"XForms is key to realizing the vision of a future where people can access information online on any device--and do everything from shopping and banking to checking their e-mail or calendar."
Hmmmm?? I do all that on the web - shopping, banking, email, calender - right now just fine with the current generate technology. What's really new in XForms? Is there a XForms show-case or something like that out there?
I have so much data and programs installed, reinstaling XP is not an option. Could you point me to the threat in the MS newsgroup? I will have to find out a work around.
Osho
I have WinXP Home SP1 with all the latest updates applied. I downloaded the SP2.EXE file from microsoft.com's download and attempted to install it.
The installation went fine except that somewhere in the middle of the installation I got "Access is denied." error. The installation program then went and de-installed what was partially installed and restored it to SP1 (Thank Goodness!). This was while logged in (as the only user in the system) with administrative privileges. Windows was rebooted and it booted fine in SP1.
I rebooted SP1 in Safe mode and logged in as the Administrator. I repeated the installation process with exact same error "Access is denied.". Again, reverted to SP1 successfully
I am thankful that it was possible to change back to SP1 and WinXP booted. But, I just can't seem to be able to install SP2. Now, I am scared than earlier about trying it for the third time.
This is a lot more complicated then what is visible on the surface.
Of course, whether there was a clause in the initial contract between the employee and Seagate about non-complete makes a big difference. Then again, some can argue about the legalities of such clauses even if it is there - which may then depend on the specific state as well.
Even if Seagate agrees to pay the employee for the two years what he would have earned otherwise - there is an opportunity cost that will not be paid. The opportunity cost is what the employee would have learned in the two years in the industry and improved his skill sets and how that will factor in the compensation for the rest of his career.
On the other hand, if he is allowed to work at Western Digital and even if he does not divulge any "Top Secret" Seagate information - the fact that he knows that information is sufficient enough for Seagate to worry. He may know very critical business information such as Seagate's complete roadmap for the next few years, their pricing structure, the new and exciting technologies that they may be bringing to market etc. Now even if he doesn't give this information away to western digital, there is nothing stopping him from using that information while making critical business decision at Western Digital. To give an example, if he is in charge of coming up with what features in what different products should be and when they should come to market - he can make excellent decisions by utilizing his prior knowledge of seagate products even without explicitly telling western digital anything. This is exactly what Seagate wants to avoid. It is very difficult/impossible to enforce a person to make decisions while enforcing that he does not use all the data that is stored in his mind.
This is the exact scenario that Seagate does not want. Imagine that for every product Seagate launches, Western digital comes with a better product with same (or better) feature-sets at 5% the Seagate's price one week ago. This would kill Seagate.
Osho
Disclaimer: I do not work or either Seagate or Western Digital or even in the hard drive industry. But such concerns are ubiquitous across all different industries.
You can get ultra low battery laptops but many of them have very small size keyboards, very small resolution display screens etc. Not really what I would want for serious work.
The best bet for something that has good battery life and has enough performance that you can do most work (including developing code, writing articles, browsing etc.) is IBM T Series laptops with an extended capacity battery in place of the regular battery and an additional battery in place of the CD/DVD Drive bay. You will get a battery life around 7-8 hours with this combination if you run on the battery optimized performance setting (which is adequate for most needs).
Of course, it isn't cheap - but it is a real pleasure to get some real work done on
IMHO, I think you are way off here. If AMD could produce an Athlon64 4500+ right now, I bet you that they will release it. If they can produce Athlon64 4500+ that implies they can built 4200+, 4000+, 3800+ etc. They could just release all of them and strategically position them against Intel's price structure so that for the same price you can get a much better chip from AMD.
If AMD could do that and those chips are quality (no major bugs) and can sustain that, they will build the reputation for being the "undisputed leader" in the processor market. What that means is that all the doors (Dell etc.) that were closed for them will soon start to open up - that will mean a huge new lucrative market segment win for AMD. Their revenues, profits will literally multiply.
The truth is that everyone works so hard to meet the tight schedules for such products that any suggestion that a company would sit on such a killer product is just plain outrageous.
Vmware....
http://www.vmware.com/
It is worth the coast of a few hundred dollars so you do not have to buy machines causing thousands. Vmware works really well if you only occasionally use the other OSes (like running konqueror/mozilla/safari etc.)
Osho
PS; NO, I am not affiliated with vmware in any ways.
The part of the problem is that, whether it be Microsoft or Linux; it is not possible to make software 100% bug-free. Period.
Unlike Cars, each and every customer of Microsoft/Open-Source-Software for a particular product gets the exact same product. They run on a vast variety of Hardware/Firmware combinations, all of which is impossible to track for any one company or open source community. Even if Microsoft or Open-Source-Software could (hypothetically) create 100% bug-free software; there is no guarantee that there won't be any bugs in hardware/firmware - which could result in system failures. Such system failures are typically not easily distinguished as such.
There are a large number of viruses/security attacks etc. on Windows and much could be done by Microsoft to improve the situation. However, being held accountable for them in a court of law will be something that will not only kill Microsoft but also all Open Source Software. I mean, a recent while ago there was a story on Slashdot about a simple program running in user space could crash Linux Kernel. Will you consider that Linux Kernel a Lemon? I don't think so.
When it comes to Software and Internet, the current generation of laws simply do not apply or can be extended to apply. The lawmakers all around the world will sooner or later need to understand this and create new laws and mechanisms to enforce them.
Yes, compatibility doesn't make them any money directly.
However, compatibility is a feature aimed to sell the newer console and capture the market, which then could be exploited by the $50 video games. For example, PS3 console with backward compatibility will get much more market share than PS2 and PS1. Xbox2 without compatibility won't sell as much as PS3 with compatibility. Guess what? PS3 games will be able to charge $50 much more easily.
This article is an ancient news. I am surprised to see it at slashdot. This article was published shortly after KDE 3.2 was released in Feburary 2004. Since then KDE 3.2.1, 3.2.2 and 3.2.3 have been released!!
I do agree with the the poster that this article is probably the best written piece on insides of KDE and their overall desktop applications development methodology. It shows that the KDE architects have developed a very good infrastructure to create applications that integrate well with the entire desktop, while keeping a very consistent look and feel.
This the microsoft business model for the 90's decade.
1. Relese products with bugs, problems, instabilities.
2. Release newer versions of products with fixes to old bugs and some new versions. Charge pretty good money for the upgrade.
3. Go back to Step 2. PROFIT!
But, now that their core money-making products (windows OS and MS Office) are not making enough money with this business model; here is the business model for the next decade.
1. Release products that are extremely insecure and prone to viruses.
2. Release anti-virus software to guard against such virus and charge for it. Fix old viruses while creating patches in the product that enable new viruses.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 and laugh all the way to the bank. PROFIT!
As the little bill said watching harry potter, bloody brilliant!
I just read the latest issue of mobile pc magazine (no I am not affiliated with them in any way) - they had an article about signal jammers, which are getting much more affordable to own. They are effective in blocking a range of signals - including cell-phone, wifi etc. depending on type of jammers you get. You probably don't need to own it but just rent it - so it may be really affordable.
I really don't understand what's the fuss about the Spatial mode. Gnome 2.6 release has advertised it as if it is such a revolutionary new feature and/or major paradigm shift. None of which is true.
As far as I can recall, KDE had this available by checking the box that says "Open folders in separate windows" under Konqueror->Configure->Behavior settings.
I would think that some such settings must have been present for Gnome 2.4 and earlier. I don't use Gnome so I don't know for sure.
I do not recollect one single KDE review and/or product announcement that announced this setting as a major new feature, let alone a huge productivity enhancement. Of course, this was right as it is just a simple user preference check-box. I think Gnome hype about this is an obvious overkill.
I personally think that the kind of presumption that Gnome developers made on behalf of their users is a bit too much. They should have at least made it so that at the first start-up of Gnome desktop - user is asked to make this choice.
Finally the only guy who can see this right. Again, if hardware is becoming commodity and software is what distinguishes you from your competitor, it DOES not make sense to open source.
I am surprised at the tone of the question itself. The question asked was "How to convince management to open source?". I think the question should have been "Does it make sense to open source?".
I think you need to seriously re-evaluate your reasons for being convinced that going open-source is the right thing for your business.
Now for those of you who didn't read the actual article, go and read it and look at those screenshots. Boy, those fonts look so horrible!!!
If you have used Windows CE based or Palm based PDAs; you know what kind of beautiful sub-pixel anti-aliased fonts to expect. These fonts look ugly which is a huge usability hinderence.
I hope these guys would take advantage of the awesome freetype2 libraries on linux *properly* to display fonts.
Porn industry has this weirdest characteristics that most of their server side technology is on *nix platforms while the client side technology is on Windows/Mac. Streaming video, pay-per-view, interactive chat, whatever... all will be a hell to get working well on linux platform... definitely not for the faint of heart.
Come on guys, this has been out in the market for over two years. I am using one for last year.
They do work decent in the air if you don't have too much coffee and can keep your hands pretty stable and learn to move your wrist but not the hand:)..
That said, this is very old news... nothing exciting here... read on to better things.
Let's talk about something other than the licence
on
XFree86 4.4 Released
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
OK. Enough talking about licence changes. How about talking about the new release and what new exciting things it provides?
I browsed through the entire release notes and could not find a single thing that will get me excited about trying out the new release. Nothing like, xrandr in 4.3 release or sub-pixel anti-aliased fonts in 4.1/4.2. In fact, nothing other than bug fixes that would benefit X for desktop user. I guess Keith Packard's absense is being felt in this release notes.
Am I missing something that you noticed?
For KDE 3.1.x file selector screenshot. I prefer KDE version much more than the proposed GTK+ variants for the following reasons:
1) Preview that works fast and well. The previews for text, ps, pdf, jpeg, gifs etc. are very fast and very readable (even for texts). Also, almost all filetypes that I have run across are "previable".
2) Back/Forward arrows. I wonder how come they are not there in Gnome mock-ups. They have proven to me to be very very useful.
3) Network integration.
4) Icons/Look very well integrated with the rest of the KDE applications. For example, up/back/forward actions use the same icons as in the konqueror browswer.
Slashdot Mirror
From the announcemnt,
"XForms is key to realizing the vision of a future where people can access information online on any device--and do everything from shopping and banking to checking their e-mail or calendar."
Hmmmm?? I do all that on the web - shopping, banking, email, calender - right now just fine with the current generate technology. What's really new in XForms? Is there a XForms show-case or something like that out there?
Osho
Thanks much. Someone in that thread seems to have some ideas about how to find which registry entries needed to be changed.
Osho
I have so much data and programs installed, reinstaling XP is not an option. Could you point me to the threat in the MS newsgroup? I will have to find out a work around. Osho
I have WinXP Home SP1 with all the latest updates applied. I downloaded the SP2 .EXE file from microsoft.com's download and attempted to install it.
The installation went fine except that somewhere in the middle of the installation I got "Access is denied." error. The installation program then went and de-installed what was partially installed and restored it to SP1 (Thank Goodness!). This was while logged in (as the only user in the system) with administrative privileges. Windows was rebooted and it booted fine in SP1.
I rebooted SP1 in Safe mode and logged in as the Administrator. I repeated the installation process with exact same error "Access is denied.". Again, reverted to SP1 successfully
I am thankful that it was possible to change back to SP1 and WinXP booted. But, I just can't seem to be able to install SP2. Now, I am scared than earlier about trying it for the third time.
Osho
This is a lot more complicated then what is visible on the surface.
Of course, whether there was a clause in the initial contract between the employee and Seagate about non-complete makes a big difference. Then again, some can argue about the legalities of such clauses even if it is there - which may then depend on the specific state as well.
Even if Seagate agrees to pay the employee for the two years what he would have earned otherwise - there is an opportunity cost that will not be paid. The opportunity cost is what the employee would have learned in the two years in the industry and improved his skill sets and how that will factor in the compensation for the rest of his career.
On the other hand, if he is allowed to work at Western Digital and even if he does not divulge any "Top Secret" Seagate information - the fact that he knows that information is sufficient enough for Seagate to worry. He may know very critical business information such as Seagate's complete roadmap for the next few years, their pricing structure, the new and exciting technologies that they may be bringing to market etc. Now even if he doesn't give this information away to western digital, there is nothing stopping him from using that information while making critical business decision at Western Digital. To give an example, if he is in charge of coming up with what features in what different products should be and when they should come to market - he can make excellent decisions by utilizing his prior knowledge of seagate products even without explicitly telling western digital anything. This is exactly what Seagate wants to avoid. It is very difficult/impossible to enforce a person to make decisions while enforcing that he does not use all the data that is stored in his mind.
This is the exact scenario that Seagate does not want. Imagine that for every product Seagate launches, Western digital comes with a better product with same (or better) feature-sets at 5% the Seagate's price one week ago. This would kill Seagate.
Osho
Disclaimer: I do not work or either Seagate or Western Digital or even in the hard drive industry. But such concerns are ubiquitous across all different industries.
It seems getting SP2 is right now harder than getting a gmail account
You can get ultra low battery laptops but many of them have very small size keyboards, very small resolution display screens etc. Not really what I would want for serious work.
The best bet for something that has good battery life and has enough performance that you can do most work (including developing code, writing articles, browsing etc.) is IBM T Series laptops with an extended capacity battery in place of the regular battery and an additional battery in place of the CD/DVD Drive bay. You will get a battery life around 7-8 hours with this combination if you run on the battery optimized performance setting (which is adequate for most needs).
Of course, it isn't cheap - but it is a real pleasure to get some real work done on
Osho
IMHO, I think you are way off here. If AMD could produce an Athlon64 4500+ right now, I bet you that they will release it. If they can produce Athlon64 4500+ that implies they can built 4200+, 4000+, 3800+ etc. They could just release all of them and strategically position them against Intel's price structure so that for the same price you can get a much better chip from AMD.
If AMD could do that and those chips are quality (no major bugs) and can sustain that, they will build the reputation for being the "undisputed leader" in the processor market. What that means is that all the doors (Dell etc.) that were closed for them will soon start to open up - that will mean a huge new lucrative market segment win for AMD. Their revenues, profits will literally multiply.
The truth is that everyone works so hard to meet the tight schedules for such products that any suggestion that a company would sit on such a killer product is just plain outrageous.
Osho
64bit processors have nothing to do with "high encryption". 64 bits just signifies the unit for data and memory addressing. Osho
Vmware.. ..
http://www.vmware.com/
It is worth the coast of a few hundred dollars so you do not have to buy machines causing thousands. Vmware works really well if you only occasionally use the other OSes (like running konqueror/mozilla/safari etc.)
Osho
PS; NO, I am not affiliated with vmware in any ways.
me too me too :). Send it over to
oshogg at yahoo dot com
Osho
The part of the problem is that, whether it be Microsoft or Linux; it is not possible to make software 100% bug-free. Period.
Unlike Cars, each and every customer of Microsoft/Open-Source-Software for a particular product gets the exact same product. They run on a vast variety of Hardware/Firmware combinations, all of which is impossible to track for any one company or open source community. Even if Microsoft or Open-Source-Software could (hypothetically) create 100% bug-free software; there is no guarantee that there won't be any bugs in hardware/firmware - which could result in system failures. Such system failures are typically not easily distinguished as such.
There are a large number of viruses/security attacks etc. on Windows and much could be done by Microsoft to improve the situation. However, being held accountable for them in a court of law will be something that will not only kill Microsoft but also all Open Source Software. I mean, a recent while ago there was a story on Slashdot about a simple program running in user space could crash Linux Kernel. Will you consider that Linux Kernel a Lemon? I don't think so.
When it comes to Software and Internet, the current generation of laws simply do not apply or can be extended to apply. The lawmakers all around the world will sooner or later need to understand this and create new laws and mechanisms to enforce them.
Osho
Your logic is flawed.
Yes, compatibility doesn't make them any money directly. However, compatibility is a feature aimed to sell the newer console and capture the market, which then could be exploited by the $50 video games. For example, PS3 console with backward compatibility will get much more market share than PS2 and PS1. Xbox2 without compatibility won't sell as much as PS3 with compatibility. Guess what? PS3 games will be able to charge $50 much more easily.
This article is an ancient news. I am surprised to see it at slashdot. This article was published shortly after KDE 3.2 was released in Feburary 2004. Since then KDE 3.2.1, 3.2.2 and 3.2.3 have been released!!
I do agree with the the poster that this article is probably the best written piece on insides of KDE and their overall desktop applications development methodology. It shows that the KDE architects have developed a very good infrastructure to create applications that integrate well with the entire desktop, while keeping a very consistent look and feel.
Osho
This the microsoft business model for the 90's decade.
1. Relese products with bugs, problems, instabilities.
2. Release newer versions of products with fixes to old bugs and some new versions. Charge pretty good money for the upgrade.
3. Go back to Step 2. PROFIT!
But, now that their core money-making products (windows OS and MS Office) are not making enough money with this business model; here is the business model for the next decade.
1. Release products that are extremely insecure and prone to viruses.
2. Release anti-virus software to guard against such virus and charge for it. Fix old viruses while creating patches in the product that enable new viruses.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 and laugh all the way to the bank. PROFIT!
As the little bill said watching harry potter, bloody brilliant!
cheers!
Osho
The little boy is saying..
"I see.... dead.."
Oops sorry network congestion, oh no!!!
Osho
I just read the latest issue of mobile pc magazine (no I am not affiliated with them in any way) - they had an article about signal jammers, which are getting much more affordable to own. They are effective in blocking a range of signals - including cell-phone, wifi etc. depending on type of jammers you get. You probably don't need to own it but just rent it - so it may be really affordable.
Osho
I really don't understand what's the fuss about the Spatial mode. Gnome 2.6 release has advertised it as if it is such a revolutionary new feature and/or major paradigm shift. None of which is true. As far as I can recall, KDE had this available by checking the box that says "Open folders in separate windows" under Konqueror->Configure->Behavior settings. I would think that some such settings must have been present for Gnome 2.4 and earlier. I don't use Gnome so I don't know for sure.
I do not recollect one single KDE review and/or product announcement that announced this setting as a major new feature, let alone a huge productivity enhancement. Of course, this was right as it is just a simple user preference check-box. I think Gnome hype about this is an obvious overkill.
I personally think that the kind of presumption that Gnome developers made on behalf of their users is a bit too much. They should have at least made it so that at the first start-up of Gnome desktop - user is asked to make this choice.
just my 2 cents,
Osho
Finally the only guy who can see this right. Again, if hardware is becoming commodity and software is what distinguishes you from your competitor, it DOES not make sense to open source.
I am surprised at the tone of the question itself. The question asked was "How to convince management to open source?". I think the question should have been "Does it make sense to open source?".
I think you need to seriously re-evaluate your reasons for being convinced that going open-source is the right thing for your business.
Now for those of you who didn't read the actual article, go and read it and look at those screenshots. Boy, those fonts look so horrible!!!
If you have used Windows CE based or Palm based PDAs; you know what kind of beautiful sub-pixel anti-aliased fonts to expect. These fonts look ugly which is a huge usability hinderence.
I hope these guys would take advantage of the awesome freetype2 libraries on linux *properly* to display fonts.
Osho
... that Linus was not realizing that he was revolutionizing and empowering the porn industry :)
Porn industry has this weirdest characteristics that most of their server side technology is on *nix platforms while the client side technology is on Windows/Mac. Streaming video, pay-per-view, interactive chat, whatever... all will be a hell to get working well on linux platform... definitely not for the faint of heart.
Come on guys, this has been out in the market for over two years. I am using one for last year. They do work decent in the air if you don't have too much coffee and can keep your hands pretty stable and learn to move your wrist but not the hand :)..
That said, this is very old news... nothing exciting here... read on to better things.
OK. Enough talking about licence changes. How about talking about the new release and what new exciting things it provides? I browsed through the entire release notes and could not find a single thing that will get me excited about trying out the new release. Nothing like, xrandr in 4.3 release or sub-pixel anti-aliased fonts in 4.1/4.2. In fact, nothing other than bug fixes that would benefit X for desktop user. I guess Keith Packard's absense is being felt in this release notes. Am I missing something that you noticed?
Look at
i ze /92.png
http://www.kde.org/screenshots/images/3.1/fulls
For KDE 3.1.x file selector screenshot. I prefer KDE version much more than the proposed GTK+ variants for the following reasons:
1) Preview that works fast and well. The previews for text, ps, pdf, jpeg, gifs etc. are very fast and very readable (even for texts). Also, almost all filetypes that I have run across are "previable".
2) Back/Forward arrows. I wonder how come they are not there in Gnome mock-ups. They have proven to me to be very very useful.
3) Network integration.
4) Icons/Look very well integrated with the rest of the KDE applications. For example, up/back/forward actions use the same icons as in the konqueror browswer.