Yeep - screw christmas bonuses, screw bonuses. I have never been a fan of company wide bonuses. It's stupid - I don't see why John Thicky should get a bonus when I did most of his work. Bonuses are for those that have done good work.
However, I have noticed a few things that make working life _pleasurable_ and _fun_. Bosses listen up!
1 - Staff will get VERY resentful if they get no pay rises or very small pay rises but the boss gets 25%. You are all in the same boat bosses and staff alike. Bosses need to realise this and act more like staff (instead of god!)
2 - Geeks like stuff - DON'T THROW OUT OLD COMPUTERS! Give them to schools if you want but always let your engineers rake of the bones of old hardware and take what they want. They love it and you don't even want it!
3 - Let your geeks experiment with their code. People like the chance to experiment a little.
4 - Listen to your geeks BUT GIVE THEM CREDIT. I quit one job after a few months when I discovered that the _entire_ place was based on "company politics". I would say something to my manager (hell I even typed him a report) only to discover that he had basically just changed the name on the report and no-one knew I had anything to do with it. AVOID THIS! If this happens - QUIT. You will be incredibly miserable otherwise!
5 - Don't pay out bonuses just to make your staff stay. Think before you spend! Perhaps spending all that bonus cash on new equipment or the office environment will cheer you staff up just as much as a coupla hundred quid.
The best bonus experience I ever had was at Pi Research in Cambridge. I was only 19 (2nd year there) and I had been working on some high resolution print routines. I got it finished and working (thanks to a little help) WELL ahead of time. The next day I went to work and was asked to see the MD. Well... I shit a brick! I reall thought I done or said something wrong! Anyhoo.... The MD asked me about my work, the quality of it, did I imagine there were still bugs etc.... then I got a very nice "thank you" and a "keep up the good work" type thing and a bonus cheque! I can't remember how much and it wasn't huge but the idea was there. They had been watching and decided it was time to place credit where credit was due. A very satisfying sensation I assure you.
Nice idea but I doubt even he is a big enough idiot for that! Seriously - ifd you go searching for this stuff you'll get thousands apon thousands of hits including a lot of apparent slashdot "parody" sites (not the right word but I was trying to avoid swearing!!!) smokedot.... blah blah... This really seems to be a concerted effort by (presumably) more than 1 person to just cause chaos.
I often wondered whether the internet would die this way - too many idiots launching automated attacks on each other until the signal disappears in the noise.... it's a frightening idea and doesn't even require intelligence. The code is written it just takes an irresponsible person to launch it. Like virii - fun to write... VERY BAD to let them out!
I wrote one for my QL. It tagged my boot menu to microdrive cartridges... very handy but I'm glad my machine was not on a network!
WTF!! What is all this Vladinator shit??? A coupla web searches turns up more crud than I can be fucked to read. There's masses of it. I have a feeling that a couple of unemployed script kiddies are simply causing chaos... Whatever it is it is REALLY pissing me off! I'm not sure what to do.... do we ask the editors to kill anonymous posting (bad idea) OR hope that these fuckwits go away... OR.... well... give up.... what a bunch of arseholes....
The problem is that this is technology for the sake of technology rather than any actual practical use. Yes live video feeds are useful but not to many people. Emergency services, surgeons... probly. Me! NO! I have NO use for this AT ALL and neither do 99% of the population.
IMNSHO The current 2G (2.5G) phone system and the handsets in use have NOT been fully exploited. There are NUMEROUS things that could have been done with that technology and ESPECIALLY the connectivity.
To see how a device can REALLY be exploited look at the GameBoy - 10 years and still new stuff is turning up. Technology for the sake of technology is pointless without software to back it up and I do not see that happening.
What choice do the operators have! They seem to be loosing money hand over fist (or rather have MASSIVE debts). The only successes they've had so far are voice communications and text messaging (which they COMPLETELY overlooked until it had already happened).
They have to recoup money somehow. I suspect they'll end up giving this crap away for free! They've tried charging for voice messaging etc and nobody pays.
I do however THOROUGHLY agree. I do NOT know who is going to be watching "movies" on their mobiles. If grandma wants to watch the kids kids grow up then she'd rather have a video or DVD she can watch at any old time (and over and over again). Are the phone companies going to store your video for you? I guess they must somehow.
1" screen and a crumby piezo speaker... oh yes please.. there are enough butthead idiots out there with 120db ring tones and smalltalk to match. I don't want to hear anymore crap on the train please.
I think this "hype" is to get people to buy new phones... which they often see mto sell at a loss.... go figure....
If you like the LU see this film! It's about the descendants of some people who get stuck in the underground in the 19th century and turn to cannibalising unsuspecting passengers that they can catch... something like that anyhoo! Christopher Lee makes a cameo appearance. The last things the victims hear before death is "Mind the doors"... very silly!
I think it was filmed at the "British Museum" tube station which was closed even in those days.
Railway archeology is suprisingly popular in the UK. It was my Dads 60th this year so we went up to the North Norfolk railway (a "preserved" line) and drive steam engines up and down for the day. Marvellous stuff! (www.nnrail.co.uk I fink).
We (my family) even own a small piece of railway embankment. It is part of the old Stour Valley Railway line (Marks Tey to Cmabridge via Sudbury and Haverhill). Of course the line was dug up in the 60's so we keep (kept) our pony there. I've always wanted to get 30meters of track, an old carriage and a brake van. I reckon it would make a nice house! Probably cheaper than buying somewhere in the UK these days.... Hmmm...
"Neither Linux nor Unix ties the operating system to hardware," [Enderle] said. I had to read this twice to realise that Enderle means that in a negative way. Dear god. The individual words make sense, but we're clearly not speaking the same language.
Hmmm.. I wonder what Intel or any of the Mobo/chipset/graphics vendors will think of that?
What if you could build a computer for $50 with a 10$ CPU and a 5$ graphics card that will still run an OS? That's razor thin margins.
The rule is simple. If you have old hardware you will be stuck with an old operating system. Which will eventually not run any new apps. It will probably still do email, wp & db frontend stuff. perfect for most uses... but sshhh! don't tell anyone;->
Re:And there will be one Master Ring
on
More on Longhorn
·
· Score: 1
"Today's PC bears so little resemblance to the original IBM PC-1 (I used to own one) that it might as well not be the same thing."
It's true there have been changes but the only one that really stands out is pervasive multi-tasking which I don't think really helps office use productivity a lot of the time. Networking is where it is at when dealing with business data.
PCs are not designed to fufill the requirements and needs of an Office or any other situation. They are designed to be a completely "generic" computing solution and so is Windows (and Linux) and thus performs no particular task particularly well. The form of the PC is substantially unchanged from the form of 25 years ago. A box, with some other boxes and a keyboard.
I do agree that all the numbers have gone up though.
Re:And there will be one Master Ring
on
More on Longhorn
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· Score: 5, Insightful
This just isn't true! I've been using Windows since 2.0 and there weren't that many users - most people stuck to MSDOS. Slowly people picked on Windows and by 3.0/3.1 there was a big pickup. There was a BIG change in 95 and a lot of people took that up. Most people thought it was for the best. This "evolved" for a while. Now there is the "XP" feel. This is starting to slay users. All the icons are different in XP. It confused the hell out of me and I still don't like it much. MS _Keeps_ changing. They feel they have to to sell anything new but users get really confused with ALL this Windows crap and forever changing Office GUIs.
The number one reason that _users_ are using windows is that when you go to the shops to buy a PC you don't get much choice and if you even asked about the software the sales people would become very confused and wonder what you were on about.
The PC was never supposed to be a home computer OR an office computer. It shows this and so does windows.
"if all the people who were pirating actually had to pay for Photoshop, they'd probably consider Gimp instead. Some might still have found they need it"
This has nothing to do with O.S. software and a lot to do with pricing. Remember kids! If you give it away.... You don't get paid!!!
Noone is going to feel that they've "hurt" Microsoft by not adding another 0,000000001% to their bank account
If you have 1,000,000,000 (10^9) customers then 0.0000000001% (10^-9)% difference then it is important (have I miscounted 0z?).
O.S. software is a more important idea than "mainstream" (a rather Britney Spears approach to S/W). It is the idea that you can see what a system REALLY does. I mean REALLY does. O.S. software should be able to build a far more efficient software system than we have. If a system is Open then it should allow far better software reuse and far smaller software systems in general.
In reality, as software engineers, we do not need vast swathes of software. We need enough software to get the job done. What we don't have we can create.... or with O.S. software we can modify.... and do the job more efficiently still.
"Give me the freedom to listen to my music how I want and when I want."
And give that freedom to the radio stations too! I live in the UK and the content of most radio stations is abysmal. Despite there being many bands in the country trying to gig, setup website and gain fans the radio stations have very selective playlists. Mostly crap IMNSHO. It is not uncommon for a "POPular" song to be played every hour.
For anyone in London... listen the resonancefm (http://www.resonancefm.com) - excellent stuff - sometimes just to wierd for its own good but. Radio as art - that's if it doesn't get drowned out by those D&B pirates just 0.2Mhz down the scale.... duh!
If the XDoc format is based around XML it is going to be VERY easy to take it apart, find out how the formatting is structured and then produce a program that can display it.
The only potential nasties are patents but these can (usually) be avoided.
I think MS are trying to achieve a couple of things here.
1 - Sell Office 11 - no one wants it - people realise (now - at last... sigh) that MS has been diddling them for years. Most people never actually needed much more than Office97. Except of course it doesn't run properly on 2K or XP.
2 - To me this looks like MS trying to avoid Javascript and DHTML. They neither own or like these formats and in theory you could redesign the Windows GUI using them. This doesn't make them happy.
I doubt they give a rats arse about Adobe who are a mere minnow compared to MS.... It's always suprised me the MS haven't gone after the Flash/Shockwave plugin market TBH.
A lot of people here are writing "why can't they charge the same across Europe". THIS IS NOT THE ISSUE.
Nintendo have been found to have formed a cartel with their distributors - who have also been fined a LOT of money. The EU decided that the distributors along with Nintendo had fixed prices among themselves. This means that there is no price competition on games (there can't be). This kind of thing happens a lot and a lot of people getted spanked when it happens. The car industry was famous for it for quite a while.
Apart from that I think fining the Big N is rediculous. I was an owner of a SNES and am the owner of an N64, GBA and Gamecube. Where does 150 million go??? Well - it comes from Nintendo so I guess as a paying customer I'll have to help Nintendo recoup costs.
There must be more elegant solutions than this - if the consumer was ripped then the consumer should be repaid. Not the EU. Free games!
QUOTE.... "Even though Phoenix is faster and more stable than Explorer"
Have you actually tested this? I tested Phoenix 0.3 vs IE 6 and IE 6 spanked Phoenix stoopid. I may retry with 0.4. This was all under Win2K
The rendering and animation engine is a good 2 to 3 times FASTER than Phoenix. I have yet to have IE6 crash on me either. Not everything MS create is crap. IE6 is very good. Codeview was a superb debugger for its time.
TBH the main reason I grabbed Phoenix is because I didn't need a 50 Megabyte download!
You clearly don't live in the UK!!! It still is an extremely conservative place. Ironically (as this is word du jour) is becoming more so with a "leftist" labour government!
I think the next great break through in society comes not with our concepts of freedom and liberty which, at least in Europe, are becoming better understood and enshrined in the EU Human Rights convention BUT with our attitudes and use of money. Something very few bands have picked up on - presumably because they just want lots of it (even the Sex Pistols were guilty of this!). Money roolz! I'm not sure it should.
If it wasn't for fussy people insisting that I use Word to embelish everything to the Nth degree and have 8 different fonts on a simple memo I'd still be using microEmacs on a CLI with VT102.
I reckon I wrote better code faster using make, cl and microemacs on DOS than I do using Visual Studio on Windows too, but I think that may just be me getting old and stoopid!!
The sort of "Britishers" you are going to find on slashdot are a-typical Britishers*. They are the sort of people who seek out information, news and comment. Most people need it thrust apon them.
It is precisely because I have been exposed to the non-sheeply things this country has to offer that the sheep annoy me so much!
95% of the population are quite content with the way the country is run simply because they don't know or care how it is run.
Try having a conversation about the state of the nation with the average British citizen and they simply don't have a clue what is going on. The classic is to ask what happens to their rubbish... they don't know... they don't care either.
I MUST reassert again that in the area I live in 91% of the population DIDN'T vote in the last council elections. In the last general elections 24% voted... This is not indicative of a population that cares. At the very least they should have voted for the status quo* if they are happy with it.
Laws about not eating owls or buggering badgers are fine but I was referring to the 10 commandments - the fact that so many other rules where created has more to do with orthodox religion imposing its power of the people rather than law being simplified so it is understandable.
OK - it would be nice to put 4 NV30s or whatever on one board but apart from flight sims and the stupidly rich why the hell would you want to?
For scientific computing, medical visualisation and CGI I can see that there _may_ be a need for this but what about the average user or geek?
PC Games are no longer pushing the barrier of 3D graphics - the most popular game out there is "The Sims" which will run on just about anything. Windows makes no use of this stuff (and doesn't even need to). If you want games buy a console - and this is what hundreds of millions of people have done.
Why is it so difficult to get ergonomic, cheap, reliable, USEFUL computers? Most PCs are sold to companies for office and email duties this sort of progress is of no use to them yet Windows (or the machine) will still crap on them 2 or 3 times a day - this costs them money.
People want computers that have a use not just eye candy or spec sheets - this is what they are sold. I firmly believe that one of the main reasons for the downturn in PC sales is that a few years ago a lot of people went out and bought Celeron type machines. They never found a decent use for them and are not going to buy a new one esp. as it will cost them 700 to 1500 pounds.
If they want to watch me. FINE! But I want to read Blunketts mail too.
THAT IS EQUITY. The UK has NO equity. It is one of the most prescriptive and restrictive societies on earth - they also seem to believe that law stops people breaking it. This is completely wrong!
One further thought. Modern law practice is stupid. The best system of law EVER invented was the 10 commandments - NOT BECAUSE OF THE CONTENT OF THE COMMANDMENTS. But because it is a simple set of laws that most people would agree with - any idiot can read (or be read to) and understand them. UK law runs into tens of thousands of pages. It is not possible to live for a day without breaking the law.
>It has all the power because it has all the guns, and that is especially true in the UK.
Actually this is completely UNTRUE - the government in the UK does NOT have an Army. Technically all military services are run by the monarch.... that hot bed of political discussion.... the monarchy.... I think that idea died in about 1603.....
It is NOT the PEOPLE that have complained about this - it is ISPs - they are worried about being arrested for failing to log the smallest amount of data (even accidently) and, possible more importantly, they don't see why they should pay to do the governments work (of course WE actually end up paying as users).
The population of the UK are dullards, sad, boring people obsessed with entertainment and celebrity. They don't know or care who is in charge and a vast majority of them don't vote anyway (9% turnout in the last council elections round here).
They are too stupid to understand how law affects them and generally don't care anyway.
People go to work like zombies do the bare minimum to get a pay packet go home and plug themselves into the nearest drug supply (TV or booze usually).
They people of the isle are sheep - they do as they are told - innovation is dead - long live the service sector.
Nobody ever sees the "big picture" and the greatest threat to our nation is (apparently) paedophiles.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeep - screw christmas bonuses, screw bonuses. I have never been a fan of company wide bonuses. It's stupid - I don't see why John Thicky should get a bonus when I did most of his work. Bonuses are for those that have done good work.
However, I have noticed a few things that make working life _pleasurable_ and _fun_. Bosses listen up!
1 - Staff will get VERY resentful if they get no pay rises or very small pay rises but the boss gets 25%. You are all in the same boat bosses and staff alike. Bosses need to realise this and act more like staff (instead of god!)
2 - Geeks like stuff - DON'T THROW OUT OLD COMPUTERS! Give them to schools if you want but always let your engineers rake of the bones of old hardware and take what they want. They love it and you don't even want it!
3 - Let your geeks experiment with their code. People like the chance to experiment a little.
4 - Listen to your geeks BUT GIVE THEM CREDIT. I quit one job after a few months when I discovered that the _entire_ place was based on "company politics". I would say something to my manager (hell I even typed him a report) only to discover that he had basically just changed the name on the report and no-one knew I had anything to do with it. AVOID THIS! If this happens - QUIT. You will be incredibly miserable otherwise!
5 - Don't pay out bonuses just to make your staff stay. Think before you spend! Perhaps spending all that bonus cash on new equipment or the office environment will cheer you staff up just as much as a coupla hundred quid.
The best bonus experience I ever had was at Pi Research in Cambridge. I was only 19 (2nd year there) and I had been working on some high resolution print routines. I got it finished and working (thanks to a little help) WELL ahead of time. The next day I went to work and was asked to see the MD. Well... I shit a brick! I reall thought I done or said something wrong! Anyhoo.... The MD asked me about my work, the quality of it, did I imagine there were still bugs etc.... then I got a very nice "thank you" and a "keep up the good work" type thing and a bonus cheque! I can't remember how much and it wasn't huge but the idea was there. They had been watching and decided it was time to place credit where credit was due. A very satisfying sensation I assure you.
Nice idea but I doubt even he is a big enough idiot for that! Seriously - ifd you go searching for this stuff you'll get thousands apon thousands of hits including a lot of apparent slashdot "parody" sites (not the right word but I was trying to avoid swearing!!!) smokedot.... blah blah... This really seems to be a concerted effort by (presumably) more than 1 person to just cause chaos.
I often wondered whether the internet would die this way - too many idiots launching automated attacks on each other until the signal disappears in the noise.... it's a frightening idea and doesn't even require intelligence. The code is written it just takes an irresponsible person to launch it. Like virii - fun to write... VERY BAD to let them out!
I wrote one for my QL. It tagged my boot menu to microdrive cartridges... very handy but I'm glad my machine was not on a network!
WTF!! What is all this Vladinator shit??? A coupla web searches turns up more crud than I can be fucked to read. There's masses of it. I have a feeling that a couple of unemployed script kiddies are simply causing chaos... Whatever it is it is REALLY pissing me off! I'm not sure what to do.... do we ask the editors to kill anonymous posting (bad idea) OR hope that these fuckwits go away... OR.... well... give up.... what a bunch of arseholes....
ANYONE?!! What the hell is going on?
Dude....
The problem is that this is technology for the sake of technology rather than any actual practical use. Yes live video feeds are useful but not to many people. Emergency services, surgeons... probly. Me! NO! I have NO use for this AT ALL and neither do 99% of the population.
IMNSHO The current 2G (2.5G) phone system and the handsets in use have NOT been fully exploited. There are NUMEROUS things that could have been done with that technology and ESPECIALLY the connectivity.
To see how a device can REALLY be exploited look at the GameBoy - 10 years and still new stuff is turning up. Technology for the sake of technology is pointless without software to back it up and I do not see that happening.
What choice do the operators have! They seem to be loosing money hand over fist (or rather have MASSIVE debts). The only successes they've had so far are voice communications and text messaging (which they COMPLETELY overlooked until it had already happened).
They have to recoup money somehow. I suspect they'll end up giving this crap away for free! They've tried charging for voice messaging etc and nobody pays.
I do however THOROUGHLY agree. I do NOT know who is going to be watching "movies" on their mobiles. If grandma wants to watch the kids kids grow up then she'd rather have a video or DVD she can watch at any old time (and over and over again). Are the phone companies going to store your video for you? I guess they must somehow.
1" screen and a crumby piezo speaker... oh yes please.. there are enough butthead idiots out there with 120db ring tones and smalltalk to match. I don't want to hear anymore crap on the train please.
I think this "hype" is to get people to buy new phones... which they often see mto sell at a loss.... go figure....
arse...
If you like the LU see this film! It's about the descendants of some people who get stuck in the underground in the 19th century and turn to cannibalising unsuspecting passengers that they can catch... something like that anyhoo! Christopher Lee makes a cameo appearance. The last things the victims hear before death is "Mind the doors"... very silly!
I think it was filmed at the "British Museum" tube station which was closed even in those days.
Railway archeology is suprisingly popular in the UK. It was my Dads 60th this year so we went up to the North Norfolk railway (a "preserved" line) and drive steam engines up and down for the day. Marvellous stuff! (www.nnrail.co.uk I fink).
We (my family) even own a small piece of railway embankment. It is part of the old Stour Valley Railway line (Marks Tey to Cmabridge via Sudbury and Haverhill). Of course the line was dug up in the 60's so we keep (kept) our pony there. I've always wanted to get 30meters of track, an old carriage and a brake van. I reckon it would make a nice house! Probably cheaper than buying somewhere in the UK these days.... Hmmm...
Matthew.
"Neither Linux nor Unix ties the operating system to hardware," [Enderle] said.
;->
I had to read this twice to realise that Enderle means that in a negative way. Dear god. The individual words make sense, but we're clearly not speaking the same language.
Hmmm.. I wonder what Intel or any of the Mobo/chipset/graphics vendors will think of that?
What if you could build a computer for $50 with a 10$ CPU and a 5$ graphics card that will still run an OS? That's razor thin margins.
The rule is simple. If you have old hardware you will be stuck with an old operating system. Which will eventually not run any new apps. It will probably still do email, wp & db frontend stuff. perfect for most uses... but sshhh! don't tell anyone
"Today's PC bears so little resemblance to the original IBM PC-1 (I used to own one) that it might as well not be the same thing."
It's true there have been changes but the only one that really stands out is pervasive multi-tasking which I don't think really helps office use productivity a lot of the time. Networking is where it is at when dealing with business data.
PCs are not designed to fufill the requirements and needs of an Office or any other situation. They are designed to be a completely "generic" computing solution and so is Windows (and Linux) and thus performs no particular task particularly well. The form of the PC is substantially unchanged from the form of 25 years ago. A box, with some other boxes and a keyboard.
I do agree that all the numbers have gone up though.
This just isn't true! I've been using Windows since 2.0 and there weren't that many users - most people stuck to MSDOS. Slowly people picked on Windows and by 3.0/3.1 there was a big pickup. There was a BIG change in 95 and a lot of people took that up. Most people thought it was for the best. This "evolved" for a while. Now there is the "XP" feel. This is starting to slay users. All the icons are different in XP. It confused the hell out of me and I still don't like it much. MS _Keeps_ changing. They feel they have to to sell anything new but users get really confused with ALL this Windows crap and forever changing Office GUIs.
The number one reason that _users_ are using windows is that when you go to the shops to buy a PC you don't get much choice and if you even asked about the software the sales people would become very confused and wonder what you were on about.
The PC was never supposed to be a home computer OR an office computer. It shows this and so does windows.
"if all the people who were pirating actually had to pay for Photoshop, they'd probably consider Gimp instead. Some might still have found they need it"
This has nothing to do with O.S. software and a lot to do with pricing. Remember kids! If you give it away.... You don't get paid!!!
Noone is going to feel that they've "hurt" Microsoft by not adding another 0,000000001% to their bank account
If you have 1,000,000,000 (10^9) customers then 0.0000000001% (10^-9)% difference then it is important (have I miscounted 0z?).
O.S. software is a more important idea than "mainstream" (a rather Britney Spears approach to S/W). It is the idea that you can see what a system REALLY does. I mean REALLY does. O.S. software should be able to build a far more efficient software system than we have. If a system is Open then it should allow far better software reuse and far smaller software systems in general.
In reality, as software engineers, we do not need vast swathes of software. We need enough software to get the job done. What we don't have we can create.... or with O.S. software we can modify.... and do the job more efficiently still.
"Give me the freedom to listen to my music how I want and when I want."
And give that freedom to the radio stations too! I live in the UK and the content of most radio stations is abysmal. Despite there being many bands in the country trying to gig, setup website and gain fans the radio stations have very selective playlists. Mostly crap IMNSHO. It is not uncommon for a "POPular" song to be played every hour.
For anyone in London... listen the resonancefm (http://www.resonancefm.com) - excellent stuff - sometimes just to wierd for its own good but. Radio as art - that's if it doesn't get drowned out by those D&B pirates just 0.2Mhz down the scale.... duh!
If the XDoc format is based around XML it is going to be VERY easy to take it apart, find out how the formatting is structured and then produce a program that can display it.
The only potential nasties are patents but these can (usually) be avoided.
I think MS are trying to achieve a couple of things here.
1 - Sell Office 11 - no one wants it - people realise (now - at last... sigh) that MS has been diddling them for years. Most people never actually needed much more than Office97. Except of course it doesn't run properly on 2K or XP.
2 - To me this looks like MS trying to avoid Javascript and DHTML. They neither own or like these formats and in theory you could redesign the Windows GUI using them. This doesn't make them happy.
I doubt they give a rats arse about Adobe who are a mere minnow compared to MS.... It's always suprised me the MS haven't gone after the Flash/Shockwave plugin market TBH.
A lot of people here are writing "why can't they charge the same across Europe". THIS IS NOT THE ISSUE.
Nintendo have been found to have formed a cartel with their distributors - who have also been fined a LOT of money. The EU decided that the distributors along with Nintendo had fixed prices among themselves. This means that there is no price competition on games (there can't be). This kind of thing happens a lot and a lot of people getted spanked when it happens. The car industry was famous for it for quite a while.
Apart from that I think fining the Big N is rediculous. I was an owner of a SNES and am the owner of an N64, GBA and Gamecube. Where does 150 million go??? Well - it comes from Nintendo so I guess as a paying customer I'll have to help Nintendo recoup costs.
There must be more elegant solutions than this - if the consumer was ripped then the consumer should be repaid. Not the EU. Free games!
QUOTE.... "Even though Phoenix is faster and more stable than Explorer"
Have you actually tested this? I tested Phoenix 0.3 vs IE 6 and IE 6 spanked Phoenix stoopid. I may retry with 0.4. This was all under Win2K
The rendering and animation engine is a good 2 to 3 times FASTER than Phoenix. I have yet to have IE6 crash on me either. Not everything MS create is crap. IE6 is very good. Codeview was a superb debugger for its time.
TBH the main reason I grabbed Phoenix is because I didn't need a 50 Megabyte download!
You clearly don't live in the UK!!! It still is an extremely conservative place. Ironically (as this is word du jour) is becoming more so with a "leftist" labour government!
I think the next great break through in society comes not with our concepts of freedom and liberty which, at least in Europe, are becoming better understood and enshrined in the EU Human Rights convention BUT with our attitudes and use of money. Something very few bands have picked up on - presumably because they just want lots of it (even the Sex Pistols were guilty of this!). Money roolz! I'm not sure it should.
If it wasn't for fussy people insisting that I use Word to embelish everything to the Nth degree and have 8 different fonts on a simple memo I'd still be using microEmacs on a CLI with VT102.
I reckon I wrote better code faster using make, cl and microemacs on DOS than I do using Visual Studio on Windows too, but I think that may just be me getting old and stoopid!!
2 b * 2 b * ~ | 0 =
false
The sort of "Britishers" you are going to find on slashdot are a-typical Britishers*. They are the sort of people who seek out information, news and comment. Most people need it thrust apon them.
* I love that word!
It is precisely because I have been exposed to the non-sheeply things this country has to offer that the sheep annoy me so much!
95% of the population are quite content with the way the country is run simply because they don't know or care how it is run.
Try having a conversation about the state of the nation with the average British citizen and they simply don't have a clue what is going on. The classic is to ask what happens to their rubbish... they don't know... they don't care either.
I MUST reassert again that in the area I live in 91% of the population DIDN'T vote in the last council elections. In the last general elections 24% voted... This is not indicative of a population that cares. At the very least they should have voted for the status quo* if they are happy with it.
(* no - not Francis Rossi!)
Yes. But that is not what I was referring to.
Laws about not eating owls or buggering badgers are fine but I was referring to the 10 commandments - the fact that so many other rules where created has more to do with orthodox religion imposing its power of the people rather than law being simplified so it is understandable.
OK - it would be nice to put 4 NV30s or whatever on one board but apart from flight sims and the stupidly rich why the hell would you want to?
For scientific computing, medical visualisation and CGI I can see that there _may_ be a need for this but what about the average user or geek?
PC Games are no longer pushing the barrier of 3D graphics - the most popular game out there is "The Sims" which will run on just about anything. Windows makes no use of this stuff (and doesn't even need to). If you want games buy a console - and this is what hundreds of millions of people have done.
Why is it so difficult to get ergonomic, cheap, reliable, USEFUL computers? Most PCs are sold to companies for office and email duties this sort of progress is of no use to them yet Windows (or the machine) will still crap on them 2 or 3 times a day - this costs them money.
People want computers that have a use not just eye candy or spec sheets - this is what they are sold. I firmly believe that one of the main reasons for the downturn in PC sales is that a few years ago a lot of people went out and bought Celeron type machines. They never found a decent use for them and are not going to buy a new one esp. as it will cost them 700 to 1500 pounds.
A favourite English expression.
If they want to watch me. FINE!
But I want to read Blunketts mail too.
THAT IS EQUITY. The UK has NO equity. It is one of the most prescriptive and restrictive societies on earth - they also seem to believe that law stops people breaking it. This is completely wrong!
One further thought. Modern law practice is stupid. The best system of law EVER invented was the 10 commandments - NOT BECAUSE OF THE CONTENT OF THE COMMANDMENTS. But because it is a simple set of laws that most people would agree with - any idiot can read (or be read to) and understand them. UK law runs into tens of thousands of pages. It is not possible to live for a day without breaking the law.
>It has all the power because it has all the guns, and that is especially true in the UK.
Actually this is completely UNTRUE - the government in the UK does NOT have an Army. Technically all military services are run by the monarch.... that hot bed of political discussion.... the monarchy.... I think that idea died in about 1603.....
It is NOT the PEOPLE that have complained about this - it is ISPs - they are worried about being arrested for failing to log the smallest amount of data (even accidently) and, possible more importantly, they don't see why they should pay to do the governments work (of course WE actually end up paying as users).
The population of the UK are dullards, sad, boring people obsessed with entertainment and celebrity. They don't know or care who is in charge and a vast majority of them don't vote anyway (9% turnout in the last council elections round here).
They are too stupid to understand how law affects them and generally don't care anyway.
People go to work like zombies do the bare minimum to get a pay packet go home and plug themselves into the nearest drug supply (TV or booze usually).
They people of the isle are sheep - they do as they are told - innovation is dead - long live the service sector.
Nobody ever sees the "big picture" and the greatest threat to our nation is (apparently) paedophiles.
> He is achieving everything the Tories can only dream of.
Well that's blindingly obvious! The Tories are hopelessly unelectable... they have nothing to do but dream.
I would welcome a genuinely interesting, discussion based, libertarian political party in the UK.
Tories = Last of the empire, stuck up old fools whose overriding ambition is to take your money via private industry
Labour = You voted us in cos' we are slightly less corrupt than the Tories
LibDems = We want to be the second biggest party... Wow.... what ambition....
It's Monster Raving Loony next time - or the Communists if they stand here.