Let me put it to you this way. Look at the posts on SlashDot. Now, go into an AOL chat room, or a Microsoft support newsgroup. Where will you find more proper use of English? SlashDot. Where will you find more words longer than three syllables? SlashDot. Where will you find fewer (yes, FEWER!) misspellings-- SlashDot (believe it or not!). If you think that SlashDotters are average human beings... well, go out on the streets and ask the average human being a question about computers. The answer is as likely as not to be complete gibberish, uttered in ape-like monosyllables.
The only three-syllable words the average American understands are "quarterback", "basketball", and "cheerleader". (Not counting brand names like "Microsoft", "Subaru", "AOL", etc.)
No, the "average" IQ is the average of the scores of everyone taking a legitimate IQ test.
Just like the "average" SAT score, it "drifts" from time to time, and at this point it needs to be re-centered. I recall hearing that it's somewhere between 105 and 110 at the moment (which seems like an improvement, but just as likely is due to the "test culture" in today's schools which obsessively prepares people for tests, but not the real world).
Sod off. Yes, English is a mess of a language. But there IS a standards body. It's called the publishers and researchers of the Oxford English Dictionary, the canonical English reference.
People do what their friends do... or they just do what's "popular". AOL is "popular". That is why it lives on. It's not really much easier to use than, say, Outlook and IE (or Thunderbird and Firebird), but it's "popular" and so people assume it's good. Most people do not want to stick out from the crowd. What they do want to do is look, act, and buy "just like everyone else", since (A) that way they won't get ridiculed and (B) that way, they can take comfort knowing that others did things the way they did, and of course that (C) "X million people can't be wrong!" (Yes, they can.) Think "keeping up with the Joneses". If the Joneses run AOL on Windows, and wear the latest model of Nike Air sneakers, chances are their neighbors will too.
People do what the news media tell them to do. (This includes thinking certain ways about certain issues.)
People follow the most powerful competitor in any given field of endeavor. In computers, this means Microsoft. Notice how nobody seems to root for the Chicago Cubs, because they have a reputation for losing. "Winning is everything" seems to be a near-universal human motto, even though it's rarely admitted to.
People are easily manipulated by sly marketing (see Microsoft again).
Dissent is perceived as dangerous and un-hip. So hardly anyone complains about anything beyond a "Damned (X), it broke again.". Mostly, people just like to go with the flow. There should be a class-action suit against Microsoft now, but is there? No. UPS and FedEx both rely on antiquated and inflexible systems, but does anyone complain? No. Does anyone even care? Not really. Apathy is on the rise. Most meaningful "protests" died out in the 1960s. Things like the DMCA pass and nobody even raises a peep, except a handful of geeks.
Humans only see the sticker price of ANYTHING. People see that a Windows PC is cheaper than a Mac, and they buy the former. What they don't see is that by buying the latter, they save themselves potentially thousands of hours (which translates to tens of thousands of dollars) in lost time patching for viruses, worms, spyware, trojans, malware, etc. etc. etc. They only see the sticker price, and look no further. For the same reason, people will buy a $2 can-opener that will break after a month as opposed to a $12 one that will last a year. All they see is the sticker price, not the "hidden costs". Seeing the latter would require thinking ahead... something which hardly anyone does or can do.
When in doubt, Apathy or Stupidity can often be named as causes of any given human (mis-)behavior.
The average IQ is (roughly) 100. Have you met many "average" people? Really, they're pretty bloody stupid, or at least by SlashDot standards. This alone explains a lot.
Yep. Actually, you're right. Look, after having lived in the Midwest for a couple years, I'm sick of self-righteous lunatics like you. Go piss off. (I like how you post as an Anonymous Coward. Shows real courage and real faith in your... well, in your "faith".)
In my experience, the Midwest is FULL of semi-sleezy businesses like giant telemarketing call centers, credit card processing centers, et cetera. There were TONS of them in Omaha, and I'd imagine there'd be lots in Oklahoma as well due to similar economic/financial settings (cheap real estate, lots of room, lots of local bumpkins for cheap labor).
This probably has something to do with it. That, and this is a state where perhaps 50% of the people believe that the Bible is not only true, but literally true and unerring. Their views on things are a little bit different from most of the rest of the nation.
Or, to put it another way, a state (Oklahoma) where pretty much every other person believes the Bible is 100% literal is just the kind of state that would think an anti-telemarketing law is a bad thing.
Hopefully, other states will squash this decision... or, better yet, the Supremes will step in and give a Grand Holy Smackdown to this silliness.
These "anti-spam" guys have been a thorn in my side, and I HATE spam. They will list you in their list for the slightest of insecurities in your email system, and keep you there for days, weeks, or months after you've patched them. They will assume you are a spammer, even if you swear to them up and down how much you hate spam (and mean it!). They will block whole subnets based on the activities of a few.
Most (all?) of the "anti-spam" systems out there are very poorly thought out. The ratio of "collateral damage" to actual spams stopped is way too high. And who appointed these guys worldwide "email cops" anyhow? I know I didn't.
There has to be a better way to block spam than blackhole lists and the like! Maybe making it a Federal crime to buy anything from a spammer? Voila, no one buys from spammers, so spammers stop spamming the US...
Even the "cheap" laptop batteries sold on eBay go for around $50 per. (This is assuming that you need (new or new-ish) batteries that will actually hold a charge.) Factor in $10 per for shipping and "handling" (read: "extra profit" for the seller) and that's $60 * 6800 == $408,000.
I love how the overly-cautious Reuters reporters, used to avoiding libel claims by saying "x CLAIMS y", or "ACCORDING TO x, y", say things like
"ACCORDING TO THE LAWSUIT this", or "the lawsuit CLAIMS that". This is a
simple matter of FACTS! One kilobytes is 1,024 bytes. One megabyte is 1,024 kilobytes. One gigabyte is 1,024 megabytes.
Saying moronic things about how it's being "claimed" that a gigabyte isn't 1,000,000,000 bytes is like... well, it's like if a car's maximum speed is really 60mph, but the car manufacturer considers 3960 feet to be "a mile", so they advertise the maximum speed as 80mph...
Yeah. It's really harder to write an app under Linux/Mac OS X/BSD/Solaris.
To get started as a Unix developer:
1: Buy Mac OS X ($129), Solaris/x86 ($20 to download directly from Sun),
Solaris/SPARC (FREE to download directly from Sun), Linux (free) or
Free/Net/OpenBSD (free).
2: pico helloworld.c
3: int main() { printf("Hello, world!\n"); return 1; }
4: ctrl-x
5: gcc helloworld.c
6:./a.out
7: "Hello, world!"
In Windows:
1: Go to software store.
2: Pay $299.99 for Windows XP Pro
(http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.asp?EDC= 316251)
3: Pay $99.45 for Visual C++.NET Standard 2003
(http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.asp?EDC= 493294)
4: Optionally, pay $1159.91 (!!!) for InstallShield Developer v8.0
(http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.asp?EDC= 423749) so you have an
InstallShield like every other damned Windoze program.
5: Install all that crap.
6: Realize your system doesn't have teh powah it needs.
7: Go out and spend $800-1200 on a new system.
8: Reinstall everything, since the system came with WinXP Home, or
Lycoris, or something else utterly unbearable.
9: Try to figure out the highly intimidating Visual C++ interface. What
button do you click to open the code editor?
10: int main() { printf("Hello, world!\n"); return 1; }
11: Now what button do I have to click to compile?
12: I can't find it!
13: OK, this might be it.
14: It won't compile!
15: Bang head on desk.
16: Go to store, buy expensive book on Visual C++ from MIS Press or
Microsoft Press. ($49.95 with useless CD)
17: Go home, flip through book for half an hour before you understand how
to make a "Hello, World".
18: Try it.
19: Watch Windows BSoD.
20: Swear. Reboot Windows. Forget it ever crashed.
21: Go on a newsgroup or SlashDot and bash teh Mac fagots lorl
22: "Warez" the latest Windoze-only video game.
23: Find that it runs at 5fps on your computer.
24: Swear again.
25: Buy a $3000 PC from AlienWare.
26: Be able to play the latest games for six months, before the system
requirements push past even your l33t p1mped-out PC.
27: Swear again.
28: Buy another $3000 PC from AlienWare.
29: Laugh at the "mac and lunix luser fagots". They must be commies!
30: Burn down spare bedroom from the heat generated by one of the
AlienWare PCs.
31: Laugh at Mac luserz some more.
32: Have trouble paying your bills because of buying all this shit.
33: Get evicted.
34: Walk around on the streets with a sign reading "wIll kOde 4 food. nO
mAc fAgots nEde aPplie."
35: Go into a cybercafe, log into SlashDot, and write a few posts telling
Linux and Mac OS users how much of a "fagot" they "r". And how "widnows"
is so "souperior." And "never crashes". And "it iz cheapre."
36: Watch your posts get moderated up by all the other MS defenders on
SlashDot..............
Is this really the best choice for something that thousands (or tens of thousands) of people will see each day as they drive down the highway?
At the PATH terminals in New Jersey, they have "PATHVision" displays. They run Windows. For a long time, virtually every day, pretty much half of the terminals were displaying an error dialog or worse. I also think I saw one of their ticket vending machines displaying a BSoD.
I really wish that companies who come up with stuff this cool would not depend so heavily on Windows. Imagine driving down the highway and seeing a gigantic, 50-foot-wide Blue Screen of Death. If my experiences with the PATHVision monitors were an example of what is to come... well, it could happen!
Here is what happens when airports depend upon Windows...
...in the party scene, where the Tom Cruise character is celebrating his birthday. It's displaying a jazz singer, and one of the characters puts her hand right through the beam, blocking a bit of the image while her hand is in place. (So clearly it's "projected" like this).
Ceren Ercen. Not sure if she's AVAILABLE, per se, but she IS sexy and she IS female. And she's a nerd.
There are actually lots of female nerds; we're just not Sports Illustrated models (though some of us are cute). And, of course, most of us are taken...
Because it's something everyone and their dog has heard of. And, therefore, it is a lot more likely to get a bunch of "oohs" and "aahs" out of an ignorant jury and an ignorant judge to say "Your Honor, my client invented plug-ins, which Microsoft (a company everyone has heard of) has integrated into Internet Explorer (a program everyone has heard of). I demand judgment against Microsoft for this action." than to claim something similar involving, say, the source code for a particular model of microcontroller used in a small subset of Sony Walkmans (Walkmen?). That would just get a bunch of blank stares.
Remember that Windows was much-touted as being in compliant with some fancy security specs some time back... I forget the name of the spec, but basically only Windows NT 3.5x qualified, and only when it wasn't plugged into a network. Apparently, this security spec was a big thing, and MSites on and off SlashDot were frequently citing it as proof of NT's readiness to play with the "big boys" in the server room.
Common Criteria might be the spec I'm thinking of... or maybe it was something else. In any case...
People will find ways to legally say "Yes, our products meet these specs", when in reality only one iteration of the product, under highly restrictive conditions, possibly with parts of the default install removed completely, meet it. They will tell you "Yes, Windows 2005 meets $SECURITY_SPEC", but they WON'T tell you that it only meets it when you remove the browser, the GUI, half of the filesystem compatibility DLLs, and leave the machine sealed inside a bank vault unplugged and not on the network.
Just like any other spec, it will become a useless buzzword, and only managers and government drones will care much about it.
Does anyone really care how many security standards Windows meets? It's still not secure.
Does the ink run? Holding a cell phone in your hand on a hot day is a recipe for running ink... as is drinking a glass of water next to the phone and touching the glass to the phone accidentally. Is there some sort of lamination or waterproofing provided? Otherwise, I don't think the printouts will last too long in "real world" use.
...a text-only Knoppix/Gnoppix workalike for us geeks. Where everything is console-only (including Curses-based stuff and the like). Heck, they could even throw in AAlib-based Quake;) Or not.
But by making a text-only Knoppix (Toppix?), they would produce a really nifty research platform, and could include a ton more stuff (since text-only software tends to be a lot smaller than graphical stuff)...
Slashdot Mirror
Let me put it to you this way. Look at the posts on SlashDot. Now, go into an AOL chat room, or a Microsoft support newsgroup. Where will you find more proper use of English? SlashDot. Where will you find more words longer than three syllables? SlashDot. Where will you find fewer (yes, FEWER!) misspellings-- SlashDot (believe it or not!). If you think that SlashDotters are average human beings... well, go out on the streets and ask the average human being a question about computers. The answer is as likely as not to be complete gibberish, uttered in ape-like monosyllables.
The only three-syllable words the average American understands are "quarterback", "basketball", and "cheerleader". (Not counting brand names like "Microsoft", "Subaru", "AOL", etc.)
No, the "average" IQ is the average of the scores of everyone taking a legitimate IQ test.
Just like the "average" SAT score, it "drifts" from time to time, and at this point it needs to be re-centered. I recall hearing that it's somewhere between 105 and 110 at the moment (which seems like an improvement, but just as likely is due to the "test culture" in today's schools which obsessively prepares people for tests, but not the real world).
Why don't they start bombing, say, SCO HQ? That would be a nice change of pace.
Sod off. Yes, English is a mess of a language. But there IS a standards body. It's called the publishers and researchers of the Oxford English Dictionary, the canonical English reference.
American English is a nonstandard mutation of standard (British) English. Hence, I use the British forms of things. That includes slang.
I don't know a bloody thing about them. I just know people think the Cubs are "losey". :)
Yep. Actually, you're right. Look, after having lived in the Midwest for a couple years, I'm sick of self-righteous lunatics like you. Go piss off. (I like how you post as an Anonymous Coward. Shows real courage and real faith in your ... well, in your "faith".)
Oklahoma as well as Omaha.
In my experience, the Midwest is FULL of semi-sleezy businesses like giant telemarketing call centers, credit card processing centers, et cetera. There were TONS of them in Omaha, and I'd imagine there'd be lots in Oklahoma as well due to similar economic/financial settings (cheap real estate, lots of room, lots of local bumpkins for cheap labor).
This probably has something to do with it. That, and this is a state where perhaps 50% of the people believe that the Bible is not only true, but literally true and unerring. Their views on things are a little bit different from most of the rest of the nation.
Or, to put it another way, a state (Oklahoma) where pretty much every other person believes the Bible is 100% literal is just the kind of state that would think an anti-telemarketing law is a bad thing.
Hopefully, other states will squash this decision... or, better yet, the Supremes will step in and give a Grand Holy Smackdown to this silliness.
These "anti-spam" guys have been a thorn in my side, and I HATE spam. They will list you in their list for the slightest of insecurities in your email system, and keep you there for days, weeks, or months after you've patched them. They will assume you are a spammer, even if you swear to them up and down how much you hate spam (and mean it!). They will block whole subnets based on the activities of a few.
Most (all?) of the "anti-spam" systems out there are very poorly thought out. The ratio of "collateral damage" to actual spams stopped is way too high. And who appointed these guys worldwide "email cops" anyhow? I know I didn't.
There has to be a better way to block spam than blackhole lists and the like! Maybe making it a Federal crime to buy anything from a spammer? Voila, no one buys from spammers, so spammers stop spamming the US...
Can someone PLEASE explain these posts? Is this some sort of 'bot' or 'Dissociated Press' program run amuck?
Even the "cheap" laptop batteries sold on eBay go for around $50 per. (This is assuming that you need (new or new-ish) batteries that will actually hold a charge.) Factor in $10 per for shipping and "handling" (read: "extra profit" for the seller) and that's $60 * 6800 == $408,000.
;)
Oy, what a deal!
One entry found for gigabyte.
Main Entry: gigabyte
Pronunciation: -"bIt
Function: noun
Date: 1975
: 1,073,741,824 bytes
--from www.m-w.com
I'll stick with the dictionary definition, thanks.
I love how the overly-cautious Reuters reporters, used to avoiding libel claims by saying "x CLAIMS y", or "ACCORDING TO x, y", say things like "ACCORDING TO THE LAWSUIT this", or "the lawsuit CLAIMS that". This is a simple matter of FACTS! One kilobytes is 1,024 bytes. One megabyte is 1,024 kilobytes. One gigabyte is 1,024 megabytes.
I wish the reporters who wrote this story would look the word 'gigabyte' up in the dictionary.
Saying moronic things about how it's being "claimed" that a gigabyte isn't 1,000,000,000 bytes is like... well, it's like if a car's maximum speed is really 60mph, but the car manufacturer considers 3960 feet to be "a mile", so they advertise the maximum speed as 80mph...
Yeah. It's really harder to write an app under Linux/Mac OS X/BSD/Solaris.
./a.out
= 316251) .NET Standard 2003
(http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.asp?EDC= 493294)= 423749) so you have an
InstallShield like every other damned Windoze program.
To get started as a Unix developer:
1: Buy Mac OS X ($129), Solaris/x86 ($20 to download directly from Sun), Solaris/SPARC (FREE to download directly from Sun), Linux (free) or Free/Net/OpenBSD (free).
2: pico helloworld.c
3: int main() { printf("Hello, world!\n"); return 1; }
4: ctrl-x
5: gcc helloworld.c
6:
7: "Hello, world!"
In Windows:
1: Go to software store.
2: Pay $299.99 for Windows XP Pro (http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.asp?EDC
3: Pay $99.45 for Visual C++
4: Optionally, pay $1159.91 (!!!) for InstallShield Developer v8.0 (http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.asp?EDC
5: Install all that crap.
6: Realize your system doesn't have teh powah it needs.
7: Go out and spend $800-1200 on a new system.
8: Reinstall everything, since the system came with WinXP Home, or Lycoris, or something else utterly unbearable.
9: Try to figure out the highly intimidating Visual C++ interface. What button do you click to open the code editor?
10: int main() { printf("Hello, world!\n"); return 1; }
11: Now what button do I have to click to compile?
12: I can't find it!
13: OK, this might be it.
14: It won't compile!
15: Bang head on desk.
16: Go to store, buy expensive book on Visual C++ from MIS Press or Microsoft Press. ($49.95 with useless CD)
17: Go home, flip through book for half an hour before you understand how to make a "Hello, World".
18: Try it.
19: Watch Windows BSoD.
20: Swear. Reboot Windows. Forget it ever crashed.
21: Go on a newsgroup or SlashDot and bash teh Mac fagots lorl
22: "Warez" the latest Windoze-only video game.
23: Find that it runs at 5fps on your computer.
24: Swear again.
25: Buy a $3000 PC from AlienWare.
26: Be able to play the latest games for six months, before the system requirements push past even your l33t p1mped-out PC.
27: Swear again.
28: Buy another $3000 PC from AlienWare.
29: Laugh at the "mac and lunix luser fagots". They must be commies!
30: Burn down spare bedroom from the heat generated by one of the AlienWare PCs.
31: Laugh at Mac luserz some more.
32: Have trouble paying your bills because of buying all this shit.
33: Get evicted.
34: Walk around on the streets with a sign reading "wIll kOde 4 food. nO mAc fAgots nEde aPplie."
35: Go into a cybercafe, log into SlashDot, and write a few posts telling Linux and Mac OS users how much of a "fagot" they "r". And how "widnows" is so "souperior." And "never crashes". And "it iz cheapre."
36: Watch your posts get moderated up by all the other MS defenders on SlashDot..............
...runs Windows.
Is this really the best choice for something that thousands (or tens of thousands) of people will see each day as they drive down the highway?
At the PATH terminals in New Jersey, they have "PATHVision" displays. They run Windows. For a long time, virtually every day, pretty much half of the terminals were displaying an error dialog or worse. I also think I saw one of their ticket vending machines displaying a BSoD.
I really wish that companies who come up with stuff this cool would not depend so heavily on Windows. Imagine driving down the highway and seeing a gigantic, 50-foot-wide Blue Screen of Death. If my experiences with the PATHVision monitors were an example of what is to come... well, it could happen!
Here is what happens when airports depend upon Windows...
...in the party scene, where the Tom Cruise character is celebrating his birthday. It's displaying a jazz singer, and one of the characters puts her hand right through the beam, blocking a bit of the image while her hand is in place. (So clearly it's "projected" like this).
Ceren Ercen. Not sure if she's AVAILABLE, per se, but she IS sexy and she IS female. And she's a nerd.
There are actually lots of female nerds; we're just not Sports Illustrated models (though some of us are cute). And, of course, most of us are taken...
...if there really is such a thing as Bigfoot? I'd rather have the only real-world furries be a mink, or a skunk, or a vixen. :)
...and have been so since 1993. And probably will be so in 2013. :)
Because it's something everyone and their dog has heard of. And, therefore, it is a lot more likely to get a bunch of "oohs" and "aahs" out of an ignorant jury and an ignorant judge to say "Your Honor, my client invented plug-ins, which Microsoft (a company everyone has heard of) has integrated into Internet Explorer (a program everyone has heard of). I demand judgment against Microsoft for this action." than to claim something similar involving, say, the source code for a particular model of microcontroller used in a small subset of Sony Walkmans (Walkmen?). That would just get a bunch of blank stares.
Remember that Windows was much-touted as being in compliant with some fancy security specs some time back... I forget the name of the spec, but basically only Windows NT 3.5x qualified, and only when it wasn't plugged into a network. Apparently, this security spec was a big thing, and MSites on and off SlashDot were frequently citing it as proof of NT's readiness to play with the "big boys" in the server room.
Common Criteria might be the spec I'm thinking of... or maybe it was something else. In any case...
People will find ways to legally say "Yes, our products meet these specs", when in reality only one iteration of the product, under highly restrictive conditions, possibly with parts of the default install removed completely, meet it. They will tell you "Yes, Windows 2005 meets $SECURITY_SPEC", but they WON'T tell you that it only meets it when you remove the browser, the GUI, half of the filesystem compatibility DLLs, and leave the machine sealed inside a bank vault unplugged and not on the network.
Just like any other spec, it will become a useless buzzword, and only managers and government drones will care much about it.
Does anyone really care how many security standards Windows meets? It's still not secure.
Does the ink run? Holding a cell phone in your hand on a hot day is a recipe for running ink... as is drinking a glass of water next to the phone and touching the glass to the phone accidentally. Is there some sort of lamination or waterproofing provided? Otherwise, I don't think the printouts will last too long in "real world" use.
...a text-only Knoppix/Gnoppix workalike for us geeks. Where everything is console-only (including Curses-based stuff and the like). Heck, they could even throw in AAlib-based Quake ;) Or not.
But by making a text-only Knoppix (Toppix?), they would produce a really nifty research platform, and could include a ton more stuff (since text-only software tends to be a lot smaller than graphical stuff)...