I can replace Word easy. I may even be able to pry Excel out of Accounting's cold dead fingers. I am unaware of any open source application that is a good replacement for MS Access. I'm not a programmer but I can make useful tools in MS Access (with some light scripting - I can do some code, but not a whole app from scratch).
If there is something out there that is a match for Access XP, I'd sure like to know about it - it should be able to connect to anything ODBC can connect to etc...
Come to think of it use of Outlook XP is taken for granted - it integrates with our Exchange server for appointments etc, etc...is there a OS replacment with the range and features for the Outlook/Exchange combo?
Having replacements for these things would continue to drive cracks into our dependance of M$.
(not trolling here, I seriously would like to know about this! To start if I could get a linux box running that could report off of P.SQL and MSSQL that would let me get started...)
I don't mind paying for what I use. If I use a ton of bandwidth then I should have to pay for it; it's how most companies pay their upstream ISP. It's how I pay for phone or for power.
Having said that, if I'm paying my $5 per GB, I'd damn well be able to use that bandwidth for whatever I deem necessary. The part of the article that makes me nervous is the talk of redirecting requests and the like. Not good...
So it probably sounded like a good idea to filter out Nazis...everyone hates Nazis right? (except the Nazis) While we're at it let's censor White Supremicists, cause we all hate them too.
Yay censorship! Oh wait while we're at it, let's censor everyone who has a different point of view on abortion from the state view...well at least half the people will be happy...
What's next? Oh we don't like this site, it says unkind words about Jacques Chirac...ban it please...
Anyone else tired of these various groups going around and making up their little 'report cards' or what-have-you on whatever issue they are interested in at the time?
Like you could say that the government of the RM of East Bumblefreak gets an 'D-' for toilet paper availability, down from last year's grade of 'C+'.
They just come out of no where and pull some ratings system out of their butts and give whatever rating they want to 'prove' some point of theirs.
I give this article an 'F-' in usefulness English speaking users.
- They aren't treating him as a second class citizen - they simply aren't bending over backwards (which you would hope a CS based company like an airline *would* do) to meet the specific needs of this person and others who share his plight. You just can't meet everyone's needs. Even if you want to, which they probably do (and would it be that surprising to hear them announce site mods in the near future?) Saying that "you're treating him like a second class citizen" is just a way to try and intimidate them into doing what one wants them to do. Perhaps if he'd called the number and been told "oh sorry, you're blind, we don't want your type on our airplanes" I would start to believe that.
No: physical buildings are clearly covered by the ADA. We are talking about websites.
Why should they be treated any differently? Because they are different.
This is the problem with adding layer upon layer of law - there's always another circumstance which does not cover what laws you have.
Suing the company in this case is basically trying to add another layer of liability to the laws. Keep doing that and no one will be able to do anything because companies will become immobilized as further restrictions are put on them.
What about those that are illiterate? Shouldnt' they have the right to access the site? What about people that have a phobia of flying? How do we include them? (they can choose other means of transportation, but the blind man in this case could've chosen other means to acquire the information)
In the end you cannot include everyone in all situations. The best you can hope for is that everyone has at least some options. Otherwise you end up with no one being able to do anything for fear of excluding someone. It all just gets ridiculous.
(Now backup to where this guy realizes he can't read the website. Instead of suing he could've done several things - called the phone number, had a friend read the website, chosen a more accomodating airline (personally this probably would've been the simplest course - through in a little media outrage if you're really pissed), etc. What would've been simpler?)
So it's a matter of keeping it reasonable then right? So is it reasonable to ask a company in the near bankrupt industry to start spending a large amount of cash to revamp their site? Is it reasonable that the federal government should force a company to do this?
And yes it sounds like a simple change - 'just make it text' but by the time everything gets sorted out, plans are drawn up, consultants used etc. The costs are going to climb.
(I think disagreements of this nature should be settled on an open market basis with as little government involvement as possible. There were several other options available to this guy he didn't have to 'make a federal case out of it' so to speak.)
And next we should sue car manufacturers for not making cars drivable by the blind?
More federal interference was NOT needed here.
Disabled persons just plain can't do certain things, it sucks, it's not fair, but it's life. Heck 'abled' persons can't do everything either. Should I sue action/adventure tour companies because I can't rock climb?
It's a network os for servers. And a damn fine one at that. Can't compare it to Linux as I don't have experience with it. But I know I really felt it when we went NT4; the bulk of that changeover was a long string of "what do you mean we can't do 'X' now?"
I'm no Linux supporter or campaigner. At present I don't even use it at home, or on my network at work.
But I'd just like to say that these last few articles on Slashdot are just what the Linux doctor is asking for. Seeing stuff like this slowly works its way into my brain like one of those Wrath of Khan worms.
I swear I'm going to give in soon - go down to the store and pick up a major Linux distro to try out. Also at work I've got a webserver to set up - those Frontpage bugs really make me nervous and I'm thinking more and more that I need to bite the bullet and go Apache.
The only problem right now is how daunting it is to get started - (especially with the web project) - I have to get familiar with Linux and Apache (which I assume I can get with most major distros), but also with an Open Source database (sounds like MySQL is about right for my needs at this time). As opposed ot just installing FP Server extensions and living with it hehe.
What's the point of this story? I like stories. Seriously though just some encouragement to the Linux people out there - I think the message is slowly getting through (to me anyways).
RH8 for business - question then...
on
Red Hat 8.0 Reviewed
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Red Hat 8 is meant for the business desktop. I've got a question then - is there a distro that is meant for games and multimedia?
Wow, this is just so ridiculous that I can't even find words for it. ('course we have to pay an extra 'duty' to the record companies on blanking CD's but that's another/. story...)
This flies in the face of due process so much that it's insane! Ugh stupid governments always making more and more and more laws - even when there's perfectly cromulet (hehe) laws around to cover situations.
Unauthorized copying of music etc., is already illegal, they need to use those laws. And if they can't keep up, then tough crap. Cops can't keep up with all of the speeders, but that doesn't mean they can shoot the tires out of parked Ferraris because they suspect that the owners might use them to speed (of course they are using them to speed, but you still gotta catch 'em and ticket them).
Re:Especially scarey with this administration
on
Politicizing Science
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· Score: 1
That'll learn me. Doh!
Re:Especially scarey with this administration
on
Politicizing Science
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· Score: 1
Okay, except in your last example - he only personally believes they should be taught - but he *also* believes that it is a question to be addressed by local school boards and has left it at that. Seems good to me.
Personally I think education is getting way out of hand anyways - enough of this trying to cover every little interest group and nuance - time to get back to the basics - reading, writing, and arithmetic - with at least basic science and maybe the odd historical overview course. (And know I didn't accidentally leave out Computer Science - there's lots of places to learn that later on)
This is a pro level camera. We're not just talking 8x10 glossies - but poster size and larger. I'm not sure though where 11 Mpixels would measure up to - it would definitely be tangling with 35mm, but medium format and larger (medium format has like 3.5" film size) is probably still going to be a lot better!
Also if you have the optics to match and take a picture and want to zoom in you need that extra resolution. With something like medium format a small portion of a regular picture can be enlarged to regular view sizes without just going all blurry - stuff like that will drive digital camera resolutions on the pro level anyways - where lack of resolution very quickly makes things go all pixely.
No it's not the same logic, it's not even the same arguement.
And if you'd bothered to read it, you'd see quite clearly that I wrote we do have to be careful. Read the post again.
I am saying that humanity is not affecting climate change to any large degree. We are *NOT* raping the planet. Natural forces create more greenhouse gases then we ever could. Like the Mt. St. Helens example, more greenhouse gases were expelled then all of industrialized society to that point. That was one volcano.
Are there things we have to do to protect the environment? Sure. Smog in cities. Poison in the waters. This must indeedy be cleaned up. Strip mining, clear cutting these can all leave ugly scars on the landscape.
But this global warming stuff is just making a mountain out of a molehill. Climate change is going to happen whether we are here or not. Global warming or global cooling, glacial flow, heck even mass extinctions will occur no matter what human kind does. It happened long before we were around and it'll happen long after we are gone. The earth has gone through far more dramatic climate change then anything we are witnessing - multiple times.
Look at what happens all around us - our industrial output pales in comparison to the amount of green house gases emitted by the Mt. St. Helens eruption for example. Oil seeps up from the sea. And these methane deposits - ever think they may just make it up to the surface after particularily major events- storms, etc?
We think we are this all powerful force that is going to overrun the earth changing it in ways that it has never changed before. Bloody nonsense. We can do some damage sure and we must be at least a bit careful. But enough of this screaming bloody murder every time we even think about using an energy source.
Suppose there is this vast, tappable resource of methane. Let's dig it up and burn it - but replace or retrofit coal fired power stations to use methane...wouldn't that be an improvement? oh sure you want solar power and wind power - but guess what, it just isn't workable yet on any sort of large scale.
They showed a bunch of pictures of this one- quite a bit smaller compared to other small form factor PCs - but how big are these compared to your average box?
Does this new format support HDTV signals? I just got my new TV and satellite decoder hooked up this weekend, and I was just plain awestruck by the 1080i demos I saw.
Truly getting closer to looking through a window...and regular TV looks fuzzy.
My progressive scan DVD player looks pretty good too, but an HD-DVD type player would be really wild.
Is that what this new media will ultimately do?
(on the downside most of the HD stuff has no business taking up HD time - old movies? The Young and the Restless? What's the point?)
Slashdot Mirror
I can replace Word easy. I may even be able to pry Excel out of Accounting's cold dead fingers. I am unaware of any open source application that is a good replacement for MS Access. I'm not a programmer but I can make useful tools in MS Access (with some light scripting - I can do some code, but not a whole app from scratch).
If there is something out there that is a match for Access XP, I'd sure like to know about it - it should be able to connect to anything ODBC can connect to etc...
Come to think of it use of Outlook XP is taken for granted - it integrates with our Exchange server for appointments etc, etc...is there a OS replacment with the range and features for the Outlook/Exchange combo?
Having replacements for these things would continue to drive cracks into our dependance of M$.
(not trolling here, I seriously would like to know about this! To start if I could get a linux box running that could report off of P.SQL and MSSQL that would let me get started...)
I don't mind paying for what I use. If I use a ton of bandwidth then I should have to pay for it; it's how most companies pay their upstream ISP. It's how I pay for phone or for power.
Having said that, if I'm paying my $5 per GB, I'd damn well be able to use that bandwidth for whatever I deem necessary. The part of the article that makes me nervous is the talk of redirecting requests and the like. Not good...
Sorry to disappoint, but my laptop runs Windows and I do plenty of real work on it. What a silly comment.
So it probably sounded like a good idea to filter out Nazis...everyone hates Nazis right? (except the Nazis) While we're at it let's censor White Supremicists, cause we all hate them too.
Yay censorship! Oh wait while we're at it, let's censor everyone who has a different point of view on abortion from the state view...well at least half the people will be happy...
What's next? Oh we don't like this site, it says unkind words about Jacques Chirac...ban it please...
Anyone else tired of these various groups going around and making up their little 'report cards' or what-have-you on whatever issue they are interested in at the time?
Like you could say that the government of the RM of East Bumblefreak gets an 'D-' for toilet paper availability, down from last year's grade of 'C+'.
They just come out of no where and pull some ratings system out of their butts and give whatever rating they want to 'prove' some point of theirs.
I give this article an 'F-' in usefulness English speaking users.
3ds MAX costs about $4000 USD! So I'm not sure what he means about MAYA.
Hmmm if MAYA is available on Linux that's yet another reason for me to make the plunge...
- Okay good point on the literacy thing!
- They aren't treating him as a second class citizen - they simply aren't bending over backwards (which you would hope a CS based company like an airline *would* do) to meet the specific needs of this person and others who share his plight. You just can't meet everyone's needs. Even if you want to, which they probably do (and would it be that surprising to hear them announce site mods in the near future?) Saying that "you're treating him like a second class citizen" is just a way to try and intimidate them into doing what one wants them to do. Perhaps if he'd called the number and been told "oh sorry, you're blind, we don't want your type on our airplanes" I would start to believe that.
No: physical buildings are clearly covered by the ADA. We are talking about websites.
Why should they be treated any differently? Because they are different.
This is the problem with adding layer upon layer of law - there's always another circumstance which does not cover what laws you have.
Suing the company in this case is basically trying to add another layer of liability to the laws. Keep doing that and no one will be able to do anything because companies will become immobilized as further restrictions are put on them.
What about those that are illiterate? Shouldnt' they have the right to access the site? What about people that have a phobia of flying? How do we include them? (they can choose other means of transportation, but the blind man in this case could've chosen other means to acquire the information)
In the end you cannot include everyone in all situations. The best you can hope for is that everyone has at least some options. Otherwise you end up with no one being able to do anything for fear of excluding someone. It all just gets ridiculous.
(Now backup to where this guy realizes he can't read the website. Instead of suing he could've done several things - called the phone number, had a friend read the website, chosen a more accomodating airline (personally this probably would've been the simplest course - through in a little media outrage if you're really pissed), etc. What would've been simpler?)
So it's a matter of keeping it reasonable then right? So is it reasonable to ask a company in the near bankrupt industry to start spending a large amount of cash to revamp their site? Is it reasonable that the federal government should force a company to do this?
And yes it sounds like a simple change - 'just make it text' but by the time everything gets sorted out, plans are drawn up, consultants used etc. The costs are going to climb.
(I think disagreements of this nature should be settled on an open market basis with as little government involvement as possible. There were several other options available to this guy he didn't have to 'make a federal case out of it' so to speak.)
And next we should sue car manufacturers for not making cars drivable by the blind?
More federal interference was NOT needed here.
Disabled persons just plain can't do certain things, it sucks, it's not fair, but it's life. Heck 'abled' persons can't do everything either. Should I sue action/adventure tour companies because I can't rock climb?
It's a network os for servers. And a damn fine one at that. Can't compare it to Linux as I don't have experience with it. But I know I really felt it when we went NT4; the bulk of that changeover was a long string of "what do you mean we can't do 'X' now?"
I'm no Linux supporter or campaigner. At present I don't even use it at home, or on my network at work.
But I'd just like to say that these last few articles on Slashdot are just what the Linux doctor is asking for. Seeing stuff like this slowly works its way into my brain like one of those Wrath of Khan worms.
I swear I'm going to give in soon - go down to the store and pick up a major Linux distro to try out. Also at work I've got a webserver to set up - those Frontpage bugs really make me nervous and I'm thinking more and more that I need to bite the bullet and go Apache.
The only problem right now is how daunting it is to get started - (especially with the web project) - I have to get familiar with Linux and Apache (which I assume I can get with most major distros), but also with an Open Source database (sounds like MySQL is about right for my needs at this time). As opposed ot just installing FP Server extensions and living with it hehe.
What's the point of this story? I like stories. Seriously though just some encouragement to the Linux people out there - I think the message is slowly getting through (to me anyways).
Red Hat 8 is meant for the business desktop. I've got a question then - is there a distro that is meant for games and multimedia?
Wow, this is just so ridiculous that I can't even find words for it. ('course we have to pay an extra 'duty' to the record companies on blanking CD's but that's another /. story...)
This flies in the face of due process so much that it's insane! Ugh stupid governments always making more and more and more laws - even when there's perfectly cromulet (hehe) laws around to cover situations.
Unauthorized copying of music etc., is already illegal, they need to use those laws. And if they can't keep up, then tough crap. Cops can't keep up with all of the speeders, but that doesn't mean they can shoot the tires out of parked Ferraris because they suspect that the owners might use them to speed (of course they are using them to speed, but you still gotta catch 'em and ticket them).
That'll learn me. Doh!
Okay, except in your last example - he only personally believes they should be taught - but he *also* believes that it is a question to be addressed by local school boards and has left it at that. Seems good to me.
Personally I think education is getting way out of hand anyways - enough of this trying to cover every little interest group and nuance - time to get back to the basics - reading, writing, and arithmetic - with at least basic science and maybe the odd historical overview course. (And know I didn't accidentally leave out Computer Science - there's lots of places to learn that later on)
This is a pro level camera. We're not just talking 8x10 glossies - but poster size and larger. I'm not sure though where 11 Mpixels would measure up to - it would definitely be tangling with 35mm, but medium format and larger (medium format has like 3.5" film size) is probably still going to be a lot better!
Also if you have the optics to match and take a picture and want to zoom in you need that extra resolution. With something like medium format a small portion of a regular picture can be enlarged to regular view sizes without just going all blurry - stuff like that will drive digital camera resolutions on the pro level anyways - where lack of resolution very quickly makes things go all pixely.
Anyone else wonder if GWB is just like messing with Saddam's mind or something? Allowing press leaks, etc. etc. Maybe shuffling around the odd troops.
But nothing firm has happened yet. Even NATO says that there is no Iraq invasion anytime soon.
Is the US trying to down Saddam by giving him a stroke with all of this rumour and perceived threats?
Interesting, how do they come to all of these figures (both human and natural)? I don't hear from Dick Cheney too much, not being from the U.S.
Food for thought though.
TROLL? Why because I have a different point of view? Try reading the moderation guidelines.
No it's not the same logic, it's not even the same arguement.
And if you'd bothered to read it, you'd see quite clearly that I wrote we do have to be careful. Read the post again.
I am saying that humanity is not affecting climate change to any large degree. We are *NOT* raping the planet. Natural forces create more greenhouse gases then we ever could. Like the Mt. St. Helens example, more greenhouse gases were expelled then all of industrialized society to that point. That was one volcano.
Are there things we have to do to protect the environment? Sure. Smog in cities. Poison in the waters. This must indeedy be cleaned up. Strip mining, clear cutting these can all leave ugly scars on the landscape.
But this global warming stuff is just making a mountain out of a molehill. Climate change is going to happen whether we are here or not. Global warming or global cooling, glacial flow, heck even mass extinctions will occur no matter what human kind does. It happened long before we were around and it'll happen long after we are gone. The earth has gone through far more dramatic climate change then anything we are witnessing - multiple times.
Look at what happens all around us - our industrial output pales in comparison to the amount of green house gases emitted by the Mt. St. Helens eruption for example. Oil seeps up from the sea. And these methane deposits - ever think they may just make it up to the surface after particularily major events- storms, etc?
We think we are this all powerful force that is going to overrun the earth changing it in ways that it has never changed before. Bloody nonsense. We can do some damage sure and we must be at least a bit careful. But enough of this screaming bloody murder every time we even think about using an energy source.
Suppose there is this vast, tappable resource of methane. Let's dig it up and burn it - but replace or retrofit coal fired power stations to use methane...wouldn't that be an improvement? oh sure you want solar power and wind power - but guess what, it just isn't workable yet on any sort of large scale.
They showed a bunch of pictures of this one- quite a bit smaller compared to other small form factor PCs - but how big are these compared to your average box?
Does this new format support HDTV signals? I just got my new TV and satellite decoder hooked up this weekend, and I was just plain awestruck by the 1080i demos I saw.
Truly getting closer to looking through a window...and regular TV looks fuzzy.
My progressive scan DVD player looks pretty good too, but an HD-DVD type player would be really wild.
Is that what this new media will ultimately do?
(on the downside most of the HD stuff has no business taking up HD time - old movies? The Young and the Restless? What's the point?)
...work your funky magic on Morrowind and I may just end up with a linux box! (TES:CK must also work!)
Oh and promise to start work on MOO3 and Pro Race Driver!!