If you want to kill MS Office, why not go at it in a roundabout way? Unique, useful features, useful templates and novel ways to adapt them, extremely easy and fun presentation creation, again with useful templates and novel ways to adapt them...
In other words: make people want to have and use Star Office (or any other FOSS Office) regardless. No company in their right minds is going to use Star Office INSTEAD of MS Office if they have any meaningful document exchange with the rest of the world.
But they might want to use BOTH.
I have Neo Office (OO for mac offspring) and can't think of any reason to use it over MS Office for Mac (of course I applaud the effort and am glad that there is an alternative, I just don't use it, is all). Apple's new Word Processor, Pages however gives me compelling reasons to use it over MS Word whenever I want to have good looking layouts without the usual effort. And well, of course I can save the result as.doc...
MS Office killer? Not while Office remains the de facto standard. Which won't change when every other software project treats it that way as well. I might however stop using Word altogether in the following years, depending on the direction next versions of Pages will take.
A preemptive strike is in other parts of the world known as "starting a war".
If the US is looking for legal clout in the only court in the world it somewhat recognises (its own, and damnation to international law), the rest of the world should be worried.
Or do we want another "There are weapons of mass destruction!!!, and terrorists, and Saddam! --- OK, there weren't any WMD's, and we've actually given terrorism a new cause and training ground, but we got Saddam, so we've done pretty great don't you think?"
You're right I think. I've also met very dedicated good people among believers and non-believers alike.
But somehow, grownups doing their thing in the name of santa clause, it seems irresponsible;-) Ah well, it's the deed that counts.
I'd like to point out though that a subset of believers will refuse modern medical attention or ignore rules of society because they clash with their belief system.
But apart from mormons I don't know of anybody shunning modern comforts, which says something I guess, of our real priorities;-)
The scary part is how important that belief is. Hell, I'll believe anything on a good day, but for instance training young people not to believe in human accomplishments because it doesn't conform with religious "fact", that's scary. And perverse...
[quote] "intelligent design" is a meticulously planned, focus-group designed, carefully executed fraud.
It is created only to deceive. It's intended purpose is not to explain anything, but only to diminish the public credibility of any real scientific explanatory model of life or the origin of our world. [/quote]
OK, broadly the same could be said about religion in general and most political statements.
But that doesn't mean people don't BELIEVE it.
My sister just can't believe we're somehow sharing traits with apes, while to me that's maybe our most redeeming quality;-)
So heartwarming that so many "intelligent" people confuse poverty with stupidity.
That's the way of the future, wipe out the poor, except those needed for menial jobs (like taking care of our children while we're busy doing intelligent things).
The funniest posts are those who say things like "let's be realistic" before intelligently debating the merits of endlosing to save our gene pool.
Takes me back to a debate I had with someone who assured me that the jews were destroying themselves by inbreeding. That from a guy who spoke one single language and had only one degree, while my inbreeding neighbours spoke at least six languages and considered one degree only just above no degree at all.
Mind, some of my neighbours have tried to explain to me that arabs are not people, which goes to show:
Big brains are overrated. By the intelligent *and* the stupid.
"The US work week is tied for first as the longest in the industrialized world at an average of 2040 hours. (France is around 1400 by comparison)"
And yet, France with far fewer resources, 7 weeks of paid holidays, a 35 hour workweek and an attitude from here to Indistan, yet they still are the 5th largest economy in the world.
"*In general*, if you work hard, you can get ahead. That's the American Dream, and people here are pretty good at it. Just check out the GNP."
There are scores of americans who can't get by even while doing two full-time jobs.
I'm not out to bash the U.S., just making some points on trying to measure success by looking at GNP and working hours.
IMO a country that has less working hours with in comparison better GNP has to do better. But that is my opinion, mingled with a somewhat typical Euro-bias (not shared by all Europeans, just very common).
IMO also one could argue that GNP in the U.S. should be considered gross GNP and should be corrected to include cost of health, parent/child care and stuff like that.
That's of course considered a private matter in the U.S. but we all have to pay the price somehow or suffer the consequences.
Bottom line argument: comparing figures with the rest of the world doesn't really work unless you are prepared to compare what the average worker gets or doesn't get for his money and citizenship.
The cultural dimension is a funny one: Americans tend to downplay the actual amount of state intervention because it implies failure of the system, while in Europe state intervention is a source of pride (and endless grumbling about taxes of course).
This means that if the U.S. and Europe spend an equal amount on a social issue, it will be criticized in the U.S. (because private initiative HAS to be better) and praised in Europe (because the state MUST care).
If in that same scenario something goes wrong, the U.S. will argue the state does too much, and Europe will argue the state does too little.
I don't think the US shrugs off economic hardship, or human suffering. There's the goal and there's reality, and lots of stupidity and bad luck inbetween.
"and it's also why America is so much more successful than Europe"
The main reason would be the definition of success. The US has a very different measure of success. Not to put too fine a point on it, the US measures wealth, the EU measures wellbeing.
When measured by European standards, the US does barely better than most developing countries.
You tend to look at economical figures and the size of your army only, whereas we tend to look at level of education, well-being, health care, unemployment policy and all that woozy stuff.
I'm not sure how you can argue one to be better than the other, especially when you want to keep that big bad army out of your back-yard...
BTW: for all you rocket-scientists out there: no, I'm not talking about the metric system;-)
BTW2: don't think European nations are "soft". Every democracy tries to find the best way to keep people from gathering pitch forks and shouting "burn the bastards". The US seems to give most of its citizens what they want. However, wellfare and high standards of living for as many people as possible seem to work better for us Europeans. Even in France, where the use of pitchforks is institutionalized and an accepted method of negotiating labour and trade issues...
Well, tin foil hats aside, I think everybody with a clue would agree that Apple'd be dead if OS X could run on just any PC (those who think otherwise have never ever done support).
So they'll have to do something to keep OS X on their boxes only. If it's through this chip, that's BTW already on a shitheap of laptops and other configurations you all buy, what gives?
If they ever use hardware drm on their computers to hamper fair use, I'd say you have a real reason to boycot them. Give me a call then, I'll stand on the barricade and sing...
IMHO this is like all those posts on Apple's mouse (a friggin mouse FGS) by people who just knew how it would suck by looking at Apple's glossy webpages...
There's this chip that you find on a lot of intel computers that's also in Apple intel developer loaners.
Until now nobody has actually used that chip for the intended purpose (ie restricting fair use of media).
Apple has announced it will restrict use of it's OS to it's own machines.
Most likely this will be done with a chip you can't just buy in any store, this chip being the one everyone is flipping about right now, or another one, no-one knows, right?
You're sort of right. Since Mac OS 8 macs supported multi button mice. But too many people just wouldn't believe this and keep nagging about the one button mouse, no matter how many times they and everybody else would say it.
So this really is the best time to come out with a multi button squeeze thing.
Everybody is bullish on Apple, especially after announcing the switch to intel, and now,my god, they even "support multi button mice"...
But many people comment on the white Apple mice, but most users who're into one button mice like them. And they are ergonomically sound, meaning they put less strain on your hands. I'm very sensitive to that, having a touch of artritis in my hands. There aren't that many mice around that suit me, Apple mice do (and incidentally the MS mouse I use right now does too).
BTW what you describe (rocker mouse) doesn't at all fit my experience. IMO the white Apple mouse is extremely good.
OK, I don't want to say this thing is good, I haven't tried it yet. But what you speak of is a typical usability issue.
One that must have been addressed in a thousand iterations if it came from Ive's team. They may slip once in a while but not in such a basic thing, not with such a "little" device that will get huge attention.
It's a multi button mouse from Apple, in 2005. Hello! Everybody will write about it. If it sucks, Jobs will personally shove them up the sunless spot of 5000 engineers...
Slashdot Mirror
If you want to kill MS Office, why not go at it in a roundabout way? Unique, useful features, useful templates and novel ways to adapt them, extremely easy and fun presentation creation, again with useful templates and novel ways to adapt them...
.doc...
In other words: make people want to have and use Star Office (or any other FOSS Office) regardless. No company in their right minds is going to use Star Office INSTEAD of MS Office if they have any meaningful document exchange with the rest of the world.
But they might want to use BOTH.
I have Neo Office (OO for mac offspring) and can't think of any reason to use it over MS Office for Mac (of course I applaud the effort and am glad that there is an alternative, I just don't use it, is all). Apple's new Word Processor, Pages however gives me compelling reasons to use it over MS Word whenever I want to have good looking layouts without the usual effort. And well, of course I can save the result as
MS Office killer? Not while Office remains the de facto standard. Which won't change when every other software project treats it that way as well. I might however stop using Word altogether in the following years, depending on the direction next versions of Pages will take.
Call tech support or visit the store. A lemon is a lemon, whether made by dell or apple...
A preemptive strike is in other parts of the world known as "starting a war".
If the US is looking for legal clout in the only court in the world it somewhat recognises (its own, and damnation to international law), the rest of the world should be worried.
Or do we want another "There are weapons of mass destruction!!!, and terrorists, and Saddam! --- OK, there weren't any WMD's, and we've actually given terrorism a new cause and training ground, but we got Saddam, so we've done pretty great don't you think?"
You're right I think. I've also met very dedicated good people among believers and non-believers alike.
;-) Ah well, it's the deed that counts.
;-)
But somehow, grownups doing their thing in the name of santa clause, it seems irresponsible
I'd like to point out though that a subset of believers will refuse modern medical attention or ignore rules of society because they clash with their belief system.
But apart from mormons I don't know of anybody shunning modern comforts, which says something I guess, of our real priorities
So you're not a bible belt christian, but a hindu?
Very confusing, keeping up with religious people.
The scary part is how important that belief is. Hell, I'll believe anything on a good day, but for instance training young people not to believe in human accomplishments because it doesn't conform with religious "fact", that's scary. And perverse...
[quote]
;-)
"intelligent design" is a meticulously planned, focus-group designed, carefully executed fraud.
It is created only to deceive. It's intended purpose is not to explain anything, but only to diminish the public credibility of any real scientific explanatory model of life or the origin of our world.
[/quote]
OK, broadly the same could be said about religion in general and most political statements.
But that doesn't mean people don't BELIEVE it.
My sister just can't believe we're somehow sharing traits with apes, while to me that's maybe our most redeeming quality
So heartwarming that so many "intelligent" people confuse poverty with stupidity.
That's the way of the future, wipe out the poor, except those needed for menial jobs (like taking care of our children while we're busy doing intelligent things).
The funniest posts are those who say things like "let's be realistic" before intelligently debating the merits of endlosing to save our gene pool.
Takes me back to a debate I had with someone who assured me that the jews were destroying themselves by inbreeding.
That from a guy who spoke one single language and had only one degree, while my inbreeding neighbours spoke at least six languages and considered one degree only just above no degree at all.
Mind, some of my neighbours have tried to explain to me that arabs are not people, which goes to show:
Big brains are overrated. By the intelligent *and* the stupid.
"The US work week is tied for first as the longest in the industrialized world at an average of 2040 hours. (France is around 1400 by comparison)"
And yet, France with far fewer resources, 7 weeks of paid holidays, a 35 hour workweek and an attitude from here to Indistan, yet they still are the 5th largest economy in the world.
"*In general*, if you work hard, you can get ahead. That's the American Dream, and people here are pretty good at it. Just check out the GNP."
There are scores of americans who can't get by even while doing two full-time jobs.
I'm not out to bash the U.S., just making some points on trying to measure success by looking at GNP and working hours.
IMO a country that has less working hours with in comparison better GNP has to do better. But that is my opinion, mingled with a somewhat typical Euro-bias (not shared by all Europeans, just very common).
IMO also one could argue that GNP in the U.S. should be considered gross GNP and should be corrected to include cost of health, parent/child care and stuff like that.
That's of course considered a private matter in the U.S. but we all have to pay the price somehow or suffer the consequences.
Bottom line argument: comparing figures with the rest of the world doesn't really work unless you are prepared to compare what the average worker gets or doesn't get for his money and citizenship.
The cultural dimension is a funny one: Americans tend to downplay the actual amount of state intervention because it implies failure of the system, while in Europe state intervention is a source of pride (and endless grumbling about taxes of course).
This means that if the U.S. and Europe spend an equal amount on a social issue, it will be criticized in the U.S. (because private initiative HAS to be better) and praised in Europe (because the state MUST care).
If in that same scenario something goes wrong, the U.S. will argue the state does too much, and Europe will argue the state does too little.
It's a funny old world...
So at how much could you sell calculations. Get a universal fee or ask more for the really popular ones?
I don't think the US shrugs off economic hardship, or human suffering. There's the goal and there's reality, and lots of stupidity and bad luck inbetween.
If only they made it portable, a little calculating device with maybe buttons and a small screen...
"and it's also why America is so much more successful than Europe"
;-)
The main reason would be the definition of success. The US has a very different measure of success. Not to put too fine a point on it, the US measures wealth, the EU measures wellbeing.
When measured by European standards, the US does barely better than most developing countries.
You tend to look at economical figures and the size of your army only, whereas we tend to look at level of education, well-being, health care, unemployment policy and all that woozy stuff.
I'm not sure how you can argue one to be better than the other, especially when you want to keep that big bad army out of your back-yard...
BTW: for all you rocket-scientists out there: no, I'm not talking about the metric system
BTW2: don't think European nations are "soft". Every democracy tries to find the best way to keep people from gathering pitch forks and shouting "burn the bastards". The US seems to give most of its citizens what they want.
However, wellfare and high standards of living for as many people as possible seem to work better for us Europeans. Even in France, where the use of pitchforks is institutionalized and an accepted method of negotiating labour and trade issues...
Well, tin foil hats aside, I think everybody with a clue would agree that Apple'd be dead if OS X could run on just any PC (those who think otherwise have never ever done support).
So they'll have to do something to keep OS X on their boxes only. If it's through this chip, that's BTW already on a shitheap of laptops and other configurations you all buy, what gives?
If they ever use hardware drm on their computers to hamper fair use, I'd say you have a real reason to boycot them. Give me a call then, I'll stand on the barricade and sing...
IMHO this is like all those posts on Apple's mouse (a friggin mouse FGS) by people who just knew how it would suck by looking at Apple's glossy webpages...
Your old mac won't support the new intel hardware, that's true. And my car won't mate with my horse.
There's this chip that you find on a lot of intel computers that's also in Apple intel developer loaners.
Until now nobody has actually used that chip for the intended purpose (ie restricting fair use of media).
Apple has announced it will restrict use of it's OS to it's own machines.
Most likely this will be done with a chip you can't just buy in any store, this chip being the one everyone is flipping about right now, or another one, no-one knows, right?
No surprise there.
So WTF is all the commotion about then?
You're sort of right. Since Mac OS 8 macs supported multi button mice. But too many people just wouldn't believe this and keep nagging about the one button mouse, no matter how many times they and everybody else would say it.
,my god, they even "support multi button mice"...
So this really is the best time to come out with a multi button squeeze thing.
Everybody is bullish on Apple, especially after announcing the switch to intel, and now
"Wait, Time is round? How is that?"
Assuming you haven't got a digital watch, look at the big hand and the little hand...
This is why everybody loves IT staff.
"I hate to tell you guys, but its been done."
Aaaah, but not with panache (grin).
The hockey puck was a disaster, granted.
But many people comment on the white Apple mice, but most users who're into one button mice like them.
And they are ergonomically sound, meaning they put less strain on your hands.
I'm very sensitive to that, having a touch of artritis in my hands. There aren't that many mice around that suit me, Apple mice do (and incidentally the MS mouse I use right now does too).
BTW what you describe (rocker mouse) doesn't at all fit my experience. IMO the white Apple mouse is extremely good.
Maybe I should have used RTA as title...
Or RTFSB.
Vaccination and quarantaine procedures?
Yes, it works on Windows.
OK, I don't want to say this thing is good, I haven't tried it yet. But what you speak of is a typical usability issue.
One that must have been addressed in a thousand iterations if it came from Ive's team. They may slip once in a while but not in such a basic thing, not with such a "little" device that will get huge attention.
It's a multi button mouse from Apple, in 2005. Hello! Everybody will write about it. If it sucks, Jobs will personally shove them up the sunless spot of 5000 engineers...
And btw, a mouse pad?