Once upon a time, a bunch of clueless types from the East persuaded the Legislature to adopt summer time here.
The popular response was so one-sided that the first thing they did when they reconvened in the fall was revoke it.
Now, when someone tells us about how wonderful it is to crank the clocks forward one hour, we get all gushy about it and tell them that twelve must be even better. Moonlight Savings Time is a wonderful idea when your summer temps regularly run above 45C and the only decent time of day is around dawn.
Like I need to have that be 0300 instead of 0400. They can stuff it.
I just set an alarm to remind me when people in various parts of the world play with their clocks.
One for each -- Europe, the East Coast of the USA, etc. I've never had to worry about Australia, though -- do they play with clocks down there or do they have better things to do?
sysadmins cannot do their jobs without full access to the systems they support.
Which isn't the same thing as having full access to the data on them.
There are, after all, fairly straightforward ways to secure data against the admins (assuming they don't actually install spyware, which is a separate subject.) There are also ways to arrange secure key recovery so that the records can be recovered if Something Happens to the exec, but no one person can do it (say, three board members and an outside law firm.)
The same executives wouldn't keep sensitive paper documents in an unlocked drawer, though.
I realize it's a business problem when the CxO doesn't have a clue about encryption, but who's going to demand he get some education?
FWIW, the legal profession actually has directives from the Bar Associations on when it's even permitted to use e-mail, and if so when encryption is required. Sometimes it's nice to actually have authority over you.
What happens when the motherboard fails (bad caps anyone?) and you must replace it with a "new device". What if that one pops too? Must buy Vista again? I think not. I'd see them in court first.
I'm sure Microsoft Legal is quaking in their boots at the thought of your mighty legal team wearing them down and busting their budget.
Here's a clue: That EULA is a far more strategic asset to MS than the software is. They might give up on a lot of fronts if they have to, but they're going to spend anything they have to to protect the legal presumption of validity for the EULA.
I have no intention of purchasing a new license every time I swap out motherboards.
I'm sure that just breaks Bill's heart.
Here's a clue, peeps: Microsoft is in charge. You answer to "Bitch!" Your options are:
Bend over and whimper
Bend over and smile
Bend over and act tough
etc.
The constant here, for those who think their opinions matter, is that you don't get a vote. Learn to deal with it; after a while it will seem perfectly normal.
However, if you want to pretend to have some shreds of dignity quit the damned whining about it!
you are happy to pay for MSOffice, so perhaps you shouldn't spend so much time bitching about something you can get for free.
That's a sunk cost. Notice that TDN wrote that she's using MSO2K, not the latest. Also, we might as well get used to the idea that companies long ago justified the cost of MSO as part of basic computing. It's not on the agenda, and if we want to put it on the agenda we're going to have to overcome issues like TDN's.
Don't waste bandwidth telling me this isn't prudent decision making, that companies could put MSO only on TDN's desk and let the letter-writers use OO.o -- the sky on that planet is a different color. We're stuck with the craniorectally contorted management that lives on this one and we may as well act accordingly.
But then, speaking as a professional writer, there is no possible way in which you could convince me that a WYSIWYG word processor is the right tool for any jobs I have; they are toys for people who have grown out of finger painting, not tools for people who deal with large quantities of text.
I quite agree that if your output is primarily text, you're much better off with LaTeX or the like. Gorgeous results without the constant distraction of formatting.
However, there are a lot of professional writers who have to integrate high proportions of graphics into their work, and for them a WYSIWYG tool is quite appropriate. The ability to restructure a document (the big missing feature in the Navigator) is a serious handicap there.
I'm not a professional writer, I just sleep with one.
I do wonder why these were chosen over Evolution [gnome.org], which is more like Outlook & already has integrated calendaring.
If it were me, I'd say it's because Evo is a toad, complete with hard-coded URLs. Gag.
However, it's not me -- it's Sun. And for Sun, the deal-breaker is that Evolution is GPL-licensed. The Mozilla license is much more suited to their private-branding model.
... is whether they're even considering items that have been highly-voted on requests for several years.
Examples: Gallery import between versions, or the all-time champion outline view -- the longest-lived request with a huge votecount, declared by quite a few professional writers and educators as the show-stopper keeping OpenOffice.org out of their offices and schools. Apparently the team has other priorities.
That VOIP and peer-to-peer are technologies that threaten life on Earth itself -- or so the Administration has contended -- while Apple's DRM should be exempt from regulation because regulation is bad for innovation.
Can someone explain this to me? I'm just not getting it.
MS is bringing out their own proprietary format, which is actually kind of stupid since they could easily have embraced SVG in Adobe's absence, developed an architecture that leveraged it, and relied on the OSS community to feed the beast from a component/visualization perspective.
Yeah, they could have. However, there are at least three big show-stoppers to that idea:
Not Invented Here. MS simply doesn't do other people's standards unless they are playing catch-up.
No differentiation. Anyone can do SVG as well on non-MS platforms as MS can on their own. That keeps MS from relegating every non-MS platform to second- and third-rate status.
They can't shut off competing implementations. Their ability to kill off non-MS "WPF/E" clients is a key strategic asset and they're not about to give it up.
the fact that AJAX (and XUL, actually, but never mind) are searchable. It's the first time in quite a while that an "RIA" author got past the gee-whiz eye candy to deal with usability issues.
Of course, none of them want to deal with the disabled-accessability part, despite a recent Court decision that's going to make this kind of stuff a very low priority for a long time.
Once upon a time, I was chairing an out-of-town meeting with a roomful of engineers. We spent most of the morning working a spreadsheet with margin calculations on it trying to come up with a margin budget that everyone could live with; I was running the machine that drove the projector.
The conversation took a turn away from the spreadsheet, and after a bit the BSOD came up onscreen. The panic in the room was palpable -- everyone figured we'd just lost the whole morning, and quite a few had afternoon flights out.
So I hit the shift key and entered my password to unlock the screen.
The classic BSOD screensaver gets the same amusement factor without the hassle of hacking OSX.
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Now, when someone tells us about how wonderful it is to crank the clocks forward one hour, we get all gushy about it and tell them that twelve must be even better. Moonlight Savings Time is a wonderful idea when your summer temps regularly run above 45C and the only decent time of day is around dawn.
Like I need to have that be 0300 instead of 0400. They can stuff it.
One for each -- Europe, the East Coast of the USA, etc. I've never had to worry about Australia, though -- do they play with clocks down there or do they have better things to do?
Like, for instance, the Big Lie.
I like the Civ games, but I'm not about to buy blind.
There are, after all, fairly straightforward ways to secure data against the admins (assuming they don't actually install spyware, which is a separate subject.) There are also ways to arrange secure key recovery so that the records can be recovered if Something Happens to the exec, but no one person can do it (say, three board members and an outside law firm.)
I realize it's a business problem when the CxO doesn't have a clue about encryption, but who's going to demand he get some education?
FWIW, the legal profession actually has directives from the Bar Associations on when it's even permitted to use e-mail, and if so when encryption is required. Sometimes it's nice to actually have authority over you.
Now, I wonder how upset they're going to be if something like this gets loose? Hmmm....
For instance, chainsaws are designed to cut off limbs. Tree, human, what's the difference?
WGA and successors are designed to disable Microsoft systems. OK, I'm sure that there are those who appreciate the help.
Here's a clue: That EULA is a far more strategic asset to MS than the software is. They might give up on a lot of fronts if they have to, but they're going to spend anything they have to to protect the legal presumption of validity for the EULA.
This is going to be great for Microsoft's bottom line. It's like planned obsolescence for software.
I'm sure that just breaks Bill's heart.
Here's a clue, peeps: Microsoft is in charge. You answer to "Bitch!" Your options are:
- Bend over and whimper
- Bend over and smile
- Bend over and act tough
- etc.
The constant here, for those who think their opinions matter, is that you don't get a vote. Learn to deal with it; after a while it will seem perfectly normal.However, if you want to pretend to have some shreds of dignity quit the damned whining about it!
Well, that depends on whether the automatic updates that install IE7 also reset the default browser.
My bet is that they will -- any takers?
It's on rails. Whatever MS has when the date comes, goes.
Hey -- how about mine After all, most of what we keep in the fool things is plastic, so why not have a wallet that is optimized for cards?
Goggles or whatever -- until then, fuggeddaboudit.
Don't waste bandwidth telling me this isn't prudent decision making, that companies could put MSO only on TDN's desk and let the letter-writers use OO.o -- the sky on that planet is a different color. We're stuck with the craniorectally contorted management that lives on this one and we may as well act accordingly.
I quite agree that if your output is primarily text, you're much better off with LaTeX or the like. Gorgeous results without the constant distraction of formatting.
However, there are a lot of professional writers who have to integrate high proportions of graphics into their work, and for them a WYSIWYG tool is quite appropriate. The ability to restructure a document (the big missing feature in the Navigator) is a serious handicap there.
I'm not a professional writer, I just sleep with one.
However, it's not me -- it's Sun. And for Sun, the deal-breaker is that Evolution is GPL-licensed. The Mozilla license is much more suited to their private-branding model.
Examples: Gallery import between versions, or the all-time champion outline view -- the longest-lived request with a huge votecount, declared by quite a few professional writers and educators as the show-stopper keeping OpenOffice.org out of their offices and schools. Apparently the team has other priorities.
In case anyone wonders, yes, the nontech friend is the one that started this classic flamewar.
So I'm seriously wondering what changed.
That VOIP and peer-to-peer are technologies that threaten life on Earth itself -- or so the Administration has contended -- while Apple's DRM should be exempt from regulation because regulation is bad for innovation.
Can someone explain this to me? I'm just not getting it.
Yeah, they could have. However, there are at least three big show-stoppers to that idea:
Of course, none of them want to deal with the disabled-accessability part, despite a recent Court decision that's going to make this kind of stuff a very low priority for a long time.
Once upon a time, I was chairing an out-of-town meeting with a roomful of engineers. We spent most of the morning working a spreadsheet with margin calculations on it trying to come up with a margin budget that everyone could live with; I was running the machine that drove the projector.
The conversation took a turn away from the spreadsheet, and after a bit the BSOD came up onscreen. The panic in the room was palpable -- everyone figured we'd just lost the whole morning, and quite a few had afternoon flights out.
So I hit the shift key and entered my password to unlock the screen.
The classic BSOD screensaver gets the same amusement factor without the hassle of hacking OSX.