I'm not going to mention my company's name either, but I will say that we are a software company with approximately 400 employees worldwide, 500 seat licenses for Windows 2000 Server clients, with an equal number for Office 2000. You wouldn't think we'd get audited, but surprise, surprise...
This idea didn't work a few years ago, it won't work now, but given a year or two, it might, at least for a few sites.
This kind of support will eventually be necessary to stay alive, but there are still other free options. Nobody is really entering the market, but the shakeout isn't over just yet. When the alternatives are gone, and if people like it enough, a sufficient number of people will pay to support it.
Well, the idea is that the HTTP header would provide enough information for a server side script to determine whether light/medium/heavy should be loaded without user intervention, but it would also be nice for the user to override those settings on per use/site/global levels.
For the kind of work that I'm doing right now (educational software via web), it would be great if there was a simple way to determine the quality of the deliverable content. Corners can be cut in audio, image quality, etc.
How many computers are involved in keeping your car working properly whent it's not in the shop? Why is it that every time I try to make a photocopy, there's a paper jam? Does your business machine really spend very much time down?
Even Windows 98 can give you 95% reliability. I have to use it at work, and it doesn't waste 24 minutes of my workday (be it 6-12 hours) with crashes, etc. -- an underpowered database server with insufficient RAM, CPU, or bandwidth is an even greater hindrance on worker productivity than unstable software.
And to clarify exactly what that means, what I attempted to say was that the heavy content should be automatically loaded, but should also provide a link to the light version, if you'd prefer.
I'll happily take the rich bandwidth version by default on the T1 at work or my DSL line at home if it means I never have to see another "choose your bandwidth" page again. They suck just as much as splash pages.
I would only find it impolite if I was directed to the heavy page without being given the option to use the light version instead.
If you think unstable software is bad, try running without it:)
Business software is supposed to make people more productive, and even the most unstable sort can usually do that. I'd hate to go back to typewriters "because they just work". Love that white out...
In most cases, it seems to me that whenever computers and mechanical devices are put together, it's the mechanical end that breaks down more often. Every few months, I need a photocopy of something. Invariably, the copier will develop a nasty paper jam, and I spend more time walking to it, fixing it, getting my copy, and walking back than I would if I had just made a handwritten copy right there at my desk.
Hey, I'm all for high quality software, but if you can show me any other piece of high volume, industrial strength equipment with 95% uptime (not unreasonable at all), then you have a case.
I used to work at a print shop -- the kind that produces national magazines, like Time or Fortune. I've been in the pressroom, I've been in the bindery, and all those machines go down several times a day. When hundreds of distinct, interlinked processes are happening at once, the failure of one will often shut down the rest.
I'm sure this applies to factory floors of all kinds, not just the presses, and I might add that most of said equipment costs SIGNIFICANTLY more to purchase and operate.
I think it is perfectly OK to broadly say that your experience with one platform and RDBMS was faster/slower than another, but in general, benchmarks with numbers on any database fall well short of giving the full story.
I think the comparison between one database and another with raw numbers is rather unscientific. It's a case of apples and oranges -- you *could* compare dBASE to another RDBMS and find that dBASE blows everything out of the water, but can it do sophisticated locking and bookmarking? What about triggers and stored procedures? Does it have *any* XML support? The list goes on...
Is that maximum or average FLOPS? I'm thinking of variable power techs like SpeedStep and PowerNow!, but especially Transmeta, which has the added variable of OS optimization.
WRT clocks, the strongest argument against them is their tendency to remind me that I'm late for work (again).
Offhand, I'll guess that one of the biggest advantages is the ability to address more memory. I'm sure someone out there can find a reason to address more than the 8 or 16 GB that W2K Datacenter can, with some hacks they developed with Intel (flashback to LIM memory?).
I don't see myself using that much RAM anytime soon, but the industry is moving toward it, so what else would 64 bit do for me?
I'm too tired to really respond, but in a nutshell, I'll just say that HTML needs to be all things to all people. Some people see it for the structured SGML derivative that it is, others just see it as another word processor/DTP format that *should* be WYSIWYG. Besides, HTML is a moving target -- Is it HTML 4.01 now? What version is XHTML at these days?
I hate this attitude about HTML. If it was "meant to be perfect", it wouldn't have drawn 99% of the interest it did. While other markup languages are for data, HTML is for presentation.
Imagine being a programmer developing a dynamically generated page. Frankly, I'm more interested in seeing if the output is correct -- the last thing I want is to have the page not render at all because it's "invalid". What if you actually did produce a valid document, and the browser's validator was buggy? It's much easier for everyone if the browser just renders the damn page.
If people want to get picky about their markup languages, may I suggest they look at SGML? If you're writing an O'Reilly book, perhaps it makes sense to use SGML and validate it against that gigantic DocBook DTD. Personally, I think it's overkill for a 13 year old making a Backstreet Boys fanpage, and HTML, for all its flaws, certainly must be better than Word!
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Re:One GUI from the "Movie OS"...
on
MUD Shell
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· Score: 1
This is UNIX! I know this!
Guidelines for identifying a UNIX system in any movie:
System has extremely large monitor and/or chassis.
System has lots of important looking kit attached or adjacent to it.
A ridiculously contrived interface you wouldn't be caught dead using.
Failing all else, look for the big ass Silicon Graphics logo.
Your guidelines might apply to the first account that I had, but I've had probably a dozen of them since then, and they're completely different.
Personally, I like to change things around every couple of weeks. I've been posting under this nick for a while longer than that, but I generally change once every full moon. It's fun to build up another +2 account, and you can spice up the challenge a bit with a few first posts, trolls, flamebaits, or spams to start in negative territory.
I may be at stage 7, but it's fun to fall back on those other stages, especially #4 once in a while. Karma is like a/. poll -- you know it's meaningless and wildly inaccurate, but it sure is a fun game to play.
"If the world is 12000 years old, and the Bible covers it, why didn't someone bring up fuckin' dinosaurs?"
...
"I asked this guy, I said 'dinosaur fossils, what's the deal?'. He goes: 'God put those here to test our faith'"
...
"Does that bother anyone that God might be fucking with us?"
An LEC in this context is a Local Exchange Carrier.
The Incumbent LEC is the local telephone monopoly. A Competitive LEC is a company that leases your telco's infrastructure, e.g. NorthPoint, Covad, Rhythms, etc. The big ones are focused on DSL, but there are plenty of smaller CLEC's that are more interested in local phone service alone, or as part of a more comprehensive package they can provide (e.g. long distance, wireless).
When will scientists figure out how to do cool stuff like this at room temperature? Bill Nye amd Beakman and Jax can perform all kinds of science wizardry with an empty bottle of Coke and a tablespoon of baking soda!
Slashdot Mirror
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This kind of support will eventually be necessary to stay alive, but there are still other free options. Nobody is really entering the market, but the shakeout isn't over just yet. When the alternatives are gone, and if people like it enough, a sufficient number of people will pay to support it.
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For the kind of work that I'm doing right now (educational software via web), it would be great if there was a simple way to determine the quality of the deliverable content. Corners can be cut in audio, image quality, etc.
--
Even Windows 98 can give you 95% reliability. I have to use it at work, and it doesn't waste 24 minutes of my workday (be it 6-12 hours) with crashes, etc. -- an underpowered database server with insufficient RAM, CPU, or bandwidth is an even greater hindrance on worker productivity than unstable software.
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I would only find it impolite if I was directed to the heavy page without being given the option to use the light version instead.
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Business software is supposed to make people more productive, and even the most unstable sort can usually do that. I'd hate to go back to typewriters "because they just work". Love that white out...
In most cases, it seems to me that whenever computers and mechanical devices are put together, it's the mechanical end that breaks down more often. Every few months, I need a photocopy of something. Invariably, the copier will develop a nasty paper jam, and I spend more time walking to it, fixing it, getting my copy, and walking back than I would if I had just made a handwritten copy right there at my desk.
--
I used to work at a print shop -- the kind that produces national magazines, like Time or Fortune. I've been in the pressroom, I've been in the bindery, and all those machines go down several times a day. When hundreds of distinct, interlinked processes are happening at once, the failure of one will often shut down the rest.
I'm sure this applies to factory floors of all kinds, not just the presses, and I might add that most of said equipment costs SIGNIFICANTLY more to purchase and operate.
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I think the comparison between one database and another with raw numbers is rather unscientific. It's a case of apples and oranges -- you *could* compare dBASE to another RDBMS and find that dBASE blows everything out of the water, but can it do sophisticated locking and bookmarking? What about triggers and stored procedures? Does it have *any* XML support? The list goes on...
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WRT clocks, the strongest argument against them is their tendency to remind me that I'm late for work (again).
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(This link is to be butchered by SpaceDot, the Slash daemon of link mangling and patron saint of goat sex)
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I don't see myself using that much RAM anytime soon, but the industry is moving toward it, so what else would 64 bit do for me?
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Imagine being a programmer developing a dynamically generated page. Frankly, I'm more interested in seeing if the output is correct -- the last thing I want is to have the page not render at all because it's "invalid". What if you actually did produce a valid document, and the browser's validator was buggy? It's much easier for everyone if the browser just renders the damn page.
If people want to get picky about their markup languages, may I suggest they look at SGML? If you're writing an O'Reilly book, perhaps it makes sense to use SGML and validate it against that gigantic DocBook DTD. Personally, I think it's overkill for a 13 year old making a Backstreet Boys fanpage, and HTML, for all its flaws, certainly must be better than Word!
--
This is UNIX! I know this!
Guidelines for identifying a UNIX system in any movie:
--
Personally, I like to change things around every couple of weeks. I've been posting under this nick for a while longer than that, but I generally change once every full moon. It's fun to build up another +2 account, and you can spice up the challenge a bit with a few first posts, trolls, flamebaits, or spams to start in negative territory.
I may be at stage 7, but it's fun to fall back on those other stages, especially #4 once in a while. Karma is like a
--
"If the world is 12000 years old, and the Bible covers it, why didn't someone bring up fuckin' dinosaurs?"
...
"I asked this guy, I said 'dinosaur fossils, what's the deal?'. He goes: 'God put those here to test our faith'"
...
"Does that bother anyone that God might be fucking with us?"
--
The Incumbent LEC is the local telephone monopoly. A Competitive LEC is a company that leases your telco's infrastructure, e.g. NorthPoint, Covad, Rhythms, etc. The big ones are focused on DSL, but there are plenty of smaller CLEC's that are more interested in local phone service alone, or as part of a more comprehensive package they can provide (e.g. long distance, wireless).
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