It's not that hard, really... There are a few things you need to know and unless you really want to go deep down in details the following general rules work:
Install the machine, with Administrator install all required applications. Test them, they should work.
Now create the Limited User and log in with that user. Run all the applications you have installed and note which fail. That's not that many usually...
For those application, locate their installed folder. Add the "Users" group to the ACL and give it "full control". The WTF here is that on Windows Home this is hard and on Windows Pro this is easy. Windows Home lacks the graphical interface to do it. You have to use "cacls.exe", which is a command line tool. That said, I head there is a patch which restores the graphical ACL editor. You evidently need to log in as Admin to make these ACL changes
Retest the applications, some will now work.
The remaining applications that don't work most likely will try to write to a part of HKLM in the registry. As Administrator, go to the registry key associated with the application (Typicallyy HKLM\Software\Company\Product). Now change the ACL of that "folder" to "Full Control" for the "Users" group.
Retest... With that 99% of the applications work, and those that don't really are badly behaved and I'd suggest finding an alternative.
Now do realise the following: this essentially allows normal users to hose those badly behaved applications, but I suggest that such a thing is acceptable. They will, however, not be able to hose the system itself, which is the goal.
Up until now, one one application didn't want to work with the above technique. It was -of course- a game and I think it was the copy protection doing some funky stuff.
Now, I'd still suggest hiding Internet Explorer and provide Firefox instead. I don't know if it's needed, though.
Strange, I'm pretty confident that I have HL2 running in my Limited User account. The only thing I did (or remember doing) is giving write access to all limited users to the Steam/HL2 folders.
I'm a Java Code Monkey and as a matter of fact, I have Java installed on my machine. I just checked my firefox add-ons and there is no such thing as a "Java Quick Starter". Perhaps it was an option during the installation, and I unchecked it? Oh, yes, that must be it!
I do have the "Microsoft.NET framework assistant" listed in my Firefox addons.... Hey?!? When did it install that... It never asked me....
I don't have hatred for it per-se, but I know that it has borked network connections beyond repair (Okay, I found the solution, but try that without a network connection....) No, it didn't happen to me, but to a good friend of mine who is technically savvy and likes music (he has a huge library and buys music online). So, he wants to buy an album and iTunes tells him to upgrade. Why it does that is beyond me, but I have seen it myself and it pisses me off too. So he downloads the latest iTunes, installs it, and it tells him to reboot. After the reboot his network card didn't want to connect anymore. That's how he described it to me, and I know he's knowledgable and trustworthy.
It's in that situation that I got his machine, and it wasn't easy fixing.
So, I don't hate Bonjour, but that is stuff that shouldn't happen... Ever!
For example, my 78 yo grandad runs xubuntu on his 600 MHz PIII w. 128 MB RAM. He doesn't like it, it is too slow, but he is not prepared to shell out $150 on top of a laptop for $500.
Look on eBay for PC100 RAM? Last time I actually needed to buy new RAM for old PCs, I went to kahlon.com (I'm just a satisfied customer). 2x256Meg will set him back 40$, and will make his PC on the same level as an Asus EEE PC 701 4G. It works perfectly well with 512Meg RAM and at 670MHz using Debian Lenny and LDXE
Sure you could on XP Home, you just have to know how. Use the cacls.exe command line util. I heard that there is a patch installable to add the "Security" tab for files. It's from Microsoft itself, but I always forget where to download it.
For me it was two things: I accidentally overwrote the existing Firefox by installing it in/opt/firefox without checking if it existed. That was my fault.
Second mistake I made was not thinking of the dependencies. Firefox needs a newer GTK that is evidently not installed on the EEE default Xandros.
So, the only choice I had would be the F9-reset and re-update everything and that over wired because "out of the box", WPA simply doesn't work. After the updates it does. Now I could have gone that way (I had in the past), but at a certain point it's better to take your own fate in your hands than to depend on Asus to keep the repositories up to date. (Yes, now I depend on Debian, but Debian *is* trustworthy! Okay, except when the patch SSH "vulnerabilities" *grin*)
My network is still WPA-PSK. I had a reason not to use WPA2, but I don't remember... (Might be the PSP, which I broke by now, that didn't support it).
Why not change the data? For example, if it's a list of books, write "Great Gatsby, The" instead of "The Great Gatsby". It's just a suggestion and it doesn't involve extra columns.
It was a research project write up, he saved it in only one place. He learnt a valuable lesson in backing up (with the half hour of ohshitohshitohshit) without any long term harm.
Then he probably didn't learn anything... I hope he did, but I don't think so.
I didn't have to go to some obscure store either, I got them at main outlets, an asus eee at a big german electronics store
Yes, I've got one of those too. More specifically an Asus EEE 701 4G. The repositories haven't been updated in ages. Firefox is still in version 2.0 and not even the latest one and it's not supported anymore. Try installing Firefox 3.0 manually (or better don't... You'll fuck up the machine. Okay, that was partially my own fault for assuming that/opt/firefox wouldn't be used for Firefox.)
I switched mine to the EEE version of Debian. Everything worked out of the box there: painless install using the bootable USB image they provide. After that, it was just a matter of selecting just the basic installation and then type:
Equally worrysome is that he seems to think one needs 100kW to power a car. I've seen current cars with less that 50kW. Heck think of this car... 6.5 kW in the earliest models... Granted, it's not up to safety standards of today, but still.
Yes, true... However, your original claim was that an iPhone is cheaper than a netbook. The thing is netbooks are complete computers and can be used without a network connection (I know, in this time and age, people won't believe me if I say that) They do come with an office suite, some games, and stuff like that...
That an iPhone is the cheaper option when you want Internet on the go (provided by your cellphone company), I am ready to believe. However, the iPhone is useless without it. To have an iPhone to be competitive you may not have a fixed broadband connection. That's when you really save. If you have one for your other computer(s), you are not saving money. You're spending on luxury, namely Wireless Internet broadband.
Do note that your need a computer to activate your iPhone. How are you going to do that if you don't have a computer (remember, you were saying that people would use an iPhone as a replacement for a computer. This means they do not have a computer anymore, just an iPhone). Perhaps they do it in-store for you, but I don't know.
All in all, the iPhone is a great idea if and only if it's the only device you're going to use and your whole (and only) Internet experience relies on the wireless Internet service provided by your telecom company.
In all other cases, the netbook is the better option, even if then you don't have Internet on the go. I have a netbook, I don't need Internet on the Go. At home, my access point does the job and on the road there are plenty of open and/or commercial hotspots. Getting a wireless data plan is next to insane in my case. I'm not going to give up my DSL for (slower) wireless "broadband".
Now, the iPod Touch.... That's more competitive to an netbook in pure usage (pricewise and featurewise). The only problem that remains is freedom. You do whatever you want on a netbook, you don't on an iPhone/iPod Touch. Don't start about jailbreaking and stuff like that, I talk about what technically you're allowed to do. Not some hack... As others have pointed out, paying for your applications in this day and age has become strange for me. It's just a question of finding the appropriate package in my repository, and off I go. I do, however, admit that this is mainly caused by the fact that I'm a computer professional. Normal people don't "react" like that.
Very very different market. Have you seen the *inside* of a Veyron? It's not some go-cart that can go 400kmh. You should be able to use the Veyron as a daily car. I don't see you doing that with an Ariel Atom.
No doubt that the Atom is extremely fun to drive, but I'd see it as a competitor of Lotus. (Didn't check the specs, but Lotus also goes the "ultra-light + powerful engine = insane acceleration" way.)
An iPhone? Ha! iPhone for 0€, but a contract for 24 months at 35€ = 840€ and the data plan is just 2G/month!!!! Alas, I don't find a link to the unlocked version of the iPhone, but last time I saw one in a shop it was in the 700€ range.
Sure, that's the national provider and they're in general a bit more expensive, but I don't expect the competition to do much better in price.
In conclusion: netbooks are much less expensive than an iPhone. Yes, they have downsides: larger, hotspot-dependent (unless you take such a wireless package), no funky interface... However, that's about it. The more recent netbooks are between 300€ - 400€ and spec much much better than my "early-adopter" Asus.... However, in price that still beats the iPhone.
Is there any other company with it's perception of viability so closely linked to a single living individual?
That's what you think! It's Steve Jobs after all;-) Hey, he bought Pixar... Who says, he isn't already dead and a rendered version of him holds the keynote;-)
Slashdot Mirror
It's not that hard, really... There are a few things you need to know and unless you really want to go deep down in details the following general rules work:
Now do realise the following: this essentially allows normal users to hose those badly behaved applications, but I suggest that such a thing is acceptable. They will, however, not be able to hose the system itself, which is the goal.
Up until now, one one application didn't want to work with the above technique. It was -of course- a game and I think it was the copy protection doing some funky stuff.
Now, I'd still suggest hiding Internet Explorer and provide Firefox instead. I don't know if it's needed, though.
Strange, I'm pretty confident that I have HL2 running in my Limited User account. The only thing I did (or remember doing) is giving write access to all limited users to the Steam/HL2 folders.
Actually, they slowly increase the voltage of the chipsets... Much more effective that waterboarding ;-)
Well, not that dumb. Do the dwarfs even have names in the original Grimm's Fairy Tales? I don't think so....
They licensed Xenix. I wouldn't call that "wrote".
Do YOU understand the issue?
I'm a Java Code Monkey and as a matter of fact, I have Java installed on my machine. I just checked my firefox add-ons and there is no such thing as a "Java Quick Starter". Perhaps it was an option during the installation, and I unchecked it? Oh, yes, that must be it!
I do have the "Microsoft .NET framework assistant" listed in my Firefox addons.... Hey?!? When did it install that... It never asked me....
You see the difference now?
I don't have hatred for it per-se, but I know that it has borked network connections beyond repair (Okay, I found the solution, but try that without a network connection....) No, it didn't happen to me, but to a good friend of mine who is technically savvy and likes music (he has a huge library and buys music online). So, he wants to buy an album and iTunes tells him to upgrade. Why it does that is beyond me, but I have seen it myself and it pisses me off too. So he downloads the latest iTunes, installs it, and it tells him to reboot. After the reboot his network card didn't want to connect anymore. That's how he described it to me, and I know he's knowledgable and trustworthy.
It's in that situation that I got his machine, and it wasn't easy fixing.
So, I don't hate Bonjour, but that is stuff that shouldn't happen... Ever!
Look on eBay for PC100 RAM? Last time I actually needed to buy new RAM for old PCs, I went to kahlon.com (I'm just a satisfied customer). 2x256Meg will set him back 40$, and will make his PC on the same level as an Asus EEE PC 701 4G. It works perfectly well with 512Meg RAM and at 670MHz using Debian Lenny and LDXE
Sure you could on XP Home, you just have to know how. Use the cacls.exe command line util. I heard that there is a patch installable to add the "Security" tab for files. It's from Microsoft itself, but I always forget where to download it.
....except for the monopoly. ;-)
I actually live in the real world (F/OSS is seen with a very very weary eye at the company I work for). This is fixed with a few regexes, come on....
I didn't need to assume anything at all, but you assumed that it couldn't be done easily.
For me it was two things: I accidentally overwrote the existing Firefox by installing it in /opt/firefox without checking if it existed. That was my fault.
Second mistake I made was not thinking of the dependencies. Firefox needs a newer GTK that is evidently not installed on the EEE default Xandros.
So, the only choice I had would be the F9-reset and re-update everything and that over wired because "out of the box", WPA simply doesn't work. After the updates it does. Now I could have gone that way (I had in the past), but at a certain point it's better to take your own fate in your hands than to depend on Asus to keep the repositories up to date. (Yes, now I depend on Debian, but Debian *is* trustworthy! Okay, except when the patch SSH "vulnerabilities" *grin*)
My network is still WPA-PSK. I had a reason not to use WPA2, but I don't remember... (Might be the PSP, which I broke by now, that didn't support it).
Why not change the data? For example, if it's a list of books, write "Great Gatsby, The" instead of "The Great Gatsby". It's just a suggestion and it doesn't involve extra columns.
Then he probably didn't learn anything... I hope he did, but I don't think so.
If you run limited user, it never bothers you. ;-)
Yes, I've got one of those too. More specifically an Asus EEE 701 4G. The repositories haven't been updated in ages. Firefox is still in version 2.0 and not even the latest one and it's not supported anymore. Try installing Firefox 3.0 manually (or better don't... You'll fuck up the machine. Okay, that was partially my own fault for assuming that /opt/firefox wouldn't be used for Firefox.)
I switched mine to the EEE version of Debian. Everything worked out of the box there: painless install using the bootable USB image they provide. After that, it was just a matter of selecting just the basic installation and then type:
(Basically, I surely have installed a few more packages by now.. but not by much: 1.2G is used on the internal SSD)
Equally worrysome is that he seems to think one needs 100kW to power a car. I've seen current cars with less that 50kW. Heck think of this car... 6.5 kW in the earliest models... Granted, it's not up to safety standards of today, but still.
Yes, true... However, your original claim was that an iPhone is cheaper than a netbook. The thing is netbooks are complete computers and can be used without a network connection (I know, in this time and age, people won't believe me if I say that) They do come with an office suite, some games, and stuff like that...
That an iPhone is the cheaper option when you want Internet on the go (provided by your cellphone company), I am ready to believe. However, the iPhone is useless without it. To have an iPhone to be competitive you may not have a fixed broadband connection. That's when you really save. If you have one for your other computer(s), you are not saving money. You're spending on luxury, namely Wireless Internet broadband.
Do note that your need a computer to activate your iPhone. How are you going to do that if you don't have a computer (remember, you were saying that people would use an iPhone as a replacement for a computer. This means they do not have a computer anymore, just an iPhone). Perhaps they do it in-store for you, but I don't know.
All in all, the iPhone is a great idea if and only if it's the only device you're going to use and your whole (and only) Internet experience relies on the wireless Internet service provided by your telecom company.
In all other cases, the netbook is the better option, even if then you don't have Internet on the go. I have a netbook, I don't need Internet on the Go. At home, my access point does the job and on the road there are plenty of open and/or commercial hotspots. Getting a wireless data plan is next to insane in my case. I'm not going to give up my DSL for (slower) wireless "broadband".
Now, the iPod Touch.... That's more competitive to an netbook in pure usage (pricewise and featurewise). The only problem that remains is freedom. You do whatever you want on a netbook, you don't on an iPhone/iPod Touch. Don't start about jailbreaking and stuff like that, I talk about what technically you're allowed to do. Not some hack... As others have pointed out, paying for your applications in this day and age has become strange for me. It's just a question of finding the appropriate package in my repository, and off I go. I do, however, admit that this is mainly caused by the fact that I'm a computer professional. Normal people don't "react" like that.
Ehm, 200$ + ( 24 * 20$ ) = 680$
You still pay more than a netbook... A netbook is 300$ to 400$, retail, even in the US.
I know as a fact, that what I mentioned in my original post is true for at least Belgium, France and Germany. Most likely all over Europe.
Heck, since made the calculation for you, it's even true in the US.
Very very different market. Have you seen the *inside* of a Veyron? It's not some go-cart that can go 400kmh. You should be able to use the Veyron as a daily car. I don't see you doing that with an Ariel Atom.
No doubt that the Atom is extremely fun to drive, but I'd see it as a competitor of Lotus. (Didn't check the specs, but Lotus also goes the "ultra-light + powerful engine = insane acceleration" way.)
Whoa, whoa! Stop right there! My Asus EEE PC 701 4G cost a whopping 289.90€ including shipping. (Strange that the price didn't go down since I bought it spring 2008) I can now also get it "Free" with a wireless broadband connection (capped at 5G/month): 24 months x 25€ = 600€.
An iPhone? Ha! iPhone for 0€, but a contract for 24 months at 35€ = 840€ and the data plan is just 2G/month!!!! Alas, I don't find a link to the unlocked version of the iPhone, but last time I saw one in a shop it was in the 700€ range.
Sure, that's the national provider and they're in general a bit more expensive, but I don't expect the competition to do much better in price.
In conclusion: netbooks are much less expensive than an iPhone. Yes, they have downsides: larger, hotspot-dependent (unless you take such a wireless package), no funky interface... However, that's about it. The more recent netbooks are between 300€ - 400€ and spec much much better than my "early-adopter" Asus.... However, in price that still beats the iPhone.
Look into Soekris boards. They're pretty nifty.
Any you seem to have a bad reading comprehension. He said "niece". That said, yes, she most likely isn't the brightest mind around.
Just saying, but last time I needed DOS, I simply used FreeDOS. Runs an industrial robot now, just in case you wondered why I needed it.
That's what you think! It's Steve Jobs after all ;-) Hey, he bought Pixar... Who says, he isn't already dead and a rendered version of him holds the keynote ;-)