Most users, unless they really think Dashboard, or Spotlight will be perfect for them, will see little reason to upgrade.
This is going to be a major problem for developers. Tiger has some enhancements, like Core Data, which will be of great benefit. It will be difficult to convince users to upgrade for something they can't see. They won't be able to use applications written with Core Data in mind, so they can't try them out to see if the upgrade would be worth it, etc.
The biggest problem with the GST was the companies who took advantage of it.
I worked for a distributor a number of years ago, they saw little, if any of their products drop in price, needless to say they didn't drop their price to the retail stores since they didn't see a drop in price.
Basically meaning the consumer paid 13% more to manufacturers than they did before the GST.
Passports are valid for 5 years, or until they are cancelled by the issuing government, whichever comes first. (number of years depends on issuing country too).
The U.S. government cancelled a number of passports a few years ago due to irregularities of some that were issued in the same batch. I don't remember the details, but it isn't the first or last time such a thing has happened I'm sure.
Any country which could not be trusted to have a reasonable policy on the equipment to decode the passport would have to deal with the passport manually. No problem. Many countries do that now anyway.
Creating a device with a Public/Private key encryption system, creating a new key each year and supplying that key to thousands of passport readers isn't difficult. (new key each year would mean that if a key were broken it would invalidate passports issued in that year, but it would restrict the number of keys which would have to be added to the passport devices to 1 per year. obviously if the method of adding keys were simple enough it could be possible to add a new key each month, etc..)
Authenticating the passport is far more important than encrypting all the data, but not encrypting the data is foolish.
My bet? Diabold wants to sell passport scanners but doesn't understand encryption so they want to make sure it isn't a requirement. maybe that's just me being paranoid.
I noticed one of these last night while I was watching 24.
I was fast forwarding and a little picture poped up above the progress bar on the screen. I stopped to check it out.
If they fix the problem so it doesn't popup in the show then I don't see a problem, it worked well, and didn't get in the way at all. I could ignore it, or not, my choice.
No, as for the software upgrade that led to this, I'm not happy with it.
TivoToGo service is ok; but the new software has some performance issues.
It is not uncommon for the cost, as seen by most employees to have no bearing on the actual cost to the company.
Often it is used to prevent sales people from selling below actual cost to the company.
As well, for cellular phones, etc there are often arangements for payments back to the company to offset their costs, often based on goals set for the company, not unlike the spiffs the employees get (or used to) for selling certain items.
If you're leaving because of money/future prospects, but your current boss, and company is great to work for otherwise then stay for what you think is reasonable. a couple weeks to bring the new guy up to speed (atleast to the point where he is self-sufficient 80% of the time); a couple of weeks to wrap up a project and tie up a few lose ends. Etc.
If they want more than that you should consider charging them for it at rates that are atleast 3 times what your salary was (when converted to a per hour rate).
You should be perfectly clear that you have the opportunity to opt out of the situation at specific points in time.
If the situation sounds good to you, and your future employer doesn't have a problem with it you might consider contracting to the prior employer for 3 months.
Do NOT base it on the completion of an existing project. They will keep you hanging for months by shifting requirements, etc.
Remember, it has to be in there interest to get somebody new, or they won't.
On the other hand, if you like the idea of it being on a permanent basis, go for it. Some people like that type of thing.
If your SDK requires a number of calls to set things up; Document them clearly with a diagram, flowchart, etc. And the recommended order of setup.
Make sure the developer can differentiate between functions required Before something in initiated, or after.
It can be really difficult to see the developers intent when you have to figure out if you can call a function yet.
Nothing more frustrating than trying to figure out why something doesn't work when the code looks right, and the documentation doesn't say you can't call a function after a certain point (or before another) and you get nothing to indicate there is a problem, except it simply doesn't work.
Example programs are nice, but they only show one way to do something; Often overly simplified. (Example programs are nice to prove a function/process works; if it fails to work I have to assume there is something fundamentally wrong.)
Those of us in Canada get listings from Zap2It. We use a program, or programs which parse the data from Zap2It and load it into the Tivo. (2 of the tivos in my care are un-hacked. They run the software as supplied from Tivo but use guide data supplied via Zap2It.).
(All the Tivos I deal with either have life-time subscription, or are subscribed monthly).
If Tivo were to go out of business and shut it's doors tomorrow my Tivo's would continue to work until they suffered a hardware failure.
I've stood at a counter in a store waiting 20 minutes for a clerk who can fetch a $20 item out of a cabinet. I felt like an idiot. If I knew a place within a few blocks that had the item I wanted I would have walked out. As it is I seldom purchase anything from that store because the service is so often poor; worse, I used to work there. (10 years ago)
I've been forced to listen to a salesperson spiel about an extended warranty after I told them flat out I wasn't interested. That isn't service. I shop there less often now that a company I like moved into the neighborhood. They sell similar items for similar prices, but even when they are higher, so what? I don't get treated like crap.
Virtually all the restaurants here offer free refills on softdrinks. (Coke, Pepsi, etc.) (if you consider the drink costs $2.20 one can hardly consider the first refill 'free'). A friend of mine and myself often tip based on whether they bring refills soon after he finishes his first one, or long after I finish mine. (He almost always finishes first; if I've finished mine it's usually a bad sign for the waitress/waiter.). We give credit if the server is obviously busy; extra credit if they find a way to accommodate us and lessen their own workload. (bring a pitcher, it keeps us happy for most of the meal). But don't make yourself look busy when you aren't.
We aren't stingy, we tip rather well if we get good or great service. We won't tip for bad service. Unless we wish to be insulting (seldom).
We make it easy on them too, we seldom split the bill (from the servers perspective). We swap cash or grab the meal next time. (Amusingly enough most of the places with better service also have the bill automatically divided up and totaled by their computer system anyway).
As for those people who will chime in and say you must tip 15% percent. Uhm.. no. I don't have to. They get payed (here atleast) minimum wage like everybody else, sometimes a little more than that. If they provide service they make better than minimum wage and that money is typically worth a lot more to them because few declare most or all of it on their income tax. Thats an automatic increase of about 25%. (my ex-brother-in-law made more money bar-tending 4-6hrs for 5 days in 2 weeks than I made working 9-5 10 days. (And no, there was nothing special about his bar-tending skills.))
I can assure you the power does occasionally stop flowing in Winnipeg.
While at a client site a powerfailure occured which was caused my a hydro worker electrocuting himself on a power pole a block from the site.
As well, contrary to the previous poster I know of about 24 power failures in the past 12 years in a particular neighborhood in Winnipeg. About 2 per year, on average, but 2004 tried to move that average up a couple of notches.
Complete powerfailures will occur, sooner or later at any single site. A significant online site really should be in multiple locations, but that adds significant to the complexities of running it on a day to day basis. What's a few hours downtime really worth?
Right now Tivo is restricted to 10baseT speeds because it maxes out the USB 1.1. (WiFi takes a hit too, even though it theoretically is faster than 10baseT).
Many of the Series2 Tivo's have a USB 2.0 capable chipset, I understand the drivers aren't there yet, but they have supposedly added some of the capability into the latest version of the OS, over the next while I expect they will be providing driver updates to support USB 2.0 based ethernet.
This should improve the transfer rates, hopefully they throttled them because of issues with USB 1.1. (or they maxed it out).
I agree very much with your statement. The alternative to DOS at the time was CP/M. It isn't like DOS was the only game in town.
(And technically, it wasn't even the best game in town.).
Most of what is good about DOS (in retrospect) is directly related to CP/M, and most of the problems with DOS are where it diverged from CP/M.
We would be in a different world had CP/M taken off, and GEM had taken over the GUI. But we'd still have computers in our homes and we would still have the Internet.
Just because people think Bill Gates is the computer industry himself doesn't mean he is.
Just because you wouldn't operate a business under that name doesn't mean somebody else hasn't actually registered it.
I remember a story on a guy who registered long distance provider company names. Names such as "I don't care", "Any", "Pick one".
These were typical responses when an operator asked which carrier, and since the name, as specified by the customer existed they were obligated to use it.
Needless to say the rates for those particular companies were some of the highest.
Whenever I see stories about a municipality, township, or some other community trying to put together wireless, or wired internet services I read the stories. They interest me.
And 9 times out of 10 the story turns out to be horribly overpriced local monopoly trying to set rates far higher than anyone could be expected to pay in this day and age, or, the companies which could offer the service choose not to.
And they get upset when someone else decides to take the piece of the pie they were ignoring.
I am of the opinion companies only provide service where they know they will have substantial profits, or where their competitor would have profits if they did not compete.
They actively ignore those markets where the profit margin is less than perfect and there is no other significant competition.
If a significant portion of a town whats a service and the local monopoly does not choose to offer it, too bad, they had their chance. Replace them.
When you are in a foreign country you are subject to their laws; period.
Any exceptions to this are them being generous and choosing to make an exception for political reasons.
It really bothers me when I see people make claims that are untrue. "Unauthorized jailing of US Citizens". Generally there is no such thing, in some countries without a significant legal system it is possible. China does have a legal system. (Whether you like it, or not.)
Never enter a foreign country with the intent to violate it's laws. You are likely to find out the hardway there are repercussions and that your country of origin has no inherent right to intercede.
You might want to look into the incidences where U.S. law enforcement personnel have been arrested and thrown in jail for kidnapping offenses on Canadian soil. I can assure you the U.S. government wasn't thrilled with the outcome.
Yes, I performed other upgrades in the past. Obviously the RAM upgrade was the straw that broke the camels back.
But that is entirly unacceptable to me, combined with the fact they will limit security updates to Activated products only, never mind the issues if the Windows isn't properly activated.
If I suffer a security breach because I can't get security updates because of their boneheaded product Activation they could be held liable.
Slashdot Mirror
How's this one:
http://tinyurl.com/8q8g6
That's the major problem.
Most users, unless they really think Dashboard, or Spotlight will be perfect for them, will see little reason to upgrade.
This is going to be a major problem for developers. Tiger has some enhancements, like Core Data, which will be of great benefit. It will be difficult to convince users to upgrade for something they can't see. They won't be able to use applications written with Core Data in mind, so they can't try them out to see if the upgrade would be worth it, etc.
The Canadian Military is always in a foreign country fighting a war. We call it peace keeping. Sometimes I'm not so sure.
Full of Canadians? could be worse, could be full of Americans.
Drinking age in Canada is 18, or 19, depending on the province. Where I live it is 18, where I used to live it is 19.
The way I figure it, if a country can send someone off to war, they should be legally allowed to drink in a pub.
The biggest problem with the GST was the companies who took advantage of it.
I worked for a distributor a number of years ago, they saw little, if any of their products drop in price, needless to say they didn't drop their price to the retail stores since they didn't see a drop in price.
Basically meaning the consumer paid 13% more to manufacturers than they did before the GST.
Passports are valid for 5 years, or until they are cancelled by the issuing government, whichever comes first. (number of years depends on issuing country too).
The U.S. government cancelled a number of passports a few years ago due to irregularities of some that were issued in the same batch. I don't remember the details, but it isn't the first or last time such a thing has happened I'm sure.
Any country which could not be trusted to have a reasonable policy on the equipment to decode the passport would have to deal with the passport manually. No problem. Many countries do that now anyway.
the lack of encryption is mind blowing.
Creating a device with a Public/Private key encryption system, creating a new key each year and supplying that key to thousands of passport readers isn't difficult.
(new key each year would mean that if a key were broken it would invalidate passports issued in that year, but it would restrict the number of keys which would have to be added to the passport devices to 1 per year. obviously if the method of adding keys were simple enough it could be possible to add a new key each month, etc..)
Authenticating the passport is far more important than encrypting all the data, but not encrypting the data is foolish.
My bet? Diabold wants to sell passport scanners but doesn't understand encryption so they want to make sure it isn't a requirement. maybe that's just me being paranoid.
I noticed one of these last night while I was watching 24.
I was fast forwarding and a little picture poped up above the progress bar on the screen. I stopped to check it out.
If they fix the problem so it doesn't popup in the show then I don't see a problem, it worked well, and didn't get in the way at all. I could ignore it, or not, my choice.
No, as for the software upgrade that led to this, I'm not happy with it.
TivoToGo service is ok; but the new software has some performance issues.
It is not uncommon for the cost, as seen by most employees to have no bearing on the actual cost to the company.
Often it is used to prevent sales people from selling below actual cost to the company.
As well, for cellular phones, etc there are often arangements for payments back to the company to offset their costs, often based on goals set for the company, not unlike the spiffs the employees get (or used to) for selling certain items.
Reasonable is 2 weeks notice.
Being a nice guy is a month.
Being foolish is more than that.
If you're leaving because of money/future prospects, but your current boss, and company is great to work for otherwise then stay for what you think is reasonable. a couple weeks to bring the new guy up to speed (atleast to the point where he is self-sufficient 80% of the time); a couple of weeks to wrap up a project and tie up a few lose ends. Etc.
If they want more than that you should consider charging them for it at rates that are atleast 3 times what your salary was (when converted to a per hour rate).
You should be perfectly clear that you have the opportunity to opt out of the situation at specific points in time.
If the situation sounds good to you, and your future employer doesn't have a problem with it you might consider contracting to the prior employer for 3 months.
Do NOT base it on the completion of an existing project. They will keep you hanging for months by shifting requirements, etc.
Remember, it has to be in there interest to get somebody new, or they won't.
On the other hand, if you like the idea of it being on a permanent basis, go for it. Some people like that type of thing.
If your SDK requires a number of calls to set things up; Document them clearly with a diagram, flowchart, etc.
And the recommended order of setup.
Make sure the developer can differentiate between functions required Before something in initiated, or after.
It can be really difficult to see the developers intent when you have to figure out if you can call a function yet.
Nothing more frustrating than trying to figure out why something doesn't work when the code looks right, and the documentation doesn't say you can't call a function after a certain point (or before another) and you get nothing to indicate there is a problem, except it simply doesn't work.
Example programs are nice, but they only show one way to do something; Often overly simplified. (Example programs are nice to prove a function/process works; if it fails to work I have to assume there is something fundamentally wrong.)
The product isn't delayed.
The anouncement is.
Motorola is blaming Apple, when the fact is; they would have announced the product and not been able to ship it for months.
kinda cool, but that doesn't come with the local news commentary.
(cool because a webcast is available, no, in truth I wouldn't watch it.)
Oh come on, you forgot the "Knight street pub" scandal, and all the rest. (Vanderzalm, etc)
B.C. politics should be on TV, it should be broadcast world wide. There is Nothing in this world like B.C. politics.
And trust me, it's far more entertaining from outside the province.
Jailbait is under 14 in Canada.
But, don't take pictures of your 'girlfriend' if she's under 18, thats illegal.
And you might want to wear body armor when her father finds out.
Those of us in Canada get listings from Zap2It.
We use a program, or programs which parse the data from Zap2It and load it into the Tivo. (2 of the tivos in my care are un-hacked. They run the software as supplied from Tivo but use guide data supplied via Zap2It.).
(All the Tivos I deal with either have life-time subscription, or are subscribed monthly).
If Tivo were to go out of business and shut it's doors tomorrow my Tivo's would continue to work until they suffered a hardware failure.
Both.
Service is crap at most places.
I've stood at a counter in a store waiting 20 minutes for a clerk who can fetch a $20 item out of a cabinet. I felt like an idiot. If I knew a place within a few blocks that had the item I wanted I would have walked out. As it is I seldom purchase anything from that store because the service is so often poor; worse, I used to work there. (10 years ago)
I've been forced to listen to a salesperson spiel about an extended warranty after I told them flat out I wasn't interested. That isn't service. I shop there less often now that a company I like moved into the neighborhood. They sell similar items for similar prices, but even when they are higher, so what? I don't get treated like crap.
Virtually all the restaurants here offer free refills on softdrinks. (Coke, Pepsi, etc.) (if you consider the drink costs $2.20 one can hardly consider the first refill 'free'). A friend of mine and myself often tip based on whether they bring refills soon after he finishes his first one, or long after I finish mine. (He almost always finishes first; if I've finished mine it's usually a bad sign for the waitress/waiter.).
We give credit if the server is obviously busy; extra credit if they find a way to accommodate us and lessen their own workload. (bring a pitcher, it keeps us happy for most of the meal). But don't make yourself look busy when you aren't.
We aren't stingy, we tip rather well if we get good or great service. We won't tip for bad service. Unless we wish to be insulting (seldom).
We make it easy on them too, we seldom split the bill (from the servers perspective). We swap cash or grab the meal next time. (Amusingly enough most of the places with better service also have the bill automatically divided up and totaled by their computer system anyway).
As for those people who will chime in and say you must tip 15% percent. Uhm.. no. I don't have to. They get payed (here atleast) minimum wage like everybody else, sometimes a little more than that. If they provide service they make better than minimum wage and that money is typically worth a lot more to them because few declare most or all of it on their income tax. Thats an automatic increase of about 25%.
(my ex-brother-in-law made more money bar-tending 4-6hrs for 5 days in 2 weeks than I made working 9-5 10 days. (And no, there was nothing special about his bar-tending skills.))
I can assure you the power does occasionally stop flowing in Winnipeg.
While at a client site a powerfailure occured which was caused my a hydro worker electrocuting himself on a power pole a block from the site.
As well, contrary to the previous poster I know of about 24 power failures in the past 12 years in a particular neighborhood in Winnipeg. About 2 per year, on average, but 2004 tried to move that average up a couple of notches.
Complete powerfailures will occur, sooner or later at any single site. A significant online site really should be in multiple locations, but that adds significant to the complexities of running it on a day to day basis. What's a few hours downtime really worth?
Technically MAP pricing is illegal in the United States.
Companies can often find way around it. Limiting advertising dollars given to a retailer for instance, etc.
It also means a company with decent lawyers can find enough wriggle room to advertisze, and sell items at whatever price they want.
The little guy without the lawyers tends to get screwed, and can least afford to lose advertising dollars.
Right now Tivo is restricted to 10baseT speeds because it maxes out the USB 1.1.
(WiFi takes a hit too, even though it theoretically is faster than 10baseT).
Many of the Series2 Tivo's have a USB 2.0 capable chipset, I understand the drivers aren't there yet, but they have supposedly added some of the capability into the latest version of the OS, over the next while I expect they will be providing driver updates to support USB 2.0 based ethernet.
This should improve the transfer rates, hopefully they throttled them because of issues with USB 1.1. (or they maxed it out).
I agree very much with your statement. The alternative to DOS at the time was CP/M. It isn't like DOS was the only game in town.
(And technically, it wasn't even the best game in town.).
Most of what is good about DOS (in retrospect) is directly related to CP/M, and most of the problems with DOS are where it diverged from CP/M.
We would be in a different world had CP/M taken off, and GEM had taken over the GUI. But we'd still have computers in our homes and we would still have the Internet.
Just because people think Bill Gates is the computer industry himself doesn't mean he is.
Just because you wouldn't operate a business under that name doesn't mean somebody else hasn't actually registered it.
I remember a story on a guy who registered long distance provider company names. Names such as "I don't care", "Any", "Pick one".
These were typical responses when an operator asked which carrier, and since the name, as specified by the customer existed they were obligated to use it.
Needless to say the rates for those particular companies were some of the highest.
Whenever I see stories about a municipality, township, or some other community trying to put together wireless, or wired internet services I read the stories. They interest me.
And 9 times out of 10 the story turns out to be horribly overpriced local monopoly trying to set rates far higher than anyone could be expected to pay in this day and age, or, the companies which could offer the service choose not to.
And they get upset when someone else decides to take the piece of the pie they were ignoring.
I am of the opinion companies only provide service where they know they will have substantial profits, or where their competitor would have profits if they did not compete.
They actively ignore those markets where the profit margin is less than perfect and there is no other significant competition.
If a significant portion of a town whats a service and the local monopoly does not choose to offer it, too bad, they had their chance. Replace them.
When you are in a foreign country you are subject to their laws; period.
Any exceptions to this are them being generous and choosing to make an exception for political reasons.
It really bothers me when I see people make claims that are untrue. "Unauthorized jailing of US Citizens". Generally there is no such thing, in some countries without a significant legal system it is possible. China does have a legal system. (Whether you like it, or not.)
Never enter a foreign country with the intent to violate it's laws. You are likely to find out the hardway there are repercussions and that your country of origin has no inherent right to intercede.
You might want to look into the incidences where U.S. law enforcement personnel have been arrested and thrown in jail for kidnapping offenses on Canadian soil. I can assure you the U.S. government wasn't thrilled with the outcome.
I have a Mac, G5 1.6Ghz actually. But Wow runs significantly better on my PC than my Mac.
(The mac has a FX5200 Ultra 64Meg video card while the PC has 128M Ti-4600.)
I use the Mac for 98% of my personal computer usage. I use the PC for work, and unfortunately to play Wow.
Yes, I performed other upgrades in the past. Obviously the RAM upgrade was the straw that broke the camels back.
But that is entirly unacceptable to me, combined with the fact they will limit security updates to Activated products only, never mind the issues if the Windows isn't properly activated.
If I suffer a security breach because I can't get security updates because of their boneheaded product Activation they could be held liable.