You know, that drop in violent crime also mirrors, to the year for almost every state that it applies to, an adoption of "shall issue" concealed weapon licenses? (IE, if you apply and you're not a criminal, they have to give you a license.)
Gaming was common in the 1980s too, you know. Do you know anyone that didn't have an NES? I don't.
Gun control? Ban them all! "Think of the children!" Environmental control? No more cars! "Think of the children!" Affirmative action? "Think of the children!" Socialized welfare? "Think of the children!" Socialized education? "Think of the children!"
Sorry, that boat won't float. They're just different sides of the same fascist government coin.
Only difference is really that the liberal communist democrats (redundancy alert!) do their "think of the children" propaganda on PC issues and direct Constitutional alterations, and fascist "christian" capitalist republicans do their's on moral issues. While they're both wrong, I think that the policies of the socialists is generally more intentionally detrimental to our liberties in the long run.
Ok, what if I don't know how the data got there or who put it there, and I'm the machine administrator? (Say, a public FTP site with a 'dump' directory, or just a large ISP or some such were many people can poentially have access to a single account).
Not that you'll read this... but no, I ask the boss for work, and he'll "look for something for me to do". I make a suggestion, sometimes written, and he'll "think about it". I address a fairly urgent concern about something, and he'll "look into it". No, the machine is broken.
Here's something you could try. I don't know of its legality, but why not ask a lawyer:
Write up a document that's identical to the contract, word for word, in all but the contestable manners. Maybe even to the point of substituting phrases like "may not work for a competitor for one year after the end of employment" for "will not work for a competitor for one year after the end of active employment for a one-time contractual fee equivilant to one year's pay at the end of the employment period."
And then they'd be bound to it. It'd be nice to see something like that happen.
Maybe this Lee guy signed a non-compete, I don't know, but still...
He's getting in trouble here for taking a job within a year of working at Microsoft? I mean, I know MS is in damn near every single sector of the IT industry. What's the guy supposed to do for that year, wander the fucking airport as a Hari Krishna?
So, basically, it seems that if you work for MS, you'll be unable to legally work anywhere else in the industry for at least a year. Fucking nice.
Another perfect solution would've been Sony's MiniDisc format. 200Mb pre-formatting, very inexpensive media (around a dollar or so now, though originally only about $5 - which is less than floppy disks originally, iirc), and a very practical model (independent medium and reader). They're very durable devices and I've never seen the disks go bad, and 200Mb is enough for probably close to 99% of what people want to transfer from computer to computer.
Had Sony pushed properly with marketing back when they started coming out with Vaios (starting with picking a name which was easier to remember how to spell and pronounce, for one), they could have easily dominated and made MD drives standard in PCs within a couple years. Instead, they pushed with the unappealing and proprietary Memory Stick technology which is, for all intents and purposes, a very impractical CF device.
You linux fanboys might call this stuff "innovative" but bloaty software turning our computer into an unresponsive slag of plasma in front of our eyes is tried and true for those of us that use Windows. With Microsoft, this is the quality we expect.
In a world where a single Word document can take up 700Kb (ie, half a floppy disk) without being more than a couple pages or having graphics, probably close to 1/2 of all floppy disks are bad out of the box and even more die after only a couple uses, and there's almost ubiquitous networks and Internet access, why is this surprising?
The fact that other media is finding a niche is, I think, only correlary. A box of 10 floppies costs, what, $10 still at Best Buy? Do they even sell floppies at Best Buy anymore? This transition would've occurred much sooner if companies would've stopped selling flawed and essentially lemon disks years ago, when the technology allowed from the transition away from such things.
Sometime around the year 1999 would've been a good time to simply stop providing them in a PC (and including a 16Mb USB CF card in its stead, with easy-access USB ports on the front). The cost to the manufaturer would've been defrayed in both increased sales ("Ohh, free technology!") and having to not spend $10 or so per machine for the next 4 (5? are they still installing floppy drives in new PCs?) years.
Aside from a couple disks I've got floating around which I use as bookmarks for magazines and books I'm reading, I've not seen a floppy actually being used as such in years.
My personal experience - as in, why I waste time at work - is probably quite contrary to so-called conventional "wisdom". Conventional wisdom says that if people aren't being watched, they're "wasting time" and slacking off. Unfortunately, a lot of companies still take this approach, as does my current employer.
My experience is that when I'm wasting time, it's due to some combination of lack of motivation to find work, an unwillingness of management to give me work and responsibilities to fill my time, and a very totalitarian mentality about subservance and authority. Basically, they treat me like I'm in grade school.
Here's an idea: just do without. I'm not trying to be fascicious, either.
Think about it. You outlined the issue for yourself quite well: it's a huge headache to carry all this stuff around. I realize one "option" is to figure out how to cram all that functionality into a single device. But just think about how much your 'distractions' actually distract you throughout the day. If not simply by using them, then by worrying about them or trying to remember where you put them.
Not only that, but it seems like a hell of a lot of money to just throw away on something which will be relegated to a shelf in your abode in a year or two. But maybe you've got the expendable income to not make it that much of a deal.
What I'm wondering is: what happened to the lovely H/PC format? I've not seen many (ok, any) devices like this on the market in the last several years, particularly ones with fully typeable keyboards.
I recently purchased an NEC MobilePro 780 from ebay. It's a device which is circa 2000, and probably cost close to a grand then, maybe a bit more. It's got a 168MHz MIPS processor, 32Mb of RAM, and 16Mb of ROM. Not too hefty, but more than capable of running WinCE 2.11 which is on it.
However, it's also got both a PCMCIA and a CF slot. And it gets about 9 hours of battery life, even with a "not new" battery (I've got the original battery in it still, which is Li-ion).
Why isn't anyone making these still, or devices like it? It's got a 640x240 half-VGA screen (color!), and I can fully touch type (with a little getting used to the key spacing) on it without a problem. It's also just 1lb with the battery. Yes, it's bigger than any handheld out there and won't fit in a pocket (well, unless you wear JNCO jeans), but it's also a bit smaller than even a Fujitsu Lifebook P1000 series. In my mind, the biggest downfall of the P1000 is that it's got moveable parts (in the hard disk).
This little device has much more utility than anything in a handheld form factor because of the keyboard. I can simply do a lot more, a lot more quickly. And it's got more portability and mobility than a laptop and can do -most- of what you'd want to do while using a laptop while on the road, anyway.
I see no reason why a company couldn't produce such a device now with a slightly larger LCD (this one is about 8" across, with about 3/4" margins around it), better battery life, a slightly more powerful processor (low-end Xscale would be fine, I'm sure), and roughly the same features - for about $450 or so new. Maybe less, even.
But, alas, I imagine there's no market for such devices here in the US anymore.
Half-Life 2 is not a "fantastic game". It is a good game, but there is nothing revolutionary, spectacular, or all that above what should be the norm about it. This is not 1995, and we should not still be expecting the par to be only slightly above a twitch-and-shoot FPS.
No, quite simply put, HL2 is a good game, but not a fantastic game. The only reason it shines is because there's such a slew of mediocre or plain bad games out there these days. Too little flash and not enough substance.
Well, if you look at cases of autism and other such developmental problems, and compare the subset of 'mainstream' culture that also decides not to give their children vaccines (we didn't, for instance), you will find that there is a much lower instance of these disorders amongst those not vaccinated or innoculated. Vaccines and innoculations have some very dangerous chemicals in them that the mainstream public is not aware of. Additionally, in undeveloped countries such occurances are also significantly lower.
That fits well with my theory that the more genetically diverse a person is, the more generally attractive (and intelligent) they will be. That is, of course, ignoring the specific cultural values placed on specifically shaped attributes (large breasts, plump lips, big muscles) and instead simply having properly proportioned features and symetric sides.
I used to live in mennonite territory. It's a scary place.
Yes, people can leave the colonies. But when they do, they end up leaving and going to one or two close towns. This ends up basically twisting the genetics and culture of the town to be fairly like that of the surrounding colonies; while not as genetically or socially inbred as the colonies, these towns end up being horrible, trite places to live or visit. If you don't have a 'proper' last name (ie, one of several like "Tschetter" or "Hofer") and aren't from the town originally, you are an outcast even if you're "in charge". Business is hard for you, as people will preferentially avoid your business or not hire you simply because you're not "one of them". It's nepotism taken to the extreme.
Not only that, but the social bickering in these towns is quite the ruckus. You end up having families with very, very ingrained traditions that are quite different than those of their neighbors. It's a nightmare.
Now, granted, there are couples which will hook up cross-colony, and leave the colonies because they, as a couple, don't really fit in. I've met several of these families, and they're wonderful people (well, at least the adults are; they don't seem to know how to deal with kids that go to public school, the poor bastards).
And don't get me wrong: the colonies are incredibly nice and obliging - at least if you're a Christian. They seem to appreciate discussing faith with outsiders (as long as there is no antagonism), and open up their houses to their business associates.
Granted, colonies do vary quite a bit from one to another. It seems some are much more inbred than others due to age, and some cut off much more dealings with the outside world. Some will have only a dozen families, while others will have a couple hundred. Some have multi-colony conglomerates of sorts, and will even take outsiders in, and many will marry between colonies. I've been to colonies that have various shapes and sizes of people, some with very consistent body and facial shapes (even between the genders), some with very unattractive and stupid members, while others with reasonably intelligent and quite attractive members (let me tell you, that was a pleasant surprise!)
(As a fairly attractive guy, it's kind of... interesting to arrive at a colony when you've only seen the ugly colonies to come across one where pretty much every female would be at least an 8 out of 10 "hotness" points on the outside - and that's without the assistance of makeup. It's doubly interesting when you, as a young male, walk by a group of them, and they all watch you as you go by with very hungry looks. Oy vey.)
There's a very important point about innovation here that you're missing, and it's partially why Microsoft and Apple are on very drastically different planes commercially.
The point is that Microsoft seems to be better at innovating where it matters - from a business perspective. They've always managed to figure out what people want, and when. They might not be able to jump on it right away (as seems to have been the case for oh, the last 5 years with security issues), but they've generally been pretty good about it. They provided the first economical and widely available operating system for home and/or office computers. Then a while later, they provided a graphical interface for that environment which worked Well Enough. Then they decided it was time to step things up a notch and actually did quite a bit of market and useability research for the Windows 95/NT user interface. They went even further for Windows 2000 and XP, by doing dozens of actual scientific studies to find out what kind of behavior works best for the average user. Now, not knowing what Longhorn is going to do, I have noticed that they seem to have stabilized their interface to some degree.
All throughout that time, Apple kept a fairly consistent interface until OS X came out. Since OS X came out, they've been pulling a fairly Microsoft-like approach by tacking on this and that feature; this might be good, and it might be bad; it might even be precedented by statistical research - I don't know.
However, the advantage that MS has right now is that they actually have the majority of the market, and it is what people are used to. To add insult to injury, MS has had a fairly consistent user interface now for 10 years, while Apple's 20-year interface consistency was just pretty much thrown out, and Apple is making continual changes to the new interface which operate in a fashion which - while it might work for die hard Mac folks who are used to different operational paradigms, does not work for the majority of computer users. (This is the same problem Linux runs up against, btw - though with KDE, things are getting better.)
Most users don't give a damn about all these finitely detailed features. They're goddamn lucky if they can remember where they stored their document, letter to Aunt Josie, or how to get online. Spyware aside, Windows is about as much as these people can handle, and having a user interface which works mostly the same way it did 10 years ago is a definitive preferance over something like OS X which could be confusing to competent computer professionals with experience even with MacOS 9 and prior.
Doubly so from a business perspective. When the names for everything not only are unfamiliar but also keep changing, and the accepted ways for doing things are varied to the point where something can't be easily explained, life gets very difficult for tech support.
I didn't check any of the good things, and all, "Good, now I can check the bad things!" and got a huge limp one when I saw Icould only pick three. There were at least 4 which -needed- to be checked...
You are so neive. Have you not been paying attention for the last 6 years or so?
I can't imagine getting your pay cut because others are making more.
No, but what they will do is lay someone off (ie, fire them) and then either outsource the job, or hire two two people at a lower rate when they need another employee (ie, there's more work than you're able to do).
[i]..the built in Windows XP firewall (enabled by default on SP2 and assuming you don't have any other services enabled or open) and/or have a $30 personal firewall/router, there is a 100% chance you won't get compromised.[/i]
Uh... highly doubtful.
Spyware is included in this assessment. I'm guessing that if someone gets online, chances are they're going to go to one of the larger sites on the internet - many of them have spyware on them. Guess what? They'll probably do that within 12 minutes.
Seems to me that this might fall under the grounds of railroading, harassment, blackmail, or any number of other unethical items. Seems to me that, once the criminal charges are over (are there any?) he'll have the grounds to sue them for millions (not to mention potential legal reprecussions): for falsely representing evidence, for lying to cops, using the law to their own ends, ruining his name and reputation, for taking his property, and functionally preventing him from working (due to the legal charge). It might even direly impact his career in the future.
There isn't a single ethical computer science professional in the world (professors, lauded scientists, hell, even LW or LT) that wouldn't hesitate to come to his defense as an expert witness, I imagine.
One of the things I see is Microsoft purchasing yet another software company that is at the forefront of a specific software specialty - the lead in its industry. Monopoly, anyone?
However, what I also see is Microsoft purchasing a technology which could be very well suited at enhancing any number of their existing technologies; their search engine comes most immediately to mind.
Imagine what they could do if they had effective means of gathering personal search preference demographics using the same techniques used to target ads. I know that, for me, this would probably be very useful. I know I've wanted the ability to focus the target of my searches a bit more than even Google allows me to do. Not just things like date, time, and various technical aspects of a document, but also maybe give preference to search results based on things which I frequently or regularly browse. For instance, if I regularly load slashdot or tomshardware, and infrequently go to pricewatch (or generally don't buy things online), if I search for a specific technical device name, it would be able to direct my searches to things I'd find more preferential: documentation, things that relate to the hardware specs, and things of that matter, while filtering out the more commercial elements.
Google tries to do this by default simply by logistics, but you often have to throw in other plugs like -shopping, -store, and things of that manner in order to get desired results - often with multiple subsequent searches to prune the tree. I can see this being very useful technology in getting towards this goal indeed.
Hrm, and it's even a fairly attractive piece, too.
I took a look at a couple of images of it via google, and it looks a great deal like a Browning Hi-Power. I'm not intricately knowledgeable of the BHP, but is there a reason that the p-35 looks so similar, or is it merely coincidence? I didn't find any ready information as to its history.
Slashdot Mirror
You know, that drop in violent crime also mirrors, to the year for almost every state that it applies to, an adoption of "shall issue" concealed weapon licenses? (IE, if you apply and you're not a criminal, they have to give you a license.)
Gaming was common in the 1980s too, you know. Do you know anyone that didn't have an NES? I don't.
Gun control? Ban them all! "Think of the children!"
Environmental control? No more cars! "Think of the children!"
Affirmative action? "Think of the children!"
Socialized welfare? "Think of the children!"
Socialized education? "Think of the children!"
Sorry, that boat won't float. They're just different sides of the same fascist government coin.
Only difference is really that the liberal communist democrats (redundancy alert!) do their "think of the children" propaganda on PC issues and direct Constitutional alterations, and fascist "christian" capitalist republicans do their's on moral issues. While they're both wrong, I think that the policies of the socialists is generally more intentionally detrimental to our liberties in the long run.
Ok, what if I don't know how the data got there or who put it there, and I'm the machine administrator? (Say, a public FTP site with a 'dump' directory, or just a large ISP or some such were many people can poentially have access to a single account).
Not that you'll read this... but no, I ask the boss for work, and he'll "look for something for me to do". I make a suggestion, sometimes written, and he'll "think about it". I address a fairly urgent concern about something, and he'll "look into it". No, the machine is broken.
Here's something you could try. I don't know of its legality, but why not ask a lawyer:
Write up a document that's identical to the contract, word for word, in all but the contestable manners. Maybe even to the point of substituting phrases like "may not work for a competitor for one year after the end of employment" for "will not work for a competitor for one year after the end of active employment for a one-time contractual fee equivilant to one year's pay at the end of the employment period."
And then they'd be bound to it. It'd be nice to see something like that happen.
Maybe this Lee guy signed a non-compete, I don't know, but still...
He's getting in trouble here for taking a job within a year of working at Microsoft? I mean, I know MS is in damn near every single sector of the IT industry. What's the guy supposed to do for that year, wander the fucking airport as a Hari Krishna?
So, basically, it seems that if you work for MS, you'll be unable to legally work anywhere else in the industry for at least a year. Fucking nice.
You probably won't read this, but...
Another perfect solution would've been Sony's MiniDisc format. 200Mb pre-formatting, very inexpensive media (around a dollar or so now, though originally only about $5 - which is less than floppy disks originally, iirc), and a very practical model (independent medium and reader). They're very durable devices and I've never seen the disks go bad, and 200Mb is enough for probably close to 99% of what people want to transfer from computer to computer.
Had Sony pushed properly with marketing back when they started coming out with Vaios (starting with picking a name which was easier to remember how to spell and pronounce, for one), they could have easily dominated and made MD drives standard in PCs within a couple years. Instead, they pushed with the unappealing and proprietary Memory Stick technology which is, for all intents and purposes, a very impractical CF device.
You linux fanboys might call this stuff "innovative" but bloaty software turning our computer into an unresponsive slag of plasma in front of our eyes is tried and true for those of us that use Windows. With Microsoft, this is the quality we expect.
(Hey, it's a joke. Lighten up.)
You know what's even more cute?
His slashdot UID is lower than your's.
In a world where a single Word document can take up 700Kb (ie, half a floppy disk) without being more than a couple pages or having graphics, probably close to 1/2 of all floppy disks are bad out of the box and even more die after only a couple uses, and there's almost ubiquitous networks and Internet access, why is this surprising?
The fact that other media is finding a niche is, I think, only correlary. A box of 10 floppies costs, what, $10 still at Best Buy? Do they even sell floppies at Best Buy anymore? This transition would've occurred much sooner if companies would've stopped selling flawed and essentially lemon disks years ago, when the technology allowed from the transition away from such things.
Sometime around the year 1999 would've been a good time to simply stop providing them in a PC (and including a 16Mb USB CF card in its stead, with easy-access USB ports on the front). The cost to the manufaturer would've been defrayed in both increased sales ("Ohh, free technology!") and having to not spend $10 or so per machine for the next 4 (5? are they still installing floppy drives in new PCs?) years.
Aside from a couple disks I've got floating around which I use as bookmarks for magazines and books I'm reading, I've not seen a floppy actually being used as such in years.
It seems pretty openly frowned down upon to actually research things you're paying money for at the place I work. Seems it makes management look bad.
My personal experience - as in, why I waste time at work - is probably quite contrary to so-called conventional "wisdom". Conventional wisdom says that if people aren't being watched, they're "wasting time" and slacking off. Unfortunately, a lot of companies still take this approach, as does my current employer.
My experience is that when I'm wasting time, it's due to some combination of lack of motivation to find work, an unwillingness of management to give me work and responsibilities to fill my time, and a very totalitarian mentality about subservance and authority. Basically, they treat me like I'm in grade school.
Here's an idea: just do without. I'm not trying to be fascicious, either.
Think about it. You outlined the issue for yourself quite well: it's a huge headache to carry all this stuff around. I realize one "option" is to figure out how to cram all that functionality into a single device. But just think about how much your 'distractions' actually distract you throughout the day. If not simply by using them, then by worrying about them or trying to remember where you put them.
Not only that, but it seems like a hell of a lot of money to just throw away on something which will be relegated to a shelf in your abode in a year or two. But maybe you've got the expendable income to not make it that much of a deal.
What I'm wondering is: what happened to the lovely H/PC format? I've not seen many (ok, any) devices like this on the market in the last several years, particularly ones with fully typeable keyboards.
I recently purchased an NEC MobilePro 780 from ebay. It's a device which is circa 2000, and probably cost close to a grand then, maybe a bit more. It's got a 168MHz MIPS processor, 32Mb of RAM, and 16Mb of ROM. Not too hefty, but more than capable of running WinCE 2.11 which is on it.
However, it's also got both a PCMCIA and a CF slot. And it gets about 9 hours of battery life, even with a "not new" battery (I've got the original battery in it still, which is Li-ion).
Why isn't anyone making these still, or devices like it? It's got a 640x240 half-VGA screen (color!), and I can fully touch type (with a little getting used to the key spacing) on it without a problem. It's also just 1lb with the battery. Yes, it's bigger than any handheld out there and won't fit in a pocket (well, unless you wear JNCO jeans), but it's also a bit smaller than even a Fujitsu Lifebook P1000 series. In my mind, the biggest downfall of the P1000 is that it's got moveable parts (in the hard disk).
This little device has much more utility than anything in a handheld form factor because of the keyboard. I can simply do a lot more, a lot more quickly. And it's got more portability and mobility than a laptop and can do -most- of what you'd want to do while using a laptop while on the road, anyway.
I see no reason why a company couldn't produce such a device now with a slightly larger LCD (this one is about 8" across, with about 3/4" margins around it), better battery life, a slightly more powerful processor (low-end Xscale would be fine, I'm sure), and roughly the same features - for about $450 or so new. Maybe less, even.
But, alas, I imagine there's no market for such devices here in the US anymore.
Half-Life 2 is not a "fantastic game". It is a good game, but there is nothing revolutionary, spectacular, or all that above what should be the norm about it. This is not 1995, and we should not still be expecting the par to be only slightly above a twitch-and-shoot FPS.
No, quite simply put, HL2 is a good game, but not a fantastic game. The only reason it shines is because there's such a slew of mediocre or plain bad games out there these days. Too little flash and not enough substance.
Well, if you look at cases of autism and other such developmental problems, and compare the subset of 'mainstream' culture that also decides not to give their children vaccines (we didn't, for instance), you will find that there is a much lower instance of these disorders amongst those not vaccinated or innoculated. Vaccines and innoculations have some very dangerous chemicals in them that the mainstream public is not aware of. Additionally, in undeveloped countries such occurances are also significantly lower.
That fits well with my theory that the more genetically diverse a person is, the more generally attractive (and intelligent) they will be. That is, of course, ignoring the specific cultural values placed on specifically shaped attributes (large breasts, plump lips, big muscles) and instead simply having properly proportioned features and symetric sides.
I used to live in mennonite territory. It's a scary place.
Yes, people can leave the colonies. But when they do, they end up leaving and going to one or two close towns. This ends up basically twisting the genetics and culture of the town to be fairly like that of the surrounding colonies; while not as genetically or socially inbred as the colonies, these towns end up being horrible, trite places to live or visit. If you don't have a 'proper' last name (ie, one of several like "Tschetter" or "Hofer") and aren't from the town originally, you are an outcast even if you're "in charge". Business is hard for you, as people will preferentially avoid your business or not hire you simply because you're not "one of them". It's nepotism taken to the extreme.
Not only that, but the social bickering in these towns is quite the ruckus. You end up having families with very, very ingrained traditions that are quite different than those of their neighbors. It's a nightmare.
Now, granted, there are couples which will hook up cross-colony, and leave the colonies because they, as a couple, don't really fit in. I've met several of these families, and they're wonderful people (well, at least the adults are; they don't seem to know how to deal with kids that go to public school, the poor bastards).
And don't get me wrong: the colonies are incredibly nice and obliging - at least if you're a Christian. They seem to appreciate discussing faith with outsiders (as long as there is no antagonism), and open up their houses to their business associates.
Granted, colonies do vary quite a bit from one to another. It seems some are much more inbred than others due to age, and some cut off much more dealings with the outside world. Some will have only a dozen families, while others will have a couple hundred. Some have multi-colony conglomerates of sorts, and will even take outsiders in, and many will marry between colonies. I've been to colonies that have various shapes and sizes of people, some with very consistent body and facial shapes (even between the genders), some with very unattractive and stupid members, while others with reasonably intelligent and quite attractive members (let me tell you, that was a pleasant surprise!)
(As a fairly attractive guy, it's kind of... interesting to arrive at a colony when you've only seen the ugly colonies to come across one where pretty much every female would be at least an 8 out of 10 "hotness" points on the outside - and that's without the assistance of makeup. It's doubly interesting when you, as a young male, walk by a group of them, and they all watch you as you go by with very hungry looks. Oy vey.)
There's a very important point about innovation here that you're missing, and it's partially why Microsoft and Apple are on very drastically different planes commercially.
The point is that Microsoft seems to be better at innovating where it matters - from a business perspective. They've always managed to figure out what people want, and when. They might not be able to jump on it right away (as seems to have been the case for oh, the last 5 years with security issues), but they've generally been pretty good about it. They provided the first economical and widely available operating system for home and/or office computers. Then a while later, they provided a graphical interface for that environment which worked Well Enough. Then they decided it was time to step things up a notch and actually did quite a bit of market and useability research for the Windows 95/NT user interface. They went even further for Windows 2000 and XP, by doing dozens of actual scientific studies to find out what kind of behavior works best for the average user. Now, not knowing what Longhorn is going to do, I have noticed that they seem to have stabilized their interface to some degree.
All throughout that time, Apple kept a fairly consistent interface until OS X came out. Since OS X came out, they've been pulling a fairly Microsoft-like approach by tacking on this and that feature; this might be good, and it might be bad; it might even be precedented by statistical research - I don't know.
However, the advantage that MS has right now is that they actually have the majority of the market, and it is what people are used to. To add insult to injury, MS has had a fairly consistent user interface now for 10 years, while Apple's 20-year interface consistency was just pretty much thrown out, and Apple is making continual changes to the new interface which operate in a fashion which - while it might work for die hard Mac folks who are used to different operational paradigms, does not work for the majority of computer users. (This is the same problem Linux runs up against, btw - though with KDE, things are getting better.)
Most users don't give a damn about all these finitely detailed features. They're goddamn lucky if they can remember where they stored their document, letter to Aunt Josie, or how to get online. Spyware aside, Windows is about as much as these people can handle, and having a user interface which works mostly the same way it did 10 years ago is a definitive preferance over something like OS X which could be confusing to competent computer professionals with experience even with MacOS 9 and prior.
Doubly so from a business perspective. When the names for everything not only are unfamiliar but also keep changing, and the accepted ways for doing things are varied to the point where something can't be easily explained, life gets very difficult for tech support.
Yeah, that's my exact situation.
I didn't check any of the good things, and all, "Good, now I can check the bad things!" and got a huge limp one when I saw Icould only pick three. There were at least 4 which -needed- to be checked...
Maybe it's time to check out another job.
You are so neive. Have you not been paying attention for the last 6 years or so?
I can't imagine getting your pay cut because others are making more.
No, but what they will do is lay someone off (ie, fire them) and then either outsource the job, or hire two two people at a lower rate when they need another employee (ie, there's more work than you're able to do).
[i]..the built in Windows XP firewall (enabled by default on SP2 and assuming you don't have any other services enabled or open) and/or have a $30 personal firewall/router, there is a 100% chance you won't get compromised.[/i]
Uh... highly doubtful.
Spyware is included in this assessment. I'm guessing that if someone gets online, chances are they're going to go to one of the larger sites on the internet - many of them have spyware on them. Guess what? They'll probably do that within 12 minutes.
Seems to me that this might fall under the grounds of railroading, harassment, blackmail, or any number of other unethical items. Seems to me that, once the criminal charges are over (are there any?) he'll have the grounds to sue them for millions (not to mention potential legal reprecussions): for falsely representing evidence, for lying to cops, using the law to their own ends, ruining his name and reputation, for taking his property, and functionally preventing him from working (due to the legal charge). It might even direly impact his career in the future.
There isn't a single ethical computer science professional in the world (professors, lauded scientists, hell, even LW or LT) that wouldn't hesitate to come to his defense as an expert witness, I imagine.
This looks like a lot of different things to me.
One of the things I see is Microsoft purchasing yet another software company that is at the forefront of a specific software specialty - the lead in its industry. Monopoly, anyone?
However, what I also see is Microsoft purchasing a technology which could be very well suited at enhancing any number of their existing technologies; their search engine comes most immediately to mind.
Imagine what they could do if they had effective means of gathering personal search preference demographics using the same techniques used to target ads. I know that, for me, this would probably be very useful. I know I've wanted the ability to focus the target of my searches a bit more than even Google allows me to do. Not just things like date, time, and various technical aspects of a document, but also maybe give preference to search results based on things which I frequently or regularly browse. For instance, if I regularly load slashdot or tomshardware, and infrequently go to pricewatch (or generally don't buy things online), if I search for a specific technical device name, it would be able to direct my searches to things I'd find more preferential: documentation, things that relate to the hardware specs, and things of that matter, while filtering out the more commercial elements.
Google tries to do this by default simply by logistics, but you often have to throw in other plugs like -shopping, -store, and things of that manner in order to get desired results - often with multiple subsequent searches to prune the tree. I can see this being very useful technology in getting towards this goal indeed.
Hrm, and it's even a fairly attractive piece, too.
I took a look at a couple of images of it via google, and it looks a great deal like a Browning Hi-Power. I'm not intricately knowledgeable of the BHP, but is there a reason that the p-35 looks so similar, or is it merely coincidence? I didn't find any ready information as to its history.