No this is on topic, for me I sense more value in Linux and it stimulates my brain (thinking of the cool things I can do with it)
Same could go for some fan of Windows compared to other OSs or for that matter OS X compared to the other two.
Value is in the mind of the beholder. For those car analogies I think uniqueness would rate just as high say a $150,000 car vs a genuine DeLoerean. It's all subjective.
I think A Yugo would likely stimulate the brains of people in a remote region that has very little interaction with cars.
I use Macs at work and Linux at home. I think either would work but if you use a Mac I would be wary about Mail and partly Safari.
Apple's Mail does very little to help you figure out if an email is some phishing scam, no warnings nor any "this might be a scam" message like Thunderbird has, I think this is big when you are dealing with senior users.
Safari fares a little bit better as a browser, but then again I would suggest Firefox set as the default and use Safari for compatibility's sake when browsing. To keep on with some Mac gotchas, iPhoto needs work it probably will suck up a lot of hard drive space, if only Google would get the Mac version of Picasa running.
For the plus side for Mac over Linux, there are still a couple nifty things you can't find on Linux there is no easy-to-use PrintMaster/PrintShop type program for Linux. For most folks this program is an important application. Banking/financial software is a tad better on Mac (more compatibility with e-transactions), same goes for some genealogy applications (then again I am not certain on that since I don't use em).
So what i sread from the summary is that Four scientist anaysis studies of long tails show that in different stores that tails are flatter and thinner than originally supposed. And blockbusters (only one I know of is the firewor) are not going away in those markets either, they will be bigger though (so much for safe and sane). Then they change the subject and talk about some filtering software that magnifies winner's share of their pies (probably employing the adage about "your eyes being bigger than your stomach"), then again peer influence is a large contributor to consuming (I'll say, aunt Ethel always tell me to have another slice of pie when I win.)
Hmm, I know, maybe it's some sort of "tail pie" they are talking about, no mention what sort of varmint the tail is from, probably rat, they always look stalky and thick.
That is when they find they can't use one of their new shiny devices because of it, when the service shuts down or has some nasty problem, or a radical DRM upgrade.
So far Apple has had the shiny new devices and their service hasn't shut down and changes have been pretty much transparent (to the DRM folks, not to the non-drm folks). But eventually there will be some notable change and you will hear a whole lot of ignorant screams about all the injustice of having their music being messed up because of Apple.
From my viewpoint, DRM is just a big logic bomb waiting to go off.
A dell Mini 9 (aka Inspiron 910) Nice little machine seems more rugged feeling than some of the other models I've seen.
Partly got that one because it had Ubuntu 8.10 pre-installed (and it was great to pull it right out of the shipping box and show it off with ubuntu all pre-installed), from the forums it seems to install Ubuntu from scratch pretty painlessly. Secondly,the RAM & SSD drives are very easy to upgrade.
I have to say that the added Dell launcher (go-home-applet), a preferred apps/documents panel, is VERY nice and easy to use and modify, reminds me of the useful old Mac OS launcher. Wireless just worked. Default update repository is Dell's own mini OS mirror but you can easily activate the official ubuntu libraries and install more.
Wife seems to like it so far. I myself think it will be great for netting on the go or for a poor co's portable data collection terminal, but for full programming or other work a larger unit would be more comfortable. Then again if it were my 'first' computer I think it is more than capable, especially w/adding an inexpensive external CD/DVD drive.
For me and I looked at both (this was a few years back)
MySQL was easy to setup - or more specifically easy to understand what you are doing when setting it up, PostgreSQL I was able to set up but was never sure if I did it right and could not find answers.
There were a lot more books for MySQL and most all of them were way better than what I could find for PostgreSQL.
On Line community support was friendlier for MySQL.
Those three things gave me immediate success and gratification while learning MySQL, and for most of the things we do, that is what really makes the difference. Postgres (at least back then) didn't provide users with such an experience.
Though I must say he DOES have a really nice software and memorabilia collection there, something you don't see as much as computer collections (people get hardware at thrifts and such rarely find matching software). Also from the looks of it probably many of the machines are readily operational (also rare for a large collection.)
The guy who runs the Festival, Sellam Ismael (hope I spelled it right), certainly has a sizable warehouse for his collection.
The West Coast US VCF has been held at the Computer History Museum, which is truly a massive collection of computers you are not likely to see anywhere else: http://www.computerhistory.org/
My collection is mainly Commodore 8-bits, about 30 or so, pretty tiny.
I'll third that, if you want to give him something "now" there are volumes available with annual four issue bundles. At thirteen, any good reading material the covers a variety of subjects (above kid stuff) is a good present (to let him/her 'taste' different things to figure out what they like...) yeah, Make is excellent for hardware, though not for software as much. An old PC w/Linux along with one of those Linux Bible books may be good way to let them try out various software concepts.
...(c) imitation of J. K. Rowling's writing style in portions...
Is that even an enforceable law? If so most authors should have their books contested, as people learn partly through imitation and experience. Throwing weak points out like that makes me suspect of the ruling.
Probably be a good thing to pick general computer books, as probably some of them are looking for a more legal interest to keep them from returning.
Something like the encyclopedia of computing (was a time-life set about a decade or two back) each volume covered a subject in reasonable detail (input/output, graphics, ai, robotics, software, hardware, transportation, etc.) Very good to get an idea of what forms of computing there is out there and to find your niche in the world of computers. Probably a good class text on general computing would suffice also.
Programming language would be good, some introductory books as programming is in a large part a logic/problem solving exercise they could write code on paper and still get some skill out of it. C might be good though I think Java or Python would be easier to approach sans-computer as it is a lot more plain English syntax.
For those hwo want something more technical Maybe a computer concept text like Knuth's Art of Programming or Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics (it is old but it is along the right lines I'm thinking of), etc. Linux Bible or some other exhausting tome of technical reading would be good too. While not having the hardware, they do help you get a grasp of the concept in the mean time.
Just like Windows, it will be fine for them to do whatever they want until they get some big player in there with a lucrative revenue stream or some killer app that defines the platform. Then when MS wants to make a change they will be negotiating with those people who may or may not want to do such changes, if not MS will not want to loose customers and concede, thus having to make compromises and jury rigs to keep compatibility with the big market while trying to gain something else though a now half-asses upgrade.
Just like Windows, Office, etc. down the road, they won't really innovate anymore as they are dependent on their market due to by some other company's products.
Health insurance companies provide that, if I got cancer, tomorrow, I would be able to pay bills that I could otherwise not pay... *IT AN INSURANCE POLICY*
If you got cancer you would get a mountain of insurance claims and a lot of messy paperwork, the insurance company will constantly try to get you off the program or have you pay for part of their costs. They also will probably raise premiums for everyone else in your company the next negotiating round to make up for the costs your cancer incurred. Nothing new on those tactics though.
Insurance is a lottery companies are taking in money form a large group of people and paying out to the select few, while scraping a sizable profit for themselves. Now if everyone (or over 30% or so) on their coverage gets sick, do they take a loss? No, more than likely they will either find an excuse to drop clients coverage, bump up the premiums, reduce the payout/raise the deductible, or file for bankruptcy (seems the do that regularly nowadays, eh?). What it boils down to is ALL the people who paid into the insurance plan were not really covered at all. That is what's wrong with insurance.
And what really pisses me off is that the government is increasingly mandating we participate in such corporate lotteries without ensuring that we will see the benefits we mus secure.
If medicine were socialized, it may be similar but the playing field is level, there is no corporate greed going on, everyone is covered and there probably would be no inflated big payouts to drug companies or other greedy corporations massively profiting on the poor health of US citizens.
The other alternative is to ban insurance all together and live in a world of reality for a change it would certainly disrupt the corporate greed.
Though I think socialized medicine is a better model, pay in to it while healthy use it as you get sick or older, never have to worry about any unexpected cost or not being cared for. If you haven't seen Michael Moore's documentary, Sicko, you should take a look, certainly puts a perspective on how the US government thinks of its citizens.
You have to think about the partitioner if you wish to use two OSs on a drive or span multiple drives, or encrypt the entire OS, then again it installs comparatively: the OS, an office suite, photoshop, internet and security in one fail swoop (and/or a very capable file/web server). Then using the internet you also have about 30,000 more programs to very conveniently just download and install from one easy to navigate menu menu.
Almost kind of like XP -just without all the security features (Please enter activation key here, and what sort of AV program do you really need to purchase next.) and lacking added value and innovation (MS office not included and you may need newer version of program X for this OS).
What is this, some sort of Microsoft trademark? I don't see how it relates, unless "innovation" is the popular replace word for "profit", "monopoly", "greed", "lock-in", "control", etc.
As a Mac shop, I really need firewire on the Units, when I get a set of new Macs I create my perfect install on one and back up with Superduper to a.dmg file, then when setting up or after a HD replacement I can use the installer CD to run disk utility on restore from the master image. These images can exceed 20 GB, and doing such over USB would not be very sane.
I would factor missing FW in my future purchases for work.
Well OOo Mac has recently been working (on Intel only) Neooffice has been improving the OOo/Mac user experience for quite a few years. I think OOo has to catch up as the last OOo RC I tried was pretty buggy. Most of NeoOffice bugs are missing features, not GUI hiccups or more serious issues.
I find lately the biggest hurdle in programming is getting your environment setup and being able to write and execute code. Many of the development environments are pretty tough when you just start out, but if you know enough to get testable code written it relieves a lot of stress. And not everyone wants to be a programmer, so don't expect total buy-in those that do will more than appreciate the leg-up to get started from their they can access the Internet's resources to develop further.
For most people nowadays teaching HTML wouldn't hurt. Many languages interface to it and the web is now a hot method of app delivery.
Introductory class... if this is going to be a prerequisite for something better cover those bases needed for the next class.
Languages, I like the ones with some clear understandable syntax that is not overloaded with obscurity. PHP and Python are pretty straight forward (what you read is what it will do). But if it will lead into something like OS design, then you have to get into C/C++.
But the most important thing you can do is: - get them to be able to get an environment loaded onto a system - write some code that works and make sure they know what to do in order to execute it. (Programming is no fun if you can't figure out how to get your code to work.) - Also steering them in the right direction with some good syntax highlighting editor, IDE, discussion about setting up a project file structure, etc. all are valuable to the noob. - Next would be to give an explanation about some useful but simple code works (how a forum works, or a simple game maybe) those into it at this point will pick it up and do more research and mess around with it, and the others hopefully you wont bore them too much.
Yeah, we know how much $$$ has helped computer professionals, we get a lot of those diploma mills and a lot of CS people who cant code two commends together to save their life.
What we need is to make math easily accessible and available for students who are truly interested. Not have some Phys Ed teacher in an algebra class just spouting from the teachers guide. Get some good books, some good MATH teachers, set up some extracurricular projects for the math whizzes (mathletics?) Figure out a way to get guest speakers and or math related field trips. More or less feed their interest and hunger.
All big money is gong to do is attract a lot of people who want money.
Myabe those Mac-look-alike Linux distros will now get abandon it. And, yes, I am a Mac user - but the Dock, compared to OS9 launcher, is a really lousy UI idea in my opinion.
Slashdot Mirror
No this is on topic, for me I sense more value in Linux and it stimulates my brain (thinking of the cool things I can do with it)
Same could go for some fan of Windows compared to other OSs or for that matter OS X compared to the other two.
Value is in the mind of the beholder. For those car analogies I think uniqueness would rate just as high say a $150,000 car vs a genuine DeLoerean. It's all subjective.
I think A Yugo would likely stimulate the brains of people in a remote region that has very little interaction with cars.
I use Macs at work and Linux at home. I think either would work but if you use a Mac I would be wary about Mail and partly Safari.
Apple's Mail does very little to help you figure out if an email is some phishing scam, no warnings nor any "this might be a scam" message like Thunderbird has, I think this is big when you are dealing with senior users.
Safari fares a little bit better as a browser, but then again I would suggest Firefox set as the default and use Safari for compatibility's sake when browsing. To keep on with some Mac gotchas, iPhoto needs work it probably will suck up a lot of hard drive space, if only Google would get the Mac version of Picasa running.
For the plus side for Mac over Linux, there are still a couple nifty things you can't find on Linux there is no easy-to-use PrintMaster/PrintShop type program for Linux. For most folks this program is an important application. Banking/financial software is a tad better on Mac (more compatibility with e-transactions), same goes for some genealogy applications (then again I am not certain on that since I don't use em).
So what i sread from the summary is that Four scientist anaysis studies of long tails show that in different stores that tails are flatter and thinner than originally supposed. And blockbusters (only one I know of is the firewor) are not going away in those markets either, they will be bigger though (so much for safe and sane). Then they change the subject and talk about some filtering software that magnifies winner's share of their pies (probably employing the adage about "your eyes being bigger than your stomach"), then again peer influence is a large contributor to consuming (I'll say, aunt Ethel always tell me to have another slice of pie when I win.)
Hmm, I know, maybe it's some sort of "tail pie" they are talking about, no mention what sort of varmint the tail is from, probably rat, they always look stalky and thick.
That is when they find they can't use one of their new shiny devices because of it, when the service shuts down or has some nasty problem, or a radical DRM upgrade.
So far Apple has had the shiny new devices and their service hasn't shut down and changes have been pretty much transparent (to the DRM folks, not to the non-drm folks). But eventually there will be some notable change and you will hear a whole lot of ignorant screams about all the injustice of having their music being messed up because of Apple.
From my viewpoint, DRM is just a big logic bomb waiting to go off.
Welcome our giant flower encrusted robotic overlord. (FP)
I actually saw an IE8 ad earlier this week on-line (geared for enterprise computing firms) I thought it was final and out already.
Yep, MS even has a slick site already up for it:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/Internet-explorer/beta/default.aspx
A dell Mini 9 (aka Inspiron 910) Nice little machine seems more rugged feeling than some of the other models I've seen.
Partly got that one because it had Ubuntu 8.10 pre-installed (and it was great to pull it right out of the shipping box and show it off with ubuntu all pre-installed), from the forums it seems to install Ubuntu from scratch pretty painlessly. Secondly,the RAM & SSD drives are very easy to upgrade.
I have to say that the added Dell launcher (go-home-applet), a preferred apps/documents panel, is VERY nice and easy to use and modify, reminds me of the useful old Mac OS launcher. Wireless just worked. Default update repository is Dell's own mini OS mirror but you can easily activate the official ubuntu libraries and install more.
Wife seems to like it so far. I myself think it will be great for netting on the go or for a poor co's portable data collection terminal, but for full programming or other work a larger unit would be more comfortable. Then again if it were my 'first' computer I think it is more than capable, especially w/adding an inexpensive external CD/DVD drive.
For me and I looked at both (this was a few years back)
MySQL was easy to setup - or more specifically easy to understand what you are doing when setting it up, PostgreSQL I was able to set up but was never sure if I did it right and could not find answers.
There were a lot more books for MySQL and most all of them were way better than what I could find for PostgreSQL.
On Line community support was friendlier for MySQL.
Those three things gave me immediate success and gratification while learning MySQL, and for most of the things we do, that is what really makes the difference. Postgres (at least back then) didn't provide users with such an experience.
Though I must say he DOES have a really nice software and memorabilia collection there, something you don't see as much as computer collections (people get hardware at thrifts and such rarely find matching software). Also from the looks of it probably many of the machines are readily operational (also rare for a large collection.)
I take it many of you have never got to a Vintage Computer Festival http://www.vintage.org/ Where people bring in their home computers to show off - as an example with one this guy's computers: http://www.vintage.org/pictures/LARGE/VCF%207.0%20Exhibitor%20-%20Pavl%20Zachary.JPG (it's tough being a DEC fan)
The guy who runs the Festival, Sellam Ismael (hope I spelled it right), certainly has a sizable warehouse for his collection.
The West Coast US VCF has been held at the Computer History Museum, which is truly a massive collection of computers you are not likely to see anywhere else: http://www.computerhistory.org/
My collection is mainly Commodore 8-bits, about 30 or so, pretty tiny.
I'll third that, if you want to give him something "now" there are volumes available with annual four issue bundles. At thirteen, any good reading material the covers a variety of subjects (above kid stuff) is a good present (to let him/her 'taste' different things to figure out what they like...) yeah, Make is excellent for hardware, though not for software as much. An old PC w/Linux along with one of those Linux Bible books may be good way to let them try out various software concepts.
...(c) imitation of J. K. Rowling's writing style in portions...
Is that even an enforceable law? If so most authors should have their books contested, as people learn partly through imitation and experience. Throwing weak points out like that makes me suspect of the ruling.
Probably be a good thing to pick general computer books, as probably some of them are looking for a more legal interest to keep them from returning.
Something like the encyclopedia of computing (was a time-life set about a decade or two back) each volume covered a subject in reasonable detail (input/output, graphics, ai, robotics, software, hardware, transportation, etc.) Very good to get an idea of what forms of computing there is out there and to find your niche in the world of computers. Probably a good class text on general computing would suffice also.
Programming language would be good, some introductory books as programming is in a large part a logic/problem solving exercise they could write code on paper and still get some skill out of it. C might be good though I think Java or Python would be easier to approach sans-computer as it is a lot more plain English syntax.
For those hwo want something more technical Maybe a computer concept text like Knuth's Art of Programming or
Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics (it is old but it is along the right lines I'm thinking of), etc. Linux Bible or some other exhausting tome of technical reading would be good too. While not having the hardware, they do help you get a grasp of the concept in the mean time.
I thought of that too, I tried one at a walmart once, sure wish there was one around here, or I could make a home version of Prop Cycle.
Here is the KLOV link witch some screenshots
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9139
Gotta ask, does it run (on) Linux?
Just like Windows, it will be fine for them to do whatever they want until they get some big player in there with a lucrative revenue stream or some killer app that defines the platform. Then when MS wants to make a change they will be negotiating with those people who may or may not want to do such changes, if not MS will not want to loose customers and concede, thus having to make compromises and jury rigs to keep compatibility with the big market while trying to gain something else though a now half-asses upgrade.
Just like Windows, Office, etc. down the road, they won't really innovate anymore as they are dependent on their market due to by some other company's products.
Health insurance companies provide that, if I got cancer, tomorrow, I would be able to pay bills that I could otherwise not pay... *IT AN INSURANCE POLICY*
If you got cancer you would get a mountain of insurance claims and a lot of messy paperwork, the insurance company will constantly try to get you off the program or have you pay for part of their costs. They also will probably raise premiums for everyone else in your company the next negotiating round to make up for the costs your cancer incurred. Nothing new on those tactics though.
Insurance is a lottery companies are taking in money form a large group of people and paying out to the select few, while scraping a sizable profit for themselves. Now if everyone (or over 30% or so) on their coverage gets sick, do they take a loss? No, more than likely they will either find an excuse to drop clients coverage, bump up the premiums, reduce the payout/raise the deductible, or file for bankruptcy (seems the do that regularly nowadays, eh?). What it boils down to is ALL the people who paid into the insurance plan were not really covered at all. That is what's wrong with insurance.
And what really pisses me off is that the government is increasingly mandating we participate in such corporate lotteries without ensuring that we will see the benefits we mus secure.
If medicine were socialized, it may be similar but the playing field is level, there is no corporate greed going on, everyone is covered and there probably would be no inflated big payouts to drug companies or other greedy corporations massively profiting on the poor health of US citizens.
The other alternative is to ban insurance all together and live in a world of reality for a change it would certainly disrupt the corporate greed.
Though I think socialized medicine is a better model, pay in to it while healthy use it as you get sick or older, never have to worry about any unexpected cost or not being cared for. If you haven't seen Michael Moore's documentary, Sicko, you should take a look, certainly puts a perspective on how the US government thinks of its citizens.
I's a little bit more complex:
You have to think about the partitioner if you wish to use two OSs on a drive or span multiple drives, or encrypt the entire OS, then again it installs comparatively: the OS, an office suite, photoshop, internet and security in one fail swoop (and/or a very capable file/web server). Then using the internet you also have about 30,000 more programs to very conveniently just download and install from one easy to navigate menu menu.
Almost kind of like XP -just without all the security features (Please enter activation key here, and what sort of AV program do you really need to purchase next.) and lacking added value and innovation (MS office not included and you may need newer version of program X for this OS).
What is this, some sort of Microsoft trademark? I don't see how it relates, unless "innovation" is the popular replace word for "profit", "monopoly", "greed", "lock-in", "control", etc.
As a Mac shop, I really need firewire on the Units, when I get a set of new Macs I create my perfect install on one and back up with Superduper to a .dmg file, then when setting up or after a HD replacement I can use the installer CD to run disk utility on restore from the master image. These images can exceed 20 GB, and doing such over USB would not be very sane.
I would factor missing FW in my future purchases for work.
My thoughts exactly. Just say you can't remember, and tell them they will just have to look for it, since it's just like a physical key anyway.
Obviously, if it is memorized, it is not be physical - and it is part of your will whether you divulge such information.
Well OOo Mac has recently been working (on Intel only) Neooffice has been improving the OOo/Mac user experience for quite a few years. I think OOo has to catch up as the last OOo RC I tried was pretty buggy. Most of NeoOffice bugs are missing features, not GUI hiccups or more serious issues.
I find lately the biggest hurdle in programming is getting your environment setup and being able to write and execute code. Many of the development environments are pretty tough when you just start out, but if you know enough to get testable code written it relieves a lot of stress. And not everyone wants to be a programmer, so don't expect total buy-in those that do will more than appreciate the leg-up to get started from their they can access the Internet's resources to develop further.
For most people nowadays teaching HTML wouldn't hurt. Many languages interface to it and the web is now a hot method of app delivery.
Introductory class... if this is going to be a prerequisite for something better cover those bases needed for the next class.
Languages, I like the ones with some clear understandable syntax that is not overloaded with obscurity. PHP and Python are pretty straight forward (what you read is what it will do). But if it will lead into something like OS design, then you have to get into C/C++.
But the most important thing you can do is:
- get them to be able to get an environment loaded onto a system
- write some code that works and make sure they know what to do in order to execute it. (Programming is no fun if you can't figure out how to get your code to work.)
- Also steering them in the right direction with some good syntax highlighting editor, IDE, discussion about setting up a project file structure, etc. all are valuable to the noob.
- Next would be to give an explanation about some useful but simple code works (how a forum works, or a simple game maybe) those into it at this point will pick it up and do more research and mess around with it, and the others hopefully you wont bore them too much.
Yeah, we know how much $$$ has helped computer professionals, we get a lot of those diploma mills and a lot of CS people who cant code two commends together to save their life.
What we need is to make math easily accessible and available for students who are truly interested. Not have some Phys Ed teacher in an algebra class just spouting from the teachers guide. Get some good books, some good MATH teachers, set up some extracurricular projects for the math whizzes (mathletics?) Figure out a way to get guest speakers and or math related field trips. More or less feed their interest and hunger.
All big money is gong to do is attract a lot of people who want money.
Myabe those Mac-look-alike Linux distros will now get abandon it. And, yes, I am a Mac user - but the Dock, compared to OS9 launcher, is a really lousy UI idea in my opinion.