This isn't entirely true. I had a tutor who thought watching Japanese tv (and most anime is Japanese tv) was a good way to learn pronounciation - which unfortunately a lot of students gloss over.
It has a dock, but its simply a launch pad - it doesn't keep track of tasks that are running. It does have a list of icons in the uppper right/left etc - similar to Windows 3.1 (or mwm for that matter) - but thats hardly a task bar.
Apple borrowed some things from Windows too (as did gnome and KDE) - like the taskbar, alt+tab (yes this works in OSX) and the concept of having all your window controls in one group - introduced in Windows 95. Sure Apple puts them on the left - but I'm sure they did that just to be different.
I'm lucky - while I've posted ebaressing things on usenet (various flamewars come to mind) its overpowered by Google's page ranking system. See - I have the same name as several famous artists and architects - and its true:). I even get their fan mail once in a while.
As someone who maintains Mac's/Solaris machines, Linux and Windows - this is total bullshit. Windows XP does not come with file sharing open by default and does not come with remote desktop open by default. Neither does Server 2000 or 2003 - you have to add the server roles that you need. By far the most popular vector into a Windows machine are unpatched services and unpatched versions of IE - gasp - just like any operating system.
OSX server however comes with everything open by default - including ftp/ssh and http out of the box. That doesn't bug me though because its easy enough to configure before I deploy it.
Bad anaology. A server on the internet is like having a house that unlocks to a hallway with a set of doors with services you have access too - and inside those rooms are safes that contain things you cannot do inside that house without the right permissions.
If you think about it - a web server is running on most machines on the net and are accessable - forging access through that isn't so much more different than doing through an open ssh account.
Besides - I could give you or anyone on slashdot ssh access (or terminal server access to my windows servers) and pretty much garentee no-one is going to compromise the server.
Sure it does. I work for a company (who everyone of you know and have heard of) who does all their level 1 and 2 technical support through an outsourcer. I would honestly say that the biggest hurdle in our organization to providing good support is the company we outsource to. Why?
Mostly because they seem to have their own interests at heart. They've shortened training, they pay people like 8.50 starting wage, and their attrition rate is way over 200%. Its kinda depressing - as soon as they get someone good - like 8 months to a year our he/she leaves to a better job. Seems to me its a lot of wasted money on the little training they do. These are not simple programs just anyone can sit down and start using either.
As far as their own interests are concerned - they rather give people wrong information, or shuffle calls in some other way to get rid of people to make their own stats look good. I know this because I personally play clean up for a lot of these mishandled calls. I've apologized a lot for the way these customers have been treated more than once.
Check this classic post on dslreports I worked at the US company that did msn tier 3 support (I think still does it - just in Canada now) - and I can tell you with conviction that all of this is true.
What do you expect their marketing department to say?
Windows ME
"It's the shittiest thing we've ever produced! Seriously! Its worse than Windows 3.1 or Dos" (source)
I really fail to see your point. Personally - Windows 2000/XP have been perfectly dependable to me. I can't remember the last time it crashed (I mean blue screen and everything). I use Linux, Solaris and OSX too (I do tech support research for a living) and I can't remember the last time they crashed either.
I'll upgrade to Windows Vista mainly to take advantage of the new features I've read about. Thats not so hard to understand is it? Its the same reason I upgraded my Mac.
I don't see people bashing indians or asians. I see people that are concerned with what might happen if their job was outsourced and they had to go back to the streets to look for another one.
A similar thing happened to me the other day with LCD monitors no less. Seemed like a good deal, but to be honest not only have I been burned by Sony before (because lets face it - a lot of their products are shoddy) but the stigma of the rootkit ordeal sealed my opinion and went with a viewsonic display instead.
I can't speak of swg as it appears their customers are their very own beta testing group.
But in any normal project maintaining two code bases may not require two sets of engineering groups, but for any release requires two QA cycles which may require twice as many people. Not to mention twice as much training for technical support/customer service as they need to be aware of the two product types.
It gets better actually. I remember when this game was announced and they mentioned it would take advantage of the new MMX features coming out in the P-166 and P-200 - 4 generations of cpu's later...
How something can have a product cycle that long is a project managers nightmare - I mean the original specs must have been Windows 95 with at least 16 megs of ram etc. I suspect the game has been cancled, but the site hasn't been updated.
As someone who has worked in tech support for about 5-6 years I can say any time something fun happens its worth writing down as a momentous occasion - maybe not the best in your life sure. For me it was helping Don Herbert (Mr. Wizard...) with a layout issue.
Otherwise - yes - the job really is a soul wrenching experience.
If you worked in software developement you'd probably be a bit more understanding. A) Adobe has to convert all their code to xcode and B) all their products would then have to go through a full QA cycle (this is no small task). By the time thats done the next version will be out anyhow. Why not convert all the code to xcode, put all the new features in and do the QA for these products and release - thats a much smoother product cycle.
It really is a case of either develope new versions which will be universal binaries or do maintainence on older versions. Take your pick. I think most users (and Adobe's stock holders) rather have new versions with new features and put off buying a new Intel mac for a year rather than have the same version of the software in the same amount of time.
Slashdot Mirror
Thats not true - I seriously would pony up for a version of OSX that would run on any whitebox.
This isn't entirely true. I had a tutor who thought watching Japanese tv (and most anime is Japanese tv) was a good way to learn pronounciation - which unfortunately a lot of students gloss over.
The vista betas I've seen come with windows defender - I thought that was an antivirus program...
It has a dock, but its simply a launch pad - it doesn't keep track of tasks that are running. It does have a list of icons in the uppper right/left etc - similar to Windows 3.1 (or mwm for that matter) - but thats hardly a task bar.
Apple borrowed some things from Windows too (as did gnome and KDE) - like the taskbar, alt+tab (yes this works in OSX) and the concept of having all your window controls in one group - introduced in Windows 95. Sure Apple puts them on the left - but I'm sure they did that just to be different.
I'm lucky - while I've posted ebaressing things on usenet (various flamewars come to mind) its overpowered by Google's page ranking system. See - I have the same name as several famous artists and architects - and its true :). I even get their fan mail once in a while.
Yes its true - you can script things with javascript in photoshop and it is every bit as impressive as imagemagik.
Live in the USA for a while - then you'll be happy that your trains run at all...
There's a support reason too - overly paranoid IT managers don't necessarily need to know about security issues that don't necessarily affect them.
As someone who maintains Mac's/Solaris machines, Linux and Windows - this is total bullshit. Windows XP does not come with file sharing open by default and does not come with remote desktop open by default. Neither does Server 2000 or 2003 - you have to add the server roles that you need. By far the most popular vector into a Windows machine are unpatched services and unpatched versions of IE - gasp - just like any operating system.
OSX server however comes with everything open by default - including ftp/ssh and http out of the box. That doesn't bug me though because its easy enough to configure before I deploy it.
Bad anaology. A server on the internet is like having a house that unlocks to a hallway with a set of doors with services you have access too - and inside those rooms are safes that contain things you cannot do inside that house without the right permissions.
If you think about it - a web server is running on most machines on the net and are accessable - forging access through that isn't so much more different than doing through an open ssh account.
Besides - I could give you or anyone on slashdot ssh access (or terminal server access to my windows servers) and pretty much garentee no-one is going to compromise the server.
Sure it does. I work for a company (who everyone of you know and have heard of) who does all their level 1 and 2 technical support through an outsourcer. I would honestly say that the biggest hurdle in our organization to providing good support is the company we outsource to. Why?
Mostly because they seem to have their own interests at heart. They've shortened training, they pay people like 8.50 starting wage, and their attrition rate is way over 200%. Its kinda depressing - as soon as they get someone good - like 8 months to a year our he/she leaves to a better job. Seems to me its a lot of wasted money on the little training they do. These are not simple programs just anyone can sit down and start using either.
As far as their own interests are concerned - they rather give people wrong information, or shuffle calls in some other way to get rid of people to make their own stats look good. I know this because I personally play clean up for a lot of these mishandled calls. I've apologized a lot for the way these customers have been treated more than once.
Check this classic post on dslreports I worked at the US company that did msn tier 3 support (I think still does it - just in Canada now) - and I can tell you with conviction that all of this is true.
What do you expect their marketing department to say?
Windows ME
"It's the shittiest thing we've ever produced! Seriously! Its worse than Windows 3.1 or Dos" (source)
I really fail to see your point. Personally - Windows 2000/XP have been perfectly dependable to me. I can't remember the last time it crashed (I mean blue screen and everything). I use Linux, Solaris and OSX too (I do tech support research for a living) and I can't remember the last time they crashed either.
I'll upgrade to Windows Vista mainly to take advantage of the new features I've read about. Thats not so hard to understand is it? Its the same reason I upgraded my Mac.
I don't see people bashing indians or asians. I see people that are concerned with what might happen if their job was outsourced and they had to go back to the streets to look for another one.
A similar thing happened to me the other day with LCD monitors no less. Seemed like a good deal, but to be honest not only have I been burned by Sony before (because lets face it - a lot of their products are shoddy) but the stigma of the rootkit ordeal sealed my opinion and went with a viewsonic display instead.
You could blame George Bush for not doing anything about the rapidly rising cost of college ;)
Think of the support people that have to support this mush! :)
In all fairness Goliath put up quite a fight - he had defeated everyone until David came along. Maybe Microsoft is Goliath and David is Linux.
I can't speak of swg as it appears their customers are their very own beta testing group.
But in any normal project maintaining two code bases may not require two sets of engineering groups, but for any release requires two QA cycles which may require twice as many people. Not to mention twice as much training for technical support/customer service as they need to be aware of the two product types.
Most people - and even companies have their priorities straight though.
Drug companies spend more on marketing than they do on research and development - I think that sums up in a nutshell whats wrong here.
Name one manufacturer that makes "mainstream powerpc based anything" and you'll see what I mean :).
It gets better actually. I remember when this game was announced and they mentioned it would take advantage of the new MMX features coming out in the P-166 and P-200 - 4 generations of cpu's later...
How something can have a product cycle that long is a project managers nightmare - I mean the original specs must have been Windows 95 with at least 16 megs of ram etc. I suspect the game has been cancled, but the site hasn't been updated.
I would say Adobe does care - otherwise they wouldn't have put activation into the product.
As someone who has worked in tech support for about 5-6 years I can say any time something fun happens its worth writing down as a momentous occasion - maybe not the best in your life sure. For me it was helping Don Herbert (Mr. Wizard...) with a layout issue.
Otherwise - yes - the job really is a soul wrenching experience.
If you worked in software developement you'd probably be a bit more understanding. A) Adobe has to convert all their code to xcode and B) all their products would then have to go through a full QA cycle (this is no small task). By the time thats done the next version will be out anyhow. Why not convert all the code to xcode, put all the new features in and do the QA for these products and release - thats a much smoother product cycle.
It really is a case of either develope new versions which will be universal binaries or do maintainence on older versions. Take your pick. I think most users (and Adobe's stock holders) rather have new versions with new features and put off buying a new Intel mac for a year rather than have the same version of the software in the same amount of time.