For what it is worth, a friend of mine does a lot of his business related work in Paneras in the area because of the free WiFi. He also spends a reasonable amount of money there as he is more likely to eat there since he is already there checking email, etc... And, so as to not feel guilty, if he is not there around meal time he will at least purchase a beverage. The free WiFi brings him there as opposed to going to StarBucks or other locations that charge for WiFi access.
Show me charts and stats and benchmarks that prove Windows superior to Linux in every measure and I'll agree with you.
I do not believe that proving that Windows is superior to Linux is the issue. As the result of marketing, timing, and a possible deal with Satan, Windows has 90+% of the market and people, like energy, tend to take the path of least resistance. Until you can walk into your local consumer electronics store and find shelves of Linux software and computers with Linux pre-installed people will continue to use Windows.
As a user of OS X I make the special effort to locate stores that sell software and peripherals for my Macs, and usually have to travel about 45 minutes to get there. Most people (not/. readers, the rest of the world) will not. For my Windows machines I can drive ten minutes down the road and find almost anything I could possibly need (including compilers). This is why Linux may never displace Windows.
What someone needs to do is produce a bunch of those $5-$10 CDs in the software section containing Ubuntu, Knoppix or any of the other live versions containing OpenOffice or something similar and a bunch of other stuff ready to go from the disc. Then someone needs to create some more of the $5-$10 CDs with a bunch of Linux software that can't fit on the live CDs so the general public can try it without risk (minimal financial, no risk of destroying their computer) and make up their minds. Keep in mind that most people stick with Windows because it came with the computer and they could not install most versions of Linux themselves and, even if the install is bullet-proof, they would not believe that they could install an OS. It has to be made as easy as possible or they will not even try.
I hate to comment on a sig but the there are two things wrong with the sig "Try not, Do or Do not, there is no try -- Dr. Spock".
First, I believe that "Try not. Do or Do Not, there is no try." was said by Yoda in Starwars Episode IV (the first StarWars movie back in 1977).
Second, Dr. Spock was a child psychologist, Spock from Star Trek was called "Mr. Spock" not "Dr."
Real does not work that well on OS X if running from a non-admin account. My experience is that it requires that its icon be placed on the desktop and, in many cases, you have to start the player manually before it will run when you click a link. I am talking about Real 10 for OS X (the free version). As it appears that there is a way to play Quicktime files on Linux, I would go with Quicktime.
At the risk or losing what ever positive Karma I have, here goes:
First of all, religion has a place in society and all religons are valid (comment not intended as flame bait), I believe the issue here is what is the responsibility of the education system. I believe that responsibility is to teach students the basics they need to function in not only our society but the world: literacy in their native language (as a minimum), basic math (everyone should be able to balance a checkbook and calculate a tip), enough history to hopefully prevent the repetition of the errors of the past, the currently accepted basic scientific theories, and most importantly to think for themselves. Critical thinking (mentioned in other posts in this topic) is one of the most important skills a person can have, students need to be taught to question everything, including established "facts". If no one questioned the "facts" we would still consider the earth as the center of the universe and believe that it is flat.
Religion has no place in the school system and parents who feel the need to have someone else teach their children their particular religion should send their children to religious classes after the normal school or to private religious schools. If the government were to be responsible for religious education they would either have to teach ALL religions equally or select one and I believe our country was formed in protest to state sponsered religion (among other reasons) and that the constitution prohibits a state sponsered religion which, anything other than all religions were taught in our schools, would equate to state sponsership of that (of those) religions.
Again, let me be clear, I have nothing against religion (I feel that every religion is valid and can be learned from) and that people should be allowed to believe in whichever dieties or diety they choose without the government becoming involved.
I receive some spam every day on my GMail account and, looking at the headers, it seems that the spammers are randomly generating the email addresses and my address, eventually, gets generated and receives spam. Fortunately, the GMail spam filter has successfully caught all of the spam.
I have to agree with danielrm26. I started programming at around the age of 11 and never went to college (well, I am going now but I am pushing 40). I have been working as a programmer/software-engineer/whatever-the-title-wa s (designing/writing software as the vast majority of my responsibilities) for about 18 years now. The degree may get you into the door initially but experience is usually the key. There is a "recent" development that makes the degree more importent, some companies are scanning applicant's resumes and automatically rejecting them if they do not meet certain criteria (e.g. a degree).
Having spent the past two years pair programming I am left with a negative impression of its practicality. My experience has shown that the amount of time saved by the other person catching something that you may have done incorrectly (from a typo to pure coding error) is only a fraction of the time wasted explaining what you were thinking and why you coded something that particular way. I agree with an earlier comment that design is best done in groups but coding is a solitary task. Having someone looking over your shoulder performing a real-time code review is more distracting than helpful. If the design was done properly the coding can be done by one person. A proper code review, after the code is written, will address the issues that will be caught by your partner without interrupting you mid-thought because you missed a semi-colon. I am not sure that this holds for everyone who writes code but, in my case, I tend to get into a stream of consiousness and the code flows from that, if interrupted just because I misspelled a variable name or didn't properly indend a block of code can can pull me out of the stream and it takes some time to build the momentum back up. especially when the compiler would catch any syntactical errors.
For what it is worth, a friend of mine does a lot of his business related work in Paneras in the area because of the free WiFi. He also spends a reasonable amount of money there as he is more likely to eat there since he is already there checking email, etc... And, so as to not feel guilty, if he is not there around meal time he will at least purchase a beverage. The free WiFi brings him there as opposed to going to StarBucks or other locations that charge for WiFi access.
Show me charts and stats and benchmarks that prove Windows superior to Linux in every measure and I'll agree with you.
/. readers, the rest of the world) will not. For my Windows machines I can drive ten minutes down the road and find almost anything I could possibly need (including compilers). This is why Linux may never displace Windows.
I do not believe that proving that Windows is superior to Linux is the issue. As the result of marketing, timing, and a possible deal with Satan, Windows has 90+% of the market and people, like energy, tend to take the path of least resistance. Until you can walk into your local consumer electronics store and find shelves of Linux software and computers with Linux pre-installed people will continue to use Windows.
As a user of OS X I make the special effort to locate stores that sell software and peripherals for my Macs, and usually have to travel about 45 minutes to get there. Most people (not
What someone needs to do is produce a bunch of those $5-$10 CDs in the software section containing Ubuntu, Knoppix or any of the other live versions containing OpenOffice or something similar and a bunch of other stuff ready to go from the disc. Then someone needs to create some more of the $5-$10 CDs with a bunch of Linux software that can't fit on the live CDs so the general public can try it without risk (minimal financial, no risk of destroying their computer) and make up their minds. Keep in mind that most people stick with Windows because it came with the computer and they could not install most versions of Linux themselves and, even if the install is bullet-proof, they would not believe that they could install an OS. It has to be made as easy as possible or they will not even try.
--Kolisar
A friend of mine told me yesterday that he has been getting access in Paneras in Southern New Hampshire.
Thank you, I will re-install logged into my Admin account and place it into Applications and give that a try.
Sorry, it was Episode V, Yoda was not in episode IV. The rest of the comment still applies.
I hate to comment on a sig but the there are two things wrong with the sig "Try not, Do or Do not, there is no try -- Dr. Spock".
First, I believe that "Try not. Do or Do Not, there is no try." was said by Yoda in Starwars Episode IV (the first StarWars movie back in 1977).
Second, Dr. Spock was a child psychologist, Spock from Star Trek was called "Mr. Spock" not "Dr."
Real does not work that well on OS X if running from a non-admin account. My experience is that it requires that its icon be placed on the desktop and, in many cases, you have to start the player manually before it will run when you click a link. I am talking about Real 10 for OS X (the free version). As it appears that there is a way to play Quicktime files on Linux, I would go with Quicktime.
I graduated H.S. the year Quincy was Canceled so I do think "Quincy" when "Forensic Science" is mentioned.
First of all, religion has a place in society and all religons are valid (comment not intended as flame bait), I believe the issue here is what is the responsibility of the education system. I believe that responsibility is to teach students the basics they need to function in not only our society but the world: literacy in their native language (as a minimum), basic math (everyone should be able to balance a checkbook and calculate a tip), enough history to hopefully prevent the repetition of the errors of the past, the currently accepted basic scientific theories, and most importantly to think for themselves. Critical thinking (mentioned in other posts in this topic) is one of the most important skills a person can have, students need to be taught to question everything, including established "facts". If no one questioned the "facts" we would still consider the earth as the center of the universe and believe that it is flat.
Religion has no place in the school system and parents who feel the need to have someone else teach their children their particular religion should send their children to religious classes after the normal school or to private religious schools. If the government were to be responsible for religious education they would either have to teach ALL religions equally or select one and I believe our country was formed in protest to state sponsered religion (among other reasons) and that the constitution prohibits a state sponsered religion which, anything other than all religions were taught in our schools, would equate to state sponsership of that (of those) religions.
Again, let me be clear, I have nothing against religion (I feel that every religion is valid and can be learned from) and that people should be allowed to believe in whichever dieties or diety they choose without the government becoming involved.
I receive some spam every day on my GMail account and, looking at the headers, it seems that the spammers are randomly generating the email addresses and my address, eventually, gets generated and receives spam. Fortunately, the GMail spam filter has successfully caught all of the spam.
I have to agree with danielrm26. I started programming at around the age of 11 and never went to college (well, I am going now but I am pushing 40). I have been working as a programmer/software-engineer/whatever-the-title-wa s (designing/writing software as the vast majority of my responsibilities) for about 18 years now. The degree may get you into the door initially but experience is usually the key. There is a "recent" development that makes the degree more importent, some companies are scanning applicant's resumes and automatically rejecting them if they do not meet certain criteria (e.g. a degree).
Having spent the past two years pair programming I am left with a negative impression of its practicality. My experience has shown that the amount of time saved by the other person catching something that you may have done incorrectly (from a typo to pure coding error) is only a fraction of the time wasted explaining what you were thinking and why you coded something that particular way. I agree with an earlier comment that design is best done in groups but coding is a solitary task. Having someone looking over your shoulder performing a real-time code review is more distracting than helpful. If the design was done properly the coding can be done by one person. A proper code review, after the code is written, will address the issues that will be caught by your partner without interrupting you mid-thought because you missed a semi-colon. I am not sure that this holds for everyone who writes code but, in my case, I tend to get into a stream of consiousness and the code flows from that, if interrupted just because I misspelled a variable name or didn't properly indend a block of code can can pull me out of the stream and it takes some time to build the momentum back up. especially when the compiler would catch any syntactical errors.