I'm surprised the reviewer of this book didn't take the time to look into Weber's history. He's not a tech guy; he's a professor of political science. Not long ago I downloaded a draft paper of his called "The Political Science of Open Source" which seems to be a draft for this book - the themes overlap nicely. Weber is working at BRIE, the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy. The paper is here.
Wow, congratulations. The Gnome UI interface seems to not only going backwards in useability but making all the same mistakes Windows once made. Spatial Nautilus is god-awfully similar to the atrocity that was the file browser in Windows 3.1 and 95, opening up a new folder for each new level of file hierarchy. I was glad when Win98 fixed that problem (or was it 95 that fixed 3.1's problem, been too long since I last used Windows). Anyway, point is Windows screwed it up and then fixed it. Nautilus has just recently screwed it up.
Folks, this is not how we're going to win the desktop. (Congrats for fixing the file selector though. That was a good step forward).
Yes I know it's slow and I know it's hard to build and I know the average computer user won't probably know how to install it.
But just having it there is already a step in the right direction. It means all the docs I developed on my Linux box are openable one way or another on a Mac, and that gives me a lot more confidence to keep using the sxw file format. I'm feeling patient (already had my coffee today) so I can wait for 2.0 to come out in Cocoa. Keep investing in that file format. Send your docs to everyone you know, with links to the OO.o website to solve their "incompatibility" problems. We'll get there yet.
I absolutely agree and will up the ante. I love Linux but I'm trying to find a new laptop and finding a nice, light, slick laptop with the features I want but on which I can install Linux without major headaches is a daunting and frustrating experience. And yet, I absolutely refuse to buy a laptop I can't install Linux on.
Is it because I love Linux that much? No, it's because I can no longer live without Mutt. I've never used an email client that let me deal with the large amounts of mail I deal with in such an organized way, and I write keyboard macros for special circumstances. I am one of those persons with an unscratchable urge to tweak the interface, and Mutt has given me every bit of flexibility I've demanded.
Kmail is great. Evolution is good software. I dig Sylpheed too, and no GUI app is faster than Spruce. I've tried them all, but I have yet to find the email client that would convince me to wander away from Mutt. And that means I'm not leaving Linux anytime soon.
If email is the killer app for computing, Mutt is the killer app for Linux - at least for this old keyboard junkie. So, my next laptop may wind up being a powerbook running Fink, because I've checked, and Mutt is available for it. It's the first thing I looked for.
We must do everything in our power to reduce the heat we are generating. Everyone, if you are reading this post from a Pentium IV, please SHUT DOWN NOW! Thank you.
Frankly, I find their lawsuit far more interesting than their software. It's fun to root for the little guy anyway. Right or wrong, I hope they win if only because it will make the world that much more interesting, whereas their software products in my opinion aren't changing the world in any significant way.
This revealed, do most linux users even want a Centrino-based laptop?
Hells yeah! I'm within a year of replacing my old PIII 550Mhz Compaq laptop, which has been a trusty and faithful machine until recently but is now starting to give me hardware problems.
My next machine would be a Dell 300M running SUSE because it's ultra-portable, but thanks to Intel dragging their feet my next machine will probably be a G5 powerbook running Fink. Actually, Dell gets part-credit. Their recent quality control problems have made me suspect the reliability of their hardware.
That's the way the market works. Hey Intel, thanks for playing, but this ball just went over the fence!
It's also inevitable, and I for one am glad to see it's happening. More distros means more geeks trying more ways to do things better. Overall, the effect is to improve the product. Neither KDE nor Gnome would be what they each are today without the other to provide competition. It's obvious the current distros are taking cues from each other and improving their own products as a result. Someday the result will be a handful of great distros that can go up against Linux. To me, it's all one big laboratory, and the end result is going to be great.
I don't consider myself a rampant capitalist, but in this case I do favor lots and lots of open competition. It makes everyone stronger by weeding out the weak: the distros that no one is interested in, that don't offer anything interesting/innovative enough to attract a userbase, and so on. Let the distro wars continue! All users win as a result of it.
Giving a good presentation involves the same elements as it always did: good organization, clear points, engaging presentation and delivery, timing, and even your own vocal quality. It's like teaching. If you can't give a good presentation without powerpoint, you'll never be able to give a good presentation with powerpoint. The software will never compensate for your own inability to make the point. That said, PP in the right hands can be an effective tool. I'm taking an econ class taught by a guy who uses PP to his advantage to show graphs and so on. But he's using it because it saves him time. Endless bullet point presentations are as painful as always, but the people who deliver them are the same people who used to just deliver their presentation by reading the text from printed copy.
Why am I simultaneously frightened and amazed to note that two of the winners are the United States'customs and border patrol database and Experion's credit rating database?
If you've ever checked your credit rating you'd realized this company and its peers (equifax etc.) maintain a tremendous amount of information on you, and charge you to verify it. Finding out why your credit is bad, and in the case of a mistake, changing it, is an expensive and time consuming task.
I can think of at least one reason: SO7 is *significantly* faster to load up. And if you're a student, you can get it for free. The latest OOo was just fine for me, but when I found out I could get SO7 for free I went for it and am happy.
Folks, the article is a little misleading. It isn't that these workers don't have offices, period, but rather that they don't have permanent, assigned offices. Sun is pushing smartcard technology that lets you take your session to whatever cube you find available. It's a step down in terms of workplace quality, but it's not the end of the world. (fact: if you are made to feel you are temporary/replaceable, your working attitude will adapt to correspond).
The telecommuting issue is a bit different, and I am looking for a situation exactly like that. I would kill to work at home instead of sitting in traffic all day. If you have the dedication to be productive from your home (and if you don't, you'll be sh*tcanned), then save yourself the hassle of sitting in traffic. Bonus: work without pants! Seriously folks, driving back and forth to the office everyday is going to be a thing of the past, and thank God for it.
Faster still is the new trial version of Sun Staroffice 7, which is roughly on par with OO.o 1.1rc3
Don't know what they did, but it is without a doubt faster. I'm thinking of shelling out the $70 to get it.
Most important part of the fight is now: zealots, go out into the world and promote OO.o as obnoxiously as you can (not on Slashdot, please: we're already aware of it).
I wouldve agreed with you up until about 2 weeks ago, when my credit card statement showed up with an unknown charge for $2600 from a town about 20 miles away. The bank is busy investigating it and Ive frozen that account until its resolved. The only explanation I can come up with is that someone went dumpster-diving, fished out enough paperwork to do some damage with, and went shopping with my credit card.
I will be purchasing a shredder immediately, believe you me.
Because what I want is to have less and less operation value, and rely more on technology! No thank you auto stop. I have breaks. I know how to downshift. I'm fine.
uhh... that's "brakes," big guy. Maybe you should have let your automatic spellchecker take a look at your post:) oh wait a minute, your spellchecker wouldn't have known the difference.
Your point is correct, sir!
Shortwave (better known as Worldband) is far from dead. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the mountains of Nicaragua from 1998-2000 and I was as addicted to SW in those days as I am to the internet today.
In remote sites and in poor countries where the internet is still basically another planet, the radio is still a regular and important source of news and information. Shortwave has certainly decreased in importance but it's by no means dead.
That said, there are new projects that may bring it back into vogue. Check out the Internet Radio Linking Project (http://www.irlp.net), which cuts the ionosphere out of the equation. Your voice is transmitted to a local node which feeds it into a VOIP receiver. The signal travels the rest of the way over the internet, and pops back out from another local node near the receiver. Much lower signal loss that way, and the infrastructure is already in place. They offer a modified Redhat solution you can pretty much drop into place on your Linux box. Of course, you still have to get your ham operator's license, but if you were thinking of transmitting you were responsible for doing that anyway.
Whether that's the case or not, this isn't an issue. Because Microsoft and its funny boxes are going to have a heck of a time networking, as by the time this hardware gets mass produced and adopted, Linux will OWN the servers anyway. Oh, and all those gorgeous Mac OSX desktops will be interfacing quite well with the Linux servers, too.
I'll be interested when PDAs are given the ability to flush my toilet. Since 90% of the time I'm using a PDA I'm also on the throne, that will truly be the pinnacle of usability.
click *here* to flush.
plugged up. do you want to flush again?
*yes* *no*
>Simply put, if I (as a user and home user) can't test them, and play...
When you buy underwear, do you like to walk around in underwear in the store before you decide to buy, as well? Suck it up and pay for it. I'm glad to see Linux cheapskates are still around for comic relief. I wonder how many of them decide they need to "test" the product upwards of a year or so, conveniently until a new version comes along that also needs extended "testing."
You no pay. You no play.
Kudos to SuSE for staying profitable in a tough economy. I've been a SuSE user since 2000 and I've paid for every copy, and I've been glad to support a company that provides a decent product. Yeah, I wish it were free. But life is full of cruelty and disdain for people who think they have the right to demand free services from others.
If you buy the product, you will support the company, and in turn they will continue to produce it, cheapskate. Cheers.
I'm all for bringing Unix/Linux/BSD software to OSX; in fact the mere availability of Fink makes me far more interested in an iBook than I would've been otherwise. Stuff like Lyx, TeX, emacs, vim, and mutt make me believe I can have all the aqua goodness of an imac without sacrificing the applications I use the most.
But updating Fink for the purpose of upgrading Koffice is something I can not comprehend. I haven't been able to make Koffice useful for anything other than the simplest one page letters. The spreadsheet and presentation apps are difficult to use and Kword, while it's capable of much more, is still very difficult to use. If you've got a Mac, you've got Appleworks, which is a very respectable office suite. No, it's not full featured, but it's basically user friendly, and in my opinion it offers more functionality than Koffice. Koffice isn't why you should upgrade Fink.
Also a button where subscribers can post articles, thus eliminating Taco and crew entirely! They're obviously unfit for the job... this many dupes is just plain incompetence. Let the qualified people move in and take over the show, and let the clowns go back to the funny shoes and beep-nose routine.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm surprised the reviewer of this book didn't take the time to look into Weber's history. He's not a tech guy; he's a professor of political science. Not long ago I downloaded a draft paper of his called "The Political Science of Open Source" which seems to be a draft for this book - the themes overlap nicely. Weber is working at BRIE, the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy. The paper is here.
Wow, congratulations. The Gnome UI interface seems to not only going backwards in useability but making all the same mistakes Windows once made. Spatial Nautilus is god-awfully similar to the atrocity that was the file browser in Windows 3.1 and 95, opening up a new folder for each new level of file hierarchy. I was glad when Win98 fixed that problem (or was it 95 that fixed 3.1's problem, been too long since I last used Windows). Anyway, point is Windows screwed it up and then fixed it. Nautilus has just recently screwed it up.
Folks, this is not how we're going to win the desktop. (Congrats for fixing the file selector though. That was a good step forward).
Yes I know it's slow and I know it's hard to build and I know the average computer user won't probably know how to install it.
But just having it there is already a step in the right direction. It means all the docs I developed on my Linux box are openable one way or another on a Mac, and that gives me a lot more confidence to keep using the sxw file format. I'm feeling patient (already had my coffee today) so I can wait for 2.0 to come out in Cocoa. Keep investing in that file format. Send your docs to everyone you know, with links to the OO.o website to solve their "incompatibility" problems. We'll get there yet.
I absolutely agree and will up the ante. I love Linux but I'm trying to find a new laptop and finding a nice, light, slick laptop with the features I want but on which I can install Linux without major headaches is a daunting and frustrating experience. And yet, I absolutely refuse to buy a laptop I can't install Linux on.
Is it because I love Linux that much? No, it's because I can no longer live without Mutt. I've never used an email client that let me deal with the large amounts of mail I deal with in such an organized way, and I write keyboard macros for special circumstances. I am one of those persons with an unscratchable urge to tweak the interface, and Mutt has given me every bit of flexibility I've demanded.
Kmail is great. Evolution is good software. I dig Sylpheed too, and no GUI app is faster than Spruce. I've tried them all, but I have yet to find the email client that would convince me to wander away from Mutt. And that means I'm not leaving Linux anytime soon.
If email is the killer app for computing, Mutt is the killer app for Linux - at least for this old keyboard junkie. So, my next laptop may wind up being a powerbook running Fink, because I've checked, and Mutt is available for it. It's the first thing I looked for.
We must do everything in our power to reduce the heat we are generating. Everyone, if you are reading this post from a Pentium IV, please SHUT DOWN NOW! Thank you.
Frankly, I find their lawsuit far more interesting than their software. It's fun to root for the little guy anyway. Right or wrong, I hope they win if only because it will make the world that much more interesting, whereas their software products in my opinion aren't changing the world in any significant way.
This revealed, do most linux users even want a Centrino-based laptop?
Hells yeah! I'm within a year of replacing my old PIII 550Mhz Compaq laptop, which has been a trusty and faithful machine until recently but is now starting to give me hardware problems.
My next machine would be a Dell 300M running SUSE because it's ultra-portable, but thanks to Intel dragging their feet my next machine will probably be a G5 powerbook running Fink. Actually, Dell gets part-credit. Their recent quality control problems have made me suspect the reliability of their hardware.
That's the way the market works. Hey Intel, thanks for playing, but this ball just went over the fence!
It's also inevitable, and I for one am glad to see it's happening. More distros means more geeks trying more ways to do things better. Overall, the effect is to improve the product. Neither KDE nor Gnome would be what they each are today without the other to provide competition. It's obvious the current distros are taking cues from each other and improving their own products as a result. Someday the result will be a handful of great distros that can go up against Linux. To me, it's all one big laboratory, and the end result is going to be great.
I don't consider myself a rampant capitalist, but in this case I do favor lots and lots of open competition. It makes everyone stronger by weeding out the weak: the distros that no one is interested in, that don't offer anything interesting/innovative enough to attract a userbase, and so on. Let the distro wars continue! All users win as a result of it.
Giving a good presentation involves the same elements as it always did: good organization, clear points, engaging presentation and delivery, timing, and even your own vocal quality. It's like teaching. If you can't give a good presentation without powerpoint, you'll never be able to give a good presentation with powerpoint. The software will never compensate for your own inability to make the point. That said, PP in the right hands can be an effective tool. I'm taking an econ class taught by a guy who uses PP to his advantage to show graphs and so on. But he's using it because it saves him time. Endless bullet point presentations are as painful as always, but the people who deliver them are the same people who used to just deliver their presentation by reading the text from printed copy.
Meanwhile, I can't resist linking to these classic powerpoint cartoons, c/o Dilbert: Powerpoint poisoning and There was content?
Why am I simultaneously frightened and amazed to note that two of the winners are the United States'customs and border patrol database and Experion's credit rating database? If you've ever checked your credit rating you'd realized this company and its peers (equifax etc.) maintain a tremendous amount of information on you, and charge you to verify it. Finding out why your credit is bad, and in the case of a mistake, changing it, is an expensive and time consuming task.
I can think of at least one reason: SO7 is *significantly* faster to load up. And if you're a student, you can get it for free. The latest OOo was just fine for me, but when I found out I could get SO7 for free I went for it and am happy.
Folks, the article is a little misleading. It isn't that these workers don't have offices, period, but rather that they don't have permanent, assigned offices. Sun is pushing smartcard technology that lets you take your session to whatever cube you find available. It's a step down in terms of workplace quality, but it's not the end of the world. (fact: if you are made to feel you are temporary/replaceable, your working attitude will adapt to correspond).
The telecommuting issue is a bit different, and I am looking for a situation exactly like that. I would kill to work at home instead of sitting in traffic all day. If you have the dedication to be productive from your home (and if you don't, you'll be sh*tcanned), then save yourself the hassle of sitting in traffic. Bonus: work without pants! Seriously folks, driving back and forth to the office everyday is going to be a thing of the past, and thank God for it.
Faster still is the new trial version of Sun Staroffice 7, which is roughly on par with OO.o 1.1rc3
Don't know what they did, but it is without a doubt faster. I'm thinking of shelling out the $70 to get it.
Most important part of the fight is now: zealots, go out into the world and promote OO.o as obnoxiously as you can (not on Slashdot, please: we're already aware of it).
I wouldve agreed with you up until about 2 weeks ago, when my credit card statement showed up with an unknown charge for $2600 from a town about 20 miles away. The bank is busy investigating it and Ive frozen that account until its resolved. The only explanation I can come up with is that someone went dumpster-diving, fished out enough paperwork to do some damage with, and went shopping with my credit card.
I will be purchasing a shredder immediately, believe you me.
Because what I want is to have less and less operation value, and rely more on technology! No thank you auto stop. I have breaks. I know how to downshift. I'm fine.
:) oh wait a minute, your spellchecker wouldn't have known the difference.
uhh... that's "brakes," big guy. Maybe you should have let your automatic spellchecker take a look at your post
Your point is correct, sir!
That is one *hell* of a lot of cheaters. Way to go guys.
Shortwave (better known as Worldband) is far from dead. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the mountains of Nicaragua from 1998-2000 and I was as addicted to SW in those days as I am to the internet today.
In remote sites and in poor countries where the internet is still basically another planet, the radio is still a regular and important source of news and information. Shortwave has certainly decreased in importance but it's by no means dead.
That said, there are new projects that may bring it back into vogue. Check out the Internet Radio Linking Project (http://www.irlp.net), which cuts the ionosphere out of the equation. Your voice is transmitted to a local node which feeds it into a VOIP receiver. The signal travels the rest of the way over the internet, and pops back out from another local node near the receiver. Much lower signal loss that way, and the infrastructure is already in place. They offer a modified Redhat solution you can pretty much drop into place on your Linux box. Of course, you still have to get your ham operator's license, but if you were thinking of transmitting you were responsible for doing that anyway.
They're just pining for the fjords! (http://www.graphicszone.net/monty_python/scripts/ Series_1/53.htm)
Holy cow, get some p0rn, dude! You can game when the wife is around.
Where are your priorities, anyway? That's right, hanging between your legs!
Whether that's the case or not, this isn't an issue. Because Microsoft and its funny boxes are going to have a heck of a time networking, as by the time this hardware gets mass produced and adopted, Linux will OWN the servers anyway. Oh, and all those gorgeous Mac OSX desktops will be interfacing quite well with the Linux servers, too.
How ya gonna connect, Bill?
I'll be interested when PDAs are given the ability to flush my toilet. Since 90% of the time I'm using a PDA I'm also on the throne, that will truly be the pinnacle of usability.
click *here* to flush.
plugged up. do you want to flush again?
*yes* *no*
>Simply put, if I (as a user and home user) can't test them, and play...
When you buy underwear, do you like to walk around in underwear in the store before you decide to buy, as well? Suck it up and pay for it. I'm glad to see Linux cheapskates are still around for comic relief. I wonder how many of them decide they need to "test" the product upwards of a year or so, conveniently until a new version comes along that also needs extended "testing."
You no pay. You no play.
Kudos to SuSE for staying profitable in a tough economy. I've been a SuSE user since 2000 and I've paid for every copy, and I've been glad to support a company that provides a decent product. Yeah, I wish it were free. But life is full of cruelty and disdain for people who think they have the right to demand free services from others.
If you buy the product, you will support the company, and in turn they will continue to produce it, cheapskate. Cheers.
Wow, Mohammed Saeed Al Sahaf has his own Slashdot user number.
This will be funny once or twice. After that I look forward to modding you DOWN, dude.
What about Natalie Portman? Is she registered?
I'm all for bringing Unix/Linux/BSD software to OSX; in fact the mere availability of Fink makes me far more interested in an iBook than I would've been otherwise. Stuff like Lyx, TeX, emacs, vim, and mutt make me believe I can have all the aqua goodness of an imac without sacrificing the applications I use the most.
But updating Fink for the purpose of upgrading Koffice is something I can not comprehend. I haven't been able to make Koffice useful for anything other than the simplest one page letters. The spreadsheet and presentation apps are difficult to use and Kword, while it's capable of much more, is still very difficult to use. If you've got a Mac, you've got Appleworks, which is a very respectable office suite. No, it's not full featured, but it's basically user friendly, and in my opinion it offers more functionality than Koffice. Koffice isn't why you should upgrade Fink.
Also a button where subscribers can post articles, thus eliminating Taco and crew entirely! They're obviously unfit for the job... this many dupes is just plain incompetence. Let the qualified people move in and take over the show, and let the clowns go back to the funny shoes and beep-nose routine.