The fact that a system with legitimate uses can be abused does not invalidate that system for its legitimate uses.
(Offtopic: Children playing naked on the beach is not pedophilia -- it's just pictures of children playing naked on the beach. It's not even illegal in the US. If you get turned on by it, see a psychiatrist.)
For what it's worth, the talk about the dot.bomb crash destroying the labor market is only BS if you have actual valuable skills that are in short supply, say as a C/C++ driver developer for Linux or Mac OS X, preferably with shipping products to your credit. If you are a former dot.bomb webmaster or HTML markup whiz without a college degree, you'll probably have a hard time convincing employers to hire you in this market.
You're snorting Coke, dude. What's the difference between 'Anything' and 'anything'? There is none. No one except Unix/Linux geeks expects there to be.
There are ACTUAL GUI-experts and usability exports working on GNOME.
Yeah, the same "ACTUAL GUI-experts" who created the Metal look and feel for Java's Swing and then wrote an article about Metal's "UI design." They don't understand the difference between graphic design and interaction design.
Sun (the primary mover on the gnome-HCI stuff) doesn't get UI design, dude. They're Unix geeks. Always will be. The KDE people have a much better grasp of HCI issues; too bad they're hamstrung by X Windows.
That's not quite correct. CDC's problem was that it grew big too fast; you have to remember that it rapidly become a conglomerate during the 60's, not a computer company. It didn't get even close to bankruptcy during the IBM antitrust thing. They sued IBM (and won) because they wanted to stop IBM from damaging their future supercomputer efforts by promoting vaporware in the form of the IBM 360/90, which was IBM's answer to the CDC 7600, Seymour Cray's followup to the 6600.
CDC also sold a number of non-super computers, for business tasks and such. CDC's ultimate problems were remarkably similar to those of DEC (the world advanced, but the company failed to adjust to the new realities), but by the time CDC was sold off, they had no computer or peripheral presence to speak of. So you can't blame high-end innovation for that.
Cray's problems were different -- but it's worth noting that they're still around in a form not entirely unlike their original incarnation.
At this point in time, the internet was much like some pristine wilderness, barely touched by mankind. The american west in the early 1800s, or maybe a south pacific island at the same time. Beautiful, clean. Able to go anywhere you want, and no one notices. Sure, you can't run down to the 7-11 and buy some chips and beer, and it can even be a rough place to live, but it's just so satisfying. Time could stand still, and you wouldn't complain.
Except, of course, for the possibility of getting shot for pissing off some guy in a card game, dying of cholera, dying of childbed fever, dying of gum disease....
Yes, I remember using a 300 baud modem. (You think X Windows is slow?) I remember upgrading from 2400 to 9600. I remember being a "charter member" of AOL. I remember joining my local ISP and being suddenly unable to connect anymore once it grew past a certain stage. I remember the constantly crashing web browsers of the early days. I remember email programs without filtering support.
I know this is offtopic, but romanticizing the past is so clearly bullshit.
B) Merge with someone else and put on a respectable show in the computer market.
How is Compaq's current showing respectable? Or are you referring to some magic never-neverland in which the power of two failing PC businesses combined creates another Dell?
Carly is making a play to become a services company, not a PC company. She could have done that with Compaq and without a lot of trouble. This just gives her a legitimate excuse to lay people off.
The leaders in the PC business are Apple, Sony, Dell (vomit), and Gateway (moo). HP and Compaq may or may not make money, but they're never going to be leaders (again, in the case of Compaq).
About Face is not very useful due to its lacking in rigor, IMHO. It's basically a list of the author's pet peeves. While he does present some useful advice, he doesn't back it up with any research to prove that he's right.
Also, if you can find it, Tog on Interface (Bruce Tognazzini) is an essential seminal book on HCI by one of the earliest graphical interface designers. You may not agree with him either, but he's at least done the research. Tog on Software Design is also good.
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(Offtopic: Children playing naked on the beach is not pedophilia -- it's just pictures of children playing naked on the beach. It's not even illegal in the US. If you get turned on by it, see a psychiatrist.)
Yes, moderators, this is slightly off-topic.
You're snorting Coke, dude. What's the difference between 'Anything' and 'anything'? There is none. No one except Unix/Linux geeks expects there to be.
Yeah, the same "ACTUAL GUI-experts" who created the Metal look and feel for Java's Swing and then wrote an article about Metal's "UI design." They don't understand the difference between graphic design and interaction design.
Sun (the primary mover on the gnome-HCI stuff) doesn't get UI design, dude. They're Unix geeks. Always will be. The KDE people have a much better grasp of HCI issues; too bad they're hamstrung by X Windows.
CDC also sold a number of non-super computers, for business tasks and such. CDC's ultimate problems were remarkably similar to those of DEC (the world advanced, but the company failed to adjust to the new realities), but by the time CDC was sold off, they had no computer or peripheral presence to speak of. So you can't blame high-end innovation for that.
Cray's problems were different -- but it's worth noting that they're still around in a form not entirely unlike their original incarnation.
Except, of course, for the possibility of getting shot for pissing off some guy in a card game, dying of cholera, dying of childbed fever, dying of gum disease....
Yes, I remember using a 300 baud modem. (You think X Windows is slow?) I remember upgrading from 2400 to 9600. I remember being a "charter member" of AOL. I remember joining my local ISP and being suddenly unable to connect anymore once it grew past a certain stage. I remember the constantly crashing web browsers of the early days. I remember email programs without filtering support.
I know this is offtopic, but romanticizing the past is so clearly bullshit.
How is Compaq's current showing respectable? Or are you referring to some magic never-neverland in which the power of two failing PC businesses combined creates another Dell?
Carly is making a play to become a services company, not a PC company. She could have done that with Compaq and without a lot of trouble. This just gives her a legitimate excuse to lay people off.
The leaders in the PC business are Apple, Sony, Dell (vomit), and Gateway (moo). HP and Compaq may or may not make money, but they're never going to be leaders (again, in the case of Compaq).
About Face is not very useful due to its lacking in rigor, IMHO. It's basically a list of the author's pet peeves. While he does present some useful advice, he doesn't back it up with any research to prove that he's right.
Also, if you can find it, Tog on Interface (Bruce Tognazzini) is an essential seminal book on HCI by one of the earliest graphical interface designers. You may not agree with him either, but he's at least done the research. Tog on Software Design is also good.