You can make the same claim about any lightweight application compared to any overloaded kitchen-sink program that grew out of control. FoxitReader does what most people want a PDF reader to do: it reads PDFs. It does so reasonably well, and it's free. Furthermore, as other posters have pointed out, there are many similar programs that do what Adobe's reader used to do, so there's obviously a demand for something that Adobe no longer offers. As it happens FoxitReader serves my limited requirements perfectly well. I'm not alone in that. I'm still going to evaluate some of the other programs mentioned in this thread, however: some of them sound useful.
I'm sick and tired of software vendors trying to garner every last ounce of marketshare by including everything of which they can possibly think. There's a reason Adobe's software is bloatware, there's a reason Microsoft's software is bloatware, there's a reason Roxio's software is bloatware, there's a reason all major software vendors ship bloatware. They aren't satisfied with keeping 90% of their customers happy, they just have to try for 100%... and in the process, they usually make most of their customers unhappy, or at least, not as happy as they once were.
For my part, I am fed up with development processes that lose their vision, completely lose sight of the actual user problems they were trying to solve in the first place. There's a place for compact, efficient programs like FoxitReader. There's a place for programs like DeepBurner, which reminds me a lot of Nero 3.5: lightweight, fast, and does the job.
Not all of us want all-encompassing applications that try to be everything to everyone. If Adobe had half a brain they'd offer a Reader Light for those that just want to view basic PDFs.
Oh... the Third World gets plenty of pills. Of course, not all of them work, and the ones that do maybe haven't been tested as thoroughly as one might like. Heck, some might qualify as downright experimental. So they get plenty of pills. The thing is, what those people really need is a box to remind them not take them.
A law requiring you to do what's best for you, after you have paid insurance exactly for that purpose. Why is it that this law doesn't seem such a bad thing?
Why is it that you can't see what's wrong with that scenario?
Well, back in the BBS days I had about sixteen machines in my basement. I would bring a half dozen of the line servers down for the evening, and we'd play Duke Nukem 3D or Shadow Warrior into the wee hours of the night. It was intense. No online game can quite compare: hearing the guy across the room yell "Son of a bitch!" or "Goddammit!!!" and knowing it was that perfect sniper shot you had lined up... well. "Satisfying" is an understatement.
One day I put a small TSR on one of the PCs that would let me send keystrokes to that machine. I would randomly fire the player's weapons for him, and if he happened to be, say, facing a wall at the time he'd blow himself up. This usually resulted in an anguished "What the FUCK!", with hilarity ensuing amongst the remaining players. Sometimes I could blow him up and take out a couple of nearby opponents as well. Eventually they cottoned on to me, and then it was me running for my life for the next couple of hours while they taught me a lesson I'd never forget.
Detailed knowledge of any technological artifact will make you better at using it, maintaining it, knowing when to use it, whether it's an automobile or an AK-47. Yes, some people find guns interesting to a greater degree than others (I don't, personally, nor do I own one) but whatever floats one's boat. Let me ask: do you find someone that has an advanced knowledge of computers creepy? Probably not, if you're on Slashdot... but there are many that do, until they need him.
When the time comes that I need a brain to pick, it's those "creepy" nerd types that I seek out. They're the ones most like to be able to help. Maybe you're anti-gun, and the fact that some people are not is offensive to you, I don't know. Regardless, you should look at people who know much more than you about a given subject as a potentially valuable resource, not an object of scorn.
Might be you have a permissions problem on the program folder or the files. You'd think the installer would have reported that fact, but maybe not. Log in as Administrator and see if it upgrades then.
They get significantly less creepy once you've had somebody point a gun at you and pull the trigger. If you survive the experience and you've half a brain, you'll start learning a few things about guns. Those creepy technophiles are the best place to start.
Something that has been happening in the US since, what, the 90s? Late 80s?
Early eighties, I'd say, maybe even late seventies. I was a regular at several local arcades (yes, we had several back then) but once I got an Apple ][ and the family got a VCR I had less time for them. Yes, the PC games were crude compared to what the arcades offered, but they were more convenient and didn't cost quarters.
The original personal computers began taking share away from arcades decades ago. The small ones closed first: you hardly ever see them anymore. The really huge arcades are still surviving, although who knows how long that will last given the sophistication of modern consoles and PC games. Yes yes, I know that there's the "social" aspect to arcade play, but in the same way the Internet and home video took away from the movie theater, so will the advancing state-of-the-art in home gaming erode the arcade business.
Too bad, in a way. I had a great time in the early days playing the likes of Star Wars, Robotron, Joust... and the fact that it cost hard-earned money did make the experience less trivial. Now I just click on an icon and away I go. Maybe I should put a coin acceptor on the side of my PC.
It's too early to tell. If the patent is legit (and I don't know enough about the subject to even venture an opinion, I'll leave that to the rest of you) then the WARF people have only now begun to fight, by filing a lawsuit. They were apparently trying to avoid that if they could. If they win, can they get back payments for fees Intel didn't pay while infringing?
More like douse them in accelerant and set them on fire, as a warning to others who might be tempted to behave similarly. I mean, the RIAA lawsuit mill is based upon the same idea, deterrence. Fight fire with fire, I say.
Then, when they're properly carbonized you can remove their heads and set them on pikes in Central Park, so that passersby can look on and cheer.
Slashdot Mirror
As far as fuel goes, we will always these problems until we figure out a decent way to run our machines using air, water, or the Sun.
I have a special carburetor that will run your car on air, water and a small solar panel. I just can't seem to find anyone that will fund my research.
Has publicly stated he only believes in, "The Three N's"... Natural Gas, Nuclear or Nothing.
Aye, and there's the rub. Critical policies are being set by what certain people "believe", on what their "gut feelings" tell them.
Forget the science, forget the facts. Who the hell needs those.
and in 60 million years from now, some form of land dweling squid will be unearthing our bones, just like we do with the dinosaurs.
... I'm betting on intelligent cockroaches myself.
I dunno
Well, I dunno about Disney ... there was often a lot of beer involved.
And who says short term profit is what Yahoo!'s shareholders want?
Well, as an American I can say this: if the bulk of Yahoo's shareholders are also American, then that's exactly what they want.
And that's too bad.
after ten years of abuse
Ten years? Try thirty.
Yeah, they stop when they feel better. If there was ever a need for a public information campaign this is it.
View OpenGL content embedded in PDFs. For fucks sake.
Yeah, that was kinda my reaction as well.
So what?
... and in the process, they usually make most of their customers unhappy, or at least, not as happy as they once were.
You can make the same claim about any lightweight application compared to any overloaded kitchen-sink program that grew out of control. FoxitReader does what most people want a PDF reader to do: it reads PDFs. It does so reasonably well, and it's free. Furthermore, as other posters have pointed out, there are many similar programs that do what Adobe's reader used to do, so there's obviously a demand for something that Adobe no longer offers. As it happens FoxitReader serves my limited requirements perfectly well. I'm not alone in that. I'm still going to evaluate some of the other programs mentioned in this thread, however: some of them sound useful.
I'm sick and tired of software vendors trying to garner every last ounce of marketshare by including everything of which they can possibly think. There's a reason Adobe's software is bloatware, there's a reason Microsoft's software is bloatware, there's a reason Roxio's software is bloatware, there's a reason all major software vendors ship bloatware. They aren't satisfied with keeping 90% of their customers happy, they just have to try for 100%
For my part, I am fed up with development processes that lose their vision, completely lose sight of the actual user problems they were trying to solve in the first place. There's a place for compact, efficient programs like FoxitReader. There's a place for programs like DeepBurner, which reminds me a lot of Nero 3.5: lightweight, fast, and does the job.
Not all of us want all-encompassing applications that try to be everything to everyone. If Adobe had half a brain they'd offer a Reader Light for those that just want to view basic PDFs.
Sure he would ... he's just saying that Google has value, that's all. And I agree: no library is of much use without an index.
Oh ... the Third World gets plenty of pills. Of course, not all of them work, and the ones that do maybe haven't been tested as thoroughly as one might like. Heck, some might qualify as downright experimental. So they get plenty of pills. The thing is, what those people really need is a box to remind them not take them.
A law requiring you to do what's best for you, after you have paid insurance exactly for that purpose. Why is it that this law doesn't seem such a bad thing?
Why is it that you can't see what's wrong with that scenario?
Well, back in the BBS days I had about sixteen machines in my basement. I would bring a half dozen of the line servers down for the evening, and we'd play Duke Nukem 3D or Shadow Warrior into the wee hours of the night. It was intense. No online game can quite compare: hearing the guy across the room yell "Son of a bitch!" or "Goddammit!!!" and knowing it was that perfect sniper shot you had lined up ... well. "Satisfying" is an understatement.
One day I put a small TSR on one of the PCs that would let me send keystrokes to that machine. I would randomly fire the player's weapons for him, and if he happened to be, say, facing a wall at the time he'd blow himself up. This usually resulted in an anguished "What the FUCK!", with hilarity ensuing amongst the remaining players. Sometimes I could blow him up and take out a couple of nearby opponents as well. Eventually they cottoned on to me, and then it was me running for my life for the next couple of hours while they taught me a lesson I'd never forget.
Detailed knowledge of any technological artifact will make you better at using it, maintaining it, knowing when to use it, whether it's an automobile or an AK-47. Yes, some people find guns interesting to a greater degree than others (I don't, personally, nor do I own one) but whatever floats one's boat. Let me ask: do you find someone that has an advanced knowledge of computers creepy? Probably not, if you're on Slashdot ... but there are many that do, until they need him.
When the time comes that I need a brain to pick, it's those "creepy" nerd types that I seek out. They're the ones most like to be able to help. Maybe you're anti-gun, and the fact that some people are not is offensive to you, I don't know. Regardless, you should look at people who know much more than you about a given subject as a potentially valuable resource, not an object of scorn.
Might be you have a permissions problem on the program folder or the files. You'd think the installer would have reported that fact, but maybe not. Log in as Administrator and see if it upgrades then.
They get significantly less creepy once you've had somebody point a gun at you and pull the trigger. If you survive the experience and you've half a brain, you'll start learning a few things about guns. Those creepy technophiles are the best place to start.
No kidding. FoxitReader is a hell of an improvement over Adobe's crap, even if it isn't open source.
When was the last time that the government said "no, I don't need more power"?
... we'd never use it."
More accurately, when was the last time government said, "Yes, it's true, we've given ourselves this power, but don't worry
Something that has been happening in the US since, what, the 90s? Late 80s?
... and the fact that it cost hard-earned money did make the experience less trivial. Now I just click on an icon and away I go. Maybe I should put a coin acceptor on the side of my PC.
Early eighties, I'd say, maybe even late seventies. I was a regular at several local arcades (yes, we had several back then) but once I got an Apple ][ and the family got a VCR I had less time for them. Yes, the PC games were crude compared to what the arcades offered, but they were more convenient and didn't cost quarters.
The original personal computers began taking share away from arcades decades ago. The small ones closed first: you hardly ever see them anymore. The really huge arcades are still surviving, although who knows how long that will last given the sophistication of modern consoles and PC games. Yes yes, I know that there's the "social" aspect to arcade play, but in the same way the Internet and home video took away from the movie theater, so will the advancing state-of-the-art in home gaming erode the arcade business.
Too bad, in a way. I had a great time in the early days playing the likes of Star Wars, Robotron, Joust
Later that day, the same Namco executive was heard to say, "Wii will prevail!"
It's too early to tell. If the patent is legit (and I don't know enough about the subject to even venture an opinion, I'll leave that to the rest of you) then the WARF people have only now begun to fight, by filing a lawsuit. They were apparently trying to avoid that if they could. If they win, can they get back payments for fees Intel didn't pay while infringing?
More like douse them in accelerant and set them on fire, as a warning to others who might be tempted to behave similarly. I mean, the RIAA lawsuit mill is based upon the same idea, deterrence. Fight fire with fire, I say.
Then, when they're properly carbonized you can remove their heads and set them on pikes in Central Park, so that passersby can look on and cheer.
Excuse me, why is that a troll? Harvard has endowments that are on a truly Biblical scale. From what I understand, it doesn't need Federal funds.
A parallel study having determined that the Pope is, after all, Catholic.
Neither the bear's religious persuasion nor the Pope's toilet habits could be determined, however.
Just out of curiosity, was that before or after the Best Buyout?