Why can't Linux get in on this? It seems like to me that Linux is much smaller and more flexible and secure than Windows to use in embedded devices like this. Why can't they use a free software base to produce something better? That way there's a smaller cost to market these devices to the supermarket chain you are pushing for.
The only downside is that Microsoft already has a framework for this kind of thing because it's in their own financial best interest. For a group to do this in Linux, the only interest would be in furthering Linux's acceptability in everydays lives.
The first rule of the Inflatable Space Resort is that we do not talk about the Inflatable Space Resort! The second rule is that we do not talk about the Inflatable Space Resort!
I'm not saying a company shouldn't have my information at all, I'm just saying that if a company (or government agency) has a file on me, I should know what it says. Maybe expand the Freedom of Information Act to personal information.
Good article, it's pretty scary how they can buy up everything and combine it all, it has the stench of anti-competitive behavior to me.
I've always maintained that I as a citizen should be able to see all records the government has on me, and also any companies like ChoicePoint that provides information on me to the government in which they use. Without knowing what the government knows about me, I feel like a sheep. My government works for me, not monitors and "handles" me.
I RTFA and it says that ChoicePoint aggregates my information and sells it. I interpret "aggregates" as it crawls through and acquires my personal information without my knowledge. I never signed anything saying ChoicePoint can keep and handle my information how they see fit, nor did I receive anything that says some company has my information so I know. Am I alone in saying that no company should be able to profit off of my existance? If that's not bad enough that ChoicePoint has made a living selling my information of which I won't see a dime, now criminals have my personal information and now I have to stay on guard to see if the criminals do anything notably bad in my name.
This whole companies' existance and screwup just stamps out all notions of privacy I had, now not only theives profitted from me without even notifying/asking me, but now criminals can benefit from my existance too.
My area of expertise is in hardware (computer engineering major), but I will fix computers if I'm asked. I don't ask for anything in return because only friends will ask, but I have been given money (they volunteer $20/hr) or movie tickets (friend of mine gives me a wad of emergency tickets which are passed out when a movie ends prematurely because of emergency [loss of power usually]) which is nice to know I'm appreciated.
Although I do dislike being the go-to guy for my family and friends because they expect me to take time out and fix problems they created out of carelessness and if I don't, then there will be repercussions. That kind of expectation is hard but I've distanced myself from ex-friends that only wanted to be friends to get help with their computer. There's more than money involved in tech support.
I'm curious, what exactly is a "real desktop installation"?
I bought a couple thin clients a long time ago, 2 NCD HMX boxes for $20 for both to be exact. I sent an inquiry to NCD because they stopped providing information on that particular thin client line on their website and they wanted $200 or $300 for the linux software to support the thin clients. To this day, they are under my bed at home, waiting for some kind of use.
I never said all Mac users are jerks, my scope was only limited to those trying to convert Windows people but end up leaving a foul taste in the targets mouths.
I'm not going to apologize for Windows because I know it has it's problems, but it works when I need to type a paper, play a little Half-Life, write a little more code on a senior design project program I have to develop or whatever. I've never experienced anything like the people in the Switch ads claim. Maybe I'm not a Mac user because I can solve the problems that do come up in Windows, in effect, my Windows experience matches the OS X experience of Joe Mac User because I don't have problems.
The real question I have that I have since I posted my grandparent post which someone else on here asked and I'll paraphrase and reask to anyone, not neccessarily you, is how come OS X is touted to be the solution to the problem of buggy desktop computing but Apple still languises in the same numbers as Linux? Couldn't Apple approach Valve and say "hey, can you port HL2 to PPC for us?" Apple needs to provide a real reason to switch, not just tell me I suck. In other words, don't piss on my yard to make me jump onto yours, show me your yard can get greener than mine, afterall, it is a buyers market.
I've read the sibling posts and it seems like people that switch do so because there's nothing tying them to Windows and they want to change. There's 3 types of people:
1. People that want to switch, pay for a new Apple computer and enjoy it. 2. People that are used to Windows and have money invested in PC's. 3. People that cannot switch because they are tied to PC's.
I'm a part of group 3. I have games like Half-Life 2 that are only offered for Windows, and I also am in the middle of developing a GUI for a senior design class I'm taking that uses the serial port, which modern Apples don't have legacy ports.
If you mention OS X to me, we can discuss it but the true zealots always try to "discuss" it but they end up using an accusatory/condescending tone, trust me because I've been on the sour end of that conversation.
The real Apple fanboys are too busy being elitist and saying how much Windows sucks and wonder why more people don't switch, but they don't realize the people they are trying to switch are reluctant to switch when they make them feel inferior about their current operating system choice, people don't want to associate themselves with a negative group.
If I owned an Audi and I came up to your Honda Civic and said "hey you, get an Audi because Honda sucks", would that inspire you to buy an Audi because I told you that you are an idiot for buying a Honda?
Mac fanboi-ism aside, Mac's still aren't going to do much better. Don't buy a Mac. Seriously. It's all about market share and Apple just doesn't have it.
From the Operating System Wiki entry: Today, Windows is the most popular desktop operating system, enjoying a near-monopoly of around 90% of the worldwide desktop market share.
Now for arguments' sake, pretend we divide the remainder between Linux and OS X evenly. If you are EA or Valve and you want to make a game, do you begin writing for the 5% market share under Linux (whose mainly composed of servers anyway), the 5% that OS X has, or do you write your game for the 90% of computer users that use Windows? Any rational human being can make the simple decision to go with Windows. To make this process even easier for Windows, I believe Microsoft has made the tools so you can make a game for Windows or Xbox and in no time produce the title under the other name to cater to the console game market or computer gaming market.
I agree with you that it involves some mental engagement for a space cushion, my point was that it still occupies some level of thought but that a competent driver lets driving go on auto-pilot.
I don't think auto-pilot mode that we are agreeing upin is safe at all, in fact it provides some people a false sense of security. It does still use their brain, just a different part. It's like when you write the letter 'a', you don't figure out how to draw two lines with specific curves and length just the right way, you just write an 'a' but it still uses mental processes.
But a competent driver (reasonably good drivers) let the act of driving sink into their subconscious. I know when I learned to drive and then learned stick, I was thinking "okay, I have to press in clutch, shift to 3 which is above deadstick and then release, and try to match RPM's" and on and on. Now, I don't think about clutch points, RPM matching or where the gears are, it just happens. Talking on a phone is never subconscious because the conversation is always new, however shifting from 2nd to 3rd never changes.
If you are aware of processor scheduling of a computer, you can consider talking on the phone as the highest (realtime for instance) because you need to listen, process and respond back and forth. You can consider driving to be below normal because you've done it so much and the task itself is repetitive. Your brain takes in the cell phone task because of it's higher priority and therefore the driving task becomes starved and the syndrome mentioned in your parent is fulfilled.
Looking at the 17" model, it specifies the screen as having 1440x900. My Dell i8600 with WSXGA has a 15.4" screen (same display aspect ratio too) with 1680x1050. The 15" model has a 15.2" screen with 1280x854, if you want to compare as closely as possible. Is it just me or does Apple not seem to have the best deal here? Apple has been known as the machine to do graphics on but it doesn't lead the class as far as display resolution in a given area?
I'm not trying to Troll or Flamebait here but it just doesn't sound like the best deal out there to me.
Well, a troll of piece of flamebait shares the common thread that they are posted out of spite. Mine is not because it's an honest opinion based on long-term experience. I do read the facts first, but I obviously cannot read every single piece of factual information that exists, can you?
I thought the hassle of being online became irrelevant years ago? All you need to do is be online, login to Steam and then don't logout of Steam. A simple 1 minute find on Steams site reveals the mystery that seems to elude people.
As far as abusing DRM, it's all a matter of perspective. If Valve didn't protect their interests, people would steal HL2 with wreckless abandon, but since they do, now they are abusing DRM simply by ensuring you paid for the game.
What, an obsolete game reduces it's importance or something? I don't see how luck enters into the equation, me and thousands other individuals manage to make it online just fine at any given second. Steam stats put an average 2.5M unique users are on Steam servers, so all 2.5M users are lucky and how many are not?
Now, that's put out by Blizzard on Blizzards server I think, isn't that Blizzards fault? My point is that in my long experience with Steam, I've never had one problem, no little annoyance. If there is some fundamental problem with Steam, I'm not seeing it so it's not fundamental and it's only happening to some people. Steam isn't the problem here.
I use Steam (Day of Defeat mostly) every day and I've never had a problem. These little crap whiny stories about a small subset of users make me sigh. I assure you that you are the exception and not the rule. If something doesn't work, your machine or connection isn't fully working the way it should, fix it before you come crying foul and blame an entity that cannot defend itself on a personal level.
Without FORTRAN, what would you use for quick array indices? What I mean is that in FORTRAN, variables with one letter are assigned automatic types if they aren't explicity declared as something else. The letter 'i' happened to be the start of the integer letters.
What, 'i' is just the first letter of "index"?
Well, why do you use 'j' as the variable for a nested loop? Because j is the next letter that automatically becomes an integer.
I have a laptop and connected to it is a 21" CRT monitor I got a long time ago. It doubles as a second monitor for working on, or if I'm watching a DVD, it plays fullscreen on that and whatever window on my laptop. I also have a TV tuner that behaves the same way (which leads to the idea that it's a video card/drive features) and it's the best thing that has happened.
Now, this is my bedroom, and when I'm in bed, it's about 10ft from the monitor to my eyes. It's a very convenient system and I didn't even know the video card in the laptop would be capable of it, nor did I look for this feature.
As for your second point, I can agree because I bet there are droves of people that rent from Netflix or Blockbuster and rip the DVD, return, repeat. Either that, or pay for and wait for a movie download (can it stream? seek?) and deal with DRM restrictions if your end result would be to steal the movie.
For the legal folks, I imagine telling Napster or whoever "I want to watch Movie X this Friday night", so it downloads data in time to watch the movie and your limited time to watch it (if it is limited) begins when you press play.
... one-up by innovating you mean? Whether it's tit-for-tat or the fact they are really trying to say they can go in new directions is inconsequential to my argument.
I'll be looking for what Apple does, but Microsoft does have a leg-up. Microsoft has the XBox division, 3D developers that know hardware and the software of 3D games. I don't see Apple having any kind of advantage if they do go the "me too" route but I would entertain anything they put out.
Slashdot Mirror
Why can't Linux get in on this? It seems like to me that Linux is much smaller and more flexible and secure than Windows to use in embedded devices like this. Why can't they use a free software base to produce something better? That way there's a smaller cost to market these devices to the supermarket chain you are pushing for.
The only downside is that Microsoft already has a framework for this kind of thing because it's in their own financial best interest. For a group to do this in Linux, the only interest would be in furthering Linux's acceptability in everydays lives.
Apple is Not
...
US is Evil
Everyone Else is Not
Linux is Not
ad nauseam
The first rule of the Inflatable Space Resort is that we do not talk about the Inflatable Space Resort! The second rule is that we do not talk about the Inflatable Space Resort!
JFK Reloaded
I appreciate your comment.
I'm not saying a company shouldn't have my information at all, I'm just saying that if a company (or government agency) has a file on me, I should know what it says. Maybe expand the Freedom of Information Act to personal information.
Good article, it's pretty scary how they can buy up everything and combine it all, it has the stench of anti-competitive behavior to me.
I've always maintained that I as a citizen should be able to see all records the government has on me, and also any companies like ChoicePoint that provides information on me to the government in which they use. Without knowing what the government knows about me, I feel like a sheep. My government works for me, not monitors and "handles" me.
I RTFA and it says that ChoicePoint aggregates my information and sells it. I interpret "aggregates" as it crawls through and acquires my personal information without my knowledge. I never signed anything saying ChoicePoint can keep and handle my information how they see fit, nor did I receive anything that says some company has my information so I know. Am I alone in saying that no company should be able to profit off of my existance? If that's not bad enough that ChoicePoint has made a living selling my information of which I won't see a dime, now criminals have my personal information and now I have to stay on guard to see if the criminals do anything notably bad in my name.
This whole companies' existance and screwup just stamps out all notions of privacy I had, now not only theives profitted from me without even notifying/asking me, but now criminals can benefit from my existance too.
Remind me never to host a web page for anything I create. I guess success of my perpetual motion machine will have to be passed by word of mouth...
My area of expertise is in hardware (computer engineering major), but I will fix computers if I'm asked. I don't ask for anything in return because only friends will ask, but I have been given money (they volunteer $20/hr) or movie tickets (friend of mine gives me a wad of emergency tickets which are passed out when a movie ends prematurely because of emergency [loss of power usually]) which is nice to know I'm appreciated.
Although I do dislike being the go-to guy for my family and friends because they expect me to take time out and fix problems they created out of carelessness and if I don't, then there will be repercussions. That kind of expectation is hard but I've distanced myself from ex-friends that only wanted to be friends to get help with their computer. There's more than money involved in tech support.
I'm curious, what exactly is a "real desktop installation"?
I bought a couple thin clients a long time ago, 2 NCD HMX boxes for $20 for both to be exact. I sent an inquiry to NCD because they stopped providing information on that particular thin client line on their website and they wanted $200 or $300 for the linux software to support the thin clients. To this day, they are under my bed at home, waiting for some kind of use.
I never said all Mac users are jerks, my scope was only limited to those trying to convert Windows people but end up leaving a foul taste in the targets mouths.
I'm not going to apologize for Windows because I know it has it's problems, but it works when I need to type a paper, play a little Half-Life, write a little more code on a senior design project program I have to develop or whatever. I've never experienced anything like the people in the Switch ads claim. Maybe I'm not a Mac user because I can solve the problems that do come up in Windows, in effect, my Windows experience matches the OS X experience of Joe Mac User because I don't have problems.
The real question I have that I have since I posted my grandparent post which someone else on here asked and I'll paraphrase and reask to anyone, not neccessarily you, is how come OS X is touted to be the solution to the problem of buggy desktop computing but Apple still languises in the same numbers as Linux? Couldn't Apple approach Valve and say "hey, can you port HL2 to PPC for us?" Apple needs to provide a real reason to switch, not just tell me I suck. In other words, don't piss on my yard to make me jump onto yours, show me your yard can get greener than mine, afterall, it is a buyers market.
I've read the sibling posts and it seems like people that switch do so because there's nothing tying them to Windows and they want to change. There's 3 types of people:
1. People that want to switch, pay for a new Apple computer and enjoy it.
2. People that are used to Windows and have money invested in PC's.
3. People that cannot switch because they are tied to PC's.
I'm a part of group 3. I have games like Half-Life 2 that are only offered for Windows, and I also am in the middle of developing a GUI for a senior design class I'm taking that uses the serial port, which modern Apples don't have legacy ports.
If you mention OS X to me, we can discuss it but the true zealots always try to "discuss" it but they end up using an accusatory/condescending tone, trust me because I've been on the sour end of that conversation.
The real Apple fanboys are too busy being elitist and saying how much Windows sucks and wonder why more people don't switch, but they don't realize the people they are trying to switch are reluctant to switch when they make them feel inferior about their current operating system choice, people don't want to associate themselves with a negative group.
If I owned an Audi and I came up to your Honda Civic and said "hey you, get an Audi because Honda sucks", would that inspire you to buy an Audi because I told you that you are an idiot for buying a Honda?
Mac fanboi-ism aside, Mac's still aren't going to do much better. Don't buy a Mac. Seriously. It's all about market share and Apple just doesn't have it.
From the Operating System Wiki entry:
Today, Windows is the most popular desktop operating system, enjoying a near-monopoly of around 90% of the worldwide desktop market share.
Now for arguments' sake, pretend we divide the remainder between Linux and OS X evenly. If you are EA or Valve and you want to make a game, do you begin writing for the 5% market share under Linux (whose mainly composed of servers anyway), the 5% that OS X has, or do you write your game for the 90% of computer users that use Windows? Any rational human being can make the simple decision to go with Windows. To make this process even easier for Windows, I believe Microsoft has made the tools so you can make a game for Windows or Xbox and in no time produce the title under the other name to cater to the console game market or computer gaming market.
I agree with you that it involves some mental engagement for a space cushion, my point was that it still occupies some level of thought but that a competent driver lets driving go on auto-pilot.
I don't think auto-pilot mode that we are agreeing upin is safe at all, in fact it provides some people a false sense of security. It does still use their brain, just a different part. It's like when you write the letter 'a', you don't figure out how to draw two lines with specific curves and length just the right way, you just write an 'a' but it still uses mental processes.
But a competent driver (reasonably good drivers) let the act of driving sink into their subconscious. I know when I learned to drive and then learned stick, I was thinking "okay, I have to press in clutch, shift to 3 which is above deadstick and then release, and try to match RPM's" and on and on. Now, I don't think about clutch points, RPM matching or where the gears are, it just happens. Talking on a phone is never subconscious because the conversation is always new, however shifting from 2nd to 3rd never changes.
If you are aware of processor scheduling of a computer, you can consider talking on the phone as the highest (realtime for instance) because you need to listen, process and respond back and forth. You can consider driving to be below normal because you've done it so much and the task itself is repetitive. Your brain takes in the cell phone task because of it's higher priority and therefore the driving task becomes starved and the syndrome mentioned in your parent is fulfilled.
Looking at the 17" model, it specifies the screen as having 1440x900. My Dell i8600 with WSXGA has a 15.4" screen (same display aspect ratio too) with 1680x1050. The 15" model has a 15.2" screen with 1280x854, if you want to compare as closely as possible. Is it just me or does Apple not seem to have the best deal here? Apple has been known as the machine to do graphics on but it doesn't lead the class as far as display resolution in a given area?
I'm not trying to Troll or Flamebait here but it just doesn't sound like the best deal out there to me.
Well, a troll of piece of flamebait shares the common thread that they are posted out of spite. Mine is not because it's an honest opinion based on long-term experience. I do read the facts first, but I obviously cannot read every single piece of factual information that exists, can you?
I thought the hassle of being online became irrelevant years ago? All you need to do is be online, login to Steam and then don't logout of Steam. A simple 1 minute find on Steams site reveals the mystery that seems to elude people.
As far as abusing DRM, it's all a matter of perspective. If Valve didn't protect their interests, people would steal HL2 with wreckless abandon, but since they do, now they are abusing DRM simply by ensuring you paid for the game.
It figures I'd get flamebait/troll moderation for showing a dissenting opinion... No, I'm not new here, just willing to step out of line and speak up.
What, an obsolete game reduces it's importance or something? I don't see how luck enters into the equation, me and thousands other individuals manage to make it online just fine at any given second. Steam stats put an average 2.5M unique users are on Steam servers, so all 2.5M users are lucky and how many are not?
Now, that's put out by Blizzard on Blizzards server I think, isn't that Blizzards fault? My point is that in my long experience with Steam, I've never had one problem, no little annoyance. If there is some fundamental problem with Steam, I'm not seeing it so it's not fundamental and it's only happening to some people. Steam isn't the problem here.
I use Steam (Day of Defeat mostly) every day and I've never had a problem. These little crap whiny stories about a small subset of users make me sigh. I assure you that you are the exception and not the rule. If something doesn't work, your machine or connection isn't fully working the way it should, fix it before you come crying foul and blame an entity that cannot defend itself on a personal level.
Without FORTRAN, what would you use for quick array indices? What I mean is that in FORTRAN, variables with one letter are assigned automatic types if they aren't explicity declared as something else. The letter 'i' happened to be the start of the integer letters.
What, 'i' is just the first letter of "index"?
Well, why do you use 'j' as the variable for a nested loop? Because j is the next letter that automatically becomes an integer.
I have a laptop and connected to it is a 21" CRT monitor I got a long time ago. It doubles as a second monitor for working on, or if I'm watching a DVD, it plays fullscreen on that and whatever window on my laptop. I also have a TV tuner that behaves the same way (which leads to the idea that it's a video card/drive features) and it's the best thing that has happened.
Now, this is my bedroom, and when I'm in bed, it's about 10ft from the monitor to my eyes. It's a very convenient system and I didn't even know the video card in the laptop would be capable of it, nor did I look for this feature.
As for your second point, I can agree because I bet there are droves of people that rent from Netflix or Blockbuster and rip the DVD, return, repeat. Either that, or pay for and wait for a movie download (can it stream? seek?) and deal with DRM restrictions if your end result would be to steal the movie.
For the legal folks, I imagine telling Napster or whoever "I want to watch Movie X this Friday night", so it downloads data in time to watch the movie and your limited time to watch it (if it is limited) begins when you press play.
... one-up by innovating you mean? Whether it's tit-for-tat or the fact they are really trying to say they can go in new directions is inconsequential to my argument.
I'll be looking for what Apple does, but Microsoft does have a leg-up. Microsoft has the XBox division, 3D developers that know hardware and the software of 3D games. I don't see Apple having any kind of advantage if they do go the "me too" route but I would entertain anything they put out.