IBM does not want to compete with Intel on the x86 market.
They are also unlikely to go into a business that is dependent on MS (x86 sales depend on Windows running on your processors). I am not suggesting that MS will make Windows NOT run on AMD, but they could do a Skype. They regard IBM as a competitor (in operating systems, databases, probably lots of other stuff) and a dangerous backer of the "Linux cancer".
Yes, I do know they use a Power PC processor in the x-box, but that does nothing to give IBM any influence on the PC or server markets.
I hate it that every seems to assume that if you believe in God, you must also believe that we should have prayer in schools, that evolution should not be taught, and all sorts of other "religious" ideas.
That is because they need to believe that religious == mad fundamentalist to justify their atheism. This is Slashdot, you are not talking about people who are atheists because of of deep philosophical analysis (the average Slashdotter is not exactly Hume). They are atheists because that is what they WANT to believe - remarkably like the fundamentalists in fact.
You would not get the same attitude from people who think about these things, who have doubts, and who put time and effort into seeking the truth - and that is true whatever conclusion they come to.
I am a religious person, very religious. Nevertheless, I rarely agree with the "Christian Right." I believe that the state needs to maintain a hands-off policy towards religion. So, even though the country 90+% religious, it doesn't mean that the country is 90+% bigoted or 90+% fanatic or 90+% completely out of our mind.
I am religious too, and I find the attitudes on Slashdot irritating. I do not know if it an American thing (you do have a lot of fundamentalists there), or simply the immaturity of a "community" that is largely ignorant of anything that does not run on a PC, and largely lives in their parents basements.
Just remember that these people are just ignorant. Why do you think that there are so many people who link to the Fly Spaghetti Monster in their sig? They think that it is a valid argument - they are so ignorant of the reasons for religious beliefs that they fall for the most transparent straw man.
Yes, but that is a recent trend, possibly a reaction to fundamentalism. It would be interesting to see the numbers in countries where there is less fundamentalism.
The page you link to also confirms something that has been known for some time, that biologists are far more likely to be atheists than physicists.
You should know that the world's largest organised religious institution opposes the teaching of creationism is schools, and accepts evolution as good science.
If you did not know what, you are obviously clueless: it has been mentioned Slashdot, the Scientific American website, and almost every serious discussion I have read on the issue.
The Slashdot naive atheist groupthink is getting really irritating.
You mean is supposed to make people more productive? I thought it was playing games, and reading at work tipping off the boss by having a book/magazine/newspaper visible.
the user-friendly microsoft operating systems
Please do not feed the troll. Well, let this be the troll's last meal.
Why assume he is trolling? "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence." Assume that the only other OS he has used is DOS, then you can understand why he thinks Windows is user-friendly.
We do not watch sports. I might do so if I lived near something I wanted to see live (that has not been true since I lived in Wimbledon a long time ago).
I know a lot of people who have TVs primarily for sports (at least sports are the reason they will not give up the TV), but they end up watching a lot of other stuff as well.
As for what we do: web surfing, reading, listening to the radio (usually a background to something else), talking, going out, entertaining (we either go out or have visitors about one evening in three)
Its because the parent are too addicted to the TV themselves to turn it off.
People are astonished that we do not have a TV. It is good for us, and good for our daughter. However, most people would no more give up their TV, any more than a heroin addict will give up their drug.
You have to maintain your PC just like you would a Linux (or any other) machine.
But then you say:
Remove old nasty drivers, keep drivers up to date. Clean up the registry. Make sure you run a firewall (or have a router at least). Run anti-virus software. Be careful about what you run/install.
Let me break that down item by item, and compare it with what I do on aLinux PC.
Remove old nasty drivers
Never bother with that
keep drivers up to date
Done automatically
Clean up the registry
It does not have a registry
Make sure you run a firewall (or have a router at least)
OK I do that, but it is not essential as my distro (by default) has no services that accept requests other than from the local machine.
Be careful about what you run/install.
Sort of true. Most of what I install comes from a repositary, signed. Anything unsigned causes the package manager to warn me, and pop up a window asking for confirmation. If someone emailed me an executable, it would not be marked as one by the email client so it would not run unless I first saved it and changed the file properties. So for this one, in theory yes, in practice it is a non-issue.
So what was that similarity between maintaining Windows and Linux PCs again?
Incidentally, the site linked to from my sig is generated from a latex file. I have some TCL scripts that parse the Latex and generate more Latex files for the index pages.
I did it this was so that I could also do a printversion from the same source document.
For example, it cannot produce print and HTML versions of the same document. This may not matter to everyone, but it was something I needed, so I stuck to Latex.
If you looked at my comment in the context of the comment that I was rebutting you would realise that what you are saying is irrelavent.
I quite agree with you, but if you look further up the thread you will see a comment by Flying pig which could be summarised as "Islamic civilisation was wonderfully peaceful and tolerant until they were attacked and impoverished by Christians". That is what I wanted to rebut.
That matters you are running a vocational training college for clerical staff.
If you are running a university it should not. If people feel they need to "know" MS Office, then they can spend a day or to getting to know it in their own time.
Most people only have to know how to use a word processor to write a letter and basic use of a spreadsheet - it is not as if they need to spend weeks learning VBA to be able to do what employers expect.
By modern standards of course, these are barbarous options, but they are positively courtly compared to the behaviour of the crusaders a few centuries later.
OF course you could compare the crusaders to, say, the Ottoman Turks.
Slashdot Mirror
They are also unlikely to go into a business that is dependent on MS (x86 sales depend on Windows running on your processors). I am not suggesting that MS will make Windows NOT run on AMD, but they could do a Skype. They regard IBM as a competitor (in operating systems, databases, probably lots of other stuff) and a dangerous backer of the "Linux cancer".
Yes, I do know they use a Power PC processor in the x-box, but that does nothing to give IBM any influence on the PC or server markets.
Google for "Islam creationism" and you will find LOTS for material for that approach.
While obviously not a proper scientific theory, it does demonstrate that evolution is consistent with Christian beliefs.
That is because they need to believe that religious == mad fundamentalist to justify their atheism. This is Slashdot, you are not talking about people who are atheists because of of deep philosophical analysis (the average Slashdotter is not exactly Hume). They are atheists because that is what they WANT to believe - remarkably like the fundamentalists in fact.
You would not get the same attitude from people who think about these things, who have doubts, and who put time and effort into seeking the truth - and that is true whatever conclusion they come to.
I am religious too, and I find the attitudes on Slashdot irritating. I do not know if it an American thing (you do have a lot of fundamentalists there), or simply the immaturity of a "community" that is largely ignorant of anything that does not run on a PC, and largely lives in their parents basements.
Just remember that these people are just ignorant. Why do you think that there are so many people who link to the Fly Spaghetti Monster in their sig? They think that it is a valid argument - they are so ignorant of the reasons for religious beliefs that they fall for the most transparent straw man.
Yes, but that is a recent trend, possibly a reaction to fundamentalism. It would be interesting to see the numbers in countries where there is less fundamentalism.
The page you link to also confirms something that has been known for some time, that biologists are far more likely to be atheists than physicists.
You should know that the world's largest organised religious institution opposes the teaching of creationism is schools, and accepts evolution as good science.
If you did not know what, you are obviously clueless: it has been mentioned Slashdot, the Scientific American website, and almost every serious discussion I have read on the issue.
The Slashdot naive atheist groupthink is getting really irritating.
I think "God" on banknotes means the god Mammon. The people in charge of the world's money obviously make that choice.
You mean is supposed to make people more productive? I thought it was playing games, and reading at work tipping off the boss by having a book /magazine/newspaper visible.
Why assume he is trolling? "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence." Assume that the only other OS he has used is DOS, then you can understand why he thinks Windows is user-friendly.
Alternatives:
I think we all know what he means.
Given how often Slashdot quotes from The Register, that should be expected
Does the rest of the world understand that reference?
We do not watch sports. I might do so if I lived near something I wanted to see live (that has not been true since I lived in Wimbledon a long time ago).
I know a lot of people who have TVs primarily for sports (at least sports are the reason they will not give up the TV), but they end up watching a lot of other stuff as well.
As for what we do: web surfing, reading, listening to the radio (usually a background to something else), talking, going out, entertaining (we either go out or have visitors about one evening in three)
People are astonished that we do not have a TV. It is good for us, and good for our daughter. However, most people would no more give up their TV, any more than a heroin addict will give up their drug.
But then you say:
Let me break that down item by item, and compare it with what I do on aLinux PC.
Never bother with that Done automatically It does not have a registry OK I do that, but it is not essential as my distro (by default) has no services that accept requests other than from the local machine. Sort of true. Most of what I install comes from a repositary, signed. Anything unsigned causes the package manager to warn me, and pop up a window asking for confirmation. If someone emailed me an executable, it would not be marked as one by the email client so it would not run unless I first saved it and changed the file properties. So for this one, in theory yes, in practice it is a non-issue.So what was that similarity between maintaining Windows and Linux PCs again?
Yes, there is a far stronger case for making rubella mandatory, in fact there is a strong case for making lots of medical treatment mandatory.
Some of us believe in individual choice, and until you are an adult, at 18 or so, the best people to make the choice are your parents.
I would not want anyone coming along and saying that my daughter MUST have a particular vaccine.
And let that be a warning to anyone considering buying anything that only works on one platform.
Organisations that would never even consider allowing themselves to be locked into a single vendor for anything else, happily do so with IT.
We now know that you reply to comments without reading the documents they link to.
I did it this was so that I could also do a print version from the same source document.
Given what has happened to other people who have found or disclosed vulnerabilities, that is probably more of a risk than attacking the site.
This has been discussed on Slashdot before.
Context has its weaknesses too.
For example, it cannot produce print and HTML versions of the same document. This may not matter to everyone, but it was something I needed, so I stuck to Latex.
Latex: its not that hard to learn.
Lyx provides a GUI front end, but you lose a lot of flexibility.
Texmacs might work for you as well, although I found it very clunky.
If you looked at my comment in the context of the comment that I was rebutting you would realise that what you are saying is irrelavent.
I quite agree with you, but if you look further up the thread you will see a comment by Flying pig which could be summarised as "Islamic civilisation was wonderfully peaceful and tolerant until they were attacked and impoverished by Christians". That is what I wanted to rebut.
If you are running a university it should not. If people feel they need to "know" MS Office, then they can spend a day or to getting to know it in their own time.
Most people only have to know how to use a word processor to write a letter and basic use of a spreadsheet - it is not as if they need to spend weeks learning VBA to be able to do what employers expect.
I would say it is more down to politics and culture.
OF course you could compare the crusaders to, say, the Ottoman Turks.