after that.
Seriously, I would say demand for *good* network administrators is only going to increase because of server consolidation. Why?
OK, let me put it this way: How do you think server consolidation is done? It's not done by putting multiple applications on a server unless you're a serious masochist. The best practices with MS systems (and in fact I do this with UNIX systems as well) is to put one application per server OS. Note that I made that point; per OS. The simple fact is that in modern business there's HARDWARE consolidation going on thanks to virtualization. However, typically there is little consolidation of applications to a single host OS because of the fear of a single rogue app taking down multiple environments.
Ironically, due to the I/O constraints and slight performance hit of virtualization (not to mention the perceived "cheapness" of a non-hardware machine), this virtualization typically leads to server propogation. That is, where an application may once have used 4 servers, it may now use 5 (I see a 25% propogation for virtualized app environments where I work). This means that a good Windows admin will be in higher demand because there are more server INSTANCES than there would be if the "consolidation" had not taken place.
This is also completely ignoring where the perceived "cheapness" of the virtual machines leads to redundant application build-outs where none existed before. An application that was on one server sometimes gets two in a virtual environment because the amount of work of putting up a new instance is so small. The performance often has nothing to do with it because the application so under-utilized the hardware it was on originally that there's sometimes an increase in performance going to the virtualized environment.
This is good for the industry in my opinion. We also run virtual Linux boxes hosted on our Virtual Infrastructure clusters (VMWare). Sure, Linux' stability means we could run more than one app per instance... but why? Why not isolate the apps when you can throw up a virtual Linux box in about 10 minutes that has a kernel, basic user-mode tools and no GUI? Then load up your app and you've got a Linux box that can boot in 10 seconds flat and be rebooted without the users noticing an outage. Add in some redundancy on a second box and voila; you've just improved your end user's experience, made your application enterprise-ready, but also added to the server propogation I mentioned earlier. This is almost inevitable.
I see no reason this is going to change any time soon. The FA listed the canceling of Network Admin programs at schools as being the reason they see this going away. I call poppycock on that, too. The reason these classes are dying is because they were set up in the late 90's when "Network Admin" was a high-demand, high-pay career choice and suddenly everyone wanted to be in on the "wave of the future". Well, reality hit, the bubble burst and we ended up with a job market flooded by people calling themselves "Network Admins" who could barely tell you how binary related to a subnet mask (that's important to understand, by the way!) Now few people want to school in Network Administration, so these programs are getting canceled because of lack of demand. Now, it's been a few years since the dot-com crash... so most of the paper MCSEs and CNEs have weeded themselves out of the market. Those few who remain are gunning for management... and power to 'em.
Me? I'm a Systems Engineer, which is sort of a Network Admin on steroids but with no admin rights on the production networks. However, I have been a network admin and still do some work with many good (and some bad) ones. Demand for them is going to increase, not decrease. However, the days of massive salaries for those network admins has definitely come and gone... but good ones can earn a decent wage, and work in a job that can be incredibly rewarding... but only if one understands what the rewards MEAN. You'll only stick with the job if you're good enough to understand that you've made a difference... and how. Systems Engineering is the same.
Actually, I read dvorak.org occasionally because it's often amusing. Bear in mind, I'm an Apple user so sometimes I find his anti-Apple tirades somewhat tiring... but he's quite often anti-Windows as well. Sometimes his posts can be insightful... though granted they tend to be the exception rather than the rule.
I used to hate Dvorak as well, but I gained somewhat of a respect for him when I started listening to TWiT often enough to hear him go off on all aspects of technology.
Bad news, mate... it's true. I've tested my Macbook Pro display using a nice little tool called LCDTest (google it). If you do the gradient test, there's a distinct "banding" effect caused by the dithering, and for all the colors there's a large section of the gradient that doesn't display (i.e. it shows one single shade). This is most apparent on red for me, but that will depend no your own visual acuity in specific color bands.
I'd jump in on this suit, too... but for right now I'll monitor and email my support to those filing the lawsuit. Thankfully if I have to do color-sensitive stuff I have a high-end 8-bit LCD that I can hook up to my MBP, but it would be nice to be able to do some of that work on the road. At the moment I have to wait to do the color-sensitive stuff until I get home. I'm just an amateur photographer and videographer... if I were doing it professionally then I'd be cheesed off at having bought my MBP... but I have to say that as a general purpose computer this MBP is still the best laptop I've ever owned.
Now, for those who are saying it's not a big deal because everyone else in the industry does it; well that's just dandy. However, not everyone else in the industry deliberately targets the photography, layout and videography markets like Apple does. Their product is specifically (and aggressively) marketed to exactly those markets who would be most sensitive to the lack of color on their laptop displays. However, having said that the professionals I know in the market (I work with them a lot) all tend to use external CRTs attached to Mac Pros because their color gamut is so much better than any LCD, even 8-bit. They also tend to pitch those monitors after 6 months because they do degrade over time. The oldest monitor I've seen in any of these places is about 2 years old. You'll also find that most of the time these people work in deliberately darkened offices where they can focus on the colors on the screen, the environment also plays a big part in doing this work. As a result, laptops are not common with the high-end professionals unless they're a second computer for "office tasks".
It sounds like these people are really "needy", but that's not necessarily true. They really do need the high end stuff to do their jobs effectively. In IT and in offices we often say that the needs of the users have been significantly surpassed by the capabilities of their computers years ago. The only place where there's an exception is in precisely this market; the technology still hasn't caught up with the needs of these people.
I love Apple stuff... my current laptop is a Mac... my wife's next laptop will be a Mac... and my kids will probably get an iMac for Christmas. However, given their target market I think using 6-bit displays is short sighted and I do agree this is false advertising. Dithering does not equal true color... if you advertise that you can display millions of colors then every pixel on your screen should be able to display millions of colors. Not 262,144 colors and give the impression of millions of colors using software techniques. Yes, the rest of the industry uses 6-bit displays... but Apple is in a unique and fragile position as regards its target market. This could be VERY bad for Apple unless they do something about it.
Sounds to me like it's time for a change. The Chinese have already demonstrated that when something from Western corporations runs amok they are quite willing to force a change on their people. I'm not saying it's right, it's just so.
Now, this problem has actually highlighted a bigger problem; that Windows is Western software controlled by Western interests. Even the ancillary software you need to run Windows effectively (read: anti-virus) is from third parties in the West who obviously wouldn't necessarily have the desires of the Chinese government in mind. Now, at best I can see the Chinese government is going to realize that their reliance on Western anti-virus solutions may be a flawed dependency and they will write their own Chinese-specific AV solution. At worst... this might just highlight to the Chinese government how vulnerable they are to a "cyber attack", either malicious or accidental that could potentially cripple them.
Microsoft might want to start "spinning", and quick. Chinese people are well aware there are better solutions out there than Windows for an operating system. It's only a matter of time before someone in power starts talking about "Red Flag Linux" and how it's openness can help prevent problems exactly like this... then it's all over for Microsoft in that market.
Yes, I realize the pirated Windows market is huge in China as well... but it's still a massive market for Microsoft to lose because of the accidental actions of one of their "trusted third parties".
Um, what about Redhat and Novel (SuSE)? Redhat have restructured how they sell RHEL 5 based exclusively on how many Xen VMs you're allowed run. Their standard RHEL 5 Server allows you to run up to 4 guest VMs, where as RHEL 5 Advanced Platform allows an unlimited number of guest VMs and also includes the RHEL Cluster suite. If the guest VMs are RHEL then it's all included in the one cost, and of cause it's fully supported. There's no excuse for turning your back on Xen based on support. And who does one turn to when a bug is found in the code? One that is critical for your functionality?
Don't underestimate this as a driving factor for corporations. We had this exact problem with the first release of VI3, and it was a show-stopper bug. We called EMC, and had a significant patch sent out to us within 48 hours which was subsequently rolled up into the next release. The problem corporations see with Xen and OpenVZ is that there are no programmers at the companies you mentioned actually coding this. If a bug comes up, the impression most corporations have is that you have to post to some bulletin board and wait until some "unemployed hippie coder" has time to see if he can create a patch.
Don't slam me for that, that's not my impression. I know a lot of Open Source coders, and I know they're as or more professional than many of their corporate cousins... but that's the impression that's still prevalent in the board room. Novell has made some great strides in making open source more "acceptable" to the corporation, but many corporations I have worked with are somewhat afraid of Novell's financial position (stock, not cash in the bank) and thus feel that Novell is somewhat "untrustworthy". As for Red Hat... well, since they began as a Linux company they're viewed as a Linux company. The feeling in the boardroom is that Red Hat is riding on the coat tails of those same "hippie coders" and doesn't really have any stake in the success of Xen (I know that's false!).
I personally haven't turned my back on Xen; I use it on my home Linux server. However, from a Corporate perspective VMWare is king, and their support is simple and easy to understand. Many corporate heads have never heard of Xen or OpenVZ and thus will not listen. Their opinion is usually Virtualization = VMWare, mostly because VMWare was there first with a good product. Even Microsoft have had incredible difficulty getting their virtualization solution accepted in corporations because their solution is considered an "also-ran" and therefore less mature. The only way Microsoft has managed to get as much traction as they have with Virtual Server is because they strongarm the corporations by saying "If you put a domain controller / exchange server etc. on a VMWare guest then we will not support you... but we will if you put it on Virtual Server." I've had that exact conversation with Microsoft.
You missed the biggest point for a corporation; Support. No corporation looking at virtualization (and let's get real; almost all of them are) is going to use Xen OR OpenVZ at this point because there's no single point of contact for support, and no support contracts.
Quite simply, a corporation is going to buy VMWare Virtual Infrastructure. So the performance isn't as good? So what? Throw hardware at it. It works.
We have a significant investment in VMWare VI3 where I work, and it's great. We run it on high-end highly scalable enterprise hardware (IBM) and it almost never dies. We lose guests occasionally because of Windows problems, but so far we have never lost a host machine, and they never go down except when we need to maintain or upgrade them.
Last week we had a CPU die in one of our highly redundant, highly scalable boxes. Apart from the alert thrown up in MOM we practically didn't even notice the glitch. VI3 kept plugging along until we could roll the guests off to another host on the SAN and we took the box out after lunch, replaced the CPU and it was back in production within an hour. The business units who use the guests never even noticed the outage.
Note though that to a corporation, the license cost is trivial for the security that if we had a host failure (software, not hardware) then there's one number to call; EMC/VMWare. Trawling the Usenet and Google Searches don't cut it from a Corporate perspective. And let's face it, Corporations are the primary target market for virtualization, not the consumer (at least today).
As an aside, consumer level virtualization will happen soon, but it will be transparent to the user. It's probably going to be more akin to OpenVZ's "uber sandboxes" than VMWare but it will definitely happen in my opinion.
Doesn't matter... even Technology can't fix stupid.
I like GPS... but I use it AS A GUIDE. It's not infallible, it's not all-knowing and it has no idea what's going on around or in your car. The only thing it knows is physically where you are. So long as you realize that (and most sensible and intelligent people do realize that) then you'll be just fine using GPS.
Here's a clue for those that don't get it; if you spend all your time when driving staring at the LCD in/on your dash then you're going to hit something. Lift your head, look outside a little... it's really quite startling to realize the world is OUT THERE.
Honestly, this article is really a bit of a shill. It's probably an article that was commissioned by Yahoo or Microsoft to try to "get the word out" that "Google is Not the Best". Well, to be fair to both of those search providers they're not bad, either... but neither of them really "gets" why Google IS the best search engine.
At the moment, Google has a database size that's "just right". Too much larger and results become muddled and inaccurate... too much smaller and you may never find what you're looking for. Yes, they wield a lot of power in this area because a de-listing or a reduction in your search placement will have an effect on your business. Deal with it... if your business is being reduced in priority it's because either (a) people aren't going to your site anyway or (b) you're doing something with your site to game the algorithms and Google's just changed them. That's life, that's business. If you want primo placement, you advertise with Google... that means you pay them. Everyone wins.
Now, another thing Google does right is they keep it simple. Their home page is fast, quick to load up and simple. When I'm using my cellular modem (UMTS) to connect and search, I don't want a graphics-heavy front page or graphics-heavy results pages. I want text, I want stuff I can cram down a thin pipe with some alacrity without waiting for the banner graphics to load up (I'm looking at you, Yahoo!) and I don't want my searches interspersed with flash animations that have nothing to do with the search I've submitted (Live!). Google does a lot of stuff right because they GIVE THE CUSTOMERS WHAT THEY NEED. Not what the company behind it wants to give them.
I'm not saying Google is perfect; it's not. Its search algorithms though are extremely good, and a quick search returns a good number of relevant searches. There are easy and well documented ways to get more targeted results (putting phrases in quotes for example) and generally only a few minutes of searching will turn up anything you want on all kinds of esoteric subjects. And if you can't find it under "Web", you can probably find it under "Groups" (Usenet). The only thing that sometimes skews those results are the Usenet aggregation sites, but they're usually easy to spot because you've received multiple hits that all contain exactly the same preview text. And who knows? They might be relevant.
In my job as an IT guy, I use Google daily. Multiple times daily, in fact. When I upgraded my work laptop to Vista lately I started giving Live a shot simply because it was the default. Sorry, Microsoft... it took me longer to sift through the results and fewer of them were relevant in my opinion. I switched my default search back to Google and the world has become a better place. Well, not really... but I at least get the consistency of results I've come to expect.
If someone creates a better search engine that fits my needs, let me know. I've tried them all. Back "in the day" when Yahoo! became popular, I was using Alta Vista because its results were more relevant. They lost their way... it's possible Google will... but for the foreseeable future I'm going to continue to use them.
And as for those who scream about the data gathering, the privacy stuff and so forth I say fine. If they're using that information to better tune the search results to my needs, then like an artificial intelligence Google is becoming even more useful to me. I really don't care if they accumulate stats on me... it's not like there aren't people out there doing it anyway, even without Google. We live in a world of advertisers, of corporations and data mining. We live in a society that has in a sense sold a bit of its soul to "the man" in order that we may lead comfortable lives for what we consider to be a reasonable cost. If you don't like it, opt out... but realize that opting in is what allows you to function in this society, allows you to buy things, do things and raise a family. I may not like it, but I live with it. I know I should try to change it... but at this point in my life raising my kids in the Midwest, why should I? It meets my needs today. Tomorrow? Who knows.
I have done a lot of work with the hearing impaired, and companies that deal with the hearing impaired so I can speak somewhat intelligently on this.
The Blackberry is really the device of choice these days with the hearing impaired and deaf. They're relatively cheap (especially if you buy an older model), they actually are quite solid and can take a beating and parts (like batteries) are cheap and easy to buy.
Also, if you're registered as disabled and/or hearing impaired you may actually be able to get financial assistance from the government (I'm presuming US, here) under the heading of tools to aid in your disability. Hell, the military might pay for it though you'll still have to worry about service providers yourself.
LOL... have you actually tried to have an intelligent coversation with many "old money" men who've "run their own companies"? Most of them only know how to do one thing; delegate.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Spoken like someone who's never tried to surf the web on AT&T/Cingular's EDGE connections. "Flakey" would be an improvement.
Just a quick side-note for you; I found that Cyberduck was good but had some freaky memory leaks that meant when I downloaded a 1Gb or greater file (I do a lot of media work) my hard drive would be thrashing hard... and this with 2Gb of RAM. Killing Cyberduck dropped me back to normal. I've reported bugs repeatedly, but in several version iterations they never did seem to fix the problem.
:)
I switched to Fetch, which while not quite as "friendly" as Cyberduck in some ways, is much more functional. I also think the SFTP performance is better (which is primarily what I use it for) and resume seems to work lovely even with Windows boxes running OpenSSH.
Fetch costs money... but it's worth it! Try it out. Other than, I agree with everything you just said. However, I'm now on day two of running Safari 3 Beta, and it's much better than 2 for basic browsing. Firefox is in serious danger of being uninstalled (or at least retired from my dock)
Depends on your requirements, really.
I have a PocketPC phone; an HTC TyTN. I love the fact that I can install... let me see here...
OK... I have a third party set of networking tools... namely WiFiFoFum (wireless scanner) and VXUtil (includes stuff like IP subnet calculator and so on). Oh, and not to mention a copy of Putty when I need to SSH to a box. Damn that keyboard is nice when I have an urgent need for SSH. Finally, I have a Remote Desktop Client and VNC installed so I can remote control just about anything (within reason).
I have pRSSReader, which I use to read my RSS feed when I'm sitting at a coffee shop so I don't have to whip out my laptop (thoug I still do sometimes). It's handy sometimes, and better than a newspaper 'cos it's more targeted to my needs.
Oh, and yes... my cellphone came with a location app; Telenav. I tried it out, and immediately went out, invested in a 2Gb MicroSD card and installed TomTom (coupled with a Bluetooth GPS device). If I choose to, I can change that for different software.
You see my point? None of these are "Killer Apps", but every one of them increases my productivity in a SINGLE DEVICE. If I desire, I can have (and do have) another 2Gb MicroSD card with a selection of MP3's on it that I can play back at will. And no, I don't use Windows Media Player... there are better solutions out there. My TyTN has actually reduced my reliance on lugging my laptop around with me, because if I happen to be out and about and a customer calls me with a problem, I can sometimes even resolve the problem from the touchscreen of my phone without ever having to run back to the car to grab my laptop. Obviously, wifi is best for this kind of stuff... but HSDPA works like a champ in most of the areas I frequent (St. Louis, MO... Chicago, IL etc.). In a crunch, I have used Edge... but it's rather sad and pathetic... and not because of the browser! Oh yeah... that's Third Party as well: Opera.
It's about CHOICE. Quite frankly, I may be somewhat of the exception rather than the rule... but my cellphone is a business tool for me. As such, I have tools installed on it that facilitate my job as a consultant and "technical guru". Each of these is a third party application that provides functionality that Microsoft does not. Their tools are OK... there are better tools out there.
By the way, I also happen to be a Mac user. You might think that I would be all over the iPhone, being technical and a Mac guy... but I'm not. Quite simply, even on my Mac my applications are third party: My web browser of choice is Firefox (though today I happen to be testing Safari 3 and will be going back to Firefox soon...). My mail app of choice is not mail.app but rather Entourage. I don't use iCal, or Address Book... and I use Microsoft Word instead of Pages. Despite having some decent apps out of the gate, Apple does not produce the be all and end all of applications on my Mac. I even have Fink and X11 installed so I can download and compile a bunch of Linux and BSD apps any time I feel the need for them. The only software I use that came "out of the box" on my Mac is iTunes... and even that's just for managing playlists that are synced to my TyTN through "The Missing Sync". Oh look... more third party.
If you're a Mac user and can honestly say that everything you use on it was created by Apple and came out of the box with it, then the iPhone might be a good match for you. If you're a Mac user who actually wants to have some choice in his applications, then perhaps you should rethink your desire for the iPhone.
I'll admit, I like the iPhone's style... and I like the interface. However, neither of these is worth $500 of my hard-earned cash. Even until recently, a Mac wasn't worth my hard-earned cash even though I had a soft spot for OSX; I only bought into the Mac world with a first gen Macbook Pro because I had a choice; I could install and run Windows either in a VM or on the hard drive directly (I do both, by the way). Choice is way more important to me than v
I'm truly sorry you had a bad experience, but as a contrast let me tell you mine.
I installed XUbuntu on an aged Toshiba Portege 3490CT laptop; PIII-700, 256Mb of RAM (max) and a 20Gb hard drive. Oh, and a D-Link wireless card. Despite everything theoretically working against me with this laptop (like it's not the friendliest laptop to OSS anyway), I put in the CD that I had burned from the Internet. Good. Then I selected some defaults. Then I let it run for a while (slow machine, so it took a while to install). Finally, I returned, rebooted and started using it. No command line, no tinkering, no screwing around. Even I was amazed at the abject simplicity of the Ubuntu desktop, the tools that were already installed and the speed at which the system ran.
I started up Abiword and was able to edit some documents off a USB stick. I stuck in the PCMCIA Wireless Card (DWL-650 FYI) and it just worked. I was able to surf the Internet and use the laptop... I was able to connect to share points on my home server... it was almost a week before I even went hunting for a command prompt, and even then that was only so I could use SSH to get to another server and do some admin work.
The only thing that didn't work out of the box was the hibernate and standby; they were quirky. However, I didn't use them anyway. Most of the time, the laptop was basically a workstation and I typically didn't mind the relatively short lag time to boot the OS if I was transferring it around. Most of the time, though it was up.
Now ask me about my experience installing Vista on an HP NC6320 laptop; a dual-core laptop that's NOT EVEN A YEAR OLD! That was a hell I don't particularly wish to repeat; with driver hell, application hell, compatibility hell and finally an expensive upgrade to 4Gb of RAM so that I could even support the applications I wanted to run under Vista. It works now, but it took me the better part of two weeks, and I do Windows systems for a living!
If my balls turned to crystal, I'd be pretty surprised, too.
That wasn't the first time rules were made up on the fly in the show, and it wasn't the last. The regeneration thing was really fabricated at the last minute to explain a change of Doctor. There have also been enough hints dropped in the series, novels (though not all of them could be considered canon) and audio plays that Who is not "just" a time-lord but maybe something else entirely. He might reach regeneration 13 and pronounce "Well, that was unexpected." That would probably then allow a new storyline where Who tries to find out WHY he regenerated a 13th time.
But it doesn't really matter that much; most of the rules that were set in the series have changed over time or been outright ignored. The regeneration thing might be enough of a "biggie" that they'll have to find a reason for it, but I suspect it could be easily pulled off. After all, this is Doctor Who; part science fiction, part dinner theatre and part mystical fantasy. All bets are off.
Oh, and as for the story? Codswollop. I no longer live in England but when I was a teen living in England the only two reasons I read The Sun were (a) for the entertainment value and (b) for the breasts on page 3.
Why is everyone making a big deal that the CG looks crap? BFD! It's about the stories, not the CG. I couldn't care less if it's done with bits of paper on a glass sheet background so long as the stories are written and voiced reasonably well.
No, the CG doesn't look real... you really want it to? I'd prefer something with a little style, a little "not real". Have you watched Polar Express? The characters looked real, and moved realistically alright... but they also looked like propped up corpses because despite all the work of the artists they STILL couldn't quite get it real enough.
There's only so far you can go along the path of making CG realistic. At a certain point you have to start thinking about the look and the flow of the thing instead of whether or not you're rendering 1000 different pores on a human nose. I personally liked the trailer, I think it looked pretty good. The CG doesn't look realistic, and I for one am glad of it. It gives the CG animated series a certain flair.
Did anyone here watch TMNT at the theatres recently? I did with my 6-year-old son and loved it. The story was strong, the characters were well rendered... but realistic it wasn't. It was stylized, but in a way that to me and my son made the characters MORE believable. It's hard to accept an unreal world when there are real people up on the screen. Similarly, it's hard to accept the real world with unreal characters... we use what's called willing suspension of disbelief in order to take some aspects on faith.
Now, whether or not they can actually get some good stories in this is open to be seen. I won't make any quick judgments; sure Lucas has created some tripe like Episode 1... but mostly because it was more about him experimenting with what he could do with CG than writing a good story. Episodes 2 and 3 both improved on this formula but still didn't quite match Empire Strikes Back (though I still think Episode 3 was better (or at least equal) in almost every respect than Return of the Jedi). Since this is going to be all CG, there are no limits and nothing to prove. The only thing he CAN prove with a CG Star Wars is that he can still write. If he can't, the show will fail since there are million and one "also-rans" in this race.
I'll wait and see. The trailer gives is little to go on as far as whether or not the writing is better here than in the prequels. Lucas has written good stuff in his life; look at THX-1138. If he can do it again, this'll be good. If not, then maybe it'll get an audience with the current pre-teen crowd who enjoyed the prequels. However, without strong stories you'll lose them and there'll be no "rewatching" ability.
I'm sorry, but if you believe that worship services encourage people to be nicer to one another, you've obviously not been to a church in many years. One of the primary reasons I stopped attending church is because of the petty, snide and generally foul attitudes of most of the patrons. I tried several different churches and found that generally the people who attended those churches were exactly the kind of people I wanted to be far away from.
Generally I find they tend to believe that they and only they know the true path to salvation, and that any differing opinion that you hold automatically brands you as an heretic.
A lot of us use a piece of software with a fat penguin as a mascot... :D
You know, looking at that device I think that's the way you need to go. Simple, commercially supported (if she has a problem she can call their support line) and relatively inexpensive :) I might buy one or two of these for my family in the UK so we can video-conference as well :D
Thanks for the heads up!
Funnily enough, I also have a Cingular 8525 (well, actually an HTC TyTN; the device the 8525 was branded from). I use it for everything you said... EXCEPT MP3's. The reason? Well, partly because I need the storage on my card for work data (PDF's, Word files and stuff like that), but mostly because the Windows Mobile player isn't really all that good.
I have an iPod Nano that I use as my MP3 player. Although conceptually I like the idea of having "One Ring to Rule Them All" in my devices, it just doesn't work out that way. The TyTN/8525's interface is tuned to be a multi-purpose PDA/Phone. It's not the best MP3 player. The iPod is designed to do ONE job, and do that job the best that it can. I like that, particularly when I am driving in my car listening to music (love the iPod Dock on my head unit!). The interface is simple, even if you're not looking at it. I have my iPod set to shuffle music, and if I don't want to listen to a particular song at that moment I just hit "Next". Simple. With the TyTN, I have to look at the screen to do the same thing. Touch screens suck on MP3 players (which is one of the reasons I think the idea that the iPhone will replace the iPod is a fundamentally flawed idea).
There's also the fact that I have my phone attached to my hip constantly. My iPod? Well, if I have it hooked up in my car I can leave it in my car. Since it's, what, $100 on eBay to replace it I won't freak out if someone steals it out of my car (has happened before)... but I'd be a lot more stressed about losing a $500 phone. Yes, I realize that I should take my phone out of the car, but what if you forget? I've done that before; worked for hours at a location before realizing my phone was in the car. This is back when I did the same thing as you (phone as MP3 player) with my old MPx220. Thankfully, it never went missing, either... but it would've sucked if it had.
Different missions, maybe... but the iPod's mission is simple; play music and play it well. Although my Nano is cramped these days due to size constraints, I'm still not likely to buy an 8Gb MicroSD card and stick it in my TyTN to become an MP3 player too. In fact, more than likely I'll end up buying another iPod sooner or later... and again it'll do its single mission for me.
You know, I'm just going to laugh my ass off when someone cuts a hole in the front of that amnesty box and starts taking "the spoils" out :D
In Japan, the fact is the solutions are already available, and ubiquitous: Cellphones. Most of the mid range and higher cell phones in Japan already have front-mounted cameras for video-conferencing and can integrate pretty well with software-based video conference systems (though you may want to do a lot of research).
Now, obviously the resolution isn't great and you're at the mercy of signal... but I've already used a cellphone in Europe with a front-mounted camera to keep in touch with my family back in the US and it worked like a champ. It was connecting to my home MythTV system so the kids could see me on the screen. It wasn't perfect, but it was a far better communications medium for me since I was always on-the-go and didn't feel like carrying around a device all the time other than a cellphone.
Now, if you wanted something more permanent there are other net-connected solutions out there. However, few of them would give the kind of freedom a cellphone does.
I don't know about anyone else here... well, I probably do... but I loved Tron when I was a kid. Hell, I was 9 when it came out in the US (I lived in the UK, so it was a year or so later that I saw it). I remember being blown away by the visuals, and really getting a kick out of the movie. I also remember going home and loading up a game on my ZX Spectrum and all of a sudden the concepts of programs "living" inside the computer as active entities really clicked with me. The religious overtones of the "user" (actually the programmer) as a "god figure" became extremely alluring to my probably sugar-addled 10 year old brain.
:D
Jump forward a few years, and as I got deeper into a computers and started REALLY creating programs on my Atari ST and Amiga I would be sitting there coding in 68K assembly and still I visualized each of these programs as "people" living inside my computer. It helped me visualize coding flow, interaction, even helped me visualize the "handing off" of data from one program to another in order to get a job done. Hell, the movie even helped me to visualize multi-tasking.
I've never forgotten Tron, and to this day even though I work as a Systems Engineer and not a programmer, every time I write something in PHP, ASP or some other language depending on requirements I still seem them in my minds eye as "people" in neon blue.
I also have to say that particularly as the world became networked the vision of Tron fits quite well with the world of computers that came much later. In a way, Tron was somewhat prophetic as at the time most computers were really single-tasking monsters. Tron to me really depicted a networked, multi-tasking advanced system that really wasn't commercially available for many years after that.
25 years. Now I feel old
I was about to post the same rant :)
Seriously, I would say demand for *good* network administrators is only going to increase because of server consolidation. Why?
OK, let me put it this way: How do you think server consolidation is done? It's not done by putting multiple applications on a server unless you're a serious masochist. The best practices with MS systems (and in fact I do this with UNIX systems as well) is to put one application per server OS. Note that I made that point; per OS. The simple fact is that in modern business there's HARDWARE consolidation going on thanks to virtualization. However, typically there is little consolidation of applications to a single host OS because of the fear of a single rogue app taking down multiple environments.
Ironically, due to the I/O constraints and slight performance hit of virtualization (not to mention the perceived "cheapness" of a non-hardware machine), this virtualization typically leads to server propogation. That is, where an application may once have used 4 servers, it may now use 5 (I see a 25% propogation for virtualized app environments where I work). This means that a good Windows admin will be in higher demand because there are more server INSTANCES than there would be if the "consolidation" had not taken place.
This is also completely ignoring where the perceived "cheapness" of the virtual machines leads to redundant application build-outs where none existed before. An application that was on one server sometimes gets two in a virtual environment because the amount of work of putting up a new instance is so small. The performance often has nothing to do with it because the application so under-utilized the hardware it was on originally that there's sometimes an increase in performance going to the virtualized environment.
This is good for the industry in my opinion. We also run virtual Linux boxes hosted on our Virtual Infrastructure clusters (VMWare). Sure, Linux' stability means we could run more than one app per instance... but why? Why not isolate the apps when you can throw up a virtual Linux box in about 10 minutes that has a kernel, basic user-mode tools and no GUI? Then load up your app and you've got a Linux box that can boot in 10 seconds flat and be rebooted without the users noticing an outage. Add in some redundancy on a second box and voila; you've just improved your end user's experience, made your application enterprise-ready, but also added to the server propogation I mentioned earlier. This is almost inevitable.
I see no reason this is going to change any time soon. The FA listed the canceling of Network Admin programs at schools as being the reason they see this going away. I call poppycock on that, too. The reason these classes are dying is because they were set up in the late 90's when "Network Admin" was a high-demand, high-pay career choice and suddenly everyone wanted to be in on the "wave of the future". Well, reality hit, the bubble burst and we ended up with a job market flooded by people calling themselves "Network Admins" who could barely tell you how binary related to a subnet mask (that's important to understand, by the way!) Now few people want to school in Network Administration, so these programs are getting canceled because of lack of demand. Now, it's been a few years since the dot-com crash... so most of the paper MCSEs and CNEs have weeded themselves out of the market. Those few who remain are gunning for management... and power to 'em.
Me? I'm a Systems Engineer, which is sort of a Network Admin on steroids but with no admin rights on the production networks. However, I have been a network admin and still do some work with many good (and some bad) ones. Demand for them is going to increase, not decrease. However, the days of massive salaries for those network admins has definitely come and gone... but good ones can earn a decent wage, and work in a job that can be incredibly rewarding... but only if one understands what the rewards MEAN. You'll only stick with the job if you're good enough to understand that you've made a difference... and how. Systems Engineering is the same.
Actually, I read dvorak.org occasionally because it's often amusing. Bear in mind, I'm an Apple user so sometimes I find his anti-Apple tirades somewhat tiring... but he's quite often anti-Windows as well. Sometimes his posts can be insightful... though granted they tend to be the exception rather than the rule.
I used to hate Dvorak as well, but I gained somewhat of a respect for him when I started listening to TWiT often enough to hear him go off on all aspects of technology.
If the restaurant is full of costumers, then you've just walked into a furry convention.
Bad news, mate... it's true. I've tested my Macbook Pro display using a nice little tool called LCDTest (google it). If you do the gradient test, there's a distinct "banding" effect caused by the dithering, and for all the colors there's a large section of the gradient that doesn't display (i.e. it shows one single shade). This is most apparent on red for me, but that will depend no your own visual acuity in specific color bands.
I'd jump in on this suit, too... but for right now I'll monitor and email my support to those filing the lawsuit. Thankfully if I have to do color-sensitive stuff I have a high-end 8-bit LCD that I can hook up to my MBP, but it would be nice to be able to do some of that work on the road. At the moment I have to wait to do the color-sensitive stuff until I get home. I'm just an amateur photographer and videographer... if I were doing it professionally then I'd be cheesed off at having bought my MBP... but I have to say that as a general purpose computer this MBP is still the best laptop I've ever owned.
Now, for those who are saying it's not a big deal because everyone else in the industry does it; well that's just dandy. However, not everyone else in the industry deliberately targets the photography, layout and videography markets like Apple does. Their product is specifically (and aggressively) marketed to exactly those markets who would be most sensitive to the lack of color on their laptop displays. However, having said that the professionals I know in the market (I work with them a lot) all tend to use external CRTs attached to Mac Pros because their color gamut is so much better than any LCD, even 8-bit. They also tend to pitch those monitors after 6 months because they do degrade over time. The oldest monitor I've seen in any of these places is about 2 years old. You'll also find that most of the time these people work in deliberately darkened offices where they can focus on the colors on the screen, the environment also plays a big part in doing this work. As a result, laptops are not common with the high-end professionals unless they're a second computer for "office tasks".
It sounds like these people are really "needy", but that's not necessarily true. They really do need the high end stuff to do their jobs effectively. In IT and in offices we often say that the needs of the users have been significantly surpassed by the capabilities of their computers years ago. The only place where there's an exception is in precisely this market; the technology still hasn't caught up with the needs of these people.
I love Apple stuff... my current laptop is a Mac... my wife's next laptop will be a Mac... and my kids will probably get an iMac for Christmas. However, given their target market I think using 6-bit displays is short sighted and I do agree this is false advertising. Dithering does not equal true color... if you advertise that you can display millions of colors then every pixel on your screen should be able to display millions of colors. Not 262,144 colors and give the impression of millions of colors using software techniques. Yes, the rest of the industry uses 6-bit displays... but Apple is in a unique and fragile position as regards its target market. This could be VERY bad for Apple unless they do something about it.
Sounds to me like it's time for a change. The Chinese have already demonstrated that when something from Western corporations runs amok they are quite willing to force a change on their people. I'm not saying it's right, it's just so.
Now, this problem has actually highlighted a bigger problem; that Windows is Western software controlled by Western interests. Even the ancillary software you need to run Windows effectively (read: anti-virus) is from third parties in the West who obviously wouldn't necessarily have the desires of the Chinese government in mind. Now, at best I can see the Chinese government is going to realize that their reliance on Western anti-virus solutions may be a flawed dependency and they will write their own Chinese-specific AV solution. At worst... this might just highlight to the Chinese government how vulnerable they are to a "cyber attack", either malicious or accidental that could potentially cripple them.
Microsoft might want to start "spinning", and quick. Chinese people are well aware there are better solutions out there than Windows for an operating system. It's only a matter of time before someone in power starts talking about "Red Flag Linux" and how it's openness can help prevent problems exactly like this... then it's all over for Microsoft in that market.
Yes, I realize the pirated Windows market is huge in China as well... but it's still a massive market for Microsoft to lose because of the accidental actions of one of their "trusted third parties".
Don't underestimate this as a driving factor for corporations. We had this exact problem with the first release of VI3, and it was a show-stopper bug. We called EMC, and had a significant patch sent out to us within 48 hours which was subsequently rolled up into the next release. The problem corporations see with Xen and OpenVZ is that there are no programmers at the companies you mentioned actually coding this. If a bug comes up, the impression most corporations have is that you have to post to some bulletin board and wait until some "unemployed hippie coder" has time to see if he can create a patch.
Don't slam me for that, that's not my impression. I know a lot of Open Source coders, and I know they're as or more professional than many of their corporate cousins... but that's the impression that's still prevalent in the board room. Novell has made some great strides in making open source more "acceptable" to the corporation, but many corporations I have worked with are somewhat afraid of Novell's financial position (stock, not cash in the bank) and thus feel that Novell is somewhat "untrustworthy". As for Red Hat... well, since they began as a Linux company they're viewed as a Linux company. The feeling in the boardroom is that Red Hat is riding on the coat tails of those same "hippie coders" and doesn't really have any stake in the success of Xen (I know that's false!).
I personally haven't turned my back on Xen; I use it on my home Linux server. However, from a Corporate perspective VMWare is king, and their support is simple and easy to understand. Many corporate heads have never heard of Xen or OpenVZ and thus will not listen. Their opinion is usually Virtualization = VMWare, mostly because VMWare was there first with a good product. Even Microsoft have had incredible difficulty getting their virtualization solution accepted in corporations because their solution is considered an "also-ran" and therefore less mature. The only way Microsoft has managed to get as much traction as they have with Virtual Server is because they strongarm the corporations by saying "If you put a domain controller / exchange server etc. on a VMWare guest then we will not support you... but we will if you put it on Virtual Server." I've had that exact conversation with Microsoft.
You missed the biggest point for a corporation; Support. No corporation looking at virtualization (and let's get real; almost all of them are) is going to use Xen OR OpenVZ at this point because there's no single point of contact for support, and no support contracts.
Quite simply, a corporation is going to buy VMWare Virtual Infrastructure. So the performance isn't as good? So what? Throw hardware at it. It works.
We have a significant investment in VMWare VI3 where I work, and it's great. We run it on high-end highly scalable enterprise hardware (IBM) and it almost never dies. We lose guests occasionally because of Windows problems, but so far we have never lost a host machine, and they never go down except when we need to maintain or upgrade them.
Last week we had a CPU die in one of our highly redundant, highly scalable boxes. Apart from the alert thrown up in MOM we practically didn't even notice the glitch. VI3 kept plugging along until we could roll the guests off to another host on the SAN and we took the box out after lunch, replaced the CPU and it was back in production within an hour. The business units who use the guests never even noticed the outage.
Note though that to a corporation, the license cost is trivial for the security that if we had a host failure (software, not hardware) then there's one number to call; EMC/VMWare. Trawling the Usenet and Google Searches don't cut it from a Corporate perspective. And let's face it, Corporations are the primary target market for virtualization, not the consumer (at least today).
As an aside, consumer level virtualization will happen soon, but it will be transparent to the user. It's probably going to be more akin to OpenVZ's "uber sandboxes" than VMWare but it will definitely happen in my opinion.
Doesn't matter... even Technology can't fix stupid.
I like GPS... but I use it AS A GUIDE. It's not infallible, it's not all-knowing and it has no idea what's going on around or in your car. The only thing it knows is physically where you are. So long as you realize that (and most sensible and intelligent people do realize that) then you'll be just fine using GPS.
Here's a clue for those that don't get it; if you spend all your time when driving staring at the LCD in/on your dash then you're going to hit something. Lift your head, look outside a little... it's really quite startling to realize the world is OUT THERE.
Honestly, this article is really a bit of a shill. It's probably an article that was commissioned by Yahoo or Microsoft to try to "get the word out" that "Google is Not the Best". Well, to be fair to both of those search providers they're not bad, either... but neither of them really "gets" why Google IS the best search engine.
At the moment, Google has a database size that's "just right". Too much larger and results become muddled and inaccurate... too much smaller and you may never find what you're looking for. Yes, they wield a lot of power in this area because a de-listing or a reduction in your search placement will have an effect on your business. Deal with it... if your business is being reduced in priority it's because either (a) people aren't going to your site anyway or (b) you're doing something with your site to game the algorithms and Google's just changed them. That's life, that's business. If you want primo placement, you advertise with Google... that means you pay them. Everyone wins.
Now, another thing Google does right is they keep it simple. Their home page is fast, quick to load up and simple. When I'm using my cellular modem (UMTS) to connect and search, I don't want a graphics-heavy front page or graphics-heavy results pages. I want text, I want stuff I can cram down a thin pipe with some alacrity without waiting for the banner graphics to load up (I'm looking at you, Yahoo!) and I don't want my searches interspersed with flash animations that have nothing to do with the search I've submitted (Live!). Google does a lot of stuff right because they GIVE THE CUSTOMERS WHAT THEY NEED. Not what the company behind it wants to give them.
I'm not saying Google is perfect; it's not. Its search algorithms though are extremely good, and a quick search returns a good number of relevant searches. There are easy and well documented ways to get more targeted results (putting phrases in quotes for example) and generally only a few minutes of searching will turn up anything you want on all kinds of esoteric subjects. And if you can't find it under "Web", you can probably find it under "Groups" (Usenet). The only thing that sometimes skews those results are the Usenet aggregation sites, but they're usually easy to spot because you've received multiple hits that all contain exactly the same preview text. And who knows? They might be relevant.
In my job as an IT guy, I use Google daily. Multiple times daily, in fact. When I upgraded my work laptop to Vista lately I started giving Live a shot simply because it was the default. Sorry, Microsoft... it took me longer to sift through the results and fewer of them were relevant in my opinion. I switched my default search back to Google and the world has become a better place. Well, not really... but I at least get the consistency of results I've come to expect.
If someone creates a better search engine that fits my needs, let me know. I've tried them all. Back "in the day" when Yahoo! became popular, I was using Alta Vista because its results were more relevant. They lost their way... it's possible Google will... but for the foreseeable future I'm going to continue to use them.
And as for those who scream about the data gathering, the privacy stuff and so forth I say fine. If they're using that information to better tune the search results to my needs, then like an artificial intelligence Google is becoming even more useful to me. I really don't care if they accumulate stats on me... it's not like there aren't people out there doing it anyway, even without Google. We live in a world of advertisers, of corporations and data mining. We live in a society that has in a sense sold a bit of its soul to "the man" in order that we may lead comfortable lives for what we consider to be a reasonable cost. If you don't like it, opt out... but realize that opting in is what allows you to function in this society, allows you to buy things, do things and raise a family. I may not like it, but I live with it. I know I should try to change it... but at this point in my life raising my kids in the Midwest, why should I? It meets my needs today. Tomorrow? Who knows.
I have done a lot of work with the hearing impaired, and companies that deal with the hearing impaired so I can speak somewhat intelligently on this.
The Blackberry is really the device of choice these days with the hearing impaired and deaf. They're relatively cheap (especially if you buy an older model), they actually are quite solid and can take a beating and parts (like batteries) are cheap and easy to buy.
Also, if you're registered as disabled and/or hearing impaired you may actually be able to get financial assistance from the government (I'm presuming US, here) under the heading of tools to aid in your disability. Hell, the military might pay for it though you'll still have to worry about service providers yourself.
Hope that helps.
LOL... have you actually tried to have an intelligent coversation with many "old money" men who've "run their own companies"? Most of them only know how to do one thing; delegate. :)