I work at a rather large ISP, and I really don't see the advantages. First off, customers always forget passwords, they already get 10MB of space per email account, and we allow 6 total, per account. (6x10=60MB) Err... Google is offering 10GB per user, not 10MB.
Well, not exactly. Kerry Packer owns ACP (Australian Consolidated Press, the publisher of APC Magazine). He's also the owner of Channel Nine. Both ACP and Channel Nine are part of his PBL publishing conglomerate.
As far as I know, it's PBL and Microsoft which are allied to produce NineMSN, and NineMSN draws together all the websites for the ACP magazines and Nine Network TV shows (and then derives online advertising revenues from them).
Doesn't Amazon take the biggest cut of any online payments processor for donations? I'd be personally hesitant to donate through Amazon after reading what shareware authors have had to say about them.
Amazon should put its money where its mouth is and provide the payment processing for the tsunami relief commission-free.
I can see a day when your ISP will link to another ISP via Wi-Max (or an equivelant tech), and another ISP, and another... creating an independant Internet not reliant on a wired and "restrained by Big Brother" infrastructure.
This already happens, in Australia, at least. Here, we have a particularly dominant carrier - Telstra - that owns the very great lion's share of the country's telecom infrastructure. As a result, peering 'internet exchanges' (IXs) have been set up in every state, which serve as central points for ISPs to exchange data with each other directly rather than their upstream providers.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions, especially those people who suggested Mozilla Plugins as a solution. (I had previously searched for these without much luck).
I agree totally that web browsers are an inappropriate front-end for content management and editing, but you've got to work with what you've got. Unfortunately a lot of content management systems do use a web front end.
Take HTML as an analogous example. It was never designed for precise page design and layout, but more for structuring content rationally. But it is used for page layout through hundreds of kludgy hacks and workarounds that people have worked out over the years.
Without naming the media mogul that I ultimately work for, let's just say he's one of the richest men in the world, and I don't think he's about to shell out to replace his web-browser form based ocntent management system which runs all his newspapers worldwide.
It's a growing problem, really. It's not just publishing -- corporate intranets are often web form driven, and you've got to pity the poor plods who have to enter in content via standard web forms.
It does surprise me, however, that no-one has made a web browser that is designed for web-based content management, with more extensive text tools.
Of course, if you use OS X on Mac, you get 'services', which allow just about anything to be done to a block of data on a page, as long as the program supports service, and you have installed the correct service.
For example, there's a service for OS X called "SmartWrap" which will rewrap hard-wrapped text in any program that supports services.
It's a brilliant implementation, but here's the thing: I have to use a Pentium II-350 with a free web browser on it to admin the content. The IT across the entire corporation is standardised on Wintel.
Australia's fantastic Media Watch TV program did an investigative piece on all the stories about mobile phones blowing up at gas pumps.
They found that all stories were based on urban legend, and that journalists had fed off other hoax stories published.
Gas companies had even published brochures (that they later withdrew) citing cases where poor motorists had been burned to a crisp while using their mobile phone at the gas pump.
The fact of the matter was there simply were NO cases worldwide where a mobile phone had triggered an explosion.
Here's a transcript of the story.
Written by an avid Mac evangalist who wants Apple to make it easier to sell macs.
MULTI USER DIRECTORY STRUCTURE CONFUSING
- OS X's multi user directory structure is very confusing for people that are used to having "My Documents folder on Drive C". There DEFINITELY needs to be an interactive tutorial that teaches people about the "home" directory and so on.
CONNECTING TO OTHER COMPUTERS IS DIFFICULT
- The method for connecting to other computers in OS X is not intuitive. Windows users in particular do not expect to have to go to a menu item for that. There should be an equivalent to "network neighbourhood" on the OS X desktop (without the condescending Micro$oft name of course).
UNABLE TO BROWSE WINDOWS NETWORKS
How come you can't browse Windows networks using Mac OSX's inbuilt SMB client? It looks like the SMB client was a half-implemented effort simply to satisfy a check box on a list. But this is really one of the most crucial features of OS X's attraction to business. Let's face it, there's few businesses without Windows NT servers somewhere. Why not let OS X users browse for servers?
PAGE SETUP ALWAYS CHANGES ON MAC
In Windows, once you set the page size to A4, it sticks -- permanently. You never have to look at it again. But in OS 9 and OS X, Mac users constantly have to go to page setup to make sure it hasn't defaulted back to letter. This is a MAJOR annoyance for your international customers.
PROGRAM WINDOWS SHOULD COME UP ALTOGETHER
It's annoying in OS X that if you click on a program, all it's 'child' windows don't come up to the front at the same time. That's a step backwards. Users want to be able to see all the output from programs at the front rather than having to click on each of the windows to bring them to the front.
TIME FOR A TWO BUTTON MOUSE
I can see that Apple is trying to maintain its trademark simplicity by sticking with the one button mouse -- but let's be frank, everyone uses the right mouse button these days, and especially pro users. People just end up buying a third party mouse to get this functionality -- why not include it with the Mac by default?
EJECTING DISKS - CONFUSING!
Most PC users find it very confusing that they have to software-eject disks, and to be frank, a lot of Mac users do too -- especially when a disk gets 'stuck' due to a rogue software process that is hanging on to the disk. Why not put a 'soft-hardware' button on the Mac casing that performs a psuedo-hardware-eject. EG it calls a function in the operating system to issue an eject command to the drive. That way you still get operating system control over the drive, but you satisfy users who have an urge to press a button on the computer.
IMPOSSIBLE TO DELETE A USER COMPLETELY?
How the heck do you delete a user directory in OS X without knowing root level unix commands? If you delete a user, the user directory just sits there labeled 'deleted', but it's still not possible to delete.
There are other networks in Australia (PowerTel, Optus, RequestDSL, etc...) that don't use the Southern Cross cable.
That's actually incorrect. Telstra does buy bandwidth from Southern Cross, but buys the majority of its bandwidth from Reach (which, surprise surprise is a Telstra - PCCW joint venture).
Like everything else Telstra does, it bills itself (that is, Reach bills Telstra) huge rates for data so it can justify charging the end user huge rates per mb (11 - 19c).
Optus buys most of its international bandwidth from Southern Cross.
... from the subject line I thought this story was going to be about the quest for a product which would take a company's press release and translate the PR spin into something meaningful...... and here I was thinking we might be onto something truly useful;-)
I think what has Whirlpool readers pissed is that Telstra suckered them into unlimited internet and then changed the contract on them to a VERY limited service.
It's unheard of in telecommunications -- I mean, you wouldn't expect to sign up to a mobile/cell phone contract for 24 months only to find that three months later the telco ups the prices and says "like it or leave". In my experience, in this case, cell phone companies honor the original contract at least until the expiration of the contract -- and then ask you to move to a different plan if at all.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, I guess the firmware blocks downloads via their APN.
"I run a merchant bank that went bankrupt and have recently come into possession of $900 billion in US treasury funds......"
APC is not MSN Australia -- it's just part of the MSN partner network. You should see how many articles the site runs that are critical of Microsoft.
As far as I know, it's PBL and Microsoft which are allied to produce NineMSN, and NineMSN draws together all the websites for the ACP magazines and Nine Network TV shows (and then derives online advertising revenues from them).
I stand corrected. Good for Amazon, that's impressive.
Doesn't Amazon take the biggest cut of any online payments processor for donations? I'd be personally hesitant to donate through Amazon after reading what shareware authors have had to say about them. Amazon should put its money where its mouth is and provide the payment processing for the tsunami relief commission-free.
I can see a day when your ISP will link to another ISP via Wi-Max (or an equivelant tech), and another ISP, and another... creating an independant Internet not reliant on a wired and "restrained by Big Brother" infrastructure. This already happens, in Australia, at least. Here, we have a particularly dominant carrier - Telstra - that owns the very great lion's share of the country's telecom infrastructure. As a result, peering 'internet exchanges' (IXs) have been set up in every state, which serve as central points for ISPs to exchange data with each other directly rather than their upstream providers.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions, especially those people who suggested Mozilla Plugins as a solution. (I had previously searched for these without much luck).
I agree totally that web browsers are an inappropriate front-end for content management and editing, but you've got to work with what you've got. Unfortunately a lot of content management systems do use a web front end.
Take HTML as an analogous example. It was never designed for precise page design and layout, but more for structuring content rationally. But it is used for page layout through hundreds of kludgy hacks and workarounds that people have worked out over the years.
Without naming the media mogul that I ultimately work for, let's just say he's one of the richest men in the world, and I don't think he's about to shell out to replace his web-browser form based ocntent management system which runs all his newspapers worldwide.
It's a growing problem, really. It's not just publishing -- corporate intranets are often web form driven, and you've got to pity the poor plods who have to enter in content via standard web forms.
It does surprise me, however, that no-one has made a web browser that is designed for web-based content management, with more extensive text tools.
Of course, if you use OS X on Mac, you get 'services', which allow just about anything to be done to a block of data on a page, as long as the program supports service, and you have installed the correct service.
For example, there's a service for OS X called "SmartWrap" which will rewrap hard-wrapped text in any program that supports services.
It's a brilliant implementation, but here's the thing: I have to use a Pentium II-350 with a free web browser on it to admin the content. The IT across the entire corporation is standardised on Wintel.
Australia's fantastic Media Watch TV program did an investigative piece on all the stories about mobile phones blowing up at gas pumps. They found that all stories were based on urban legend, and that journalists had fed off other hoax stories published. Gas companies had even published brochures (that they later withdrew) citing cases where poor motorists had been burned to a crisp while using their mobile phone at the gas pump. The fact of the matter was there simply were NO cases worldwide where a mobile phone had triggered an explosion. Here's a transcript of the story.
This page has every Mac DVD hack you could ever want... http://opuscc.com/download/
Written by an avid Mac evangalist who wants Apple to make it easier to sell macs.
MULTI USER DIRECTORY STRUCTURE CONFUSING
- OS X's multi user directory structure is very confusing for people that are used to having "My Documents folder on Drive C". There DEFINITELY needs to be an interactive tutorial that teaches people about the "home" directory and so on.
CONNECTING TO OTHER COMPUTERS IS DIFFICULT
- The method for connecting to other computers in OS X is not intuitive. Windows users in particular do not expect to have to go to a menu item for that. There should be an equivalent to "network neighbourhood" on the OS X desktop (without the condescending Micro$oft name of course).
UNABLE TO BROWSE WINDOWS NETWORKS
How come you can't browse Windows networks using Mac OSX's inbuilt SMB client? It looks like the SMB client was a half-implemented effort simply to satisfy a check box on a list. But this is really one of the most crucial features of OS X's attraction to business. Let's face it, there's few businesses without Windows NT servers somewhere. Why not let OS X users browse for servers?
PAGE SETUP ALWAYS CHANGES ON MAC
In Windows, once you set the page size to A4, it sticks -- permanently. You never have to look at it again. But in OS 9 and OS X, Mac users constantly have to go to page setup to make sure it hasn't defaulted back to letter. This is a MAJOR annoyance for your international customers.
PROGRAM WINDOWS SHOULD COME UP ALTOGETHER
It's annoying in OS X that if you click on a program, all it's 'child' windows don't come up to the front at the same time. That's a step backwards. Users want to be able to see all the output from programs at the front rather than having to click on each of the windows to bring them to the front.
TIME FOR A TWO BUTTON MOUSE
I can see that Apple is trying to maintain its trademark simplicity by sticking with the one button mouse -- but let's be frank, everyone uses the right mouse button these days, and especially pro users. People just end up buying a third party mouse to get this functionality -- why not include it with the Mac by default?
EJECTING DISKS - CONFUSING!
Most PC users find it very confusing that they have to software-eject disks, and to be frank, a lot of Mac users do too -- especially when a disk gets 'stuck' due to a rogue software process that is hanging on to the disk. Why not put a 'soft-hardware' button on the Mac casing that performs a psuedo-hardware-eject. EG it calls a function in the operating system to issue an eject command to the drive. That way you still get operating system control over the drive, but you satisfy users who have an urge to press a button on the computer.
IMPOSSIBLE TO DELETE A USER COMPLETELY?
How the heck do you delete a user directory in OS X without knowing root level unix commands? If you delete a user, the user directory just sits there labeled 'deleted', but it's still not possible to delete.
Cheers,
Dan Warne
There are other networks in Australia (PowerTel, Optus, RequestDSL, etc...) that don't use the Southern Cross cable.
That's actually incorrect. Telstra does buy bandwidth from Southern Cross, but buys the majority of its bandwidth from Reach (which, surprise surprise is a Telstra - PCCW joint venture).
Like everything else Telstra does, it bills itself (that is, Reach bills Telstra) huge rates for data so it can justify charging the end user huge rates per mb (11 - 19c).
Optus buys most of its international bandwidth from Southern Cross.
... from the subject line I thought this story was going to be about the quest for a product which would take a company's press release and translate the PR spin into something meaningful... ... and here I was thinking we might be onto something truly useful ;-)
I think what has Whirlpool readers pissed is that Telstra suckered them into unlimited internet and then changed the contract on them to a VERY limited service. It's unheard of in telecommunications -- I mean, you wouldn't expect to sign up to a mobile/cell phone contract for 24 months only to find that three months later the telco ups the prices and says "like it or leave". In my experience, in this case, cell phone companies honor the original contract at least until the expiration of the contract -- and then ask you to move to a different plan if at all.