I had a hilarious experience calling an insurance company in Canada once. They had one of those voice recognition systems, and I spent at least 15 minutes searching through every menu, trying to find what I wanted, or even a choice to speak to a representative. Some menus I couldn't back out of, and I had to hang up twice to return to the main menu.
The third time I finally got too frustrated and started swearing as soon as the computer answered. The voice paused for a few seconds, then said "Ok, a representative, one moment please."
I thought it was a brilliant idea. Recognize when the customer is getting pissed off and then get him to a human ASAP.:)
your chances of catching a computer virus or a handful of invitations to unspeakable sexual acts is much greater than finding what you were looking for in the first place.
Easy, use a cross platform toolkit. Either Qt (my favourite) or wxWidgets (if you don't mind some MFC-style macroness) would be a good choice. As a bonus you get cross platform functionality beyond the GUI, such as network, databases, and utility classes in one package.
I think Mac OS X doesn't have any, primarily because not a single one has EVER been identified.
Hmm. It seems I was wrong. Perhaps my friend accidentally destroyed his system in another way and thought it was a virus. In any case, the risk of viruses on Mac and Linux is the same, and that risk is basically zero. The fact that there are a couple Linux viruses has absolutely no impact on this. If they are because of security flaws, then new Linux distributions aren't vulnerable to them, since the flaws would have been fixed. If they do not depend on security flaws, then they depend on the ignorance of the user, which is a risk that cannot be defended against.
Regardless of whether or not there will be any in the future, this is an exceptional marketing tool that draws in new users.
Perhaps, but why is this not flaunted by Apple? Because they know that as soon as they go out and say "We have zero viruses", one will appear within half an hour just to spite them. In reality, the risk of being sent a virus via email is essentially zero on Mac or Linux.
your computer is just as much at risk of slowing down due to more background programs and desktop widgets being installed.
No it isn't. The reason Windows tends to slow down is because every second device and application has another little system tray icon and system service that starts up. Linux device drivers just don't have that. Same with applications, the way they are written, they just don't all want to start some component on system boot, or clog up a central registry. I'm proficient with Windows and Linux, but the fact is that under heavy use, Windows will eventually slow down and aquire cruft, while Linux will keep on going at the same speed as after a fresh install.
First of all, there is no "Linux community" in that they have a single answer or position on things. I wish people would stop generalizing like that.
I would say Linux's answer has been: "If you move to Linux, your computer will run for years without getting slower, there is no risk of viruses or spyware, you can customize the look of your computer or just stick with the elegant default, the operating system comes with hundreds of applications that are of high quality and absolutely free."
PS. You think Mac's don't have any viruses? Think again, there are some out there and quite destructive ones as well (friend of mine had OS 10.something destroyed by one)
A lot has been done already. I plugged my laptop (AMD 64 3200+, 128MB Ati Radeon Xpress 200M video card, 1GB RAM) into a power meter and it uses about 30Watts on idle. That's pretty damn good I'd say. Desktops are the ones that suck power like there's no tomorrow, there's really no good reason for 95% of computer users to still use them.
Why do you comment about a subject you know nothing about? Give the express editions a try, even the betas are full featured and perfectly suitable for all kinds of development. Really the only major things they are missing is integration with Visual SourceSafe (useless to me) and remote debugging. For 99% of windows developers, the express editions are going to be a huge boon for little money.
Visual studio is excellent if you're developing windows apps using windows technologies. As soon as you stray off the path a little it becomes much less usefull. I've done a lot windows programming with it, and visual studio is great, but since it's meant to develop with the windows tools, the overall experience isn't that good. For example, I recently discovered Qt, and now I'm faster and more efficient developing with Qt without a debugger or intellisense than I ever was with MFC and visual studio. Maybe I'm just stupid, but MFC and WinAPI is the biggest pile of inconsistant, crufty garbage I've ever had the displeasure of working with.
Visual studio is a good tool, not because it's all that great, but because the competition sucks even worse.
Bull. There was no requirement to work all summer long. I did about 3 weeks of full time work.
$4500/120 = $37.50/hour. I'd say I'm happy with that. The trick was to come up with an innovative idea that didn't require too much coding. Of course if your proposal was to write a MS Windows clone in COBOL then you've got other problems.
I like how debian does that when you try to uninstall core system libraries. I think you actually have to type in "yes I'm sure I want to destroy my system" (or something like that) before it will do it.
Software install is definitely an issue still. When the software you want is included in the distribution, then the install is easier than on windows. Open up whatever package manager you have, and chose the programs you want, and install them. As a bonus, you seamless updates to new versions for all those programs. But installing something that's not in the repository is a pain in the ass.
I know how to compile stuff, but that doesn't make it any less of a pain. Do I have all the required dependencies? There's no easy way to check, just trial and error../configure, look at the error, try to guess what package it's missing, install that package,./configure again. It sucks. Luckily this problem is being approached from a few angles now. Autopackage (http://autopackage.org/), klik (http://dot.kde.org/1126867980/), and zero-install (http://0install.net/) all look really promising. I've tried klik, and it really rocks. Give it a go if you have a chance.
Two hugely important differences (for me anyway): 1. Remote Desktop 2. IIS (yeah some people have installed IIS on XP Home but it sure didn't work for me)
KOffice - Very nice on KDE/Linux, but still immature compared to OO.o or MS Office AbiWord/Gnumeric - Also immature, and not enough integration. Staroffice - This is so close to openoffice it's basically the same product. Wordperfect - the keyword here is "future versions". Future versions as in not existing yet.
Really, right now, OpenDocument on windows means StarOffice/Openoffice.. And I just don't believe they are quite up to snuff yet.
I know opendocument isn't openoffice. That doesn't change the fact that there are no good office suites for windows that support opendocument and also do a good job with MS Office files. OpenOffice is the closest here, that's why I chose to rag on it. The argument that most people don't need the features is so ridiculous I can't believe it's still being mentioned. So maybe only 1% of people need a certain feature, well suddenly that feature is gone and those 1% (could be hundreds of people) are less productive!
Sure it would be better to use opendocument, but the reality is that it is going to be painful and risky to switch, no matter what. They estimate it will cost them less to switch to OpenOffice than to upgrade MS Office. That's fine, but does that matter when you can't efficiently communicate with the rest of government?
Good point. I didn't see that side of it. I guess especially with Microsoft's radical changes in the Office 12 UI, training will be even more of an issue.
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So what if you find them both energizing?
Then you are a god amongst men! We worship you, oh double ended personality!
I had a hilarious experience calling an insurance company in Canada once. They had one of those voice recognition systems, and I spent at least 15 minutes searching through every menu, trying to find what I wanted, or even a choice to speak to a representative. Some menus I couldn't back out of, and I had to hang up twice to return to the main menu.
:)
The third time I finally got too frustrated and started swearing as soon as the computer answered. The voice paused for a few seconds, then said "Ok, a representative, one moment please."
I thought it was a brilliant idea. Recognize when the customer is getting pissed off and then get him to a human ASAP.
Better yet, don't buy a car stereo. Just like the best way to avoid having your bike stolen is to ride a cheap bike.
your chances of catching a computer virus or a handful of invitations to unspeakable sexual acts is much greater than finding what you were looking for in the first place.
Uhh. yeah. Why do you think it's so popular?
Yeah! Fight the man! We all think you're cool now that we know you're an individual who doesn't care about what others think! ;)
Start worrying
And worrying helps us how? Chill the hell out, if it's gonna kill you, there's nothing you can do about it.
Easy, use a cross platform toolkit. Either Qt (my favourite) or wxWidgets (if you don't mind some MFC-style macroness) would be a good choice.
As a bonus you get cross platform functionality beyond the GUI, such as network, databases, and utility classes in one package.
I think Mac OS X doesn't have any, primarily because not a single one has EVER been identified.
Hmm. It seems I was wrong. Perhaps my friend accidentally destroyed his system in another way and thought it was a virus. In any case, the risk of viruses on Mac and Linux is the same, and that risk is basically zero. The fact that there are a couple Linux viruses has absolutely no impact on this. If they are because of security flaws, then new Linux distributions aren't vulnerable to them, since the flaws would have been fixed. If they do not depend on security flaws, then they depend on the ignorance of the user, which is a risk that cannot be defended against.
Regardless of whether or not there will be any in the future, this is an exceptional marketing tool that draws in new users.
Perhaps, but why is this not flaunted by Apple? Because they know that as soon as they go out and say "We have zero viruses", one will appear within half an hour just to spite them. In reality, the risk of being sent a virus via email is essentially zero on Mac or Linux.
your computer is just as much at risk of slowing down due to more background programs and desktop widgets being installed.
No it isn't. The reason Windows tends to slow down is because every second device and application has another little system tray icon and system service that starts up. Linux device drivers just don't have that. Same with applications, the way they are written, they just don't all want to start some component on system boot, or clog up a central registry. I'm proficient with Windows and Linux, but the fact is that under heavy use, Windows will eventually slow down and aquire cruft, while Linux will keep on going at the same speed as after a fresh install.
First of all, there is no "Linux community" in that they have a single answer or position on things. I wish people would stop generalizing like that.
I would say Linux's answer has been: "If you move to Linux, your computer will run for years without getting slower, there is no risk of viruses or spyware, you can customize the look of your computer or just stick with the elegant default, the operating system comes with hundreds of applications that are of high quality and absolutely free."
PS. You think Mac's don't have any viruses? Think again, there are some out there and quite destructive ones as well (friend of mine had OS 10.something destroyed by one)
Done. http://www.valdyas.org/fading/index.cgi/2005/10/29 #kloc (down the post a bit for OO.o numbers)
I leave it as an excercise for the reader to recode the measly 7% of Java code to C++.
A lot has been done already. I plugged my laptop (AMD 64 3200+, 128MB Ati Radeon Xpress 200M video card, 1GB RAM) into a power meter and it uses about 30Watts on idle. That's pretty damn good I'd say. Desktops are the ones that suck power like there's no tomorrow, there's really no good reason for 95% of computer users to still use them.
Why do you comment about a subject you know nothing about? Give the express editions a try, even the betas are full featured and perfectly suitable for all kinds of development. Really the only major things they are missing is integration with Visual SourceSafe (useless to me) and remote debugging. For 99% of windows developers, the express editions are going to be a huge boon for little money.
May I ask which part of Windows was more convenient? I'm not criticizing, but it is good to hear specific criticism so they may be fixed.
Visual studio is excellent if you're developing windows apps using windows technologies. As soon as you stray off the path a little it becomes much less usefull. I've done a lot windows programming with it, and visual studio is great, but since it's meant to develop with the windows tools, the overall experience isn't that good. For example, I recently discovered Qt, and now I'm faster and more efficient developing with Qt without a debugger or intellisense than I ever was with MFC and visual studio. Maybe I'm just stupid, but MFC and WinAPI is the biggest pile of inconsistant, crufty garbage I've ever had the displeasure of working with.
Visual studio is a good tool, not because it's all that great, but because the competition sucks even worse.
Bull. There was no requirement to work all summer long. I did about 3 weeks of full time work.
$4500/120 = $37.50/hour. I'd say I'm happy with that. The trick was to come up with an innovative idea that didn't require too much coding. Of course if your proposal was to write a MS Windows clone in COBOL then you've got other problems.
I like how debian does that when you try to uninstall core system libraries. I think you actually have to type in "yes I'm sure I want to destroy my system" (or something like that) before it will do it.
There's a difference between hero worship and respecting someone for what they have done. I respect Linux, RMS, and Jon, but I don't worship them.
You remind me of a bad compiler.. I miss a semicolon and it spits out a page of unrelated errors.. :)
Did you try Ati's graphical driver installer? It should handle the compiling for you.
Good comment. Thanks.
./configure, look at the error, try to guess what package it's missing, install that package, ./configure again. It sucks. Luckily this problem is being approached from a few angles now. Autopackage (http://autopackage.org/), klik (http://dot.kde.org/1126867980/), and zero-install (http://0install.net/) all look really promising. I've tried klik, and it really rocks. Give it a go if you have a chance.
Software install is definitely an issue still. When the software you want is included in the distribution, then the install is easier than on windows. Open up whatever package manager you have, and chose the programs you want, and install them. As a bonus, you seamless updates to new versions for all those programs. But installing something that's not in the repository is a pain in the ass.
I know how to compile stuff, but that doesn't make it any less of a pain. Do I have all the required dependencies? There's no easy way to check, just trial and error.
Two hugely important differences (for me anyway):
1. Remote Desktop
2. IIS (yeah some people have installed IIS on XP Home but it sure didn't work for me)
Really? The government of massachussetts will force other state/federal governments to change formats?
KOffice - Very nice on KDE/Linux, but still immature compared to OO.o or MS Office
AbiWord/Gnumeric - Also immature, and not enough integration.
Staroffice - This is so close to openoffice it's basically the same product.
Wordperfect - the keyword here is "future versions". Future versions as in not existing yet.
Really, right now, OpenDocument on windows means StarOffice/Openoffice.. And I just don't believe they are quite up to snuff yet.
I know opendocument isn't openoffice. That doesn't change the fact that there are no good office suites for windows that support opendocument and also do a good job with MS Office files. OpenOffice is the closest here, that's why I chose to rag on it.
The argument that most people don't need the features is so ridiculous I can't believe it's still being mentioned. So maybe only 1% of people need a certain feature, well suddenly that feature is gone and those 1% (could be hundreds of people) are less productive!
Sure it would be better to use opendocument, but the reality is that it is going to be painful and risky to switch, no matter what. They estimate it will cost them less to switch to OpenOffice than to upgrade MS Office. That's fine, but does that matter when you can't efficiently communicate with the rest of government?
Good point. I didn't see that side of it. I guess especially with Microsoft's radical changes in the Office 12 UI, training will be even more of an issue.