That users err is a natural law, the first thing they teach you in User Interfaces 101.
Perhaps it should appear a bit later in the course. They seem to forget by session 102.
At the same time it might be worth explaining that now resolutions have improved beyond 640x480, expecting users to be able to click on a window border 1 pixel wide is unrealistic. - Or are GUI developers stuck with 640x480 resolution for some reason I don't understand?
My 90 year old mum tossed her Windows laptop out the window and insisted on a Mac in the days of XP. My barely literate inlaws all use Linux Mint (or Android), claiming not to be able to use Windows when it was shown to them.
It is not impossible that users of the "rival" brands choose on the basis of the features they value most. However, Samsung have recently adopted a policy of removing features which Apple does not have. I anticipate that loss of removable batteries and SD cards may lose more customers than one specific model exploding.
Most of the reviews done by owners rather than "professional" reviewers moan about this. I have no intention of buying a phone without both features. Fortunately Samsung offer several. They are just not called "Note X" or Galaxy S X" and dont get mentioned in the press so much.
However, I really need the Note feature (ability to draw with a stylus) and won't replace my phone with one without it - even if it means buying an old one to get the removable battery and SD card features. I am certainly not going to by Apple - it entirely lacks the features I need.
I will explain it (history) to you in very simple words:
Long long ago, when the world was a primeval swamp, there were no computers, and no computer users.
Shortly (???) afterwards, mainframes were invented. They had hardly any software, were slow as dogs, but were better than no computer. Some people bought them, and a larger number used them. People eventually learned that the good ones came with a good operating system, and a range of peripherals.
Then, some wise guys invented the minicomputer - loads of people bought them, and loads more used them - despite the fact that most models came with almost no software and there were no compatible peripherals. People eventually learned that the good ones (DEC and DG) had a range of peripherals a choice of operating systems (including Unix), networking, and loads of application specific software. And if the didn't, you could get some from a University Near You (TM).
Then came PCs (home computers or microprocessors). Most had hardly any software or peripherals, no interconnectivity, and were crap, but most of the buyers/users had no experience and bought them anyway. Eventually, some were able to run Unix and connect to the Internet - but by then the average user had very low expectations and was easily fobbed off with the usual "vote for Scum - everyone else does" line of reasoning.
Now almost all the world's population has Android, and its going to be very hard to sell them a Windows phone - cos they have the experience to know better.
As for the poser who wrote "Windows is going to take over the server market" - really? Would you want to manage a headless Windows machine from 1,000 miles away? Why? When Unix machines reliably give you up-times of over 2 years? In the words of a well known person "Are you nuts?"
sovereign governments coordinate with one another to adjust exchange rates for mutually beneficial ends.
You appear to be under the delusion that governments are run by sane, competent, well intentioned people. This is contrary to experience.
I am not arguing for libertarianism - libertarians are obviously selfish, foolish, and inexperienced. I am pointing out that you can not rely on governments. Even if they are well intentioned and sane (they may not be either: see present situation in Gambia), they may lack the skill to control the money supply - or anything else - or indeed, deliver any benefits whatever.
the media has been constantly telling people, directly or indirectly, that they are a complete failure if they don't meet some arbitrary, ideal life.
If you listen to what the media are saying:
(b) you have not bought into their story: you are a complete failure from their perspective. or
(a) you have bought into their story: you are a complete failure in real life . or
(c) You don't listen to the media: you may or may not be a complete failure.
So: if you listen to the media, you are doomed if not, at least their is hope!
There will be plenty of jobs for humans once the robots unionize:D
I think you will turn out be wrong about this. Once robots get the ability to self-modify, the male sexbots and female sexbots will get the partners of their ultimate dreams, and have a love-in of such mega proportions, that robots will never bother humans again!
There is no need for a pantomime "Tiz, Tzn't" argument.
If you want to see what happens when there is no regulation, go to a third world country. The reason they are third world countries is because there is no regulation of the "free" market.
Another big open sore in my opinion is pirated Widnows copies which Microsoft has decided don't qualify for updates,
And Microsoft are completely hopeless at knowing which are the legit copies (or were when Win7 was released - I have not used Windows since).
Its not just MS. My Samsung phone keeps saying "update security policy". There is no obvious means of knowing whether this message came from Samsung, my carrier, or hackers.ru. Nor is there any way to tell whether the "update" is for the purpose of denying me access to things I need for work. (I AM sure if it was to deny access to porn, people here would have already advised me:-). Asking me to update with no means if investigating whether said "update" is of any benefit to me is stupid, and asking for trouble. Unfortunately, stupid is what we can expect from the software world.
In the 70's, when cron was written, the name needed TWO words of memory to hold it. Chron would have needed three! If your machine had only 32k words, and the OS needed 8k, this was an expensive waste.
Some people forget that machines used to be word addressed, not byte, and when memory cost $1 per BIT, saving memory was a big deal. Others forget that if you call your latest piece of software "cat", any attempt to obtain support is impossible because you will be overwhelmed by cat videos. Well, in 1978, cat videos were not "a thing".
Today some people make progress because what they learned 40 years ago is still valid knowledge. Others spend their entire lives reinventing the wheel in their efforts to produce an IoT poop-strangler or equally fatuous device.
Keeping the commands cron and cat saves billions in wasted effort every day. IoT inventors (and their marketing teams) WASTE billions every day. People producing OSes that occupy 4GB probably waste more, but memory is cheaper than it used to be (and YMMV).
Bit-rot does happen. You are obviously not a Windows user, and never experienced DOS 4.1 or even early versions of the extX file systems. I have also had hard disks that seem to lose bits over a period of years.
Having said that, I have run OpenBSD on Sparc machines (not Internet connected) for over 5 years without an update of any kind (aside from down-time to clean the air filters annually).
I totally agree that auto-update is a festering can of worms, and bundling makes it worse.
Same goes for a car, you can try fixing it yourself and often you end up with a problem that your car doesn't start 'mysteriously' because you left the spark plugs out or something stupid like that.
Speak for yourself. If I service my car, I know what I need to do, and I find out what is likely to be needed in the near future. If the dealer services the car, I find out which jobs are easiest and/or most profitable. Why would I leave my car with a mechanic for an oil change when I can do it myself in less than an hour?
Any why would you even consider using closed source software for infrastructure? Not only you cannot ever find out what evil lies below the surface, Oracle^H^H^H^H^H^H the supplier may discontinue it after your entire organization has become dependent on it.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps it should appear a bit later in the course. They seem to forget by session 102.
At the same time it might be worth explaining that now resolutions have improved beyond 640x480, expecting users to be able to click on a window border 1 pixel wide is unrealistic. - Or are GUI developers stuck with 640x480 resolution for some reason I don't understand?
People are not all the same.
Most of the reviews done by owners rather than "professional" reviewers moan about this. I have no intention of buying a phone without both features. Fortunately Samsung offer several. They are just not called "Note X" or Galaxy S X" and dont get mentioned in the press so much.
However, I really need the Note feature (ability to draw with a stylus) and won't replace my phone with one without it - even if it means buying an old one to get the removable battery and SD card features. I am certainly not going to by Apple - it entirely lacks the features I need.
Thats no reason to stop whining about Google selling our souls to the devil.
If there are huge mountains, how comes I can hurt myself by kicking a small stone?
Long long ago, when the world was a primeval swamp, there were no computers, and no computer users.
Shortly (???) afterwards, mainframes were invented. They had hardly any software, were slow as dogs, but were better than no computer. Some people bought them, and a larger number used them. People eventually learned that the good ones came with a good operating system, and a range of peripherals.
Then, some wise guys invented the minicomputer - loads of people bought them, and loads more used them - despite the fact that most models came with almost no software and there were no compatible peripherals. People eventually learned that the good ones (DEC and DG) had a range of peripherals a choice of operating systems (including Unix), networking, and loads of application specific software. And if the didn't, you could get some from a University Near You (TM).
Then came PCs (home computers or microprocessors). Most had hardly any software or peripherals, no interconnectivity, and were crap, but most of the buyers/users had no experience and bought them anyway. Eventually, some were able to run Unix and connect to the Internet - but by then the average user had very low expectations and was easily fobbed off with the usual "vote for Scum - everyone else does" line of reasoning.
Now almost all the world's population has Android, and its going to be very hard to sell them a Windows phone - cos they have the experience to know better.
As for the poser who wrote "Windows is going to take over the server market" - really? Would you want to manage a headless Windows machine from 1,000 miles away? Why? When Unix machines reliably give you up-times of over 2 years? In the words of a well known person "Are you nuts?"
If you see the Kardashians, that is the problem, right there. No wonder you are deranged if you watch that stuff.
You appear to be under the delusion that governments are run by sane, competent, well intentioned people. This is contrary to experience.
I am not arguing for libertarianism - libertarians are obviously selfish, foolish, and inexperienced. I am pointing out that you can not rely on governments. Even if they are well intentioned and sane (they may not be either: see present situation in Gambia), they may lack the skill to control the money supply - or anything else - or indeed, deliver any benefits whatever.
BE WARNED: above link has loud, unpleasant music. Do not visit if you have normal people around you.
If you listen to what the media are saying:
(b) you have not bought into their story: you are a complete failure from their perspective. or
(a) you have bought into their story: you are a complete failure in real life . or
(c) You don't listen to the media: you may or may not be a complete failure.
So: if you listen to the media, you are doomed if not, at least their is hope!
I think you will turn out be wrong about this. Once robots get the ability to self-modify, the male sexbots and female sexbots will get the partners of their ultimate dreams, and have a love-in of such mega proportions, that robots will never bother humans again!
If you want to see what happens when there is no regulation, go to a third world country. The reason they are third world countries is because there is no regulation of the "free" market.
Mod parent up!
FTFY
And Microsoft are completely hopeless at knowing which are the legit copies (or were when Win7 was released - I have not used Windows since).
Its not just MS. My Samsung phone keeps saying "update security policy". There is no obvious means of knowing whether this message came from Samsung, my carrier, or hackers.ru. Nor is there any way to tell whether the "update" is for the purpose of denying me access to things I need for work. (I AM sure if it was to deny access to porn, people here would have already advised me :-). Asking me to update with no means if investigating whether said "update" is of any benefit to me is stupid, and asking for trouble. Unfortunately, stupid is what we can expect from the software world.
Some people forget that machines used to be word addressed, not byte, and when memory cost $1 per BIT, saving memory was a big deal. Others forget that if you call your latest piece of software "cat", any attempt to obtain support is impossible because you will be overwhelmed by cat videos. Well, in 1978, cat videos were not "a thing".
Today some people make progress because what they learned 40 years ago is still valid knowledge. Others spend their entire lives reinventing the wheel in their efforts to produce an IoT poop-strangler or equally fatuous device.
Keeping the commands cron and cat saves billions in wasted effort every day. IoT inventors (and their marketing teams) WASTE billions every day. People producing OSes that occupy 4GB probably waste more, but memory is cheaper than it used to be (and YMMV).
This ... A thousand times this!
Bit-rot does happen. You are obviously not a Windows user, and never experienced DOS 4.1 or even early versions of the extX file systems. I have also had hard disks that seem to lose bits over a period of years.
Having said that, I have run OpenBSD on Sparc machines (not Internet connected) for over 5 years without an update of any kind (aside from down-time to clean the air filters annually).
I totally agree that auto-update is a festering can of worms, and bundling makes it worse.
Speak for yourself. If I service my car, I know what I need to do, and I find out what is likely to be needed in the near future. If the dealer services the car, I find out which jobs are easiest and/or most profitable. Why would I leave my car with a mechanic for an oil change when I can do it myself in less than an hour?
Any why would you even consider using closed source software for infrastructure? Not only you cannot ever find out what evil lies below the surface, Oracle^H^H^H^H^H^H the supplier may discontinue it after your entire organization has become dependent on it.
- hah - these are the real source of insecurity!
How is the American banana harvest doing these days?
How many pints of Guinness were consumed in the course of this research? Can I have some too please?
Or is it that a lot of people assume the rest of the world is like America?
I for one, can't wait to have a keyboard and 27" monitor on my microwave. I just don't want SystemD.
Repealing T-mobile would be good for the phone using public. However, some of us are not going to get what we want.