You have intellesense statement completion, automatic code formatting and highlighting, and intelligent help that will pull full documentation on any statement you are typing with one click.
This sounds extremely annoying. What does a person do when they just want to type? Do they have to spend lots of time to figure out each widget to disable to get back to a real development environment? Or, do they just open up Emacs, instead?
the main advantage to windows always seems to be that little to no training is required
No matter how often this is cited, it will always be wrong. Windows is very complex; however, Microsoft has successfully brainwashed the masses to think otherwise.
For example, how does a person successfully troubleshoot Windows? Saying "I don't know, try rebooting" is not a valid answer.
Why not compare Mono/Linux to.NET/Windows so we wont compare apples and oranges.
Because.NET really does not work on Linux. Only a small subset does, and that is with Microsoft's toleration (for now).
Conversely, there are full-blown fully-sanctioned-and-supported J2EE implementations for Linux distributions. In fact, there are several full-blown J2EE implementations available. From different and competing vendors.
Funny how proprietary lock-in isn't a criteria in these "studies".
Oh, that's right, libs are only concerned about skin color diversity.
It's amusing how often I am called a "Liberal [sic]" when I'm not even Republican (Republicans are for big government, too--so you Democrats don't need to feel lonely).
$1 trillion additional national debt in two years. Sad.
It's interesting how the tools I take for granted are even older than I thought. This is perhaps the most significant reason UNIX works well, where the system was debugged in small modular pieces, because they had no choice. Sure, vi, for example, has some quirks, but it very rarely fails.
Will the teachers give an "A for effort" when the kids produce cute pasted clipart and sampled audio instead of a coherent well-written presentation? Are they focusing on substance or just the fun of being able to mindlessly browse menus? Do they teachers even know the distinction?
It is shown by the fact that FOX news and conservative talk radio are so successful: they provide an alternative to a monolithic viewpoint provided by the large news corporations.
They provide an alternative to themselves? Your post sounds like you are arguing both sides of the issue.
The journalism "profession" in the United States is fiercly independent when it comes to ideological interference from owners and others.
That doesn't imply integrity. The local news, here, played a large part in dismantling a school bond referendum (the bias was sickening). The fascination with shark sightings and attacks over the last few years is doubly sickening (oooh, sharks have pointy teeth and look mean, much more important than real news). The frenzy about people like Jessica Lynch is triply sickening, where she gets singled out by the press and offered millions of dollars, while other soldiers get ignored (what a cute picture of her in front of the flag!).
There is also some very subtle and dangerious bias out there. For example, a while back, there was an article in Reader's Digest about how privacy is overrated! Of course, they didn't mention that privacy is essential to Constitutionally-granted freedoms. Nor did they mention the subtle political uses that so much centrally-maintained information can have.
It seems these "fiercly independent" journalists are actually tools of powerful people telling what to report and when to report it. Either that, or they are wallowing around in their own stupidity. Either way, and journalism is becoming less and less a means of empowering citizens against tyranny.
In other words, perhaps science fiction is suffering from too much science!
I always thought that the science in science fiction was incidental relative to the story or point the author is trying to make. For example, Issac Asimov's "Nightfall" is more about human nature than specifically about some neat-o planet with three suns. "Ender's Game" is more about human nature than space stations and insects. "Dune" is more about human nature than nifty flying machines and nuclear weapons.
The best science fiction uses science as a vehicle not and end in itself. Perhaps, the last 100 years has generated enough science fiction to keep people busy for a while? Perhaps current authors are not living up to their predecessors? I don't know...maybe the audience changed.
I think I may have laughed once while watching that movie. Perhaps the problem is that I'm not 14 years old and don't find poorly executed fart scenes funny. Now, Mel Brooks...now he can make a good fart scene!
I mean, there's nothing wrong with pre-emptive self-defence, right?
Not at all. Like just the other day, my neighbor's dog pooed on my lawn, so I sprayed RoundUp on all his grass, his bushes, and his trees...and then I burned down his house! HAHAHA, he'll think twice about letting his dog off his property, now! Oh, and he smiles real nice each time he sees me, because I didn't piss him off not one bit!
What do you mean I could have just talked to the guy?!? Build a fence?!? What?!?
This is very artificial and arbitrary, like a board game. Sounds very satisfying.
If anything, you'd think this system would provide an enormous incentive for people to get into business and businesses would become more efficient and productive than ever.
Given that centralized government is the antithesis to personal liberty, I wonder if there will be enough people left to actually start businesses. Given this controlled economy, it will be very convenient to destroy political dissidents or even people who simply rub someone the wrong way. What if someone wanted to start a business that catered solely to a very unpopular sexual subculture that nearly everyone found offensive but still couldn't pinpoint any victimization? Would this planned economy allow it? Or would that business find massive resistence from the planners themselves?
Ultimately, a planned economy, it seems, would decompose into one like in modern dictatorships. For example, North Korea.
It's fascinating to look at these early efforts at controlled economies and think how much better the US economy could be with a bit of technological innovation.
The greatness of the USA is founded in volatility and uncertainty to a great degree. How do you plan for things never before imagined?
It could make a viable welfare state a reality.
I would bet stagnation soon follows. Humans are animals, and, left wanting nothing, they will become consumers to the fullest degree. Trust me, we are a long way from some nirvana utopia of selfless existence. Perhaps in a few thousand years the odds will be better, but most definitely not in the next century.
A planned economy and a thriving business world could easily exist side by side.
Could goverment contracting be a current example of a modern-day planned economy? If so, the inefficiency, subtle corruption, and political motiviations would make such an economy horrible and miserable for many people. There are simply too few checks and balances in the governemnt to keep it working properly.
This isn't like some optimistic Star Trek: TNG episode where everyone runs around in loin cloths happily, this is about a system that has to work for hundreds of millions of people. For this scale, it is best to implement a system that finds its own stable points, like a natural ecosystem. A self regulating system will be more successful in the long term than something implemented by a few smart people guessing at where to lead everyone.
I guess that if you have the time to google for a couple hundred sources for a given story, you might get something approximating the whole picture, and a fair rendition of the news...
Well, Google News can be a timesaver. But even that isn't enough. Mainly it is important to choose three or so news sources with known and transparent slants of various degrees, and read through the bias to get the nuggets of truth out there. It doesn't have to be 200, but it definitely has to be more than one. Unfortunately, nearly all TV-based news is completely worthless, except perhaps that on PBS (who aren't quite as ratings-driven). Local newspapers are generally so small in scope that they aren't much value, either. The WWW is truly a safe-haven of journalism, but we have to remain hopeful that it, too, isn't regulated down to only a handful of players.
We have to remember that most of the people providing the news are really only three or so enormous corporations big enough to be their own governments with their own political agendas. Think about this: CNN and MSNBC are, essentially AOL/Time and Microsoft/Newsweek. I don't remember who runs Fox, but they aren't any better. These companies are also competing for government contracts, large national customer bases in several markets, etc. Their news departments are merely an extention of marketing, essentially.
I doubt anyone much in America sees the oxymoron of this.
Thank you for your widely overgeneralized summary of America. One thing you forgot to mention is that the USA, believe it or no, is probably the most diverse country on the planet. If you set aside Bush & Cheny and their clone army of Christain oil barons, there is much to appreciate in the US. There are still people here who know our roots. There are statistics like there being more Irish people in parts of the US than all of Ireland. Most people I know are two or three generations behind immigrants who settled in various parts of the country, from the Carribian to Eastern Europe to Asia, no country is not represented in some form. While it is unfortunate that recent foriegn policy seems myopic, ignorant, and selfish, I hope people realize that this can change with the next round of elections (please vote accordingly!).
If we remain optimistic, we can realize that a free country with a free market economy does not tolerate wrongdoing for decades like some dictatorships out there. Look at how much the US has changed in the last ten years alone is evidence enough to know that the status quo is really a myth. There are periodic shakedowns from the oil monopolies of the early 20th century to the recent financial scandals to corrupt government officials (harder but possible) to, soon, Microsoft. As long as we don't regulate ourselves to a rigid death of overflowing government power, the US will sort itself out.
When the antichrist arrives, we wont even belive, because everyone will think it's a hoax:)
Well, the fact that the antichrist chose the form of a 12-year-old boy in one of those plastic molded dracula Halloween costumes didn't help anything. Would you believe some kid running around going "Bleh! Bleh! I'm dracula, er, I mean I'm the antichrist! Bow down before me!"
If the US military needs to make warfighting into a game to attract recruits, then it seems our country is actually less unified and nationalistic than our 9/11 buffs and journalists would lead us to believe.
Sorry to reply to myself, but I also realized that, perhaps, the government is driving away potential recruits. For example, the People are pretty divided on support for the "war on terrorism", where many people would have trouble motivating themselves for future military actions. That's already a large group of people lost for recruiting.
Also, many social programs make it such that people don't have to work for their country to keep it going strong. Why be a part of the military (damn, it's hard work, you know) when they can just sit back and soak up things like nationalized health care and magical tax returns. Keeping people sharp requires not treating them like spoiled children (it really is a matter of human nature).
It seems that many people just lack the "edge" of previous generations. Maybe this has to do with there being no frontiers, anymore. Even the suburbs are overpopulated and overdeveloped. National parks see so many visitors that there is no natural wonder to bask in, anymore. Granted, we don't have rampant disease or lack of heat in winter, anymore, but those problems get replaced with having to live like naked mole rats piled on top of each other in an hole.
Agreed. The on-line experience lacks....oh, what are those things soldiers see...boot camp, discipline, bullets, politics...
If the US military needs to make warfighting into a game to attract recruits, then it seems our country is actually less unified and nationalistic than our 9/11 buffs and journalists would lead us to believe.
I thought joining the military had something to do with pride, defending the Constitution, etc., but I guess I was wrong...it all just a game. Silly me.
In 2025, we will have to wait a full five minutes (still!) for the AI to load into the neural network so it can write our term papers for us.
One thing I find very interesting is that my Commodore 64 with GEOS had comparable word processing and printing capabilities to PCs of several years later (for what I did, anyway). My color Okidata thermal printer was pretty snazzy for its day! Oh, and my C64, strangely, was more reliable than the Windows PCs I've owned...well, until I switched those PCs to Solaris, OpenBSD, and Linux.
Instead, this represents a longer-term effort to develop their solutions for the educational market, one in which they aren't a monopolist.
The educational market is not a distinct market, here. What this whole thread is about is desktop operating systems and office productivity software. Something specifically for an educational market, for example, would be "Microsoft presents: Evil Bert Teaches How to Crush Other People's Hopes and Dreams Through Negotiation, Blackmail, Bribery, and Extortion. For ages 4 and up."
Slashdot Mirror
You have intellesense statement completion, automatic code formatting and highlighting, and intelligent help that will pull full documentation on any statement you are typing with one click.
This sounds extremely annoying. What does a person do when they just want to type? Do they have to spend lots of time to figure out each widget to disable to get back to a real development environment? Or, do they just open up Emacs, instead?
the main advantage to windows always seems to be that little to no training is required
No matter how often this is cited, it will always be wrong. Windows is very complex; however, Microsoft has successfully brainwashed the masses to think otherwise.
For example, how does a person successfully troubleshoot Windows? Saying "I don't know, try rebooting" is not a valid answer.
Why not compare Mono/Linux to .NET/Windows so we wont compare apples and oranges.
.NET really does not work on Linux. Only a small subset does, and that is with Microsoft's toleration (for now).
Because
Conversely, there are full-blown fully-sanctioned-and-supported J2EE implementations for Linux distributions. In fact, there are several full-blown J2EE implementations available. From different and competing vendors.
Funny how proprietary lock-in isn't a criteria in these "studies".
So Christians don't count toward 'diversity?'
I never claimed this.
Oh, that's right, libs are only concerned about skin color diversity.
It's amusing how often I am called a "Liberal [sic]" when I'm not even Republican (Republicans are for big government, too--so you Democrats don't need to feel lonely).
$1 trillion additional national debt in two years. Sad.
It's interesting how the tools I take for granted are even older than I thought. This is perhaps the most significant reason UNIX works well, where the system was debugged in small modular pieces, because they had no choice. Sure, vi, for example, has some quirks, but it very rarely fails.
If I "stole" ebay's database (don't they have a massive database taking many file servers to hold?) what good would that do me?
It would only help you if you cared about their trade secrets. Copyrighting is irrelevant; either the data is proprietary or it isn't.
found clipart for multimedia presentations
Will the teachers give an "A for effort" when the kids produce cute pasted clipart and sampled audio instead of a coherent well-written presentation?
Are they focusing on substance or just the fun of being able to mindlessly browse menus? Do they teachers even know the distinction?
It is shown by the fact that FOX news and conservative talk radio are so successful: they provide an alternative to a monolithic viewpoint provided by the large news corporations.
They provide an alternative to themselves? Your post sounds like you are arguing both sides of the issue.
The journalism "profession" in the United States is fiercly independent when it comes to ideological interference from owners and others.
That doesn't imply integrity. The local news, here, played a large part in dismantling a school bond referendum (the bias was sickening). The fascination with shark sightings and attacks over the last few years is doubly sickening (oooh, sharks have pointy teeth and look mean, much more important than real news). The frenzy about people like Jessica Lynch is triply sickening, where she gets singled out by the press and offered millions of dollars, while other soldiers get ignored (what a cute picture of her in front of the flag!).
There is also some very subtle and dangerious bias out there. For example, a while back, there was an article in Reader's Digest about how privacy is overrated! Of course, they didn't mention that privacy is essential to Constitutionally-granted freedoms. Nor did they mention the subtle political uses that so much centrally-maintained information can have.
It seems these "fiercly independent" journalists are actually tools of powerful people telling what to report and when to report it. Either that, or they are wallowing around in their own stupidity. Either way, and journalism is becoming less and less a means of empowering citizens against tyranny.
I'm suprized not to find Power consumption/heat dissapation in the presentation.
Power consumption would have only made Apple look better.
In other words, perhaps science fiction is suffering from too much science!
I always thought that the science in science fiction was incidental relative to the story or point the author is trying to make. For example, Issac Asimov's "Nightfall" is more about human nature than specifically about some neat-o planet with three suns. "Ender's Game" is more about human nature than space stations and insects. "Dune" is more about human nature than nifty flying machines and nuclear weapons.
The best science fiction uses science as a vehicle not and end in itself. Perhaps, the last 100 years has generated enough science fiction to keep people busy for a while? Perhaps current authors are not living up to their predecessors? I don't know...maybe the audience changed.
Scary Movie
I think I may have laughed once while watching that movie. Perhaps the problem is that I'm not 14 years old and don't find poorly executed fart scenes funny. Now, Mel Brooks...now he can make a good fart scene!
only 100 watts rms being used.
This must be before someone mentions that BSD licensing is more free...just wait until you get him really worked up!
I mean, there's nothing wrong with pre-emptive self-defence, right?
Not at all. Like just the other day, my neighbor's dog pooed on my lawn, so I sprayed RoundUp on all his grass, his bushes, and his trees...and then I burned down his house! HAHAHA, he'll think twice about letting his dog off his property, now! Oh, and he smiles real nice each time he sees me, because I didn't piss him off not one bit!
What do you mean I could have just talked to the guy?!? Build a fence?!? What?!?
If you don't circulate, you lose it.
This is very artificial and arbitrary, like a board game. Sounds very satisfying.
If anything, you'd think this system would provide an enormous incentive for people to get into business and businesses would become more efficient and productive than ever.
Given that centralized government is the antithesis to personal liberty, I wonder if there will be enough people left to actually start businesses. Given this controlled economy, it will be very convenient to destroy political dissidents or even people who simply rub someone the wrong way. What if someone wanted to start a business that catered solely to a very unpopular sexual subculture that nearly everyone found offensive but still couldn't pinpoint any victimization? Would this planned economy allow it? Or would that business find massive resistence from the planners themselves?
Ultimately, a planned economy, it seems, would decompose into one like in modern dictatorships. For example, North Korea.
Just another in a long line of incidents demonstrating the fall of the US...
No, it's just an indication that the US isn't being implemented as the requirements specify...
It's fascinating to look at these early efforts at controlled economies and think how much better the US economy could be with a bit of technological innovation.
The greatness of the USA is founded in volatility and uncertainty to a great degree. How do you plan for things never before imagined?
It could make a viable welfare state a reality.
I would bet stagnation soon follows. Humans are animals, and, left wanting nothing, they will become consumers to the fullest degree. Trust me, we are a long way from some nirvana utopia of selfless existence. Perhaps in a few thousand years the odds will be better, but most definitely not in the next century.
A planned economy and a thriving business world could easily exist side by side.
Could goverment contracting be a current example of a modern-day planned economy? If so, the inefficiency, subtle corruption, and political motiviations would make such an economy horrible and miserable for many people. There are simply too few checks and balances in the governemnt to keep it working properly.
This isn't like some optimistic Star Trek: TNG episode where everyone runs around in loin cloths happily, this is about a system that has to work for hundreds of millions of people. For this scale, it is best to implement a system that finds its own stable points, like a natural ecosystem. A self regulating system will be more successful in the long term than something implemented by a few smart people guessing at where to lead everyone.
I guess that if you have the time to google for a couple hundred sources for a given story, you might get something approximating the whole picture, and a fair rendition of the news...
Well, Google News can be a timesaver. But even that isn't enough. Mainly it is important to choose three or so news sources with known and transparent slants of various degrees, and read through the bias to get the nuggets of truth out there. It doesn't have to be 200, but it definitely has to be more than one. Unfortunately, nearly all TV-based news is completely worthless, except perhaps that on PBS (who aren't quite as ratings-driven). Local newspapers are generally so small in scope that they aren't much value, either. The WWW is truly a safe-haven of journalism, but we have to remain hopeful that it, too, isn't regulated down to only a handful of players.
We have to remember that most of the people providing the news are really only three or so enormous corporations big enough to be their own governments with their own political agendas. Think about this: CNN and MSNBC are, essentially AOL/Time and Microsoft/Newsweek. I don't remember who runs Fox, but they aren't any better. These companies are also competing for government contracts, large national customer bases in several markets, etc. Their news departments are merely an extention of marketing, essentially.
I doubt anyone much in America sees the oxymoron of this.
Thank you for your widely overgeneralized summary of America. One thing you forgot to mention is that the USA, believe it or no, is probably the most diverse country on the planet. If you set aside Bush & Cheny and their clone army of Christain oil barons, there is much to appreciate in the US. There are still people here who know our roots. There are statistics like there being more Irish people in parts of the US than all of Ireland. Most people I know are two or three generations behind immigrants who settled in various parts of the country, from the Carribian to Eastern Europe to Asia, no country is not represented in some form. While it is unfortunate that recent foriegn policy seems myopic, ignorant, and selfish, I hope people realize that this can change with the next round of elections (please vote accordingly!).
If we remain optimistic, we can realize that a free country with a free market economy does not tolerate wrongdoing for decades like some dictatorships out there. Look at how much the US has changed in the last ten years alone is evidence enough to know that the status quo is really a myth. There are periodic shakedowns from the oil monopolies of the early 20th century to the recent financial scandals to corrupt government officials (harder but possible) to, soon, Microsoft. As long as we don't regulate ourselves to a rigid death of overflowing government power, the US will sort itself out.
When the antichrist arrives, we wont even belive, because everyone will think it's a hoax :)
Well, the fact that the antichrist chose the form of a 12-year-old boy in one of those plastic molded dracula Halloween costumes didn't help anything. Would you believe some kid running around going "Bleh! Bleh! I'm dracula, er, I mean I'm the antichrist! Bow down before me!"
anymore
Anymore, my lack of proofreading will be the end of me...anymore. Sigh.
If the US military needs to make warfighting into a game to attract recruits, then it seems our country is actually less unified and nationalistic than our 9/11 buffs and journalists would lead us to believe.
Sorry to reply to myself, but I also realized that, perhaps, the government is driving away potential recruits. For example, the People are pretty divided on support for the "war on terrorism", where many people would have trouble motivating themselves for future military actions. That's already a large group of people lost for recruiting.
Also, many social programs make it such that people don't have to work for their country to keep it going strong. Why be a part of the military (damn, it's hard work, you know) when they can just sit back and soak up things like nationalized health care and magical tax returns.
Keeping people sharp requires not treating them like spoiled children (it really is a matter of human nature).
It seems that many people just lack the "edge" of previous generations. Maybe this has to do with there being no frontiers, anymore. Even the suburbs are overpopulated and overdeveloped. National parks see so many visitors that there is no natural wonder to bask in, anymore. Granted, we don't have rampant disease or lack of heat in winter, anymore, but those problems get replaced with having to live like naked mole rats piled on top of each other in an hole.
freaking idiot
Agreed. The on-line experience lacks....oh, what are those things soldiers see...boot camp, discipline, bullets, politics...
If the US military needs to make warfighting into a game to attract recruits, then it seems our country is actually less unified and nationalistic than our 9/11 buffs and journalists would lead us to believe.
I thought joining the military had something to do with pride, defending the Constitution, etc., but I guess I was wrong...it all just a game. Silly me.
Can you guess which one booted faster?
In 2025, we will have to wait a full five minutes (still!) for the AI to load into the neural network so it can write our term papers for us.
One thing I find very interesting is that my Commodore 64 with GEOS had comparable word processing and printing capabilities to PCs of several years later (for what I did, anyway). My color Okidata thermal printer was pretty snazzy for its day! Oh, and my C64, strangely, was more reliable than the Windows PCs I've owned...well, until I switched those PCs to Solaris, OpenBSD, and Linux.
Be sure to read twice, now, to be sure you don't order the wrong type of butt plug.
Instead, this represents a longer-term effort to develop their solutions for the educational market, one in which they aren't a monopolist.
The educational market is not a distinct market, here. What this whole thread is about is desktop operating systems and office productivity software. Something specifically for an educational market, for example, would be "Microsoft presents: Evil Bert Teaches How to Crush Other People's Hopes and Dreams Through Negotiation, Blackmail, Bribery, and Extortion. For ages 4 and up."