Haha sure. Sounds like someone playing loose with the facts. I've owned Treos, SEs, Nokias, and WM5 stylus and non-stylus phones in addition to my current iPhone and, while the iPhone is "good enough", it isn't better than any of the other phones with real keyboards. The iPhone's predictive text is better than WM5 but it can only do so much, and "texters" vocabulary has nothing to do with it. Your just making excuses. Why would I make excuses - I am just telling you my experience. If you have a different experience fine, not arguing with it.
And did you type this on your WM5 phone or you don't know the difference between "Your" and "You are"?
I don't get your point. "SMS language" or "texting" is very different from proper English. When you type proper English, you make fewer mistakes with the iPhone. This study only looked at "texting" (sending SMS messages).
It is not an issue with tactile response. The keyboard of the iPhone with its predictive correction is so good that I actually miss it on my regular desktop keyboard. The problem is that "texting" has its own dictionary that the iPhone (thankfully) doesn't recognize. So "texters" make more errors. Good I say. If the same study was done with email instead of text, you'd probably see dramatically different results. I type faster on my iPhone than I ever did on any of my Treos (have had 3 over the years).
Linux is losing out more to Mac OS X than Windows. Linux used to be big in academia, not anymore. I was the first user of Linux in India back in 1993, back in the days when the kernel version was about 0.15 and you had to finger Linus's account at hut.fi to find out about the latest update. I diligently used Linux as my desktop for the better part of the next decade through my grad school days and even when I became a faculty in a CS dept. Right through however, I remember constantly switching distributions or libc versions or using crossover/vmware to run the windows apps that I needed. Even then I didn't feel the need to switch my OS.
Once I saw Mac OS X however, I decided to switch and haven't looked back in the last 5 years. It offers the power of Unix under the hood and the ability to Office apps natively. I am not sure how much OpenOffice has evolved or GoogleApps, but running StarOffice in those days used to be a nightmare. Now when I look around me, from grad students to fellow faculty, everyone seems to be running Mac OS. Things "just work". No more hunting around for drivers or Office-approximations. I think Mac OS has killed whatever momentum Linux might've had in the desktop/laptop space. It has offered a much better alternative than Linux for frustrated Windows users, and I don't see that changing in the near future.
"That's weird, I thought unique meant one-of-a-kind. But, and I'm not trying to be smug here, I always thought the United States of America had representation of almost every major religion in the world too... possibly as much or more than India?"
In India the President is Muslim, the Prime Minister is Sikh, the leader of the majority party is a Catholic woman and the country is majority Hindu. I think the US has a long ways to go before anything remotely close is seen. Representation means a lot more than existence I would say.
More likely solely 'cause of the stylish design. CS professors/students are not beyond getting something 'cause it looks cool---without thinking too much about how it works
I used Linux religiously for 10 years (I was the first Linux user of India - stuck with it when the kernel did not even have networking built in). I used Mac OS once in 2003 summer, switched and haven't used anything since. The interface _is_ intuitive, and I don't have to worry about rpms not matching with libc versions all the time (and variations of the same problem with different linux distributions). I have bought 6 different Mac machines since then and am very happy with it and have no plans on going back to any other OS in the near future. Yes, I am a computer science professor and no, I didn't buy it for the "coolness" factor, but for it's usability. I get a nice GUI and most applications "just work", and MS Office compatibility becomes important in one's life at some point.
While there are many good universities in the world, if you look at the highly ranked research universities, a disproportionately large number of them are in the US. There could be many reasons behind this, but parochialism isn't the dominant one. If you attend any top-research conference in Computer Science (or EE for that matter), you will see that most of the papers come from US universities.
The competition for research dollars in the US is more cut throat, and the tenure process forces the good researcher to become very good, and the mediocre to good. Exceptional researchers are found in equal percentages round the world (the US has a slightly higher number largely because of Indian and Chinese academics migrating because of better opportunities in the US). There are places like INRIA, EPFL etc. in Europe that can go head to head with any place in the US, but the US simply has the force of numbers.
Research quality has very little to do with teaching quality in the universities, and often there is an unfortunate negative correlation.
If I am a home user I want to do what almost every home user does - manage my digital media. Photos, music, home videos. Name any other OS that provides the same functionality and ease of use.
Perhaps you'd like to check this link and then reconsider your comment that "And am I the only one who believes that if India and Pakistan put their computer resources together they would have the equivelent of a rural American elementary school computer lab?"
This is just one random URL I picked up. I'd be happy to educate you more on India's computing resources if you want.
Slashdot Mirror
And did you type this on your WM5 phone or you don't know the difference between "Your" and "You are"?
-Vishal
I don't get your point. "SMS language" or "texting" is very different from proper English. When you type proper English, you make fewer mistakes with the iPhone. This study only looked at "texting" (sending SMS messages).
-Vishal
It is not an issue with tactile response. The keyboard of the iPhone with its predictive correction is so good that I actually miss it on my regular desktop keyboard. The problem is that "texting" has its own dictionary that the iPhone (thankfully) doesn't recognize. So "texters" make more errors. Good I say. If the same study was done with email instead of text, you'd probably see dramatically different results. I type faster on my iPhone than I ever did on any of my Treos (have had 3 over the years).
-Vishal
Linux is losing out more to Mac OS X than Windows. Linux used to be big in academia, not anymore. I was the first user of Linux in India back in 1993, back in the days when the kernel version was about 0.15 and you had to finger Linus's account at hut.fi to find out about the latest update. I diligently used Linux as my desktop for the better part of the next decade through my grad school days and even when I became a faculty in a CS dept. Right through however, I remember constantly switching distributions or libc versions or using crossover/vmware to run the windows apps that I needed. Even then I didn't feel the need to switch my OS.
Once I saw Mac OS X however, I decided to switch and haven't looked back in the last 5 years. It offers the power of Unix under the hood and the ability to Office apps natively. I am not sure how much OpenOffice has evolved or GoogleApps, but running StarOffice in those days used to be a nightmare. Now when I look around me, from grad students to fellow faculty, everyone seems to be running Mac OS. Things "just work". No more hunting around for drivers or Office-approximations. I think Mac OS has killed whatever momentum Linux might've had in the desktop/laptop space. It has offered a much better alternative than Linux for frustrated Windows users, and I don't see that changing in the near future.
-Vishal
"That's weird, I thought unique meant one-of-a-kind. But, and I'm not trying to be smug here, I always thought the United States of America had representation of almost every major religion in the world too... possibly as much or more than India?"
In India the President is Muslim, the Prime Minister is Sikh, the leader of the majority party is a Catholic woman and the country is majority Hindu. I think the US has a long ways to go before anything remotely close is seen. Representation means a lot more than existence I would say.
-Vishal
More likely solely 'cause of the stylish design. CS professors/students are not beyond getting something 'cause it looks cool---without thinking too much about how it works
I used Linux religiously for 10 years (I was the first Linux user of India - stuck with it when the kernel did not even have networking built in). I used Mac OS once in 2003 summer, switched and haven't used anything since. The interface _is_ intuitive, and I don't have to worry about rpms not matching with libc versions all the time (and variations of the same problem with different linux distributions). I have bought 6 different Mac machines since then and am very happy with it and have no plans on going back to any other OS in the near future. Yes, I am a computer science professor and no, I didn't buy it for the "coolness" factor, but for it's usability. I get a nice GUI and most applications "just work", and MS Office compatibility becomes important in one's life at some point.
-Vishal
While there are many good universities in the world, if you look at the highly ranked research universities, a disproportionately large number of them are in the US. There could be many reasons behind this, but parochialism isn't the dominant one. If you attend any top-research conference in Computer Science (or EE for that matter), you will see that most of the papers come from US universities.
The competition for research dollars in the US is more cut throat, and the tenure process forces the good researcher to become very good, and the mediocre to good. Exceptional researchers are found in equal percentages round the world (the US has a slightly higher number largely because of Indian and Chinese academics migrating because of better opportunities in the US). There are places like INRIA, EPFL etc. in Europe that can go head to head with any place in the US, but the US simply has the force of numbers.
Research quality has very little to do with teaching quality in the universities, and often there is an unfortunate negative correlation.
-Vishal
Comic Sans is a very clean font and works very well for presentations.
If I am a home user I want to do what almost every home user does - manage my digital media. Photos, music, home videos. Name any other OS that provides the same functionality and ease of use.
Black and White graphics load on an average Olog(n) faster than color ones? Mel Brooks gave you that formula?
Why is this obvious troll moderated to "interesting"?
Matlab can do symbolic math if you purchase the symbolic toolbox.
Perhaps you'd like to check this link
and then reconsider your comment that
"And am I the only one who believes that if India and Pakistan put their
computer resources together they would have the equivelent of a rural American elementary school computer
lab?"
This is just one random URL I picked up. I'd be happy to educate you more on India's computing resources if you want.