He kept saying how, while word processor is mature, that the other elements of the suite aren't there yet - not because of it's own features as much as 100% compatibility with MS's products (instead of it's own merits).
While the review had a positive spin - it was hardly glowing as the summary made it out to be - regardless of its title.
I think the impact could be greater than a few polar bears.
I'm not an expert on biology but there a fair amount of other animals/fish/waterplants that probably evolved to thrive in an artic environment.
I also imagine that amount/area of white ice reflected a fair amount of light/heat from the sun back into space..... especially in the summer when sunlight is shining for months because that part of the planet is more tilted towards the sun.
Perhaps it won't be a mega-impact, as the ocean's surface will also be somewhat reflective, but something to set off the balance temperature even more. I hate it when people say "oh, just a couple of degrees" and forget that we humans can only survive in a range of a couple of degrees - in the big picture.
the net would be if it stayed the domain of pure geeks and no one else?
I often feel that these type of articles aren't about signal-to-noise ratio which it implies but about old-generation-vs-new-generation elitism.
I experienced similiar constant bitching in anime where all the old dogs (80&90s - so not exactly the real old dogs) claimed to have more taste, more intelligence, and more knowlege than the new generation coming on the scene. I usually only noticed the only difference between the two was that the newer generation had a higher percentage of those who know Japanese.
You do have good points - I only listed that article to mention that MS is still working very hard to make it the perception that TCO of MS is lower than linux. Perception - as in independent of reality of the situation. And reality as in independent of perception. Meaning - ultimately they can be right or wrong.
That list of software wasn't meant as a corporate roadmap, only my actual personal experience. Nothing more or less. ^_^
But I mentioned Windows had free solutions in my post - I didn't intend to just compare like-for-like - just my actual experience.
When I was on Windows - I expected to pay money for products and so did not look for nor trust the free solution to do the job. It was an effect of being a corporate user & being in the windows world mentality.
Switching to Linux, I saved money by being introduced to the concept that good software can be free. And I got introduced to all those programs by default (on the distro).
To put it in perspective - it's like saying Windows can be run as or more securely than Linux. If you close all the default services/activeX, etcera, etcetera, etcetera.
This may be true but it's ignoring that all computer users aren't experts and that the "insecure" mode is default which is the reality for most people.
For me, Windows the barebone system (except for perhaps unuseful/unwanted vendor software) is the default. I only have so much time to hunt down and learn certain programs. I might not run into the free alternative for whatever reason.
Linux the fully capable OS with all these tool is the reality on many distros (I use Ubuntu). That's how I got introduced to them^_^
Also I'd like to mention while Adaware/Spybot/MSAntiSpywareBeta are reasonably good programs - I got spoiled by Linux and not having to run those in the first:) But then I didn't count those man-hours and add them against Windows.
As a personal user - I can testify quite the opposite - if I include not just the OS, but all the programs I use.
Before leaving the Windows world, I used the following programs because I couldn't find a free one to get work done. I'll list the price I remember paying:
WsFtp (~40) PhotoImpact(80) Quicken (30) Spybot - Detect and Destroy (free, donated $15) MS Access - (300 ?, needed a DB program) MS Visual Basic ($99, not full version which costs as much as $699 IIRC) Tiny Firewall (was free when I used it, it seems to be $49 now)
Cost I had to pay: $550 (Not including donation)
Now with Linux, I use: gFtp (free) Gimp (free) GnuCash (free) No need for Spyware detectors (had 3 free ones on Windows) nor for Virus detector which is also free on linux (ClamAV) - could get free one on Windows (AVG) Program using either KDE IDE or GCC. Don't need a DB program now but plenty of free ones out there. Have a firewall - just don't remember the name now:)
With OS - All free.
I know there are some free solutions on Windows - but the Windows environment has a lot more shareware and promotes pay-for software while Linux gives you a lot more tools off the bat to get what you need done.
Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. If all you want to get out of college is a science degree, say in physics, then what will you do? Go to work for terrorists? What will be your point of reference to world events?
I don't know what terrorism has to do with learning physics - but college nor history doesn't really teach morality. I would think that by the time of college, you are pretty much the person you are and have the opinions you do because of how you grew up and parents/peers.
But I think I should couple my criticism of college with criticism with schools. Schools should be the place for general learning but it doesn't do a good enough job IMO. For instance, you mention history - but in my 12 years of public education - 9 of them were literally spent learning about the Revolutionary War and perhaps the 19th century.
We didn't get to WW2/beyond till 10th grade. "World History" was actually only about western history. No African/SouthAmerican/Mexican/Asian/EastEuropean/R ussian history was taught.
You might not like that your college will force you to take a foriegn langugae, but after you are done, you will know about a different world perspective, and you might want to stick with it enough to be able to read newspapers from a foriegn land.
I already do read foreign news - but thanks more to the internet than to college:)
I also recieved the Nightly News from many different countries delivered by "Newsworld International" until Al Gore bought it and turned it into the abysmal "Current TV".
OTOH, you do realize that it's still a very western system - Shakespeare is an English author and most likely has been introduced by Highschool - if the students were so interested in him - they would have persued him further w/o college. And why not some author more contemporary or someone foreign for perspective? Like Goethe?
Again, I think your arguments have merit but could be accomplished by the highschool level.
I don't disagree. But I didn't mention someone needed training either and my whole point was that people should rather concentrate on a single subject/topic/whatever:) Sorry if it didn't come out that way.
I only mentioned college because I disagree with the approach most take - trying to cram multiple unrelated topics onto students (via requirements) instead of letting people get degrees by taking courses that are directly related to their field of interest.
I agree that it's not always something specifically mental in that some people simply can do it and some simply can't (but some do have more natural talent). I disagree about personality traits.
I think good hackers tend to be obessive about what they hack - meaning that they eat, drink, and sleep the subject they are good at hacking at.
A lot of people these days tend to try to learn (too) many things and turn out to be more of a jack of all trades than an expert in a single subject (thinking of all those programmers who have to learn a new language everyother week) or simply can't concentrate on any one thing for longer than 5 minutes at a time.
This is my issue with college - many of which try to teach a wide variety of subject to a student that really only wants a specific degree (say in Math or Science related) - studies have shown that people tend to remember less than 15-20% of what they learned in school/college several years after attending so why force something that will only be forgotten later for lack of interest?
A genius that probably can't be replicated in everybody is a renaissance man who can excel in multiple non-related subjects - like Leonardo Davinci. But that still took some type of concentrated obsession.
While it's probably a better cost cutting measure than outsourcing because lower cost of living - the whole bad thing about being in a super rural place is that you are miles from nowhere - and travel is getting more expensive and a PITA (to fly).
The other problem - even with the internet - is that you are isolated from the action - only so much business (to business) can be conducted over email/websites (talking about more major deals). Many clients still feel more comfortable with someone they can meet face to face.
This type of move is good for a programming/manufacturing (branch of the) business but not something that involves sales. Or something that is obviously website oriented. Otherwise you end up losing more than you save. It's not something I'd recommend to a small company trying to start up.
The history/internation history channel showed a program about the Denver Baggage system - I think under it's "Modern Marvels" series - not sure.
Anyway, they did address the problems plagueing the system but made it sound like a thing of the past - that the entire system was deployed too early because of pressure to have it operational on the opening day of the airport.
The major problems were that baggage would get stuck or lost.
Lost - mainly due to the tags not being read by the single UPC like laser. The problem was there was only one laser (think of a self checkout line where you'd have to pass a box over it but now at 10 mph and at a 100% hit rate). They fixed this by having like lasers at each spot and having multiple spots.
Stuck - Improved track design. Oversize baggage were handled purely by humans - no more attempts to shove it through the machine.
These two fixes were supposed to dramatically improve the design but I suppose it was either too late or just that the whole thing didn't save enough money. Afterall, they added the redundancy (room) where if the thing couldn't operate one day with golf carts, etcetera - so if you have to hire all those people on back-up - what's the use?
Actually sounds like the typical human behavior of humanizing things to relate to them better - sort of like all those animated movies with animals has the animals talking and wearing clothes and other rather human unique activity. Just on a spiritual level.
I don't know - haven't looked into this but can sympathize since I had to back-up data enough times that I eventually just had to pick and choose what's worth saving.
Makes one almost wish for the days when regular CD-roms could hold several times the magnitude than the hard drives of the computers they resided in. Or maybe wish to have that ratio back:)
Whatever the case, a made for computer solution could be implemented faster than a made for movies solution - in the made-for-movies option, it would take a good while before R/W drives and discs come out - if ever - remember the movie studios will try to dictate terms and if these drives/discs require licensing to build and market - the powers that be won't allow for read/write drives/discs.
This is why a made for computer storage option (or more correctly - an open standard) would be infinitely preferable this day and age - like linux, manfactures won't have to license the tech and won't be burdened by licensing baggage on what they can offer or expand on with an open standard - and the consumer will be in the front seat - not in the back seat taking it in the rear:P
"I think people will buy DVDs much longer than 8 years after the new format."
Not if content owners like Sony stop selling them... but I just said 8 years because DVD-Video was introduced in 1997.
Hmmm.... Sony would be missing out on an awfully big market if they just stop. More than one Wolf in the chicken coop^_^
Also, it's not like a Video Game system - movies are easily sellable on the next-generation and current generation system.
I imagine they stopped selling cassettes mainly because people stopped buying them - but I remember music cassettes still being sold for the new albums in 2000 (!, do they still? Haven't been to a CD store since then.), many, many years after CDs came out.
People still bought cassettes for various reasons (car only played cassette, walkman the same thing, etcetera). Even stuff like self-help tapes came automatically in cassette until a few years back (annoyingly). I think the nail in the coffin was when recordable cds got popular......
I think the lesson is newer doesn't automatically mean new standard - new mediums need to find their audience at the right time and price point and fill a vacuum or they'll be passed over.
This is the lesson from Laserdisc to Sony's minidisc (which did well in Japan).
I think people will buy DVDs much longer than 8 years after the new format.
The questions consumers will ask is "What is the benefit over the old system and is it worth the $X00 to buy a new player for it?"
DVDs had significant benefits - but the kicker probably was in the end the CD-like ability. No more long stretches of minutes spent fastforwarding nor rewinding - you can go to the scene you want as fast as you can access the menus. That and the space savings.
But what is the obvious benefit of these new discs? Crippling DRM? High Definition when HDTVs are still the exception not the norm? Multiple movies on one disc for a lower price? (YEAH RIGHT!) What exactly?
My prediction is that DVDs will probably be uncontested king till 2015 due to entrenchment and that the cool new next generation devices are struggling to hard to pander to the movie studios with absurd DRM schemes.
My other prediction is that "next" medium will be delivered not by need for HD movies but by the demands of computer consumers needing a storage devices that saves more gigabytes than DVDs can possibly hope for.
This device will be free of or have relatively easy DRM and HD movies will eventually be delivered in this format because the other formats companies try to make will be recieved like betamax/laserdisc.
Movies will also start being offered officially over the internet way before then.
How about John Carmack?:) Not sure whether he's a CS major or what - but definitely a hard-core geek. He seemed to make it.
After college, one finds out the degree ISN'T everything.
It's fine to pick a degree if you want to climb corporate ladders and stuff - but in my college many MIS majors still couldn't program their way out of a paper bag.
Conversely, years after my CS major, I'm now majoring in EE for fun. I think EE is better because it teaches hardware at the same time and many EE majors I met are also competent programmers - it's like having the best of both world. Depending on the college, attaining CS degrees can mean so much BS side courses that had nothing to do with anything - but that can be the same with any degree.
Anyway, middle management can wait. I hope to have my own business one day thus negating any possible degree requirements I have of myself^_^ - but I still value those who prize intensity over extensity - meaning a great CS major still has something over the interdisplinary students in my eyes.
No only is Microsoft for this, but it's own architect of the "Get the Facts" campaign, Martin Taylor.
There must be strings attached.
Whatever the trap, a) we should avoid the bait or b)figure out what they are up to (I'm not smart enough to see it) because whatever the case - Microsoft isn't about to fund a study that shows it bad in security.
And what's the need to analyze Microsoft security?
First: The computers in research studies can be unrealisticly hardened on both sides - Windows more so because the default installation isn't tested most of the time - just a dream system hardened by EXPERTS. How many Windows users turn off the default services they don't need along with turning off ActiveX.
Second: How is this a learning experience? Microsoft already knows what it does wrong. But it can't take the cure because they think it's too painful - rip out ActiveX, make Internet Explorer and Explorer more removable and more modular so it's not soldered to the system, same with Outlook, etcetera.
This is BS - first to file means the innovators of the future will be patent secretaries who'll file vague claims to for a litigation friendly future.
I'm for going further away from standard "world practice" and going back to the 19th century Patent Office where you have to provide a working model along with the application. How it used to be. No more BS-ridden unreadable application that want to change your paradigm of life by synergized the future. Just cold hard proof of either a new idea or not.
Respect, in general, should be restored as a key value in our culture and at the core of respect is fear of what might happen if you don't.
I think that Saddam Hussein and all the other dictators in the world can agree with you. But then how much of that respect is real and how will wither away once there is nothing to fear (you graduate)?
Over-reaction is what this is.
Why post felony charges against these students? You know what felonies can do to you? Jobwise? Did you know if you are convicted of a felony you can't obtain a passport and leave the country? (I talking about adults convicts here.)
Why not simply take away their computers? If they were that bad, so often, why wasn't this done earlier?
Why is the reaction delayed and then made so severe that you figuratively punch their face and kick them when they are down? What is this supposed to teach? That's it's easier to REALLY punish the worst offenders when they cross the line and ignore the rest who merely spit at you from time to time.
The problem with some institutions is that they don't have to (effectively) abide by the same rules as regular police - otherwise this could be thrown out as entrapment. (Maybe, hopefully, it still could - because now the punishment is also handled outside the school system.)
What I find particularly ridiculous are the "hacker" felony charges.
If you have a safe and right beside it have a post-it note describing how to open it (3 to the left, stop at #45, then 2 to the right.....) - would you be able to call the next unauthorized guy who opens it an expert safecracker?
This is a simple case of either knowing human nature too well (entrapment) or ignoring human nature and either way going the route that will scare the rest of the student into submission.
Isn't it? To make example of certain people to buy the compliance of the rest of us (sheep)?
Especially in highschools. Or maybe just PA (I live 20 minutes from Kutztown). I remember a girl getting treated like a drug dealer because she a)bought aspirin to the school and didn't hand it over to the school nurse (so that she could subsequently go back to the school nurse when it's time to take them - talk about being treated like a 5 year old) and b)giving one to her friends that had a headache.
IIRC, she was kicked out of the district.
Variations of this heavy-handedness happens so often everywhere that I'm surprised it makes the news anymore. I think Columbine made it worse because now the administrators are going apeshit over every little thing - turning the schools into a sort of police state.
What would be news would be the punishment fitting the crime. But then the school administrators would have to admit that they are mostly at fault in this case (really: taping the passwords to the back of the computers?!)
Virtual Reality To The Next Level
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Is This the Holodeck?
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· Score: 2, Interesting
And the best we can come up with how to combine it with watching football/other_sit_on_your_ass passive event?:/ Shit, I mean at least imagine playing in the superbowl......
Personally, I'd rather simulate being in space, other cool adverture, etcetera.......
Tell us in what way Mac OS {10-n } was a) buggy b) unstable and c) single-threaded?
I'd really wish you'd tell me where Mac OS failed on you? Anything that was OS-related?
Back before I knew anything about computers - I got the Mac Color Classic (68040 chip, not PPC) and years later I recieved the 7500/100, a PPC (my dad was a Mac fan).
I was experiencing the Microsoft side through school at the time. For all the jokes of BSODs, my experience at the time was the unhappy Mac face and bomb occured to me 20 times as much. While surfing or using the local paint program, etcetera. I was not a poweruser at the time - so I can't tell you if these were OS problems or application problems - I just know that I had to reboot the computer the computer for some vague problem every 30 minutes. And I know my case wasn't unique.
I experienced but the same with my brother's first generation iMac.
From the three different Mac computers I had - I judged that the platform was less shaky than my Microsoft experince.
Also, years ago I read that Mac OS 7 was barely multithreaded, a hack on what was designed to be a singlethreaded OS. If I'm wrong, I'm sorry mispoke - I meant it didn't have memory protection.
Although, with some convincing of friends I pulled my parents to the OSX platform and I'm glad I did.
It didn't have (full) memory protection but this somehow made Mac apps more stable in the first place. When developers get called because their app takes down the whole system, they dont make the same mistake twice.
You're kidding me, right? There always are bugs. And good developers fix bugs they meet, whether or not it has the potential to take the system down.
And the internet was not so common then - you couldn't alway download the latest patch for those fixes.
I suspect Apple's switch wasn't because of any cool chip (it'd be ridiculous to think they are getting intel chips that no PC maker will have access to) but simply because it's one less defensive front - they don't have to worry about getting chips that are competitive anymore, which was getting a problem with PPC as well as the all important Notebook chips - IBM simply wasn't offering anymore competitive PPC solutions.
It's one less thing to defend.
Back when Apple first introduced PPC (1994?), they were hyping it throughout because that was one of the few real tangible differences they could tout - pre-OSX Mac was buggy and unstable single-threaded OS while Microsoft had at least NT technology.
Now OS X pretty much rocks and they still have their excellent hardware integration - they don't need a different chip to differentiate them - OSX is their added value.
Open Solaris is Free Software, yes? So if it becomes a "Linux killer", then the Linux vendors will simply become Open Solaris vendors. It doesn't matter if Linux dies if what is replacing it is just as free.
My feeling are that linux will copy the sucessful aspects that it can and Linus, being more engineer than anything else, can recognize the sucessful aspects.
This crossbreeding of ideas goes both ways with Solaris.
Because of this, I think it will come less down to features on paper, but the success of the implementation.
This is also what irks me about these "Linux-killer" stories - everything looks great on paper until deployed enmasse - when reality hits.
Slashdot Mirror
OTOH,
He kept saying how, while word processor is mature, that the other elements of the suite aren't there yet - not because of it's own features as much as 100% compatibility with MS's products (instead of it's own merits).
While the review had a positive spin - it was hardly glowing as the summary made it out to be - regardless of its title.
I think the impact could be greater than a few polar bears.
I'm not an expert on biology but there a fair amount of other animals/fish/waterplants that probably evolved to thrive in an artic environment.
I also imagine that amount/area of white ice reflected a fair amount of light/heat from the sun back into space..... especially in the summer when sunlight is shining for months because that part of the planet is more tilted towards the sun.
Perhaps it won't be a mega-impact, as the ocean's surface will also be somewhat reflective, but something to set off the balance temperature even more. I hate it when people say "oh, just a couple of degrees" and forget that we humans can only survive in a range of a couple of degrees - in the big picture.
the net would be if it stayed the domain of pure geeks and no one else?
I often feel that these type of articles aren't about signal-to-noise ratio which it implies but about old-generation-vs-new-generation elitism.
I experienced similiar constant bitching in anime where all the old dogs (80&90s - so not exactly the real old dogs) claimed to have more taste, more intelligence, and more knowlege than the new generation coming on the scene. I usually only noticed the only difference between the two was that the newer generation had a higher percentage of those who know Japanese.
I feel this is of a similiar vein.
You do have good points - I only listed that article to mention that MS is still working very hard to make it the perception that TCO of MS is lower than linux. Perception - as in independent of reality of the situation. And reality as in independent of perception. Meaning - ultimately they can be right or wrong.
That list of software wasn't meant as a corporate roadmap, only my actual personal experience. Nothing more or less. ^_^
You do have a good point.
But I mentioned Windows had free solutions in my post - I didn't intend to just compare like-for-like - just my actual experience.
When I was on Windows - I expected to pay money for products and so did not look for nor trust the free solution to do the job. It was an effect of being a corporate user & being in the windows world mentality.
Switching to Linux, I saved money by being introduced to the concept that good software can be free. And I got introduced to all those programs by default (on the distro).
To put it in perspective - it's like saying Windows can be run as or more securely than Linux. If you close all the default services/activeX, etcera, etcetera, etcetera.
This may be true but it's ignoring that all computer users aren't experts and that the "insecure" mode is default which is the reality for most people.
For me, Windows the barebone system (except for perhaps unuseful/unwanted vendor software) is the default. I only have so much time to hunt down and learn certain programs. I might not run into the free alternative for whatever reason.
Linux the fully capable OS with all these tool is the reality on many distros (I use Ubuntu). That's how I got introduced to them^_^
Also I'd like to mention while Adaware/Spybot/MSAntiSpywareBeta are reasonably good programs - I got spoiled by Linux and not having to run those in the first:) But then I didn't count those man-hours and add them against Windows.
Microsoft is still hard at work trying to create that perception:s /casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?CaseStudyID=17131
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/fact
As a personal user - I can testify quite the opposite - if I include not just the OS, but all the programs I use.
Before leaving the Windows world, I used the following programs because I couldn't find a free one to get work done. I'll list the price I remember paying:
WsFtp (~40)
PhotoImpact(80)
Quicken (30)
Spybot - Detect and Destroy (free, donated $15)
MS Access - (300 ?, needed a DB program)
MS Visual Basic ($99, not full version which costs as much as $699 IIRC)
Tiny Firewall (was free when I used it, it seems to be $49 now)
Cost I had to pay: $550 (Not including donation)
Now with Linux, I use:
gFtp (free)
Gimp (free)
GnuCash (free)
No need for Spyware detectors (had 3 free ones on Windows) nor for Virus detector which is also free on linux (ClamAV) - could get free one on Windows (AVG)
Program using either KDE IDE or GCC.
Don't need a DB program now but plenty of free ones out there.
Have a firewall - just don't remember the name now:)
With OS - All free.
I know there are some free solutions on Windows - but the Windows environment has a lot more shareware and promotes pay-for software while Linux gives you a lot more tools off the bat to get what you need done.
I appreciate that alot.
Hi, you make excellent points.
R ussian history was taught.
Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. If all you want to get out of college is a science degree, say in physics, then what will you do? Go to work for terrorists? What will be your point of reference to world events?
I don't know what terrorism has to do with learning physics - but college nor history doesn't really teach morality. I would think that by the time of college, you are pretty much the person you are and have the opinions you do because of how you grew up and parents/peers.
But I think I should couple my criticism of college with criticism with schools. Schools should be the place for general learning but it doesn't do a good enough job IMO. For instance, you mention history - but in my 12 years of public education - 9 of them were literally spent learning about the Revolutionary War and perhaps the 19th century.
We didn't get to WW2/beyond till 10th grade. "World History" was actually only about western history. No African/SouthAmerican/Mexican/Asian/EastEuropean/
You might not like that your college will force you to take a foriegn langugae, but after you are done, you will know about a different world perspective, and you might want to stick with it enough to be able to read newspapers from a foriegn land.
I already do read foreign news - but thanks more to the internet than to college:)
I also recieved the Nightly News from many different countries delivered by "Newsworld International" until Al Gore bought it and turned it into the abysmal "Current TV".
OTOH, you do realize that it's still a very western system - Shakespeare is an English author and most likely has been introduced by Highschool - if the students were so interested in him - they would have persued him further w/o college. And why not some author more contemporary or someone foreign for perspective? Like Goethe?
Again, I think your arguments have merit but could be accomplished by the highschool level.
I don't disagree. But I didn't mention someone needed training either and my whole point was that people should rather concentrate on a single subject/topic/whatever:) Sorry if it didn't come out that way.
I only mentioned college because I disagree with the approach most take - trying to cram multiple unrelated topics onto students (via requirements) instead of letting people get degrees by taking courses that are directly related to their field of interest.
I agree that it's not always something specifically mental in that some people simply can do it and some simply can't (but some do have more natural talent). I disagree about personality traits.
I think good hackers tend to be obessive about what they hack - meaning that they eat, drink, and sleep the subject they are good at hacking at.
A lot of people these days tend to try to learn (too) many things and turn out to be more of a jack of all trades than an expert in a single subject (thinking of all those programmers who have to learn a new language everyother week) or simply can't concentrate on any one thing for longer than 5 minutes at a time.
This is my issue with college - many of which try to teach a wide variety of subject to a student that really only wants a specific degree (say in Math or Science related) - studies have shown that people tend to remember less than 15-20% of what they learned in school/college several years after attending so why force something that will only be forgotten later for lack of interest?
Genius - 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. Morale: Prize Intensity over Extensity.
A genius that probably can't be replicated in everybody is a renaissance man who can excel in multiple non-related subjects - like Leonardo Davinci. But that still took some type of concentrated obsession.
While it's probably a better cost cutting measure than outsourcing because lower cost of living - the whole bad thing about being in a super rural place is that you are miles from nowhere - and travel is getting more expensive and a PITA (to fly).
The other problem - even with the internet - is that you are isolated from the action - only so much business (to business) can be conducted over email/websites (talking about more major deals). Many clients still feel more comfortable with someone they can meet face to face.
This type of move is good for a programming/manufacturing (branch of the) business but not something that involves sales. Or something that is obviously website oriented. Otherwise you end up losing more than you save. It's not something I'd recommend to a small company trying to start up.
The history/internation history channel showed a program about the Denver Baggage system - I think under it's "Modern Marvels" series - not sure.
Anyway, they did address the problems plagueing the system but made it sound like a thing of the past - that the entire system was deployed too early because of pressure to have it operational on the opening day of the airport.
The major problems were that baggage would get stuck or lost.
Lost - mainly due to the tags not being read by the single UPC like laser. The problem was there was only one laser (think of a self checkout line where you'd have to pass a box over it but now at 10 mph and at a 100% hit rate). They fixed this by having like lasers at each spot and having multiple spots.
Stuck - Improved track design. Oversize baggage were handled purely by humans - no more attempts to shove it through the machine.
These two fixes were supposed to dramatically improve the design but I suppose it was either too late or just that the whole thing didn't save enough money. Afterall, they added the redundancy (room) where if the thing couldn't operate one day with golf carts, etcetera - so if you have to hire all those people on back-up - what's the use?
Actually sounds like the typical human behavior of humanizing things to relate to them better - sort of like all those animated movies with animals has the animals talking and wearing clothes and other rather human unique activity. Just on a spiritual level.
I don't know - haven't looked into this but can sympathize since I had to back-up data enough times that I eventually just had to pick and choose what's worth saving.
Makes one almost wish for the days when regular CD-roms could hold several times the magnitude than the hard drives of the computers they resided in. Or maybe wish to have that ratio back:)
Whatever the case, a made for computer solution could be implemented faster than a made for movies solution - in the made-for-movies option, it would take a good while before R/W drives and discs come out - if ever - remember the movie studios will try to dictate terms and if these drives/discs require licensing to build and market - the powers that be won't allow for read/write drives/discs.
This is why a made for computer storage option (or more correctly - an open standard) would be infinitely preferable this day and age - like linux, manfactures won't have to license the tech and won't be burdened by licensing baggage on what they can offer or expand on with an open standard - and the consumer will be in the front seat - not in the back seat taking it in the rear:P
"I think people will buy DVDs much longer than 8 years after the new format."
Not if content owners like Sony stop selling them... but I just said 8 years because DVD-Video was introduced in 1997.
Hmmm.... Sony would be missing out on an awfully big market if they just stop. More than one Wolf in the chicken coop^_^
Also, it's not like a Video Game system - movies are easily sellable on the next-generation and current generation system.
I imagine they stopped selling cassettes mainly because people stopped buying them - but I remember music cassettes still being sold for the new albums in 2000 (!, do they still? Haven't been to a CD store since then.), many, many years after CDs came out.
People still bought cassettes for various reasons (car only played cassette, walkman the same thing, etcetera). Even stuff like self-help tapes came automatically in cassette until a few years back (annoyingly). I think the nail in the coffin was when recordable cds got popular......
I think the lesson is newer doesn't automatically mean new standard - new mediums need to find their audience at the right time and price point and fill a vacuum or they'll be passed over.
This is the lesson from Laserdisc to Sony's minidisc (which did well in Japan).
I think people will buy DVDs much longer than 8 years after the new format.
The questions consumers will ask is "What is the benefit over the old system and is it worth the $X00 to buy a new player for it?"
DVDs had significant benefits - but the kicker probably was in the end the CD-like ability. No more long stretches of minutes spent fastforwarding nor rewinding - you can go to the scene you want as fast as you can access the menus. That and the space savings.
But what is the obvious benefit of these new discs? Crippling DRM? High Definition when HDTVs are still the exception not the norm? Multiple movies on one disc for a lower price? (YEAH RIGHT!) What exactly?
My prediction is that DVDs will probably be uncontested king till 2015 due to entrenchment and that the cool new next generation devices are struggling to hard to pander to the movie studios with absurd DRM schemes.
My other prediction is that "next" medium will be delivered not by need for HD movies but by the demands of computer consumers needing a storage devices that saves more gigabytes than DVDs can possibly hope for.
This device will be free of or have relatively easy DRM and HD movies will eventually be delivered in this format because the other formats companies try to make will be recieved like betamax/laserdisc.
Movies will also start being offered officially over the internet way before then.
How about John Carmack? :) Not sure whether he's a CS major or what - but definitely a hard-core geek. He seemed to make it.
After college, one finds out the degree ISN'T everything.
It's fine to pick a degree if you want to climb corporate ladders and stuff - but in my college many MIS majors still couldn't program their way out of a paper bag.
Conversely, years after my CS major, I'm now majoring in EE for fun. I think EE is better because it teaches hardware at the same time and many EE majors I met are also competent programmers - it's like having the best of both world. Depending on the college, attaining CS degrees can mean so much BS side courses that had nothing to do with anything - but that can be the same with any degree.
Anyway, middle management can wait. I hope to have my own business one day thus negating any possible degree requirements I have of myself^_^ - but I still value those who prize intensity over extensity - meaning a great CS major still has something over the interdisplinary students in my eyes.
No only is Microsoft for this, but it's own architect of the "Get the Facts" campaign, Martin Taylor.
There must be strings attached.
Whatever the trap, a) we should avoid the bait or b)figure out what they are up to (I'm not smart enough to see it) because whatever the case - Microsoft isn't about to fund a study that shows it bad in security.
And what's the need to analyze Microsoft security?
First: The computers in research studies can be unrealisticly hardened on both sides - Windows more so because the default installation isn't tested most of the time - just a dream system hardened by EXPERTS. How many Windows users turn off the default services they don't need along with turning off ActiveX.
Second: How is this a learning experience? Microsoft already knows what it does wrong. But it can't take the cure because they think it's too painful - rip out ActiveX, make Internet Explorer and Explorer more removable and more modular so it's not soldered to the system, same with Outlook, etcetera.
This is BS - first to file means the innovators of the future will be patent secretaries who'll file vague claims to for a litigation friendly future.
I'm for going further away from standard "world practice" and going back to the 19th century Patent Office where you have to provide a working model along with the application. How it used to be. No more BS-ridden unreadable application that want to change your paradigm of life by synergized the future. Just cold hard proof of either a new idea or not.
Respect, in general, should be restored as a key value in our culture and at the core of respect is fear of what might happen if you don't.
I think that Saddam Hussein and all the other dictators in the world can agree with you. But then how much of that respect is real and how will wither away once there is nothing to fear (you graduate)?
Over-reaction is what this is.
Why post felony charges against these students? You know what felonies can do to you? Jobwise? Did you know if you are convicted of a felony you can't obtain a passport and leave the country? (I talking about adults convicts here.)
Why not simply take away their computers? If they were that bad, so often, why wasn't this done earlier?
Why is the reaction delayed and then made so severe that you figuratively punch their face and kick them when they are down? What is this supposed to teach? That's it's easier to REALLY punish the worst offenders when they cross the line and ignore the rest who merely spit at you from time to time.
I don't get it.
I was thinking the same thing.
The problem with some institutions is that they don't have to (effectively) abide by the same rules as regular police - otherwise this could be thrown out as entrapment. (Maybe, hopefully, it still could - because now the punishment is also handled outside the school system.)
What I find particularly ridiculous are the "hacker" felony charges.
If you have a safe and right beside it have a post-it note describing how to open it (3 to the left, stop at #45, then 2 to the right.....) - would you be able to call the next unauthorized guy who opens it an expert safecracker?
This is a simple case of either knowing human nature too well (entrapment) or ignoring human nature and either way going the route that will scare the rest of the student into submission.
Isn't it? To make example of certain people to buy the compliance of the rest of us (sheep)?
Especially in highschools. Or maybe just PA (I live 20 minutes from Kutztown). I remember a girl getting treated like a drug dealer because she a)bought aspirin to the school and didn't hand it over to the school nurse (so that she could subsequently go back to the school nurse when it's time to take them - talk about being treated like a 5 year old) and b)giving one to her friends that had a headache.
IIRC, she was kicked out of the district.
Variations of this heavy-handedness happens so often everywhere that I'm surprised it makes the news anymore. I think Columbine made it worse because now the administrators are going apeshit over every little thing - turning the schools into a sort of police state.
What would be news would be the punishment fitting the crime. But then the school administrators would have to admit that they are mostly at fault in this case (really: taping the passwords to the back of the computers?!)
And the best we can come up with how to combine it with watching football/other_sit_on_your_ass passive event? :/ Shit, I mean at least imagine playing in the superbowl......
Personally, I'd rather simulate being in space, other cool adverture, etcetera.......
Tell us in what way Mac OS {10-n } was a) buggy b) unstable and c) single-threaded?
I'd really wish you'd tell me where Mac OS failed on you? Anything that was OS-related?
Back before I knew anything about computers - I got the Mac Color Classic (68040 chip, not PPC) and years later I recieved the 7500/100, a PPC (my dad was a Mac fan).
I was experiencing the Microsoft side through school at the time. For all the jokes of BSODs, my experience at the time was the unhappy Mac face and bomb occured to me 20 times as much. While surfing or using the local paint program, etcetera. I was not a poweruser at the time - so I can't tell you if these were OS problems or application problems - I just know that I had to reboot the computer the computer for some vague problem every 30 minutes. And I know my case wasn't unique.
I experienced but the same with my brother's first generation iMac.
From the three different Mac computers I had - I judged that the platform was less shaky than my Microsoft experince.
Also, years ago I read that Mac OS 7 was barely multithreaded, a hack on what was designed to be a singlethreaded OS. If I'm wrong, I'm sorry mispoke - I meant it didn't have memory protection.
Although, with some convincing of friends I pulled my parents to the OSX platform and I'm glad I did.
It didn't have (full) memory protection but this somehow made Mac apps more stable in the first place. When developers get called because their app takes down the whole system, they dont make the same mistake twice.
You're kidding me, right? There always are bugs. And good developers fix bugs they meet, whether or not it has the potential to take the system down.
And the internet was not so common then - you couldn't alway download the latest patch for those fixes.
I suspect Apple's switch wasn't because of any cool chip (it'd be ridiculous to think they are getting intel chips that no PC maker will have access to) but simply because it's one less defensive front - they don't have to worry about getting chips that are competitive anymore, which was getting a problem with PPC as well as the all important Notebook chips - IBM simply wasn't offering anymore competitive PPC solutions.
It's one less thing to defend.
Back when Apple first introduced PPC (1994?), they were hyping it throughout because that was one of the few real tangible differences they could tout - pre-OSX Mac was buggy and unstable single-threaded OS while Microsoft had at least NT technology.
Now OS X pretty much rocks and they still have their excellent hardware integration - they don't need a different chip to differentiate them - OSX is their added value.
Open Solaris is Free Software, yes? So if it becomes a "Linux killer", then the Linux vendors will simply become Open Solaris vendors. It doesn't matter if Linux dies if what is replacing it is just as free.
My feeling are that linux will copy the sucessful aspects that it can and Linus, being more engineer than anything else, can recognize the sucessful aspects.
This crossbreeding of ideas goes both ways with Solaris.
Because of this, I think it will come less down to features on paper, but the success of the implementation.
This is also what irks me about these "Linux-killer" stories - everything looks great on paper until deployed enmasse - when reality hits.