Though this might be a valid point, there are also reasons to expect just the oposite. As the interface of computers get more and more abstract the knowledge of what a computer actually is fades. And in my opinion knowing how something works makes it easier to use. Sometimes programs are so counter-intuitive for advanced users that they find it more difficult to use than first timers even.
When I was using my 386 (almost) everybody knew what memory and a hard disk constituted. You can nowadays use a computer and know nothing about these things. I've seen people continue to use a computer with heavy memory loads, with disk trashing every single click, and they haven't got a clue what is happening and why everything is so slow.
All said, computers are not progressing as much as I has hoped. An average computer user should not have to know where programs and the operating system is on the HDD. But many programs seem to require this kind of knowledge. Deinstalling applications is a hard thing to do (do you want to remove this dll? RPM -e etc.). Hopefully some of these burdens can be taken away.
I think the word that saved your ISP there is the word "interactive". Otherwise the ISP should leave the connection on. Still, I can imagine an elderly person listen to a classical radio station for 14 hours a day. That's surely "interactive".
It's simple: if you state "unlimited" you should deliver unlimited access. ISP's going out of business is NOT the concern of the customer. And if you can't stand the heat...
No, commonly that is known as "always on(line)". Not unlimited. Unlimited use is what it says that it is, unlimited, with the possible exception for distributing the service (since the contract only applies to you) and abuse (in the legal sense) of the service.
Time-unlimited access might be an acceptable synonym of "always online" though. Advertising something to be "unlimited" without specifically mentioning access time is the same as advertising a toy car as a car.
I cant imagine someone only allowing 2 gigs a month though, i have downloaded more than that just off of demos and things from gametab.
Depends on what you use the service for, obviously. A lot of people in there are for web and mail experience, and only some downloading of updates etc.
So the question is; what kind of service did you apply for? Without that information it is difficult to see if the ISP was correct in cutting you off. Obviously the way you were cut of is not what you expect though.
I just downed a linux distro (binary only) that was about 3 x 650 = 2 Gigs. So obviously this amount in a month is way to little for me.
Start 3 years ago: 512/64 kbits/sec for 65 euros, januari: 4096/640 kbits/sec for 80 euros p/m. Don't you love it.
They are big corporations. They could redefine 'unlimited' as 'up to 1GB of traffic per month'
Maybe in the US, but I doubt it. Over here in the Netherlands that would be seen as false advertising. Over here all the ISP's are talking about "broadband access" and "fair use policy" or FUP.
If you read "fair use policy" you can assume there is some limit to what you can download; the problem is obviously how to know you are over that limit.
Currently only very few people have been warned, and even less have been disconnected (none that I know off). These guys were downing huge amounts of illegal software though (when asked personally).
My (largisch in dutch terms) ISP has never really acted too much on their FUP anyways. As long as the speeds double every so many months, they don't really need to either.
Ok, but only commercial in two cities if I read the ISP's information correctly. No way to confirm this; you will have to fill in a form with your address etc. I would not be amazed if they would send snail mail after filling in the contact information.
That's a bit too small to call it a commercial venture IMHO. That's testing.
The ones that are still using Windows 98 are probably not the first ones to migrate to Linux unfortunately. Maybe some younger people might be interested, and some that are cash strapped, but that would be about it.
Furthermore, nobody is having to upgrade. Most of these products are end of life anyways, and have been patched to the maximum already. Somebody still running Windows 98 for instance will probably not bother staying up to date all the time.
Obviously if you see the opportunity....
Checklist: - brother & spouse -> havy MS users, no way - aunt -> no way, system is running and thats it - mother -> MS lock in (school & sw are MS based) - other aunt & uncle -> no way!!!
Yup, this is only too true. Using Windows 98 does not contain any risks. Unfortunately, whithout any firewalling, with NetBIOS enabled by default on all adapters, with a broken TCP/IP stack (and a completely bunk dial up networking) etc. I would be very hard pressed to recommend it as low end internet operating system.
Furthermore, it would be easy to use XP or Windows 2000 with the firewall enabled. That would be as safe (or safer) than using the Windows 98 operating system. IE and Outlook are just disasters waiting to happen (on your system, on the internet they are already happening) so using third party browser and email client is to be recommended in all circumstances.
The only thing worse than using Windows 98 may be Windows ME, but they fixed some serious dial up issues in that operating system, blurring the choice a bit.
I had a (guest) professor at university once, who was working for a outsourcing company. Obviously he was management material; he said he did not use computers outside office. Anyways, I had a good laugh when he said that coding skills would become of a thing of the past within a decade, everything would be done by automated tasks and tools, because he saw a trend in tool usage.
Well, we are now 10 years later, and I am still laughing. Some kind of uses can indeed be replaced by tools, but most applications are still made by man. I am currently using the java programming language a lot, and sometimes even that is too high up.
Anybody who says coding is easy is either doing a bad job at it, or does not program at all, like a fore mentioned said professor.
Oh, but some of those licenses don't permit resale!
Unless you live in germany, where the judge ruled that this was non-intuitive and told microsoft to shut up, basically (for selling computers with a valid Windows installed).
IANAL as you might guess from my writing style:). This also comes from memory.
I do not need more power; I need more outlets. These two are not the same. Currently my whole room has been filled with adapters; get ready for the list.
Mobile phone
DECT phone
Printer
Scanner
Computer speaker set
USB HUB
Laptop
VIA EPIA external power adapter (ok, in design, so leave it out for now)
MIDI keyboard
Switch
ADSL modem
54Mbit wireless access point
This is all excluding the normal devices (which I will leave out).
Question to you techies out there. Is it not possible to device a standard for these kind of devices? It would be nice to have an (upgradable) 12 V DC adapter in the house. Currently almost none of the adapters take just one outlet. Note that I am on 230V since I live in NL (europe). Not that that matters too much, I expect you are experiencing the same problem.
Right. I've never seen a country in need of guns that cannot be found. Could you please give an example where this was the case? It is definately not the US of A.
I think you are being paranoid. But that's ok, that's the state that the current USA government wants you to be in anyway:)
Ubiquitous environment.
Good point. Unfortunately this is of limited functionality since it does not reach outside the browser (read on why not)
Capability: There is very little you can't do with it Not so, it is of very limited capability. The UI aspect of JavaScript is limited to HTML and browser features (ew) and writing something like a functional rich text editor is right out. Name a full blown application in javascript? (not mozilla obviously, since 2/3 is NOT javascript).
Compatibility "If microsoft would....", case lost.
Object Orientation Object orientation in JavaScript is a hack. Due to its weak typing system, you can not really depend on it. The weak typing part is also the reason why it's not really suited for larger environments.
Ease of use Yep, as long as you keep it simple, its easy to use. Basic is also really easy to use, and worth not even a penny for any serious stuff.
Momentum I think you have been playing with mozilla for too long. Name one reason why JavaScript has momentum?
It does not even compete with Java though. Which also runs in a sandbox by the way. And it won't break out of it either, which it can do if you use JavaScript and IE "safe for scripting" trash API's.
And the "deprication" of classes and methods in Java is one bright idea. Java is quite compatible, as long as you do not use the intentionally broken MS implementation.
In other words, I think you are off the mark for *all* your remarks about the language. JavaScript is the new Visual Basic, or worse.
Background: I have JavaScript for demo's, thin clients (don't), signing (don't), encryption, web development and more.
Writing a paper with word is something you just should not do. Please use something else like a tagged language. Word tends to seriously mess up your formatting (and you don't need that at that stage).
Not that OpenOffice is much better for this. It's just not suited for WYSIWYG editors. If you really don't like tags: use an editor that does not allow individual formatting, or a GUI front end for a tagged language. Even writing HTML through a tool might be a good alternative option.
Obviously these kind of matches are very interesting for chess players. But I wonder if there is any other significance, in theoretic science or in the computer science depts.
In other words, why should we care who wins? I don't want to troll, but the machine vs human chess player story is getting a bit stale. If the computer wins, that will mean, what? It's such a specialized field that you can hardly call it a milestone in computer science.
No it is not. You need a double thick CF slot to put a microdrive in. Besides, microdrives will be out of the picture it flash memory keeps scaling the way it does.
Microdrives currently are only interesting for professionals. And even those would be carrying something to copy their digital photo's onto anyway.
Note that every Sonly memory stick is priced about 30 euro's above comparable memory slot devices in NL. IMHO, they can stick it up...
Slashdot Mirror
Though this might be a valid point, there are also reasons to expect just the oposite. As the interface of computers get more and more abstract the knowledge of what a computer actually is fades. And in my opinion knowing how something works makes it easier to use. Sometimes programs are so counter-intuitive for advanced users that they find it more difficult to use than first timers even.
When I was using my 386 (almost) everybody knew what memory and a hard disk constituted. You can nowadays use a computer and know nothing about these things. I've seen people continue to use a computer with heavy memory loads, with disk trashing every single click, and they haven't got a clue what is happening and why everything is so slow.
All said, computers are not progressing as much as I has hoped. An average computer user should not have to know where programs and the operating system is on the HDD. But many programs seem to require this kind of knowledge. Deinstalling applications is a hard thing to do (do you want to remove this dll? RPM -e etc.). Hopefully some of these burdens can be taken away.
I think the word that saved your ISP there is the word "interactive". Otherwise the ISP should leave the connection on. Still, I can imagine an elderly person listen to a classical radio station for 14 hours a day. That's surely "interactive".
It's simple: if you state "unlimited" you should deliver unlimited access. ISP's going out of business is NOT the concern of the customer. And if you can't stand the heat...
No, commonly that is known as "always on(line)". Not unlimited. Unlimited use is what it says that it is, unlimited, with the possible exception for distributing the service (since the contract only applies to you) and abuse (in the legal sense) of the service.
Time-unlimited access might be an acceptable synonym of "always online" though. Advertising something to be "unlimited" without specifically mentioning access time is the same as advertising a toy car as a car.
Oh, and IANAL.
I cant imagine someone only allowing 2 gigs a month though, i have downloaded more than that just off of demos and things from gametab.
Depends on what you use the service for, obviously. A lot of people in there are for web and mail experience, and only some downloading of updates etc.
So the question is; what kind of service did you apply for? Without that information it is difficult to see if the ISP was correct in cutting you off. Obviously the way you were cut of is not what you expect though.
I just downed a linux distro (binary only) that was about 3 x 650 = 2 Gigs. So obviously this amount in a month is way to little for me.
Start 3 years ago: 512/64 kbits/sec for 65 euros, januari: 4096/640 kbits/sec for 80 euros p/m. Don't you love it.
They are big corporations. They could redefine 'unlimited' as 'up to 1GB of traffic per month'
Maybe in the US, but I doubt it. Over here in the Netherlands that would be seen as false advertising. Over here all the ISP's are talking about "broadband access" and "fair use policy" or FUP.
If you read "fair use policy" you can assume there is some limit to what you can download; the problem is obviously how to know you are over that limit.
Currently only very few people have been warned, and even less have been disconnected (none that I know off). These guys were downing huge amounts of illegal software though (when asked personally).
My (largisch in dutch terms) ISP has never really acted too much on their FUP anyways. As long as the speeds double every so many months, they don't really need to either.
Yeah, what ever! Read read read. Way too late. Check date next time. Mod sibling up!
I would not think they do, they are tied to a specific zone.
Ok, but only commercial in two cities if I read the ISP's information correctly. No way to confirm this; you will have to fill in a form with your address etc. I would not be amazed if they would send snail mail after filling in the contact information.
That's a bit too small to call it a commercial venture IMHO. That's testing.
I nominate every single product on previous years list, unless it has been removed from upcoming product list or has actually been released.
No new product can overcome an old vaporware product, unless you add a marketinghype factor.
This must be the first file sharing scheme where they forgot to include the files. Sheesh. No content indeed.
Pff, last time I checked they still let Nokia mobile phones on planes, so this should be alright too.
The ones that are still using Windows 98 are probably not the first ones to migrate to Linux unfortunately. Maybe some younger people might be interested, and some that are cash strapped, but that would be about it.
Furthermore, nobody is having to upgrade. Most of these products are end of life anyways, and have been patched to the maximum already. Somebody still running Windows 98 for instance will probably not bother staying up to date all the time.
Obviously if you see the opportunity....
Checklist:
- brother & spouse -> havy MS users, no way
- aunt -> no way, system is running and thats it
- mother -> MS lock in (school & sw are MS based)
- other aunt & uncle -> no way!!!
Darn.
Yup, this is only too true. Using Windows 98 does not contain any risks. Unfortunately, whithout any firewalling, with NetBIOS enabled by default on all adapters, with a broken TCP/IP stack (and a completely bunk dial up networking) etc. I would be very hard pressed to recommend it as low end internet operating system.
Furthermore, it would be easy to use XP or Windows 2000 with the firewall enabled. That would be as safe (or safer) than using the Windows 98 operating system. IE and Outlook are just disasters waiting to happen (on your system, on the internet they are already happening) so using third party browser and email client is to be recommended in all circumstances.
The only thing worse than using Windows 98 may be Windows ME, but they fixed some serious dial up issues in that operating system, blurring the choice a bit.
What a bunch of crap.
I had a (guest) professor at university once, who was working for a outsourcing company. Obviously he was management material; he said he did not use computers outside office. Anyways, I had a good laugh when he said that coding skills would become of a thing of the past within a decade, everything would be done by automated tasks and tools, because he saw a trend in tool usage.
Well, we are now 10 years later, and I am still laughing. Some kind of uses can indeed be replaced by tools, but most applications are still made by man. I am currently using the java programming language a lot, and sometimes even that is too high up.
Anybody who says coding is easy is either doing a bad job at it, or does not program at all, like a fore mentioned said professor.
Would this make it easier for Coca Cola? I smell a conspiracy!
If you call that intelligent design, then the engeneers must have seriously screwed up. Or we're a prototype of some kind.
Oh, but some of those licenses don't permit resale!
:). This also comes from memory.
Unless you live in germany, where the judge ruled that this was non-intuitive and told microsoft to shut up, basically (for selling computers with a valid Windows installed).
IANAL as you might guess from my writing style
- Mobile phone
- DECT phone
- Printer
- Scanner
- Computer speaker set
- USB HUB
- Laptop
- VIA EPIA external power adapter (ok, in design, so leave it out for now)
- MIDI keyboard
- Switch
- ADSL modem
- 54Mbit wireless access point
This is all excluding the normal devices (which I will leave out).Question to you techies out there. Is it not possible to device a standard for these kind of devices? It would be nice to have an (upgradable) 12 V DC adapter in the house. Currently almost none of the adapters take just one outlet. Note that I am on 230V since I live in NL (europe). Not that that matters too much, I expect you are experiencing the same problem.
Right. I've never seen a country in need of guns that cannot be found. Could you please give an example where this was the case? It is definately not the US of A.
:)
I think you are being paranoid. But that's ok, that's the state that the current USA government wants you to be in anyway
Yeah, unfortunately the rest of the world can't vote. And we/they get fucked in the ass too.
Good point. Unfortunately this is of limited functionality since it does not reach outside the browser (read on why not)
Not so, it is of very limited capability. The UI aspect of JavaScript is limited to HTML and browser features (ew) and writing something like a functional rich text editor is right out. Name a full blown application in javascript? (not mozilla obviously, since 2/3 is NOT javascript).
"If microsoft would....", case lost.
Object orientation in JavaScript is a hack. Due to its weak typing system, you can not really depend on it. The weak typing part is also the reason why it's not really suited for larger environments.
Yep, as long as you keep it simple, its easy to use. Basic is also really easy to use, and worth not even a penny for any serious stuff.
I think you have been playing with mozilla for too long. Name one reason why JavaScript has momentum?
It does not even compete with Java though. Which also runs in a sandbox by the way. And it won't break out of it either, which it can do if you use JavaScript and IE "safe for scripting" trash API's.
And the "deprication" of classes and methods in Java is one bright idea. Java is quite compatible, as long as you do not use the intentionally broken MS implementation.
In other words, I think you are off the mark for *all* your remarks about the language. JavaScript is the new Visual Basic, or worse.
Background: I have JavaScript for demo's, thin clients (don't), signing (don't), encryption, web development and more.
Writing a paper with word is something you just should not do. Please use something else like a tagged language. Word tends to seriously mess up your formatting (and you don't need that at that stage).
Not that OpenOffice is much better for this. It's just not suited for WYSIWYG editors. If you really don't like tags: use an editor that does not allow individual formatting, or a GUI front end for a tagged language. Even writing HTML through a tool might be a good alternative option.
Word is for writing letters.
On:
prepare plans to migrate...
Azaris wrote:
Is this Gartner's answer to everything?
Probably, and don't forget that they don't say what to migrate to. I think I know the an$wer if you a$ked Gartner for thi$ information.
Obviously these kind of matches are very interesting for chess players. But I wonder if there is any other significance, in theoretic science or in the computer science depts.
In other words, why should we care who wins? I don't want to troll, but the machine vs human chess player story is getting a bit stale. If the computer wins, that will mean, what? It's such a specialized field that you can hardly call it a milestone in computer science.
and it's large enough to have IBM Microdrives.
...
No it is not. You need a double thick CF slot to put a microdrive in. Besides, microdrives will be out of the picture it flash memory keeps scaling the way it does.
Microdrives currently are only interesting for professionals. And even those would be carrying something to copy their digital photo's onto anyway.
Note that every Sonly memory stick is priced about 30 euro's above comparable memory slot devices in NL. IMHO, they can stick it up