Another thing, near the start of part 1, 6 seemed to think she was doing the baby a favour before she killed it. I can't remember exactly what she said but it was along the lines of:
"There there, it's ok, you're not going to have to cry much longer"
I suspect she was referring to the attack rather than to breaking the baby's neck but she still seemed to think of it as some sort of holy deliverance.
That's true but Thunderbird will never reach a critical mass of users unless they can just drop it in to their PC in place of Outlook. Many businesses etc. need compatibility with Outlook
Sure, once everyone uses Thunderbird the Outlook APIs can get bent (although getting widely adopted and then changing standards is a bit unethical, *cough*, Micro$) but until then t-bird needs them more than they need us.
I haven't actually checked this but surely apt and portage make it very easy to back-up your system - at least in so far as applications go.
All they need to do is keep a list of the apps you have installed and then if your HDD fails, you leave your box in a corner running (please excuse gentoo-leanings): # emerge my-backup-list-of-emerged-progs.txt
While you go and have a cup of tea (sleep, week of work etc). You will have to back up the file list of course, but then this is/. and we all back up here don't we?
Like I said, I haven't checked this out but it doesn't sound difficult to implement and I'd find it useful.
I don't think Grandma would really mind waiting for a bit as long as at the end of the install process the box worked as it used to.
Stem
Re:In Soviet Russia....
on
ISS Fender Bender
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
Aww, come on. The CCCP joke is never gonna be more on-topic and less trolly than now....
Good point but let's also include the fact that "a much firmer hold on customers" actually means that the other search engines plan to set themselves up as spyware for you search engine.
So effectively:
Your operating system spys on you (nothing new there) even more
You get shown fewer / different search results depending on what's on your HDD
When the average Joe-user realises this (or reads it on BBC news or whatever) this'll strengthen Google's market not weaken it. Is this whole article some kind of joke?
This seems like a pretty sound analysis - Linux is ready for the desktop in many areas. However it's still not ready as an integrated multi-task appliance in the same way that windows is.
I like to use my PC for lots of stuff, it's still tricky for me to do some things on Linux, lots of programs still don't interact well (cutting and pasting being the first thing that springs to mind, cue flames.....) but for certain tasks it's excellent (web services) and for many it's perfectly adequate (office / multimedia).
More people using linux to do some jobs will start to want to do other little jobs on it too. Whether we like IBM this week or not, this can only be good for user- and developer- share and linux profile.
Good point, although I think most people can reconcile their disbelief knowing that you gotta enjoy what you do. We like programming, we like respect and an open project is a lot more likely to get respect (and a feeling of self-worth) than that day job killing kittens at the microsoft factory.
From a less technical point of view, the reasons that I've used to convince a lot of my customers (the company I work for supplies home/office PCs and networks, couple of thousand userbase) to use Firebird (we recommend it at home) is:
1) no pop-up ads.
2) no activeX / java by default.
3) tabbed browsing
4) no auto-updates
These are invaluable for our home customers, who almost all have problems with the amount of spyware they download - because it's too easy to install Gator etc. when lured by the promise of faster connections or easier shopping. I've seen people with recent computers that could hardly start up there was so much adware installed, the PCs would freeze for literally minutes each time they loaded IE as it tried to open about 50 ads simultaneously. Problem immediately fixed by Firebird.
Firebird is so much more appropriate than IE for these customers that it is spreading by word of mouth - this gives Mozilla more market share (i.e. visitor logs on websites) and this means more awareness and more support in the future (woohoo!).
My only concern is that when Mozilla change the name again. It will not inspire confidence in potential / current users when the browser they liked (Firebird) is *dropped* and *replaced* by some completely different one (Mozilla Browser?)
IMHO Firebird is probably the killer app for open-source. I come for the source, but I stay for the features.
It is enough like IE that it doesn't require any retraining. It is easy to use and it is better than IE in tangible ways to normal users, not just, err, us. Mozilla should have the courage to stick with their branding - it's distinctive, us geeks already know it, other people will know it soon - and the browser speaks for itself.
Are they going to find a way to make the computer automatically generate that tele-type "clickety-clack" sound everytime a key is pressed... as is so popular in movies today to show how "advanced" the laptop the hero's using is?;)
In other news SCO claim to have patents for the letter 'e' and the use of both normal and curly brackets, and any derivatives thereof, in software code.
The trouble (also one of the strengths) with open source software is the number of overlapping or, even, competing projects that divide funds and programmers into small groups - less effective than they could be if they were united and managed a bit better.
Almost makes you want a centralised open source funding agency to direct the money at a one or two of the strongest candidates in each field - it'd be helluva tough to make those choices though.
Lots of comments above suggest faking the browser id to mimic IE when using Firebird (etc.). This is a terrible idea because when companies look at there server logs they get a disproportionate idea of the market-share of IE. This will increase the proliferation of IE-specific sites.
Open source browsers need to be detecting this trend and taking steps to workaround it perhaps by warning the user that they have found a website with certain 'incompatibilites' and offering a list of different ways to browse it - but certainly not by changing the software id to mimic MSIE. It's counter-productive and it admits defeat.
Has anyone found a Bayesian filter that not only redirects spam into a spam folder but also sorts it's history of redirected mail into a probability list, so that it's easy to check the mails that were close to being accepted.
Of the 4 programs I just looked at, none mentioned this feature but pretty much everyone complains about periodically having to scan their 'spam' folder for false +ves, and a history sorted into probability would make that easier.
Slashdot Mirror
Another thing, near the start of part 1, 6 seemed to think she was doing the baby a favour before she killed it. I can't remember exactly what she said but it was along the lines of:
"There there, it's ok, you're not going to have to cry much longer"
I suspect she was referring to the attack rather than to breaking the baby's neck but she still seemed to think of it as some sort of holy deliverance.
Stem
That's true but Thunderbird will never reach a critical mass of users unless they can just drop it in to their PC in place of Outlook. Many businesses etc. need compatibility with Outlook
Sure, once everyone uses Thunderbird the Outlook APIs can get bent (although getting widely adopted and then changing standards is a bit unethical, *cough*, Micro$) but until then t-bird needs them more than they need us.
Stem
I haven't actually checked this but surely apt and portage make it very easy to back-up your system - at least in so far as applications go.
/. and we all back up here don't we?
All they need to do is keep a list of the apps you have installed and then if your HDD fails, you leave your box in a corner running (please excuse gentoo-leanings):
# emerge my-backup-list-of-emerged-progs.txt
While you go and have a cup of tea (sleep, week of work etc). You will have to back up the file list of course, but then this is
Like I said, I haven't checked this out but it doesn't sound difficult to implement and I'd find it useful.
I don't think Grandma would really mind waiting for a bit as long as at the end of the install process the box worked as it used to.
Stem
Aww, come on. The CCCP joke is never gonna be more on-topic and less trolly than now....
Mir space station crashes into you.
So effectively:
- Your operating system spys on you (nothing new there) even more
- You get shown fewer / different search results depending on what's on your HDD
When the average Joe-user realises this (or reads it on BBC news or whatever) this'll strengthen Google's market not weaken it. Is this whole article some kind of joke?Laters,
Stem
I haven't used it yet but....
K-RUD?
This seems like a pretty sound analysis - Linux is ready for the desktop in many areas. However it's still not ready as an integrated multi-task appliance in the same way that windows is.
I like to use my PC for lots of stuff, it's still tricky for me to do some things on Linux, lots of programs still don't interact well (cutting and pasting being the first thing that springs to mind, cue flames.....) but for certain tasks it's excellent (web services) and for many it's perfectly adequate (office / multimedia).
More people using linux to do some jobs will start to want to do other little jobs on it too. Whether we like IBM this week or not, this can only be good for user- and developer- share and linux profile.
Stemmo
Us Brits tend to do both - trick or treating on Halloween - with costume.
Fireworks and bonfires on Guy Fawke's night - without costume.
Good point, although I think most people can reconcile their disbelief knowing that you gotta enjoy what you do. We like programming, we like respect and an open project is a lot more likely to get respect (and a feeling of self-worth) than that day job killing kittens at the microsoft factory.
PS please mod down, kitten joke not funny!
From a less technical point of view, the reasons that I've used to convince a lot of my customers (the company I work for supplies home /office PCs and networks, couple of thousand userbase) to use Firebird (we recommend it at home) is:
1) no pop-up ads.
2) no activeX / java by default.
3) tabbed browsing
4) no auto-updates
These are invaluable for our home customers, who almost all have problems with the amount of spyware they download - because it's too easy to install Gator etc. when lured by the promise of faster connections or easier shopping. I've seen people with recent computers that could hardly start up there was so much adware installed, the PCs would freeze for literally minutes each time they loaded IE as it tried to open about 50 ads simultaneously. Problem immediately fixed by Firebird.
Firebird is so much more appropriate than IE for these customers that it is spreading by word of mouth - this gives Mozilla more market share (i.e. visitor logs on websites) and this means more awareness and more support in the future (woohoo!).
My only concern is that when Mozilla change the name again. It will not inspire confidence in potential / current users when the browser they liked (Firebird) is *dropped* and *replaced* by some completely different one (Mozilla Browser?)
IMHO Firebird is probably the killer app for open-source. I come for the source, but I stay for the features.
It is enough like IE that it doesn't require any retraining. It is easy to use and it is better than IE in tangible ways to normal users, not just, err, us. Mozilla should have the courage to stick with their branding - it's distinctive, us geeks already know it, other people will know it soon - and the browser speaks for itself.
Laters.
I always thought that extreme programming was like, jumping out of an airplane with a laptop.
Oh well, another dream shattered.
Stem
Period.
I kinda liked the "hunting down" part too.
"a zealous group of vigilantes, hunting down and killing spammers"
I thought ICQ did that?
I thought we were anti-Windows here?
microsoft wouldn't crash and burn for this, they've got plenty cash to buy top lawyers to defend them.
We should be grateful that this protects other browsers - because that's who Eolas will be after next.
Stemmo
In other news SCO claim to have patents for the letter 'e' and the use of both normal and curly brackets, and any derivatives thereof, in software code.
The trouble (also one of the strengths) with open source software is the number of overlapping or, even, competing projects that divide funds and programmers into small groups - less effective than they could be if they were united and managed a bit better.
Almost makes you want a centralised open source funding agency to direct the money at a one or two of the strongest candidates in each field - it'd be helluva tough to make those choices though.
Divided we fall,
Stem
Lots of comments above suggest faking the browser id to mimic IE when using Firebird (etc.). This is a terrible idea because when companies look at there server logs they get a disproportionate idea of the market-share of IE. This will increase the proliferation of IE-specific sites.
Open source browsers need to be detecting this trend and taking steps to workaround it perhaps by warning the user that they have found a website with certain 'incompatibilites' and offering a list of different ways to browse it - but certainly not by changing the software id to mimic MSIE. It's counter-productive and it admits defeat.
Just my ha'pennys worth,
Stem
Even n00bies know that tea has higher concentrations of caffeine than coffee.
Tastes better too.
Stem
This is an illusion by the Zionist American forces. Your mail was not blocked, we surrounded it and burned it in its tanks.
Has anyone found a Bayesian filter that not only redirects spam into a spam folder but also sorts it's history of redirected mail into a probability list, so that it's easy to check the mails that were close to being accepted.
Of the 4 programs I just looked at, none mentioned this feature but pretty much everyone complains about periodically having to scan their 'spam' folder for false +ves, and a history sorted into probability would make that easier.
Stemmo
Err, I think you mean McCartney and Lennon.
Stemmo