I talked briefly about this with somebody from a hospital. They need all the information available when somebody is wheeled in to Accidents & Emergencies - and fast, and without red tape. This does that.
"adverts on UK tv reporting that with the new dual cores, you can read email and listen to music"
I complained to the Advertising Standards Agency about one of those adverts which was made by PC World. I'm still sour about it. I quote from the letter:
"We did not consider that the advertisement implied that dual core processors were the only type of processor that could multi-task, or that they improved internet connectivity or performance. [the sales guy said something like 'playing a game while downloading music'] We consider that the advertisement is merely highlighting the functionality of a dual core PC, and is therefore unlikely to mislead." (Followed by some crap about how considerate and fair they were.)
"They are (and rightly should be) scared shitless of having their investors realize that their business model will become unsustainable as the cost of software goes down and down."
Microsoft dictates the cost of software. Windows 3.1 cost about $50. Windows Vista costs $200 for the Home Basic version, and $240 for the bells and whistles, and $299 for the Business version. That sounds to me like the cost of software is merely going up. Remember that it is still impractical for businesses to switch their workstations to another OS. Also, Exchange (server) and Office (workstation) "just work together". Similarly for NT domains, etc. They are hardly on the brink of destruction.
I agree. Home users clearly have no need for Volume Shadow Copy, full-disk encryption, full-disk backup, nor the ability to install more than one language and switch at will.
Microsoft just wants users to pay more for Windows. First they have to get the Premium edition to get Flip3D. Then they need to buy an Anytime Upgrade if they want useful features like those above - and the upgrade will probably cost as much as the OEM Premium license.
Plus there's Ultimate Extras, which we probably won't know the value of until the January consumer launch. (It's the only trick MS still has up their sleeves.)
Microsoft has said that using Windows Anytime Upgrade (the feature you describe) will cost "a bit less than buying an upgrade version at a store" - i.e. far more than the dollar difference of the two editions. See Paul Thurrott's supersite review (which appears to be inaccessible at the moment) to see this.
"Why should the student's level of English be a factor in determining his or her grade in, for example, chemistry? This would diminish the accuracy of the grade, contradicting the very point of the test."
That would depend on what you *want* to measure. Do you want to measure their Chemistry knowledge, which you could do with questions like "which element..." "which reagent..." and "what type of bond..."
Or do you also want to measure their understanding and communication with questions like "Describe the steps to isolate..." and "What would you see as the reaction progresses?" Clearly these need unambigous language with a standard vocabulary. Only proper English qualifies.
I'm doing A Levels in Maths, Physics and Chemistry, and I also did the Sociology AS Level. (I got a B.)
A Level is *the* academic 16-18 qualification in the UK. A typical A Level will include about 10 hours of exams over 2 exam sessions, one per year.
There is currently one mark in my Science papers out of 75 which is given for "quality of written communication". This is generally added to a 3 mark explanation question and comes with the notice just below the question "one mark may be given for quality of written communication" (paraphrased).
This mark is very easy to get. AFAIK, you only need to earn one mark from the question (i.e. an understanding of part of the process you are trying to explain) in order to qualify for the "QWC" (my neologism) mark. The mark is given "if you [the marker] can understand what they wrote". This does not include spelling but it would include most punctuation. Run-on sentences are allowed (I saw this a lot in my Sociology class, but it went uncorrected). Misspelling technical terms is allowed (i.e. "flouride" for "flouride" is allowed, "chlorine" for "chloride" is not allowed).
Basically, the mark is just lip service to the people who want to preserve the language. It's completely pointless.
Note: When I started writing this post, I decided to pick out only common tasks made easier and front-end changes. I diverged a little.
Well, there's the find in the start menu (press Start and start typing a command line or the name of an application... just like Gnome's deskbar-applet, but without pluggable support for other actions like typing e-mail addresses, words to look up in the dictionary, search queries, web addresses, calculations and other stuff)
Then there's the sidebar - hang on, they removed that and made it a ghost of its original plans.
Then there's the per-application volume control (which is of course enforced by Windows and not left to the application;-) ).
Then there's the new networking stack (I think there's selective ACKnowledgment or something like that, which speeds up your transfers. Also IPv6 support improved *rolleyes*)
You might like the Aero style including the close button being larger than the others. You can tone down the transparency. The close button and start button both appear to be quite far from their screen corners - "snatching defeat from the jaws of success" as somebody said. (Look up Fitt's Law if you don't know what I'm on about.)
There's Previous Versions aka Volume Shadow Copy which silently backs up your files and lets you restore past versions from the file properties dialog. (Only available in Enterprise and Ultimate for some reason.)
There's Stacks in Windows Explorer. This looks a bit like sorting in Outlook 2003 and up where your messages are grouped and clearly seperated.
Thumbnails in Windows Explorer can display the actual file contents, like Gnome and KDE have done for years.
You can install more than one language and switch between them. Changes appear the next time you log on. (Enterprise and Ultimate only.)
Windows Desktop Search is improved and is pluggable. (I haven't jumped onto the search bandwagon yet...) Indexing uses low priority for I/O (apparently the concept is new to Vista) in order to keep your system snappy.
The Explorer address bar has the breadcrumbs view which is pretty neat. You can also now use Alt-Up to go up one level. This keyboard shortcut is christened "Latest. Addition. Ever.".
You get a clone of iCal, if you want such things.
New backup software. (Check out the shellrevealed.com forums for some hilarious complaints about functionality removed compared to NTBackup.)
Firewall can block outgoing connections.
UAC is useful to prevent pesky applications from doing pesky things.
Parental Controls, if you take that attitude. Also pluggable.
DRM support so that your next-gen video discs will refuse to play without a "Protectd Video Path", etc!
Flip3D allows you to see all your windows while switching between them. A bit like Expose and its Linux clones.
Apparently printing is improved although I can't understand how.
File associations can be managed from a simpler user interface which is also far less flexible. The old UI is also removed.
Wireless support improved. (Also handwriting recognition improved if you use a Tablet PC.)
Better ACPI support.
Transactional NTFS. (Multiple file commits can all be done in one transaction - they either all fail or all succeed.)
Microsoft said it was reforming its "minimum requirements" policy, along the lines of "a computer which follows these 'minimum requirements' doesn't merely run Windows, but runs it reasonably with a few applications besides."
The old keyboard shortcuts still work. Even stuff like alt-f s to save.
The only problem is that you don't get much feedback. I tried Beta 2 (pre-Technical Refresh) and all it did was show a shiny box which said something like "legacy Office 2003 shortcut: Alt-F " without any indication of possible finishers. Even emacs does it better.;)
I know it isn't relevant for deciding whether to use Vista, but ASLR has been in Linux for a long time now.
The WDM comment only applies to 64-bit, and what you're basically saying is "instability is largely caused by bad drivers. Microsoft will not allow bad drivers to run by disabling your ability to install unsigned drivers." In other words, "in the name of stability, Microsoft has decided what I can do with my computer."
If I wanted to not run unsigned drivers, then I WOULD not run unsigned drivers. But I still think the choice should be left to me.
Still, it's nice to know that most drivers will be usermode.
Yes, of course they'll demand that... after Vista development was finished.
Not.
A security blog from MS says quite definitely they have no backdoor. The encryption algorithms are open. But of course, if there was one, I wouldn't know about it.
Full-disk encryption has only been in Linux for... many years? Similarly for Address Space Layout Randomisation, that other security feature which is oh-so-new.
"Why do we need USB when we have perfectly good parrallel cables?" The data transfer is faster and it's easier for a computer to know when something was hotplugged and it's smaller.
"Why do we need DVDs when we have perfectly good CDs?" Um... DVDs do movies. But if you're talking about data, DVDs store larger amounts in the same size.
What you should have done is point out some actual advantages of wireless USB, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
I talked briefly about this with somebody from a hospital. They need all the information available when somebody is wheeled in to Accidents & Emergencies - and fast, and without red tape. This does that.
"adverts on UK tv reporting that with the new dual cores, you can read email and listen to music"
I complained to the Advertising Standards Agency about one of those adverts which was made by PC World. I'm still sour about it. I quote from the letter:
"We did not consider that the advertisement implied that dual core processors were the only type of processor that could multi-task, or that they improved internet connectivity or performance. [the sales guy said something like 'playing a game while downloading music'] We consider that the advertisement is merely highlighting the functionality of a dual core PC, and is therefore unlikely to mislead." (Followed by some crap about how considerate and fair they were.)
So I guess those adverts are here to stay.
"They are (and rightly should be) scared shitless of having their investors realize that their business model will become unsustainable as the cost of software goes down and down."
Microsoft dictates the cost of software. Windows 3.1 cost about $50. Windows Vista costs $200 for the Home Basic version, and $240 for the bells and whistles, and $299 for the Business version. That sounds to me like the cost of software is merely going up. Remember that it is still impractical for businesses to switch their workstations to another OS. Also, Exchange (server) and Office (workstation) "just work together". Similarly for NT domains, etc. They are hardly on the brink of destruction.
>> ... why not let me use my own sound clips?
5 .html and others.
>> Why am I stuck with the musty-sounding Vista start-up sound clip that Microsoft thinks I will like?
> That's been a function since at least Win95, maybe before.
They removed it in Vista. The new "sounds" dialog looks a bit wierd.
The reason is "branding".
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060924-781
No, he meant that nano was 10^-3 times smaller than microscopic.
As mentioned on Slashdot, somebody did manage to get a refund for the Window portion of their machine from Dell. £50 + VAT @ 17.5% (aka sales tax).
I agree. Home users clearly have no need for Volume Shadow Copy, full-disk encryption, full-disk backup, nor the ability to install more than one language and switch at will.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=39
Microsoft just wants users to pay more for Windows. First they have to get the Premium edition to get Flip3D. Then they need to buy an Anytime Upgrade if they want useful features like those above - and the upgrade will probably cost as much as the OEM Premium license.
Plus there's Ultimate Extras, which we probably won't know the value of until the January consumer launch. (It's the only trick MS still has up their sleeves.)
You can use klik. I agree, though - distributions really need to be faster with updates.
Microsoft has said that using Windows Anytime Upgrade (the feature you describe) will cost "a bit less than buying an upgrade version at a store" - i.e. far more than the dollar difference of the two editions. See Paul Thurrott's supersite review (which appears to be inaccessible at the moment) to see this.
No, most people will be happy with Home Premium despite it missing some really neat features (Volume Shadow Copy particularly).
"he's just going to trot down to his brother-in-law and burn a copy of Windows"
With WGA installed on all Vista machines, that will be difficult.
"Why should the student's level of English be a factor in determining his or her grade in, for example, chemistry? This would diminish the accuracy of the grade, contradicting the very point of the test."
That would depend on what you *want* to measure. Do you want to measure their Chemistry knowledge, which you could do with questions like "which element..." "which reagent..." and "what type of bond..."
Or do you also want to measure their understanding and communication with questions like "Describe the steps to isolate..." and "What would you see as the reaction progresses?" Clearly these need unambigous language with a standard vocabulary. Only proper English qualifies.
I'm doing A Levels in Maths, Physics and Chemistry, and I also did the Sociology AS Level. (I got a B.)
A Level is *the* academic 16-18 qualification in the UK. A typical A Level will include about 10 hours of exams over 2 exam sessions, one per year.
There is currently one mark in my Science papers out of 75 which is given for "quality of written communication". This is generally added to a 3 mark explanation question and comes with the notice just below the question "one mark may be given for quality of written communication" (paraphrased).
This mark is very easy to get. AFAIK, you only need to earn one mark from the question (i.e. an understanding of part of the process you are trying to explain) in order to qualify for the "QWC" (my neologism) mark. The mark is given "if you [the marker] can understand what they wrote". This does not include spelling but it would include most punctuation. Run-on sentences are allowed (I saw this a lot in my Sociology class, but it went uncorrected). Misspelling technical terms is allowed (i.e. "flouride" for "flouride" is allowed, "chlorine" for "chloride" is not allowed).
Basically, the mark is just lip service to the people who want to preserve the language. It's completely pointless.
u sick elitist. ROFL!
Vista is exactly what I thought when I read the post as well. Fast User Switching ftw! Eheh.
Note: When I started writing this post, I decided to pick out only common tasks made easier and front-end changes. I diverged a little.
;-) ).
Well, there's the find in the start menu (press Start and start typing a command line or the name of an application... just like Gnome's deskbar-applet, but without pluggable support for other actions like typing e-mail addresses, words to look up in the dictionary, search queries, web addresses, calculations and other stuff)
Then there's the sidebar - hang on, they removed that and made it a ghost of its original plans.
Then there's the per-application volume control (which is of course enforced by Windows and not left to the application
Then there's the new networking stack (I think there's selective ACKnowledgment or something like that, which speeds up your transfers. Also IPv6 support improved *rolleyes*)
You might like the Aero style including the close button being larger than the others. You can tone down the transparency. The close button and start button both appear to be quite far from their screen corners - "snatching defeat from the jaws of success" as somebody said. (Look up Fitt's Law if you don't know what I'm on about.)
There's Previous Versions aka Volume Shadow Copy which silently backs up your files and lets you restore past versions from the file properties dialog. (Only available in Enterprise and Ultimate for some reason.)
There's Stacks in Windows Explorer. This looks a bit like sorting in Outlook 2003 and up where your messages are grouped and clearly seperated.
Thumbnails in Windows Explorer can display the actual file contents, like Gnome and KDE have done for years.
You can install more than one language and switch between them. Changes appear the next time you log on. (Enterprise and Ultimate only.)
Windows Desktop Search is improved and is pluggable. (I haven't jumped onto the search bandwagon yet...) Indexing uses low priority for I/O (apparently the concept is new to Vista) in order to keep your system snappy.
The Explorer address bar has the breadcrumbs view which is pretty neat. You can also now use Alt-Up to go up one level. This keyboard shortcut is christened "Latest. Addition. Ever.".
You get a clone of iCal, if you want such things.
New backup software. (Check out the shellrevealed.com forums for some hilarious complaints about functionality removed compared to NTBackup.)
Firewall can block outgoing connections.
UAC is useful to prevent pesky applications from doing pesky things.
Parental Controls, if you take that attitude. Also pluggable.
DRM support so that your next-gen video discs will refuse to play without a "Protectd Video Path", etc!
Flip3D allows you to see all your windows while switching between them. A bit like Expose and its Linux clones.
Apparently printing is improved although I can't understand how.
File associations can be managed from a simpler user interface which is also far less flexible. The old UI is also removed.
Wireless support improved. (Also handwriting recognition improved if you use a Tablet PC.)
Better ACPI support.
Transactional NTFS. (Multiple file commits can all be done in one transaction - they either all fail or all succeed.)
Lots of backend stuff improved. (No, really.)
Microsoft said it was reforming its "minimum requirements" policy, along the lines of "a computer which follows these 'minimum requirements' doesn't merely run Windows, but runs it reasonably with a few applications besides."
I'm waiting to see how that pans out.
The old keyboard shortcuts still work. Even stuff like alt-f s to save.
;)
The only problem is that you don't get much feedback. I tried Beta 2 (pre-Technical Refresh) and all it did was show a shiny box which said something like "legacy Office 2003 shortcut: Alt-F " without any indication of possible finishers. Even emacs does it better.
I know it isn't relevant for deciding whether to use Vista, but ASLR has been in Linux for a long time now.
The WDM comment only applies to 64-bit, and what you're basically saying is "instability is largely caused by bad drivers. Microsoft will not allow bad drivers to run by disabling your ability to install unsigned drivers." In other words, "in the name of stability, Microsoft has decided what I can do with my computer."
If I wanted to not run unsigned drivers, then I WOULD not run unsigned drivers. But I still think the choice should be left to me.
Still, it's nice to know that most drivers will be usermode.
Yes, of course they'll demand that... after Vista development was finished.
Not.
A security blog from MS says quite definitely they have no backdoor. The encryption algorithms are open. But of course, if there was one, I wouldn't know about it.
Full-disk encryption has only been in Linux for... many years? Similarly for Address Space Layout Randomisation, that other security feature which is oh-so-new.
"Why do we need USB when we have perfectly good parrallel cables?"
The data transfer is faster and it's easier for a computer to know when something was hotplugged and it's smaller.
"Why do we need DVDs when we have perfectly good CDs?"
Um... DVDs do movies. But if you're talking about data, DVDs store larger amounts in the same size.
What you should have done is point out some actual advantages of wireless USB, etc.
"I wonder if Vista is finally going to display extensions by default."
'fraid not. (I would have heard about that by now...)
Why do you care? You shouldn't need to set up a user account very often. It hardly takes any effort to flip that bit.
Well, they were almost nil at the time. Back when people stored data in text documents. What was your point again?
HA HA HAu tions
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Gates#Misattrib
Where can we find past Signing Statements? Wikipedia has not really got much on the details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signing_statement#Con troversy_over_George_W._Bush.27s_use_of_signing_st atements