While you are correct, we're talking about devices that tend to take 24V at the very most (I don't think I've ever seen a wall wart that put out more than that, although I am sure they exist somewhere.)
Many of HP's older DeskJet (and possibly current models with external "wall-warts") had 36v DC power supplies.
Looking around in my office and my home, everything I have is either 5v or 12, with varying amperages. I don't think I have anything that uses much above 2 amps.
I'm wondering, though, if many items that have a normal wall plug with "built in" power supply, could be built to use, say, a central 12v source (my alarm clock/radio comes to mind) would save any significant amount of power (at least when combined nation/world wide, anyway)? Is it more efficient to have a decently built, larger AC/DC converter powering multiple devices (my alarm clock, cordless phone, cell phone charger, DSL modem, router) instead of separate supplies? I can't think of any more than those five things in my house, but I'm sure there are households that have quite a bit more than myself...
Video cards are already well-supported by their manufacturers.
It's too bad, then, that when I attempt to play a DVD in linux, my ATI x1600 pro (512mb) just "locks up". The whole system isn't "out to lunch", as I can go to another PC and SSH into it. Just the video card dies (screen freezes, mouse/keyboard no longer function). I've posted about it in several forums (including the forum dedicated to my distro of choice). No answers.:(
Oh well. Good thing the drivers don't do that in Windows. Good to see ATI supporting Linux (for all the good it's done me).
There is no 'stable' version of Gentoo. Gentoo is rather a moving target where emerge will forever cause your system to approach the cutting edge.
Yea. Not quite. This is what the "ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=" setting in make.conf is for. If you don't have it set, you get "stable" packages. If you do have it set, you get the unstable stuff.
Further, with the use of the files in/etc/portage, you can have a stable system, but have one or more packages be unstable without having it a system-wide setting.
Haven't read the rest yet, but wanted to point that out.
"The fact that educated women want to establish a career before becoming mothers means that they start a family in their late thirties and consequently have fewer kids, sometimes they have no family at all as it is too late for treatment when they discover infertility issues. Basically the smart people aren't replacing themselves."
What you just described is what was depicted in the movie Idiocracy. Most of the movie was pretty funny and I could already see our society moving that direction.:(
I also feel the studios are more interested in a token attempt. The encryption, even when broken, protects against the vast majority of that type of piracy. The geek market that is capable of doing that is so small it is almost negligible.
It only takes one individual to break the encryption and post the results to the wild to throw your entire argument into the trash.
Oooo, tooltips! Too bad they tend to obscure part of what the button icons and/or labels they're attached to!
This is exactly one of the things that are hair-pullingly wrong about the Ribbon. The tooltips are entirely separated from the labels, so there is no immediate connection between "H" and "Thumbnails" - while "T_h_umbnails" is self-explanatory and makes the accelerator much easier to memorize.
Could you be any more obtuse?
You obviously haven't seen the tooltip. When you hover your mouse over a button that you wish to know more about, it's not going to bring up a tool tip for, say, the button next to it, you dolt. Anyone who has even two brain cells to rub together knows that when the tooltip comes up, its text will describe whatever you have your damned pointer over.
Do me, and everyone else, a favour. When you have something legitimate to bitch about, by all means, do so. Until then, please go back to your bridge.
What an incredibly stupid thing to say. Do you think evolution began only when Darwin described it? "Now that evolution is in charge, things will be a lot different around here!" The world you see around you is the result of evolution. If chasing fads were the best evolutionary strategy, obviously more people would do so. Your assertion that evolution spells the doom of those who dislike Microsoft re-organizing their little toolbars ("The Ribbon Interface (TM)") is just.... ugh. (And those who modded him up, and think that slamming creationists automatically makes inane statements true, please, please mod me down... it's a compliment coming from you).
The story is too old now. You'll probably not see any mod points in either direction.
As to your statement -- well, you are certainly entitled to believe it.
What you obviously didn't understand is that change is inevitable. It's coming. You cannot stop it, no matter how hard you want to try. It happens. Period.
As I said in my statement, which you decided to take out of context for your little diatribe, just because a particular method works doesn't mean you should do it in perpetuity. To think otherwise is just as stupid as you accused me of being. What you basically said up there, if I'm "reading you" correctly, is that once you find something that works, you just stick to it because everything else is stupid/won't work as well.
I've seen the interface, I've used it, I've had a hand in localizing it.
Why does the negative tone in your comment make me doubt everything you just said?
It still sucks.
I think I found an answer for this:
And you're entitled to your preference, as others are to theirs.
Yup. That's the one. Of course, one shouldn't start a thought with "and", but that is another debate.
This is incidentally one of the major problems with the Ribbon: things jump around constantly. First, this behavior makes it harder to focus on editing the document, since colorful icons are constantly shifting in your peripheral vision whenever you click somewhere, scroll, type, etc. It's terribly distracting. Second, because of the shifting, you never know where to find the function you need. First you have to scan the currently displayed commands, which Office thinks you are likely to use, then you go hunting. The problem is that instead of learning the position of commands afetr using each once or twice, you now have to hunt for them every time.
You must have had the "Mexican Jumping Bean" version of Office 2007. I say this because I have not experienced ANY of what you described above. More and more it's sounding like you are trolling...
Some commands have labels, others don't, and the labels disappear as you resize the window. What's worse, the buttons themselves disappear (are folded into drop-downs) as the window size changes. As a result, things are almost never where one expects them. A button you saw right there a minute ago is no longer there because you made the windows smaller. Except for outright crashing, this is the most annoying thing a program can do to a user.
Now I know you are. That, or you are on some sort of drug. And you aren't sharing.
PS:
Yes, I started a sentence with "and". It was to poke fun at you. You bore me. I'm done with you now.
I'm afraid that brand is forever tarnished from an effort to use it instead of Word at an ex-employer's some years back. It couldn't even read fairly simply formatted Word documents successfuly. They looked awful, and immediate outrage among all my internal customers caused me to switch back immediately:-(.
It's probably at least somewhat better by now, but I have a long memory about this sort of thing
It looks very similar to Word to me. I've never had major problems opening simple Word documents with it. It's when you get into 'fancy' formatting and macros that you'll still run into problems.
The biggest problem I had was opening up a document that had a bullet list in it. The spacing was off and the bullets were different. This was with 1.9x, so I suppose it *could* have changed since. I haven't had the reason to test it lately because, with my new job, everything is *required* to be in Word now.:(
Lucky for me, I can use the new Office. I find it MUCH nicer to work with.
I just hope they fix the crummy font rendering on the Mac. My favorite font (Optima) looks terrible in Word, glorious on Pages. Guess which word processor I use.
For most of your message, I only have one comment. Those that are so resistant to change will eventually be filtered out of the gene pool, having been replaced by those who can look at alternatives to what they are doing, do some research, and make a choice as to which is better. That is what Evolution does. I know the creationists don't like to hear that, but, they too will soon be gone.
Is there an equivaent to this on the ribbon? It seems almost entirely mouse dependent based on the pictures.
This was what I most wanted to touch on. From what few keyboard shortcuts I did know (cut, paste, Italics, Bold, etc), they all have the same shortcut. If, however, you wish to know what shortcut a particular option has, all one has to do is hover the mouse over the "button" that activates the option and some help text will pop up, including the keyboard shortcut (if that option has one).
Thank you for at least asking, instead of bashing it blindly.;)
I apologize for not having access to the actual software to use before its release. Some of us are much less fortunate than others.
EVERYONE had access to the software, in its beta form. I used it from Beta 2 on through the final release (which is what I'm using now). I saw an story about the betas being available on slashdot, went to the site, signed up, and had my license keys in a couple days. Downloading, on the other hand, was a different story (their servers were hammered).
For your information, I *have* looked at the screenshots that are available and I don't see the point. I'm one of those people that disables all icons on a menu bar and prefers text only.
I'll tell you the same thing I tell others who are in an extremely tiny minority; YOU DON'T SPEAK FOR THE REST OF US. You are a minimalist, judging by your statement. That's fine. That does not mean that MS has completely fucked up the interface just because it has icons in it.
As far as my opinions on their UI by Focus Group failures and how many others believe that they were successful, my only good example would be the XBox controller. I found it bulky and unusable. It made my hands sore after only a few minutes which could only mean that it wasn't designed well -- the Playstation controller *never* did that to me.
Again -- You are in a minority (though not as small a minority as you are for your other statement). I only had problems with the controllers after having held it for HOURS (usually in the form of a sweaty hand). By that point, you should be getting off of your (very likely) fat (or, in my case, "cushy") ass and doing something physical anyway. The XBox controller was just fine. You must have smaller than usual hands. If I recall, the Asian market had a similar problem and, as a result, MS created a smaller version. I'll bet you didn't even try it, though. It was a MS product, and when "it hurt your hand", you blew up instead of taking two seconds to see if a better alternative (no, buying another console (if you didn't already have the PS20 isn't an alternative).
In short, quit being a damned baby. I dislike much of what MS has done as a company, just as much as the next guy. They do deserve at least a little credit when they get something right, though, and I think this is one of those times.
Getting back to the topic -- If you don't like the new office, don't use it. Keep the version you are using and download the compatibility pack so you can continue to exchange documents with those of us who aren't cry-babies. Hell, I'll bet you didn't even know MS created the compatibility package and have been going around bashing MS on that front too...
Personally? I hate Office's UI but I'm used to it -- it had a steep learning curve and now that I'm ok with it, I have absolutely no desire to relearn something else so that I'm able to do my job effectively.
I don't know why I chose your post over the MANY others of you who are bitching and moaning, but here I am.
Your comment above sounds *exactly* like someone who has never seen the interface. I've been using it for months now and would *hate* to go back to the "old" office setup. Everything I've ever looked for (page formatting options, etc) are *exactly* where one would expect them to be.
This is one of the things I hate about the direction the Human Race. "I got used to it this way and, even though the new way is probably FAR more intuitive, I'm going to sit here and complain about how much productivity is going to go down, belly-aching the entire time."
Do some research. Spend TWO MINUTES looking over the NUMEROUS web pages that have lots of screen shots. I know that many of you don't like "software by focus group", but I think MS got it right this time (if they used a focus group for the UI, that is. They probably did...)
Schools get better pricing than OEM though, some large enough places are even given a free VLK from Microsoft.
I can tell you from experience that this is not true for all schools. I live in a small town (roughly 1400 people), and work in a slightly larger town (17k people). For a 60 mile area around my old job, I probably did work for a dozen schools. NONE of them got anything better than "accademic" pricing for their software. These are already small schools with small budgets so even this "reduced" pricing was a strain on them. They just didn't see any choice.
At least I was able to save several of the schools thousands in server/per seat licencing fees by setting up Linux servers with Samba, postfix/courier-imap, Horde with IMP (and other plugins) in some cases, Squirrelmail in others, squid/squidGuard, etc.
The taxpayers should demand that Windows be kicked out of schools just as they would demand drug dealers be kicked off school grounds.
I can tell you this isn't going to happen. Know why? Those same tax payers are using Windows at home.
How expensive can it be for the school? I mean, XP came with their PC for FREE. Don't the schools pay the same price?
(Yes, I know Windows is added into the cost of the PC, and the OEM's get it for reduced costs but the tax payers, for the most part, don't, so their perceptions will be different from ours)
Didn't he tell Cablevision in TFA that he wanted to get away from a monopolistic operation? Isn't Verizon just another monopolistic company that wants to lock you in?
The fact that his cable provider now has competition in the TV area (and possibly phone, I don't recall from his previous article) automatically removes monopoly status from them. They now have incentive to improve service, rates, offer new technology, etc, where they had none of this incentive before. This can be very good for his town.
If CableVision doesn't improve, they will quickly see their customer base dwindle and it will be their own fault.
So since you are the new comer, maybe you can save your interesting stories about what you are or are not going to do, and start posting something relevant. This can turn out to be a problem for all of us, whether or not we choose to use Windows. (What will you do when the toy store you get your lego sets refuses to sell you anything becuase their POS is down? Cry?)
I see... My UID is higher than yours, so even though I've been a technician for 13 years, "I'm the new comer".
Following your logic, because your UID is so much lower than mine, you must be one of those old fogies that drives 5+mph slower than the speed limit because you cannot handle your land yacht vehicle. Following this, your mental facalties must be deminished, thusly you had to resort to calling me a dick head (amongst other names) because you have already lost the topic of the conversation (the fact many will not switch to Apple/Linux because of the considerable lack of games -- my original point). Further, despite what you wish to believe (you must have a lot of conspiracy theories about a lot of things, eh?), companies will not be mass-migrating in the forseeable future to Vista.
What you are saying now is *exactly* what people like you were saying when XP came out and threatened to replace Win'98/ME/2000, and nothing major happened there (nor did companies adopt XP as soon as it became available, either).
Now, since it's been established that you must not be some 14 year old using mommie and daddies PC, go run along and tell your nurse that you have been sitting in front of the computer for too long, that you need a diaper change, and to be helped back to your room. kthx
You are a fool. What about all the companies that you have to deal with, who WILL be using Vista, your phone comapny, gas, electricity, water, council, taxi, airline, shopping... the list is almost endless. When they stop working, what are you going to do?
It is very unlikely any of the companies you mention will just switch to Vista as soon as it becomes available to them. For you to think otherwise shows that you have absoloutly no idea how the corporate world functions. I know that, where I work, we won't be going to Vista for a *minimum* of one year from now. We most likely will be using Office 2007 (but only because it has been available to us for a longer period to test, and is much less of a change than switching OS's). If we can't make such sweeping changes to ~ 2000 desk/laptops, what makes you think that larger companies are going to do it any quicker?
Do me (and the rest of slashdot) a favour. Go tell mommy and daddy you need something else to ocupy your time. This obviously isn't working out for you.
It seems you're the one with a reality distortion field, maybe a clone of Steve Jobs? And you're the one blathering. Let's take "My point is valid and correct." You stated people get Windows to play games and my counter point is that not all people play games on computers. I did not and no one I know know got a computer to play games so you're wrong. Secondly there are games for Macs as well, Apple lists 65 games in their online store. What you're doing is taking a few people's motives and saying they're everyones motives.
You just proved my point. You have no fucking clue what you are argueing about.
What I said is that OSX will not become popular because the games the vast majority of the market wants to play are not available on the Mac (save one here or there). Hell, 65 games? Why, that's the entire market!
Oh. Wait. No it isn't. It's less than a fraction of a percent!
You prove my point as being correct the more you reply.
Maybe YOU didn't understand what I meant, so here it is. Not everyone uses computer just to play games. Sure some do but not all, and of those who do play games not all are hardcore gamers
Maybe YOU still don't understand the conversation. My point is valid and correct. OSX and Apple hardware have not grown in the way Windows/x86 hardware has because Windows is where all the games are. I can't help it if you have a different view (possibly a Reality Distortion Field(tm) of your own?), but don't let facts get in the way of your blathering.
I know I don't, and I know of noone else who buys and plays games much. Many of those who are game players have playstations or another game console, and those who have computers use them to get things done, check email, and surf the net. At the same tyme you're saying Macs don't have games I hear others say they wouldn't get a Mac because all they are good for is playing plays.
OK, so the *millions* of people plaiyng WoW, and the hundreds of thousands each playing Eve Online, City of Heroes/Villains, Asheron's Call (Yes, it's still around!), etc must just be playing on their consoles, right? Just because YOU and the people YOU know don't play games on their computer, doesn't mean that everyone else follows suit.
Also, what the hell is "playing plays"? Are they watching Cats, Rent, etc on their Mac's? If you meant "playing games", well, those "others" you quote must have their heads up their asses. The only thing Mac's were seen as being "good for" was graphics, but now Apple is attempting (with all their "mac vs PC ads) to change this view. Hell, at all the WWDC conferences I've seen (on the web), Jobs spent a ton of time showing how much better/faster a Mac could render some picture, etc.
Yes, there may be a few games for the platform, but no where *near* the total catalog available for the Windows side is available for the Apple side.
The rest of your "arguement" (if it can be called that) is irrelevant.
What fraction of the population actually games? Personally, I prefer *real* interaction with humans. And the more I use a computer for work, the less I want to use one outside of work. Hiking, hunting, biking, motorcycling, reading, hanging out with friends (sometimes playing non-computer games), building stuff, drawing, etc, are all more fun than sitting in front of a glass teat of any type.
For you, yes. Many of us like to unwind by plunking down in front of a game. I'll bet you're so smug, you like the smell of your own farts, too!
Slashdot Mirror
While you are correct, we're talking about devices that tend to take 24V at the very most (I don't think I've ever seen a wall wart that put out more than that, although I am sure they exist somewhere.)
Many of HP's older DeskJet (and possibly current models with external "wall-warts") had 36v DC power supplies.
Looking around in my office and my home, everything I have is either 5v or 12, with varying amperages. I don't think I have anything that uses much above 2 amps.
I'm wondering, though, if many items that have a normal wall plug with "built in" power supply, could be built to use, say, a central 12v source (my alarm clock/radio comes to mind) would save any significant amount of power (at least when combined nation/world wide, anyway)? Is it more efficient to have a decently built, larger AC/DC converter powering multiple devices (my alarm clock, cordless phone, cell phone charger, DSL modem, router) instead of separate supplies? I can't think of any more than those five things in my house, but I'm sure there are households that have quite a bit more than myself...
You actually managed to install it? I'm jealous. Those drivers won't even compile on my system.
:(
:)
In an AMD64 environment, no less! It's just too bad I can't play a DVD without a lockup.
Everything else is nice and fast!
Video cards are already well-supported by their manufacturers.
:(
It's too bad, then, that when I attempt to play a DVD in linux, my ATI x1600 pro (512mb) just "locks up". The whole system isn't "out to lunch", as I can go to another PC and SSH into it. Just the video card dies (screen freezes, mouse/keyboard no longer function). I've posted about it in several forums (including the forum dedicated to my distro of choice). No answers.
Oh well. Good thing the drivers don't do that in Windows. Good to see ATI supporting Linux (for all the good it's done me).
There is no 'stable' version of Gentoo. Gentoo is rather a moving target where emerge will forever cause your system to approach the cutting edge.
/etc/portage, you can have a stable system, but have one or more packages be unstable without having it a system-wide setting.
Yea. Not quite. This is what the "ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=" setting in make.conf is for. If you don't have it set, you get "stable" packages. If you do have it set, you get the unstable stuff.
Further, with the use of the files in
Haven't read the rest yet, but wanted to point that out.
"The fact that educated women want to establish a career before becoming mothers means that they start a family in their late thirties and consequently have fewer kids, sometimes they have no family at all as it is too late for treatment when they discover infertility issues. Basically the smart people aren't replacing themselves."
:(
What you just described is what was depicted in the movie Idiocracy. Most of the movie was pretty funny and I could already see our society moving that direction.
"It's got stuff plants like!"
I also feel the studios are more interested in a token attempt. The encryption, even when broken, protects against the vast majority of that type of piracy. The geek market that is capable of doing that is so small it is almost negligible.
It only takes one individual to break the encryption and post the results to the wild to throw your entire argument into the trash.
Oooo, tooltips! Too bad they tend to obscure part of what the button icons and/or labels they're attached to!
This is exactly one of the things that are hair-pullingly wrong about the Ribbon. The tooltips are entirely separated from the labels, so there is no immediate connection between "H" and "Thumbnails" - while "T_h_umbnails" is self-explanatory and makes the accelerator much easier to memorize.
Could you be any more obtuse?
You obviously haven't seen the tooltip. When you hover your mouse over a button that you wish to know more about, it's not going to bring up a tool tip for, say, the button next to it, you dolt. Anyone who has even two brain cells to rub together knows that when the tooltip comes up, its text will describe whatever you have your damned pointer over.
Do me, and everyone else, a favour. When you have something legitimate to bitch about, by all means, do so. Until then, please go back to your bridge.
What an incredibly stupid thing to say. Do you think evolution began only when Darwin described it? "Now that evolution is in charge, things will be a lot different around here!" The world you see around you is the result of evolution. If chasing fads were the best evolutionary strategy, obviously more people would do so. Your assertion that evolution spells the doom of those who dislike Microsoft re-organizing their little toolbars ("The Ribbon Interface (TM)") is just.... ugh. (And those who modded him up, and think that slamming creationists automatically makes inane statements true, please, please mod me down... it's a compliment coming from you).
The story is too old now. You'll probably not see any mod points in either direction.
As to your statement -- well, you are certainly entitled to believe it.
What you obviously didn't understand is that change is inevitable. It's coming. You cannot stop it, no matter how hard you want to try. It happens. Period.
As I said in my statement, which you decided to take out of context for your little diatribe, just because a particular method works doesn't mean you should do it in perpetuity. To think otherwise is just as stupid as you accused me of being. What you basically said up there, if I'm "reading you" correctly, is that once you find something that works, you just stick to it because everything else is stupid/won't work as well.
You, too, shall pass.
I've seen the interface, I've used it, I've had a hand in localizing it.
Why does the negative tone in your comment make me doubt everything you just said?
It still sucks.
I think I found an answer for this:
And you're entitled to your preference, as others are to theirs.
Yup. That's the one. Of course, one shouldn't start a thought with "and", but that is another debate.
This is incidentally one of the major problems with the Ribbon: things jump around constantly. First, this behavior makes it harder to focus on editing the document, since colorful icons are constantly shifting in your peripheral vision whenever you click somewhere, scroll, type, etc. It's terribly distracting. Second, because of the shifting, you never know where to find the function you need. First you have to scan the currently displayed commands, which Office thinks you are likely to use, then you go hunting. The problem is that instead of learning the position of commands afetr using each once or twice, you now have to hunt for them every time.
You must have had the "Mexican Jumping Bean" version of Office 2007. I say this because I have not experienced ANY of what you described above. More and more it's sounding like you are trolling...
Some commands have labels, others don't, and the labels disappear as you resize the window. What's worse, the buttons themselves disappear (are folded into drop-downs) as the window size changes. As a result, things are almost never where one expects them. A button you saw right there a minute ago is no longer there because you made the windows smaller. Except for outright crashing, this is the most annoying thing a program can do to a user.
Now I know you are. That, or you are on some sort of drug. And you aren't sharing.
PS:
Yes, I started a sentence with "and". It was to poke fun at you.
You bore me. I'm done with you now.
I'm afraid that brand is forever tarnished from an effort to use it instead of Word at an ex-employer's some years back. It couldn't even read fairly simply formatted Word documents successfuly. They looked awful, and immediate outrage among all my internal customers caused me to switch back immediately :-(.
:(
It's probably at least somewhat better by now, but I have a long memory about this sort of thing
It looks very similar to Word to me. I've never had major problems opening simple Word documents with it. It's when you get into 'fancy' formatting and macros that you'll still run into problems.
The biggest problem I had was opening up a document that had a bullet list in it. The spacing was off and the bullets were different. This was with 1.9x, so I suppose it *could* have changed since. I haven't had the reason to test it lately because, with my new job, everything is *required* to be in Word now.
Lucky for me, I can use the new Office. I find it MUCH nicer to work with.
I just hope they fix the crummy font rendering on the Mac. My favorite font (Optima) looks terrible in Word, glorious on Pages. Guess which word processor I use.
;)
OpenOffice?
You don't even need to do that; just press 'alt' like before (see here for a screenshot of what appears)
:)
Learn somethin' new every day!
Added that to my "training notes" for when the day comes that I'll end up being asked to train people on this.
Thanks!
For most of your message, I only have one comment. Those that are so resistant to change will eventually be filtered out of the gene pool, having been replaced by those who can look at alternatives to what they are doing, do some research, and make a choice as to which is better. That is what Evolution does. I know the creationists don't like to hear that, but, they too will soon be gone.
;)
Is there an equivaent to this on the ribbon? It seems almost entirely mouse dependent based on the pictures.
This was what I most wanted to touch on. From what few keyboard shortcuts I did know (cut, paste, Italics, Bold, etc), they all have the same shortcut. If, however, you wish to know what shortcut a particular option has, all one has to do is hover the mouse over the "button" that activates the option and some help text will pop up, including the keyboard shortcut (if that option has one).
Thank you for at least asking, instead of bashing it blindly.
I apologize for not having access to the actual software to use before its release. Some of us are much less fortunate than others.
EVERYONE had access to the software, in its beta form. I used it from Beta 2 on through the final release (which is what I'm using now). I saw an story about the betas being available on slashdot, went to the site, signed up, and had my license keys in a couple days. Downloading, on the other hand, was a different story (their servers were hammered).
For your information, I *have* looked at the screenshots that are available and I don't see the point. I'm one of those people that disables all icons on a menu bar and prefers text only.
I'll tell you the same thing I tell others who are in an extremely tiny minority; YOU DON'T SPEAK FOR THE REST OF US. You are a minimalist, judging by your statement. That's fine. That does not mean that MS has completely fucked up the interface just because it has icons in it.
As far as my opinions on their UI by Focus Group failures and how many others believe that they were successful, my only good example would be the XBox controller. I found it bulky and unusable. It made my hands sore after only a few minutes which could only mean that it wasn't designed well -- the Playstation controller *never* did that to me.
Again -- You are in a minority (though not as small a minority as you are for your other statement). I only had problems with the controllers after having held it for HOURS (usually in the form of a sweaty hand). By that point, you should be getting off of your (very likely) fat (or, in my case, "cushy") ass and doing something physical anyway. The XBox controller was just fine. You must have smaller than usual hands. If I recall, the Asian market had a similar problem and, as a result, MS created a smaller version. I'll bet you didn't even try it, though. It was a MS product, and when "it hurt your hand", you blew up instead of taking two seconds to see if a better alternative (no, buying another console (if you didn't already have the PS20 isn't an alternative).
In short, quit being a damned baby. I dislike much of what MS has done as a company, just as much as the next guy. They do deserve at least a little credit when they get something right, though, and I think this is one of those times.
Getting back to the topic -- If you don't like the new office, don't use it. Keep the version you are using and download the compatibility pack so you can continue to exchange documents with those of us who aren't cry-babies. Hell, I'll bet you didn't even know MS created the compatibility package and have been going around bashing MS on that front too...
Personally? I hate Office's UI but I'm used to it -- it had a steep learning curve and now that I'm ok with it, I have absolutely no desire to relearn something else so that I'm able to do my job effectively.
I don't know why I chose your post over the MANY others of you who are bitching and moaning, but here I am.
Your comment above sounds *exactly* like someone who has never seen the interface. I've been using it for months now and would *hate* to go back to the "old" office setup. Everything I've ever looked for (page formatting options, etc) are *exactly* where one would expect them to be.
This is one of the things I hate about the direction the Human Race. "I got used to it this way and, even though the new way is probably FAR more intuitive, I'm going to sit here and complain about how much productivity is going to go down, belly-aching the entire time."
Do some research. Spend TWO MINUTES looking over the NUMEROUS web pages that have lots of screen shots. I know that many of you don't like "software by focus group", but I think MS got it right this time (if they used a focus group for the UI, that is. They probably did...)
Schools get better pricing than OEM though, some large enough places are even given a free VLK from Microsoft.
I can tell you from experience that this is not true for all schools. I live in a small town (roughly 1400 people), and work in a slightly larger town (17k people). For a 60 mile area around my old job, I probably did work for a dozen schools. NONE of them got anything better than "accademic" pricing for their software. These are already small schools with small budgets so even this "reduced" pricing was a strain on them. They just didn't see any choice.
At least I was able to save several of the schools thousands in server/per seat licencing fees by setting up Linux servers with Samba, postfix/courier-imap, Horde with IMP (and other plugins) in some cases, Squirrelmail in others, squid/squidGuard, etc.
The taxpayers should demand that Windows be kicked out of schools just as they would demand drug dealers be kicked off school grounds.
I can tell you this isn't going to happen. Know why? Those same tax payers are using Windows at home.
How expensive can it be for the school? I mean, XP came with their PC for FREE. Don't the schools pay the same price?
(Yes, I know Windows is added into the cost of the PC, and the OEM's get it for reduced costs but the tax payers, for the most part, don't, so their perceptions will be different from ours)
Didn't he tell Cablevision in TFA that he wanted to get away from a monopolistic operation? Isn't Verizon just another monopolistic company that wants to lock you in?
The fact that his cable provider now has competition in the TV area (and possibly phone, I don't recall from his previous article) automatically removes monopoly status from them. They now have incentive to improve service, rates, offer new technology, etc, where they had none of this incentive before. This can be very good for his town.
If CableVision doesn't improve, they will quickly see their customer base dwindle and it will be their own fault.
How is that any different than the state of Open Source Software?
Probably because "Open Source Software" has never pretended to be otherwise?
So since you are the new comer, maybe you can save your interesting stories about what you are or are not going to do, and start posting something relevant. This can turn out to be a problem for all of us, whether or not we choose to use Windows. (What will you do when the toy store you get your lego sets refuses to sell you anything becuase their POS is down? Cry?)
I see... My UID is higher than yours, so even though I've been a technician for 13 years, "I'm the new comer".
Following your logic, because your UID is so much lower than mine, you must be one of those old fogies that drives 5+mph slower than the speed limit because you cannot handle your land yacht vehicle. Following this, your mental facalties must be deminished, thusly you had to resort to calling me a dick head (amongst other names) because you have already lost the topic of the conversation (the fact many will not switch to Apple/Linux because of the considerable lack of games -- my original point). Further, despite what you wish to believe (you must have a lot of conspiracy theories about a lot of things, eh?), companies will not be mass-migrating in the forseeable future to Vista.
What you are saying now is *exactly* what people like you were saying when XP came out and threatened to replace Win'98/ME/2000, and nothing major happened there (nor did companies adopt XP as soon as it became available, either).
Now, since it's been established that you must not be some 14 year old using mommie and daddies PC, go run along and tell your nurse that you have been sitting in front of the computer for too long, that you need a diaper change, and to be helped back to your room. kthx
You are a fool. What about all the companies that you have to deal with, who WILL be using Vista, your phone comapny, gas, electricity, water, council, taxi, airline, shopping... the list is almost endless. When they stop working, what are you going to do?
It is very unlikely any of the companies you mention will just switch to Vista as soon as it becomes available to them. For you to think otherwise shows that you have absoloutly no idea how the corporate world functions. I know that, where I work, we won't be going to Vista for a *minimum* of one year from now. We most likely will be using Office 2007 (but only because it has been available to us for a longer period to test, and is much less of a change than switching OS's). If we can't make such sweeping changes to ~ 2000 desk/laptops, what makes you think that larger companies are going to do it any quicker?
Do me (and the rest of slashdot) a favour. Go tell mommy and daddy you need something else to ocupy your time. This obviously isn't working out for you.
It seems you're the one with a reality distortion field, maybe a clone of Steve Jobs? And you're the one blathering. Let's take "My point is valid and correct." You stated people get Windows to play games and my counter point is that not all people play games on computers. I did not and no one I know know got a computer to play games so you're wrong. Secondly there are games for Macs as well, Apple lists 65 games in their online store. What you're doing is taking a few people's motives and saying they're everyones motives.
You just proved my point. You have no fucking clue what you are argueing about.
What I said is that OSX will not become popular because the games the vast majority of the market wants to play are not available on the Mac (save one here or there). Hell, 65 games? Why, that's the entire market!
Oh. Wait. No it isn't. It's less than a fraction of a percent!
You prove my point as being correct the more you reply.
Maybe YOU didn't understand what I meant, so here it is. Not everyone uses computer just to play games. Sure some do but not all, and of those who do play games not all are hardcore gamers
Maybe YOU still don't understand the conversation. My point is valid and correct. OSX and Apple hardware have not grown in the way Windows/x86 hardware has because Windows is where all the games are. I can't help it if you have a different view (possibly a Reality Distortion Field(tm) of your own?), but don't let facts get in the way of your blathering.
I know I don't, and I know of noone else who buys and plays games much. Many of those who are game players have playstations or another game console, and those who have computers use them to get things done, check email, and surf the net. At the same tyme you're saying Macs don't have games I hear others say they wouldn't get a Mac because all they are good for is playing plays.
OK, so the *millions* of people plaiyng WoW, and the hundreds of thousands each playing Eve Online, City of Heroes/Villains, Asheron's Call (Yes, it's still around!), etc must just be playing on their consoles, right? Just because YOU and the people YOU know don't play games on their computer, doesn't mean that everyone else follows suit.
Also, what the hell is "playing plays"? Are they watching Cats, Rent, etc on their Mac's? If you meant "playing games", well, those "others" you quote must have their heads up their asses. The only thing Mac's were seen as being "good for" was graphics, but now Apple is attempting (with all their "mac vs PC ads) to change this view. Hell, at all the WWDC conferences I've seen (on the web), Jobs spent a ton of time showing how much better/faster a Mac could render some picture, etc.
Yes, there may be a few games for the platform, but no where *near* the total catalog available for the Windows side is available for the Apple side.
The rest of your "arguement" (if it can be called that) is irrelevant.
What fraction of the population actually games? Personally, I prefer *real* interaction with humans. And the more I use a computer for work, the less I want to use one outside of work. Hiking, hunting, biking, motorcycling, reading, hanging out with friends (sometimes playing non-computer games), building stuff, drawing, etc, are all more fun than sitting in front of a glass teat of any type.
For you, yes. Many of us like to unwind by plunking down in front of a game. I'll bet you're so smug, you like the smell of your own farts, too!