> The articles talking about the study used Apple as an example, since they were the only major computer manufacturer who saw positive growth in unit sales in the quarter or two immediately after the recession hit, while the rest of the industry was seeing negative growth
I understand this, but I submit that the rest of the industry would have been sluggish regardless, because hardware had overstepped the requirements of the software. There's no reason to buy a new PC because the last one I bought was faster than I needed. The recession was a coincidence.
> When you are really scraping pennies you want something that will not break all the time, that you can use as long as possible.
Well ok, but would you really expect Fred and Ethyl Mertz to understand this and make decisions based on it? Or is this somewhat of a nerd thing? Or, is it even true? These days, Macs are just PCs running a different OS with a slightly cooler display and keyboard.
In my experience, all of them. Every school daughter has attended in my area -- grade, junior high, high -- are mac exclusively. I spent a summer helping out in the grade school computer lab one summer, got acquainted with a fairly wide range of mac hardware, some quite elderly.
When she had to bring software home, (she's dyslexic and is entitled to some special ed tools) sometimes there would be a PC version, but there was problems often enough that it was easier to buy a used mac and dedicate it as a homework machine. I realize that not every kid falls into this category.
When she had to audition for art school, the test was with Photoshop on a Mac. Fortunately she had experience. Kids who had experience with the PC version were somewhat more challenged.
I wouldn't have expected this in a down economy, considering the mac's premium price. I'm a little surprised.
I'm wondering if part of the explanation is that the PC market has become saturated, with new hardware having much more horsepower than any office user could reasonably take advantage of.
But I have to agree about the uptick in corporations allowing macs, having seen it in my own company.
I'm not a mac fan; I have one at home because my daughter is required to use them at school, but it's always good to see more choices in the marketplace.
....a defect in one of the Galaxy S sensors will give you sub-centimeter positioning two and a half blocks to West-Northwest of your actual position. Samsung will deny the defect for six months, then release a patch that doesn't affect the problem.
I just now logged into my account and canceled DVD delivery. Streaming appears to be the way things are going, and if Netflix thinks they can have it both ways, it'll have to be with someone else.
...perhaps makers could figure out how to make their stuff locally sufficiently cheaply to reap an adequate profit? Manufacturing is getting cheaper and easier all the time. For only one example, do a slashdot search on "3d printer".
But seriously, couldn't this be used for other purposes, like reaping marketing info from what you do during the day? Or doing "minority report"-style "crime prevention"? Anything that makes us safer...
I have a question. Why would anyone even *work* on this? I mean, were scientists sitting at lunch kicking around ideas, and one of them picked up his Pulled Pork sandwich, and said "Heyyyyyyy, I just got a thought..."
I could see that. There is a huge amount of pressure to outsource, even when the results are unacceptable. And I've noticed at my own company that it's easier to redo from scratch than it is to convince upper management that oursourcing the project was not money well spent.
I could even maybe see a manager looking at substandard code he got from some third world country with which he was forced to do business, and letting it go through. After all, it's no skin off his nose.
I've seen the decision to outsource destroy high level careers. But even then, the explanation is not that outsourcing was the wrong decision, but that it was not managed properly.
I'm assuming that Citi hired out the design and implementation to a legitimate design firm with experience building enterprise applications. I mean, c'mon, this is like having their physical security designed by Mel at the hardware store. Mind you, I'm sure Mel is a nice guy an' all...
What? I mean, WHAT? Teenie-bopper web developers, tired of having their Star Wars fansites hacked, stopped putting account info in GET strings back in the nineties! What kind of crap programmers... the mind boggles... What BANK would pay for such crap code, and what enterprise-class design team would make such a horrible mistake? This is not a cute little hack, it's a fundamental coding... no, design... no, sorry, CONCEPTUAL flaw.
Everyone involved with this project; design, management, QA, and most especially whomever at Citigroup signed off on the project, should be immediately fired and never work again in this field.
... the really long haul, I use vi. (pronounced Vee-Eye) I used it for the first web page I ever wrote in the early nineties, and I used it last night to make changes in a website I currently support. It has never let me down.
Feel free to substitute the text editor of your choice. I have a lot of experience in vi so I tend to use that. I have Dreamweaver cs3 but found myself going back to vi for quick changes and eventually abandoned Dreamweaver as a solution looking for a problem. My bookshelf contains something called "web edit pro", the Coffee Cup suite, Frontpage (retch!), and a couple others, but eventually I would find myself using a text editor again. It's like the guy who tried a whole bunch of different kinds of contact lenses and just tossed it all in favor of glasses. It's simple and gets the job done.
Now, a content management system, where the meat is already written for you and all you have to do is skin it, is a different question. I use an open-source CMS for some of my websites, but I still use vi to skin it.
> I doubt it's going to be this year's Transforretch...as there's already a Transforretch due out in theaters this year.
Good point.
> It may come close though as I've never been a fan of the two Greens (Lantern and Arrow) from DC.
I don't really see the point of Green Arrow as a character, but Green Lantern could be interesting if treated right. (Big if.) But whether we *like* the characters is a different question. With enough care and imagination one can make a good movie about practically anything. For instance, "Son of Rambow" was pretty entertaining.
It wouldn't make much sense if you think of the US government as a single entity with a single goal. It might make sense as a way to funnel money from one place to another without the inconvenience of arguing appropriations or raising taxes.
Slashdot Mirror
> The articles talking about the study used Apple as an example, since they were the only major computer manufacturer who saw positive growth in unit sales in the quarter or two immediately after the recession hit, while the rest of the industry was seeing negative growth
I understand this, but I submit that the rest of the industry would have been sluggish regardless, because hardware had overstepped the requirements of the software. There's no reason to buy a new PC because the last one I bought was faster than I needed. The recession was a coincidence.
Good points. Hadn't thought of that.
> When you are really scraping pennies you want something that will not break all the time, that you can use as long as possible.
Well ok, but would you really expect Fred and Ethyl Mertz to understand this and make decisions based on it? Or is this somewhat of a nerd thing? Or, is it even true? These days, Macs are just PCs running a different OS with a slightly cooler display and keyboard.
In my experience, all of them. Every school daughter has attended in my area -- grade, junior high, high -- are mac exclusively. I spent a summer helping out in the grade school computer lab one summer, got acquainted with a fairly wide range of mac hardware, some quite elderly.
When she had to bring software home, (she's dyslexic and is entitled to some special ed tools) sometimes there would be a PC version, but there was problems often enough that it was easier to buy a used mac and dedicate it as a homework machine. I realize that not every kid falls into this category.
When she had to audition for art school, the test was with Photoshop on a Mac. Fortunately she had experience. Kids who had experience with the PC version were somewhat more challenged.
I wouldn't have expected this in a down economy, considering the mac's premium price. I'm a little surprised.
I'm wondering if part of the explanation is that the PC market has become saturated, with new hardware having much more horsepower than any office user could reasonably take advantage of.
But I have to agree about the uptick in corporations allowing macs, having seen it in my own company.
I'm not a mac fan; I have one at home because my daughter is required to use them at school, but it's always good to see more choices in the marketplace.
Ten bucks a month is about my level of pain. Much more than that, and, well, there's always illegal downloads...
I just now logged into my account and canceled DVD delivery. Streaming appears to be the way things are going, and if Netflix thinks they can have it both ways, it'll have to be with someone else.
After all, most sports drinks already have the taste.
Microsoft Bob for the house. I can't wait.
But seriously, couldn't this be used for other purposes, like reaping marketing info from what you do during the day? Or doing "minority report"-style "crime prevention"? Anything that makes us safer...
I have a question. Why would anyone even *work* on this? I mean, were scientists sitting at lunch kicking around ideas, and one of them picked up his Pulled Pork sandwich, and said "Heyyyyyyy, I just got a thought..."
I could see that. There is a huge amount of pressure to outsource, even when the results are unacceptable. And I've noticed at my own company that it's easier to redo from scratch than it is to convince upper management that oursourcing the project was not money well spent.
I could even maybe see a manager looking at substandard code he got from some third world country with which he was forced to do business, and letting it go through. After all, it's no skin off his nose.
I've seen the decision to outsource destroy high level careers. But even then, the explanation is not that outsourcing was the wrong decision, but that it was not managed properly.
But is it really that simple? The assignment went to someone or ones with a highbrow degree but no practical experience? Seems too easy.
I'm assuming that Citi hired out the design and implementation to a legitimate design firm with experience building enterprise applications. I mean, c'mon, this is like having their physical security designed by Mel at the hardware store. Mind you, I'm sure Mel is a nice guy an' all...
What? I mean, WHAT? Teenie-bopper web developers, tired of having their Star Wars fansites hacked, stopped putting account info in GET strings back in the nineties! What kind of crap programmers... the mind boggles... What BANK would pay for such crap code, and what enterprise-class design team would make such a horrible mistake? This is not a cute little hack, it's a fundamental coding... no, design... no, sorry, CONCEPTUAL flaw.
Everyone involved with this project; design, management, QA, and most especially whomever at Citigroup signed off on the project, should be immediately fired and never work again in this field.
Feel free to substitute the text editor of your choice. I have a lot of experience in vi so I tend to use that. I have Dreamweaver cs3 but found myself going back to vi for quick changes and eventually abandoned Dreamweaver as a solution looking for a problem. My bookshelf contains something called "web edit pro", the Coffee Cup suite, Frontpage (retch!), and a couple others, but eventually I would find myself using a text editor again. It's like the guy who tried a whole bunch of different kinds of contact lenses and just tossed it all in favor of glasses. It's simple and gets the job done.
Now, a content management system, where the meat is already written for you and all you have to do is skin it, is a different question. I use an open-source CMS for some of my websites, but I still use vi to skin it.
The good news is, the team has produced a plugin that reduces the browser's memory footprint to 25 Mbytes.
The bad news is, the plugin takes up 300 Mbytes.
So there's my flying car. About damned time.
> I doubt it's going to be this year's Transforretch...as there's already a Transforretch due out in theaters this year.
Good point.
> It may come close though as I've never been a fan of the two Greens (Lantern and Arrow) from DC.
I don't really see the point of Green Arrow as a character, but Green Lantern could be interesting if treated right. (Big if.) But whether we *like* the characters is a different question. With enough care and imagination one can make a good movie about practically anything. For instance, "Son of Rambow" was pretty entertaining.
It wouldn't make much sense if you think of the US government as a single entity with a single goal. It might make sense as a way to funnel money from one place to another without the inconvenience of arguing appropriations or raising taxes.
I wonder how much of illicit credit card money finds its way back into FBI budgets. To fight crime, you know.