I would recommend against perl. Linking to the Office DLLs isn't really all that good an idea, as you have to have office installed on the machine doing the processing. This may require extra licenses. Instead I would use C# or VB.Net with ADO.Net to connect to the Access/Excel files as datasources. This way you can use SQL queries on them. It's much easier to work in this manner, then trying to communicate with the app via the Office DLLs.
I'm a Linux zealot through and through, and I think you're right also. Maybe a VB.Net/C# app if you want to program in a "real language". Use the right tool for the job. Using.Net, you can open Access files just a like a regular database, and I think (am almost certain) the same goes for Excel files. I think the hardest part about writing this app would be to get it to make any sense of the data. If all these excel/access files are made by individuals, I find it hard to think that there's any standard format. Even if they are supposed to be formatted a certain way, they may not be formatted properly. I get the impression the files are output from other programs. So the formatting may be pretty good, but writing the code to support all the different formats will be tough. I think this guy has a really tough time ahead of him.
That's funny. I'm running 64-bit Linux (Mandriva) and I have no problem running flash. Yeah, I'm running the 32 bit binaries for firefox, but who really cares. It's a frickin web browser. I don't need uber performance out of it. I just want it to show web pages. And if running in 32 bit gets me that, then that's what I'm going to run it in. 64 bit is nice, and I use it for all the applications I can, but if it doesn't run in 64 bit it's not the end of the world. That's the nice thing about x86-64, and the whole reason why 64 bit computing is actually catching on finally. You can still run all your old programs, and run new 64 bit programs. At the same time.
There's lots of sysadmins out there. The problem is finding a good one. I know lots of people who do sysadmin work. Even Microsoft Certified Systems Admins. A lot of these people have no idea what they are doing. A good sys admin is hard to find, and they are expensive. Not only that, if you aren't a sys admin yourself, then it's hard to interview one and really get a sense if they really know their stuff. I'm not aware of any agencies that will conduct interviews for you for positions you don't know how to fill. How do you interview an accountant when you don't know anything about accounting?
This is true, but if you have a lot of code already written in ASP, then it can be hard to move to PHP. However, I'm sure all the functionality is there, and that it can be done. There's probably even some automated tools that could switch all the code for you. But then what. You're current developers will not only have to learn PHP, but have to learn how to use it effectively enough to support your new application. Retraining everyone can be costly and time consuming. Also you can't get rid of these people, because they know the logic of the application, its ins and outs, and are very valuable to your company. Although I think they should try to get away from ASP. That's super old technology. It has many problems that will help them in the future when they want to expand their business.
By that logic, we shouldn't be allowed to do anything dangerous. You don't have to wear a helmet while skiing, but it's probably just as dangerous, if not more. I've fallen way more while skiing than while riding my bike. I've seen more people fall while walking on icy sidewalks than falling while on a bicycle. Maybe we should ban walking on icy sidewalks. Or force people to wear helmets all winter. Oh, and where I'm from it's only under 18s who have to wear helmets. Do their heads cost more to repair? Are they more likely to be hurt. I would that once they learn how to ride, that the younger they are, the less likely they are to be hurt. Since most of the people I see speeding around the streets are adults, while the kids stick to going slow on the sidewalks, with their parents 4 feet behind them.
Well, I just started my copy of open office on Linux. It took 7 seconds. Actually 7 mississippi's, but that's besides the point. Athlon 64 3200+, with 1 GiB of RAM. You're right though. That extra 6-8 seconds at the beginning of my work day is really going to kill my productivity. Think about your argument for a second. You're saying that 8 seconds, every time you have to start up your word processor, is really going to make a difference. Frankly, I think we'd save a lot more time if we all learned how to touch type. That saves more than 7 seconds in the first sentence you type. Now that I reread your statement I think you may be joking, but it is a serious argument brought up by MS zealots. Really, I' could wait 30 seconds for my office suite to start. Because most of the time, when I start my office suite, i'm going to do a lot of work. If I just want to jot down a quick note, I open notepad. If it took 30 seconds to open each web page I visited I might be worried. But 10 seconds to open my word processor isn't going to hurt my productivity one bit.
First of all, I'm not a student or a teacher. So the student/teacher price doesn't apply. Most people aren't students and teachers, so it's kind of nice that they give these people a break but that doesn't work for most people. Maybe they need a factory worker edition, since factory workers need word processors, and make less money. And I think there's more factory workers than teachers. Or maybe they need a senior citizen edition. I'm also not buying more than 1 copy, so the volume pricing doesn't apply to me either. You also stated that Word itself costs $229, but that MS Works costs $99 and include Word. That seems like some pretty weird pricing to me. You can get just word for $229, but you can get word plus extras for less than half the price? Is the MS Works 8 word processor completely compatible with MS Word? Word isn't even compatible with itself. How could I trust that a different program would be compatible. Then there's still the problem with upgrading every 3 years. Word 97 gives me all the features I need, but I can't use it anymore because they changed the file format so much since then. I have to upgrade all the time since I'm from experience I know that I won't be able to read the files from those who have the new version.
This is what really pisses me off about current word processors. They try do read your mind and do everything for you. 99% of the time they get it wrong. I think there's some good automation tools such as completing long words for you, and correcting some spelling mistakes. However when they try to format your document for you they usually get it wrong, and it's extremely hard to get it to accept your way of doing things. The best word processor I ever used was Wordperfect 5.1. Everything could be done via the keyboard, and you didn't waste half your time worrying about formatting, because you couldn't see it anyway. Also, it used the entire screen for displaying your document, instead of cluttering up your screen with icons, scroll bars, and other things that don't really need to be there.
I wouldn't mind if MSs word processors were reasonably priced. I'm sorry they shouldn't be charging $300 for a product that has pretty much, from the home users point of view, remained the same since 1997. Especially when products with the same functionality can be gotten for free. Something around $50 would probably be a fair price. Something that most people can afford, and probably what most people would think it's worth. Oh, the other thing that bothers me about MS Office is that the format changes every time they release a new version. Which means that you not only have to spend $300 on an office suite, but you have to spend it every 3 years.
By your logic, drinking and driving shouldn't be illegal because according to the article, drinking is only as dangerous as driving with a cell phone. If the laws stop people from doing the actions that could injure others than that is the point. Laws are made to stop from others getting hurt. Either physically, or financially or emotionally. However, there are a lot of laws out there that are only on the books to stop you from hurting yourself. Such as bike helmet laws. Some laws just do kill a little too much of our freedom, especially when our actions don't hurt others. However if outlawing cell phone usage in cars would help save not only the lives and property of those using the phones, but those other drivers on the road not using phones, then I'm all for it.
My apologies for copying ideas of another poster I've seen post on this subject before, but here it goes. When it comes to reading computer file formats we are all disabled. No human can easily read a computer file format. That's why formats with actual standards are so important. So that we can all have equal access to the information stored within those files. Sure there may not be screen readers available right now, but if there is a market for them (and there is), then they will come. Especially if these formats come into wide use. Also, these accessibility tools will be much better because they know how to read the format. They don't have to struggle through and hack like crazy, just to make them work. They could even make an entire word processor specifically for the disabled, made to work with the abilities they have. A blind person doesn't need an interface like everyone else does. They need a completely different tool to compose documents than the rest of us. A standard format would make these tools easier to develop.
Another note. I thought screen readers just read the text on your screen, regardless of what program is displaying them. I guess I was wrong about this, since Accessibility seems to be a big issue.
Yeah, metroid prime was kind of kiddie too though. I mean, you're fighting aliens and stuff. It's not all blood and guts either. I think most parents would let their 12 year old play it. Although the skill level is a little high. I still haven't beaten it. It's a lot more child friendly than most of the other first person shooters out there.
I think what he's saying is that just because the browser passes the ACID test doesn't mean that it renders 100% of the pages correctly. As far as I'm aware Safari/Konq is the only browser that passed it fully. Yet, other than IE, it's the browser I hear most about when it comes to rendering errors. You could make a program correctly renders the input of the ACID test. It wouldn't really look at the input, just read the file and output what it's supposed to. The ACID test doesn't test 100% compliance. It's just something for bragging rights. It doesn't show real world results with the billions of pages on the web.
Unfortunately they have picked 2. They seem to be Compatibility and Reliability. XP is pretty reliable and doesn't crash quite so much as its predicessors. Also, it seems to be pretty compatible, even with stuff that was only make to work on windows 95. Maybe even windows 3.1 stuff works. DOS games don't really run any more, which is a shame. However, the security thing throws everything else out the door, since all the spyware and worms that slip in tend to kill not only the reliablity, but the compatibility with programs that were meant to run on it.
The kiddie games are the best thing about the GC. Games like Mario world, Mario Kart, and Zelda are fun to play. I find that games that spend too much time trying to be adult miss out on a lot of stuff that actually makes games fun to play. Although I don't mind a little violence in my games, I don't always want to be firing guns at the people, or driving some car that exists in real life. I'd rather just be able to escape to some fantasy land.
Which shows that Nintendo has a huge install base. Even with 34 million GBA units in people's hands, they were still able to sell 8.8 million DS units. Nintendo has 43 million units out there. They are doing well no matter how you measure them.
Frankly I don't care who's suing them. I hope that many people jump on the bandwagon to sue them. I would like to see them fight it out to the end, instead of taking a settlement. I want a verdict against Microsoft. Something that stops them or other companies from doing things like this in the future. However, most people are only after the money, and hence will just take a settlement. Nobody is in it because they think MS is a bunch of assholes and should pay.
How do they propose to do this? If I put my computer behind a router, then anything they send at me can't get to me. If I have a firewall, I can block whichever domains/IPs MS is trying to use to pull scheme off. Has this functionality been in Windows XP from the beginning? To cause a remote shutdown? Do I have to visit the windows update site for them to shut me down? If so, I guess the pirates can just not visit windows update anymore.
What makes scientology a BS Scheme over Roman catholicism? Just because more people believe in the religion and it's been around longer doesn't really make it any less of a scam. It just makes it a better scam.
Some of those government services help every one. Although you may not go to k-12 school, or have children who do, it helps out society a lot to have people educated. Just like I don't use the roads, because I don't drive, but those roads are used to bring many products to me, making my life better. I'm sure that a lot of the food you eat is made with ingredients from farms that receive subsidies. I don't think you'd want to pay a lot more for that food. Again social security helps us all out because it's better to have a person living off the government for a bit than begging on the street. Although social security shouldn't be used for ones entire life, just long enough to find a new job. Maybe abandon welfare, and leave (Un)employment insurace and (dis)ability insurance. Just because you don't directly use a service, doesn't mean that you aren't benefitting from it.
The problem with Linux is that if it isn't supported out of the box, it isn't supported at all. At least with windows you can go to the manufacturers website and get the drivers. Granted, I think that hardware support will come with time. As Linux gets more popular, more hardware makers will support it. ATI and Nvidia already offer Linux drivers. They aren't the best drivers, but they are coming along, and getting better. I think that Linux has real promise, and even if you can get it up to 10% of computers running Linux, that many of the manufacturers will follow.
That is exactly what I was saying. Google coming into the market forces everyone else to clean up their act, but doesn't destroy them completely. Maybe if Paypal didn't react at all, and didn't improve their services, then they may go under. But I don't think they would just let that happen.
Everybody had a problem with Hotmail before GMail came around. But they thought it was the only service available, and they needed the account anyway to use MSN (I know you can sign up for MSN with another email address, but it's really hard to find that site). Hotmail still has terrible spam filtration (blacklisting everyone except your contacts is not spam filtration), and thankfully, they've gone up from their original 2MB of storage. People used Hotmail because it was there, but I don't think that many people liked it. They were all looking for a change, but It's hard to switch email addresses.
Slashdot Mirror
I would recommend against perl. Linking to the Office DLLs isn't really all that good an idea, as you have to have office installed on the machine doing the processing. This may require extra licenses. Instead I would use C# or VB.Net with ADO.Net to connect to the Access/Excel files as datasources. This way you can use SQL queries on them. It's much easier to work in this manner, then trying to communicate with the app via the Office DLLs.
I'm a Linux zealot through and through, and I think you're right also. Maybe a VB.Net/C# app if you want to program in a "real language". Use the right tool for the job. Using .Net, you can open Access files just a like a regular database, and I think (am almost certain) the same goes for Excel files. I think the hardest part about writing this app would be to get it to make any sense of the data. If all these excel/access files are made by individuals, I find it hard to think that there's any standard format. Even if they are supposed to be formatted a certain way, they may not be formatted properly. I get the impression the files are output from other programs. So the formatting may be pretty good, but writing the code to support all the different formats will be tough. I think this guy has a really tough time ahead of him.
That's funny. I'm running 64-bit Linux (Mandriva) and I have no problem running flash. Yeah, I'm running the 32 bit binaries for firefox, but who really cares. It's a frickin web browser. I don't need uber performance out of it. I just want it to show web pages. And if running in 32 bit gets me that, then that's what I'm going to run it in. 64 bit is nice, and I use it for all the applications I can, but if it doesn't run in 64 bit it's not the end of the world. That's the nice thing about x86-64, and the whole reason why 64 bit computing is actually catching on finally. You can still run all your old programs, and run new 64 bit programs. At the same time.
There's lots of sysadmins out there. The problem is finding a good one. I know lots of people who do sysadmin work. Even Microsoft Certified Systems Admins. A lot of these people have no idea what they are doing. A good sys admin is hard to find, and they are expensive. Not only that, if you aren't a sys admin yourself, then it's hard to interview one and really get a sense if they really know their stuff. I'm not aware of any agencies that will conduct interviews for you for positions you don't know how to fill. How do you interview an accountant when you don't know anything about accounting?
This is true, but if you have a lot of code already written in ASP, then it can be hard to move to PHP. However, I'm sure all the functionality is there, and that it can be done. There's probably even some automated tools that could switch all the code for you. But then what. You're current developers will not only have to learn PHP, but have to learn how to use it effectively enough to support your new application. Retraining everyone can be costly and time consuming. Also you can't get rid of these people, because they know the logic of the application, its ins and outs, and are very valuable to your company. Although I think they should try to get away from ASP. That's super old technology. It has many problems that will help them in the future when they want to expand their business.
By that logic, we shouldn't be allowed to do anything dangerous. You don't have to wear a helmet while skiing, but it's probably just as dangerous, if not more. I've fallen way more while skiing than while riding my bike. I've seen more people fall while walking on icy sidewalks than falling while on a bicycle. Maybe we should ban walking on icy sidewalks. Or force people to wear helmets all winter. Oh, and where I'm from it's only under 18s who have to wear helmets. Do their heads cost more to repair? Are they more likely to be hurt. I would that once they learn how to ride, that the younger they are, the less likely they are to be hurt. Since most of the people I see speeding around the streets are adults, while the kids stick to going slow on the sidewalks, with their parents 4 feet behind them.
Well, I just started my copy of open office on Linux. It took 7 seconds. Actually 7 mississippi's, but that's besides the point. Athlon 64 3200+, with 1 GiB of RAM. You're right though. That extra 6-8 seconds at the beginning of my work day is really going to kill my productivity. Think about your argument for a second. You're saying that 8 seconds, every time you have to start up your word processor, is really going to make a difference. Frankly, I think we'd save a lot more time if we all learned how to touch type. That saves more than 7 seconds in the first sentence you type. Now that I reread your statement I think you may be joking, but it is a serious argument brought up by MS zealots. Really, I' could wait 30 seconds for my office suite to start. Because most of the time, when I start my office suite, i'm going to do a lot of work. If I just want to jot down a quick note, I open notepad. If it took 30 seconds to open each web page I visited I might be worried. But 10 seconds to open my word processor isn't going to hurt my productivity one bit.
They aren't even flash. They're quicktime. Won't show on my Linux computer. It's a frickin' screen shot. Why would I need quicktime?
First of all, I'm not a student or a teacher. So the student/teacher price doesn't apply. Most people aren't students and teachers, so it's kind of nice that they give these people a break but that doesn't work for most people. Maybe they need a factory worker edition, since factory workers need word processors, and make less money. And I think there's more factory workers than teachers. Or maybe they need a senior citizen edition. I'm also not buying more than 1 copy, so the volume pricing doesn't apply to me either. You also stated that Word itself costs $229, but that MS Works costs $99 and include Word. That seems like some pretty weird pricing to me. You can get just word for $229, but you can get word plus extras for less than half the price? Is the MS Works 8 word processor completely compatible with MS Word? Word isn't even compatible with itself. How could I trust that a different program would be compatible. Then there's still the problem with upgrading every 3 years. Word 97 gives me all the features I need, but I can't use it anymore because they changed the file format so much since then. I have to upgrade all the time since I'm from experience I know that I won't be able to read the files from those who have the new version.
This is what really pisses me off about current word processors. They try do read your mind and do everything for you. 99% of the time they get it wrong. I think there's some good automation tools such as completing long words for you, and correcting some spelling mistakes. However when they try to format your document for you they usually get it wrong, and it's extremely hard to get it to accept your way of doing things. The best word processor I ever used was Wordperfect 5.1. Everything could be done via the keyboard, and you didn't waste half your time worrying about formatting, because you couldn't see it anyway. Also, it used the entire screen for displaying your document, instead of cluttering up your screen with icons, scroll bars, and other things that don't really need to be there.
I wouldn't mind if MSs word processors were reasonably priced. I'm sorry they shouldn't be charging $300 for a product that has pretty much, from the home users point of view, remained the same since 1997. Especially when products with the same functionality can be gotten for free. Something around $50 would probably be a fair price. Something that most people can afford, and probably what most people would think it's worth. Oh, the other thing that bothers me about MS Office is that the format changes every time they release a new version. Which means that you not only have to spend $300 on an office suite, but you have to spend it every 3 years.
By your logic, drinking and driving shouldn't be illegal because according to the article, drinking is only as dangerous as driving with a cell phone. If the laws stop people from doing the actions that could injure others than that is the point. Laws are made to stop from others getting hurt. Either physically, or financially or emotionally. However, there are a lot of laws out there that are only on the books to stop you from hurting yourself. Such as bike helmet laws. Some laws just do kill a little too much of our freedom, especially when our actions don't hurt others. However if outlawing cell phone usage in cars would help save not only the lives and property of those using the phones, but those other drivers on the road not using phones, then I'm all for it.
My apologies for copying ideas of another poster I've seen post on this subject before, but here it goes. When it comes to reading computer file formats we are all disabled. No human can easily read a computer file format. That's why formats with actual standards are so important. So that we can all have equal access to the information stored within those files. Sure there may not be screen readers available right now, but if there is a market for them (and there is), then they will come. Especially if these formats come into wide use. Also, these accessibility tools will be much better because they know how to read the format. They don't have to struggle through and hack like crazy, just to make them work. They could even make an entire word processor specifically for the disabled, made to work with the abilities they have. A blind person doesn't need an interface like everyone else does. They need a completely different tool to compose documents than the rest of us. A standard format would make these tools easier to develop.
Another note. I thought screen readers just read the text on your screen, regardless of what program is displaying them. I guess I was wrong about this, since Accessibility seems to be a big issue.
Yeah, metroid prime was kind of kiddie too though. I mean, you're fighting aliens and stuff. It's not all blood and guts either. I think most parents would let their 12 year old play it. Although the skill level is a little high. I still haven't beaten it. It's a lot more child friendly than most of the other first person shooters out there.
I think what he's saying is that just because the browser passes the ACID test doesn't mean that it renders 100% of the pages correctly. As far as I'm aware Safari/Konq is the only browser that passed it fully. Yet, other than IE, it's the browser I hear most about when it comes to rendering errors. You could make a program correctly renders the input of the ACID test. It wouldn't really look at the input, just read the file and output what it's supposed to. The ACID test doesn't test 100% compliance. It's just something for bragging rights. It doesn't show real world results with the billions of pages on the web.
Unfortunately they have picked 2. They seem to be Compatibility and Reliability. XP is pretty reliable and doesn't crash quite so much as its predicessors. Also, it seems to be pretty compatible, even with stuff that was only make to work on windows 95. Maybe even windows 3.1 stuff works. DOS games don't really run any more, which is a shame. However, the security thing throws everything else out the door, since all the spyware and worms that slip in tend to kill not only the reliablity, but the compatibility with programs that were meant to run on it.
The kiddie games are the best thing about the GC. Games like Mario world, Mario Kart, and Zelda are fun to play. I find that games that spend too much time trying to be adult miss out on a lot of stuff that actually makes games fun to play. Although I don't mind a little violence in my games, I don't always want to be firing guns at the people, or driving some car that exists in real life. I'd rather just be able to escape to some fantasy land.
Which shows that Nintendo has a huge install base. Even with 34 million GBA units in people's hands, they were still able to sell 8.8 million DS units. Nintendo has 43 million units out there. They are doing well no matter how you measure them.
Frankly I don't care who's suing them. I hope that many people jump on the bandwagon to sue them. I would like to see them fight it out to the end, instead of taking a settlement. I want a verdict against Microsoft. Something that stops them or other companies from doing things like this in the future. However, most people are only after the money, and hence will just take a settlement. Nobody is in it because they think MS is a bunch of assholes and should pay.
How do they propose to do this? If I put my computer behind a router, then anything they send at me can't get to me. If I have a firewall, I can block whichever domains/IPs MS is trying to use to pull scheme off. Has this functionality been in Windows XP from the beginning? To cause a remote shutdown? Do I have to visit the windows update site for them to shut me down? If so, I guess the pirates can just not visit windows update anymore.
What makes scientology a BS Scheme over Roman catholicism? Just because more people believe in the religion and it's been around longer doesn't really make it any less of a scam. It just makes it a better scam.
Some of those government services help every one. Although you may not go to k-12 school, or have children who do, it helps out society a lot to have people educated. Just like I don't use the roads, because I don't drive, but those roads are used to bring many products to me, making my life better. I'm sure that a lot of the food you eat is made with ingredients from farms that receive subsidies. I don't think you'd want to pay a lot more for that food. Again social security helps us all out because it's better to have a person living off the government for a bit than begging on the street. Although social security shouldn't be used for ones entire life, just long enough to find a new job. Maybe abandon welfare, and leave (Un)employment insurace and (dis)ability insurance. Just because you don't directly use a service, doesn't mean that you aren't benefitting from it.
The problem with Linux is that if it isn't supported out of the box, it isn't supported at all. At least with windows you can go to the manufacturers website and get the drivers. Granted, I think that hardware support will come with time. As Linux gets more popular, more hardware makers will support it. ATI and Nvidia already offer Linux drivers. They aren't the best drivers, but they are coming along, and getting better. I think that Linux has real promise, and even if you can get it up to 10% of computers running Linux, that many of the manufacturers will follow.
That is exactly what I was saying. Google coming into the market forces everyone else to clean up their act, but doesn't destroy them completely. Maybe if Paypal didn't react at all, and didn't improve their services, then they may go under. But I don't think they would just let that happen.
Everybody had a problem with Hotmail before GMail came around. But they thought it was the only service available, and they needed the account anyway to use MSN (I know you can sign up for MSN with another email address, but it's really hard to find that site). Hotmail still has terrible spam filtration (blacklisting everyone except your contacts is not spam filtration), and thankfully, they've gone up from their original 2MB of storage. People used Hotmail because it was there, but I don't think that many people liked it. They were all looking for a change, but It's hard to switch email addresses.