You are right.. I am looking at this in terms of why I feel I need to use Windows to accomplish certain things.. and the answer is market penetration.. not superior anything in and of itself. You are totally dead on with that.
But you can't disregard that... you are essentially asking:
you: "Ok.. disregarding the fact that Windows does everything you need it to do, but ONLY because it has a monopoly with just about every software and peripheral vendor out there, what do you like about it?"
them: "uhhh.. cuz it does everything I know that a personal computer can do."
you: "AH HA! You answer sucks! Monopolies are bad [insert lots of other stuff I totally agree with here]."
About your gaming point: that is the primary, and only, reason I have a Windows XP as my main desktop AT HOME.. it's a gaming machine. Then I stick Gaim, Firefox, and Thunderbird on it. I used to think that I could really play all my games on consoles.. and actually just had Linux only as a desktop (which IS great, if you can use it right).... but.. it's simply not true that I can play everything I want on consoles. There are still many PC only games. I think the way things are moving this will not always be the case... especially if MS really pushes for games to be on THEIR console... the XBOX. I know.. a lot of people say that I should vote with my dollars and only play games that support Linux.. well... so.. as an avid gamer, that's not gonna work. We are already like 3% of the market or something.. their dollars aren't going to be missed.
About your user friendly point: I disagree... at least from my experience. I'm not sure who you test subjects are, but 100% of my friends, family and co-workers that use Linux not continue very long with a Linux desktop, unless they are in a school environment or a unix development job. Still, I believe that Windows XP is easier to use (i.e. not make things work, but actually DO SOMETHING with it) than any flavor of Linux... that's not your experience? Honestly?
Then your point... why have it if it's not games? I work in the c-store industry. Absolutely none of the software runs on anything but Windows... actually most of it is still DOS stuff with these weird hybrid Windows apps plugged in to them for data collection.. all outside our control... so that means we have to have Windows computers in the field. Then if that's true, if we want to put anything new apps on the system we might as well use C#.... sooo then my desktop at work is Windows XP for Visual Studio development.
Don't get me wrong.. I would LOVE to be pure Linux everywhere (100% of all my servers both at home and work are...), but there are things that I desire to to at home and things I MUST do at work that are simply way more trouble than it's worth to not use Windows.. which sucks... but it's the reality.
I have a SimpleTech SimpleShare NAS sitting on my network and use rsync from both Windows and Linux boxen with either CIFS or NFS respectively... works great.. automatic.. only mount it when I need it, so otherwise it sits idle.... I never worry about it... saved my butt plenty of times too.
External networked hard drives are definitely the way to go.... and rsync is just super at this stuff.
Despite RedHat's huge lead in the server market, a friend of mine who doesn't really know how to make Linux do anything for him, but is comforatable to install Linux went on and on about his Ubuntu experieces... summary: it's ok. I told him try Fedora Core 5. He was way more impressed and still uses it for his desktop.
I went to a small private college in the midwest. I was there for computer science. I never thought of having a laptop. I had a Linux server at home where I put all my data. Since all the computers on the campus had Internet access, and since remote access programs, like the incredibly small puTTY, are easily available, that's all I needed. Of course this didn't work for everyone, but those that could also did the same... storing their files on the Internet somewhere. I always chuckled at some of my fellow CS students fumbling with disks that went bad in the backpack or those that carried massive (no centrino back then) laptops all around campus... all unncessary.
I now carry a palm top (802.11, bluetooth, gprs, phone). This would have been good for school and saved me the worry of having a remote access server. But, working on the data on my palm isn't the easiest thing without a whole setup or some kinda wireless network infrastructure.
My best pick for school: The simple USB disk "keychain" would have been the best for toting around data without toting around the processor to use it with when there were so many computers at school. My friends that are still in college do this and love it. They have their desktops in their dorms, but they often work elsewhere.
So that's the "I'm a geek, I don't need no stinkin laptop"... but for the non-geeks out there... well if you can't be smart you'll be strong... from carrying books and your computer:)
Cheaper, lightweight drivers, well respected as knowing what sound quality means. And when you store MP3s on them, you can retreive them untouched, without any of the Sony or iPod conversion mess.
Ya that could and certainly does happen.. but don't spammers have to prove that their spamming works to be sucessful? If so, how else could they prove a mail was delivered if they don't monitor that "forged from"'s bounces? I think it's more likely that the forged from's are more often then not temporary accounts for monitoring this information... not poor bastards caught in the crossfire.
I mean I believe the vast majority of spammers have to keep track of bounces... that's why the article submitter's strategy of unplugging his mail server for a few days works... eventually a bounce is created... spammers take them off their list because the recipient's email apparently just isn't there anymore.
I could be wrong.. any actual spammers want to tell me how you track who your good recipients are?:)
I do just this with sendmail/procmail. I use CRM114 and spamassassin in certain places. You set the EXITCODE variable in procmail to some exit code that sendmail will understand and will generate a bounce from. I like "Permission Denied" (code 77) but you can do "No such user" (code 67) or a number of others. So to send bounces to everyone that spams me it's like this in procmailrc:
Of course that "* ^From: spammer" line can be any of a number of sets of rules... for instance spamassassin and CRM114 redo some headers, so you check for those. And that "/tmp/spambox" can be any file you can write to.. even "/dev/null" if you trust your anti-spam program a whole lot.
How about getting Windows game developers to use cross platform libraries and not M$ specific DirectX, which makes us have to bend over backwards trying to make stuff like Wine to reverse engineer the game's interface?
That way game developers don't have to develop a Windows version, a Mac version, and so on... just develop one version using something like OpenGL, SDL, and OpenAL and then a little bitty executable for each platform it needs to run on.
I'm not a game maker and so I totally don't get why this is not more common?
It's a very bad thing, but there is no way the American people will stand for this. Several thousand people are dead and the freinds and family of those people are itching to fly in the first wave.
Bombing the hell outta them probably isn't the best way in the world, but _no one_ is going to say "oh that's ok".
Peace has consequences too, and those consequences which would let those aggressors go unpunished... practically no American would let happen.
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I agree 100%... what a retarded example that guy had.. that's "insightful" huh? wow.
You are right.. I am looking at this in terms of why I feel I need to use Windows to accomplish certain things.. and the answer is market penetration.. not superior anything in and of itself. You are totally dead on with that.
... that's the way it is."
But you can't disregard that... you are essentially asking:
you: "Ok.. disregarding the fact that Windows does everything you need it to do, but ONLY because it has a monopoly with just about every software and peripheral vendor out there, what do you like about it?"
them: "uhhh.. cuz it does everything I know that a personal computer can do."
you: "AH HA! You answer sucks! Monopolies are bad [insert lots of other stuff I totally agree with here]."
them: "Ya.. but
About your gaming point: that is the primary, and only, reason I have a Windows XP as my main desktop AT HOME.. it's a gaming machine. Then I stick Gaim, Firefox, and Thunderbird on it. I used to think that I could really play all my games on consoles.. and actually just had Linux only as a desktop (which IS great, if you can use it right).... but.. it's simply not true that I can play everything I want on consoles. There are still many PC only games. I think the way things are moving this will not always be the case... especially if MS really pushes for games to be on THEIR console... the XBOX. I know.. a lot of people say that I should vote with my dollars and only play games that support Linux.. well... so.. as an avid gamer, that's not gonna work. We are already like 3% of the market or something.. their dollars aren't going to be missed. About your user friendly point: I disagree... at least from my experience. I'm not sure who you test subjects are, but 100% of my friends, family and co-workers that use Linux not continue very long with a Linux desktop, unless they are in a school environment or a unix development job. Still, I believe that Windows XP is easier to use (i.e. not make things work, but actually DO SOMETHING with it) than any flavor of Linux... that's not your experience? Honestly? Then your point... why have it if it's not games? I work in the c-store industry. Absolutely none of the software runs on anything but Windows... actually most of it is still DOS stuff with these weird hybrid Windows apps plugged in to them for data collection.. all outside our control... so that means we have to have Windows computers in the field. Then if that's true, if we want to put anything new apps on the system we might as well use C#.... sooo then my desktop at work is Windows XP for Visual Studio development. Don't get me wrong.. I would LOVE to be pure Linux everywhere (100% of all my servers both at home and work are...), but there are things that I desire to to at home and things I MUST do at work that are simply way more trouble than it's worth to not use Windows.. which sucks... but it's the reality.
I have a SimpleTech SimpleShare NAS sitting on my network and use rsync from both Windows and Linux boxen with either CIFS or NFS respectively... works great.. automatic.. only mount it when I need it, so otherwise it sits idle.... I never worry about it... saved my butt plenty of times too. External networked hard drives are definitely the way to go.... and rsync is just super at this stuff.
Despite RedHat's huge lead in the server market, a friend of mine who doesn't really know how to make Linux do anything for him, but is comforatable to install Linux went on and on about his Ubuntu experieces... summary: it's ok. I told him try Fedora Core 5. He was way more impressed and still uses it for his desktop.
"pr0n is not a drug, i use to suck dick for coke. Now that's an addiction man. you ever suck some dick for pr0n?"
Ya mean UPnP NAT traversal like this? http://gaim.sourceforge.net/summerofcode/adam/
Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines also did this.
I went to a small private college in the midwest. I was there for computer science. I never thought of having a laptop. I had a Linux server at home where I put all my data. Since all the computers on the campus had Internet access, and since remote access programs, like the incredibly small puTTY, are easily available, that's all I needed. Of course this didn't work for everyone, but those that could also did the same... storing their files on the Internet somewhere. I always chuckled at some of my fellow CS students fumbling with disks that went bad in the backpack or those that carried massive (no centrino back then) laptops all around campus... all unncessary. I now carry a palm top (802.11, bluetooth, gprs, phone). This would have been good for school and saved me the worry of having a remote access server. But, working on the data on my palm isn't the easiest thing without a whole setup or some kinda wireless network infrastructure. My best pick for school: The simple USB disk "keychain" would have been the best for toting around data without toting around the processor to use it with when there were so many computers at school. My friends that are still in college do this and love it. They have their desktops in their dorms, but they often work elsewhere. So that's the "I'm a geek, I don't need no stinkin laptop"... but for the non-geeks out there... well if you can't be smart you'll be strong... from carrying books and your computer :)
Cheaper, lightweight drivers, well respected as knowing what sound quality means. And when you store MP3s on them, you can retreive them untouched, without any of the Sony or iPod conversion mess.
Ya that could and certainly does happen.. but don't spammers have to prove that their spamming works to be sucessful? If so, how else could they prove a mail was delivered if they don't monitor that "forged from"'s bounces? I think it's more likely that the forged from's are more often then not temporary accounts for monitoring this information... not poor bastards caught in the crossfire. I mean I believe the vast majority of spammers have to keep track of bounces... that's why the article submitter's strategy of unplugging his mail server for a few days works... eventually a bounce is created... spammers take them off their list because the recipient's email apparently just isn't there anymore. I could be wrong.. any actual spammers want to tell me how you track who your good recipients are? :)
I do just this with sendmail/procmail. I use CRM114 and spamassassin in certain places. You set the EXITCODE variable in procmail to some exit code that sendmail will understand and will generate a bounce from. I like "Permission Denied" (code 77) but you can do "No such user" (code 67) or a number of others. So to send bounces to everyone that spams me it's like this in procmailrc:
Of course that "* ^From: spammer" line can be any of a number of sets of rules... for instance spamassassin and CRM114 redo some headers, so you check for those. And that "/tmp/spambox" can be any file you can write to.. even "/dev/null" if you trust your anti-spam program a whole lot.
So can we expect a MS patent on blogging here soon?
How about getting Windows game developers to use cross platform libraries and not M$ specific DirectX, which makes us have to bend over backwards trying to make stuff like Wine to reverse engineer the game's interface?
That way game developers don't have to develop a Windows version, a Mac version, and so on... just develop one version using something like OpenGL, SDL, and OpenAL and then a little bitty executable for each platform it needs to run on.
I'm not a game maker and so I totally don't get why this is not more common?
I totally agree.
It doesn't compute the hash on the subject line only the body. Vipul's razor therefore is immune to this and actually works quite well against it.
It's not based on subject but message content.
It's a very bad thing, but there is no way the American people will stand for this. Several thousand people are dead and the freinds and family of those people are itching to fly in the first wave. Bombing the hell outta them probably isn't the best way in the world, but _no one_ is going to say "oh that's ok". Peace has consequences too, and those consequences which would let those aggressors go unpunished... practically no American would let happen.