Cringely also seems to forget about the increased hardware costs of using a Mac. Not only does Apple hardware cost about 40% more than a white box PC of comparable performance, but replacement parts from Apple also cost a LOT more as well. This, plus the fact that most parts on a Mac are integrated on the motherboard, means that hardware maintience costs are a lot higher.
For example, if a ethernet card or a video card dies on a PC, it will take about 20 minutes to replace. Network cards are now about $20 each for a PC, and cheap AGP video cards can be found for less than $40.
If the ethernet port or video chipset on an iMac dies, however, you need to replace the whole motherboard. That can take up to an hour, and the replacement part will probably cost over $400 if it isn't under warranty.
The extra $350 and 40 minutes of labor that you just spent fixing just that one iMac could offset the cost of installing a Windows security patch on a room full of machines.
My experience with Windows crashes in XP Pro or 2000 Server is that you can usually see the BSOD for a second or two before the system automatically reboots. That should be a pretty good clue for most users that their system crashed, but it wouldn't be very helpful if the person wasn't at their keyboard when it happened.
Oh well, point taken. I guess that the feature does have a purpose, but it can still be annoying while debugging a system that is crashing repeatedly. After seeing that error five reboots in a row while trying to debug a driver issue, it starts to drive you nuts!
Actually, the error reporter service is smart enough to handle BSOD's. Once the system reboots, the error reporter notifies the user of the user of the problem (Which is stupid, because most people have a clue that there is a problems if their system suddenly reboots itself!), and gives them an option to send part of the core dump to Microsoft.
I've found the feature to be really annoying while you're trying to debug the problem, however, so I usually turn it off.
Also, don't forget that most older Windows OS's do not have the error reporting system installed, and that most of those crash logs are coming from Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 systems.
I'd bet that the 5% number would be much higher if Windows 95 and Windows 98 systems had this crash reporting software installed, because those OS'es were far less stable than Windows 2000 and XP.
The developer of the Linux router project covered many of you bullet points on his site, with an obviously different spin.
It sounds like this guy got all of the publicity and free computers that he wanted, but he STILL wasn't bringing in enough money to pay his bills.
His example is a good one to remember when deciding whether or not to open source your software projects. If you don't have enough money to eat or pay rent, NO amount of coding skills or respect from your peers is going to allow you to program for a project that isn't bringing in any revenue!
I think that everyone can agree that this guy seriously needs a day job. He should work on the Linux Router project in his spare time, but make sure that he has the money coming in to pay those bills.
Hopefully, some Slashdot reader can provide him with a position.
If Google goes public, investors will force it to become yet another huge and bloated "portal site" within 18 months. Fast and accurate searches will no longer be the priority, and the site will deluge you with Flash animation, pop-up ads, and Spyware downloads every time you do a search.
Don't believe me? Look what going public did to Excite. It was a pretty good search engine in it's day, until the company got greedy.
SCO might have written their own death warrant by suing Big Blue. IBM has more software patents than Microsoft and Oracle combined, and probably has enough legal firepower in their patent portfolio to countersue SCO out of existance.
I doubt that anyone will miss them once IBM is finished mopping the floor with them.
Yes, please provide your home address and phone number, as well. That's about all the information that I would need to credit card or bank account in your name.
Re:They're just not saying, 'cause...
on
Baked Apple
·
· Score: 1
I would have told the Apple store to keep it as well.
For the $1,500 that she would have paid to have it fixed (screen, keyboard, cleaning, and labor), she could have easily bought an iBook that was nearly as fast as her old G4.
Obviously, Slashdotters didn't visit the site enough to overload their server last time. By posting a cocky "Our servers can handle a slashdotting with ease!" article like this, however, they have pretty much guaranteed a MUCH larger response this time around.
Also, considering that the site is down 30 minutes after the posting of this article, it seems that Ace's server configuration isn't as good as he thought it was.
Actually, the Microsoft anti-trust settlement fixed the "you're stuck with IE and Outlook" problem. With the latest service packs installed, you can uninstall Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in both Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and force the defaults to another application like Mozilla or Lotus Notes.
I hate to say it, but Microsoft beat Opera to the punch with their Pocket PC phones. They have been shipping with Pocket Internet Explorer for a few months now.
Almost every terms of service contract that I've read contains a clause simular to this one:
"The terms or conditions of this agreement can be changed by (COMPANY X) at any time. Continued use of goods or services from (COMPANY X) shall be considered as acceptance of these updated terms"
In other words, the contract that you signed with your ISP when you started can be changed at any time without your prior consent. If you don't like the changes that they've made, your only recourse is to drop the service.
Your statement of freedom sounds nice, but it's probably NOT in the contract that you signed. Welcome to corporate America.
This certainly isn't the first time that an online service has distributed viruses to it's users.
Back in 1998, an online gaming service called mplayer.com (which, coincidently, is now owned by gamespy) distributed copies of the W95.CIH virus through it's automated software update system. The sad thing is that the company never admitted to it until it's users started complaining to gaming news sites about getting infected.
Another more recent example is an outbreak of Nimda in Kazaa, which was being distributed through the 1.7.1 upgrade installers of their software.
Anyway, these stories are just two more reasons why you should run updated Anti-Virus scanners 24/7 on your Windows boxes.
"How many people do you know who habitually run their Linux systems as root?
In my case, the answer is 'zero.'
So that's the end of that."
Woah, not so fast there, buddy.
Lots of the newer "user friendly" Linux distributions like Mandrake and Lycoris allow Linux newbies to install the operating system without creating a separate user account. Worse yet, some of them allow the root user to have NO password at all! As these Linux distributions get more popular and easier to use, you can expect more and more computer newbies who don't understand computer security to leave their systems logged in with administrative accounts with no passwords to protect them.
One of the main reasons that Windows is venerable to virus attacks is that it's users often aren't as security savvy as *NIX users are. All it would take is a few thousand home users running Linux logged on as root without any passwords or security patches for a Linux virus outbreak to become a reality.
1) Although that little Java app that tells me where "John" is sounds cool, I wouldn't need to use it at all if I already KNEW where he was located! I'm still wasting time looking for "John" or the closest printer if I have to use this program to find them.
2) I don't know about you, but I have FAR too much documentation at my desk to be able to carry it all with me. There is no way in hell that I can bring my 800+ page Java and SQL refrence guides with me whereever I go.
3) You're royally screwed if your job requires a customized application that isn't compatible with version of the OS running on the terminal servers. So much for dual-booting Linux on your local workstation...
Not to mention all that you're going to be wasting a bunch of time looking for co-workers if, (god forbid!) you actually wanted to TALK to them in person.
I'd see this scenario happening often...
"Gee, where is John today? Floor 2, B section? Floor 3, A section? I better give him a call first... Wait, did he say 2B-47A, or 2A-47B? Oops, better call him again..." You get the idea.
You would also have to learn where practically every printer and fax machine in the entire building is, because it would vary depending upon where you sit. Either that, or you're going to be walking 500 feet to pick up your printout because you forgot to change your default printer from yesterday.
Wow, whoever came up with this idea is quite a moron. It's almost like taking all the bad parts of working at the office and telecommuting and combining them into a living nightmare.
Slashdot Mirror
Cringely also seems to forget about the increased hardware costs of using a Mac. Not only does Apple hardware cost about 40% more than a white box PC of comparable performance, but replacement parts from Apple also cost a LOT more as well. This, plus the fact that most parts on a Mac are integrated on the motherboard, means that hardware maintience costs are a lot higher.
For example, if a ethernet card or a video card dies on a PC, it will take about 20 minutes to replace. Network cards are now about $20 each for a PC, and cheap AGP video cards can be found for less than $40.
If the ethernet port or video chipset on an iMac dies, however, you need to replace the whole motherboard. That can take up to an hour, and the replacement part will probably cost over $400 if it isn't under warranty.
The extra $350 and 40 minutes of labor that you just spent fixing just that one iMac could offset the cost of installing a Windows security patch on a room full of machines.
Hmm, good point...
My experience with Windows crashes in XP Pro or 2000 Server is that you can usually see the BSOD for a second or two before the system automatically reboots. That should be a pretty good clue for most users that their system crashed, but it wouldn't be very helpful if the person wasn't at their keyboard when it happened.
Oh well, point taken. I guess that the feature does have a purpose, but it can still be annoying while debugging a system that is crashing repeatedly. After seeing that error five reboots in a row while trying to debug a driver issue, it starts to drive you nuts!
Actually, the error reporter service is smart enough to handle BSOD's. Once the system reboots, the error reporter notifies the user of the user of the problem (Which is stupid, because most people have a clue that there is a problems if their system suddenly reboots itself!), and gives them an option to send part of the core dump to Microsoft.
I've found the feature to be really annoying while you're trying to debug the problem, however, so I usually turn it off.
Also, don't forget that most older Windows OS's do not have the error reporting system installed, and that most of those crash logs are coming from Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 systems.
I'd bet that the 5% number would be much higher if Windows 95 and Windows 98 systems had this crash reporting software installed, because those OS'es were far less stable than Windows 2000 and XP.
Actually, it reminds me of the speaker box from "Charlie's Angels" that Charlie speaks out of.
I'd imagine that it looks nicer in person, but it has a retro industrial look.
The developer of the Linux router project covered many of you bullet points on his site, with an obviously different spin.
It sounds like this guy got all of the publicity and free computers that he wanted, but he STILL wasn't bringing in enough money to pay his bills.
His example is a good one to remember when deciding whether or not to open source your software projects. If you don't have enough money to eat or pay rent, NO amount of coding skills or respect from your peers is going to allow you to program for a project that isn't bringing in any revenue!
I think that everyone can agree that this guy seriously needs a day job. He should work on the Linux Router project in his spare time, but make sure that he has the money coming in to pay those bills.
Hopefully, some Slashdot reader can provide him with a position.
I'll put up a prediction now:
If Google goes public, investors will force it to become yet another huge and bloated "portal site" within 18 months. Fast and accurate searches will no longer be the priority, and the site will deluge you with Flash animation, pop-up ads, and Spyware downloads every time you do a search.
Don't believe me? Look what going public did to Excite. It was a pretty good search engine in it's day, until the company got greedy.
"Just like DEC isn't gone and Compaq isn't gone"
They AREN'T gone. They're just owned by HP now, and a lot of their products still exist within some form at HP.
Besides, what company in the world has enough money to buy Microsoft, while still having chance of getting the deal past the anti-trust officals?
SCO might have written their own death warrant by suing Big Blue. IBM has more software patents than Microsoft and Oracle combined, and probably has enough legal firepower in their patent portfolio to countersue SCO out of existance.
I doubt that anyone will miss them once IBM is finished mopping the floor with them.
Yes, please provide your home address and phone number, as well. That's about all the information that I would need to credit card or bank account in your name.
I would have told the Apple store to keep it as well.
For the $1,500 that she would have paid to have it fixed (screen, keyboard, cleaning, and labor), she could have easily bought an iBook that was nearly as fast as her old G4.
Obviously, Slashdotters didn't visit the site enough to overload their server last time. By posting a cocky "Our servers can handle a slashdotting with ease!" article like this, however, they have pretty much guaranteed a MUCH larger response this time around.
Also, considering that the site is down 30 minutes after the posting of this article, it seems that Ace's server configuration isn't as good as he thought it was.
Actually, the Microsoft anti-trust settlement fixed the "you're stuck with IE and Outlook" problem. With the latest service packs installed, you can uninstall Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in both Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and force the defaults to another application like Mozilla or Lotus Notes.
I hate to say it, but Microsoft beat Opera to the punch with their Pocket PC phones. They have been shipping with Pocket Internet Explorer for a few months now.
Almost every terms of service contract that I've read contains a clause simular to this one: "The terms or conditions of this agreement can be changed by (COMPANY X) at any time. Continued use of goods or services from (COMPANY X) shall be considered as acceptance of these updated terms" In other words, the contract that you signed with your ISP when you started can be changed at any time without your prior consent. If you don't like the changes that they've made, your only recourse is to drop the service. Your statement of freedom sounds nice, but it's probably NOT in the contract that you signed. Welcome to corporate America.
This certainly isn't the first time that an online service has distributed viruses to it's users.
Back in 1998, an online gaming service called mplayer.com (which, coincidently, is now owned by gamespy) distributed copies of the W95.CIH virus through it's automated software update system. The sad thing is that the company never admitted to it until it's users started complaining to gaming news sites about getting infected.
Another more recent example is an outbreak of Nimda in Kazaa, which was being distributed through the 1.7.1 upgrade installers of their software.
Anyway, these stories are just two more reasons why you should run updated Anti-Virus scanners 24/7 on your Windows boxes.
"How many people do you know who habitually run their Linux systems as root?
In my case, the answer is 'zero.'
So that's the end of that."
Woah, not so fast there, buddy.
Lots of the newer "user friendly" Linux distributions like Mandrake and Lycoris allow Linux newbies to install the operating system without creating a separate user account. Worse yet, some of them allow the root user to have NO password at all! As these Linux distributions get more popular and easier to use, you can expect more and more computer newbies who don't understand computer security to leave their systems logged in with administrative accounts with no passwords to protect them.
One of the main reasons that Windows is venerable to virus attacks is that it's users often aren't as security savvy as *NIX users are. All it would take is a few thousand home users running Linux logged on as root without any passwords or security patches for a Linux virus outbreak to become a reality.
Just three things to add...
1) Although that little Java app that tells me where "John" is sounds cool, I wouldn't need to use it at all if I already KNEW where he was located! I'm still wasting time looking for "John" or the closest printer if I have to use this program to find them.
2) I don't know about you, but I have FAR too much documentation at my desk to be able to carry it all with me. There is no way in hell that I can bring my 800+ page Java and SQL refrence guides with me whereever I go.
3) You're royally screwed if your job requires a customized application that isn't compatible with version of the OS running on the terminal servers. So much for dual-booting Linux on your local workstation...
Not to mention all that you're going to be wasting a bunch of time looking for co-workers if, (god forbid!) you actually wanted to TALK to them in person. I'd see this scenario happening often... "Gee, where is John today? Floor 2, B section? Floor 3, A section? I better give him a call first... Wait, did he say 2B-47A, or 2A-47B? Oops, better call him again..." You get the idea. You would also have to learn where practically every printer and fax machine in the entire building is, because it would vary depending upon where you sit. Either that, or you're going to be walking 500 feet to pick up your printout because you forgot to change your default printer from yesterday. Wow, whoever came up with this idea is quite a moron. It's almost like taking all the bad parts of working at the office and telecommuting and combining them into a living nightmare.