you people that try to control others with taxes are hilarious. also wrong.
By "you people" you mean all of us? Tax is an effective control as demonstrated by all the developed nations that use taxes to create a higher standard of living. Just because a minority of people break the rules is hardly a case for not having rules in the first place. The only thing hilarious about that is your poor ability to apply logic...
Now Australia is rather isolated, but a large fishing boat or two and a determined bunch of black marketeers could still make out fairly well...
Except Australia has very good maritime border control, and a fishing boat full of large boxes might stand out a bit at the wharf.
Also a few boxes of cigarettes wouldn't even pay your fuel costs, and the risk of going to jail for a few thousand dollars isn't worth the effort when you can pull the exact same operation with Cocaine and make millions instead.
One has to be careful though - things should be such that smoking is inconvenient, difficult and expensive, but not so inconvenient, difficult and expensive that an illegal cigarette industry will arise to satisfy the smoking needs.
Maybe, but Australia has reasonably tight borders and effective law enforcement. And when Cocaine is $350/gram, why would anyone bother with $1/gram for cigarettes?
Can you remember what happened during the Prohibition?
Yes but you can't just say banning things doesn't work because Prohibition. Banning some things works, eg we ban elephants as pets and no-one has those. There is no underground pet elephant operation underway because of the strict elephant owning regulations.
Prohibition of essential times has shown to fail, but alcohol is a lot closer to essential for a lot more people than cigarettes are. I don't know many people under 18 that don't drink, and know none that want to give up. Whereas the few people I know who smoke, wish they didn't, and all want to quit.
The reason people call the Apple Watch a failure is NOT because Apple is doing poorly in the market. The reason they are calling it a failure is because the Apple Watch has failed to make smart watches something everyone wants.
Agree. The idea of a smart watch is just dumb. So when it came out and was dumb, the only people that bought them were dumb. So the impact was zero, we still think they are just as dumb as before they were invented, which is why they are a failure.
Just like Bieber, they guy is a zillionaire, but it doesn't make him any less of a dick.
I come here for news, not for people wanking over completely insignificant statics.
And that's what they are, the Apple watch is by far the best and most popular of a product category that the overwhelming majority of people couldn't care less about. I think I've seen like 2 of these things, both of them worn by people who work in IT.
Ha I was going to post the same thing. Remember when the iPhone came out and every second person had one or wanted one? I've probably seen about 5 or 6 Apple watches in the wild, and half of the owners were nerds, and the other half were dorks.
Was there serious demand for this? I suspect one of the features that many -- if not most -- users of LibreOffice enjoyed was that it didn't have the damned ribbon.
So many comments in here about the possible impact of a ribbon interface. I took 30 seconds to download and install it, it still has file edit view menus, so nothing to see here...
Well, I was happy to read this, till I saw they fscked it up with the "ribbon" interface....
Sooner or later you're going to have to come crashing out of the 1990's. Yes the ribbon was a shock for everyone else too, but once you get the hang of it, it is actually better. And it's 10 years old now, you're starting to sound like a loony who thinks the horseless carriage is the invention of satan.
And yes, this likewise would be more comparable to the Apple model.
This is what I don't get. If MS go more like Apple then I may as well buy Apple. The reason I stick with MS is the precisely because it works with most non-MS things.
Microsoft's strength is that they live in the happy place between locked ecosystem like Apple, and warts and all hairy old Linux. Seems a poor choice to give up the market segment they dominate to try and play me too with Apple or Google. Did they not learn from the Windows Phone disaster?
As for $175 million a month to Microsoft, that's barely a rounding error to them. To Joe Sixpack that's a lot of money, but in the grand scheme of things for Microsoft it's a failure.
You keep telling yourself that and one day even you might believe it...
WordPerfect is far superior to Word so the lawyers are actually being more efficient. In fact, WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS is probably the most perfect word processing program ever.
So I'd be interested to know if this is so good, has someone created a version for the modern PC?
There is no way you are going to try and spin Office as a failed product without looking like a complete retard.
Then I guess we can just ignore that pesky part about "Microsoft Reports New Subscribers For Office 365 Plunged 62%".
Because a 62% drop in sales is a sign of success in your world, right?
Based purely on the headline that might sound bad, but that is a lesson in why you shouldn't get sucked into headlines.
25 Million customers = $billions in recurring revenue every year. In your world that is considered a failed product?
Most people don't choose where they live, they simply grow up where they are born (then oddly believe that where-ever it is that happens to be is the greatest place in the world). People do choose which software they use though, and it's a sad indictment if you are offering something for free, yet many more people still choose to pay money for another product.
Just a few years ago, the assumption was that pretty much every computer user either owned or pirated Office. There are 1.25 billion Windows users alone, not counting the Mac users, which adds probably another.1 billion or so. So Microsoft's market share went from 100% just a few years back to 1.8% under the rental model.
Most Office users are corporates which will have licensing through EA's, and most of those have home use provisions. ie The 25 mil is not all Office licenses.
MS is still massively profitable and growing. The rest of your post proceeds on so many stupid assumptions typical is the anti MS diatribe we've been reading for 20 years yet MS still make lots of money. How does that fact fit with your ideology?
Given their user base, I wouldn't call it "succeeding", either.
That is only Office 365. Most corporate customers still use the installed Office. There is no way you are going to try and spin Office as a failed product without looking like a complete retard.
Google's datacenter is likely far less "hackable" than some small company's roll-yer-own solution.
Depends if hackable means the same as sells all your data to the highest bidder. Cloud services work for some use cases, but things like governments and legal firms need a little more assurance.
but you are likely limiting your horizons by refusing to accept common industry practices.
Asking for a salary history is not a common business practice.
the last thing an engineering organization wants is someone who stands on some false principle...
Lots of crazy assumptions in your response, but I and most others I know prefer an employee who stands up for real principles such as privacy. Hiring weak minded fools that gladly roll over at the first threat isn't a recipe for success.
As a hiring manager, I want to know your last salary and perhaps some salary history for a couple reasons.
None of which are legitimate.
If you asked me that I'd withdraw, which means you'll only ever get dead wood or desperate candidates. Hardly a good strategy for attracting quality talent.
NZ has the worst Internet coverage of any country I have ever visited (and that includes many so-called developing countries such as Indonesia). It is possible to drive the main highway for almost 400 km from Wanaka to Franz Joseph without any cell phone coverage.
I'm not sure if this is a joke or not.
Wanaka to Franz Josef is probably one of these most isolated roads on the planet. It is a national park and world heritage site, and one of these reason this area gets used for filming Lord of the Rings is precisely because there is no-one there (outside ignorant tourists).
In the towns and cities, the Internet is pretty much the same as any developed country, good in some spots, not as good in some others. At least the govt has the vision to address this.
Unfortunately for New Zealand, Ultrafast is relative. They're at the end of the cable. New Zealand connects to Australia which connects to Asia which connects to Europe and North America.
Since many websites are hosted on severs on "the other end of the cable" they have to bounce around many servers and potential bottlenecks before they get to the server they seek. Sites based in the US and Europe may still take a long time to load for the kiwis.
Have you seen how big the US is compared to even... Europe? Seattle to Miami is about the same distance as London is from Tel Aviv.
AND we have large chunks of land that have "Ultra Low" populations (Wyoming, Dakotas, Montana, Nebraska...) where feasibility outside a few population centers is nearly impossible.
But this is what happens when you have a bunch of elitists planning the lives of everyone else, but who never leave big cities.
Australia is not much smaller than the US geographically, with 1/15th the population, and we're rolling out a similar service (expected 95% coverage).
Enough excuses, the US has a few great things, but for the most part it is like a third world country. And now you have a 3rd world tin pot dictator to match. Good luck with that.
And how much speed to you get to a USA or Europe based server? NZ is "far" from most of the Internet. They can sell you a gigabit connection but saturate the oceanic cable. What matters is what speed do you get out of your island?
Do you think that a country with a reasonably advanced policy toward the internet haven't heard of CDNs?
Also, the internet has moved on from the US-centric network of the 90's. Most people these days use the Internet to access local services and content.
Yet you paid cash up front. They really don't care.
Well they do care, because continued use means continued opportunities for continuing revenue, which is better than a one off sale.
I'm sure someone out likes likes this shit, but as a techy with techy friends I don't know anyone with one, or planning to get one. Voice assistance just seems so stupid because the error rate is too high to make it useful, and privacy issues are too risky.
My anecdotal observations that I've never ever seen anyone ever use Siri/Google Voice etc in the wild (I spend a lot of time in public) makes me think this whole voice thing is a huge fad like 3D TV that will probably die soon.
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you people that try to control others with taxes are hilarious. also wrong.
By "you people" you mean all of us? Tax is an effective control as demonstrated by all the developed nations that use taxes to create a higher standard of living. Just because a minority of people break the rules is hardly a case for not having rules in the first place. The only thing hilarious about that is your poor ability to apply logic...
Now Australia is rather isolated, but a large fishing boat or two and a determined bunch of black marketeers could still make out fairly well...
Except Australia has very good maritime border control, and a fishing boat full of large boxes might stand out a bit at the wharf.
Also a few boxes of cigarettes wouldn't even pay your fuel costs, and the risk of going to jail for a few thousand dollars isn't worth the effort when you can pull the exact same operation with Cocaine and make millions instead.
One has to be careful though - things should be such that smoking is inconvenient, difficult and expensive, but not so inconvenient, difficult and expensive that an illegal cigarette industry will arise to satisfy the smoking needs.
Maybe, but Australia has reasonably tight borders and effective law enforcement. And when Cocaine is $350/gram, why would anyone bother with $1/gram for cigarettes?
Can you remember what happened during the Prohibition?
Yes but you can't just say banning things doesn't work because Prohibition. Banning some things works, eg we ban elephants as pets and no-one has those. There is no underground pet elephant operation underway because of the strict elephant owning regulations.
Prohibition of essential times has shown to fail, but alcohol is a lot closer to essential for a lot more people than cigarettes are. I don't know many people under 18 that don't drink, and know none that want to give up. Whereas the few people I know who smoke, wish they didn't, and all want to quit.
The reason people call the Apple Watch a failure is NOT because Apple is doing poorly in the market. The reason they are calling it a failure is because the Apple Watch has failed to make smart watches something everyone wants.
Agree. The idea of a smart watch is just dumb. So when it came out and was dumb, the only people that bought them were dumb. So the impact was zero, we still think they are just as dumb as before they were invented, which is why they are a failure.
Just like Bieber, they guy is a zillionaire, but it doesn't make him any less of a dick.
I come here for news, not for people wanking over completely insignificant statics.
And that's what they are, the Apple watch is by far the best and most popular of a product category that the overwhelming majority of people couldn't care less about. I think I've seen like 2 of these things, both of them worn by people who work in IT.
Ha I was going to post the same thing. Remember when the iPhone came out and every second person had one or wanted one? I've probably seen about 5 or 6 Apple watches in the wild, and half of the owners were nerds, and the other half were dorks.
Was there serious demand for this? I suspect one of the features that many -- if not most -- users of LibreOffice enjoyed was that it didn't have the damned ribbon.
So many comments in here about the possible impact of a ribbon interface. I took 30 seconds to download and install it, it still has file edit view menus, so nothing to see here...
Well, I was happy to read this, till I saw they fscked it up with the "ribbon" interface....
Sooner or later you're going to have to come crashing out of the 1990's. Yes the ribbon was a shock for everyone else too, but once you get the hang of it, it is actually better. And it's 10 years old now, you're starting to sound like a loony who thinks the horseless carriage is the invention of satan.
And yes, this likewise would be more comparable to the Apple model.
This is what I don't get. If MS go more like Apple then I may as well buy Apple. The reason I stick with MS is the precisely because it works with most non-MS things.
Microsoft's strength is that they live in the happy place between locked ecosystem like Apple, and warts and all hairy old Linux. Seems a poor choice to give up the market segment they dominate to try and play me too with Apple or Google. Did they not learn from the Windows Phone disaster?
As for $175 million a month to Microsoft, that's barely a rounding error to them. To Joe Sixpack that's a lot of money, but in the grand scheme of things for Microsoft it's a failure.
You keep telling yourself that and one day even you might believe it...
WordPerfect is far superior to Word so the lawyers are actually being more efficient. In fact, WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS is probably the most perfect word processing program ever.
So I'd be interested to know if this is so good, has someone created a version for the modern PC?
There is no way you are going to try and spin Office as a failed product without looking like a complete retard.
Then I guess we can just ignore that pesky part about "Microsoft Reports New Subscribers For Office 365 Plunged 62%".
Because a 62% drop in sales is a sign of success in your world, right?
Based purely on the headline that might sound bad, but that is a lesson in why you shouldn't get sucked into headlines.
25 Million customers = $billions in recurring revenue every year. In your world that is considered a failed product?
Most people don't choose where they live, they simply grow up where they are born (then oddly believe that where-ever it is that happens to be is the greatest place in the world). People do choose which software they use though, and it's a sad indictment if you are offering something for free, yet many more people still choose to pay money for another product.
Just a few years ago, the assumption was that pretty much every computer user either owned or pirated Office. There are 1.25 billion Windows users alone, not counting the Mac users, which adds probably another .1 billion or so. So Microsoft's market share went from 100% just a few years back to 1.8% under the rental model.
Most Office users are corporates which will have licensing through EA's, and most of those have home use provisions. ie The 25 mil is not all Office licenses.
MS is still massively profitable and growing. The rest of your post proceeds on so many stupid assumptions typical is the anti MS diatribe we've been reading for 20 years yet MS still make lots of money. How does that fact fit with your ideology?
I wouldn't call 25 million subscribers "failing".
Given their user base, I wouldn't call it "succeeding", either.
That is only Office 365. Most corporate customers still use the installed Office. There is no way you are going to try and spin Office as a failed product without looking like a complete retard.
Google's datacenter is likely far less "hackable" than some small company's roll-yer-own solution.
Depends if hackable means the same as sells all your data to the highest bidder. Cloud services work for some use cases, but things like governments and legal firms need a little more assurance.
The preference for paying nothing at all...
Libreoffice 100 million users, zero pirates
So 6.9 people billion choose not to use it? I'm not sure your definition of 'preference' is sound...
but you are likely limiting your horizons by refusing to accept common industry practices.
Asking for a salary history is not a common business practice.
the last thing an engineering organization wants is someone who stands on some false principle...
Lots of crazy assumptions in your response, but I and most others I know prefer an employee who stands up for real principles such as privacy. Hiring weak minded fools that gladly roll over at the first threat isn't a recipe for success.
As a hiring manager, I want to know your last salary and perhaps some salary history for a couple reasons.
None of which are legitimate. If you asked me that I'd withdraw, which means you'll only ever get dead wood or desperate candidates. Hardly a good strategy for attracting quality talent.
NZ has the worst Internet coverage of any country I have ever visited (and that includes many so-called developing countries such as Indonesia). It is possible to drive the main highway for almost 400 km from Wanaka to Franz Joseph without any cell phone coverage.
I'm not sure if this is a joke or not.
Wanaka to Franz Josef is probably one of these most isolated roads on the planet. It is a national park and world heritage site, and one of these reason this area gets used for filming Lord of the Rings is precisely because there is no-one there (outside ignorant tourists).
In the towns and cities, the Internet is pretty much the same as any developed country, good in some spots, not as good in some others. At least the govt has the vision to address this.
Unfortunately for New Zealand, Ultrafast is relative. They're at the end of the cable. New Zealand connects to Australia which connects to Asia which connects to Europe and North America.
Since many websites are hosted on severs on "the other end of the cable" they have to bounce around many servers and potential bottlenecks before they get to the server they seek. Sites based in the US and Europe may still take a long time to load for the kiwis.
Never heard of CDNs huh?
Have you seen how big the US is compared to even ... Europe? Seattle to Miami is about the same distance as London is from Tel Aviv.
AND we have large chunks of land that have "Ultra Low" populations (Wyoming, Dakotas, Montana, Nebraska ...) where feasibility outside a few population centers is nearly impossible.
But this is what happens when you have a bunch of elitists planning the lives of everyone else, but who never leave big cities.
Australia is not much smaller than the US geographically, with 1/15th the population, and we're rolling out a similar service (expected 95% coverage).
Enough excuses, the US has a few great things, but for the most part it is like a third world country. And now you have a 3rd world tin pot dictator to match. Good luck with that.
And how much speed to you get to a USA or Europe based server? NZ is "far" from most of the Internet. They can sell you a gigabit connection but saturate the oceanic cable. What matters is what speed do you get out of your island?
Do you think that a country with a reasonably advanced policy toward the internet haven't heard of CDNs?
Also, the internet has moved on from the US-centric network of the 90's. Most people these days use the Internet to access local services and content.
Where is the angle that distinguishes this from any other rich-person-behaving-badly story, and warrants inclusion on Slashdot?
This is a tech site, he is one of the top tech leaders in the world. Sounded simple to me but you never can tell these days...
Yet you paid cash up front. They really don't care.
Well they do care, because continued use means continued opportunities for continuing revenue, which is better than a one off sale.
I'm sure someone out likes likes this shit, but as a techy with techy friends I don't know anyone with one, or planning to get one. Voice assistance just seems so stupid because the error rate is too high to make it useful, and privacy issues are too risky.
My anecdotal observations that I've never ever seen anyone ever use Siri/Google Voice etc in the wild (I spend a lot of time in public) makes me think this whole voice thing is a huge fad like 3D TV that will probably die soon.
they look more like bio-hazard suits, are these capable of protecting us in a vacuum ?
No. Because no-one thought of that until you raised it just now...