One of the people I work with had the same problem with weight watchers so I sent them an e-mail. Their first reply was a sort of boilerplate suggesting that I "upgrade" to IE6, Netscape 7.0, or Safari. I sent back a reply, and here is their last reply to me (on April 19):
Dear (my name),
At this time, we support Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Safari browsers. We understand your desire to use Firefox and other browsers to view our website and we understand that there are ways to configure these browsers to allow you to do so. However, results may be erratic when using our site with a non-supported browser.
If the site requirements page is blocking your access to our site because of the browser that you are using, you can click any of the links in the footer on that page, which will allow you to access the site.
We appreciate your feedback and are constantly evaluating browser usage to make decisions on which browsers to support.
Sincerely,
Albert Dyer
Supervisor, Customer Service
www.weightwatchers.com
With the exception of very advanced features, word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation packages are all very similar. Once you learn the basics of how to operate one variant, you know enough to work with the others. If an employer is using advanced features in any particular proprietary package, they most likely have to train the employee themselves anyway.
In short, no, these students will be not be any worse off for using alternatives to Microsoft Office.
I must be imagining my install of Unreal Tournament, then. This game has been with my main system through 3 versions of Red Hat (8,9,FC1) and my current Debian unstable system. Each time the installer worked without a hitch and I was up and running in no time.
Could you please point out one single Data DVD burning feature that you have to pay for? You make these vague assertions and then don't back them up with anything.
I don't want to be a grammar nazi, but this is the third or fourth post in this thread with that mistake. It distracts me from what you are saying and makes me less likely to trust your analysis.
What a bunch of crap. Lobbyists don't educate, they advocate. They are paid to convince your representative to act in a manner which is unlikely to be in the best interest of the majority of their constituents.
As for "shouldn't business be given the opportunity to express itself", I say no. A corporation (despite that abomination of a court ruling) is not a person. It's interests are often in conflict with those that are supposedly being represented by the congressperson. Yet its voice is magnified by the millions of dollars of influence it wields. It is a legal form of bribery.
But the point of the article was that Verisign was not enforcing its own rules. Some of the company names on the certificates were FAKED. In that instance you can't verify who the software is FROM in any meaningful way.
At least part of the problem is that Verisign is unwilling to make even the smallest effort to end trickery using its service.
I wish I had mod points for you. Unfortunately, I spent them frivolously earlier today:-(
What is Microsoft's problem with fully supporting open standards? I mean, it's not like they have a really usable alternative to semi-transparent PNGs so why not just follow the standard?
Every time I think about how easy it would be to improve web sites with transparency I get worked up all over again.
As far as I can tell, you don't have an argument. Did I miss all the data links in your post? Let's see...
Let's put 8 different versions of OpenOffice Writer on millions of machines (10% of which have defective hardware, viruses, etc), and see how well works.
This really seems like a "grass is greener" issue. MSOffice has been everywhere for a long time and of course problems sometime crop up. But nobody really knows if OpenOffice interoperates better with itself because it has never been tried.
(And yes, I know about the XML format, but that doesn't prevent intrepetation/implementaiton issues.)
"No, I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist."
It seems to me that he's calling copyleft supporters "modern-day sort of communists" and then distorting their philosopy to his own ends. I'd say that the grandparent post is more accurate than yours.
I've been running Debian Unstable on my home machine for a few months and I have to say that it's every bit as stable as the Fedora install it replaced on the same hardware. It's my main desktop at home and gets quite a workout.
The Debian "unstable" branch is as stable (at least for me) as any Linux distribution that I have used. Fast, too.
By that logic, physicists should stop using higher math to describe phenomena because it only makes sense to "hard-core physics geeks".
The terminology is used because it is accurate. I would hate for technical endeavors to sacrifice accuracy in the name of preventing "newbie" confusion.
Slashdot Mirror
James Turner, Dee-Ann LeBlanc, Steve Suehring, I just wanted to express my sincere admiration for your fine example of journalistic integrity.
I want you to know that whatever publication snaps you up, I'm buying a subscription (or subscriptions)!
One of the people I work with had the same problem with weight watchers so I sent them an e-mail. Their first reply was a sort of boilerplate suggesting that I "upgrade" to IE6, Netscape 7.0, or Safari. I sent back a reply, and here is their last reply to me (on April 19):
Dear (my name),
At this time, we support Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Safari browsers. We understand your desire to use Firefox and other browsers to view our website and we understand that there are ways to configure these browsers to allow you to do so. However, results may be erratic when using our site with a non-supported browser.
If the site requirements page is blocking your access to our site because of the browser that you are using, you can click any of the links in the footer on that page, which will allow you to access the site.
We appreciate your feedback and are constantly evaluating browser usage to make decisions on which browsers to support.
Sincerely,
Albert Dyer
Supervisor, Customer Service
www.weightwatchers.com
At least I got a reply back.
With the exception of very advanced features, word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation packages are all very similar. Once you learn the basics of how to operate one variant, you know enough to work with the others. If an employer is using advanced features in any particular proprietary package, they most likely have to train the employee themselves anyway.
In short, no, these students will be not be any worse off for using alternatives to Microsoft Office.
Oh, come on, crackmods! Parent is obviously +5 funny (and in need of a link to Spellbound, the Mozilla/Firefox spell checker extension)
I must be imagining my install of Unreal Tournament, then. This game has been with my main system through 3 versions of Red Hat (8,9,FC1) and my current Debian unstable system. Each time the installer worked without a hitch and I was up and running in no time.
Can't you people use html?
Firefox MSI
GPO support for Firefox
Could you please point out one single Data DVD burning feature that you have to pay for? You make these vague assertions and then don't back them up with anything.
Arrrgh! The word is "oriented" NOT "orientated".
I don't want to be a grammar nazi, but this is the third or fourth post in this thread with that mistake. It distracts me from what you are saying and makes me less likely to trust your analysis.
You said:
They're collections of code that don't give a shit either way who says what about them. People have instilled emotional attachment into these things.
And your sig reads (at this point in time):
"Firefox with two tabs: 49,532K Opera with two tabs: 20,188K Opera with 13 tabs: 31,780K"
I would argue that you have some "emotional attachment" for some "collections of code" yourself considering your sig.
This is in offtopic response to your sig. You should check out the spellbound Firefox extension.
What a bunch of crap. Lobbyists don't educate, they advocate. They are paid to convince your representative to act in a manner which is unlikely to be in the best interest of the majority of their constituents.
As for "shouldn't business be given the opportunity to express itself", I say no. A corporation (despite that abomination of a court ruling) is not a person. It's interests are often in conflict with those that are supposedly being represented by the congressperson. Yet its voice is magnified by the millions of dollars of influence it wields. It is a legal form of bribery.
But the point of the article was that Verisign was not enforcing its own rules. Some of the company names on the certificates were FAKED. In that instance you can't verify who the software is FROM in any meaningful way.
At least part of the problem is that Verisign is unwilling to make even the smallest effort to end trickery using its service.
According to Bruce Morgan at the IE Weblog, implementing transparent PNG is "one of the top developer requests"
I wish I had mod points for you. Unfortunately, I spent them frivolously earlier today :-(
What is Microsoft's problem with fully supporting open standards? I mean, it's not like they have a really usable alternative to semi-transparent PNGs so why not just follow the standard?
Every time I think about how easy it would be to improve web sites with transparency I get worked up all over again.
What problems do you have with CD/DVD burning? I use K3B and I like it better than any other CD burning software that I've used (even Nero).
As far as I can tell, you don't have an argument. Did I miss all the data links in your post? Let's see...
Let's put 8 different versions of OpenOffice Writer on millions of machines (10% of which have defective hardware, viruses, etc), and see how well works. This really seems like a "grass is greener" issue. MSOffice has been everywhere for a long time and of course problems sometime crop up. But nobody really knows if OpenOffice interoperates better with itself because it has never been tried. (And yes, I know about the XML format, but that doesn't prevent intrepetation/implementaiton issues.)
Nope, no information in your post.
I'm not trying to single you out since I see it on slashdot frequently, but what do you think "noone" means?
It's two words: no one
If you have to run some words together, do it the right way. Use nobody.
Do you see any desktop linux users?
I do. Every morning at work and whenever I look in a mirror.
You never answered this question:
In what way are its toolbars any less configurable than MSIEs or is it slower anyway? I find it is faster and more configurable...
I'm curious as to why you think that too...
I don't think I've EVER been to the Best Buy website.
Gates said:
"No, I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist."
It seems to me that he's calling copyleft supporters "modern-day sort of communists" and then distorting their philosopy to his own ends. I'd say that the grandparent post is more accurate than yours.
I've been running Debian Unstable on my home machine for a few months and I have to say that it's every bit as stable as the Fedora install it replaced on the same hardware. It's my main desktop at home and gets quite a workout.
The Debian "unstable" branch is as stable (at least for me) as any Linux distribution that I have used. Fast, too.
I have a TV tuner card in my PC. I usually have it running in a window while I surf.
By that logic, physicists should stop using higher math to describe phenomena because it only makes sense to "hard-core physics geeks".
The terminology is used because it is accurate. I would hate for technical endeavors to sacrifice accuracy in the name of preventing "newbie" confusion.
The chances of being hit by an asteroid are EXACTLY THE SAME no matter what generation of humans observes the phenomenon.