What want to know is when are we going to get the definitive version of Windows?
Each time a new version comes along, Microsofties are saying "This is the one Microsoft have been working on for ages.. Me / 2000 / XP were just in betweens but THIS is the one" - but its the same with every previous version.
Longhorn has been frequently touted as the MUST HAVE version of Windows but with so much key technology missing, then surely its just going to be yet another stopgap version of Windows.
So when is the killer version due? We've been waiting long enough.
Ok.. enough.. i'm a strong UNIX/Linux supporter, and have been the first to defend it against jibes and bashes by the people I work with in my IT department. But one thing I like to do before I have an argument with someone is get my facts right.. this seems to be a concept entirely alien to you.
Lets talk about stuff that 'just works' - I run Windows Update probably once a month, I have an antivirus app that I never need to check up on, and I don't buy cheap shit hardware - using those simple techniques, my home Windows XP machine never (and I mean never) crashes nor gives me any trouble. Its 100% reliable, never gets virus's, never gets spyware on it, and everything just works.
Microsoft are not a great company, and lord knows i'm a long way off liking them.. but Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are revelatory products if you ask me because they finally got the reliability and speed thing sussed. Honestly, Active Directory on Windows Server 2003 and Exchange 2003 just blew me away because of just how they worked as products..
There are other products which can support the iPod, depending on the OS you use. Not sure on the Mac but with regards Windows:
* With the normal iPods, there are various freeware apps including a good plugin for Winamp that let you control / update the iPod. Link for that here.
* With the iPod shuffle, you can download a small freeware app which allows you to just drag and drop MP3 / AAC files onto the player and run the app to rebuild the database on it - nice and easy:) Link for that here.
So no real need for iTunes unless you want to buy / convert music.
I do actually like to get a bit of an idea about films, but simply put, no-one has the same tastes in film as the next man.
Even my really good friends who share similar interests, etc to myself don't like exactly the same films as me.
But we were all agreed on the fact that ROTS was excellent. I guess most of the/. brigade would have slated ROTS even if it was considered a modern day masterpiece, but I personally feel Lucas had his toughest challenge yet making the link into Episode IV and he carried it off really well. I was genuinely saddened for Anakins character as he progressed into the darkside.. I was genuinely sad for Obi Wan as he left Anakin by the side of of the lava flow and said what he had to say about him thinking he was the chosen one..
That and the threading into Episode IV was really clever, and it was great seeing old Star Wars sets being given a much more modern look - especially Tatooine right at the end.
Awesome. I'm going to pay to go and see it again without a doubt. Hopefully when the cinema is less full of children!
Its not only the $10 price ticket that is dimming the magic.. its all the other rip off crapola thats starting to ruin it.
Went to see ROTS last night, and here were the things that irked me about it:
* $11.80 total ticket cost (inc. booking fee) * Cost of Pepsi was more than a year ago, size of beverage noticably smaller than a year ago. * Duration of adverts has increased.. there was at least 20 minutes of commercials before the movie trailers even started!
I just get fed up with the general abuse that the movie going public have to endure. Its not like you get a reduction in your ticket price when they throw more adverts at you.. so its just seeing how much they can get away with before people start to complain. If the movie companies are suffering at the hands of the illegal downloaders, they sure have a strange way of showing it.. they should be cutting deals to entice people back to the cinemas but they don't.
The only good deal on cinema right now is for people in the UK who own mobile phones on the Orange network.. most cinemas support the 'Orange Wednesday' scheme where you can get two tickets for the price of one on production of a unique code you recieve on your Orange handset!
Microsoft seems to be continuing its efforts to rubbish Linux and the Open Source movement, but i've noticed one positive thing to come out of this.
It seems the IT journalists are no longer taking what Microsoft says as gospel.. you read any Microsoft vs Linux type article or report and you'll see that the press regularly question Microsofts reasonings behind its attacks on Linux. In fact, apart from the handful of sites that seem to be permanently pro Microsoft, the majority seem sceptical about Microsoft! The BBC especially does a superb job on giving fair balance in its reports.
Clearly Linux is beginning to get a major foothold, and I still genuinely feel Microsoft is worried and getting more so every day.
Well two things about the whole Netscape experience (I just downloaded it, conveniently to do some website compatability testing) put me right off.
Firstly, I went to the site using Firefox 1.0.3 and was told my browser was out of date and that I needed to upgrade to Netscape 8 - my god, what is this.. Microsoft?! Isn't Netscape 8 using the Firefox 1.0.3 engine anyway?!
Secondly - the skin on the thing is just classic Netscape. Hugely cluttered and shockingly ugly.
Thanks but i'll stick to the real McCoy.. good old Firefox!
This is a shameless cut and paste from a previous post I made, but I feel its applicable here!
You know I used to be of the same opinion, but my mind is changing on such things.
I recently sold my Samsung E700 phone and upgraded to a Microsoft / Orange SPV C500. Its the size of a quite compact, regular phone, does all the regular phone stuff, but is powered by PocketPC - so I have access to Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, and all kinds of other wonderful things.
I'll get the Microsoft bash out of the way first.. it crashes. As hilarious as it sounds, its the only phone i've ever had that crashes. I've had mobile phones for about 6 or 7 years now, and none of them have been as unreliable as this.. not even the very first Motorola 'brick' I had! It must crash on average once a month, which I feel is pretty poor..
But onto the positive side. I genuinely feel that this is the swiss army knife of phones. Firstly it takes minisd cards.. so I can stick a nice 512MB minisd card in the phone, compress a DivX movie down to fit on the card, and then take a train and have a portable movie player with me. The screen is large compared to the rest of the size of the phone and is very clear. The phone comes with a handsfree kit which is also a pair of stereo headphones, so no annoying of my fellow passengers as I watch a film. I could also put MP3's on there and use it as an alternative to the iPod shuffle I recently bought...
Secondly.. I never thought I would find having mobile internet access so helpful, but it is. Internet Explorer on this phone works surprisingly well, and renders most sites without too much trouble. Again, I never thought I would need such a frivolous feature but as I sat in Schipol airport with a girlfriend, late one Sunday night a few weeks back I wondered if I would be able to get a train back from Birmingham airport back in the UK or if the trains had all finished. No worry.. just whip out my phone, and check the train timetable online.. saved me a lot of hassle and time just having access to that. In the end we had to get a taxi;)
The camera is good too, and has come in handy so many times.. like getting a picture of the map of the maze at a country house before going into it so we can find our way back out if we get stuck or taking a quick snap of a note that you don't want to forget!:)
Wonderful phone.. I don't think i'd change it for anything right now.. well.. maybe one with a bit more reliable firmware on it;)
Don't be so quick to gloss over the seemingly frivolous features. They are more useful than you realise sometimes!
I was going to mod this up, but I wanted to reply to give a whole hearted endorsement to everything you just said.. I think your post pretty much rounds up exactly what is wrong in this country.
Its difficult to trust anyone, or any system in this country any more because it seems like anyone who works for any public facing company or department just couldn't give a shit. There are rare occasions where you deal with a company who are fast, efficient and courteous - but its so few and far between, it almost bowls you over when it happens. It should be the fucking norm, not the exception!
You're totally right.. I often think its time to desert this place, before it gets to late and the lazy chav breeding population have totally taken over.
I thought I was quite clear on my feelings when I linked to that, so I couldn't quite work out how I got busted down to -1 for that when I was at +4 at one point. Nice to see moderation is consistent!:|
If Microsoft are so goddamn confident of their product, and so keen to rubbish the Linux community, they should challenge the Linux community to a server benchmark shootout.
Get equal representatives from each side to devise a set of tests, and agree on a standardised hardware specification. Then each side is allowed to hand pick the engineers that work on the builds of each OS and all the fine tuning and tweaks, and run it as some kind of well publicised event.
If Windows Server 2003 is so fucking good Microsoft would have nothing to lose.. the cost of marketing an event like that would be nothing compared to the good press and extra business it would give them. But quite honestly I feel Windows 2003 WOULD get screwed over by Linux and the negative publicity would sound the death knoll for Microsoft. And thats why they'd never do it.
Maybe the Linux community could formally offer such a challenge to Microsoft, and bloody publicise the fact that they are trying to do it.. if the press leapt on it, Microsoft would have to have some spectacular excuse to back out of such an event?
Whoever dreamt this up must have clearly been hitting the crack pipe at the time. This kind of tax is only going to increase piracy..
So what if someone is going to buy an iPod photo and legitimately purchase music from the iTunes store, and only copy CD's they own? Why the hell are they getting stung $200+ worth of tax for a crime they didn't commit?! This will only serve to increase piracy quite honestly.
And I know the dutch certainly seem to love their iPods. I recently came back from a short break in Amsterdam (where I bought a 512MB Shuffle to compliment my 3G 20GB iPod) and was amazed at just many Amsterdam residents were gliding around on their bikes with a pair of white iPod earphones in their ears. Seriously, they were everywhere!
All these fancy camera, mp3, email phones are just for people who want the wizz bang new thing. Those people will always be behind the 8 ball.
You know I used to be of the same opinion, but my mind is changing on such things.
I recently sold my Samsung E700 phone and upgraded to a Microsoft / Orange SPV C500. Its the size of a quite compact, regular phone, does all the regular phone stuff, but is powered by PocketPC - so I have access to Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, and all kinds of other wonderful things.
I'll get the Microsoft bash out of the way first.. it crashes. As hilarious as it sounds, its the only phone i've ever had that crashes. I've had mobile phones for about 6 or 7 years now, and none of them have been as unreliable as this.. not even the very first Motorola 'brick' I had! It must crash on average once a month, which I feel is pretty poor..
But onto the positive side. I genuinely feel that this is the swiss army knife of phones. Firstly it takes minisd cards.. so I can stick a nice 512MB minisd card in the phone, compress a DivX movie down to fit on the card, and then take a train and have a portable movie player with me. The screen is large compared to the rest of the size of the phone and is very clear. The phone comes with a handsfree kit which is also a pair of stereo headphones, so no annoying of my fellow passengers as I watch a film. I could also put MP3's on there and use it as an alternative to the iPod shuffle I recently bought...
Secondly.. I never thought I would find having mobile internet access so helpful, but it is. Internet Explorer on this phone works surprisingly well, and renders most sites without too much trouble. Again, I never thought I would need such a frivolous feature but as I sat in Schipol airport with a girlfriend, late one Sunday night a few weeks back I wondered if I would be able to get a train back from Birmingham airport back in the UK or if the trains had all finished. No worry.. just whip out my phone, and check the train timetable online.. saved me a lot of hassle and time just having access to that. In the end we had to get a taxi;)
The camera is good too, and has come in handy so many times.. like getting a picture of the map of the maze at a country house before going into it so we can find our way back out if we get stuck;)
Wonderful phone.. I don't think i'd change it for anything right now.. well.. maybe one with a bit more reliable firmware on it;)
Don't be so quick to gloss over the seemingly frivolous features. They are more useful than you realise sometimes!
I think the point the parent is trying to make, considering the price of the top end G5 and the REST of the spec (like those two monster 2.8GHz G5's) 512MB isn't really in line with the rest of the spec.
Considering all their entry level machines come with 256MB, simply sticking another 256MB in for the big daddy isn't really being that generous is it.
Still.. if you can afford to spend £2000 on one, another £50 to take up up to 1GB of RAM isn't really going to make a dent is it:)
Slashdot Mirror
What want to know is when are we going to get the definitive version of Windows?
Each time a new version comes along, Microsofties are saying "This is the one Microsoft have been working on for ages.. Me / 2000 / XP were just in betweens but THIS is the one" - but its the same with every previous version.
Longhorn has been frequently touted as the MUST HAVE version of Windows but with so much key technology missing, then surely its just going to be yet another stopgap version of Windows.
So when is the killer version due? We've been waiting long enough.
Indeed.. a stripped down test version to see if my network, graphics, and sound will work would be great.
Alas the hardware list is typically sparse and I don't particularly want to fork out 99 Euro's on something I can't be sure will work with my system.
Nevermind!
And all joking aside, you'd be better off being on the terrorists side out there right now.
:(
The place is in an absolute shambles
Ok.. enough.. i'm a strong UNIX/Linux supporter, and have been the first to defend it against jibes and bashes by the people I work with in my IT department. But one thing I like to do before I have an argument with someone is get my facts right.. this seems to be a concept entirely alien to you.
Lets talk about stuff that 'just works' - I run Windows Update probably once a month, I have an antivirus app that I never need to check up on, and I don't buy cheap shit hardware - using those simple techniques, my home Windows XP machine never (and I mean never) crashes nor gives me any trouble. Its 100% reliable, never gets virus's, never gets spyware on it, and everything just works.
Microsoft are not a great company, and lord knows i'm a long way off liking them.. but Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are revelatory products if you ask me because they finally got the reliability and speed thing sussed. Honestly, Active Directory on Windows Server 2003 and Exchange 2003 just blew me away because of just how they worked as products..
There are other products which can support the iPod, depending on the OS you use. Not sure on the Mac but with regards Windows:
:) Link for that here.
* With the normal iPods, there are various freeware apps including a good plugin for Winamp that let you control / update the iPod. Link for that here.
* With the iPod shuffle, you can download a small freeware app which allows you to just drag and drop MP3 / AAC files onto the player and run the app to rebuild the database on it - nice and easy
So no real need for iTunes unless you want to buy / convert music.
I do actually like to get a bit of an idea about films, but simply put, no-one has the same tastes in film as the next man.
/. brigade would have slated ROTS even if it was considered a modern day masterpiece, but I personally feel Lucas had his toughest challenge yet making the link into Episode IV and he carried it off really well. I was genuinely saddened for Anakins character as he progressed into the darkside.. I was genuinely sad for Obi Wan as he left Anakin by the side of of the lava flow and said what he had to say about him thinking he was the chosen one..
Even my really good friends who share similar interests, etc to myself don't like exactly the same films as me.
But we were all agreed on the fact that ROTS was excellent. I guess most of the
That and the threading into Episode IV was really clever, and it was great seeing old Star Wars sets being given a much more modern look - especially Tatooine right at the end.
Awesome. I'm going to pay to go and see it again without a doubt. Hopefully when the cinema is less full of children!
Its not only the $10 price ticket that is dimming the magic.. its all the other rip off crapola thats starting to ruin it.
Went to see ROTS last night, and here were the things that irked me about it:
* $11.80 total ticket cost (inc. booking fee)
* Cost of Pepsi was more than a year ago, size of beverage noticably smaller than a year ago.
* Duration of adverts has increased.. there was at least 20 minutes of commercials before the movie trailers even started!
I just get fed up with the general abuse that the movie going public have to endure. Its not like you get a reduction in your ticket price when they throw more adverts at you.. so its just seeing how much they can get away with before people start to complain. If the movie companies are suffering at the hands of the illegal downloaders, they sure have a strange way of showing it.. they should be cutting deals to entice people back to the cinemas but they don't.
The only good deal on cinema right now is for people in the UK who own mobile phones on the Orange network.. most cinemas support the 'Orange Wednesday' scheme where you can get two tickets for the price of one on production of a unique code you recieve on your Orange handset!
Microsoft seems to be continuing its efforts to rubbish Linux and the Open Source movement, but i've noticed one positive thing to come out of this.
It seems the IT journalists are no longer taking what Microsoft says as gospel.. you read any Microsoft vs Linux type article or report and you'll see that the press regularly question Microsofts reasonings behind its attacks on Linux. In fact, apart from the handful of sites that seem to be permanently pro Microsoft, the majority seem sceptical about Microsoft! The BBC especially does a superb job on giving fair balance in its reports.
Clearly Linux is beginning to get a major foothold, and I still genuinely feel Microsoft is worried and getting more so every day.
Well two things about the whole Netscape experience (I just downloaded it, conveniently to do some website compatability testing) put me right off.
Firstly, I went to the site using Firefox 1.0.3 and was told my browser was out of date and that I needed to upgrade to Netscape 8 - my god, what is this.. Microsoft?! Isn't Netscape 8 using the Firefox 1.0.3 engine anyway?!
Secondly - the skin on the thing is just classic Netscape. Hugely cluttered and shockingly ugly.
Thanks but i'll stick to the real McCoy.. good old Firefox!
Because i'm a gadget freak and they had them on special offer at the airport ;)
It would have meant buying another MiniSD and I wasn't too bothered so got the Shuffle!
This is a shameless cut and paste from a previous post I made, but I feel its applicable here!
;)
:)
;)
You know I used to be of the same opinion, but my mind is changing on such things.
I recently sold my Samsung E700 phone and upgraded to a Microsoft / Orange SPV C500. Its the size of a quite compact, regular phone, does all the regular phone stuff, but is powered by PocketPC - so I have access to Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, and all kinds of other wonderful things.
I'll get the Microsoft bash out of the way first.. it crashes. As hilarious as it sounds, its the only phone i've ever had that crashes. I've had mobile phones for about 6 or 7 years now, and none of them have been as unreliable as this.. not even the very first Motorola 'brick' I had! It must crash on average once a month, which I feel is pretty poor..
But onto the positive side. I genuinely feel that this is the swiss army knife of phones. Firstly it takes minisd cards.. so I can stick a nice 512MB minisd card in the phone, compress a DivX movie down to fit on the card, and then take a train and have a portable movie player with me. The screen is large compared to the rest of the size of the phone and is very clear. The phone comes with a handsfree kit which is also a pair of stereo headphones, so no annoying of my fellow passengers as I watch a film. I could also put MP3's on there and use it as an alternative to the iPod shuffle I recently bought...
Secondly.. I never thought I would find having mobile internet access so helpful, but it is. Internet Explorer on this phone works surprisingly well, and renders most sites without too much trouble. Again, I never thought I would need such a frivolous feature but as I sat in Schipol airport with a girlfriend, late one Sunday night a few weeks back I wondered if I would be able to get a train back from Birmingham airport back in the UK or if the trains had all finished. No worry.. just whip out my phone, and check the train timetable online.. saved me a lot of hassle and time just having access to that. In the end we had to get a taxi
The camera is good too, and has come in handy so many times.. like getting a picture of the map of the maze at a country house before going into it so we can find our way back out if we get stuck or taking a quick snap of a note that you don't want to forget!
Wonderful phone.. I don't think i'd change it for anything right now.. well.. maybe one with a bit more reliable firmware on it
Don't be so quick to gloss over the seemingly frivolous features. They are more useful than you realise sometimes!
he only thing not submersed in oil is the hard disk.
:)
And what about the CDROM drive eh, eh?!
I was going to mod this up, but I wanted to reply to give a whole hearted endorsement to everything you just said.. I think your post pretty much rounds up exactly what is wrong in this country.
Its difficult to trust anyone, or any system in this country any more because it seems like anyone who works for any public facing company or department just couldn't give a shit. There are rare occasions where you deal with a company who are fast, efficient and courteous - but its so few and far between, it almost bowls you over when it happens. It should be the fucking norm, not the exception!
You're totally right.. I often think its time to desert this place, before it gets to late and the lazy chav breeding population have totally taken over.
Thanks for that..
:|
I thought I was quite clear on my feelings when I linked to that, so I couldn't quite work out how I got busted down to -1 for that when I was at +4 at one point. Nice to see moderation is consistent!
http://linuxbusinessnews.sys-con.com/read/83267.ht m
;)
I don't wish to publicise this to be honest, but people should read this and see just kind of trash is being referred to in the article.
I don't see how this could even be considered journalism to be quite honest - and i'm NOT just talking about Slashdot!
If Microsoft are so goddamn confident of their product, and so keen to rubbish the Linux community, they should challenge the Linux community to a server benchmark shootout.
Get equal representatives from each side to devise a set of tests, and agree on a standardised hardware specification. Then each side is allowed to hand pick the engineers that work on the builds of each OS and all the fine tuning and tweaks, and run it as some kind of well publicised event.
If Windows Server 2003 is so fucking good Microsoft would have nothing to lose.. the cost of marketing an event like that would be nothing compared to the good press and extra business it would give them. But quite honestly I feel Windows 2003 WOULD get screwed over by Linux and the negative publicity would sound the death knoll for Microsoft. And thats why they'd never do it.
Maybe the Linux community could formally offer such a challenge to Microsoft, and bloody publicise the fact that they are trying to do it.. if the press leapt on it, Microsoft would have to have some spectacular excuse to back out of such an event?
As for me, I used the 3.7 minutes I've saved so far to spend some quality time with my friends.
;)
Rosie Palm and her 5 sisters?
Whoever dreamt this up must have clearly been hitting the crack pipe at the time. This kind of tax is only going to increase piracy..
So what if someone is going to buy an iPod photo and legitimately purchase music from the iTunes store, and only copy CD's they own? Why the hell are they getting stung $200+ worth of tax for a crime they didn't commit?! This will only serve to increase piracy quite honestly.
And I know the dutch certainly seem to love their iPods. I recently came back from a short break in Amsterdam (where I bought a 512MB Shuffle to compliment my 3G 20GB iPod) and was amazed at just many Amsterdam residents were gliding around on their bikes with a pair of white iPod earphones in their ears. Seriously, they were everywhere!
My Orange/Microsoft SPV C500 allows me to use SSH/Telnet with a freeware Java download... its quite a novelty, I can tell you :)
All these fancy camera, mp3, email phones are just for people who want the wizz bang new thing. Those people will always be behind the 8 ball.
;)
;)
;)
You know I used to be of the same opinion, but my mind is changing on such things.
I recently sold my Samsung E700 phone and upgraded to a Microsoft / Orange SPV C500. Its the size of a quite compact, regular phone, does all the regular phone stuff, but is powered by PocketPC - so I have access to Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, and all kinds of other wonderful things.
I'll get the Microsoft bash out of the way first.. it crashes. As hilarious as it sounds, its the only phone i've ever had that crashes. I've had mobile phones for about 6 or 7 years now, and none of them have been as unreliable as this.. not even the very first Motorola 'brick' I had! It must crash on average once a month, which I feel is pretty poor..
But onto the positive side. I genuinely feel that this is the swiss army knife of phones. Firstly it takes minisd cards.. so I can stick a nice 512MB minisd card in the phone, compress a DivX movie down to fit on the card, and then take a train and have a portable movie player with me. The screen is large compared to the rest of the size of the phone and is very clear. The phone comes with a handsfree kit which is also a pair of stereo headphones, so no annoying of my fellow passengers as I watch a film. I could also put MP3's on there and use it as an alternative to the iPod shuffle I recently bought...
Secondly.. I never thought I would find having mobile internet access so helpful, but it is. Internet Explorer on this phone works surprisingly well, and renders most sites without too much trouble. Again, I never thought I would need such a frivolous feature but as I sat in Schipol airport with a girlfriend, late one Sunday night a few weeks back I wondered if I would be able to get a train back from Birmingham airport back in the UK or if the trains had all finished. No worry.. just whip out my phone, and check the train timetable online.. saved me a lot of hassle and time just having access to that. In the end we had to get a taxi
The camera is good too, and has come in handy so many times.. like getting a picture of the map of the maze at a country house before going into it so we can find our way back out if we get stuck
Wonderful phone.. I don't think i'd change it for anything right now.. well.. maybe one with a bit more reliable firmware on it
Don't be so quick to gloss over the seemingly frivolous features. They are more useful than you realise sometimes!
Arse. I meant 2.7GHz, not 2.8GHz.. before the /. pedantic police come and grill me ;)
I think the point the parent is trying to make, considering the price of the top end G5 and the REST of the spec (like those two monster 2.8GHz G5's) 512MB isn't really in line with the rest of the spec.
:)
Considering all their entry level machines come with 256MB, simply sticking another 256MB in for the big daddy isn't really being that generous is it.
Still.. if you can afford to spend £2000 on one, another £50 to take up up to 1GB of RAM isn't really going to make a dent is it
Only on Slashdot would someone compare the Lord of the Rings to likely future of Google.. :)
You've got whats coming to you if you just copy and paste, and then run random code that you found on the internet quite frankly.
What is it with you Americans and this dogged obsession with "companies only exist to make money"?
Did the '-UK' part of my name not give away the fact that I might not be American? Sheesh..