2.6 does offer a number of improvements to 2.4 (as it should, being a later release), including native ATAPI (non-SCSI emulated) CDRW support (which a lot of new users get borked on and complain about), non-dangerous NTFS support (including writing, which is huge when migrating from Windows), much easier build process (simply 'make'), easier module selection layout, faster boot times, etc. etc.
I was happy as a clam switching to 2.6, and haven't looked back to 2.4 much since.
That's part of the problem. Most of the people who use Windows use it because it came bundled/pre-installed on their computer, i.e. they didn't install it themselves. While it would be nice to have the option during installation, the majority of people purchasing PCs will never see it.
I do think it's foolish to force Microsoft to remove it by default, and replace it with a competing player. Why not force Apple to stop bundling Quicktime with it's products? Same concept, no?
I think the most elegant solution would be to leave Windows Media Player in there, but have an entry for it in the Add/Remove Programs control panel. That way, those with enough computing experience who want to install a new media player will presumably have enough knowledge to uninstall the old before installing the new.
No, but how long will it be until Microsoft pulls an SCO and accuses open source of integrating MS code? If it is indeed true, and the code is floating around out there, and within a few weeks a miracle version of Wine is released which suddenly has 100% compatibility, what would MS's reaction be?
[i]"Site Finder was not controversial with users"[/i]
The other thing to keep in mind is the small percentage of internet users who are tech-savy enough to realize the implications of SiteFinder. Joe and Jane Sixpack don't care, or even notice, given that all they do is send and recieve email, check movie times, etc. If they mis-type a URL, and sitefinder comes up, they'll think nothing more of it than if their computer were infected with searchhook spyware, which would return some random page in place of "Cannot Find Server."
It really puts geeks in a tough position, considering we understand virtually everything about the internet and it's internals, yet comprise a surprisingly small percentage of the world's online population.
Therefore, if the majority of internet users don't notice, VeriSign doesn't see a problem. It's not controversial if the majority doesn't care.
Agreed, however the manager must have some knowledge of both electronics and software to have the ability to properly integrate the two.
In that sort of situation, a manager is only helpful if he knows enough to communicate between the two engineers to ensure they will in fact work together.
In the case of Columbia, did the management know enough about physics to realize a foam block weighing X traveling at Y velocity carries Z amount of force?
DoubleClick says that it is 'developing technology that will enable pop-up ads to evade the blocking software.' Why isn't that surprising?"
How long did it take the government to act "against" spam? More importantly, how effective has it been? Apparently, not very.
How much longer will it be until they take notice of popups?
Certainly something is being violated if users intentionally install software to intentionally block popups, yet these companies persist in developing circumventing measures to bypass the will of the users. At least with television you can change to another channel without getting flooded with ads. With some of these websites, closing one popup results in 3 more, which subsequently results in 3 times 3, and so forth.
The result is a dramatic decline in quality and content as the ratio of usable information to advertisements online shift, and it's moves like this (developing methods around popup blocking software) which tip the scales towards the ads, and a less usable medium to transfer valid information.
Give The Masses something that's portable, sounds like a CD, and is flexible, and they'll buy it.
Agreed. However, when Joe Sixpack purchases device A (iPod) with the intentions of listening to music B (.wma obtained from online music store), and they don't jive together, Joe Sixpack gets confused and frustrated with the market.
Incompatibilities of various sorts have always been a major inconvenience to the masses. Just last month a customer of my store purchased a new CD burner, stating simply her old burner did not work. About a week later, she returned it saying this one did not work either. Curious as to why a brand new retail box CD burner would not work, I queried as to what her intentions were as to operation of the burner.
She stated she had signed up for an online music service to download legal music files (DRM'd WMAs, based on the service she told me), and wished to burn them to CD to listen to. Long story short, the burners had no problem, however, the software bundled with the burner would not allow her to burn the DRM crippled music. Not even the content provider's software was capable of burning the songs.
Basically, yes, give The Masses something simple and easy to use and digest. Give them something as restrictive as DRM, and a sloth of complaints will fly at manufacturers and content providers as incompatibilities and liabilities clash with consumer demand.
With CD's and cassettes, it was simple: Consumer pays for shiney object, puts it in shiney object player, music is produced.
With DRM, Joe Sixpack (who gets confused when he clicks the minimize button on his happy-smiley email client) suddently can't hear his favorite song in the method he intended.
In this case I do believe the consumer must be informed as to what the various options are for content distribution, and the various implications carried by each format. Otherwise, social chaos will ensue.
Finances shouldn't be too big an issue. As an earlier post mentioned, it is well within the budget of the US government to sent people to Mars. Hell, if they really wanted, they could bring back rocks from Mars and sell them to make up for some of the cost.
Not to mention the unity of a massive, interplanetary project for the country to rally behind. Look at the sense of national and global unity gained from landing on our own moon, and extrapolate it out to another planet.
if they block 500 billion spam messages if a couple trillion spams are sent around in a year? Despite how large that number sounds, I still see client AOL inboxes stuffed with all sorts of junk, and see this more as a publicity stunt on AOL's part. I read the article, and no where in it does it say how much spam total there was in 2003. 500 billion may sound impressive by itself, but if it's 500 billion blocked out of 50 trillion, it's not such a big deal.
"DRM is an accelerator which will boost digital sales of media, because it will convince media companies their content is protected. It should not be a competitive weapon," he added.
Err.... Last time I checked, sales were more dependant on the consumer than the peddler. I'd hope it's more important to convince consumers their right to use what they are investing in isn't in jeopardy.
dozens upon dozens of help forums talk about it. Whole articles are dedicated the fighting spyware. If a customer is looking for an answer there is no possible way that he could miss many of these articles.
1) How many average Joe Sixpack computer users are aware of the existance of forums or discussion groups.
2) A number of said spyware programs hijack search pages. Running a search through what appears to be Google may result in viagra ads and links to more spyware.
3) Some spyware physically interrupts the internet connection. How would average user find the online articles with no internet connection or a computer too slow to do anything with?
I work for a small computer repair shop, and 95% of the calls/service requests we get are directly related to spyware/junkware. I can't complain, because Dell refusing support would only increase our business. However, I can't help but feel a bit ashamed that the largest OEM in the industry shifted all consumer phone support overseas, and now refuses to support one of the biggest problems facing home users to date. Why aren't spyware apps considered viruses? Certainly the behavior of some programs borders on virus-like. Does Dell even support virus removal?
That's not quite what I mean. I realize the current system is better than nothing.
and i'm sure younger kids can convince older kids to buy tickets for them at a theatre.
Around here, tickets are checked at the gate to the theatre. If a ticket is found to be for an R rated movie, the ticketholder is promptly checked for ID. Sure, an older kid can buy the tickets, but they still won't be let into the theatre, unless a parent is present and can producte sufficient ID. I'm 19, and when I tried to get tickets for my little brother (who is 15) to see Matrix Revolutions, they turned him away at the gate for not being 17, despite my being his brother.
As for games, I completely agree with you. There is no perfect rating system, nor can there be. The problem is not in the ratings though, it's in the number of parents who selectively tune them out. I literally see 7 and 8 year old kids around here wearing Grand Theft Auto gear (shirts, hats, etc), while dressing and talking like a rapper, swearing at people left and right, and overall showing little respect. It's not because of the ratings, as I'm sure the parents are aware the Snoop Dawg CD they got for their kids has a mature warning on it. It's the parents themselves who don't see anything wrong with that sort of behavior.
The problem with video game ratings is that they are extremely difficult to enforce. With a movie, it's pretty easy to stick a drone at the entrance of the auditorium to ensure no one under 17 gets into an R rated movie. With games though, while they may restrict the sales to minors, all it takes is an older friend or clueless parent to pick up the latest Grand Theft Auto and hand it to a 7 year old.
Sure, the ratings may help for more conscious parents whom read the box before they buy, but for the majority of people out there, the ratings are useless. Same goes for ratings on DVD/videos- people either just don't look or don't care.
Not really. I have a hotmail account, and I got the Yahoo news there. Email is just one "service" Yahoo offers. They can also render their other "services" to other email addresses, much like Microsoft's Passport email address service. Any address can become involved with Yahoo, not necessarily just their own.
What would be considered less controversial? With SCO as the center, they seem to have roped Linux and now BSD into the controversy. Migrating from Unix to Linux wouldn't be a bad idea, but it wouldn't clear you from controversy- on the contrary, if you are an existing customer of SCO and they find you moving away, wouldn't that be more incentive for them to slap you with an invoice for the "infringing linux" deployment?
Of course, it is important to migrate off a sinking bohemoth of a ship, but I doubt it would be any less contraversial given the players involved.
From the article: Jerry Fenn, the president of the Utah division of Qwest, the regional telephone company here that provides its own high-speed Internet access, said there were few uses yet for the network Utopia plans to deliver.
The speeds to be provided "are way more than what most consumers need in their home," Mr. Fenn said, adding, "Why provide a Rolls-Royce when a Chevrolet will do?"
This is exactly the line of thinking that prevents projects like this from implementation all accross the country. Just because "it's more than we need" right now does not mean it won't be down the road. It's the chicken and egg situation of the tech sector- no one will build it until there is a need, but there will not be a need unless it's there for people to develop uses on. Sort of ironic coming from a society which prides itself in gas gussling SUVs and exhorbitant homes.
Even though I live on the other side of the country, I hope this goes through, if not for the geeks of Utah, but for the hopes that municipal (read not controlled by draconian corporations) communications infrastructure can be rolled out in other places too.
I don't think any particular computer can be considered "the fastest in the world." Each architecture is designed such that one will always outshine the other in a specific set of functions. Apple may be faster in benchmark X, while Intel is faster in benchmark Y, while AMD is faster in benchmark Z, etc. etc. Apple does have some validity to their claim, but so would Intel and AMD if they were to announce themselves as the fastest in the world to.
That's after the fact though. Companies will always proclaim their products as "the best, the fastest, the strongest." It's a fact of marketing- what company would say "Our products are mediocre, behind X and Y" and expect decent sales?
Perhaps, though, this is the point. If Red Hat will no longer support it's consumer products, it's nice to see others take up the cause and continue to push linux further into the desktop market, or at least, provide valuable information Red Hat won't concerning such matters.
Slashdot Mirror
2.6 does offer a number of improvements to 2.4 (as it should, being a later release), including native ATAPI (non-SCSI emulated) CDRW support (which a lot of new users get borked on and complain about), non-dangerous NTFS support (including writing, which is huge when migrating from Windows), much easier build process (simply 'make'), easier module selection layout, faster boot times, etc. etc.
I was happy as a clam switching to 2.6, and haven't looked back to 2.4 much since.
It's true... I work for a small OEM and we get slapped for $80 for a single OEM license of XP Home.
That's part of the problem. Most of the people who use Windows use it because it came bundled/pre-installed on their computer, i.e. they didn't install it themselves. While it would be nice to have the option during installation, the majority of people purchasing PCs will never see it.
I do think it's foolish to force Microsoft to remove it by default, and replace it with a competing player. Why not force Apple to stop bundling Quicktime with it's products? Same concept, no?
I think the most elegant solution would be to leave Windows Media Player in there, but have an entry for it in the Add/Remove Programs control panel. That way, those with enough computing experience who want to install a new media player will presumably have enough knowledge to uninstall the old before installing the new.
http://store.gentoo.org/
Then why on the front page of their store are they selling 2004.0 calling it "in stock and ready to ship"?
Props to Epic for continuing to support Linux! I'll be sure to support this with my money, and show the world linux ports are economically viable.
No, but how long will it be until Microsoft pulls an SCO and accuses open source of integrating MS code? If it is indeed true, and the code is floating around out there, and within a few weeks a miracle version of Wine is released which suddenly has 100% compatibility, what would MS's reaction be?
[i]"Site Finder was not controversial with users"[/i]
The other thing to keep in mind is the small percentage of internet users who are tech-savy enough to realize the implications of SiteFinder. Joe and Jane Sixpack don't care, or even notice, given that all they do is send and recieve email, check movie times, etc. If they mis-type a URL, and sitefinder comes up, they'll think nothing more of it than if their computer were infected with searchhook spyware, which would return some random page in place of "Cannot Find Server."
It really puts geeks in a tough position, considering we understand virtually everything about the internet and it's internals, yet comprise a surprisingly small percentage of the world's online population.
Therefore, if the majority of internet users don't notice, VeriSign doesn't see a problem. It's not controversial if the majority doesn't care.
My high school physics teacher referred to these "kludges" as "SWAGS"-
Scientific Wild Ass Guesses.
Agreed, however the manager must have some knowledge of both electronics and software to have the ability to properly integrate the two.
In that sort of situation, a manager is only helpful if he knows enough to communicate between the two engineers to ensure they will in fact work together.
In the case of Columbia, did the management know enough about physics to realize a foam block weighing X traveling at Y velocity carries Z amount of force?
So many witty responses to that statement...
DoubleClick says that it is 'developing technology that will enable pop-up ads to evade the blocking software.' Why isn't that surprising?"
How long did it take the government to act "against" spam? More importantly, how effective has it been? Apparently, not very.
How much longer will it be until they take notice of popups?
Certainly something is being violated if users intentionally install software to intentionally block popups, yet these companies persist in developing circumventing measures to bypass the will of the users. At least with television you can change to another channel without getting flooded with ads. With some of these websites, closing one popup results in 3 more, which subsequently results in 3 times 3, and so forth.
The result is a dramatic decline in quality and content as the ratio of usable information to advertisements online shift, and it's moves like this (developing methods around popup blocking software) which tip the scales towards the ads, and a less usable medium to transfer valid information.
Give The Masses something that's portable, sounds like a CD, and is flexible, and they'll buy it.
Agreed. However, when Joe Sixpack purchases device A (iPod) with the intentions of listening to music B (.wma obtained from online music store), and they don't jive together, Joe Sixpack gets confused and frustrated with the market.
Incompatibilities of various sorts have always been a major inconvenience to the masses. Just last month a customer of my store purchased a new CD burner, stating simply her old burner did not work. About a week later, she returned it saying this one did not work either. Curious as to why a brand new retail box CD burner would not work, I queried as to what her intentions were as to operation of the burner.
She stated she had signed up for an online music service to download legal music files (DRM'd WMAs, based on the service she told me), and wished to burn them to CD to listen to. Long story short, the burners had no problem, however, the software bundled with the burner would not allow her to burn the DRM crippled music. Not even the content provider's software was capable of burning the songs.
Basically, yes, give The Masses something simple and easy to use and digest. Give them something as restrictive as DRM, and a sloth of complaints will fly at manufacturers and content providers as incompatibilities and liabilities clash with consumer demand.
With CD's and cassettes, it was simple: Consumer pays for shiney object, puts it in shiney object player, music is produced.
With DRM, Joe Sixpack (who gets confused when he clicks the minimize button on his happy-smiley email client) suddently can't hear his favorite song in the method he intended.
In this case I do believe the consumer must be informed as to what the various options are for content distribution, and the various implications carried by each format. Otherwise, social chaos will ensue.
Finances shouldn't be too big an issue. As an earlier post mentioned, it is well within the budget of the US government to sent people to Mars. Hell, if they really wanted, they could bring back rocks from Mars and sell them to make up for some of the cost.
Not to mention the unity of a massive, interplanetary project for the country to rally behind. Look at the sense of national and global unity gained from landing on our own moon, and extrapolate it out to another planet.
if they block 500 billion spam messages if a couple trillion spams are sent around in a year? Despite how large that number sounds, I still see client AOL inboxes stuffed with all sorts of junk, and see this more as a publicity stunt on AOL's part. I read the article, and no where in it does it say how much spam total there was in 2003. 500 billion may sound impressive by itself, but if it's 500 billion blocked out of 50 trillion, it's not such a big deal.
"DRM is an accelerator which will boost digital sales of media, because it will convince media companies their content is protected. It should not be a competitive weapon," he added.
Err.... Last time I checked, sales were more dependant on the consumer than the peddler. I'd hope it's more important to convince consumers their right to use what they are investing in isn't in jeopardy.
It's a partial vacuum. It sucks by default.
dozens upon dozens of help forums talk about it. Whole articles are dedicated the fighting spyware. If a customer is looking for an answer there is no possible way that he could miss many of these articles.
1) How many average Joe Sixpack computer users are aware of the existance of forums or discussion groups.
2) A number of said spyware programs hijack search pages. Running a search through what appears to be Google may result in viagra ads and links to more spyware.
3) Some spyware physically interrupts the internet connection. How would average user find the online articles with no internet connection or a computer too slow to do anything with?
I work for a small computer repair shop, and 95% of the calls/service requests we get are directly related to spyware/junkware. I can't complain, because Dell refusing support would only increase our business. However, I can't help but feel a bit ashamed that the largest OEM in the industry shifted all consumer phone support overseas, and now refuses to support one of the biggest problems facing home users to date. Why aren't spyware apps considered viruses? Certainly the behavior of some programs borders on virus-like. Does Dell even support virus removal?
That's not quite what I mean. I realize the current system is better than nothing.
and i'm sure younger kids can convince older kids to buy tickets for them at a theatre.
Around here, tickets are checked at the gate to the theatre. If a ticket is found to be for an R rated movie, the ticketholder is promptly checked for ID. Sure, an older kid can buy the tickets, but they still won't be let into the theatre, unless a parent is present and can producte sufficient ID. I'm 19, and when I tried to get tickets for my little brother (who is 15) to see Matrix Revolutions, they turned him away at the gate for not being 17, despite my being his brother.
As for games, I completely agree with you. There is no perfect rating system, nor can there be. The problem is not in the ratings though, it's in the number of parents who selectively tune them out. I literally see 7 and 8 year old kids around here wearing Grand Theft Auto gear (shirts, hats, etc), while dressing and talking like a rapper, swearing at people left and right, and overall showing little respect. It's not because of the ratings, as I'm sure the parents are aware the Snoop Dawg CD they got for their kids has a mature warning on it. It's the parents themselves who don't see anything wrong with that sort of behavior.
The problem with video game ratings is that they are extremely difficult to enforce. With a movie, it's pretty easy to stick a drone at the entrance of the auditorium to ensure no one under 17 gets into an R rated movie. With games though, while they may restrict the sales to minors, all it takes is an older friend or clueless parent to pick up the latest Grand Theft Auto and hand it to a 7 year old.
Sure, the ratings may help for more conscious parents whom read the box before they buy, but for the majority of people out there, the ratings are useless. Same goes for ratings on DVD/videos- people either just don't look or don't care.
Not really. I have a hotmail account, and I got the Yahoo news there. Email is just one "service" Yahoo offers. They can also render their other "services" to other email addresses, much like Microsoft's Passport email address service. Any address can become involved with Yahoo, not necessarily just their own.
What would be considered less controversial? With SCO as the center, they seem to have roped Linux and now BSD into the controversy. Migrating from Unix to Linux wouldn't be a bad idea, but it wouldn't clear you from controversy- on the contrary, if you are an existing customer of SCO and they find you moving away, wouldn't that be more incentive for them to slap you with an invoice for the "infringing linux" deployment?
Of course, it is important to migrate off a sinking bohemoth of a ship, but I doubt it would be any less contraversial given the players involved.
From the article:
Jerry Fenn, the president of the Utah division of Qwest, the regional telephone company here that provides its own high-speed Internet access, said there were few uses yet for the network Utopia plans to deliver.
The speeds to be provided "are way more than what most consumers need in their home," Mr. Fenn said, adding, "Why provide a Rolls-Royce when a Chevrolet will do?"
This is exactly the line of thinking that prevents projects like this from implementation all accross the country. Just because "it's more than we need" right now does not mean it won't be down the road. It's the chicken and egg situation of the tech sector- no one will build it until there is a need, but there will not be a need unless it's there for people to develop uses on. Sort of ironic coming from a society which prides itself in gas gussling SUVs and exhorbitant homes.
Even though I live on the other side of the country, I hope this goes through, if not for the geeks of Utah, but for the hopes that municipal (read not controlled by draconian corporations) communications infrastructure can be rolled out in other places too.
Naw, it's just Monday.
I don't think any particular computer can be considered "the fastest in the world." Each architecture is designed such that one will always outshine the other in a specific set of functions. Apple may be faster in benchmark X, while Intel is faster in benchmark Y, while AMD is faster in benchmark Z, etc. etc. Apple does have some validity to their claim, but so would Intel and AMD if they were to announce themselves as the fastest in the world to.
That's after the fact though. Companies will always proclaim their products as "the best, the fastest, the strongest." It's a fact of marketing- what company would say "Our products are mediocre, behind X and Y" and expect decent sales?
Perhaps, though, this is the point. If Red Hat will no longer support it's consumer products, it's nice to see others take up the cause and continue to push linux further into the desktop market, or at least, provide valuable information Red Hat won't concerning such matters.