Yeah, sounds like an interesting project. With a bit of work, I bet it would work at least as well as the futures banking & investment markets!
Um...
I mean, really, the bad guys would never think of trying to game the system, like buying shares towards a specific scenario, and divert security efforts from their real target!
Sure the Mac OS works great on Apple's machines, but start throwing it on people custom machines and trying to run all kinds of crazy hardware setups and OS X isn't going to run so swell anymore.
Hm... then how about this: OSX finds a piece of hardware it doesn't like (i.e. has no "proper" drivers for it), then disables it, with a little message: "This device is not officially supported by Apple, may we suggest buying an Apple box?".
As long as Apple gets to define "proper", all should work fine, right? At least as far as harware goes, because they only have to support a selected few harwdare combinations.
4. The average Linux user is far more Internet-savvy than the average Windows user - and that's not, in any way, devaluing some of the very knowledgeable Windows people that I do work with, for example - but average Joe Bloke at home runs Windows & only tries Linux when he starts to feel like he knows a little more about how PCs and networks actually work.
True -- Linux's current barrier-of-entry is rather high. But for Joe Bloke to run Linux at home, Linux will have to lower at Joe's level. That must be done carefully, because it obviously can be done very wrong.
The only time this could ever happen is if a high proportion of Linux users ran the same distro version and very common applications.
I think that doesn't sound that much far-fetched when millions of Joe Blokes run the Linux they bought at Wal-Mart's (assuming that's where we're heading).
Microsoft has a product and quite good at selling it. And they got really good at making people buy it (mind you, that's not exactly the same as _selling_ it). But they insisted more on the selling part and kinda' forgot about the product part.
Now, I might've been born on another planet, but what exactly is the point in this whole process? Selling it? Last time I checked, we didn't get to have cars because Ford was so good at selling them, but because he made them good. The _product_ and its use is what matters, right?
So maybe Microsoft is great at selling shit. So what. They haven't bothered to try selling much else than shit. And Linux will get ahead because it's closer to what people need, and tries to get even closer.
Don't come to me with problems; come to me with solutions Why do you assume the problems have a solution that's technology-related? If the problems are big enough that these people need to talk to their CEO, most likely it's not about some middle manager not being willing to buy another mailserver. It's about some company-wide hare-brained policy that needs to change. And maybe the people that would better understand how it works and what could be changed are there at the top, down at the bottom only the simptoms are visible.
Focus on the positives Funny...
Move the conversation forward Network first You're most likely right about this. Unfortunately. Because these guys are techies, not salesmen. What you're saying is "you need someone to sell these ideas to their CEO/whatever". Most techies don't have that kind of skills, most techies don't want that kind of "skill", most techies hate people with that skill, because usually salesmen try to sell you shit.
And most techies don't have time to waste with "networking" the bosses, because they have work to do. Most techies don't like "networking" the bosses, because it sounds too much like "ass licking".
A "solution" that's been mentioned here is "leave and get work somewhere else". Unfortunately that doesn't quite work. The new place will seem quite ok for a while, maybe with a few problems of its own... Then as time goes by, you find out more about how things really work and how the minor visible problems were just simptoms of larger problems that lie in just how things work in the company. And then you decide you should talk to the CEO/whatever about these problems, and... Oops, you're back to square one.
Actually, I think the problem is the fact that these new mediums offer less information than face-to-face.
When two people talk face to face, there's more going on than just words -- voice tonality, the way the hands move, eyes & face, general body posture, etc. And usually they are more effective at transmitting emotional content, rather than pure information. And as someone else said on this thread, at least for developing children, emotional content is very important.
So, at least right now, IM and email are "dryer" than the conventional mediums (event on telephone, the voice can mean a lot). I guess on a videophone, it would be almost like talking face to face -- but it'll take a while for it to become as ubiquitous as voice-only cellphones.
I expect in six months that OEMs won't even ship IDE systems any more.
Sure thing. Remember, same thing happened to COM and parallel ports, they just vanished when USB made it into the market... PS/2 ports too.
IDE drives have been around for a long time, and will be around for a long time from now on, even when SATA becomes standard issue on motherboards. Hell, floppy drives are still around...
my throat closes up and my eyes water every time I hear or read those words
Mine too, when I think of the things humanity has achieved, and could achieve given the proper amount of effort. But then again, let's not forget we were only able to get to the Moon because U.S. just had to prove to the russians their schlong was bigger... Going to the Moon, or Mars, or wherever, is not that urgent for us as a species at this moment... Just give us 50 years, a ~20 billion population, and then you'll have plenty of people happpy to get off this stinkin' rock...
Their whole service is a copy of iTunes. They deserve to fail.
Not trying to defent BuyMusic here, but your point is nonsense. Both Gnome & KDE pretty much started as blatant ripoffs of the Windows environment. Did they deserve to fail as well?
When you can't do something original, you copy from someone else. Sometimes (usually putting quite some effort into it), you might actually build something better than the original. Apparently that isn't the case with BuyMusic, but that does not make your point right.
Now thinking back, the best flight sim I recall playing was the one by the guys who made System Shock. It was an aerobatics focused sim, and the physics seemed very accurate.
I believe you are talking about Flight Unlimited... The company was named Looking Glass Studios.
Listen up, people. We live in a FREE country. You don't HAVE to sign a contract with an employment agency if you don't want to, and before you do, you'd sure as hell better read the fine print before you sign up!
Yup, and the artists don't have to accept any contract the RIAA finds appropiate to get their music promoted... Right.
You might have some kidney-related issues later in life... But no matter, laying flat on the bathroom floor at work, trying not to scream from the pain and praying no fellow employee comes in, for about half an hour, till the crisis passes, is FUN!
We showed the letter to several lawyers and concluded that our desire to keep the name xtunes and its current interface is much less than the time and money it would cost to try to do it.
Boy, does this suck.
I agree the "xtunes" name is an "iTunes" rippof, but giving up on it just because you don't have the money is sad.
And speaking of Kazaa, it worked _much_ faster than Gnutella. And you can't claim there aren't plenty of people looking for Britney's boobs on Kazaa...
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, sounds like an interesting project. With a bit of work, I bet it would work at least as well as the futures banking & investment markets!
Um...
I mean, really, the bad guys would never think of trying to game the system, like buying shares towards a specific scenario, and divert security efforts from their real target!
Re: Acrobat Reader.
I don't understand why people bother with AR anymore. Other PDF viewers like FoxIt Reader manage to do nostly the same in less than 1MB.
Hm... then how about this: OSX finds a piece of hardware it doesn't like (i.e. has no "proper" drivers for it), then disables it, with a little message: "This device is not officially supported by Apple, may we suggest buying an Apple box?".
As long as Apple gets to define "proper", all should work fine, right? At least as far as harware goes, because they only have to support a selected few harwdare combinations.
Dunno how much sense that makes marketing-wise.
"there is no such thing as "dirty" competition; there is only competition that your rivals may not want to lower themeselves to".
-Daniel
-silent
You're probably right.
Microsoft has a product and quite good at selling it. And they got really good at making people buy it (mind you, that's not exactly the same as _selling_ it). But they insisted more on the selling part and kinda' forgot about the product part.
Now, I might've been born on another planet, but what exactly is the point in this whole process? Selling it? Last time I checked, we didn't get to have cars because Ford was so good at selling them, but because he made them good. The _product_ and its use is what matters, right?
So maybe Microsoft is great at selling shit. So what. They haven't bothered to try selling much else than shit. And Linux will get ahead because it's closer to what people need, and tries to get even closer.
-pwr
Don't come to me with problems; come to me with solutions
Why do you assume the problems have a solution that's technology-related? If the problems are big enough that these people need to talk to their CEO, most likely it's not about some middle manager not being willing to buy another mailserver. It's about some company-wide hare-brained policy that needs to change. And maybe the people that would better understand how it works and what could be changed are there at the top, down at the bottom only the simptoms are visible.
Focus on the positives
Funny...
Move the conversation forward
Network first
You're most likely right about this. Unfortunately. Because these guys are techies, not salesmen. What you're saying is "you need someone to sell these ideas to their CEO/whatever". Most techies don't have that kind of skills, most techies don't want that kind of "skill", most techies hate people with that skill, because usually salesmen try to sell you shit.
And most techies don't have time to waste with "networking" the bosses, because they have work to do. Most techies don't like "networking" the bosses, because it sounds too much like "ass licking".
A "solution" that's been mentioned here is "leave and get work somewhere else". Unfortunately that doesn't quite work. The new place will seem quite ok for a while, maybe with a few problems of its own... Then as time goes by, you find out more about how things really work and how the minor visible problems were just simptoms of larger problems that lie in just how things work in the company. And then you decide you should talk to the CEO/whatever about these problems, and... Oops, you're back to square one.
-silent
Sir, I'm afraid your sequence is incomplete:
1. Loading..... loading...... Loading...... Loading.......
2. ???
3. *throws phone on the ground*
I believe the correct sequence is:
1. Loading..... loading...... Loading...... Loading.......
2. (battery runs out)
3. *throws phone on the ground*
</sarcasm>
Stupid crap. Can't wait for Seti@phone.
-silent
Actually, I think the problem is the fact that these new mediums offer less information than face-to-face.
When two people talk face to face, there's more going on than just words -- voice tonality, the way the hands move, eyes & face, general body posture, etc. And usually they are more effective at transmitting emotional content, rather than pure information. And as someone else said on this thread, at least for developing children, emotional content is very important.
So, at least right now, IM and email are "dryer" than the conventional mediums (event on telephone, the voice can mean a lot). I guess on a videophone, it would be almost like talking face to face -- but it'll take a while for it to become as ubiquitous as voice-only cellphones.
-silent
Jeesus...
-daniel
IDE drives have been around for a long time, and will be around for a long time from now on, even when SATA becomes standard issue on motherboards. Hell, floppy drives are still around...
-daniel
But then again, let's not forget we were only able to get to the Moon because U.S. just had to prove to the russians their schlong was bigger...
Going to the Moon, or Mars, or wherever, is not that urgent for us as a species at this moment... Just give us 50 years, a ~20 billion population, and then you'll have plenty of people happpy to get off this stinkin' rock...
-silent
When you can't do something original, you copy from someone else. Sometimes (usually putting quite some effort into it), you might actually build something better than the original. Apparently that isn't the case with BuyMusic, but that does not make your point right.
I believe you are talking about Flight Unlimited... The company was named Looking Glass Studios.
Yup, and the artists don't have to accept any contract the RIAA finds appropiate to get their music promoted... Right.
-Daniel
Yeah, like complaining about it being a dupe...
Oh, wait, was my post self-redundant?
-Daniel.
I can see that the point of my story is lost on some people. Oh well...
Just some. Wish I had mod points at this time.
-silent
You have any idea how hard it is to come by one of these people?
I guess the problem lies indeed with the people, not the guns.
Good idea....
:).
You might have some kidney-related issues later in life... But no matter, laying flat on the bathroom floor at work, trying not to scream from the pain and praying no fellow employee comes in, for about half an hour, till the crisis passes, is FUN!
I should know
Whoa... This must be the best front page troll in a looooong time.
Yes, but most H1B applicants actually hope to upgrade later to a long-term visa and finally stay in the US. In IT, at least.
This is why (quoting from TEX9's page):
Boy, does this suck.
I agree the "xtunes" name is an "iTunes" rippof, but giving up on it just because you don't have the money is sad.
-silent
Well... some of us are SETI@Home fans ;) .
-silent
As a matter of fact, Kazaa was where I completed my Evangelion collection. The videos were rather low in quality, but good enough :)
Only switched to Gnutella after Kazaa became a place too dangerous for my taste.
And speaking of Kazaa, it worked _much_ faster than Gnutella. And you can't claim there aren't plenty of people looking for Britney's boobs on Kazaa...
-silent
I believe ScummVM is what you're looking for, then :).
-silent