Apple's solution to the trademark problem is eary. All they need to do is backdate the trademark and then assemble a committee of shill to look into it. Surprise, they'll find that the back dating was completely legitimate.
If there are any questions, place the blame on some low level employee who will take the fall. Make sure that it's too complex for SJ, so he has the excuss that he "doesn't understand all that legal mumbo-jumbo".
Just like an application shouldn't be able to crash the OS, a phone should not be able to crash the cellular network. It's possible that a hacker could bring down one cell with a denial of service type of attack or rapidly switching call to and from the cell (although the site software should prevent it).
Some restrictions could be imposed at the application level (restricting cell set up, data requests and teardown) to approved APIs. Hard to see how that could crash the entire westcoast cell network (and would that be a bad thing?)
I suspect the OS, app layer is fragile (and prerhaps not even running in a protected mode) is the reason for no third-party apps. They had to shoehorn alot into the device and cut corners (made tradeoffs) somewhere.
Did you notice that.mac wasn't mentioned as one of the supported email service?
You really should be starting with an SP2 disk (within the Dell Optiplex family any install disk will do.)
The reboot at the end of install doesn't count as that is automatic. Media player doesn't require a seperate update... depending on what video card you have that may come without an update, so there probably 2 or 3 less. But you could add an additional one if you need to flash the BIOS.
But you get to add another one or two for the office install.
The good news is that Acrobat no longer requires 3 updates (WTF?). And that the version on the adobe web site is up to date.
The solution if you're doing a bunch of machies is to use something like ghost. Deciding on a standard machine and buying that configuration makes installs much easier. This is one of the benefits of the Optiplex line--Dell doesn't change it that frequently.
FYI, re-installing the OS on a Mac probably requires 3 or 4 reboots also.
The best advice on a new machine is to re-install the OS. Unfortunately with some very low-end PCs, there isn't a re-install disk.
For corporate environments, Dell, HP (etc.) will pre-load a specified image with the corporate setup. Alternative is to use ghost or similar to build your machines.
The manufacturers get a couple of dollars for each crapware loaded (does any one know the real amount?) On Dells, the Optiplex (business line) has less crap than the Dimension (consumer), but they've started putting crapware on the Otiplexes. A recent machine came with Google desktop & search pre-installed, a search URL redirector (which was a pain to remove) and various manufacturer's links.
Just reformat the thing, then you know you have a clean install. (It takes about 20 minutes to install XP, and then about 140 MB of downloads & countless reboots to bring it up to date.
Equally annoying, why do the pre-load a 6 month old version of the OS>
I was surprised at how much crapware there was on a stock mac. I would have thought that the macs would be delivered without hyperactive trials. For your convenience, Macs come preloaded with adobe reader, flash, google and trials of office and omniware (at a minimum).
Best advice for any new machine, reformat it and re-install the OS.
It's kind of interesting that Apple did not get the URLs for either iPhone.com or appletv.com. The iphone link is to some internet phone provider while I can't read the AppleTV site (non-English). The Apple fanboys were all over Microsoft for not getting zune.com. What's the RDF input on why apple doesn't have the new product URLs?
We use retrospect and an 8 slot dds-4 tape library. The tape library is nice, in that we can use 3 slots for a full weekly offsite (rotated every Monday) and two slots for a Monday incrementatl set and a wednesday incremental set. We keep the incrementals forever so we could recove a 6 month (or 6 year) old file. We supplement this with a Retrospect duplicate to a hard drive (everyday) and backup duplicate to an external drive (every other day) + a three-week harddirve incremental set. The hard drive duplicates are useful if someone walks in a says that they deleted a file that they were working on today. We can get yesterday's version back instantly.
Interestingly, we run retrospect on a mac--mostly because I inherited the setup and we're backing up a SAMBA server running on a mac. This way we backup the (damn) resource forks. However, retro on the mac doesn't deal well with the registry.
Hard to use, bad, bad UI but solid. I'd vote for Retrospect for the 100 employee company.
The same argument could be made about many of the Microsoft bugs... IE is a third party application taht is bundled with the OS and not the OS itself. Same argument... on the otherhand QT is an Apple product so if there are security risks associated with it, the company should patch it--and not just for the most recent version of the OS.
As a prius owner, what's really interesting is the effect of cold weather on the car. The car looses about 4 to 5 miles per gallon when the weather is below 32. The engine runs much more trying to keep the catalytic converter up to temperature. If you kick on the heat (which is free in a non-hybrid) it really keeps the engine running to warm up the passenger cabin. That's may be why you see prius owners bundled up in winter. (Honda's don't have this problem as the engine runs all the time.)
I summer, the AC puts almost no additional load on the engine. The late model Prius have electric compressors so the engine can be off and you still get A/C. I've wondered why they didn't configure the A/C as a heat pump for cooler days.
By the way, I really like the prius with one or two odd features.
Do they even have a one percent share? Aren't these just check off products so Apple can say they offer a server and a raid device. I suppose that apple fanatic sites might buy them, but they are a pretty limited product line... nothing bigger or smaller... and you're stuck with their relatively limited product innovation--whar have done they lately?
Re:Cell providers are the problem, not the phone
on
Inside Apple's iPhone
·
· Score: 1
At least with Verizon, the wireless network providers decide on the UI. With Verizon, it doesn't matter which phone or manufactor you choose, they all get the exact same Verizon UI. From the carrier's point of view, this is a huge benefit as it simplifies support. The support team doesn't need to be trained in each specific phone's UI and features.
It might be good from a user's perspective as it makes switching from one phone to another pretty easy. Some phones have slightly different UI to support special features like cameras or music, but those menus are always in the same place.
Adding an Apple branded phone to the mix is going to push up support costs as these phones will require additional support team training (or a dedicated support team). As the carriers want to minimize support costs, they are going to have a few bucks extra for the "apple" phone.
There's also the reliability issue.... apple products (especially the first and second generation) tend not to be very reliable. Perhaps not an issue for the early adopters... but it will probably come back to bite the carriers.
On a different topic...does anyone know if Apple enforces a MSRP (manufactor suggested retail price) on its goods? You never see ipods discounted more the $10. Are discounters punished by low allocations for starting a price war? Does anyone know the wholesale cost of ipods?
I believe the answer would be run MS Office. Love it or (more likely) hate it, Office is pretty much a requirement. If you want to take work home, edit school work, Office is pretty much a necessity. Yes, there are functional alternatives like Open Office, but it just isn't the same (fonts shift, line breaks change) and there isn't anything like PowerPoint. Office is so damn cheap (about $130 for the student/teacher version) and about $200 (bundled with new computer) for the Small business versions it's hard to compete with.
In the corporate environment there's no particular advantage (and some disadvantages) to *nix or macs. Most companies already have a ecosphere of Windows knowledge... how do deploy, train and managed. They probably have invested heavily in Exchange, and there aren't non-windows clients that work really well with Exchange.
And finally, what's the advantage of a non-windows or hetrogenous environment. Window's cost is near zero per machine as you get up in quantity (CALs howerver are not), Office probably costs about $100 per machine. Given the ease of a homogenous environment why bother introducing nix boxes or the added cost of Apples?
Correctly deployed, and professionally managed Window boxes should be virus free.
There's just no compelling reason not to use Windows.
FYI... Genentech is not a Fortune 500 firm. They have only 10,000 employees... and do not make the Fortune 500. So anyone else have a Fortune 500 firm to suggest?
There's not a lot of fame and glory from writing that Microsoft hit a home run. It's much better to recycle the old "Microsoft copied it from Apple" line. Who cares about who was first.... it's called building on prior art.... now it's up to Apple to see what they can build on from Microsoft (see fast user switching, ethernet) and dropping the failures (see appletalk, ADB, newton, cyberdog, OS 1-9).
Most Vista reviewes (and the/. reactions) fail to consider the mission of Vista in most big corporations. Sure, there might be some comparisons to Macintosh for the look & feel, but in a corporate (> 500 employees) environment, the Windows platform really shines. From a robust permission scheme, remote control of group policies and really easy deployment there's nothing like Windows. (The macintosh really falls down in a controlled environment.
Can any one of the Mac fanboys come up with one Fortune 500 company (other than Apple) that has deployed more than 50% Macs?)
If you add Exchange to the mix, Windows really shines in the shared environment. Sure, for "grandma's" use and other special applications the Mac is a bright and shiny object, but it's just not a good team player.
While the/. crowd is busy complaining about windows, why no issue with Apple's rampant OS updating. At least you can still buy hardware (and upgrades) for your W2K systems. How about the users who have perfectly good Mac OS 9 applications. They are really out of luck. Apple is much less caring about compatibility with their upgrades. It's probably the difference between the consumer "disposable" thinking and the business approach.
Apple pretty much does a $120 dot release each 18 months which frequently breaks the UI and some applciations.
Actually, it's pretty good the OS 9 has died...it never even came close to W2K for reliability or usability.
It's interesting that Verizon guts the vendor's UI and uses their own interface. No matter whether it's a Samsung or LG phone the Verizon interface is identical.... makes a lot of sense from a support point... lower training costs....
Other than "eating their own dog food" does any major ( > 500 employees) run Mac Servers as their primary web presence? I think the "real" web server market is pretty well locked up by LINUX (not Apple OS X) and Windows. The reason Linux servers (as well as Windows Servers) don't get hacked is that most or the large "juicy targets" are run by professionals and protected by administered firewalls and other technology. These servers have the patches applied and logs are monitored.
Been relatively imressed with gadget quality
on
Why Do Gadgets Break?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Over the last couple of years I've been impressed with quality of "cheap" electronics. It's pretty remarkable that companies can cram the amount of functionality into gadgets at the price.... look at cheap gigabit switches... 8 port gigabit for around $150... or wireless routers.... lots of features, small and should last 3 or more years... Most of my gadgets are replaced because I want more functionality or cooler features, not because they broke.
I still have 4+ year old PCs happily working and other electronics that live a long life....
The quality of most devices is extraordinarily high.
I'd agree, except in our case the machines are all built-to-order (from Dell and Apple). I'm sure it's just manufacturing convenience---but it dimishes the out of box experience.
Slashdot Mirror
You missed step 4...
4. Fire lackey
Apple's solution to the trademark problem is eary. All they need to do is backdate the trademark and then assemble a committee of shill to look into it. Surprise, they'll find that the back dating was completely legitimate.
If there are any questions, place the blame on some low level employee who will take the fall. Make sure that it's too complex for SJ, so he has the excuss that he "doesn't understand all that legal mumbo-jumbo".
Just like an application shouldn't be able to crash the OS, a phone should not be able to crash the cellular network. It's possible that a hacker could bring down one cell with a denial of service type of attack or rapidly switching call to and from the cell (although the site software should prevent it).
.mac wasn't mentioned as one of the supported email service?
Some restrictions could be imposed at the application level (restricting cell set up, data requests and teardown) to approved APIs. Hard to see how that could crash the entire westcoast cell network (and would that be a bad thing?)
I suspect the OS, app layer is fragile (and prerhaps not even running in a protected mode) is the reason for no third-party apps. They had to shoehorn alot into the device and cut corners (made tradeoffs) somewhere.
Did you notice that
It's pretty amazing... but I counted less....
... depending on what video card you have that may come without an update, so there probably 2 or 3 less. But you could add an additional one if you need to flash the BIOS.
You really should be starting with an SP2 disk (within the Dell Optiplex family any install disk will do.)
The reboot at the end of install doesn't count as that is automatic. Media player doesn't require a seperate update
But you get to add another one or two for the office install.
The good news is that Acrobat no longer requires 3 updates (WTF?). And that the version on the adobe web site is up to date.
The solution if you're doing a bunch of machies is to use something like ghost. Deciding on a standard machine and buying that configuration makes installs much easier. This is one of the benefits of the Optiplex line--Dell doesn't change it that frequently.
FYI, re-installing the OS on a Mac probably requires 3 or 4 reboots also.
Actually--depending on which model Dell the re-install disk doesn't have any crapware. It's a straight install of the operating system.
No hidden options to do a clean install. I don't know about HP and others as I don't have any experience with them.
One man's free trial software is anothers crapware. I'm sure someone things that a free trial of AOL or omni outliner is a great deal.
The best advice on a new machine is to re-install the OS. Unfortunately with some very low-end PCs, there isn't a re-install disk.
For corporate environments, Dell, HP (etc.) will pre-load a specified image with the corporate setup. Alternative is to use ghost or similar to build your machines.
The manufacturers get a couple of dollars for each crapware loaded (does any one know the real amount?) On Dells, the Optiplex (business line) has less crap than the Dimension (consumer), but they've started putting crapware on the Otiplexes. A recent machine came with Google desktop & search pre-installed, a search URL redirector (which was a pain to remove) and various manufacturer's links.
Just reformat the thing, then you know you have a clean install. (It takes about 20 minutes to install XP, and then about 140 MB of downloads & countless reboots to bring it up to date.
Equally annoying, why do the pre-load a 6 month old version of the OS>
I was surprised at how much crapware there was on a stock mac. I would have thought that the macs would be delivered without hyperactive trials. For your convenience, Macs come preloaded with adobe reader, flash, google and trials of office and omniware (at a minimum).
Best advice for any new machine, reformat it and re-install the OS.
It's kind of interesting that Apple did not get the URLs for either iPhone.com or appletv.com. The iphone link is to some internet phone provider while I can't read the AppleTV site (non-English). The Apple fanboys were all over Microsoft for not getting zune.com. What's the RDF input on why apple doesn't have the new product URLs?
We use retrospect and an 8 slot dds-4 tape library. The tape library is nice, in that we can use 3 slots for a full weekly offsite (rotated every Monday) and two slots for a Monday incrementatl set and a wednesday incremental set. We keep the incrementals forever so we could recove a 6 month (or 6 year) old file. We supplement this with a Retrospect duplicate to a hard drive (everyday) and backup duplicate to an external drive (every other day) + a three-week harddirve incremental set. The hard drive duplicates are useful if someone walks in a says that they deleted a file that they were working on today. We can get yesterday's version back instantly.
Interestingly, we run retrospect on a mac--mostly because I inherited the setup and we're backing up a SAMBA server running on a mac. This way we backup the (damn) resource forks. However, retro on the mac doesn't deal well with the registry.
Hard to use, bad, bad UI but solid. I'd vote for Retrospect for the 100 employee company.
The same argument could be made about many of the Microsoft bugs... IE is a third party application taht is bundled with the OS and not the OS itself. Same argument... on the otherhand QT is an Apple product so if there are security risks associated with it, the company should patch it--and not just for the most recent version of the OS.
As a prius owner, what's really interesting is the effect of cold weather on the car. The car looses about 4 to 5 miles per gallon when the weather is below 32. The engine runs much more trying to keep the catalytic converter up to temperature. If you kick on the heat (which is free in a non-hybrid) it really keeps the engine running to warm up the passenger cabin. That's may be why you see prius owners bundled up in winter. (Honda's don't have this problem as the engine runs all the time.)
I summer, the AC puts almost no additional load on the engine. The late model Prius have electric compressors so the engine can be off and you still get A/C. I've wondered why they didn't configure the A/C as a heat pump for cooler days.
By the way, I really like the prius with one or two odd features.
Would sell well in the illiterate set. We don't need no stinkn' education.
OS X server and apple raid?
Do they even have a one percent share? Aren't these just check off products so Apple can say they offer a server and a raid device. I suppose that apple fanatic sites might buy them, but they are a pretty limited product line... nothing bigger or smaller... and you're stuck with their relatively limited product innovation--whar have done they lately?
At least with Verizon, the wireless network providers decide on the UI. With Verizon, it doesn't matter which phone or manufactor you choose, they all get the exact same Verizon UI. From the carrier's point of view, this is a huge benefit as it simplifies support. The support team doesn't need to be trained in each specific phone's UI and features.
It might be good from a user's perspective as it makes switching from one phone to another pretty easy. Some phones have slightly different UI to support special features like cameras or music, but those menus are always in the same place.
Adding an Apple branded phone to the mix is going to push up support costs as these phones will require additional support team training (or a dedicated support team). As the carriers want to minimize support costs, they are going to have a few bucks extra for the "apple" phone.
There's also the reliability issue.... apple products (especially the first and second generation) tend not to be very reliable. Perhaps not an issue for the early adopters... but it will probably come back to bite the carriers.
On a different topic...does anyone know if Apple enforces a MSRP (manufactor suggested retail price) on its goods? You never see ipods discounted more the $10. Are discounters punished by low allocations for starting a price war? Does anyone know the wholesale cost of ipods?
I believe the answer would be run MS Office. Love it or (more likely) hate it, Office is pretty much a requirement. If you want to take work home, edit school work, Office is pretty much a necessity. Yes, there are functional alternatives like Open Office, but it just isn't the same (fonts shift, line breaks change) and there isn't anything like PowerPoint. Office is so damn cheap (about $130 for the student/teacher version) and about $200 (bundled with new computer) for the Small business versions it's hard to compete with.
In the corporate environment there's no particular advantage (and some disadvantages) to *nix or macs. Most companies already have a ecosphere of Windows knowledge... how do deploy, train and managed. They probably have invested heavily in Exchange, and there aren't non-windows clients that work really well with Exchange.
And finally, what's the advantage of a non-windows or hetrogenous environment. Window's cost is near zero per machine as you get up in quantity (CALs howerver are not), Office probably costs about $100 per machine. Given the ease of a homogenous environment why bother introducing nix boxes or the added cost of Apples?
Correctly deployed, and professionally managed Window boxes should be virus free.
There's just no compelling reason not to use Windows.
FYI... Genentech is not a Fortune 500 firm. They have only 10,000 employees... and do not make the Fortune 500. So anyone else have a Fortune 500 firm to suggest?
There's not a lot of fame and glory from writing that Microsoft hit a home run. It's much better to recycle the old "Microsoft copied it from Apple" line. Who cares about who was first.... it's called building on prior art.... now it's up to Apple to see what they can build on from Microsoft (see fast user switching, ethernet) and dropping the failures (see appletalk, ADB, newton, cyberdog, OS 1-9).
Most Vista reviewes (and the /. reactions) fail to consider the mission of Vista in most big corporations. Sure, there might be some comparisons to Macintosh for the look & feel, but in a corporate (> 500 employees) environment, the Windows platform really shines. From a robust permission scheme, remote control of group policies and really easy deployment there's nothing like Windows. (The macintosh really falls down in a controlled environment.
Can any one of the Mac fanboys come up with one Fortune 500 company (other than Apple) that has deployed more than 50% Macs?)
If you add Exchange to the mix, Windows really shines in the shared environment. Sure, for "grandma's" use and other special applications the Mac is a bright and shiny object, but it's just not a good team player.
While the /. crowd is busy complaining about windows, why no issue with Apple's rampant OS updating. At least you can still buy hardware (and upgrades) for your W2K systems. How about the users who have perfectly good Mac OS 9 applications. They are really out of luck. Apple is much less caring about compatibility with their upgrades. It's probably the difference between the consumer "disposable" thinking and the business approach.
Apple pretty much does a $120 dot release each 18 months which frequently breaks the UI and some applciations.
Actually, it's pretty good the OS 9 has died...it never even came close to W2K for reliability or usability.
I believe the answer would be turbo ultrawideband.
It's interesting that Verizon guts the vendor's UI and uses their own interface. No matter whether it's a Samsung or LG phone the Verizon interface is identical.... makes a lot of sense from a support point... lower training costs....
Other than "eating their own dog food" does any major ( > 500 employees) run Mac Servers as their primary web presence? I think the "real" web server market is pretty well locked up by LINUX (not Apple OS X) and Windows. The reason Linux servers (as well as Windows Servers) don't get hacked is that most or the large "juicy targets" are run by professionals and protected by administered firewalls and other technology. These servers have the patches applied and logs are monitored.
Over the last couple of years I've been impressed with quality of "cheap" electronics. It's pretty remarkable that companies can cram the amount of functionality into gadgets at the price.... look at cheap gigabit switches... 8 port gigabit for around $150... or wireless routers.... lots of features, small and should last 3 or more years... Most of my gadgets are replaced because I want more functionality or cooler features, not because they broke.
I still have 4+ year old PCs happily working and other electronics that live a long life....
The quality of most devices is extraordinarily high.
I'd agree, except in our case the machines are all built-to-order (from Dell and Apple). I'm sure it's just manufacturing convenience---but it dimishes the out of box experience.