Even if or when it becomes a standard I don't think Microsoft themselves could fully support it in the long term. Part of the reason many of us programmers re-invent even our own wheel is our old wheels get real mucked up over time with patches enhancements and exceptions, etc, periodically it is time to re-think and re-tool the concept to better integrate the whole idea.
From reading about MS's OOXML they are long overdue for a reinvention of the wheel (and thinking about it, whats to stop them? I can see them with OOXML as ISO saying "we have an ISO standard" and then put in something that's truly fixed (also proprietary and designed to automatically be native), much of the public won't know it is not 'the standard' but believe it is because thats how PR wants it. And then we have this mess again.
Not everyone is born healthy and not everyone can be treated as easily. Some races, families, etc. are predisposed with certain conditions based on ancestral genetics.
Just because people are "healthy" does not mean that they will cost less for insurance, what happens if they hit their head and turn up in a coma. Same thing can be said of people who are considered unhealthy - I have seen many of report of some 100 year old man or woman who attests their long life was in part to smoking regularly.
And while good physical health can be measured, what about mental health? What if the person is built like a Olympian but has the instincts of a lemming?
Thinking of physical/mental attributes and employability I know many great people who excel despite their health problems Steven Hawking and FDR come immediately to mind.
And how much would they tag on to Helen Keller if she were getting such insurance???
Lets face it Insurance companies aren't in it for helping people and they aren't in it for helping the businesses they sell insurance to, they are in it for profit. If they can get away with taking a profit over a little bit more human suffering (again and again) then they will do it to satisfy their corporate mandate to be profitable.
From a compnay that likes to change things majorly somewhat regularly.
Apple is a great choice for computing. Installation isn't a problem -- Apple does it for you.
Best to have high speed internet for those not too uncommon 300MB+ of software updates.
Networking is easy. Productivity is a dream. The Mac offers a broad variety of entertainment options. It's a secure platform. It interoperates well with Windows.
As long as you use Mac Servers, Windows or Samba servers are another matter...
It's highly stable, and offers solid backup choices for the data losses that are inevitable on any computing platform.
I take it you don't use Office 2004. Though I must say there are even better backup options like Unison (sync multiple computers) or SuperDuper (which can restore from bare metal!)
Right now, Apple is smokin', and its customers are happy.
Yeah, I'm real "happy" that Apple Inc. (not Apple Computer) released a phone and a TV box at the last MacWorld Expo... I guess if I was a non-business user everything would be just peachy.
But if the Apple gets rotten and starts coming out with inferior products
Some that come to mind - iPhoto (Wastes a lot of disk space no cleanup options), iWork (the two apps are cool but the suite is largely incomplete, not to mention totally incompatible with its predecessor, AppleWorks), iCal (can never seem to get the ics files from iCal to work on other programs...)
-- as it did in the '90s --
You mean that time where the Mac catalogs were thick with some great variety of productivity software and games, and programs such as Microsoft Project, Dragon Power Secretary, OmniForm, etc. were for sale??? There was a wide choice of Mac platforms (Mac Clones); and most - if not all of your older software "just worked" on the new OS/machines. Yeah, that time really sucked for us.
its customers will have the choice of suffering, or making the painful switch to another platform.
Oh yeah, Linux Baby! No more corporate whim.
Until then, I'm sticking with the Mac. It's a great computer.
Think of it this way there is more than 20 years of kludge in OOXML, and it spans 6000 pages of descriptions (actually more as some are just entries of characteristics and not functional descriptions.) ODF cuts right to the chase, cleans out all the bloat and give a solid across-the board logical base to expand on.
Every so often you gotta re-invent the wheel because the old one just cant handle all the patches., and I think ODF is just the thing.
The thing about the iPod and Zune is the way the companies handle the users' experience, iPod does a lot to make the experience enjoyable for the user and hides all the stuff that the user shouldn't do. Installation is pretty straight forward. If you want to copy a file the options are grayed out etc.
On the Windows related player products I've seen and I am assuming the Zune you get similar - some extended install session - a wierd DRM connection/verification process proving that you are you, then pop-ups with warnings, etc. before you can do anything. And I bet lots of warnings about songs not being squirt able, or that they are about to expire in XX hours,etc. So the user is constantly reminded of what can't be done and not just presented with what can be.
Microsoft does well is lots of dialog pop-up boxes, warnings confirmations, etc. Many of Apple's programs adjust the programs to not interrupt the user experience.
I translate that as if you "wrote" it you own what you create, as it is a part of you. So MS does not really own things they paid people to write, they are merely leasing the right to use them - these people never lost anything in their employ, unless they believe the papers companies have them sign.
It fits in with the TRON implication about programs being the spirit of the users who wrote them so it's fine by me.
Kinda makes me wonder about those twisted spirits in the Sony DRM though.
ODF's design may make it attractive to those users that are interested in a particular level of functionality in their productivity suite or developers who want to work that format.
ODF's design may be attractive to people who do productivity or programming (at a particular level, which we don't elaborate on)
Open XML may be more attractive to those who want richer functionality[...]
Open XML may be more attractive tho those who want more functionality (of what we again don't elaborate on)
This is not to say that one is better than the other -- just that they meet different needs in the marketplace.
So instead of saying they both pretty much do similar things, we'll just say it's all just Apples and Oranges.
I know of one misuse, is the overuse of popup lists in forms, especially when entering dates (one popup for month, one for day, and another for year)
When people are entering alphanumeric data give them as much keyboard access as possible, leaving the keyboard just adds to the entry time, stress injuries as well as potential for typing errors (reorienting to typing position after mouse usage.)
The second is popups instead of checklists and radio/selection lists, which add to the mouse gymnastics to select one or more options from a single line field.
It may be easier to make the popups (unfortunately many tutorials use date popups as an early example of web programming), either way you still have to validate the information, so take the extra effort to out in a generic text box, checklist or selection list and add a few more lines of validation code.
From the parent post of changed features I would suspect they either re-wrote the app, or replaced it and attempted to make it somewhat similar. Probably because they don't have the original crew to maintain the original code anymore. Happens too often.
Why do you think he used a symbol for a bunch of years, because some music company owned the name "Prince" and he could not use it (or not inexpensively). There is an interview with Kevin Smith where he relays that the artist is pretty bitter of the recording industry.
The thing is that a lot of these DRM tactics are not the doings of the actual artists but of the recording industry which has rights to specific recordings (exmaple say Joe Cocker's recording of "With A Little Help From My Friends"), and if that particular recording is popular they (the record company) want to squeeze every last penny out of it's use. Which sometimes means strategically limiting wide distribution (which probably won't benefit the singer's career) in order to bring up the demand as it is not so obtainable and thus the price.
- The IT guys at the banks are probably going to define some thin definition of security (as another/.er said it probably will also center around being Windows only). Which will be to the joy of one security company and result in legal action from a bunch of others.
- The bank will still have breaches as they find that the security measures for that circumstance may work, but when connected wirelessly or at a hotel room, not to mention advances in virtulization, etc. it then becomes a completely different matter, and then they have to add more rules and regs. etc.
Can I offer a near perfect solution, yes, no on-line banking from anything not owned and maintained 100% from the bank (which includes the wires connecting the system, and where the remote units are housed).
Looked at the link, lots of PHB management speak there.
Seems like part of the underlying theme is 'you can have innovation and still use your old software too' or something to that affect.
So MS sees that what keeps their users MS customers is 'stuff that they are currently running', so I figure they will kludge up something to make the old stuff more accessible (terminal services, virtalization, etc.) then try to wedge in and displace it with shiny mew MS-centric technologies.
If it weren't for the old Windows Apps users probably would look for something else be it Linux, Solaris, Mac, or whatever and MS knows it.
A) Its cheaper and faster (more profit) B) Nobody has complained (much) before about it C) They don't really posses the skillset to do it properly D) Because someone ignorant of the above, probably paid them to.
Color lasers are not all that cheap, besides the color toner (which is usually double the price of black toner or more) lasers have a bunch more hardware that needs replacement, such as the drum or imager roll, fuser, and fuser roll, then some may also have the charge grid, etc.
Look at the Xerox laser parts list to get an idea, you usually don't see it in the HP list as in the fine print the fuser and other parts fall under service and maintenance (you pay them to replace it).
One that has pretty compelling costs is the Solid Ink printers (which we refer to at work as the "Crayon Jets" which are part wax based inks (look a lot like big chunks of crayon) and full-width inkjet printing. Vibrant color as lasers, very fast printing (even duplexing), though the 'ink' is a lower melting point then toner so you can't heat laminate them with good results.
After a year or so of use page cost is about 7 cents a page (factoring in costs of ink and the maintenance kit, which is the only other replacement part) This is with printing bunches of signs and brochures.
- the 3rd party inks are about $3 each - inktanks aren't chiped - there is a lot of good web articles on maintenece. - provides a flatbet scanner and inkjet. - interfaces for USB and Parallel - The downsidse is is is slow compared to more recent machines
Slashdot Mirror
Even if or when it becomes a standard I don't think Microsoft themselves could fully support it in the long term. Part of the reason many of us programmers re-invent even our own wheel is our old wheels get real mucked up over time with patches enhancements and exceptions, etc, periodically it is time to re-think and re-tool the concept to better integrate the whole idea.
From reading about MS's OOXML they are long overdue for a reinvention of the wheel (and thinking about it, whats to stop them? I can see them with OOXML as ISO saying "we have an ISO standard" and then put in something that's truly fixed (also proprietary and designed to automatically be native), much of the public won't know it is not 'the standard' but believe it is because thats how PR wants it. And then we have this mess again.
Yeah, I notices a web browser was sorely lacking as well.
I tried switching the virtual X desktops, didn't work (as in the popup still popped up). Though you could go to a command line and kill the process...
Not everyone is born healthy and not everyone can be treated as easily. Some races, families, etc. are predisposed with certain conditions based on ancestral genetics.
Just because people are "healthy" does not mean that they will cost less for insurance, what happens if they hit their head and turn up in a coma. Same thing can be said of people who are considered unhealthy - I have seen many of report of some 100 year old man or woman who attests their long life was in part to smoking regularly.
And while good physical health can be measured, what about mental health? What if the person is built like a Olympian but has the instincts of a lemming?
Thinking of physical/mental attributes and employability I know many great people who excel despite their health problems Steven Hawking and FDR come immediately to mind.
And how much would they tag on to Helen Keller if she were getting such insurance???
Lets face it Insurance companies aren't in it for helping people and they aren't in it for helping the businesses they sell insurance to, they are in it for profit. If they can get away with taking a profit over a little bit more human suffering (again and again) then they will do it to satisfy their corporate mandate to be profitable.
Yeah I hope whoever does it has an electric guitar that can do 4/4 time so they can relieve the energy of the beer atom splitting. Why, yes, Ive seen that documentary on young Einstein.
The Commodore 64 WebIt a 486 laptop bottom half with Windows 3.1 and a pre-loaded 64 emulator.
From a compnay that likes to change things majorly somewhat regularly.
Best to have high speed internet for those not too uncommon 300MB+ of software updates.
As long as you use Mac Servers, Windows or Samba servers are another matter...
I take it you don't use Office 2004. Though I must say there are even better backup options like Unison (sync multiple computers) or SuperDuper (which can restore from bare metal!)
Yeah, I'm real "happy" that Apple Inc. (not Apple Computer) released a phone and a TV box at the last MacWorld Expo... I guess if I was a non-business user everything would be just peachy.
Some that come to mind - iPhoto (Wastes a lot of disk space no cleanup options), iWork (the two apps are cool but the suite is largely incomplete, not to mention totally incompatible with its predecessor, AppleWorks), iCal (can never seem to get the ics files from iCal to work on other programs...)
You mean that time where the Mac catalogs were thick with some great variety of productivity software and games, and programs such as Microsoft Project, Dragon Power Secretary, OmniForm, etc. were for sale??? There was a wide choice of Mac platforms (Mac Clones); and most - if not all of your older software "just worked" on the new OS/machines. Yeah, that time really sucked for us.
Oh yeah, Linux Baby! No more corporate whim.
See you on the other side.
Think of it this way there is more than 20 years of kludge in OOXML, and it spans 6000 pages of descriptions (actually more as some are just entries of characteristics and not functional descriptions.) ODF cuts right to the chase, cleans out all the bloat and give a solid across-the board logical base to expand on.
Every so often you gotta re-invent the wheel because the old one just cant handle all the patches., and I think ODF is just the thing.
Vista is a new brand while OSX has been around since what, 2000? It's like comparing the Toyota Prius to the VW Beetle.
Any new brand will rapidly increase market share compared to any other long standing one... well except maybe the Zune.
The thing about the iPod and Zune is the way the companies handle the users' experience, iPod does a lot to make the experience enjoyable for the user and hides all the stuff that the user shouldn't do. Installation is pretty straight forward. If you want to copy a file the options are grayed out etc.
On the Windows related player products I've seen and I am assuming the Zune you get similar - some extended install session - a wierd DRM connection/verification process proving that you are you, then pop-ups with warnings, etc. before you can do anything. And I bet lots of warnings about songs not being squirt able, or that they are about to expire in XX hours,etc. So the user is constantly reminded of what can't be done and not just presented with what can be.
Microsoft does well is lots of dialog pop-up boxes, warnings confirmations, etc. Many of Apple's programs adjust the programs to not interrupt the user experience.
I translate that as if you "wrote" it you own what you create, as it is a part of you. So MS does not really own things they paid people to write, they are merely leasing the right to use them - these people never lost anything in their employ, unless they believe the papers companies have them sign.
It fits in with the TRON implication about programs being the spirit of the users who wrote them so it's fine by me.
Kinda makes me wonder about those twisted spirits in the Sony DRM though.
ODF's design may make it attractive to those users that are interested in a particular level of functionality in their productivity suite or developers who want to work that format.
ODF's design may be attractive to people who do productivity or programming (at a particular level, which we don't elaborate on)
Open XML may be more attractive to those who want richer functionality[...]
Open XML may be more attractive tho those who want more functionality (of what we again don't elaborate on)
This is not to say that one is better than the other -- just that they meet different needs in the marketplace.
So instead of saying they both pretty much do similar things, we'll just say it's all just Apples and Oranges.
I know of one misuse, is the overuse of popup lists in forms, especially when entering dates (one popup for month, one for day, and another for year)
When people are entering alphanumeric data give them as much keyboard access as possible, leaving the keyboard just adds to the entry time, stress injuries as well as potential for typing errors (reorienting to typing position after mouse usage.)
The second is popups instead of checklists and radio/selection lists, which add to the mouse gymnastics to select one or more options from a single line field.
It may be easier to make the popups (unfortunately many tutorials use date popups as an early example of web programming), either way you still have to validate the information, so take the extra effort to out in a generic text box, checklist or selection list and add a few more lines of validation code.
From the parent post of changed features I would suspect they either re-wrote the app, or replaced it and attempted to make it somewhat similar. Probably because they don't have the original crew to maintain the original code anymore. Happens too often.
I've been debating getting a Game Cube or PlayStation 2, now maybe I'll seriously look at the PS2. :-) Prices are soo much better at the trailing edge.
Otherwise I get a headache real fast!
Why do you think he used a symbol for a bunch of years, because some music company owned the name "Prince" and he could not use it (or not inexpensively). There is an interview with Kevin Smith where he relays that the artist is pretty bitter of the recording industry.
The thing is that a lot of these DRM tactics are not the doings of the actual artists but of the recording industry which has rights to specific recordings (exmaple say Joe Cocker's recording of "With A Little Help From My Friends"), and if that particular recording is popular they (the record company) want to squeeze every last penny out of it's use. Which sometimes means strategically limiting wide distribution (which probably won't benefit the singer's career) in order to bring up the demand as it is not so obtainable and thus the price.
But this is surely the wrong approach.
/.er said it probably will also center around being Windows only). Which will be to the joy of one security company and result in legal action from a bunch of others.
I can imagine:
- The IT guys at the banks are probably going to define some thin definition of security (as another
- The bank will still have breaches as they find that the security measures for that circumstance may work, but when connected wirelessly or at a hotel room, not to mention advances in virtulization, etc. it then becomes a completely different matter, and then they have to add more rules and regs. etc.
Can I offer a near perfect solution, yes, no on-line banking from anything not owned and maintained 100% from the bank (which includes the wires connecting the system, and where the remote units are housed).
Looked at the link, lots of PHB management speak there.
Seems like part of the underlying theme is 'you can have innovation and still use your old software too' or something to that affect.
So MS sees that what keeps their users MS customers is 'stuff that they are currently running', so I figure they will kludge up something to make the old stuff more accessible (terminal services, virtalization, etc.) then try to wedge in and displace it with shiny mew MS-centric technologies.
If it weren't for the old Windows Apps users probably would look for something else be it Linux, Solaris, Mac, or whatever and MS knows it.
A) Its cheaper and faster (more profit)
B) Nobody has complained (much) before about it
C) They don't really posses the skillset to do it properly
D) Because someone ignorant of the above, probably paid them to.
I was sixth born! :-(
Color lasers are not all that cheap, besides the color toner (which is usually double the price of black toner or more) lasers have a bunch more hardware that needs replacement, such as the drum or imager roll, fuser, and fuser roll, then some may also have the charge grid, etc.
Look at the Xerox laser parts list to get an idea, you usually don't see it in the HP list as in the fine print the fuser and other parts fall under service and maintenance (you pay them to replace it).
One that has pretty compelling costs is the Solid Ink printers (which we refer to at work as the "Crayon Jets" which are part wax based inks (look a lot like big chunks of crayon) and full-width inkjet printing. Vibrant color as lasers, very fast printing (even duplexing), though the 'ink' is a lower melting point then toner so you can't heat laminate them with good results.
After a year or so of use page cost is about 7 cents a page (factoring in costs of ink and the maintenance kit, which is the only other replacement part) This is with printing bunches of signs and brochures.
They have a multifunction solid ink all-in-one but that's overkill for us so I can't say much more about it.
- the 3rd party inks are about $3 each
- inktanks aren't chiped
- there is a lot of good web articles on maintenece.
- provides a flatbet scanner and inkjet.
- interfaces for USB and Parallel
- The downsidse is is is slow compared to more recent machines
Stupid! Stupid!
When you've got solamanite, you've got nothing!
(Yeah, its one of my fave movies)
Quicken Loans
Is that kind of like "Pepsi Pharmaceutical"?