Hairyfeet is a Microsoft apologist. He's always on hand to invent excuses for Microsoft's failings.
As any shopper will tell you, your computer comes from the reseller in a box from the manufacturer, and generally has a standard pre-install image ready to run. I've never seen any modification of settings, just the usual crapware installed.
Nope, this isn't a reseller problem - that's just blameshifting.
This is why education is so important and the idea that a computer is simple is bad.
No, this is why the current monopoly general-purpose OS is such a bad idea.
If formats, protocols, APIs etc are open, then simple computers can be used for simple tasks. The hardware industry is trending in that direction with products that are cheap, functional and simple, like the Freescale Tablet.
A device like that could be made safe, reliable and uncomplicated given the right software selection. People who don't want or need complexity should have that choice without sacrificing compatibility. Sadly, we'll never have that while Microsoft holds the reins of the software industry and demands 85% profit margins for its complex and demanding OS.
If you don't engage in risky behavior you don't have to worry so much.
Really?
Researchers Hijack a Drive-By Botnet.
They found more than 6,500 websites hosting malicious code that redirected nearly 340,000 visitors to malicious sites. Drive-by downloading involves hacking into a legitimate site to covertly install malicious software on visitors' machines
"Once upon a time, you thought that if you did not browse porn, you would be safe," says Giovanni Vigna, a UCSB professor of computer science and one of the paper's authors. "But staying away from the seedy places on the Internet is no longer an assurance of staying safe."
Everyone's always touting the benefits of competition, but here's a clear example of competition serving to confuse the market.
No, this is a clear example of a monopoly creating a market repairing broken Windows. That's why it seems confusing.
Consumers shouldn't be facing a choice of ineffective bandaids to patch over their computers' inability to keep malware out. They should be able to choose a computer/OS that is inherently resistant.
For computer users, this is a Red Queen's race, and Windows users have to keep paying and stay vigilant just to retain a semblance of control of their own machines. The real solution is to mandate open formats, APIs, and protocols, then let any OS vendor compete on level terms. When consumers can select an OS that suits them, including the level of security they wish to pay for, we will have competition. Only then will OS vendors have to improve their products to retain customers.
Windows users have gotten smart about updating, people know better than to take ActiveX downloads from free porn sites, and people have wised up about trusting what they get from P2P. All sources are now seeing lower virus rates
September 29, 2009 11:51 AM PDT Malware worldwide grows 15 percent in September
A rise in malware has caused the number of infected PCs worldwide to increase 15 percent just from August to September, says a report released Tuesday http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10363373-83.html
Phew, I'm glad they're so much smarter - imagine how much more clickfraud and spam the botnets would be perpetrating if they hadn't wised up.
Close to 60% of all US Windows computers are hosting malware already, and that's not likely to change any time soon. The anti-malware industry is making a fortune from Windows flaws, but overwhelming evidence suggests it's not money well spent. If computer users DID wise up, they'd be moving away from expensive and fragile platforms, not adding to the coffers of modern day snake-oil merchants.
The US blacklist isn't the only definition of tax haven, and the IoM only avoided the blacklist by signing more tax information exchange agreements than other offshore havens.
From Wiki;
The Isle of Man does not charge corporation tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax or wealth tax. Personal income tax is levied at 10–18% on the worldwide income of Isle of Man residents, up to a maximum tax liability of £100,000. Banking income tax is levied on the profits of Isle of Man based banks at 10% and income from the rent of Isle of Man property is levied at the same rate.
Not all of that €1.2 billion is taxable in Ireland, you idiot.
Read the links. It's what I put them there for.
According to the Irish Independent, in the past two years Microsoft’s Irish subsidiary has paid dividends totalling €5bn to its Seattle-based parent. That’s despite making profits less than that at €2bn pre tax a year.
(1) Outsource your work to a very large country which dosen't care about IP laws.
Shame you got modded troll. This is pretty insightful, though it should say "Outsource your work to a country which has lax tax laws."
One of the most unintentionally hilarious points in TFA is Steve Ballmer's comment;
Users such as the Government of the Isle of Man are already saving up to £120 per year using the beta version of Windows 7
The Isle of Man is largely an offshore tax haven with around 1,350 desktop computers for the entire government. If all of the promised "£100 per desktop per year" savings materialise, the IoM government will have saved a grand total of £135,000 by using beta software. So why would Ballmer be so interested in such a small deployment?
Accounts for Microsoft Ireland Research, an Irish subsidiary of the global software giant, show that the company paid just €460,000 in tax, on profits of more than €1.2 billion last year.
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/category/microsoft/
That's 0.04% tax.
Still wondering why Microsoft is heavily involved in an offshore tax haven?
Even funnier, the IoM Government was an early supporter of Windows Vista, and claimed savings switching to that OS. Though only completing their rollout in October 2009, they were just in time to save even more money changing to Windows 7. If they keep making savings upgrading like that, pretty soon Microsoft'll be paying them for installing Windows.
1. Application of a new background master (with it's own color, font, bullet, background graphic logos, etc.) should be a two click change.
I just click View/Master/Slide Master. There's a selection of Master Pages, clicking on them gives the option of applying to selected or all pages. I don't know how you could find this hard.
2. Making a "global" change on the master to how bullets, fonts, indentation, colors, etc. are applied to sections should be a few clicks at most, and easily re-applied to all slides.
In View/Master/Slide Master, click the master page you're using. Make the changes, done. What are you finding difficult about it? To me it seems simpler and more logical than Powerpoint.
I find it crashtastic when doing something as simple as reformatting, and there are times when font layouts for text areas become "confused to the extent that you're better off deleting them entirely and re-entering the text than trying to figure out what got screwed up.
It's been far more stable than Powerpoint for me. I don't remember it ever locking up or crashing. Likewise I've never had any problems with font layouts. What are you doing when they mess up? If you're having problems with imported/pasted text, try Edit/Paste Special and paste as unformatted text.
Besides, in my fucking post, I already SAID it had been a few years. What do you want next time? Should I surround that by asterisks? Or maybe bold and italicize it? Here: ***** I HAVE NOT USED OPEN OFFICE IN A FEW YEARS ***** . Happy?
This is your original post.
I'd just like to point out that there's no guarantee, or reason to believe, that open source office software is any better in this regard.
And, hell, OpenOffice's presentation software is so weak, even a completely corrupted Office 2007 file probably looked better.
I'm not going to give it another one because my time's too valuable for that.
If you haven't used it recently, why are you calling it weak in public forums?
Thousands of people read Slashdot and are misled by comments like yours. How valuable is their time and money to you?
You've been around long enough to know how quickly FOSS software fixes faults. If you don't know the current state of the software, don't post crap about it.
1) It wasn't able to import an outline from a document and automatically convert it into slides
I'm not sure I understand this. I copy and paste documents into Impress's Outline view all the time, same as I do with Powerpoint. Can you please explain the sequence you follow in Powerpoint?
2) It totally didn't have the concept of "master slides", where you can change the appearance/behavior of a slide, then apply that new appearance to all the other slides automatically
I just click View/Master/Slide Master. There's a selection of Master Pages, clicking on them gives the option of applying to selected or all pages. How do you do this in Powerpoint? I thought it was the same?
3) Related to that, if you changed a slide's template, it lost the content of the slide. (Actually, IIRC, it kept the title but deleted everything else.)
I can't make that happen. Can you tell me how you did it?
4) The fonts and drawing tools weren't anti-aliased, so they looked like shit
They are by default. Somebody's probably gone to "Tools/Options/OpenOffice.org/View" and unchecked the "Screen font antialiasing" check box.
I'm not sure how you managed to have such a hard time with Impress. It (and Powerpoint) aren't particularly difficult apps to explore. Have you spent much time with it?
We are currently looking into putting our own ubuntu repository online for custom packages and updated revisions, but the headaches of this breaking mainline repository updates is daunting.
Its that OO tried so hard to make a clone of MS Office and only got it about 80% the same.
It doesn't try to be a clone.
OpenOffice.org includes interface and workflow design to make switching between MS Office and OOo easier. The developers are very well aware
of the tradeoff between duplicating MS Office's rather haphazard menu/button layout and replacing it with something more logical but unfamiliar.
Slashdot Mirror
No, they don't.
Hairyfeet is a Microsoft apologist. He's always on hand to invent excuses for Microsoft's failings.
As any shopper will tell you, your computer comes from the reseller in a box from the manufacturer, and generally has a standard pre-install image ready to run. I've never seen any modification of settings, just the usual crapware installed.
Nope, this isn't a reseller problem - that's just blameshifting.
No, this is why the current monopoly general-purpose OS is such a bad idea.
If formats, protocols, APIs etc are open, then simple computers can be used for simple tasks. The hardware industry is trending in that direction with products that are cheap, functional and simple, like the Freescale Tablet.
A device like that could be made safe, reliable and uncomplicated given the right software selection. People who don't want or need complexity should have that choice without sacrificing compatibility. Sadly, we'll never have that while Microsoft holds the reins of the software industry and demands 85% profit margins for its complex and demanding OS.
If you were an OS developer, how would you prevent such an attack?
Really?
Researchers Hijack a Drive-By Botnet.
They found more than 6,500 websites hosting malicious code that redirected nearly 340,000 visitors to malicious sites. Drive-by downloading involves hacking into a legitimate site to covertly install malicious software on visitors' machines
"Once upon a time, you thought that if you did not browse porn, you would be safe," says Giovanni Vigna, a UCSB professor of computer science and one of the paper's authors. "But staying away from the seedy places on the Internet is no longer an assurance of staying safe."
Because, as I stated, we don't have open formats, APIs, and protocols.
That makes it difficult for computer users to move freely between OSs and prevents competition on real merits.
Please tell me how a virus can infect a Live CD?
No, this is a clear example of a monopoly creating a market repairing broken Windows. That's why it seems confusing.
Consumers shouldn't be facing a choice of ineffective bandaids to patch over their computers' inability to keep malware out. They should be able to choose a computer/OS that is inherently resistant.
For computer users, this is a Red Queen's race, and Windows users have to keep paying and stay vigilant just to retain a semblance of control of their own machines. The real solution is to mandate open formats, APIs, and protocols, then let any OS vendor compete on level terms. When consumers can select an OS that suits them, including the level of security they wish to pay for, we will have competition. Only then will OS vendors have to improve their products to retain customers.
September 29, 2009 11:51 AM PDT
Malware worldwide grows 15 percent in September
A rise in malware has caused the number of infected PCs worldwide to increase 15 percent just from August to September, says a report released Tuesday
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10363373-83.html
Phew, I'm glad they're so much smarter - imagine how much more clickfraud and spam the botnets would be perpetrating if they hadn't wised up.
Close to 60% of all US Windows computers are hosting malware already, and that's not likely to change any time soon. The anti-malware industry is making a fortune from Windows flaws, but overwhelming evidence suggests it's not money well spent. If computer users DID wise up, they'd be moving away from expensive and fragile platforms, not adding to the coffers of modern day snake-oil merchants.
I think you're using it wrong.
From Wiki;
The Isle of Man does not charge corporation tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax or wealth tax. Personal income tax is levied at 10–18% on the worldwide income of Isle of Man residents, up to a maximum tax liability of £100,000. Banking income tax is levied on the profits of Isle of Man based banks at 10% and income from the rent of Isle of Man property is levied at the same rate.
Read the links. It's what I put them there for.
According to the Irish Independent, in the past two years Microsoft’s Irish subsidiary has paid dividends totalling €5bn to its Seattle-based parent. That’s despite making profits less than that at €2bn pre tax a year.
Understand what's happening yet?
"I'm reinstalling Vista."
Shame you got modded troll. This is pretty insightful, though it should say "Outsource your work to a country which has lax tax laws."
One of the most unintentionally hilarious points in TFA is Steve Ballmer's comment;
Users such as the Government of the Isle of Man are already saving up to £120 per year using the beta version of Windows 7
The Isle of Man is largely an offshore tax haven with around 1,350 desktop computers for the entire government. If all of the promised "£100 per desktop per year" savings materialise, the IoM government will have saved a grand total of £135,000 by using beta software. So why would Ballmer be so interested in such a small deployment?
Accounts for Microsoft Ireland Research, an Irish subsidiary of the global software giant, show that the company paid just €460,000 in tax, on profits of more than €1.2 billion last year.
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/category/microsoft/
That's 0.04% tax.
Still wondering why Microsoft is heavily involved in an offshore tax haven?
Even funnier, the IoM Government was an early supporter of Windows Vista, and claimed savings switching to that OS. Though only completing their rollout in October 2009, they were just in time to save even more money changing to Windows 7. If they keep making savings upgrading like that, pretty soon Microsoft'll be paying them for installing Windows.
They probably add the term "Microsoft" to the filter.
That one definitely has a monopoly, and was one of the costliest scams of the 20th century,
Shhhh.
I need a new air conditioner.
True.
We should start freezing them now, just to be sure.
Haven't you heard how awesome Windows 7 is?
It's totally different from Vista.
Government?
Are you kidding! What about wives and girlfriends? Every non-single male Slashdotter simultaneously wet their pants.
A couple of J-cloths should be enough for the cleanup.
I just click View/Master/Slide Master. There's a selection of Master Pages, clicking on them gives the option of applying to selected or all pages. I don't know how you could find this hard.
2. Making a "global" change on the master to how bullets, fonts, indentation, colors, etc. are applied to sections should be a few clicks at most, and easily re-applied to all slides.
In View/Master/Slide Master, click the master page you're using. Make the changes, done. What are you finding difficult about it? To me it seems simpler and more logical than Powerpoint.
I find it crashtastic when doing something as simple as reformatting, and there are times when font layouts for text areas become "confused to the extent that you're better off deleting them entirely and re-entering the text than trying to figure out what got screwed up.
It's been far more stable than Powerpoint for me. I don't remember it ever locking up or crashing. Likewise I've never had any problems with font layouts. What are you doing when they mess up? If you're having problems with imported/pasted text, try Edit/Paste Special and paste as unformatted text.
This is your original post.
I'd just like to point out that there's no guarantee, or reason to believe, that open source office software is any better in this regard.
And, hell, OpenOffice's presentation software is so weak, even a completely corrupted Office 2007 file probably looked better.
There's no such disclaimer there.
If you haven't used it recently, why are you calling it weak in public forums?
Thousands of people read Slashdot and are misled by comments like yours. How valuable is their time and money to you?
You've been around long enough to know how quickly FOSS software fixes faults. If you don't know the current state of the software, don't post crap about it.
I'm not sure I understand this. I copy and paste documents into Impress's Outline view all the time, same as I do with Powerpoint. Can you please explain the sequence you follow in Powerpoint?
2) It totally didn't have the concept of "master slides", where you can change the appearance/behavior of a slide, then apply that new appearance to all the other slides automatically
I just click View/Master/Slide Master. There's a selection of Master Pages, clicking on them gives the option of applying to selected or all pages. How do you do this in Powerpoint? I thought it was the same?
3) Related to that, if you changed a slide's template, it lost the content of the slide. (Actually, IIRC, it kept the title but deleted everything else.)
I can't make that happen. Can you tell me how you did it?
4) The fonts and drawing tools weren't anti-aliased, so they looked like shit
They are by default. Somebody's probably gone to "Tools /Options/OpenOffice.org/View" and unchecked the "Screen font antialiasing" check box.
I'm not sure how you managed to have such a hard time with Impress. It (and Powerpoint) aren't particularly difficult apps to explore. Have you spent much time with it?
Making your own repository is ridiculously easy.
20% of whom we'd end up having to handhold through the process of adding custom respositories,
That only takes a few mouse clicks or a very simple script.
It doesn't try to be a clone.
OpenOffice.org includes interface and workflow design to make switching between MS Office and OOo easier. The developers are very well aware of the tradeoff between duplicating MS Office's rather haphazard menu/button layout and replacing it with something more logical but unfamiliar.
Then why do documents opened in every new version of Microsoft Office look different than in the previous versions?