You're right, http://www.google.com/ig/customize only gives you a few choices (slashdot, wired, google news, and a few others). Hopefully they will expand eventually to more services.
We can all say we use these Linux office apps, but my main use of office apps come from work. Most of us I suspect would be the same. Most workplaces use MS
The MS tools are better known to more people and hence easier (and therefore cheaper) for IT departments to troubleshoot and support. This (comanies) is where the real battle for office suites is taking place
We can all use open source at home till the cows come home. But until major orgainizations see a reason to move away from office it will dominate
A compiler only will identify syntax errors in the code. It will tell if the program will run. It will not tell you that it will produce the correct result.
The types of errors that a script can test for are (and there are way more):
Are the required fields available in a window
Are the bounds correctly enforced in a field
Are values in fields retained
...
Compiling is one step to make sure a program is correct. It is only one step though...
But that is not the point of automated testing. As a member of a qa team who is developing automated tests I get comments like that every day
Automated tests are not intended to catch everything or test strange permutations of pre-conditions. There purpose is to provide a mechanism for verifying that a build satisfies the basic requirements of the project.
More exotic configs need to be tested manually as usual but automated tests can provide a "failsafe" just in case a basic part of the build is broken.
Do employees become contractual slaves while at work? Are they complete subordinates to their employer in every sense?
I wasn't saying that employees become slaves when they are working. I ws just saying that when you are at work the company has paid for the hardware, the bnadwidth, and the equipment I am using. They have a right to restrict my use of the internet to what they feel is appros.
If it was my ISP monitoring my internet use I would not like that since I pay them to use their service. They have no right to restrict me. But at work the employer has paid for it and can restrict it if they want
But I don't know how much I would like it if my bosses were monitoring my internet use at work. I just feel it is within their rights
I don't really care about what "makes sense" from a company's point of view, when the result is a restriction of my free speech.
How is it your free speech to use your company's bandwidth and server time to send emails?
You can go home and do whatever you want on your own machine. When your working you are on the company payroll so if they don't like what you are doing you should stop.
Free speech is an important right but it has nothing to do with this discussion
> This is absolutely correct. Ask the FOSS community for some features / fixes, they stand a high chance of benig included, often pretty quickly.
Exactly. One of my biggest pet peeves about big software companies is that their products get so stagnent. They try so hard to please everyone that they please no one
Microsoft may not be technically "accountable" for their software but at least if something goes wrong with it you have someone to talk to / yell at / request a fix from.
Most/.'ers are now saying: But with FOSS the fixes come from the community and are usually faster / higher quality...
That may be true but what the upper management in most companies want is a sure thing. They do not understand FOSS and do not want to understand it. They want someone to call when there is a problem and they want an assurance that it will be fixed.
Microsoft claims to offer this assurance while most FOSS firms cannot offer this assurance. That is a big reason why companies like MS are so much more successful (whether MS actually delivers any of these services is very debatable. The point is they offer them while FOSS does not)
I don't know what notepad you use but I have never heard of one that inserts eol markers on every line
I'm not a huge ms fan either but don't go making things up about them to make them look bad. That makes open source look like a bunch of immature geeks...
So does Windows XP Pro. It's called "System Restore".
If my memory of working in tech support serves me right windows xp system restore only backs up your registry
It's purpose is to be able to remove bad hardware and/or software that does not provide an effective ininstall routine. It doesn't back up any "data" files
What about those people who have no interest in downloading music legally or otherwise? Why do they have to have this cost come out of their tuition?
That unfortunatly seems to be how universities are running things now
At my school I have to pay for a transit pass, athletics fee (that does not even cover using the gym which costs extra still), a library fee, an endowment fee.... the list goes on and on
Schools find that the only way they can provide a service in a cost effective way is to have everyone participate. This seems to be pretty standard in most schools that I have seen.
Another possible solution may be to force posters to key in some numbers presented to them as an image (like slashdot does when you create a new account).
It would keep the ability to remain annon. but demand a certain level of accountability
Why do planes have black boxes in the first place?
Planes have black boxes so that after a crash engineers can look at a record of what went wrong and hopefully correct it in future planes they build
The Black boxes in cars we are talking about here are for a very different purpose: catching people who are drunk driving. I am in favour of catching slimeballs who drive wasted. The grey area comes when it is used for tracking peoples whereabouts
Eventually that will happen - I guess we have to ask is it worth the cost??
another beautiful woman like Brandi Chastain takes off her shirt
Why do I watch hockey...
Seriously I think that media giants prevent webcasts from carrying things like pro sports in any quantity.
Things over the internet are too hard for them to control. If they send it through a cable channel or (worse) pay-per-view they have control over who watches it and (to an extent) can prevent free-loaders from seeing it. No such controls exist on the internet.
Since the big company won't get as much money the big company stays out of webcasting and without big companies large scale projects on the web are impossible (just look at the ads here on slashdot)
I was being a little tongue-in-cheek with my comment. This situation is different form the sco/rest of the world battle. It just frustrates me to see companies using a lawsuits this way
What was intended to protect people from being abused and taken advantage of is now being used as a money making machine and a way to gain power without working for it. It's been intersting to watch the sage in Europe over software patents: people trying to prevent the flood of lawsuits from permutating further into the software industry
These comments are already full of analogies of how silly his point. When you act as a register or a controller over some major infastructure you have a responsibility to manage it in a fair and impartial way. If you don't no one will go to you for your services. Then you can no longer do business...
Slashdot Mirror
What the actual article is about is how Debian, Mandrake, and some other vendors are joining forces ot create a new enterprise solution.
It really has nothing to do with the package management choice as the summary suggests
and the extra second is called a leap second
You're right, http://www.google.com/ig/customize only gives you a few choices (slashdot, wired, google news, and a few others). Hopefully they will expand eventually to more services.
Google has been doing this for a long time. You just need a google account.
I agree. I read a similar speech by George Plimpton where he admonished students in a similar way
These are adults, they can handle it
We can all say we use these Linux office apps, but my main use of office apps come from work. Most of us I suspect would be the same. Most workplaces use MS
The MS tools are better known to more people and hence easier (and therefore cheaper) for IT departments to troubleshoot and support. This (comanies) is where the real battle for office suites is taking place
We can all use open source at home till the cows come home. But until major orgainizations see a reason to move away from office it will dominate
My applolgy
Nice to meet you
A compiler only will identify syntax errors in the code. It will tell if the program will run. It will not tell you that it will produce the correct result.
The types of errors that a script can test for are (and there are way more):
- Are the required fields available in a window
- Are the bounds correctly enforced in a field
- Are values in fields retained
- ...
Compiling is one step to make sure a program is correct. It is only one step though...Automated tests are not intended to catch everything or test strange permutations of pre-conditions. There purpose is to provide a mechanism for verifying that a build satisfies the basic requirements of the project.
More exotic configs need to be tested manually as usual but automated tests can provide a "failsafe" just in case a basic part of the build is broken.
There are lots of ways to have tabs in earlier versions of IE without upgrading the operating system
SlimBrowser is on that integrates into IE seamlessly and gives you tabs, pop up blacking, and all the other "obvious to everyone but ms" features
Of course the better alternative is still available
I wasn't saying that employees become slaves when they are working. I ws just saying that when you are at work the company has paid for the hardware, the bnadwidth, and the equipment I am using. They have a right to restrict my use of the internet to what they feel is appros.
If it was my ISP monitoring my internet use I would not like that since I pay them to use their service. They have no right to restrict me. But at work the employer has paid for it and can restrict it if they want
But I don't know how much I would like it if my bosses were monitoring my internet use at work. I just feel it is within their rights
How is it your free speech to use your company's bandwidth and server time to send emails?
You can go home and do whatever you want on your own machine. When your working you are on the company payroll so if they don't like what you are doing you should stop.
Free speech is an important right but it has nothing to do with this discussion
> This is absolutely correct. Ask the FOSS community for some features / fixes, they stand a high chance of benig included, often pretty quickly. Exactly. One of my biggest pet peeves about big software companies is that their products get so stagnent. They try so hard to please everyone that they please no one
So... like the opposite
Microsoft may not be technically "accountable" for their software but at least if something goes wrong with it you have someone to talk to / yell at / request a fix from.
/.'ers are now saying: But with FOSS the fixes come from the community and are usually faster / higher quality...
Most
That may be true but what the upper management in most companies want is a sure thing. They do not understand FOSS and do not want to understand it. They want someone to call when there is a problem and they want an assurance that it will be fixed.
Microsoft claims to offer this assurance while most FOSS firms cannot offer this assurance. That is a big reason why companies like MS are so much more successful (whether MS actually delivers any of these services is very debatable. The point is they offer them while FOSS does not)
I wonder what they think of other computer terms:
"jumpers" (muggers)
"mother" boards
These people have way too much time on their hands...
I don't know what notepad you use but I have never heard of one that inserts eol markers on every line
I'm not a huge ms fan either but don't go making things up about them to make them look bad. That makes open source look like a bunch of immature geeks...
Do they ever?
It's purpose is to be able to remove bad hardware and/or software that does not provide an effective ininstall routine. It doesn't back up any "data" files
At my school I have to pay for a transit pass, athletics fee (that does not even cover using the gym which costs extra still), a library fee, an endowment fee.... the list goes on and on
Schools find that the only way they can provide a service in a cost effective way is to have everyone participate. This seems to be pretty standard in most schools that I have seen.
Another possible solution may be to force posters to key in some numbers presented to them as an image (like slashdot does when you create a new account).
It would keep the ability to remain annon. but demand a certain level of accountability
The Black boxes in cars we are talking about here are for a very different purpose: catching people who are drunk driving. I am in favour of catching slimeballs who drive wasted. The grey area comes when it is used for tracking peoples whereabouts
Eventually that will happen - I guess we have to ask is it worth the cost??
Seriously I think that media giants prevent webcasts from carrying things like pro sports in any quantity.
Things over the internet are too hard for them to control. If they send it through a cable channel or (worse) pay-per-view they have control over who watches it and (to an extent) can prevent free-loaders from seeing it. No such controls exist on the internet.
Since the big company won't get as much money the big company stays out of webcasting and without big companies large scale projects on the web are impossible (just look at the ads here on slashdot)
The sad reality of a free-market world...
Very good point
I was being a little tongue-in-cheek with my comment. This situation is different form the sco/rest of the world battle. It just frustrates me to see companies using a lawsuits this way
What was intended to protect people from being abused and taken advantage of is now being used as a money making machine and a way to gain power without working for it. It's been intersting to watch the sage in Europe over software patents: people trying to prevent the flood of lawsuits from permutating further into the software industry
this almost reminds me of richard and linus vs the evil sco
some company makes a false claims that they have a copyright to some technology that they do not own any rights to
although the bad guy in this case is reversed...
I agree. This isn't innovation - it is stupid.
These comments are already full of analogies of how silly his point. When you act as a register or a controller over some major infastructure you have a responsibility to manage it in a fair and impartial way. If you don't no one will go to you for your services. Then you can no longer do business...