Yeah, but at the end of the commercial, the RIAA task force shows up with all their Uzis and M-16s to put a stop to this raucous abuse of copyrighted material.
What to look for depends on what you need/want/can afford. agreed
How old are the kids? 4, 6, and 8
Could you trust them not to destroy that nice iMac flat screen ( although honestly, it's pretty tough, my two-year-old hasn't damaged mine yet )? Hmm... I think so, they aren't that rough on my current hardware, so I don't think it is a big deal. I am not so much worried about the hardware as I am the CD-ROMs. The primary user of the PeeCee (the six year old) still hasn't gotten it through her little head how to hold the CDs so most of them are scratched all to hell... Oh well, they are her games, so let them break I say
Get yourself and maybe your kids to an Apple Store, you'll figure it out. Heh, are you new here? Seriously, I trust the general/. opinion before some sales guy who is gonna tell me for sure that the Mac will be the best thing that ever happened to my family.
In my experience, Linux users who would even consider Apple hardware absolutely love OS X once they wrap their heads around what's going on. Yeah, that is another reason I have been looking into it. I am not a zealot by any means, and I really like to tinker, a new platform is exciting for me, but I do need some justification before throwing down the dough.
Obviously you'll have to check out the system requirements of those games yourself, but I've found almost all web-based Flash and Shockwave content works fantastically on OS X these days, Macromedia has been good about supporting the platform, especially over the past year. It isn't the web-based stuff I am worried about, it is the actual CD-ROM games that Disney has out. There are usually a few game titles released for each movie that comes out, and they always have a little bit of educational value (more so than the games her older brother plays on the PS2).
I've been putting off some upgrades recently, and I have been thinking pretty hard about making 'the switch':).
Is there any advice for a Mac n00b on what to look for? I am coming from Linux and am mostly interested in a machine I can let the kids play games on. I may stick to windows if that is my only choice, but I would like to know what you guys do to keep your kids happy? and do the Disney games run on Mac since they are mostly Flash based?
I agree with what you are saying, although, I look for a good salary position with good benefits. Right now I make a decent salary, but what is important is that I have *great* insurance. With two kids and a wife, it is so much more important. A few years back, I just saw insurance as another deduction that washed right down the drain. Nowadays, without vision and dental, I would be broke paying for braces, glasses, cavities, contacts, etc., etc. Other than insurance, a lot of the smaller, lesser noticed benefits have helped out quite a bit. The company I work for has lots of deals with other companies which ends up meaning a discount for me at a lot of retail stores. All-in-all, these things end up adding up quite a bit, especially as my family grows.
Although there is a price to pay for this great treatment, I could be laid off any minute, but it isn't hard to prepare for this sort of thing, and to just take advantage of what I can while I've got it.
I think a lot of this is relative. Before I had a wife and kids, I didn't care what time I had to deal with a problem. I only cared when a company didn't reward me for the extra effort.
I worked for a small IT department in a large foster care organization. One that in-took kids 24 hours a day across the country. I didn't mind coming in if the systems went down at 3 AM, mostly because they paid me well.
My next job was at a University. Same scenario, lots of systems, few IT people. After I was denied a raise at my first annual review, I told my boss not to expect any more late hours fixing problems. After a few problems that just had to wait until 8AM the next day, I think they realized why I felt cheated. I had a VP threaten to fire me on the phone for not coming in late one night, it was great, the threat was rescinded when I asked how the press would feel about their 'family-oriented' university giving someone the can because he didn't feel like coming into work at 11PM.
I agree with the parent poster, Life is tradeoffs you have to take the good with the bad.
so that I could get one last look/see before plunking down my cash.
Call me old fashioned, but I like to get the feel for the book and see some of the content. I know that Amazon provides some sample pages, but in the store, I can get a quick glance at the entire book. Plus, lately my purchases have been for low-priced, low-quantity paperbacks. Therefore, the brick and mortar store is cheaper since I am not paying shipping/handling. The B&N membership discount helps a little too.
I am the one that originally posed the question, and I agree with the previous comment. I was just wondering why? I thought I made it clear that I wasn't resisting progress, but I will resist if there isn't good reason. I used to be a SysAdmin before moving into development at a rather large corporation and when I see change my main resistance is the amount of time that will be incurred. If the *improvement* outweighs the costs in time, I am all for it, but my problem was that I didn't see any problems. Someone set for the DHCP example, but I am pretty sure that someone else suggested starting XFS and X right away in the early runlevels. To me, the only reasons for moving away can be easily solved within the existing system. The main problem seems to be that most people aren't comfortable messing around in/etc/init.d/etc/rc*.d if that is so, I didn't see it. I am just use to being in there and found it to be rather simple. I see now that people don't find it as simple as Control Panel/Services in Windoze. If people want more ease of use, maybe really good front-ends should be built to manipulate system startup, but I don't think the init should get bloated by python and an API that even fewer people will understand than the current system.
I guess this is what I was trying to convey with my original point. Init is a system that calls shell scripts in a defined manner... When it comes to doing that, it does great. Performance of the scripts it is calling should not factor into the decision.
How? Why? Could you elaborate? That is my point... I am trying to figure out why some people hate it, since I think it works just fine. I am trying not to be biased toward it, I am just wondering what is wrong in the first place.
Dare I ask? I mean, I've never had any problems with the init process on Linux, Solaris, or HP-UX... Was there some problem or inefficiency I didn't know about?
I can certainly agree with the parent poster's opinion. Dead trees for in-depth knowledge.
However, I like to take it a step further. I use the Internet to choose which books to read!
An example, recently I decided to participate in the 'Employee Stock Purchasing' program where I work. After a few years of business courses, I still feel like a n00b when it comes to trading stocks, so I decided to buy some books on the basics of stock trading.
Rather than go straight to Barnes and Noble, I went to Amazon.com and read up on the customer reviews of different choices. I knew Amazon reviews can easily be skewed, but rather than just look at the overall rating, I actually read the reviews to see what people are saying. By taking the step to read the reviews, usually you can pick out the bull shiite canned reviews.
I ended up with a couple of books I decided to buy. I then headed to the book store with a list so that I could get one last look/see before plunking down my cash.
When I got home last night, I was very happy with my purchases. I usually perform the same process when picking books on just about any topic, especially development (my trade).
You're right... I just meant to point out that buying Epson still puts some money in HP's (deep) pockets. As long as they own the fab plants, they will continue to make tons of dough. If enough customers defected, would be able to buy their own plants and wipe HP off the planet. Oh well:) I still say that it is a good idea voicing your disapproval of their actions, that is about the only real action the people can take.
In a way, this is kind of funny... HP manufactures (mostly) all of Epson's products. That would be like screaming at Acura, then promising only to buy Honda in the future.
What you are referring to isn't a True example. It is a theoritical example.
It is clearly presented in Ken Thompson's famous paper "Reflections on Trusting Trust." It is a very good point, how much can you trust, well, trust...
I trust things to the extent that, if such exploits exist, I would be 0wn3d and there would be nothing I could do about it...
However, so would everyone else, and I am sure there are much more interesting machines to r00t than mine. By the time the l337 haxx0rz got to my machine, the exploit would have been discovered and made headlines...
I have spent a little time in IRC, and I read/. I know that doesn't make me an authority, but I have learned that most of these black hat types are so driven to earn karma from others that they couldn't keep a secret if their livelihood depended on it. To me that means, if they knew about it, so would everyone else in the world. Also, if they find out about the existence of any exploits like this, they would blab.
Therefore, I don't lose any sleep over it, and I figure I'll deal with the problems as they are discovered, and not ponder how many ways a compiler can insert malicious code.
The number one rule of sales is to generate trust with your clients. So, yes, if the sales guy was being honest, I would probably buy from him before buying from someone else. Imagine this scenario: You walk into your local BMW dealership and ask the sales guy how the 325i compares to the 745. If the sales guy tells you that all of his products were the best cars on the planet, you would not buy from him as quickly as you would buy from the salesman that tells you honestly the difference between the two models of cars.
I understand your point that most of the time claims like these are 'marketing', but my point was that we shouldn't treat this stuff as newsworthy...
I mean really, it seems like everytime M$ comes out with something new, they tell us it will be the second coming of Christ. C#,.NET, etc. I mean, when are we gonna learn that M$ touting a new technology as the best thing ever isn't newsworthy.
Wow, an anonymous coward just told me to 'wise up'. I forgot to mention that in the five years before I became a developer, I did do the under desks thing... and I got news for you, you don't know near as much as you think you do.
Wow, I sense quite a bit of anger in your portrayal of your own position...
I only have a few questions to ask of you -
1. So, if you are just a lowly IT worker, managing web servers and crawling under desks, how exactly is it that you came across such knowledge of what the developers in corporate America do with their spare time? I am one of those developers and 100% of the people I work with are part of that group also. 100% of the partners I work with are part of this generalization and what's more, each of the companies in question are Fortune 500 or better. Although we don't all read/., it is better than 5%. And, even further, none of us are so intimately involved with Microsoft or Microsoft dependant technologies that this book/article/section/endeavor won't mean a damn. In fact, none of the work I have done in the past two years has involved M$ at all. But, since you posted so confidently, I'll assume that you can back up your numbers with solid proof.
2. How did you come to the conclusion that working on a M$ platform automatically equals: working on such projects for years, and has long since given up on making good, secure code, and rather coding whatever keeps his/her salary. ? I mean, you made more than one ridiculous generalization here... How does the amount of time a project is worked on directly affect the quality of the code? And further how does the M$ platform have anything to do with either of these statements? I'll admit that some developers write code to get a paycheck and nothing more, and even further, some of them work within an M$ platform... But come off it, the quality of code is only directly proportional to the coder's habits. Just because you might have stumbled across a few bad code monkeys that work with M$-related products doesn't mean that (95% * 95%).9025 coders have long since given up on making good, secure code, and rather coding whatever keeps his/her salary.
Also, since you threw out your resume so quickly, I'd like to add that I have been working in this field for 9 years and been a developer for 4. But, funny, the experience didn't make me just understand.
Personally, I am going to give the technology a few years to mature. I remember reading recently about GM dropping a line of Hybrid cars because the EPA in California banned a particular type of appliance required for re-charging the vehicle. I think it will soon take hold, but I am giving it a bit of time for many of these details to be sorted out.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, but at the end of the commercial, the RIAA task force shows up with all their Uzis and M-16s to put a stop to this raucous abuse of copyrighted material.
What to look for depends on what you need/want/can afford.
/. opinion before some sales guy who is gonna tell me for sure that the Mac will be the best thing that ever happened to my family.
agreed
How old are the kids?
4, 6, and 8
Could you trust them not to destroy that nice iMac flat screen ( although honestly, it's pretty tough, my two-year-old hasn't damaged mine yet )?
Hmm... I think so, they aren't that rough on my current hardware, so I don't think it is a big deal. I am not so much worried about the hardware as I am the CD-ROMs. The primary user of the PeeCee (the six year old) still hasn't gotten it through her little head how to hold the CDs so most of them are scratched all to hell... Oh well, they are her games, so let them break I say
Get yourself and maybe your kids to an Apple Store, you'll figure it out.
Heh, are you new here? Seriously, I trust the general
In my experience, Linux users who would even consider Apple hardware absolutely love OS X once they wrap their heads around what's going on.
Yeah, that is another reason I have been looking into it. I am not a zealot by any means, and I really like to tinker, a new platform is exciting for me, but I do need some justification before throwing down the dough.
Obviously you'll have to check out the system requirements of those games yourself, but I've found almost all web-based Flash and Shockwave content works fantastically on OS X these days, Macromedia has been good about supporting the platform, especially over the past year.
It isn't the web-based stuff I am worried about, it is the actual CD-ROM games that Disney has out. There are usually a few game titles released for each movie that comes out, and they always have a little bit of educational value (more so than the games her older brother plays on the PS2).
I've been putting off some upgrades recently, and I have been thinking pretty hard about making 'the switch' :).
Is there any advice for a Mac n00b on what to look for? I am coming from Linux and am mostly interested in a machine I can let the kids play games on. I may stick to windows if that is my only choice, but I would like to know what you guys do to keep your kids happy? and do the Disney games run on Mac since they are mostly Flash based?
Well, your business savy is probably one reason why you don't have the money ;-)
AOL is good for getting your parents/grandparents online, and no one is forcing you to use it, so I don't see any reason to bash them.
if you notice anything weird at all, especially anything hard, [emphasis mine]
Oh man, my doctor doesn't want two appointments a day with me to discuss what happens every time I think of Natalie Portman...
I agree with what you are saying, although, I look for a good salary position with good benefits. Right now I make a decent salary, but what is important is that I have *great* insurance. With two kids and a wife, it is so much more important. A few years back, I just saw insurance as another deduction that washed right down the drain. Nowadays, without vision and dental, I would be broke paying for braces, glasses, cavities, contacts, etc., etc. Other than insurance, a lot of the smaller, lesser noticed benefits have helped out quite a bit. The company I work for has lots of deals with other companies which ends up meaning a discount for me at a lot of retail stores. All-in-all, these things end up adding up quite a bit, especially as my family grows.
Although there is a price to pay for this great treatment, I could be laid off any minute, but it isn't hard to prepare for this sort of thing, and to just take advantage of what I can while I've got it.
I think a lot of this is relative. Before I had a wife and kids, I didn't care what time I had to deal with a problem. I only cared when a company didn't reward me for the extra effort.
I worked for a small IT department in a large foster care organization. One that in-took kids 24 hours a day across the country. I didn't mind coming in if the systems went down at 3 AM, mostly because they paid me well.
My next job was at a University. Same scenario, lots of systems, few IT people. After I was denied a raise at my first annual review, I told my boss not to expect any more late hours fixing problems. After a few problems that just had to wait until 8AM the next day, I think they realized why I felt cheated. I had a VP threaten to fire me on the phone for not coming in late one night, it was great, the threat was rescinded when I asked how the press would feel about their 'family-oriented' university giving someone the can because he didn't feel like coming into work at 11PM.
I agree with the parent poster, Life is tradeoffs you have to take the good with the bad.
Subscribers can beat the rush and see it early
:)
so that I could get one last look/see before plunking down my cash.
Call me old fashioned, but I like to get the feel for the book and see some of the content. I know that Amazon provides some sample pages, but in the store, I can get a quick glance at the entire book. Plus, lately my purchases have been for low-priced, low-quantity paperbacks. Therefore, the brick and mortar store is cheaper since I am not paying shipping/handling. The B&N membership discount helps a little too.
I am the one that originally posed the question, and I agree with the previous comment. I was just wondering why? I thought I made it clear that I wasn't resisting progress, but I will resist if there isn't good reason. I used to be a SysAdmin before moving into development at a rather large corporation and when I see change my main resistance is the amount of time that will be incurred. If the *improvement* outweighs the costs in time, I am all for it, but my problem was that I didn't see any problems. Someone set for the DHCP example, but I am pretty sure that someone else suggested starting XFS and X right away in the early runlevels. To me, the only reasons for moving away can be easily solved within the existing system. The main problem seems to be that most people aren't comfortable messing around in /etc/init.d /etc/rc*.d if that is so, I didn't see it. I am just use to being in there and found it to be rather simple. I see now that people don't find it as simple as Control Panel/Services in Windoze. If people want more ease of use, maybe really good front-ends should be built to manipulate system startup, but I don't think the init should get bloated by python and an API that even fewer people will understand than the current system.
I guess this is what I was trying to convey with my original point. Init is a system that calls shell scripts in a defined manner... When it comes to doing that, it does great. Performance of the scripts it is calling should not factor into the decision.
How? Why? Could you elaborate? That is my point... I am trying to figure out why some people hate it, since I think it works just fine. I am trying not to be biased toward it, I am just wondering what is wrong in the first place.
Dare I ask? I mean, I've never had any problems with the init process on Linux, Solaris, or HP-UX... Was there some problem or inefficiency I didn't know about?
I can certainly agree with the parent poster's opinion. Dead trees for in-depth knowledge.
However, I like to take it a step further. I use the Internet to choose which books to read!
An example, recently I decided to participate in the 'Employee Stock Purchasing' program where I work. After a few years of business courses, I still feel like a n00b when it comes to trading stocks, so I decided to buy some books on the basics of stock trading.
Rather than go straight to Barnes and Noble, I went to Amazon.com and read up on the customer reviews of different choices. I knew Amazon reviews can easily be skewed, but rather than just look at the overall rating, I actually read the reviews to see what people are saying. By taking the step to read the reviews, usually you can pick out the bull shiite canned reviews.
I ended up with a couple of books I decided to buy. I then headed to the book store with a list so that I could get one last look/see before plunking down my cash.
When I got home last night, I was very happy with my purchases. I usually perform the same process when picking books on just about any topic, especially development (my trade).
You're right... I just meant to point out that buying Epson still puts some money in HP's (deep) pockets. As long as they own the fab plants, they will continue to make tons of dough. If enough customers defected, would be able to buy their own plants and wipe HP off the planet. Oh well :) I still say that it is a good idea voicing your disapproval of their actions, that is about the only real action the people can take.
I now advice people to buy Epson
In a way, this is kind of funny... HP manufactures (mostly) all of Epson's products. That would be like screaming at Acura, then promising only to buy Honda in the future.
Good idea, poor execution:
What you are referring to isn't a True example. It is a theoritical example.
/. I know that doesn't make me an authority, but I have learned that most of these black hat types are so driven to earn karma from others that they couldn't keep a secret if their livelihood depended on it. To me that means, if they knew about it, so would everyone else in the world. Also, if they find out about the existence of any exploits like this, they would blab.
It is clearly presented in Ken Thompson's famous paper "Reflections on Trusting Trust." It is a very good point, how much can you trust, well, trust...
I trust things to the extent that, if such exploits exist, I would be 0wn3d and there would be nothing I could do about it...
However, so would everyone else, and I am sure there are much more interesting machines to r00t than mine. By the time the l337 haxx0rz got to my machine, the exploit would have been discovered and made headlines...
I have spent a little time in IRC, and I read
Therefore, I don't lose any sleep over it, and I figure I'll deal with the problems as they are discovered, and not ponder how many ways a compiler can insert malicious code.
The number one rule of sales is to generate trust with your clients. So, yes, if the sales guy was being honest, I would probably buy from him before buying from someone else. Imagine this scenario: You walk into your local BMW dealership and ask the sales guy how the 325i compares to the 745. If the sales guy tells you that all of his products were the best cars on the planet, you would not buy from him as quickly as you would buy from the salesman that tells you honestly the difference between the two models of cars.
I understand your point that most of the time claims like these are 'marketing', but my point was that we shouldn't treat this stuff as newsworthy...
I mean really, it seems like everytime M$ comes out with something new, they tell us it will be the second coming of Christ. C#, .NET, etc. I mean, when are we gonna learn that M$ touting a new technology as the best thing ever isn't newsworthy.
Wow, an anonymous coward just told me to 'wise up'. I forgot to mention that in the five years before I became a developer, I did do the under desks thing... and I got news for you, you don't know near as much as you think you do.
Wow, I sense quite a bit of anger in your portrayal of your own position...
/., it is better than 5%. And, even further, none of us are so intimately involved with Microsoft or Microsoft dependant technologies that this book/article/section/endeavor won't mean a damn. In fact, none of the work I have done in the past two years has involved M$ at all. But, since you posted so confidently, I'll assume that you can back up your numbers with solid proof.
.9025 coders have long since given up on making good, secure code, and rather coding whatever keeps his/her salary.
I only have a few questions to ask of you -
1. So, if you are just a lowly IT worker, managing web servers and crawling under desks, how exactly is it that you came across such knowledge of what the developers in corporate America do with their spare time?
I am one of those developers and 100% of the people I work with are part of that group also. 100% of the partners I work with are part of this generalization and what's more, each of the companies in question are Fortune 500 or better. Although we don't all read
2. How did you come to the conclusion that working on a M$ platform automatically equals: working on such projects for years, and has long since given up on making good, secure code, and rather coding whatever keeps his/her salary. ?
I mean, you made more than one ridiculous generalization here... How does the amount of time a project is worked on directly affect the quality of the code? And further how does the M$ platform have anything to do with either of these statements? I'll admit that some developers write code to get a paycheck and nothing more, and even further, some of them work within an M$ platform... But come off it, the quality of code is only directly proportional to the coder's habits. Just because you might have stumbled across a few bad code monkeys that work with M$-related products doesn't mean that (95% * 95%)
Also, since you threw out your resume so quickly, I'd like to add that I have been working in this field for 9 years and been a developer for 4. But, funny, the experience didn't make me just understand.
Personally, I am going to give the technology a few years to mature. I remember reading recently about GM dropping a line of Hybrid cars because the EPA in California banned a particular type of appliance required for re-charging the vehicle. I think it will soon take hold, but I am giving it a bit of time for many of these details to be sorted out.
Why is MS acting like it's going to lose this lawsuit. It has never done that before.
hmm... I am pretty sure they lost to AOL... Something to the tune of 750 *million* dollars.
Didn't they just come off of serious embarassment with the Columbia disaster and now they are going to re-instate 50-year-old technology?
also seen on the license plate of a VW Beetle: Y2K