...the fucking article is light on details. It just says it's non-toxic, non-flammable and environmentally friendly, but it's not water. Hmmm... that rules out Mercury because that's certainly toxic and not environmentally friendly. But it's the only "liquid metal" I could think of. They've either discovered new matter, or it's just a marketroid name for some other chemical. The only other thing I can think of that is liquid, non-toxic (by some accounts anyway although I have my doubts), and environmentally friendly is, well... um... piss. Holy cow, I hope that's not what Liquid Metal is.;p
Trinity: A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.
Me: Uh... guys. The only thing they're changing again is their mailing address for corporate headquarters. Which is probably a public restroom in downtown Phoenix this time around.
I agree with you. The insane deadlines can make life suck. As well as the emergencies when you have to work from home or head in off hours. I'm a little luckier than most in that I have the option of taking comp time when I can afford to (ie. most projects up to date, etc...) so I still have a life. But then again, I work in the public sector so it's not as stressful as private sector work. Doesn't pay as much either...
It's only a stressful grind if you don't like it. Me... I LOVE computers. 24/7/365. I use them at work to get work done, I use them at home for all kinds of stuff. My TV is a computer. My stereo is a computer. My music composition tool is a computer (and the outboard MIDI gear are computers as well). I do photography with a digital camera and edit images with GIMP on... a COMPUTER! Computers can do almost anything if you really get into them. But if you're not into them, then yeah, you're going to think it's a grind. In that case, leave the computing to people who like it.
Sure. Sometimes it makes sense to update something if it will result in increased productivity. But where I work, this didn't happen. However, we're stuck because through a bunch of mergers and acquisitions, we've got the crappiest of all worlds in terms of product design, support and general reliability.
A friend of mine who works as the IT manager for a law firm told me about this tool that all the lawyers were begging for. It was a plugin for Word that would check legal clause syntax. Sounds like a gargantuan task for software to perform reliably. And it is. This program didn't work worth a shit, but the lawyers just HAD TO HAVE it. Fortunately, sense prevailed and they didn't get it. But if they did, this would be yet another example of poor coding combined with prime marketing at the target users resulting in a cluster fuck. I'm not so lucky because in the case of one of the two pathetic pieces of shit I'm working with, our users WANT what it does so badly that I was actually told by one of them, "Even if it doesn't work, it's better than not having it". Lame, lame, lame.
With the influx of morons and idiots into the IT world during the dotbomb bubble who thought they could code, things have gotten dismal in IT. We have a ton of useless wannabees who barely made it through college (or worse) some of the more useless certifications out there. This is why I have to deal with two apps where I work that just suck ass in so many ways. People got "better ideas" and took systems that worked, ripped them out, and implemented new stuff just because it was cool. Then when people in the industry stand back and take a real good look, we see IT overflowing with crap software written by people who don't even understand what structured or object-oriented programming is other than some cool sounding buzzwords.
We have VB "programmers" and Flash "programmers" filling up teh intarwebs with more useless and poorly written "apps". We have people replacing perfectly good and efficient text interfaces with point and click GUIs where such a thing is NOT beneficial. Case in point... where I work we had a decent text menu based system but it got replaced with a poorly designed GUI. The users all complain about how what they used to do in just a few seconds now takes minutes. And they're right. Now this company is going to implement this monstrosity in Java. Can you believe it? JAVA for god's sake!!! They can't even write a proper app in their hodgepodge of C and they plan to do this in Java?
The drop off in people going for computer related degrees can only mean one thing: the wannabees have left the building because the party is over. This means that the only people signing up are people who (gasp!!) LIKE to PROGRAM. People who CAN PROGRAM! Making money with computers is OK, but unless you love these machines, you shouldn't bother. All the "get rich quick" types ruined the business during the 90s but now those fair weather friends aren't so hot to get into IT because now there's work to be done...
Well... that's the first time I've been accused of FUD. Especially funny since I'm a hardcore Linux user and can't stand Microsoft at all. I'm going on my experience with Redhat/Fedora vs. Windows XP. I know I have to work a lot more to get what I want than I do on Windows, but... I don't mind that. Keep in mind though.. I HATE PREPACKAGED SOFTWARE. I would rather compile from source when I want an app. So, perhaps I was wrong about some of the things I said because I have zero experience with package managers other than the 'rpm' command in Redhat/Fedora. I pretty much avoid the GUI for administrative tasks because I think it takes away from a person's technical edge. It's nice to know how to maneuver your way through a GUI, but it doesn't take that long to figure it out even if you've never seen it before, so why bother trying? I like to know what's happening behind the scenes. I don't want to just point and click. And I think EVERYONE should follow this method. It's more empowering than just pointing and clicking on a bunch of stuff. The only time I use a GUI is when some file managment I want to do would be to time consuming using the CLI. Everything I've seen that's been made to do things "easier" winds up crippling the user's knowledge. That's why I left Windows in the first place.
...just look at the American auto industry. First we owned the market and let the technology stagnate for decades. Then the foreign auto makers came along and taught us a thing or two. Especially the Japanese auto industry. At first we laughed at their small, cheap cars, but eventually they owned the auto market and we were the joke. In our effort to compete, we dumped our workforce and hired cheap labour elsewhere. We pilfered their designs and made our own knock-offs. Once we got the money, we bought them and now the whole world is worse off for it. There are really only a small number of auto makers and there is no "bubble" for the auto industry. The quality is poor and the costs are high. Expect IT to mimic this in every way. It already is...
Before the FOSS people get all defensive about what I posted, I am a Linux user. I prefer to use Fedora Core because it does what I need it to. I hate KDE because I don't like to be spoonfed (no offense to anyone meant, it's just my opinion). I, personally, prefer to download and compile all my apps myself because that's the only way I trust things. I don't like package managers. With all that out of the way...
The point is that there is still a lot of work for people to do compared with Windows (with the possible exception of that KDE thing someone posted). Not to mention migrating to a new platform. The reason I didn't meantion FOSS on Windows is that it's been my experience that it's pretty much pointless. Back when I used Windows, I tried useing the alternative FOSS stuff and it just never felt right. This is not because FOSS is inferior, it's because Windows isn't an open platform that allows for seamless integration. To really experience FOSS positively requires a FOSS operating system/desktop. Windows + Firefox + Thunderbird kind of sucks compared to FC3 + Firefox + Thunderbird.
The P2P stuff is just easier for Joe Average because it's written Joe Average. Think about it... searches in P2P apps don't need specialized syntax. You just basically grunt at it and it finds stuff. Again, I don't know about the KDE package manager but I highly doubt it will find every app a user is looking for and it probably only searches locally on a CD-ROM, not on the internet for the latest and greatest. After all, there is also the status symbol element of having the latest name brand stuff to keep up with the Jonses.
Walking down a street in Salt Lake City and you happen upon a homeless guy. He looks up and with stunned shock you say, "Hey! Didn't you used to be Darl McBride"?;P
DISCLAIMER: Just replying in general, not directed at mph_az:
Sadly, there is some truth to this. A lot of people associate "no name brand" = inferior. In one of my recent comments I complained about the whole free iPod/freeMac Mini/free Sony PSP phenomena. People are more than willing to do ANYTHING to get a free name brand product associated with an image and an easily recognizable logo. If someone did a "freeMicrosoftOffice.com" site, there would be just as many people jumping on that bandwagon because they KNOW Microsoft. They KNOW Office. However, try and do a "freeOpenOffice.org" site and you won't get any bites from the mainstream. This is a problem in the FOSS camp. Marketing is a horrible thing because of how much of a grip it has on the mainstream person. It can be used to control their opinions, their purchases, even who they vote for. People don't want to think. They want something that "just works" and brand name stuff is sold as "just working". Since piracy appears to be "free" access to name brand stuff for many people, they are happy to continue either willingly or ignorantly breaking the law.
In reality, there are few differences in functionality between FOSS applications and their commercial counterparts. Where there is a difference is in how much work you need to do to acquire the FOSS stuff vs. pirated commercial apps. Assuming you're a mainstream user who only barely knows how to use WinZip (that you haven't paid for) and double click on SETUP or INSTALL.MSI files... All you have to do to acquire pirated software is:
1. Run P2P program and search for app 2. Download ZIP, RAR, or other compressed version of app 3. Expand archive of app that you downloaded 4a. If it's self contained, just create a shortcut and run the main application EXE. 4b. If it's an installer, just run it. 5. If it's not cracked (I assume most pirated stuff is cracked) then you might need to look for a crack or regcode generator 6. Run app and be on your way...
To acquire a FOSS app (assuming you're using a really dumbed down version of Linux): 1. Search for an app that does what you want (usually 98% success these days) 2.If they have precompiled binaries in RPM or other packaging format, download and install that 3. You may need to search for and upgrade or install other dependencies (stuff you need to have before you can install the main app) 4. If you can't get binaries and it's a source only distribution, then you need to grab the tar.gz or tar.bz2 archive 5. Expand the source archive 6. If it's following the standard './configure && make && make install' procedure then you should do that now. If it's uses some other compilation method, then you have to read up on that adding to the complexity 7. You might also need to follow up with library dependencies/version issues, etc... 8. If there isn't a tar.gz or tar.bz2 archive, you might need to use CVS to download the current source tree which might be broken since it's in development... 9. Once you've gone through all this, then you need to verify your installation and see if the app works as expected. 10. If you needed to update libraries, you could run into apps that are now broken and need to be recompiled against the new versions of the library meaning more downloads, etc...
Which way do you think Joe Average Mainstream is going to go?
1. Software companies must lower their prices 2. Software companies must improve the quality and functionality of their software to justify the cost 3. There always have been and always will be theives
The biggest cause of piracy (whether it's music, movies or software) is the cost of actually legitimately buying this stuff. $299-399 is too much for an operating system today. If Microsoft sold Windows at a more reasonable price, say $99 more people would go the honest route. The same can be said for applications. If I'm a home user and I am ambitious enough to want to clone my hard drive, the most popular option I have is Norton Ghost. But I have to pay nearly $70 for that. Again, too much for a product that will be used infrequently. If Norton Ghost was $10-20 it might be easier to consider as a one shot purchase.
Now, couple that with the reality that in order for Windows to be truly useful to a mainstream user they need to buy a LOT of applications... and those $70+ hits add up real fast. Throw in stuff that requires yearly subscriptions like Antivirus software and the cost of owning a computer is expensive. On the flipside, take the same average home user and put a CD in front of him at a flea market that contains about ten or twenty of the programs he's been looking for and charge him $50, he's going to bite. Even moreso when you consider how few people there are in the mainstream computer user community who understand, are aware of, or even care about EULAs. This is the main reason why piracy happens. Software makers seem to be out of touch with what people can afford when they're being nickled and dimed to death. Just like the college profs who pile on the homework never giving a second thought to how much homework you've got in other classes, the software vendors pile on the small charges here and there until it's unbearable.
The other factor, for slightly more intelligent users is that sometimes, the functionality of a program doesn't warrant the price. Photoshop is a good example (and Adobe has wised up some in that arena) of a program that many mainstream users want access to but can't afford. The price of Photoshop is clearly inflated based on how it's most often used (not for profession print work where the cost IS justifiable) by mainstream users to just edit photos on the web. But, at least, Adobe figure out that if they release a stripped down version of Photoshop, many people would be willing to pay a more reasonable price. I'd say they still need to adjust their pricing a bit ($50 is more realistic for a commercial photo editing app). Other companies should follow Adobe's lead if they want people to actually pay for software. Finally, no matter what is done to try and stem the waves of piracy, there will always be people who are dishonest. There is no way to prevent this without severly impacting your legitimate users. Dongles suck. Access codes suck. Registration sucks. DRM sucks. All they do is mak products more difficult for honest users to work with. They do little to prevent the dishonest from finding ways around them. But the number of genuinely dishonest people is small. The people that the software vendors (and RIAA MPAA) should be concerned with are the people who can be kept honest by providing good products for a reasonable price. The software, music and movie industries fail at this. Instead of providing good products, they provide the lowest common denominator in terms of quality and they charge the highest allowable prices. This is what turns otherwise honest people to piracy. They WANT this stuff, but they can't afford it. What other options do they have. Avoidance is not an option...
Where is this kind of bullshit coming from? Sure Google has their little "Don't be evil" motto, but that's clearly tongue-in-cheek. To me, Ballme sounds more like a little bully who is trying to save face after losing one battle by making fun of his opponent. Or even more to the point, it's real easy to imagine Homer Simpson standing in for Ballmer saying that same exact thing in his mocking tone of voice.
The point is that Microsoft is late to the search engine game as they were late to the web browser game. They clearly have an edge with their OS monopoly and could use the same tactics they did with Netscape. But, this isn't just about search engines now. With Google expanding into mail, price comparisons, news aggregation, online book searches, maps and usenet news in searchable format, MS has a lot to catch up with. Of course, they are going to publicize their search tools the most since most people in the mainstream are only aware of Google as a search engine and are only now coming around to GMail.
Where Google needs to be careful is in how the average user percieves web seraches. Most mainstream users are not aware of the difference between a web page and an application. For example, I migrated my parents over from Windows to Linux two years ago and they haven't looked back. They are typical users with nearly no computer experience except for what they saw me do as I grew up. My dad was very surprised to see the Google search engine (their default home page in Firefox) on his Linux box when he first logged in. He said, "You mean Google can run on Linux"? Which illustrates my point perfectly.
It's apparent that Microsoft is going to package search capabilities into their next version of Windows. That search will be a local application with web searching abilities. I'm expecting it to actually be embedded into IE as a subset of the OS like many other IE components are This is going to mean that the performance and functionality is going to appear much faster when compared to a web tool like Google. Google should really make it clear to users that they are using a remote tool when searching the internet. But... if they built their own browser (maybe based on Firefox or in partnership with Firefox), they could build in search functionality in the same way the IE will likely have it. This could result in a more seamless experience with Google web vs. Google Desktop.
In other news, if you read the overall summary of the Star Wars saga on www.starwars.com (under the section where they talk about the Sith and the various Darths) there are HUGE parallels to several political struggles throughout history. What I find really interesting is how Palpatine uses the attack of a small group of people to acquire more and more power and impose less and less freedom on the people under his rule. Hmmm... who does THAT sound like? Is George Lucas making a polical statement with the most recent installments? Maybe that's why they suck so much. Whenever someone gets an agenda and attempt to put a veiled message in a work, the work usually suffers. Trust me, I agree with the message, but I think it's caused the Star Wars entertainment factor to suffer.
His latest commentary about the death of the gaming industry in PC Magazine is laughable at best. He claims that there haven't been any noticeable developments in the gaming world in decades and that the industry will collapse soon. This is to mark the coming of Quake IV. What he doesn't realize is that even if the gameplay itself is similar, that's not an issue to most gamers. To give you a convenient analog: Think about rock music. It hasn't changed in nearly 50 years!!! Guitars, cute vocalist, drums, bass, maybe a keyboardist stashed in back corner somewhere. The lyrical content usually focuses on romance, good times, parties, or rebellion (both with and without a cause). Did the rock music business die? No. The overall instruments, and concepts of rock bands haven't changed either, just as the FPS and MMORPG games haven't really changed. What does change is the experience. This is where Dvorak fails to see that gaming is alive and well.
Now his "linux users as disgruntled crackpots" angle is an amusing troll. But he's no Cracky-Chan or Mercatur loving/hating denizen of Trolltalk. To quote someone, "Wake up/. people'!!!! You're being trolled heavily by the editors. I mean SUPER HEAVY.
I noticed in the article that this new search software is being offered for free. That's quite a dangerous precedent to set seeing how people react to "free" things. For instance, think about the free iPod and free Mac Mini and free PSP offers that have been flooding the internet. You know how there are all those people who are more than willing to add links to their SIGs on various online forums just to get something "free"? Putting aside all the possible connotations of the word "free" (as in beer vs. speech), think about the power of that word. With the free iPod and other offers, spammers managed to "zombie" a bunch of humans into service.
Microsoft even did this in the past with IE when Netscape was king of the intarweb. Netscape charged for their browser and MS put theirs out at no charge (ie. free!). It's worked for them before and they know the power that using the word free can give them. Really think about this... If, otherwise normally intelligent people, can be turned into web spam zombies by being offered the possibility of free Mac Minis and iPods... And businesses can be taken down by offering a free alternative that is already included with a computer by default... Then the offer of a free personal search tool that is also included with a computer by default is likely to make people do crazy things.
Don't even get started on the free software movement. Think about the insanity that pervades that world. People are actually willing to work for FREE because they are abel to get software for FREE!!! It's totally insane. Then people like Stallman take hold of the power of FREE and they use it to further their cause! Can you believe it? If this whole "free" thing had never been invented/discovered, our world would be safer today. We wouldn't have to worry about people who "hate our freedoms" because there wouldn't be any such concept (free, that is). Let's stop this cancer of "free" this and "free" that and call it out for what it really is. Dangerous.
BTW, has anyone noticed how heavily the editors have been trolling the Slashdot readers lately? I mean, seriously... Microsoft buying Redhat? That's like saying that the Republican party is going to allow Kerry a position in the Senate! Who ever heard of such a thing!
Now that you mention message passing... Anyone want to have at me with the Structured vs. Object-Oriented Programming? I say that Structured programming rules and OPP drools!!!! How about it?
Because carbonated beverages contain as much as 14 teaspoons of sugar per every eight ounces, they get VERY sticky when they dry. This usually gums up a KB for good.
Slashdot Mirror
They've found me. I knew it would happen eventually. Time for me to make the decent down into the spleen of every human earth creature.
...the fucking article is light on details. It just says it's non-toxic, non-flammable and environmentally friendly, but it's not water. Hmmm... that rules out Mercury because that's certainly toxic and not environmentally friendly. But it's the only "liquid metal" I could think of. They've either discovered new matter, or it's just a marketroid name for some other chemical. The only other thing I can think of that is liquid, non-toxic (by some accounts anyway although I have my doubts), and environmentally friendly is, well... um... piss. Holy cow, I hope that's not what Liquid Metal is. ;p
I di...[BONK!] [Gets hit with a rubber chicken] ;P
Neo: I just got this strange feeling of deja vu.
Trinity: A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.
Me: Uh... guys. The only thing they're changing again is their mailing address for corporate headquarters. Which is probably a public restroom in downtown Phoenix this time around.
I agree with you. The insane deadlines can make life suck. As well as the emergencies when you have to work from home or head in off hours. I'm a little luckier than most in that I have the option of taking comp time when I can afford to (ie. most projects up to date, etc...) so I still have a life. But then again, I work in the public sector so it's not as stressful as private sector work. Doesn't pay as much either...
It's only a stressful grind if you don't like it. Me... I LOVE computers. 24/7/365. I use them at work to get work done, I use them at home for all kinds of stuff. My TV is a computer. My stereo is a computer. My music composition tool is a computer (and the outboard MIDI gear are computers as well). I do photography with a digital camera and edit images with GIMP on... a COMPUTER! Computers can do almost anything if you really get into them. But if you're not into them, then yeah, you're going to think it's a grind. In that case, leave the computing to people who like it.
Sure. Sometimes it makes sense to update something if it will result in increased productivity. But where I work, this didn't happen. However, we're stuck because through a bunch of mergers and acquisitions, we've got the crappiest of all worlds in terms of product design, support and general reliability.
A friend of mine who works as the IT manager for a law firm told me about this tool that all the lawyers were begging for. It was a plugin for Word that would check legal clause syntax. Sounds like a gargantuan task for software to perform reliably. And it is. This program didn't work worth a shit, but the lawyers just HAD TO HAVE it. Fortunately, sense prevailed and they didn't get it. But if they did, this would be yet another example of poor coding combined with prime marketing at the target users resulting in a cluster fuck. I'm not so lucky because in the case of one of the two pathetic pieces of shit I'm working with, our users WANT what it does so badly that I was actually told by one of them, "Even if it doesn't work, it's better than not having it". Lame, lame, lame.
With the influx of morons and idiots into the IT world during the dotbomb bubble who thought they could code, things have gotten dismal in IT. We have a ton of useless wannabees who barely made it through college (or worse) some of the more useless certifications out there. This is why I have to deal with two apps where I work that just suck ass in so many ways. People got "better ideas" and took systems that worked, ripped them out, and implemented new stuff just because it was cool. Then when people in the industry stand back and take a real good look, we see IT overflowing with crap software written by people who don't even understand what structured or object-oriented programming is other than some cool sounding buzzwords.
We have VB "programmers" and Flash "programmers" filling up teh intarwebs with more useless and poorly written "apps". We have people replacing perfectly good and efficient text interfaces with point and click GUIs where such a thing is NOT beneficial. Case in point... where I work we had a decent text menu based system but it got replaced with a poorly designed GUI. The users all complain about how what they used to do in just a few seconds now takes minutes. And they're right. Now this company is going to implement this monstrosity in Java. Can you believe it? JAVA for god's sake!!! They can't even write a proper app in their hodgepodge of C and they plan to do this in Java?
The drop off in people going for computer related degrees can only mean one thing: the wannabees have left the building because the party is over. This means that the only people signing up are people who (gasp!!) LIKE to PROGRAM. People who CAN PROGRAM! Making money with computers is OK, but unless you love these machines, you shouldn't bother. All the "get rich quick" types ruined the business during the 90s but now those fair weather friends aren't so hot to get into IT because now there's work to be done...
Well... that's the first time I've been accused of FUD. Especially funny since I'm a hardcore Linux user and can't stand Microsoft at all. I'm going on my experience with Redhat/Fedora vs. Windows XP. I know I have to work a lot more to get what I want than I do on Windows, but... I don't mind that. Keep in mind though.. I HATE PREPACKAGED SOFTWARE. I would rather compile from source when I want an app. So, perhaps I was wrong about some of the things I said because I have zero experience with package managers other than the 'rpm' command in Redhat/Fedora. I pretty much avoid the GUI for administrative tasks because I think it takes away from a person's technical edge. It's nice to know how to maneuver your way through a GUI, but it doesn't take that long to figure it out even if you've never seen it before, so why bother trying? I like to know what's happening behind the scenes. I don't want to just point and click. And I think EVERYONE should follow this method. It's more empowering than just pointing and clicking on a bunch of stuff. The only time I use a GUI is when some file managment I want to do would be to time consuming using the CLI. Everything I've seen that's been made to do things "easier" winds up crippling the user's knowledge. That's why I left Windows in the first place.
...just look at the American auto industry. First we owned the market and let the technology stagnate for decades. Then the foreign auto makers came along and taught us a thing or two. Especially the Japanese auto industry. At first we laughed at their small, cheap cars, but eventually they owned the auto market and we were the joke. In our effort to compete, we dumped our workforce and hired cheap labour elsewhere. We pilfered their designs and made our own knock-offs. Once we got the money, we bought them and now the whole world is worse off for it. There are really only a small number of auto makers and there is no "bubble" for the auto industry. The quality is poor and the costs are high. Expect IT to mimic this in every way. It already is...
Before the FOSS people get all defensive about what I posted, I am a Linux user. I prefer to use Fedora Core because it does what I need it to. I hate KDE because I don't like to be spoonfed (no offense to anyone meant, it's just my opinion). I, personally, prefer to download and compile all my apps myself because that's the only way I trust things. I don't like package managers. With all that out of the way...
The point is that there is still a lot of work for people to do compared with Windows (with the possible exception of that KDE thing someone posted). Not to mention migrating to a new platform. The reason I didn't meantion FOSS on Windows is that it's been my experience that it's pretty much pointless. Back when I used Windows, I tried useing the alternative FOSS stuff and it just never felt right. This is not because FOSS is inferior, it's because Windows isn't an open platform that allows for seamless integration. To really experience FOSS positively requires a FOSS operating system/desktop. Windows + Firefox + Thunderbird kind of sucks compared to FC3 + Firefox + Thunderbird.
The P2P stuff is just easier for Joe Average because it's written Joe Average. Think about it... searches in P2P apps don't need specialized syntax. You just basically grunt at it and it finds stuff. Again, I don't know about the KDE package manager but I highly doubt it will find every app a user is looking for and it probably only searches locally on a CD-ROM, not on the internet for the latest and greatest. After all, there is also the status symbol element of having the latest name brand stuff to keep up with the Jonses.
Again I say in the voice of the Great Cornholio: "are you threatening me"?!!
Walking down a street in Salt Lake City and you happen upon a homeless guy. He looks up and with stunned shock you say, "Hey! Didn't you used to be Darl McBride"? ;P
Bwahahahahaha!!! I kill myself!!!
DISCLAIMER: Just replying in general, not directed at mph_az:
Sadly, there is some truth to this. A lot of people associate "no name brand" = inferior. In one of my recent comments I complained about the whole free iPod/freeMac Mini/free Sony PSP phenomena. People are more than willing to do ANYTHING to get a free name brand product associated with an image and an easily recognizable logo. If someone did a "freeMicrosoftOffice.com" site, there would be just as many people jumping on that bandwagon because they KNOW Microsoft. They KNOW Office. However, try and do a "freeOpenOffice.org" site and you won't get any bites from the mainstream. This is a problem in the FOSS camp. Marketing is a horrible thing because of how much of a grip it has on the mainstream person. It can be used to control their opinions, their purchases, even who they vote for. People don't want to think. They want something that "just works" and brand name stuff is sold as "just working". Since piracy appears to be "free" access to name brand stuff for many people, they are happy to continue either willingly or ignorantly breaking the law.
In reality, there are few differences in functionality between FOSS applications and their commercial counterparts. Where there is a difference is in how much work you need to do to acquire the FOSS stuff vs. pirated commercial apps. Assuming you're a mainstream user who only barely knows how to use WinZip (that you haven't paid for) and double click on SETUP or INSTALL.MSI files... All you have to do to acquire pirated software is:
1. Run P2P program and search for app
2. Download ZIP, RAR, or other compressed version of app
3. Expand archive of app that you downloaded
4a. If it's self contained, just create a shortcut and run the main application EXE.
4b. If it's an installer, just run it.
5. If it's not cracked (I assume most pirated stuff is cracked) then you might need to look for a crack or regcode generator
6. Run app and be on your way...
To acquire a FOSS app (assuming you're using a really dumbed down version of Linux):
1. Search for an app that does what you want (usually 98% success these days)
2.If they have precompiled binaries in RPM or other packaging format, download and install that
3. You may need to search for and upgrade or install other dependencies (stuff you need to have before you can install the main app)
4. If you can't get binaries and it's a source only distribution, then you need to grab the tar.gz or tar.bz2 archive
5. Expand the source archive
6. If it's following the standard './configure && make && make install' procedure then you should do that now. If it's uses some other compilation method, then you have to read up on that adding to the complexity
7. You might also need to follow up with library dependencies/version issues, etc...
8. If there isn't a tar.gz or tar.bz2 archive, you might need to use CVS to download the current source tree which might be broken since it's in development...
9. Once you've gone through all this, then you need to verify your installation and see if the app works as expected.
10. If you needed to update libraries, you could run into apps that are now broken and need to be recompiled against the new versions of the library meaning more downloads, etc...
Which way do you think Joe Average Mainstream is going to go?
1. Software companies must lower their prices
2. Software companies must improve the quality and functionality of their software to justify the cost
3. There always have been and always will be theives
The biggest cause of piracy (whether it's music, movies or software) is the cost of actually legitimately buying this stuff. $299-399 is too much for an operating system today. If Microsoft sold Windows at a more reasonable price, say $99 more people would go the honest route. The same can be said for applications. If I'm a home user and I am ambitious enough to want to clone my hard drive, the most popular option I have is Norton Ghost. But I have to pay nearly $70 for that. Again, too much for a product that will be used infrequently. If Norton Ghost was $10-20 it might be easier to consider as a one shot purchase.
Now, couple that with the reality that in order for Windows to be truly useful to a mainstream user they need to buy a LOT of applications... and those $70+ hits add up real fast. Throw in stuff that requires yearly subscriptions like Antivirus software and the cost of owning a computer is expensive. On the flipside, take the same average home user and put a CD in front of him at a flea market that contains about ten or twenty of the programs he's been looking for and charge him $50, he's going to bite. Even moreso when you consider how few people there are in the mainstream computer user community who understand, are aware of, or even care about EULAs. This is the main reason why piracy happens. Software makers seem to be out of touch with what people can afford when they're being nickled and dimed to death. Just like the college profs who pile on the homework never giving a second thought to how much homework you've got in other classes, the software vendors pile on the small charges here and there until it's unbearable.
The other factor, for slightly more intelligent users is that sometimes, the functionality of a program doesn't warrant the price. Photoshop is a good example (and Adobe has wised up some in that arena) of a program that many mainstream users want access to but can't afford. The price of Photoshop is clearly inflated based on how it's most often used (not for profession print work where the cost IS justifiable) by mainstream users to just edit photos on the web. But, at least, Adobe figure out that if they release a stripped down version of Photoshop, many people would be willing to pay a more reasonable price. I'd say they still need to adjust their pricing a bit ($50 is more realistic for a commercial photo editing app). Other companies should follow Adobe's lead if they want people to actually pay for software.
Finally, no matter what is done to try and stem the waves of piracy, there will always be people who are dishonest. There is no way to prevent this without severly impacting your legitimate users. Dongles suck. Access codes suck. Registration sucks. DRM sucks. All they do is mak products more difficult for honest users to work with. They do little to prevent the dishonest from finding ways around them. But the number of genuinely dishonest people is small. The people that the software vendors (and RIAA MPAA) should be concerned with are the people who can be kept honest by providing good products for a reasonable price. The software, music and movie industries fail at this. Instead of providing good products, they provide the lowest common denominator in terms of quality and they charge the highest allowable prices. This is what turns otherwise honest people to piracy. They WANT this stuff, but they can't afford it. What other options do they have. Avoidance is not an option...
Where is this kind of bullshit coming from? Sure Google has their little "Don't be evil" motto, but that's clearly tongue-in-cheek. To me, Ballme sounds more like a little bully who is trying to save face after losing one battle by making fun of his opponent. Or even more to the point, it's real easy to imagine Homer Simpson standing in for Ballmer saying that same exact thing in his mocking tone of voice.
The point is that Microsoft is late to the search engine game as they were late to the web browser game. They clearly have an edge with their OS monopoly and could use the same tactics they did with Netscape. But, this isn't just about search engines now. With Google expanding into mail, price comparisons, news aggregation, online book searches, maps and usenet news in searchable format, MS has a lot to catch up with. Of course, they are going to publicize their search tools the most since most people in the mainstream are only aware of Google as a search engine and are only now coming around to GMail.
Where Google needs to be careful is in how the average user percieves web seraches. Most mainstream users are not aware of the difference between a web page and an application. For example, I migrated my parents over from Windows to Linux two years ago and they haven't looked back. They are typical users with nearly no computer experience except for what they saw me do as I grew up. My dad was very surprised to see the Google search engine (their default home page in Firefox) on his Linux box when he first logged in. He said, "You mean Google can run on Linux"? Which illustrates my point perfectly.
It's apparent that Microsoft is going to package search capabilities into their next version of Windows. That search will be a local application with web searching abilities. I'm expecting it to actually be embedded into IE as a subset of the OS like many other IE components are This is going to mean that the performance and functionality is going to appear much faster when compared to a web tool like Google. Google should really make it clear to users that they are using a remote tool when searching the internet. But... if they built their own browser (maybe based on Firefox or in partnership with Firefox), they could build in search functionality in the same way the IE will likely have it. This could result in a more seamless experience with Google web vs. Google Desktop.
Because everybody knows just how much pull all Slashdotters have in political circles... ;P
It's up where? ;P
In other news, if you read the overall summary of the Star Wars saga on www.starwars.com (under the section where they talk about the Sith and the various Darths) there are HUGE parallels to several political struggles throughout history. What I find really interesting is how Palpatine uses the attack of a small group of people to acquire more and more power and impose less and less freedom on the people under his rule. Hmmm... who does THAT sound like? Is George Lucas making a polical statement with the most recent installments? Maybe that's why they suck so much. Whenever someone gets an agenda and attempt to put a veiled message in a work, the work usually suffers. Trust me, I agree with the message, but I think it's caused the Star Wars entertainment factor to suffer.
His latest commentary about the death of the gaming industry in PC Magazine is laughable at best. He claims that there haven't been any noticeable developments in the gaming world in decades and that the industry will collapse soon. This is to mark the coming of Quake IV. What he doesn't realize is that even if the gameplay itself is similar, that's not an issue to most gamers. To give you a convenient analog: Think about rock music. It hasn't changed in nearly 50 years!!! Guitars, cute vocalist, drums, bass, maybe a keyboardist stashed in back corner somewhere. The lyrical content usually focuses on romance, good times, parties, or rebellion (both with and without a cause). Did the rock music business die? No. The overall instruments, and concepts of rock bands haven't changed either, just as the FPS and MMORPG games haven't really changed. What does change is the experience. This is where Dvorak fails to see that gaming is alive and well.
/. people'!!!! You're being trolled heavily by the editors. I mean SUPER HEAVY.
Now his "linux users as disgruntled crackpots" angle is an amusing troll. But he's no Cracky-Chan or Mercatur loving/hating denizen of Trolltalk. To quote someone, "Wake up
I noticed in the article that this new search software is being offered for free. That's quite a dangerous precedent to set seeing how people react to "free" things. For instance, think about the free iPod and free Mac Mini and free PSP offers that have been flooding the internet. You know how there are all those people who are more than willing to add links to their SIGs on various online forums just to get something "free"? Putting aside all the possible connotations of the word "free" (as in beer vs. speech), think about the power of that word. With the free iPod and other offers, spammers managed to "zombie" a bunch of humans into service.
Microsoft even did this in the past with IE when Netscape was king of the intarweb. Netscape charged for their browser and MS put theirs out at no charge (ie. free!). It's worked for them before and they know the power that using the word free can give them. Really think about this... If, otherwise normally intelligent people, can be turned into web spam zombies by being offered the possibility of free Mac Minis and iPods... And businesses can be taken down by offering a free alternative that is already included with a computer by default... Then the offer of a free personal search tool that is also included with a computer by default is likely to make people do crazy things.
Don't even get started on the free software movement. Think about the insanity that pervades that world. People are actually willing to work for FREE because they are abel to get software for FREE!!! It's totally insane. Then people like Stallman take hold of the power of FREE and they use it to further their cause! Can you believe it? If this whole "free" thing had never been invented/discovered, our world would be safer today. We wouldn't have to worry about people who "hate our freedoms" because there wouldn't be any such concept (free, that is). Let's stop this cancer of "free" this and "free" that and call it out for what it really is. Dangerous.
BTW, has anyone noticed how heavily the editors have been trolling the Slashdot readers lately? I mean, seriously... Microsoft buying Redhat? That's like saying that the Republican party is going to allow Kerry a position in the Senate! Who ever heard of such a thing!
Hmmm... you missed the point of what I said:
Red states call it "coke" in the generic. You can have "7-Up coke", or "Orange coke", or "Pepsi coke" in a red state.
Blue states use either pop or soda.
But it's not Tuesday. Leave the trolling to the pros. ;P
Now that you mention message passing... Anyone want to have at me with the Structured vs. Object-Oriented Programming? I say that Structured programming rules and OPP drools!!!! How about it?
Actually, I was refering to the habit of using coke in place of pop or soda. as in: "Server bwah! Ah'd like a 7-Up coke with that burger"!
...or "Coke" if you're from a red state.
Because carbonated beverages contain as much as 14 teaspoons of sugar per every eight ounces, they get VERY sticky when they dry. This usually gums up a KB for good.