"I use both Mac OS X and Windows XP. On both systems, I use the software update mechanisms and religously apply the patches that are made available. On Windows I also have a virus protection utility in place. I have never once been caught with my pants down by a worm, virus, trojan horse, etc."
But unlike with OS X, when you faithfully download those Windows patches, you introduce ugly and scary conditions into your computer. Basically, with Windows you just can't win.
" What else can you expect from the state that elected a guy named "Jeb".
Come and listen to a story about a guv named Jeb
A rich southernor, barely got his bro Prez,
Then one day he was lookin' for more dough,
And got the idea he could tax the LANs too.
Data that is, ethernet, Texas bits.
Well the first thing you know ol' Jeb's still a millionaire,
Kinfolk said Jeb give some cash from there
Said Floridee is the place for dough and fun
So they loaded up the vaults and moved to Washington.
"Industry executives say that this undermines a carefully crafted marketing image."
So they admit that their product stinks, but through the use of "carefully crafted" marketing they can make people think junk = treasure. But that plan only worked as long as they could keep word of mouth from spreading too quickly. In other words, they don't like reality, but prefer their crafted message designed to fool people into seeing garbage.
And it would have worked too if it hand't been for you meddlin' kids!
Whoa! Lots of comments on my post. Lemme try to respond in one group post. But first, to the moderator who rated my post as "Flamebait," please re-read the mod rules. My post was just a description of my personal experience, on-topic, and to the point. If you disagreed with my experience, or had your own experience that contradicted mine, comment on it. Don't mark my post as "Flamebait" when it wasn't. That's not to be used just because you have a personal prejudice.
Now to the comments: We do not have an IT support staff, mainly because we are a new, small company with not that many folks yet. That's why I describe things as somewhat fast and loose -- they are. We're mostly a bunch of developers sitting around doing our work, and we haven't built up the hierarchy that big companies have. So what I'm offering is a glimpse of our experience, and what I said is how it is.
Printing to a Sharp AT-810 printer? Sorry, never had to do it, and I'll take your word that it cannot yet be done. I was only offering my experience and, clearly, YMDV. That's fine, it's the nature of anecdotal evidence.
Slightly higher prices? I only go by what we pay, and we mostly use laptops, and laptops are not as cheap as desktops no matter which platform.
Can't afford it because you are a student? I hear ya. You do ask for the student discount right? If so, and you still cannot afford it, there's not much I can say. You do what you can when you can.
Macs have automated updates that require rebooting? Horrors! Well of course Macs have that. However they are usually not emergencies, or in response to the latest worm or virus, they can be scheduled at your convenience, and no need to reboot at that time unless you want to. This ain't Windows! Macs just work when you want, how you want.
Your experience is different? That's cool. You made your post just as I made my post. We share experiences. All I wanted to do is to share my experience. Before I tried Macs, I thought I would have problems in a Windows environment. Once I tried it, I found I have no problems whatsoever. Nice for me. Just wanted to share. Thanks for all the feedback, good and bad.
At my company we use a variety of boxes throughout, Windows, Linux, Mac. We do this for a variety of reasons, among with is which systems the people using them like, what our customer needs are for development purposes, and so on. So from a real-world experience here are some points:
Macs are not that expensive. What you get with a Mac makes up for slightly higher prices. They give you what you need without having to tack on lots of "extras."
Macs can do everything you need. We use a mixed environment transparently. There is nothing I cannot do with a Mac that I want to do, nor am I prevented from interacting with Windows boxes or Linux boxes. It just works. Transparently.
Macs don't waste your time. Every security update from Microsoft means the Windows guys are running around updating. The Mac guys just sit there and keep working. The Windows guys keep updating their virus software. The Mac guys just sit there and keep working. And although some people report problems with Apple hardware, and I respect those opinions since any hardware can go wrong, our uptime has been great.
As for the Linux guys, heh, they love Linux and take care of their boxes without any questions or issues coming up. Patch needed? They do it on their own time. Uptime? Forever. Problems? Nil.
In short, don't believe those who say that you can't do things with Macs, or it causes problems interacting on the network, or the usual FUD. Although I'm sure there are specific instances where problems might occur on the edges, my real-world experience has shown that the Mac and Linux boxes are the ones that just work in my company. Any problems we have are with the Windows side. I can well believe that you need more IT staff to keep the Windows boxes going. There is very little you need to do to keep the alternatives going, and they interact just fine.
So if you love Window boxes, good for you. But if you hear the FUD about Macs not working well with others, I'm here to tell you that it's just not so.
I can't belive no one else noticed this obligatory 80s reference: A demonstration before military personnel of robots designed to show off their superior security ability? Whoa, dude, I'm back in the 80s!:
Military guy: Will he kill me if I stop?
Ben: Who is to say?
Military guy: Will he kill me if I don't stop?
Ben: Again I am shrugging.
I'm writing this on a Apple Powerbook 1 GHz laptop with an amazing 17" widescreen, a drive that can read and write DVDs, Bluetooth built in that let's me automatically sync to my Sony Ericsson phone, an iSight video cam that let's me do full-screen, real time video calls with my work mates across the country, and the whole thing is an inch-thick and easily fits into a standard backpack or briefcase.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I would have KILLED for this system ten years ago. Correction, I wouldn't have imagined this much power, speed, and functionality in such a tiny, yet solid system. Ten years ago I was using a big clunky desktop PC, with a 14-inch CRT monitor, Windows 3-something, Prodigy dial-up to get to a kludgy graphical system where you could read about six lines of text on the screen and the amount of information was very limited, everything was wired together to form a basic ethernet network with lots of hoops to jump through to get it to work seamlessly. I think we had available for the entire department some $5K Toshiba laptop that was also clunky, and heavy, and ran the same lame OS with the same lame limitations.
Now I'm using this aluminum wonder to wireless connect to my broadband, always-on, super fast connection, while watching TV in the living room, a Terminal window open to let me do command line stuff in BSD, while using a super fun, super smooth OS X system that makes Windows 3 look like a torture device.
Speed, power, slickness, functionalty...you couldn't pay me to go back to what I was using ten years ago. Personally I can't wait to see what I'll be using ten years from now. Gripe all you want, but I think things have gotten waaaaaaaaay better in the last ten years.
Thanks. I find it mystifying why someone would have modded that comment as a "troll." I'm not trying to start an argument, just pointing out what I heard this morning on the radio and what the implications are.
Maybe they are a Windows booster and can't stand the fact that this is yet another case where their OS is vulnerable and the rest of us just go on about our lives as if nothing is happening. But my comment was real, accurate, on topic, and interesting to me at least.
I heard about this latest virus scare on the radio, and I noticed it was called a "Windows virus" this time, and not the usual "computer virus." It seems even non-techies are finally catching on that these are Windows problems being exploited, and if you run non-Windows machines you are unaffected.
Yes, yes, I know, this is/. and we all know this. My point is that the mainstream press is starting to make the distinction now.
I've noticed the same thing when I post a comment. I got a flurry of/.ers checking out my site that first day, then not as many the next day, and quickly trailing off.
Of course in my case this kinda cheeses me off cuz my site is meant to be viewed on a daily basis (assuming you think my humor is funny enough to return). The fact that my traffic inevitably trails off tells me that either/.ers have the attention span of a gnat, and forget to bookmark brilliant humor sites...or else my site is not that funny.
"this is exactly what Orlando Hernandez is. He pitched great for the Yankees, he gets "traded" to the Red Sox and now he sucks. My current theory is that he is still being paid by the Yankees to suck for the Red Sox."
Amazing theory considering El Duque was actually traded to Montreal. Must be a multi-team, multi-league conspiracy or something.
"Did you know that 'Network users have a back door to your hard drive while you're online, thereby seeing your personal, private information, such as bank records, social security number, etc.'"
Sounds like the latest Microsoft EULAs. So let's see, trade songs, run Microsoft software. Same danger.
"The notion of "contributory" copyright infringement--aiding and abetting copycats--was devised by judges. In conjunction with a statutory limit on creating "derivative" works of a copyrighted original, a theory of contributory infringement led a couple of courts to outlaw the production by third parties of cassette programs designed to be inserted into the belly of Teddy Ruxpin talking stuffed animals. The idea was that by pushing "Play" when a non-Teddy Ruxpin story tape was inside the creature, children would be creating a derivative, contraband "audiovisual work comprising animated plush toy bear with unique voice." Since toddlers are largely unsusceptible to cease-and-desist letters, it fell to the cassette makers to stop abetting the kids' illegal behavior. "
Time to scrap the heap of copyright laws and start over (why not begin with what the Constitution says, as a suggestion?). When laws are being created to prevent toddlers from accidentally becoming felons, simply because they want to listen to their teddy bear read them a story, you know things have gotten out of hand.
Look, here at/. we know all about the music (hello, RIAA!), movies (hello, MPAA!) and software (hello, UCITA!) examples. But here is an example that is just absurd. Fix the problem? Please, just gut the laws and start over.
Wait a minute, what am I saying?! Any laws rewritten from scratch nowadays would be far more draconian. Maybe this time they would put in provisions to haul the 3-year-olds off to prison...
"Busta Rhymes Pass the Courvoisier (12)
Avril Lavigne Losing Grip (8)
Avril Lavigne Complicated (6)
Incubus Nice to Know You (6)
Marvin Gaye Lets Get It On (6)
Musiq Halfcrazy (6)
Tracy Chapman Fast Car (6)"
I'm sure it's just me, but seeing that list made me laugh. It looks like a fairly complete description of a computer-generated attempt at coming up with dialogue for a lame pick-up artist and his drunken prey who is losing her grip on reality and having a hard time focusing:
She: "Pass the Courvoisier."
He: "Nice to know you."
She: "Complicated."
He: "Fast car."
She: "Losing grip."
He: "Let's get it on."
She: "Halfcrazy."
Very cool, very nice, but since it will cut the oil companies out of the loop, it won't happen any time soon. At least not while the current U.S. administration has anything to say about it. And given lobbying rules, not while the next adminstration has anything to say about it. And the administration after next...
Moore's Law continuing forever - I don't think so. Physical limits will be reached, and things will slow down. On the other hand, see the next point.
The future is always unpredictable - As the article said, in 1900 people would have a hard time imagining jets. Things happens, the future suddenly goes off in a different direction very quickly. Things do not happen in a linear fashion, but in sudden jumps, and rapid acceleration in a new direction. So Moore's Law might very well continue, only by utilizing entirely new and unexpected technological leaps.
Robots take jobs, humans go unemployed - Uh, if you don't imagine changes, perhaps. But why can't humans move into new types of jobs. For example, if all labor and service jobs are taken by machines, the value of artistic endeavors becomes more cherished, for it will (still) be the only truly human thing left. So perhaps many of those ex-laborers will take part in some new art form that hasn't been invented yet, but which takes off in the future. Maybe people will pay good money for this art form. The future is unpredictable (see previous point)
People won't want to interact with robots - Rubbish. Of course they will. Perhaps older persons won't, but children will grow up with robots and will embrace them.
Robots will take over jobs - Probably. The economies involved are too compelling. They may not all look humanoid, but automation will continue
Asimov, Asimov, Asimov - Please, please, please make sure every one of these robots has a version of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics built in. Otherwise we're going to have people accidentally crushed in the fast food bathroom when the robot janitor gets a little too efficient about doing its job when somebody is in the stall. There will definitely be incidents of injury and death as humans meet machines in everyday life. Think Asimov, please!
While on the west coast, you could certainly check out Silicon Valley. That is where it was happening back in the rocking 90s, and still has many tech firms. Have a coffee in Palo Alto and soak up the atmosphere of the area and Stanford University. Check out the very famous Fry's Electronics shop and realize you are in the same place that all the original geeks shopped at.
Then hop across the country to New York and check out the best of the Barne's and Nobles, the one in downtown Manhattan. Not what you are thinking. This isn't just some big bookstore like every other big bookstore. This is the one that caters to the university students, and they have every textbook imaginable through the annexes. A very geeky way to spend your afternoon.
Then wander down to 13th and Broadway to see Forbidden Planet comics shop, or really any of these comic shops in New York to get your comic jones. While in New York, you might as well check out all the tourist things anyway, cuz you know you will. And when you do, being Aussie and all, you'll want to hit the bar scene at night. Lots of good bar-hopping in Manhattan in the East 70s on 2nd and 1st Avenues.
Computers, books, comics, beer -- what more could a geek ask for. Have fun, mate!
"Pour qui se prennent-ils ces Français pour nous dire de quelle façon parler?"
LOL, could well be, I wouldn't know. I don't speak the language. I was just making a very subtle joke with the help of a translator. Guess no one got the joke -- a bit too oblique.
" Intersting text about IBM's response. When will the "interpretation" of the newest legal documents be available?"
It's not my page so I cannot say. But the person writing these entries seems to be covering the SCO case more thoroughly than any other place I've seen, so I would imagine more interesting stuff is coming.
I've learned more from this legal blog than from/. on the SCO case, and that says a lot considering how many times the story appears here. But on that blog things are being explained from a legal perspective, and boy is that one subject/. often doesn't get all the details right about (but thinks it does). Since this is a legal case, I have found that blog to be invaluable in keeping up with the story in a realistic way.
See the second entry on this page written by a person in the legal field. Although IBM's response to SCO seems to have been misunderstood among the Linux community because of a lack of experience with legal-speak, in fact IBM slammed SCO to the ground with their response.
Furthermore, SCO's claims are bunk as this entry shows, for what SCO is complaining about is the inclusions of pieces of code in IBM's distro, such as JFS. But a Caldera employee at the time was contributing to this process and they didn't complain at the time!
"I agree with "representing the people" and such, but going through George Bush is just a bit too unfair. He has to look over 300 million people."
Acutally his job is a lot easier, based on what we've seen so far. He only has to look over the top 1% richest Americans. The rest are ignored (if they're lucky).
Lots of comments slamming 'blog' around here: "It's a diary!", "It's a journal!", "Why make a new word for an old idea?"
Well, because it is a new idea. Diaries were kept for private viewing, a few notable exceptions notwithstanding. The idea of being able to post your "diary" globally is certainly empowering. Yeah, yeah, we're/. and we look down on anyone who cannot do HTML. Fine, be elitist, but most of the world is not, and never will be, programmers, or even scripters. And blogging software has given the rest of the world a simple tool that enables them to do what we have been able to do for years.
Blogs are more than the sum of their parts, furthermore. It's not just that these "diaries" are online. The blog phenomenom is based on the mutual linking that goes on. It's a community -- that hardly describes a diary or a journal -- of users connecting to each other. Does that sound familiar? Sure, it's the promise of the web, only now accessible to a lot more people.
Finally blogs are not just "diaries." For example, I have my web site where I have fun with the wording of headlines. In order to see how the power of blogging works, I recently created a blog of my site in order to see if the connectivity of the blog community would increase awareness. I'm playing with the blog phenemenon, in other words. Yet there is nothing about me at my blog, no diary entries, nothing. It's all about the humor.
Blogging is about the community, not just a diary.
Slashdot Mirror
But unlike with OS X, when you faithfully download those Windows patches, you introduce ugly and scary conditions into your computer. Basically, with Windows you just can't win.
Come and listen to a story about a guv named Jeb
A rich southernor, barely got his bro Prez,
Then one day he was lookin' for more dough,
And got the idea he could tax the LANs too.
Data that is, ethernet, Texas bits.
Well the first thing you know ol' Jeb's still a millionaire,
Kinfolk said Jeb give some cash from there
Said Floridee is the place for dough and fun
So they loaded up the vaults and moved to Washington.
DC, that is.
Greedy pols, movie stars.
So they admit that their product stinks, but through the use of "carefully crafted" marketing they can make people think junk = treasure. But that plan only worked as long as they could keep word of mouth from spreading too quickly. In other words, they don't like reality, but prefer their crafted message designed to fool people into seeing garbage.
And it would have worked too if it hand't been for you meddlin' kids!
Printing to a Sharp AT-810 printer? Sorry, never had to do it, and I'll take your word that it cannot yet be done. I was only offering my experience and, clearly, YMDV. That's fine, it's the nature of anecdotal evidence.
Slightly higher prices? I only go by what we pay, and we mostly use laptops, and laptops are not as cheap as desktops no matter which platform.
Can't afford it because you are a student? I hear ya. You do ask for the student discount right? If so, and you still cannot afford it, there's not much I can say. You do what you can when you can.
Macs have automated updates that require rebooting? Horrors! Well of course Macs have that. However they are usually not emergencies, or in response to the latest worm or virus, they can be scheduled at your convenience, and no need to reboot at that time unless you want to. This ain't Windows! Macs just work when you want, how you want.
Your experience is different? That's cool. You made your post just as I made my post. We share experiences. All I wanted to do is to share my experience. Before I tried Macs, I thought I would have problems in a Windows environment. Once I tried it, I found I have no problems whatsoever. Nice for me. Just wanted to share. Thanks for all the feedback, good and bad.
- Macs are not that expensive. What you get with a Mac makes up for slightly higher prices. They give you what you need without having to tack on lots of "extras."
- Macs can do everything you need. We use a mixed environment transparently. There is nothing I cannot do with a Mac that I want to do, nor am I prevented from interacting with Windows boxes or Linux boxes. It just works. Transparently.
- Macs don't waste your time. Every security update from Microsoft means the Windows guys are running around updating. The Mac guys just sit there and keep working. The Windows guys keep updating their virus software. The Mac guys just sit there and keep working. And although some people report problems with Apple hardware, and I respect those opinions since any hardware can go wrong, our uptime has been great.
As for the Linux guys, heh, they love Linux and take care of their boxes without any questions or issues coming up. Patch needed? They do it on their own time. Uptime? Forever. Problems? Nil.In short, don't believe those who say that you can't do things with Macs, or it causes problems interacting on the network, or the usual FUD. Although I'm sure there are specific instances where problems might occur on the edges, my real-world experience has shown that the Mac and Linux boxes are the ones that just work in my company. Any problems we have are with the Windows side. I can well believe that you need more IT staff to keep the Windows boxes going. There is very little you need to do to keep the alternatives going, and they interact just fine.
So if you love Window boxes, good for you. But if you hear the FUD about Macs not working well with others, I'm here to tell you that it's just not so.
Military guy: Will he kill me if I stop?
Ben: Who is to say?
Military guy: Will he kill me if I don't stop?
Ben: Again I am shrugging.
Number 5: Many fragments. Some large, some small.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I would have KILLED for this system ten years ago. Correction, I wouldn't have imagined this much power, speed, and functionality in such a tiny, yet solid system. Ten years ago I was using a big clunky desktop PC, with a 14-inch CRT monitor, Windows 3-something, Prodigy dial-up to get to a kludgy graphical system where you could read about six lines of text on the screen and the amount of information was very limited, everything was wired together to form a basic ethernet network with lots of hoops to jump through to get it to work seamlessly. I think we had available for the entire department some $5K Toshiba laptop that was also clunky, and heavy, and ran the same lame OS with the same lame limitations.
Now I'm using this aluminum wonder to wireless connect to my broadband, always-on, super fast connection, while watching TV in the living room, a Terminal window open to let me do command line stuff in BSD, while using a super fun, super smooth OS X system that makes Windows 3 look like a torture device.
Speed, power, slickness, functionalty...you couldn't pay me to go back to what I was using ten years ago. Personally I can't wait to see what I'll be using ten years from now. Gripe all you want, but I think things have gotten waaaaaaaaay better in the last ten years.
Maybe they are a Windows booster and can't stand the fact that this is yet another case where their OS is vulnerable and the rest of us just go on about our lives as if nothing is happening. But my comment was real, accurate, on topic, and interesting to me at least.
Yes, yes, I know, this is /. and we all know this. My point is that the mainstream press is starting to make the distinction now.
Of course in my case this kinda cheeses me off cuz my site is meant to be viewed on a daily basis (assuming you think my humor is funny enough to return). The fact that my traffic inevitably trails off tells me that either /.ers have the attention span of a gnat, and forget to bookmark brilliant humor sites...or else my site is not that funny.
Naaaaah...must be the former.... ;)
Amazing theory considering El Duque was actually traded to Montreal. Must be a multi-team, multi-league conspiracy or something.
Sounds like the latest Microsoft EULAs. So let's see, trade songs, run Microsoft software. Same danger.
Time to scrap the heap of copyright laws and start over (why not begin with what the Constitution says, as a suggestion?). When laws are being created to prevent toddlers from accidentally becoming felons, simply because they want to listen to their teddy bear read them a story, you know things have gotten out of hand.
Look, here at /. we know all about the music (hello, RIAA!), movies (hello, MPAA!) and software (hello, UCITA!) examples. But here is an example that is just absurd. Fix the problem? Please, just gut the laws and start over.
Wait a minute, what am I saying?! Any laws rewritten from scratch nowadays would be far more draconian. Maybe this time they would put in provisions to haul the 3-year-olds off to prison...
Avril Lavigne Losing Grip (8)
Avril Lavigne Complicated (6)
Incubus Nice to Know You (6)
Marvin Gaye Lets Get It On (6)
Musiq Halfcrazy (6)
Tracy Chapman Fast Car (6)"
I'm sure it's just me, but seeing that list made me laugh. It looks like a fairly complete description of a computer-generated attempt at coming up with dialogue for a lame pick-up artist and his drunken prey who is losing her grip on reality and having a hard time focusing:
She: "Pass the Courvoisier."
He: "Nice to know you."
She: "Complicated."
He: "Fast car."
She: "Losing grip."
He: "Let's get it on."
She: "Halfcrazy."
Very cool, very nice, but since it will cut the oil companies out of the loop, it won't happen any time soon. At least not while the current U.S. administration has anything to say about it. And given lobbying rules, not while the next adminstration has anything to say about it. And the administration after next...
Then hop across the country to New York and check out the best of the Barne's and Nobles, the one in downtown Manhattan. Not what you are thinking. This isn't just some big bookstore like every other big bookstore. This is the one that caters to the university students, and they have every textbook imaginable through the annexes. A very geeky way to spend your afternoon.
Then wander down to 13th and Broadway to see Forbidden Planet comics shop, or really any of these comic shops in New York to get your comic jones. While in New York, you might as well check out all the tourist things anyway, cuz you know you will. And when you do, being Aussie and all, you'll want to hit the bar scene at night. Lots of good bar-hopping in Manhattan in the East 70s on 2nd and 1st Avenues.
Computers, books, comics, beer -- what more could a geek ask for. Have fun, mate!
"Pour qui se prennent-ils ces Français pour nous dire de quelle façon parler?"
LOL, could well be, I wouldn't know. I don't speak the language. I was just making a very subtle joke with the help of a translator. Guess no one got the joke -- a bit too oblique.
It's not my page so I cannot say. But the person writing these entries seems to be covering the SCO case more thoroughly than any other place I've seen, so I would imagine more interesting stuff is coming.
I've learned more from this legal blog than from /. on the SCO case, and that says a lot considering how many times the story appears here. But on that blog things are being explained from a legal perspective, and boy is that one subject /. often doesn't get all the details right about (but thinks it does). Since this is a legal case, I have found that blog to be invaluable in keeping up with the story in a realistic way.
Furthermore, SCO's claims are bunk as this entry shows, for what SCO is complaining about is the inclusions of pieces of code in IBM's distro, such as JFS. But a Caldera employee at the time was contributing to this process and they didn't complain at the time!
SCO is sunk.
Acutally his job is a lot easier, based on what we've seen so far. He only has to look over the top 1% richest Americans. The rest are ignored (if they're lucky).
And only then did he submit it to /. Veeeeerrrrry clever, Mr. Anonymous Reader. Let this be a lesson to us all.
Well, because it is a new idea. Diaries were kept for private viewing, a few notable exceptions notwithstanding. The idea of being able to post your "diary" globally is certainly empowering. Yeah, yeah, we're /. and we look down on anyone who cannot do HTML. Fine, be elitist, but most of the world is not, and never will be, programmers, or even scripters. And blogging software has given the rest of the world a simple tool that enables them to do what we have been able to do for years.
Blogs are more than the sum of their parts, furthermore. It's not just that these "diaries" are online. The blog phenomenom is based on the mutual linking that goes on. It's a community -- that hardly describes a diary or a journal -- of users connecting to each other. Does that sound familiar? Sure, it's the promise of the web, only now accessible to a lot more people.
Finally blogs are not just "diaries." For example, I have my web site where I have fun with the wording of headlines. In order to see how the power of blogging works, I recently created a blog of my site in order to see if the connectivity of the blog community would increase awareness. I'm playing with the blog phenemenon, in other words. Yet there is nothing about me at my blog, no diary entries, nothing. It's all about the humor.
Blogging is about the community, not just a diary.