If law-abiding citizens are armed, then dumb criminals attack them, and the criminals are shot and (hopefully) killed. If law-abiding citizens are not armed, then dumb criminals attack them, and the criminals succeed.
Well, that's just the thing, isn't it? It's that you hope it's the criminal that gets killed and not the law-abiding citizen. I think it's more likely that the attacker will get the first and fatal shot off with the element of surprise and the ability to plan. Either way, you now have one or more dead people.
I'm a moderate about the gun rights, but I don't buy this argument. Out of passion, people do dumb things and if they have a tool like this available for use, they'll use it. It's like giving every country in the world a nuke. It's an effective deterrent against other stable countries, but it all goes to shit if you have a madman willing to use a nuke and take everyone he can with him. Sorry, but I'll take the argument that guns are cool and fun to have before I take this argument.
Gun control legislation only makes it safer for criminals to go about their business, as they can be confident their victims are unarmed.
That would work if criminals were rational. Unfortunately, they're not only irrational, but also stupid. Even if they think that there's a chance that a victim might be armed and a rational (but morally flacid) person would seek an easier target, many criminals do the stupidest things. The result? They open fire and one or more people are injured or killed. The theory works, but it expects too much out of the lowest form of society.
Companies will frequently offer products at a loss as a benefit to their employees. Items can be had at below cost as part of an employee purchase plan and is typically limited by a dollar value per quarter or per year. $30 CDN is a good deal for WinXP Professional, but isn't an indicator of cost.
Re:Be careful... Computers are a deadly fire hazar
on
How Looks Your Geekroom?
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Was he successfully sued? That is, he lost? He should have promptly sued the manufacturers of the computers for compensation and the victims probably should have done the same, as it was the negligence of the manufacturers to use such dangerous products without informing the customer (can you imagine new computers with a big yellow warning label like new cars with airbag labels?).
Of course, that's what I'd do if I was a lawyer. I'm shaking my head at the whole thing -- lawsuits are getting to be too much these days.
LOL... I'm flattered that you'd do so much research on me to try to figure out who I am and what I do, and I can understand why you'd think so, but I can't help but to combat a lot of the ignorance on this board. I don't want to come off as somebody that says, "you're wrong... this MS product rules!" I presented actual arguments with as much fact as I could find to try to counter a lot of the straight-up biases. You and I both know that Slashdot is known for a lot of its biases and I'm just trying to offer a different view. I am surely not a Microsoft employee and while I use a lot of Microsoft products, I don't think that they're a panacea. Their produts are touch and go at best, but they shouldn't be totally discounted. I'm advocating informed decision about products, and I think you'll find a lot of my comments support that. I'm a programmer for a consulting company and use whatever product gets the job done. I use both Linux and Windows XP at home. I use Java and Perl as much as C# and VB.
As for the individual comments that you quoted and would like addressed, I posted a lot of stuff for the Tablet PC because it was something that I found was a lot more useful than my first look. I found lots of comments that were the obvious round of jokes, but honestly, a lot of people sounded like they didn't really read much about it. Read the comments that I responded to -- a lot of people think that the keyboard is gone! That's what I thought, that's why I dismissed it originally, and that's why I was wrong. I think it's definitely worth a second look as a result, and after reading a bunch of articles online and finding real pictures of the product being used, I can see how it might be useful to some people. I haven't used the handwriting recognition system yet -- I'm only hearing from people that saw the demo that it worked very well, from what they could see while the guy doing the demo wrote on the screen. It scans at 133 times per second as opposed to the typical 40 that a mouse does. Each scan cycle adds data to the handwriting recognition system. I don't know the details of how effectively it uses that data.
Regarding the other companies, yeah, I think that MS has had some very seriously reprehensible business tactics. I also think that people are singling out MS when there are other companies that doing things just as bad. Articles make Slashdot headlines simply because it's Microsoft whereas if it was another company, it wouldn't have. This article from the other day is a good example, I think. People are trashing MS just because a vendor cancelled an agreement with them. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but I could be wrong.
Anyway, I could spend all day defending my posts. I will say that many of my posts are in response to something that I feel is an unjustified bias -- against TiVo, MS, the US govt, whatever. I only respond to articles that I feel I know something about. Thanks for the well-documented post, though. Seriously, I've been called a lot worse than a shill and it was just a one-liner. Supporting your argument with links, quotes, and valid conclusions. I gotta say that if I were in your shoes, I can't help but to think that I would have come to the same conclusion.
I don't want to tell you that this is machine is the one for you and at the risk of being condescending, I feel like you just read the short clips about it here and there but you didn't see the pictures. Honestly, I felt the same way -- I didn't think it was the next big thing at all. But after seeing some pictures and doing a lot of reading, I'm convinced that it's worth a second look. It may not be for me, but I'm definitely going to check it out.
Anyway, I think all of your concerns are already addressed. Take a look at this Compaq Tablet PC. It's 0.8" thick, has a detachable keyboard, weighs 3 lbs (4 lbs with the keyboard), and opens up more or less conventionally. I would like it to be thinner, but that'll come in time if this goes anywhere. It's not the panacea that Microsoft makes it out to be, but I think you'll agree that it's worth a second look. I also hope that the handwriting recognition is fast enough to keep up with me -- I hear that it scans 133 times per second and makes several guesses at what you're trying to write and anticipates. When it misses (something like 5 out of every 10,000), it'll present some options.
Here's a comparison list of Tablet PCs and some specifications. It looks somewhat out of date and incomplete, but it gives you an idea of what will be available soon. I would like to see larger, higher resolution screens, but that, too, will come in time.
Yes, that's definitely the dream -- to use Bluetooth to wirelessly plug into your keyboard, mouse, and even speakers. Most of them come with 802.11b, too. Bluetooth adoption has been slow so far, so I'm not hoping too much for that right now.
I feel the same way... moderately skeptical, but interested in doing my research and making an informed decision rather than a lot of these impulse reactions that it *must* be bad. Jokes are fine, but ignorance is showing through more often than not.
For some reason, you think that there's no more keyboard. The truth is that you can now use a keyboard if you want to, but you don't have to. When you're on a plane, you don't want a keyboard to read your mail. You just want a screen. So the value isn't in doodles -- it's in portability.
The system definitely attracts business types more than code monkeys, but I travel a lot, and if I can carry a keyboard with my Tablet PC for no additional weight penalty than I have now, why wouldn't I just get a Tablet PC?
Battery life depends on manufacturer, but is usually comparable to current notebooks. One manufacturer is even claiming 10-16 hours.
Tablet PC's are expected to be very popular in Asia due to their ability to read different languages very well. Chinese, for example, has many complex characters that are hard to type. Because of each character's shape and stroke order is very specific, it's actually very easy for handwriting recognition to be very accurate in Asia, relatively speaking
Don't knock it till you've tried it. I'm still somewhat skeptical, but I took some time to research it and hope to use one soon.
You're assuming that you *have* to use the tablet to enter in data. The keyboard isn't eliminated. It's just an accessory now. You don't have to drag it around with you if you don't want to, but when you get home, you just plug in your keyboard and mouse and you're ready to go. I see little downside to getting a Tablet PC other than added cost, which will probably go down -- the market will decide by how much.
I don't have access to one, but this is what I understand...
How do these tablet PCs recognized input from the stylus... do they have a touch screen?
The screen is touch sensitive, yes, but only senses proximity and contact from the stylus, which is electromagnetic. This means you can rest your hand on the screen as you write, as you do with a regular piece of paper. This is different from "stabbing" or "scratching" with a stylus on conventional PDAs. It also senses proximity, which means you can navigate through menus by hovering over the screen and not touching it.
Is the Tablet PC handwriting recognition better than OS X's inkwell?
I hear it's an excellent system. Whether or not it's better, I don't know, but it is considered by many to be the best system yet. It recognizes handwriting anywhere on the screen going in any direction.
How do you 'right-click' with the stylus? Is it something like control-click on the macs? Is there anything like a scroll wheel?
The stylus has two buttons that can be programmed, one of which would presumably be a right-click.
So maybe it's not for you. I type at over 100 wpm, too, and I can get data in much faster by typing than by writing by hand. Surely I don't expect to code with one of these things. But I will say this: the keyboard is now an accessory for you. You can take it with you if you want, or you can leave it behind. You can leave a keyboard at both work and at home, and just carry the tablet back and forth, and you can read your mail, doodle, or look at porn while on the bus/train/plane in between home and work. Ever try to get a notebook open on a coach-class seat on a plane while the guy in front of you has reclined his seat? This solves that problem. You're not forced to use the tablet as the only input.
How is this a win for Open Source? They just went from one closed-source commercial vendor to another. The latter was simply willing Sendo to show the back room. They're not seeing the value in Open Source at all -- they just wanted something that Microsoft didn't offer.
That's always the case. Hire one MCSE, and he's got lots of things covered: maintain all the Windows 2000 servers and all their associated services (IIS, Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, routing, etc.). In addition, it requires some programming knowledge, so good knowledge of either VB or VC++ and now C#, so there's room to develop desktop applications, server applications, web applications, and maintenance scripts. And then there's the lots of ancilliary knowledge that he may have picked up along the way, like SQL Server, Exchange, etc. Economies of scale is always of benefit.
Excellent summary of the problem. Using open source for the sake of open source is just silly. Looking at the tool, with all the specifics laid out, is the right way to do it.
Good example -- I would probably have stuck with whatever solution you have right now. But some things to consider. Yes, you did point out that Exchange does more stuff than your current application, which is correct. Also note that their clustering solution would provide fail-over which is something that you don't seem to have right now with your one dual-processor machine. Finally, the original poster has a problem where he needs to pick between the two or more solutions he has available. You already have investment in some infrastructure, including the machine that you have, and the techs you have on staff that are presumably qualified to maintain the Linux machine. Either way, he needs to hire and/or train people to be proficient in the open source solution or the commercial solution. I can't comment on which is more expensive, but you don't need a full blown MCSE to maintain your mail server, though it is helpful.
Why are you upgrading the machine? Why are you moving from Windows 3.1 to NT 4.0? If you could get the application run on 3.1, then there's no reason to go to 4.0. If there are upgrades that are available in 4.0, then the specification was poorly written from the beginning and you picked the wrong stuff to begin with. If an application is truly expected to run for 10 years, the upgrade path has to be well-defined and clearly specified. You have the SAME issues if you're moving from Linux 2.0 to 2.2 -- someone needs to upgrade the machines, push the process through completion, and support the new system.
You're right, it depends on the spec. If the commercial application does everything that they anticipate will be needed in the next ten years, there's nothing wrong with that solution. If they need to make changes later on down the road, the spec was wrong! The spec should determine what kinds of adaptations the application requires and how it proposes to do that. There's no reason to modify the application, open source or commercial, if the needs don't change (bug fixes excepted). If you want to add all kinds of bells and whistles, you can pay for a developer to make those kinds of changes (at greater cost than 10% of one FTE) or you can pay for upgrades.
Design the chip, have it fabbed at a custom fabrication plant, sell them by the millions, and retire in five years! As soon as people start using ogg in significant numbers...
I definitely agree with you there. Not all of the items listed are features for the user's browsing experience. Pass that list around the office and see what happens... most people would STILL say that they're happy with IE. Details on how it implements XML are just not convincing arguments.
Also, I can't help but to think that if IE introduced browser features that supported stuff like IRC support and a cookie manager, people would be crying foul, saying that it's just more bloatware. I like the fact that bookmarks are items in the filesystem and I don't have to use some new tool to manage them.
Ugh, I don't know what happened... Corrected text follows.
Just because it's written by such
a magazine, doesn't mean that they're exhibiting bias. They may have an interest in its outcome, but I don't see anything in the article that suggests that it is distorting or otherwise mis-representing the truth. Yes, TiVo is great. Yes, TiVo is hurting as a company. Yes, it could quite possibly fail. They're presenting an analysis but it doesn't seem to be unfounded. Neither this article nor this article seem to be biased.
Just because it's written by such an article, doesn't mean that they're exhibiting bias. They may have an interest in its outcome, but I don't see anything in the article that suggests that it is distorting or otherwise mis-representing the truth. Yes, TiVo is great. Yes, TiVo is hurting as a company. Yes, it could quite possibly sale. They're presenting an analysis but it doesn't seem to be unfounded. Neither this article nor this article seem to be biased.
Just because the company could have taken more steps to ensure that something didn't happen doesn't make it any less illegal for the guys o have altered the equipment. If I secure my house by putting scotch tape over the door and someone breaks in and steals everything, does it make it ok because I should have used a real deadbolt? No, it's still breaking and entering, no matter how easy or difficult.
It should certainly be a lesson to the cable provider and that they should do more to secure their network, but it doesn't make it ok.
Is this surprising? You're basically saying Microsoft is behaving like every other major company in corporate America and like thousands of other organizations -- trying to buy some influence. No need to single out Microsoft for having done this -- there are many others that are just as guilty or worse. Welcome to American politics.
Obviously you don't know how the courts work, because nearly every court proceeding takes several years to kick in after all the delays, hearings, and appeals. Microsoft will have done nothing unusual if it takes a few more years for something to come out of this.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a moderate about the gun rights, but I don't buy this argument. Out of passion, people do dumb things and if they have a tool like this available for use, they'll use it. It's like giving every country in the world a nuke. It's an effective deterrent against other stable countries, but it all goes to shit if you have a madman willing to use a nuke and take everyone he can with him. Sorry, but I'll take the argument that guns are cool and fun to have before I take this argument.
Companies will frequently offer products at a loss as a benefit to their employees. Items can be had at below cost as part of an employee purchase plan and is typically limited by a dollar value per quarter or per year. $30 CDN is a good deal for WinXP Professional, but isn't an indicator of cost.
Was he successfully sued? That is, he lost? He should have promptly sued the manufacturers of the computers for compensation and the victims probably should have done the same, as it was the negligence of the manufacturers to use such dangerous products without informing the customer (can you imagine new computers with a big yellow warning label like new cars with airbag labels?).
Of course, that's what I'd do if I was a lawyer. I'm shaking my head at the whole thing -- lawsuits are getting to be too much these days.
LOL ... I'm flattered that you'd do so much research on me to try to figure out who I am and what I do, and I can understand why you'd think so, but I can't help but to combat a lot of the ignorance on this board. I don't want to come off as somebody that says, "you're wrong ... this MS product rules!" I presented actual arguments with as much fact as I could find to try to counter a lot of the straight-up biases. You and I both know that Slashdot is known for a lot of its biases and I'm just trying to offer a different view. I am surely not a Microsoft employee and while I use a lot of Microsoft products, I don't think that they're a panacea. Their produts are touch and go at best, but they shouldn't be totally discounted. I'm advocating informed decision about products, and I think you'll find a lot of my comments support that. I'm a programmer for a consulting company and use whatever product gets the job done. I use both Linux and Windows XP at home. I use Java and Perl as much as C# and VB.
As for the individual comments that you quoted and would like addressed, I posted a lot of stuff for the Tablet PC because it was something that I found was a lot more useful than my first look. I found lots of comments that were the obvious round of jokes, but honestly, a lot of people sounded like they didn't really read much about it. Read the comments that I responded to -- a lot of people think that the keyboard is gone! That's what I thought, that's why I dismissed it originally, and that's why I was wrong. I think it's definitely worth a second look as a result, and after reading a bunch of articles online and finding real pictures of the product being used, I can see how it might be useful to some people. I haven't used the handwriting recognition system yet -- I'm only hearing from people that saw the demo that it worked very well, from what they could see while the guy doing the demo wrote on the screen. It scans at 133 times per second as opposed to the typical 40 that a mouse does. Each scan cycle adds data to the handwriting recognition system. I don't know the details of how effectively it uses that data.
Regarding the other companies, yeah, I think that MS has had some very seriously reprehensible business tactics. I also think that people are singling out MS when there are other companies that doing things just as bad. Articles make Slashdot headlines simply because it's Microsoft whereas if it was another company, it wouldn't have. This article from the other day is a good example, I think. People are trashing MS just because a vendor cancelled an agreement with them. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but I could be wrong.
Anyway, I could spend all day defending my posts. I will say that many of my posts are in response to something that I feel is an unjustified bias -- against TiVo, MS, the US govt, whatever. I only respond to articles that I feel I know something about. Thanks for the well-documented post, though. Seriously, I've been called a lot worse than a shill and it was just a one-liner. Supporting your argument with links, quotes, and valid conclusions. I gotta say that if I were in your shoes, I can't help but to think that I would have come to the same conclusion.
I don't want to tell you that this is machine is the one for you and at the risk of being condescending, I feel like you just read the short clips about it here and there but you didn't see the pictures. Honestly, I felt the same way -- I didn't think it was the next big thing at all. But after seeing some pictures and doing a lot of reading, I'm convinced that it's worth a second look. It may not be for me, but I'm definitely going to check it out.
Anyway, I think all of your concerns are already addressed. Take a look at this Compaq Tablet PC. It's 0.8" thick, has a detachable keyboard, weighs 3 lbs (4 lbs with the keyboard), and opens up more or less conventionally. I would like it to be thinner, but that'll come in time if this goes anywhere. It's not the panacea that Microsoft makes it out to be, but I think you'll agree that it's worth a second look. I also hope that the handwriting recognition is fast enough to keep up with me -- I hear that it scans 133 times per second and makes several guesses at what you're trying to write and anticipates. When it misses (something like 5 out of every 10,000), it'll present some options.
Here's a comparison list of Tablet PCs and some specifications. It looks somewhat out of date and incomplete, but it gives you an idea of what will be available soon. I would like to see larger, higher resolution screens, but that, too, will come in time.
Yes, that's definitely the dream -- to use Bluetooth to wirelessly plug into your keyboard, mouse, and even speakers. Most of them come with 802.11b, too. Bluetooth adoption has been slow so far, so I'm not hoping too much for that right now.
... moderately skeptical, but interested in doing my research and making an informed decision rather than a lot of these impulse reactions that it *must* be bad. Jokes are fine, but ignorance is showing through more often than not.
I feel the same way
You're assuming that you *have* to use the tablet to enter in data. The keyboard isn't eliminated. It's just an accessory now. You don't have to drag it around with you if you don't want to, but when you get home, you just plug in your keyboard and mouse and you're ready to go. I see little downside to getting a Tablet PC other than added cost, which will probably go down -- the market will decide by how much.
So maybe it's not for you. I type at over 100 wpm, too, and I can get data in much faster by typing than by writing by hand. Surely I don't expect to code with one of these things. But I will say this: the keyboard is now an accessory for you. You can take it with you if you want, or you can leave it behind. You can leave a keyboard at both work and at home, and just carry the tablet back and forth, and you can read your mail, doodle, or look at porn while on the bus/train/plane in between home and work. Ever try to get a notebook open on a coach-class seat on a plane while the guy in front of you has reclined his seat? This solves that problem. You're not forced to use the tablet as the only input.
How is this a win for Open Source? They just went from one closed-source commercial vendor to another. The latter was simply willing Sendo to show the back room. They're not seeing the value in Open Source at all -- they just wanted something that Microsoft didn't offer.
That's always the case. Hire one MCSE, and he's got lots of things covered: maintain all the Windows 2000 servers and all their associated services (IIS, Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, routing, etc.). In addition, it requires some programming knowledge, so good knowledge of either VB or VC++ and now C#, so there's room to develop desktop applications, server applications, web applications, and maintenance scripts. And then there's the lots of ancilliary knowledge that he may have picked up along the way, like SQL Server, Exchange, etc. Economies of scale is always of benefit.
Excellent summary of the problem. Using open source for the sake of open source is just silly. Looking at the tool, with all the specifics laid out, is the right way to do it.
Good example -- I would probably have stuck with whatever solution you have right now. But some things to consider. Yes, you did point out that Exchange does more stuff than your current application, which is correct. Also note that their clustering solution would provide fail-over which is something that you don't seem to have right now with your one dual-processor machine. Finally, the original poster has a problem where he needs to pick between the two or more solutions he has available. You already have investment in some infrastructure, including the machine that you have, and the techs you have on staff that are presumably qualified to maintain the Linux machine. Either way, he needs to hire and/or train people to be proficient in the open source solution or the commercial solution. I can't comment on which is more expensive, but you don't need a full blown MCSE to maintain your mail server, though it is helpful.
Why are you upgrading the machine? Why are you moving from Windows 3.1 to NT 4.0? If you could get the application run on 3.1, then there's no reason to go to 4.0. If there are upgrades that are available in 4.0, then the specification was poorly written from the beginning and you picked the wrong stuff to begin with. If an application is truly expected to run for 10 years, the upgrade path has to be well-defined and clearly specified. You have the SAME issues if you're moving from Linux 2.0 to 2.2 -- someone needs to upgrade the machines, push the process through completion, and support the new system.
You're right, it depends on the spec. If the commercial application does everything that they anticipate will be needed in the next ten years, there's nothing wrong with that solution. If they need to make changes later on down the road, the spec was wrong! The spec should determine what kinds of adaptations the application requires and how it proposes to do that. There's no reason to modify the application, open source or commercial, if the needs don't change (bug fixes excepted). If you want to add all kinds of bells and whistles, you can pay for a developer to make those kinds of changes (at greater cost than 10% of one FTE) or you can pay for upgrades.
Design the chip, have it fabbed at a custom fabrication plant, sell them by the millions, and retire in five years! As soon as people start using ogg in significant numbers ...
I definitely agree with you there. Not all of the items listed are features for the user's browsing experience. Pass that list around the office and see what happens ... most people would STILL say that they're happy with IE. Details on how it implements XML are just not convincing arguments.
Also, I can't help but to think that if IE introduced browser features that supported stuff like IRC support and a cookie manager, people would be crying foul, saying that it's just more bloatware. I like the fact that bookmarks are items in the filesystem and I don't have to use some new tool to manage them.
Just because it's written by such an article, doesn't mean that they're exhibiting bias. They may have an interest in its outcome, but I don't see anything in the article that suggests that it is distorting or otherwise mis-representing the truth. Yes, TiVo is great. Yes, TiVo is hurting as a company. Yes, it could quite possibly sale. They're presenting an analysis but it doesn't seem to be unfounded. Neither this article nor this article seem to be biased.
Just because the company could have taken more steps to ensure that something didn't happen doesn't make it any less illegal for the guys o have altered the equipment. If I secure my house by putting scotch tape over the door and someone breaks in and steals everything, does it make it ok because I should have used a real deadbolt? No, it's still breaking and entering, no matter how easy or difficult.
It should certainly be a lesson to the cable provider and that they should do more to secure their network, but it doesn't make it ok.
Is this surprising? You're basically saying Microsoft is behaving like every other major company in corporate America and like thousands of other organizations -- trying to buy some influence. No need to single out Microsoft for having done this -- there are many others that are just as guilty or worse. Welcome to American politics.
Obviously you don't know how the courts work, because nearly every court proceeding takes several years to kick in after all the delays, hearings, and appeals. Microsoft will have done nothing unusual if it takes a few more years for something to come out of this.
Don't think about your company while taking a shit on their toilets. They might take it from you. Your idea, that is.