Ah, yes - what a wonderful lesson to teach your child; "You know all those times I said you could be anything you wanted to? Well, I lied. If you want to be a CEO at 13 - you can't be. You want to teach yourself programming? No! Get outdoors. Interested in chemistry? No! Go play with your friends." Etc... Etc...
You have completely missed my point. Yes, teach yourself programming, yes, follow your interest in chemistry. I cannot list everything that a child might do. I thought I covered that when I added "etc etc etc". A child needs a balanced all round education and life experiences and should be encouraged to to try as many as possible. Early specialisation is not usually a good thing even if it does turn out the occasional Bill Gates.
If it is a lie so be it but I will say to a child you cannot be a Doctor today, or an astronaut or a President or a CEO (if I add etc etc etc here I trust you will understand my meaning). The wonderful lesson to teach a child is that he can be any one of them and will have 40 or 50 years to do it. In the mean time prepare for life as an adult rather than pretending to be one.
Well we seem to be pretty well agreed on almost everything. All the old abuses you list were quite dreadful. Life has improved in many ways for most people in developed economies and it is a very good thing that that those old abuses have mostly gone.
Of course the fact that things have improved enormously is no reason assume that perfection has been reached and nothing more needs to be done. You would rather your child be a 13 year old CEO than working in a mine. So would I. On the other hand I would prefer that his leisure time be spent riding a bike, reading a book, playing with his friends, camping in the woods etc etc etc than being a CEO. And no, I don't think it possible to do them all.
Childhood is a precious time and I would not want my kids of that age to be doing this sort of thing. Childhood is something that should be treasured and nurtured. It is very sad they way that kids are rushed to adulthood so they can become consumer units. I find the sight of 10 year old adults quite pathetic.
On/. a lot of generalities are stated in the limited context of the internet or computers generally. In fact intrusive advertising is all over the interweb which is no different from the real world.
I am not opposed to advertising and accept that a service has to be paid for one way or another. Whether the content provider is a TV station, free newspaper or an internet service the game is pretty well the same thing. On the other hand I am becoming increasingly pissed off by advertising covering every inch of space. Buses, bus stops, bus tickets, phone booths, serviettes, gas stations, walls buildings, parking meters, toilets... the internet...the list is endless.
Of course the solution is in our own hands. If we don't like what eBay does we can stop going there; they will soon react if enough customers vote with their feet. I have almost stopped watching TV as the ads have become so intrusive that the programs are no longer worth watching. Heck, I have even stopped using porn sites for the same reasons!
Plugins like the one under discussion are a short term solution. In the longer term eBay will find a way of blocking them, no doubt motivating someone to try something else. The real solution lies with us, the consumers, and until we stop behaving like sheep we will have to learn to live with in your face ads.
Informative? It is crap!! Add Spain to the list of countries in the EU where there is no rule about having an open WAP. I have never heard of any such rule in any country (EU or not) until this thread. Maybe be is confusing EU with USSR?
2. Make sure that you point out that learning linux isn't as easy as windows. Really. Do it. Please.
I really do not believe that. I may be splitting hairs but the distros like Ubuntu, Redhat, Suse and Mandriva etc are no more difficult to learn than Windows. Debian, Slackware, Gentoo and LFS etc are hard to learn but are not designed for beginners. Total beginners with computers need instruction, study and practice and I see little difference in the degree of difficulty between Linux and Windows.
For experienced Windows users there are a lot of problems switching to Linux. They are used to doing whatever they want quickly, they are used to the respect of their peers as computer gurus, they have always understand the principles of their computer. They do not take kindly to being unable to do the simplest task like locate the CD drive, format a disk, play some music etc. Often they become angry and frustrated and blame Linux as it is "hard to learn". They tend to dual boot and exit to Windows every time they need to do something new, they then find it easier to stay in Windows, then they stop booting into Linux in the first place.
Rather than admit that their failure is due to lack of commitment, interest or whatever it is much easier to blame it on a rubbish system which is far to hard to learn. It then becomes logical to bad mouth Linux and tell the world how impossible it is. Every person who successfully makes the transition is a reminder of his failure. If a long term Linux user who had never seen Windows tried to make the reverse journey he would have exactly the same problems.
It is good advice to warn people thinking of making the switch that it is a considerable commitment of time and effort. If they are not ready for that it is better to postpone the move than to fail half-heartedly.
Yes, the documentation is terrible. My guess is that, like many free projects, the geeks in charge like writing code and don't like writing manuals. Take a look at
http://blacktree.cocoaforge.com/forums/viewtopic.p hp?t=3747 this thread There is a pdf of a draft manual by Howard Melman which is a good place to start.
Dunno about the web page. Maybe it is suffering from the/. effect.
What, 22 favourite apps and no Quicksilver? This is the one program I just could not live without, it is what makes my Mac usable. I hardly use the mouse anymore and access and/or run almost everything on my computer with two or three keystrokes. And it's free!
There is a very nice Minesweeper Widget. I cannot swear that it was pre-installed but it should be easy to find if it was not. I use the Lavacat solitaire and it is a thing of beauty! And it is a Universal version and free of charge.
Their revenue last year was 6.1 billion dollars. That makes their market cap only about 20x revenue, which is a very resonable number in any book, and simmilar to MSFT and eBay and most other large companies
Are you confusing revenue with profit? A profit of 5% of market value is a reasonable return. When your valuation is 20 times your turnover before any costs any sort of return becomes very speculative without spectacular growth. You quote Microsoft. Their 2005 figures (according to in round figures are:
Revenue $40 Billion.
Profit $12.25 Billion
Earnings per share $1.13
If their profits were 20 times their revenue you would expect the market capitalization to be around $800 Billion. In fact the 10 billion shares are currently worth $28 each or under $300 billion.
Very few companies come even close to Microsoft's net profit of 30% of revenue and the valuations as a multiple of revenue would be considerablu less.
I was very dubious about Google's share price before the YouTube deal and now would mark them as a definite sell. The company has a great future but the share price more than reflects that. I shall be expecting to be there to pick up some bargains the next time Wall Street has a sanity check.
I read they are going to be taking a loss on every Zune out there. Typical Microsoft. They have enough money where they can undercut by selling at a loss. Then when they get a monopoly position, they can charge whatever they want.
Funny that Apple and Microsoft are selling at almost identical prices and that MS loses a bundle while Apple cleans up (apart from having to subsidize iTunes). I think that Apple can withstand competition like that any day. Is somebody lying? Has somebody got their costings wrong?
So what is the best? My elderly Creative Zen Touch is on its last legs and will soon be retired. I am not enthused by either iPod or Zune and the new Zen seems to be Windows only. The replacement will have to be accessible from both OS X and Linux and it would be a bonus if it handled ogg files.
There are a number of Linux distros that will happily run on hardware like that. Puppy and Damn Small Linux are two that spring to mind. Alan Cox is quite capable of getting very effective use out of an old Thinkpad. Maybe you could give him a replacement many times faster instead of junking them. Come to think of it, put me down for one too:)
Europe should puts its $40 Billion behind an open source operating system
Thereby creating another monopoly.
Err.... no!
Mono = one duo = two. It would be a duopoly which is half as bad. And if Apple and Linux could get a better market share it would become much more like a competitive market place.
Disregard the labels and you see something that is honestly disturbing to me.
the LOWEST % was 39%, and that is assuming that every one reported acuratly (I call BS on that), and I am sorta scared.
I have never worked for a large corporation, Government department or similar organisation. I often wondered at a lot of what I hear about ethics at HP, Enron, Microsoft, The White House etc. This is starting to put it in perspective and I am realising that the system is rotten from the bottom up. Not everyone is a crook but there are enough to ensure that they win.
Slashdot Mirror
Ah, yes - what a wonderful lesson to teach your child; "You know all those times I said you could be anything you wanted to? Well, I lied. If you want to be a CEO at 13 - you can't be. You want to teach yourself programming? No! Get outdoors. Interested in chemistry? No! Go play with your friends." Etc... Etc...
You have completely missed my point. Yes, teach yourself programming, yes, follow your interest in chemistry. I cannot list everything that a child might do. I thought I covered that when I added "etc etc etc". A child needs a balanced all round education and life experiences and should be encouraged to to try as many as possible. Early specialisation is not usually a good thing even if it does turn out the occasional Bill Gates.
If it is a lie so be it but I will say to a child you cannot be a Doctor today, or an astronaut or a President or a CEO (if I add etc etc etc here I trust you will understand my meaning). The wonderful lesson to teach a child is that he can be any one of them and will have 40 or 50 years to do it. In the mean time prepare for life as an adult rather than pretending to be one.
Well we seem to be pretty well agreed on almost everything. All the old abuses you list were quite dreadful. Life has improved in many ways for most people in developed economies and it is a very good thing that that those old abuses have mostly gone.
Of course the fact that things have improved enormously is no reason assume that perfection has been reached and nothing more needs to be done. You would rather your child be a 13 year old CEO than working in a mine. So would I. On the other hand I would prefer that his leisure time be spent riding a bike, reading a book, playing with his friends, camping in the woods etc etc etc than being a CEO. And no, I don't think it possible to do them all.
Childhood is a precious time and I would not want my kids of that age to be doing this sort of thing. Childhood is something that should be treasured and nurtured. It is very sad they way that kids are rushed to adulthood so they can become consumer units. I find the sight of 10 year old adults quite pathetic.
On /. a lot of generalities are stated in the limited context of the internet or computers generally. In fact intrusive advertising is all over the interweb which is no different from the real world.
I am not opposed to advertising and accept that a service has to be paid for one way or another. Whether the content provider is a TV station, free newspaper or an internet service the game is pretty well the same thing. On the other hand I am becoming increasingly pissed off by advertising covering every inch of space. Buses, bus stops, bus tickets, phone booths, serviettes, gas stations, walls buildings, parking meters, toilets ... the internet ...the list is endless.
Of course the solution is in our own hands. If we don't like what eBay does we can stop going there; they will soon react if enough customers vote with their feet. I have almost stopped watching TV as the ads have become so intrusive that the programs are no longer worth watching. Heck, I have even stopped using porn sites for the same reasons!
Plugins like the one under discussion are a short term solution. In the longer term eBay will find a way of blocking them, no doubt motivating someone to try something else. The real solution lies with us, the consumers, and until we stop behaving like sheep we will have to learn to live with in your face ads.
Informative? It is crap!! Add Spain to the list of countries in the EU where there is no rule about having an open WAP. I have never heard of any such rule in any country (EU or not) until this thread. Maybe be is confusing EU with USSR?
2. Make sure that you point out that learning linux isn't as easy as windows. Really. Do it. Please.
I really do not believe that. I may be splitting hairs but the distros like Ubuntu, Redhat, Suse and Mandriva etc are no more difficult to learn than Windows. Debian, Slackware, Gentoo and LFS etc are hard to learn but are not designed for beginners. Total beginners with computers need instruction, study and practice and I see little difference in the degree of difficulty between Linux and Windows.
For experienced Windows users there are a lot of problems switching to Linux. They are used to doing whatever they want quickly, they are used to the respect of their peers as computer gurus, they have always understand the principles of their computer. They do not take kindly to being unable to do the simplest task like locate the CD drive, format a disk, play some music etc. Often they become angry and frustrated and blame Linux as it is "hard to learn". They tend to dual boot and exit to Windows every time they need to do something new, they then find it easier to stay in Windows, then they stop booting into Linux in the first place.
Rather than admit that their failure is due to lack of commitment, interest or whatever it is much easier to blame it on a rubbish system which is far to hard to learn. It then becomes logical to bad mouth Linux and tell the world how impossible it is. Every person who successfully makes the transition is a reminder of his failure. If a long term Linux user who had never seen Windows tried to make the reverse journey he would have exactly the same problems.
It is good advice to warn people thinking of making the switch that it is a considerable commitment of time and effort. If they are not ready for that it is better to postpone the move than to fail half-heartedly.
Yes, the documentation is terrible. My guess is that, like many free projects, the geeks in charge like writing code and don't like writing manuals. Take a look at http://blacktree.cocoaforge.com/forums/viewtopic.p hp?t=3747 this thread There is a pdf of a draft manual by Howard Melman which is a good place to start.
/. effect.
Dunno about the web page. Maybe it is suffering from the
I love Quicksilver on the Mac and would love Linux even more if I had QS there as well. You make Linux and Mac an either/or, I use both a lot.
What, 22 favourite apps and no Quicksilver? This is the one program I just could not live without, it is what makes my Mac usable. I hardly use the mouse anymore and access and/or run almost everything on my computer with two or three keystrokes. And it's free!
Yes, as long as you use Windows to run the viewers.
Good heavens! Is that all? When I saw the headline I assumed he must have saved a puppy from drowning.
Why would anyone want a dodgy copy of Vista? Linux won didn't it? Did you mean this?
There is a very nice Minesweeper Widget. I cannot swear that it was pre-installed but it should be easy to find if it was not. I use the Lavacat solitaire and it is a thing of beauty! And it is a Universal version and free of charge.
Don't be silly, My Macbook Pro runs Minesweeper and Solitaire FLAWLESSLY!
I saved a tree yesterday and didn't do any of that - or not that I noticed.
Are you confusing revenue with profit? A profit of 5% of market value is a reasonable return. When your valuation is 20 times your turnover before any costs any sort of return becomes very speculative without spectacular growth. You quote Microsoft. Their 2005 figures (according to in round figures are:
Revenue $40 Billion.
Profit $12.25 Billion
Earnings per share $1.13
If their profits were 20 times their revenue you would expect the market capitalization to be around $800 Billion. In fact the 10 billion shares are currently worth $28 each or under $300 billion.
Very few companies come even close to Microsoft's net profit of 30% of revenue and the valuations as a multiple of revenue would be considerablu less.
I was very dubious about Google's share price before the YouTube deal and now would mark them as a definite sell. The company has a great future but the share price more than reflects that. I shall be expecting to be there to pick up some bargains the next time Wall Street has a sanity check.
Funny that Apple and Microsoft are selling at almost identical prices and that MS loses a bundle while Apple cleans up (apart from having to subsidize iTunes). I think that Apple can withstand competition like that any day. Is somebody lying? Has somebody got their costings wrong?
Not yet but I will Zune think of something.
So what is the best? My elderly Creative Zen Touch is on its last legs and will soon be retired. I am not enthused by either iPod or Zune and the new Zen seems to be Windows only. The replacement will have to be accessible from both OS X and Linux and it would be a bonus if it handled ogg files.
Is that Microsoft Bob? I often wonder what happened to him. Smart move to go into retailing, he was never cut out for the computer business.
There are a number of Linux distros that will happily run on hardware like that. Puppy and Damn Small Linux are two that spring to mind. Alan Cox is quite capable of getting very effective use out of an old Thinkpad. Maybe you could give him a replacement many times faster instead of junking them. Come to think of it, put me down for one too :)
Huh! Ever used their software?
Are you suggesting that M$ should have a monopoly on FUD?
Err
Mono = one duo = two. It would be a duopoly which is half as bad. And if Apple and Linux could get a better market share it would become much more like a competitive market place.