It's not that hard (at least with Dell's). The XP disk installs most of the drivers and the one or two you need are easy enough to download from the Dell website. You're actually better off using the standard version of XP/Vista as the OEM version may have a fair amount of bloatware/customization/value-add built-in.
There really is a difference in quality between cheap machines and mid-priced ones. I suspect a fair number of Windows crashes are really due to hardware problems (marginal memory, bad grounding, power supply problems). These all get blamed on windows as the software reports the problem. The machine will have the same problem with linux--and the additional problem of incompatible drivers. But with linux the user will be so confused between installing the OS and the hardware that they will probably just give up.
Once you hit mid-range prices ($750 and up) the quality of all the manufacturers becomes pretty good (better power supplies, tested memory, reliable mother boards, etc.). As you go up to the high end, you just get more features.
Sad to say, over a fairly broad range you really do get what you pay for. Being cheap up front doesn't save money in the long run.
Like many mac laptops the air gets so hot that not only can you use it as a computer, but it doubles as a cooking implement. And in case of an emergency you can always use the battery as a firestarter. It's really three tools in one!
Nothing like the smell of baked trout on your mac toy.
You forgot to add that they will do the entire design in Photoshop and then just slice up the image into a giant table. The page will be huge and inaccessable.
There really is a difference between a web and print designer. Much like there is a difference between a mainframe programmer and one who designs for embedded devices. Look at samples of the designers work...is it a good web page? How easy is it to find information? Can the information be updated easily?
You've minimized the amount of testing you need to do for alternate browsers. Just make the applications work with IE and you've satisfied almost all of your users needs. Fewer browsers is actually a good thing for web developers--especially if they are targeting a limited niche of working in the real world of constrained budgets. The more browsers/configurations you need to develop and test for the more it will cost (or the less features you can include).
The author should get wound up about the American Express Open Network. Not only are they not providing Open Source software, the network isn't even Ethernet compatible. Clearly another misuse of Open and Network in one sentence. In other news, one can no longer open a door or open a jar as these terms could be misconstrued as open source.
Get a clue... the word open was around before "open source".
For some companies, a lease-like arrangement might make sense; it allows the firm to spread out the cost over a couple of years. Calling a program open or value is pretty standard marketing... value leasing, value products...
Apple didn't invent 802.11n; you could have just as easily have said "linksys has moved on to 5.8ghz". Just because Apple uses it, doesn't mean they invented it. (Unlike what most Apple users think.)
The OLPC is just an amazing machine, not only is it able to connect with any Wi-Fi network (no matter how far away or how secured), instantly make your child a programming virtuoso, make them a math whiz it can also make them instantly fluent in any language. Merely possessing the machine enables them to read and speak the language of the person they're chatting with. Not even Apple is so insanely cool.
This sounds a lot like WGA and DRM to me. The machine "checks in" with the server to make sure it's still authorized. What else does it report to the server?
I'm from Massachusetts (we don't need no stink'ng turn signals) and thought that having the GPS automatically turn on the turn signals for upcoming turns would be a safety feature or problem. The GPS could be programmed to flip the turn signal on a few seconds or hundreds of feet prior to turning. It would certainly help with the turn signal impaired in Mass. It could also remind drivers of the upcoming navigation (especially if integrated with a display).
On the other hand, it might cause the turn signal response to complete atrophy.
I think you missed a couple of steps...
In the beginning there was the mainframe; all information was centralized
Then there was time sharing (dumb terminals); information was centralized, but you could get at remotely
Then there was mini-computer (see, PDP-1, PDP-8, PDP-11, etc); processing was put in the hands of the elite
Then there was PC; information was put in the hands of nearly everyone
Then there was centralized administration of the PC and centralized servers (see time sharing)
Then there was the web... see time sharing
Then there was Web 2.0... see time sharing with fancy terminals
Every new version of Apple OS touts hundreds of new features. By implication, that means that the previous version of the OS was missing hundreds of critical features. By now, the original OS 10 (X?) must not have had any features since there have been at least 1000 features introduced.
Apple and everyone else uses the same logic to get you to buy the latest upgrade. I don't why what Microsoft is doing is any different.
Apple routinely trashes the previous opperating system release (OS X 10.4 now missing 300 features!) to help you upgrade.
You claim to be in a typical web development environment... but how about testing your products on what your users are actually using. Look at your web logs and see what browsers/OS your visitors using.
I'm not sure that there is much value in developing the coolest web site ever (tm) that is only accessible to the elite that share your typical set up.
Web developers... stop whining and make your web sites work in the real world. This includes testing (what a shock) on a wide variety of browsers, monitors (not everyone has that dual 30-inch setup like you do) and OS. I believe that would be part of what your employer would be paying you for.
You should look into Paintshop Pro (or whatever it is called today). It's actually a decent program for around $100. Does 80% of what Photoshop does and 110% of GIMP. If the students go off and become graphic designers they will have plenty of time to learn photoshop.
I'd strongly vote for the commercial stuff as it's more relevent -- and even old versions will do enough. As your budget permits, buy a educational license or two for those who really need the most advanced features. (It's unlikely that most students will really need the features of CS3 for most work.)
I guess my comment was ambiguous. What I meant to say was, I wonder why it's so hard for IT to add more storage to an Exchange Server. I complete agree with you... end users managing to an email limit is a complete waste of time.
Perhaps some exchange expert can help us out by explaining why it's hard to add storage. Disks are cheap --- especially if you're in the corporate world that can afford exchange and quality hardware to run it on.
I'm not sure how useful it is... The "artificial intelligence" to make it smart is probably beyond most email programs. A message like "meet you wednesday at noon" would probably confuse is... as would let's get together around three...
WIth oulook, sending a meeting notice is as easy as sending an email. It's unfortunate that many email clients can't deal with outlook invites....
At a recent seminar, I pointed out that shared calendars aren't useful unless everyone is on the same system... having one calendar for project A, a different for B and yet another for personal events is really a pain.
Within the corporate world, Exchange really does rule. There's nothing like it that can scale to 10,000+ users, be centrally administered and has such a wide variety of client access---outlook for the web (or whatever it's called) is really slick. I haven't seen anything even close to it.
Haven't tested it, but I think that exchange is reasonably secure -- and has good capabilities for email archiving and monitoring.
That said, at every client I've seen exchange, users always complain about email storage limits. Don't know why.
Actually you can do that in Outlook. Drag an email to the calendar tab (usually in the lower right) and it turns into a calendar entry. Set the time and date for the event.
You can do the same thing to turn an email into a task, contact or note. Pretty neat.
I actually learned this tip from some new-age time management guy at a seminar.
I suspect that if you look at sales of boxed operating systems on Oct. 26 from 6 pm to 6 am Apple had a nearly 100% share. The statistic is nearly meaningless. The initial rush for Vista already took place.
And somehow a line of 200 whole people in a city of 12 million (0.00166% of the population) doesn't seem like very many. More than 200 people probably lined up in the light rain to buy the Japanese equivalent of hot dogs that night.
You have to word the dialog box more precisely. "Do you wish to not allow data corruption or success on loss of destination meda?" Cancel? Retry? Abort? Ok?
The upgrade options on a Mac are rather limited. Even at the top of the Mac line the case is designed to hold only 2 drives. Hardly an example of flexiblity. The choice of graphic cards is limited to a handful as most companies don't supply drivers. Only one or two manufacturers make add-in SATA or SAS cards for the Mac, and I think there is only one battery backed-up RAID card for the Mac. If you go with the x-server some of these options are available (but again only from Apple).
The Mac fans point to the lack of hardware options as a feater ("just works"), enterprise customers point to the lack of options as a restrictions ("limited hardware support").
On anything but the Mac pro (aka expensive) line, there is essentially no hardware options.
The experience with Vista (or XP) just working is the same if you use "known" hardware. MS products install cleanly and are rock solid with high quality hardware. It's unfortunate that some home users (and very cheap small businesses) try to get away with cobbled together hardware (recycled memory, old disk drive, whatever) and then complain that Windows crashes or doesn't recognize it. My experience with Vista has been very positive--recognizes almost all devices (and in general more that the Mac), the interface is more intuititve to me than the mac, it has been rock solid and there is a wider range of software that I use than on the mac. I haven't had any viruses -- in spite of not running a virus checking program; but then again I don't generally run with as an administrator.
And for a corporate network of more than a few hundred desktops, Windows is a much better choice for deployment and control.
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It's not that hard (at least with Dell's). The XP disk installs most of the drivers and the one or two you need are easy enough to download from the Dell website. You're actually better off using the standard version of XP/Vista as the OEM version may have a fair amount of bloatware/customization/value-add built-in.
There really is a difference in quality between cheap machines and mid-priced ones. I suspect a fair number of Windows crashes are really due to hardware problems (marginal memory, bad grounding, power supply problems). These all get blamed on windows as the software reports the problem. The machine will have the same problem with linux--and the additional problem of incompatible drivers. But with linux the user will be so confused between installing the OS and the hardware that they will probably just give up.
Once you hit mid-range prices ($750 and up) the quality of all the manufacturers becomes pretty good (better power supplies, tested memory, reliable mother boards, etc.). As you go up to the high end, you just get more features.
Sad to say, over a fairly broad range you really do get what you pay for. Being cheap up front doesn't save money in the long run.
Like many mac laptops the air gets so hot that not only can you use it as a computer, but it doubles as a cooking implement. And in case of an emergency you can always use the battery as a firestarter. It's really three tools in one!
Nothing like the smell of baked trout on your mac toy.
By the same theory why do we need both Macs and PCs? They pretty much do the same thing and you have to develop for each one differently.
By the same theory, why do we need both Firefox and IE...
Overall competition is good... it spurs new development and features.
It's too bad that there are any really whiz-bank siverlight sites... even the MS site doesn't use it for much.
Don't forget to add almost all of the Adobe products. The splash screens contain links and almost all of the help topics are adware.
If you really don't want adware, just unplug that RJ45 ethernet cable on the back.
Instant...no adware!
You forgot to add that they will do the entire design in Photoshop and then just slice up the image into a giant table. The page will be huge and inaccessable.
There really is a difference between a web and print designer. Much like there is a difference between a mainframe programmer and one who designs for embedded devices. Look at samples of the designers work...is it a good web page? How easy is it to find information? Can the information be updated easily?
And whatever you do, just say NO to flash.
You've minimized the amount of testing you need to do for alternate browsers. Just make the applications work with IE and you've satisfied almost all of your users needs. Fewer browsers is actually a good thing for web developers--especially if they are targeting a limited niche of working in the real world of constrained budgets. The more browsers/configurations you need to develop and test for the more it will cost (or the less features you can include).
The author should get wound up about the American Express Open Network. Not only are they not providing Open Source software, the network isn't even Ethernet compatible. Clearly another misuse of Open and Network in one sentence. In other news, one can no longer open a door or open a jar as these terms could be misconstrued as open source.
Get a clue... the word open was around before "open source".
For some companies, a lease-like arrangement might make sense; it allows the firm to spread out the cost over a couple of years. Calling a program open or value is pretty standard marketing... value leasing, value products...
Apple didn't invent 802.11n; you could have just as easily have said "linksys has moved on to 5.8ghz". Just because Apple uses it, doesn't mean they invented it. (Unlike what most Apple users think.)
Sorry, I forgot the funny tag.
The OLPC is just an amazing machine, not only is it able to connect with any Wi-Fi network (no matter how far away or how secured), instantly make your child a programming virtuoso, make them a math whiz it can also make them instantly fluent in any language. Merely possessing the machine enables them to read and speak the language of the person they're chatting with. Not even Apple is so insanely cool.
This sounds a lot like WGA and DRM to me. The machine "checks in" with the server to make sure it's still authorized. What else does it report to the server?
I'm from Massachusetts (we don't need no stink'ng turn signals) and thought that having the GPS automatically turn on the turn signals for upcoming turns would be a safety feature or problem. The GPS could be programmed to flip the turn signal on a few seconds or hundreds of feet prior to turning. It would certainly help with the turn signal impaired in Mass. It could also remind drivers of the upcoming navigation (especially if integrated with a display).
On the other hand, it might cause the turn signal response to complete atrophy.
I think you missed a couple of steps... In the beginning there was the mainframe; all information was centralized Then there was time sharing (dumb terminals); information was centralized, but you could get at remotely Then there was mini-computer (see, PDP-1, PDP-8, PDP-11, etc); processing was put in the hands of the elite Then there was PC; information was put in the hands of nearly everyone Then there was centralized administration of the PC and centralized servers (see time sharing) Then there was the web... see time sharing Then there was Web 2.0 ... see time sharing with fancy terminals
Every new version of Apple OS touts hundreds of new features. By implication, that means that the previous version of the OS was missing hundreds of critical features. By now, the original OS 10 (X?) must not have had any features since there have been at least 1000 features introduced. Apple and everyone else uses the same logic to get you to buy the latest upgrade. I don't why what Microsoft is doing is any different. Apple routinely trashes the previous opperating system release (OS X 10.4 now missing 300 features!) to help you upgrade.
Not jealous of the 30 inch display -- merely happy to know that my just-as-good Dell 30" monitors left me with $1000 or more in my pocket.
You claim to be in a typical web development environment... but how about testing your products on what your users are actually using. Look at your web logs and see what browsers/OS your visitors using. I'm not sure that there is much value in developing the coolest web site ever (tm) that is only accessible to the elite that share your typical set up. Web developers... stop whining and make your web sites work in the real world. This includes testing (what a shock) on a wide variety of browsers, monitors (not everyone has that dual 30-inch setup like you do) and OS. I believe that would be part of what your employer would be paying you for.
You should look into Paintshop Pro (or whatever it is called today). It's actually a decent program for around $100. Does 80% of what Photoshop does and 110% of GIMP. If the students go off and become graphic designers they will have plenty of time to learn photoshop.
I'd strongly vote for the commercial stuff as it's more relevent -- and even old versions will do enough. As your budget permits, buy a educational license or two for those who really need the most advanced features. (It's unlikely that most students will really need the features of CS3 for most work.)
I guess my comment was ambiguous. What I meant to say was, I wonder why it's so hard for IT to add more storage to an Exchange Server. I complete agree with you... end users managing to an email limit is a complete waste of time.
Perhaps some exchange expert can help us out by explaining why it's hard to add storage. Disks are cheap --- especially if you're in the corporate world that can afford exchange and quality hardware to run it on.
I'm not sure how useful it is... The "artificial intelligence" to make it smart is probably beyond most email programs. A message like "meet you wednesday at noon" would probably confuse is... as would let's get together around three...
WIth oulook, sending a meeting notice is as easy as sending an email. It's unfortunate that many email clients can't deal with outlook invites....
At a recent seminar, I pointed out that shared calendars aren't useful unless everyone is on the same system... having one calendar for project A, a different for B and yet another for personal events is really a pain.
Within the corporate world, Exchange really does rule. There's nothing like it that can scale to 10,000+ users, be centrally administered and has such a wide variety of client access---outlook for the web (or whatever it's called) is really slick. I haven't seen anything even close to it.
Haven't tested it, but I think that exchange is reasonably secure -- and has good capabilities for email archiving and monitoring.
That said, at every client I've seen exchange, users always complain about email storage limits. Don't know why.
Actually you can do that in Outlook. Drag an email to the calendar tab (usually in the lower right) and it turns into a calendar entry. Set the time and date for the event.
You can do the same thing to turn an email into a task, contact or note. Pretty neat.
I actually learned this tip from some new-age time management guy at a seminar.
I suspect that if you look at sales of boxed operating systems on Oct. 26 from 6 pm to 6 am Apple had a nearly 100% share. The statistic is nearly meaningless. The initial rush for Vista already took place.
And somehow a line of 200 whole people in a city of 12 million (0.00166% of the population) doesn't seem like very many. More than 200 people probably lined up in the light rain to buy the Japanese equivalent of hot dogs that night.
You have to word the dialog box more precisely. "Do you wish to not allow data corruption or success on loss of destination meda?" Cancel? Retry? Abort? Ok?
The upgrade options on a Mac are rather limited. Even at the top of the Mac line the case is designed to hold only 2 drives. Hardly an example of flexiblity. The choice of graphic cards is limited to a handful as most companies don't supply drivers. Only one or two manufacturers make add-in SATA or SAS cards for the Mac, and I think there is only one battery backed-up RAID card for the Mac. If you go with the x-server some of these options are available (but again only from Apple).
The Mac fans point to the lack of hardware options as a feater ("just works"), enterprise customers point to the lack of options as a restrictions ("limited hardware support").
On anything but the Mac pro (aka expensive) line, there is essentially no hardware options.
The experience with Vista (or XP) just working is the same if you use "known" hardware. MS products install cleanly and are rock solid with high quality hardware. It's unfortunate that some home users (and very cheap small businesses) try to get away with cobbled together hardware (recycled memory, old disk drive, whatever) and then complain that Windows crashes or doesn't recognize it. My experience with Vista has been very positive--recognizes almost all devices (and in general more that the Mac), the interface is more intuititve to me than the mac, it has been rock solid and there is a wider range of software that I use than on the mac. I haven't had any viruses -- in spite of not running a virus checking program; but then again I don't generally run with as an administrator.
And for a corporate network of more than a few hundred desktops, Windows is a much better choice for deployment and control.