Gates says that despite the threats, "the opportunity for us to lead is very clear."
"More than any other company, we have the vision, assets, experience, and aspirations to deliver experiences and solutions across the entire range of digital workstyle & digital lifestyle scenarios, and to do so at scale, reaching users, developers and businesses across all markets."
Yeah, it's that 'expereince' you plan to deliver that gives us all the willies.
That usually translates to 'reckless' and 'half-assed' when a desperate market leader is trying to implement something behind the competition.
As one earlier posters put it they will now be on a featuritis binge that made whe mess that is at the core of previous Windows but now probably for Longhorn. Just watch all the department head battle to get thier standardards standardized and how many last minute things get squeezed into their products.
I'm not the biggest fan of Microsoft, but I did have honest hopes they were going to get a lot of it fixed with Vista so my work, friends and family will stop calling me to clean up MSs mess. Now it kind of sounds like the mess will be there, though this time it will be on the ISPs...
Your kid still needs to develop some of the basic coping skills and also imagine stuff for themselves without having folks shove reality at them wheil they are still developing. I'm a big fan for computers and all but having worked in the Child Development field (as a techie) I have come to understand all this new fangled stuff is fine and dandy but there are basic things kids really NEED to do besides bury themselves into electronic gadgetland... How about play with others, draw on blank sheets of paper, build castles out of wooden blocks, run around the house in underoos and a blanket as a cape.
Guys, please don't rob this generation of the discoveries of childhood, though I am sure the MPAA and RIAA would like you to continue to raise your little consumer over a little creator any day. Please just give them a chance to develop thier imagination and motor skills.
You remmeber the TV show Cheers, where the postma character, Cliff Claven, always has an andwer to everything (not usually the right or a complete answer, but an official sounding one none the less.
I think we have way too many Cliff Clavens writing press stories, standing in front of cameras and speaking into microphones. And the reason we do is because others use them to play into whatever agendas they are trying to sell. This is in part businesses who see more profit in ignorant people paying thier monthly DRM fees snd replace thier old TVs with HDTV, or those who fear that thier corner on the market is threatened by alternative new methods or technology, or those who wish to have people doing something to maximize thier benefit.
All of this at its root is too many people only looking at life as "what's in it for me" and trying to get 'thier cut' of fame, money, or ego at the expense of pretty much anyone else. We have lost (or are not as much aware) of a sense of community and helping everyone, making the decision to do what is right and making sure that our fellow people are doing likewise.
Some of that stuff that we may need to do isn't all that popular (diet, not play so much games, work harder, give up comfort, take time and effort without much reward to show for it, etc.) and that's the hard sell.
Part of that is the freedom of speech thing, (which is important, don't get me wrong). But not where people are all out there all all trying to push the envelope with bad logic being thought as true and twisted views on what is right, there needs to be a check and balance of responsibility somewhere which we are missing. In general the solution just isn't easy.
At work my FoxBase +/Mc apps have been serving us well but since Microsoft dropped support for FoxProMac and the Windows version was not up to my liking I started to look for something different. My choice came from these observations:
a) I could go the mac route with new expensive DB apps (and OSs, and hardware, and Servers), and cross my fingers those DB companies will still be alive in the next few years and that they would be sufficiently cross-platform.
b) Go the windows route and suffer the slings of the cracker community and the arrows of MS's' licensing and upgrade options.
c) Develop on OS tools that are on par with what MS has but more flexible and acesssible, enjoy a community of people also just trying to get things done, work with one of the more popular emerging technologies - web based applications - which also will make overall management much more easier.
So in short I saw more solutions and opportunities with Linux down the road than the other routes which seemd like thay would just eventually be a repeat of where was then.
Some of the plug and play features and manual quick-start guides, as nice as they are, make the programmer less aware that there may be better ways to accomplish tasks.
I can't talk for VS.NET, but back when I playing with FoxPro2.6, and was adapting my distruted database system to it. I once responded to a discussion that "Doing a Distributed system was 'impossible' with FoxPro." I responded that if you don't use the wizards you can code it to do just about anything, his reply: "Well, that's cheating." I think others probably have such a tunnel vision view of "if it can't be done with a MS wizard it probably needs more updates or can't be done."
I am sure most folks are right when they say the tools are top notch but probably the procedures that people are taught to use with it are not.
I can assure you the Commodore 64 has had a presence at all the VCFs and this year is no exception with the demonstration of the Q-Link Reloaded, Q-Link recreated over the internet - for the Commodore 64! (or 64 emulator)
Probably more than likely, I myself have been there since the first one, and at times convert data and programs for folks who have the disks and not the computer. Though my forte is Commodore 8-bits (mainly the PETs) but I've ssen people demoing thier TRS-80s, and older CP/M units, etc. If there is any place you can find someone who knows how to do it (or can do it) VCF is the place to go.
Is that some folk who live in hilly or mountainous regions where you would have to have lots of access points to ensure any sort of decent coverage. Probably one of the reason people are looking at airship transmitters.
Some folk in our area can't get anything as they are too remote for lines, to hily for towers and those same hills and trees block sattelite access.
And those who have Macs also experience the irritating crashes of MS Word the lack of support from MS beyond Office. Examples are an outdated Internet Explorer, no Access database or Publisher, etc. when others send you those proprietary documents and say all you have to do is to install them from your Office CD, those writers feel and see the MS push for vendor lock-in.
I second that, it's an excellent place to experience computing history. Its not just old micros, there's a lot of big iron and a few past supercomputers in the museum, examples of various forms of storage, and a couple re-creations of old technology (as in getting a PDP-1 or a large IBM mainframe operational for educational and preservation purposes.
On November 5th and 6th the CHM will host the 8th West Coast Vintage Computer Festival which is a conference/expo of sorts of vintage computing enthusiasts and luminaries, definately a great time to take in two computing history experiences at the same time!
Check out my site for pictures of some previous VCFs and the CHM (in its old and new digs).
is that it captures a post boot image into flash and will flush it out if you cange something in the core os or hardware. The only thing I wqorry about is if you get some sort of corruption of the image without being reconfigured (like proxy poisoning). I'm assuming (if it uses such a method) it would be well checksummed for integrity.
Sacramento is below or at sea level, remember the delta is held in by levees (now where id I hear about levees recently...) The foothills is going to be beachfront, and don't tread on my front lawn.
I like it because it is more current then printed media, if there is some fad I want to find out about (flying spagetti monster, rave, etc) Wikipedia is a good place to start and usually gets to the point way quicker then a 10 o clock newscast.
The things printed encyclopedias have over the eletronic versions is that you can access them without power, the content and language is usually suitable for all ages and if you are bored you can easily learn new things by pulling down a volume and flipping through the pages quickly (Wikipedia is kinda slow on my end).
Do computer scientists wander about with white lab coats writing on chalk boards postulating theroies of how computers work and work on theroms*. Hardly, they are more craftspeople or artists who activly work with thier medium (electronic ether, as it has no real substance) and create works that are inherently an iterpretation of thier knowledge, skills and personal style.
*With the exceptioon of Dr. Knuth and a few others who do theroize, postulate, etc.
I also see a Wiki as the best solution here, it gives a group a chance to get all those bits somewhere centralized and all the ability to flesh them out as time goes on. I'm in the process of setting up my first Wiki at work.
If security is a concern look for a business suited Wiki like TWIKI (twiki.org) which includes access levels and such.
What about other countries, will our juges get training from other countries to enforce thier IP laws and do likewise... you know like we particiapte in the UN with treaties like the Kyoto one.
Like I'm really want to keep a copy of the new Planet of the Apes movie or the new Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy... Studios only wish I wanted those so badly.
Maybe thet's it, people will realize what turkys they are when Peerflix gets flooded with those loosers.
Yep, to me too, it's painful just looking at it. Didn't they learn with the little chiclet one on the original, now they take that unwildy design and make it more unwieldy. Oww!
Dollar Tree sells smallish (6"x10" or so) interlocking plastic crates. These crates can store 11 standard sized DVDs cases per crate.
Don't buy those fancy grooved CD towers, get one that goes up six feet or more and only has rails and shelves to store all your music and installable medium (no wasted space, minimum footprint). You can get thin jewel cases for single disks and you can also find up to 4-CD standard size jewelcases for your multi-disk software sets.
Ceral boxes are great to store your comics and magazines (that tip from the Tick comics)
Microwave is a must. the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grillin' Machine is the best for hamburgers.
Slashdot Mirror
"More than any other company, we have the vision, assets, experience, and aspirations to deliver experiences and solutions across the entire range of digital workstyle & digital lifestyle scenarios, and to do so at scale, reaching users, developers and businesses across all markets." Yeah, it's that 'expereince' you plan to deliver that gives us all the willies.
BTW how are your friends, MPAA and RIAA?
Yeah, I think I saw that one, wasn't it on the Spice Channel and wasn't Ron Jereny in the Steve Balmer role?
As one earlier posters put it they will now be on a featuritis binge that made whe mess that is at the core of previous Windows but now probably for Longhorn. Just watch all the department head battle to get thier standardards standardized and how many last minute things get squeezed into their products.
I'm not the biggest fan of Microsoft, but I did have honest hopes they were going to get a lot of it fixed with Vista so my work, friends and family will stop calling me to clean up MSs mess. Now it kind of sounds like the mess will be there, though this time it will be on the ISPs...
Your kid still needs to develop some of the basic coping skills and also imagine stuff for themselves without having folks shove reality at them wheil they are still developing. I'm a big fan for computers and all but having worked in the Child Development field (as a techie) I have come to understand all this new fangled stuff is fine and dandy but there are basic things kids really NEED to do besides bury themselves into electronic gadgetland... How about play with others, draw on blank sheets of paper, build castles out of wooden blocks, run around the house in underoos and a blanket as a cape. Guys, please don't rob this generation of the discoveries of childhood, though I am sure the MPAA and RIAA would like you to continue to raise your little consumer over a little creator any day. Please just give them a chance to develop thier imagination and motor skills.
Yep, me too. Dork Tower is one of the better gamer comics out there. I really liked thier special food edition.
I think we have way too many Cliff Clavens writing press stories, standing in front of cameras and speaking into microphones. And the reason we do is because others use them to play into whatever agendas they are trying to sell. This is in part businesses who see more profit in ignorant people paying thier monthly DRM fees snd replace thier old TVs with HDTV, or those who fear that thier corner on the market is threatened by alternative new methods or technology, or those who wish to have people doing something to maximize thier benefit.
All of this at its root is too many people only looking at life as "what's in it for me" and trying to get 'thier cut' of fame, money, or ego at the expense of pretty much anyone else. We have lost (or are not as much aware) of a sense of community and helping everyone, making the decision to do what is right and making sure that our fellow people are doing likewise.
Some of that stuff that we may need to do isn't all that popular (diet, not play so much games, work harder, give up comfort, take time and effort without much reward to show for it, etc.) and that's the hard sell.
Part of that is the freedom of speech thing, (which is important, don't get me wrong). But not where people are all out there all all trying to push the envelope with bad logic being thought as true and twisted views on what is right, there needs to be a check and balance of responsibility somewhere which we are missing. In general the solution just isn't easy.
a) I could go the mac route with new expensive DB apps (and OSs, and hardware, and Servers), and cross my fingers those DB companies will still be alive in the next few years and that they would be sufficiently cross-platform.
b) Go the windows route and suffer the slings of the cracker community and the arrows of MS's' licensing and upgrade options.
c) Develop on OS tools that are on par with what MS has but more flexible and acesssible, enjoy a community of people also just trying to get things done, work with one of the more popular emerging technologies - web based applications - which also will make overall management much more easier.
So in short I saw more solutions and opportunities with Linux down the road than the other routes which seemd like thay would just eventually be a repeat of where was then.
I can't talk for VS.NET, but back when I playing with FoxPro2.6, and was adapting my distruted database system to it. I once responded to a discussion that "Doing a Distributed system was 'impossible' with FoxPro." I responded that if you don't use the wizards you can code it to do just about anything, his reply: "Well, that's cheating." I think others probably have such a tunnel vision view of "if it can't be done with a MS wizard it probably needs more updates or can't be done."
I am sure most folks are right when they say the tools are top notch but probably the procedures that people are taught to use with it are not.
Should be fun!
Probably more than likely, I myself have been there since the first one, and at times convert data and programs for folks who have the disks and not the computer. Though my forte is Commodore 8-bits (mainly the PETs) but I've ssen people demoing thier TRS-80s, and older CP/M units, etc. If there is any place you can find someone who knows how to do it (or can do it) VCF is the place to go.
I got the foil and duct tape, noiw what do I do with it....
Some folk in our area can't get anything as they are too remote for lines, to hily for towers and those same hills and trees block sattelite access.
And those who have Macs also experience the irritating crashes of MS Word the lack of support from MS beyond Office. Examples are an outdated Internet Explorer, no Access database or Publisher, etc. when others send you those proprietary documents and say all you have to do is to install them from your Office CD, those writers feel and see the MS push for vendor lock-in.
On November 5th and 6th the CHM will host the 8th West Coast Vintage Computer Festival which is a conference/expo of sorts of vintage computing enthusiasts and luminaries, definately a great time to take in two computing history experiences at the same time!
Check out my site for pictures of some previous VCFs and the CHM (in its old and new digs).
Man, you need to upgrade your hardware if it takes THAT long to boot your system!
is that it captures a post boot image into flash and will flush it out if you cange something in the core os or hardware. The only thing I wqorry about is if you get some sort of corruption of the image without being reconfigured (like proxy poisoning). I'm assuming (if it uses such a method) it would be well checksummed for integrity.
Sacramento is below or at sea level, remember the delta is held in by levees (now where id I hear about levees recently...) The foothills is going to be beachfront, and don't tread on my front lawn.
The things printed encyclopedias have over the eletronic versions is that you can access them without power, the content and language is usually suitable for all ages and if you are bored you can easily learn new things by pulling down a volume and flipping through the pages quickly (Wikipedia is kinda slow on my end).
*With the exceptioon of Dr. Knuth and a few others who do theroize, postulate, etc.
They call it a "Use Tax" on thier tax form, been doing it for two years now. :/
If security is a concern look for a business suited Wiki like TWIKI (twiki.org) which includes access levels and such.
What about other countries, will our juges get training from other countries to enforce thier IP laws and do likewise... you know like we particiapte in the UN with treaties like the Kyoto one.
Maybe thet's it, people will realize what turkys they are when Peerflix gets flooded with those loosers.
Yep, to me too, it's painful just looking at it. Didn't they learn with the little chiclet one on the original, now they take that unwildy design and make it more unwieldy. Oww!
Don't buy those fancy grooved CD towers, get one that goes up six feet or more and only has rails and shelves to store all your music and installable medium (no wasted space, minimum footprint). You can get thin jewel cases for single disks and you can also find up to 4-CD standard size jewelcases for your multi-disk software sets.
Ceral boxes are great to store your comics and magazines (that tip from the Tick comics)
Microwave is a must. the George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grillin' Machine is the best for hamburgers.
That's all I can think off right off hand.