The problem with this is that some students who don't end up using the service, pay for it anyway. Students who don't have computers pay the same price for residence, even though high speed internet is included....gym....library....books.
Yeah, my taxes pay for jails, but I don't get to use them. The criminals should pay for it. My taxes support schools, but I don't have any kids; that's not fair.[/sarcasm] The same kind of thing happens in society, but it's especially true in a university setting. You are getting access to amazing stuff because of the economy of scale of the students that are there. You get to use science and electronics lab equipment that you could never hope to afford. You get to use expensive software packages--autocad and such--that you could not get, gym and fitness facilities, high speed internet, etc., etc. Plus if you act now, you'll also get this great education that will help you get a job! And here's the best part: it's not like taxes where you have to pay it. If you don't like the service package of a university, DON'T GO. Or if you prefer, go to a smaller college or community college that is cheaper and has less features. Would you whine and cry about some place that sells a $15,000 computer that's packed with features you would never use? Instead, choose the one that has the things you do want at a reasonable price.
In an interview with Spielberg about the new Indiana Jones movie to be made, he mentioned that he had asked Lucas multiple times to let him direct one of the Star Wars movies. Lucas has constantly turned him down. Come on Lucas! Hand it over to THE MAN! [cluebat]*thwack*
It was only a matter of time before he made the full 9 films he originally promised.
AHEM! Maybe some of you youngsters don't remember this, but at one time, (Before Empire Strikes Back even came out) Lucas had said there would be 12 movies. That didn't last too long, and he quickly changed his mind down to 9 movies, so the previous number has been close to forgotten. I did have an old magazine from 1978, which had an article about the upcoming "Star Wars 2" meaning Empire, and his 12-movie plan.
Or as the anonymous tip on TheForce.net put it, "Of course, since when has the flannel one been consistent?" I was very bothered to see that the news outlets printing this quote changed "the flannel one" to just "Lucas". They didn't even bother to use [Lucas] like they should have done to show a substitution of their own. It may seem small, but that is just an example of journalistic integrity gone down the tubes. They just edit the quotes however they feel to make them sound how they want them.
That's just stupid and insulting. I don't pay to go get insulted... therefore it makes me just want to hop online and watch the movie without the insults.
Or, it could make you just show up 10 minutes later so you skip all those comercials and insulting piracy ads. How about it? That's pretty much what I've started doing, and you don't miss any of the movie.
This reminds me of the McDonald's advertising about their french fries, which were "preferred 2 to 1" over other places' fries. When you read the fine print, it revealed that it did not mean "preferred" as in by taste testing, but rather by sales volume. More fries sold my McDonald's must mean they're preferred, huh? I'm sure it had nothing to with McD being on every corner and in every mall food court, did it?
> Going all the way back to Windows 3.1, even
> my worst Windows installs always end up with > more things functioning than with the best > Linux installs.
So the only program you use is Solitaire and Calculator, must be because there weren't any other programs installed.
Heh, you're not getting what he meant. He's referring to failed install, whereas at least Windows would finish installing--never considered that would happen, huh? I have had that with a few distros when it didn't like the hardware in the machine. Windows will finish installing and mark the device as unrecognized or not functioning, where the Linux installs just puke and won't finish if they can't detect it with their included set of drivers. Hardware support is much better now than it used to be, but it was very strange the differences I found in which one distro would have some success vs. another one having no success on the exact same computer.
Re:Linux made huge advances in user-friendliness
on
Linux Desktop Guide
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· Score: 1
You've made an excellent point that's often left either unmentioned or underrated. Once a typical user has passed the basic web browsing/e-mail/file management experience, Windows reveals itself as painfully inadequate. It's hardly suprising that most users then go off in search of programs to download (if not warezed, then possibly spy-ware infested) that offer functionality taken for granted on a *nix system.
That has absolutely nothing to do with Linux vs. Windows. Will you get over that? What's with that "spy-ware infested" crap? Windows users can use Open Office and Mozilla, same as Linux users. Are you saying those are "infested"? What I have found was that the programs I wanted for Linux weren't included on any distros anyway, and I still had to go download them, so what's your point?
The only reason this question of court testing even comes up is that the GPL has some unusual conditions, but so what? I keep thinking of funny types of conditions that could be written in distribution licenses: "Hm, this license says that we have to meet them and shake hands to copy or redistribute their code. Something like this hasn't been tested in court, so maybe it's not valid."
If IBM thought it made better business sense to side with SCO rather than mass against it, it would.
I don't think they would side with SCO because as I recall SCO sued them. You don't get to choose which team you're on in a lawsuit. (It's two to none now. We both win!)
Therefore, SCO HAS NO CHOICE but to argue the GPL is valid, otherwise, they themselves are in violation of copyright law and get sued into oblivion.
Well, as some people already pointed out in reply. They won't do that because they have this magical fairy tale where the GPL is invalid, but copyright law also does not apply. That has been their angle, and I'm pretty sure they will stick to that. It would be seriously funny though, if they saw defending the GPL as the only way to save their asses on this, and started arguing strongly the exact opposite of what they have been saying all along. We've already seen a couple of cases where they have taken opposite points of view in two different lawsuits they're in, but within the same one would probably push the judge's buttons.
I thought I would tell you that your sig is cut off. Here is what it displays: "The Kerry campaign is unstoppable because "An object at rest can not be stopped." --The Evil Midnight Bomber what bombs"
and here are my own little contributions... So he says to me, "You gotta do something smart, baby--something BIG!" And I go, "Yeah, baby, YEAH YEAH what do I gotta do?" And he says, "You got bombs...Blow up the Comet Club; it's packed with superheroes. You'll go down in supervillain history!" And I go, "Yeah, baby. Cause I'm The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight!"
"You'll never prove a thing coppers. I'm just a part-time electrician. I..I...BAD IS GOOD, BABY! DOWN WITH GOVERNMENT!"
This legal bullshit is the same reason that the US Park Service refuses to release any kind of estimates on crowd sizes for protests in Washington D.C..... they were sued by Louis Farakahan when they did a crowd size estimate of the Million Man March, that Farakhan said, was intentionally smaller than it really was.
Yep, I went to "Stand in the Gap" in the summer of 1997. The Park Service wouldn't give estimates for that reason, but I talked with one of the Park Service guys who was there, and he said this gathering was a lot bigger than the Million Man March, which their estimates had at 700-some thousand. He thought Stand in the Gap was certainly over a million.
They might do it, they might not, but in this case you've done the work for them -- if you don't validate the site, some site-maintaining wonk has to convince their boss to pay for the new browser testing -- and many bosses won't do that.
Um yeah, he's going to have a great time telling his boss that they can make a software change without testing it because some anonymous dude on the internet told him it was OK. I'm not saying that it's actually wrong in this case--just pointing out that bosses don't skip testing on the word of some guy who doesn't even work there.
As far as I know, most soaps are made by mixing fat (derived from animal or vegetable sources) with sodium hydroxide, or lye.
Tyler Durden : The salt balance has to be just right, so the best fat for making soap comes from humans. Narrator : Wait. What is this place? Tyler Durden : A liposuction clinic.
Your thing about "Point in Case" reminds me of one my wife uses all the time. If we are over at someone's house and it's getting late and time to go, my wife will say, "We should go. We don't want to overstay our keep." It's a merging of "overstay our welcome" and "earn our keep". The first one is what she means, but the phrases are closely related.
No I didn't report it yet. He did that one while I wasn't around. I'll see if I can get that file and duplicate the failed sorting he ran into so I have something specific to report.
It's more time than that and the time could have been put in if it were needed for the job, but it illustrates the problem (Yes we already noticed the comma vs semicolon issue--that was not the problem.). MS Office help effectively shows how to use its formulas; OOo doesn't. One needs to go search on the web and hope that someone found and published a solution to each problem you encounter. It just doesn't make sense that they would copy so much of the look and feel of MS Office, including using the exact same names for the formulas, but would change such arbitrary details like what character to use for field separation. Why would they want to make a transition more difficult by ensuring that the formulas people are used to using won't work?
oh yea. your friend sat down and performed a sort and merge in the first 5 minutes that he used MS office. give me a break.
You failed to comprehend what I wrote. I did not say a MERGE command in Excel. Maybe I should have said "importing into Publisher", but I was just using the term my friend used. He was just sorting the rows of data in the spreadsheet and saving the file--period. The part about bringing the file into Publisher for printing postcards was just to mention what the info was for--not related to the spreadsheet issue, so maybe I should have just not mentioned that step. I still don't see your point about why Open Office's inability to sort data in alphabetical order is somehow the fault of the user.
because their employees are fucking sheep. maybe and that's a HUGE FUCKING MAYBE, 1 out of 200 can do things like vlookups, sorts and merges.
Wow. That's a beauty of an attitude. "We'll give employees hunks of graphite because the cost of pencils is too much." "But they can't erase with that hunk of graphite." "They're f***ing sheep! They don't need to erase. They probably don't even know how to erase!"
You know what? I would have thought OOo would be a no-brainer if it was all I heard it was cracked up to be because MS Office seems way too expensive. I hadn't used Open Office before, though, so I didn't really know first-hand how it was.
Just recently, I installed OOo on one of our computers at home. My wife works with Excel every day at work--a lot of crunching numbers, auditing, complex formulas. I turned her loose on the spreadsheet app and watched as she ran it through a test. She put in some sample data and then entered a formula to do a VLOOKUP on some of the data. This is a basic formula she uses every day at work. OOo has a VLOOKUP function, but it just barfed and reported an error for the value in that cell. We looked up the parameters for that function in Open Office, and it did have one more parameter to enter, but we filled in that extra value and tried the thing several different ways and couldn't get it to report anything other than an error.
Second story. A friend of ours had to use our computer to do some stuff with an Excel file (list of about 1,000 contacts--name, address, etc.) before merging into Publisher to print postcards to these people. He didn't need any formulas; just needed to sort the contacts--by zip code or by name or whatever. He ran the sort he wanted, and it seemed good, except as he was getting through the output, he found that it had barfed on even that. It had partially sorted the list, but a lot of it was still random and there were parts of the list that hadn't been sorted at all, so he had to go through manually sorting a bunch of them.
So, from personal experience, if you are just going to look at static data in a spreadsheet and not do anything to it, OOo might be fine, but to...I don't know...actually USE it, OOo just doesn't work. Not something you can just teach people in a one-day training course. So how are companies supposed to switch to all open source applications when some won't even do the job needed? Maybe they could go with Linux and Crossover Office in this case, but keep a sense of reality people.
I did get to use the word processing app, and that worked fine--didn't run into any weird problems there, but the spreadsheet app was garbage.
I'm not trolling or flaming on this. I like open source and really wanted Open Office to work. I'll keep using open source programs where they are effective, but it has to pass that functional test.
I think the solution is to keep using Win98 for Ms. Boxwine(?). Win98 isn't vulnerable to as many security issues as XP, and really if you can install a firewall and show her how to update it and use a non-IE browser, it should run fine for a long time to come. Who cares how old the OS is? If her computing needs haven't changed, why should she change operating systems?
From a maintenance point of view, I would probably recommend sticking a second hard drive in the machine (could even be a small one since she doesn't do much) and having her save everything she would ever want to keep there, so that there would be no worries about wiping and re-installing the OS on the main drive if needed. Trying to deal with messed up installations without being able to re-install because of important data on the drive is just unnecessary pain.
I hadn't thought of the movie ticket idea. The first one that came to my mind was airplane tickets. Check the ticket prices paid by the people in coach. You may not find two people on there who paid the same price for their tickets. "You're a frequent flyer? You paid $XXX" "You planned ahead and bought these 3 months in advance? You paid $XXX" "This is a last minute trip and you bought these last night? You got screwed and had to pay $XXX."
Notice though that by employing such a high-latency protocol as TCP/IP you render your VoIP implementation unusable from the start.
Notice though that by employing such a high-latency protocol as TCP/IP, companies such as Vonage are making money on their successful VoIP implementation.
Slashdot Mirror
The same kind of thing happens in society, but it's especially true in a university setting. You are getting access to amazing stuff because of the economy of scale of the students that are there. You get to use science and electronics lab equipment that you could never hope to afford. You get to use expensive software packages--autocad and such--that you could not get, gym and fitness facilities, high speed internet, etc., etc. Plus if you act now, you'll also get this great education that will help you get a job! And here's the best part: it's not like taxes where you have to pay it. If you don't like the service package of a university, DON'T GO. Or if you prefer, go to a smaller college or community college that is cheaper and has less features. Would you whine and cry about some place that sells a $15,000 computer that's packed with features you would never use? Instead, choose the one that has the things you do want at a reasonable price.
Ah, it took me a while to find it, but here is a cartoon on TheForce.net about the changing plans of how many movies.
In an interview with Spielberg about the new Indiana Jones movie to be made, he mentioned that he had asked Lucas multiple times to let him direct one of the Star Wars movies. Lucas has constantly turned him down.
Come on Lucas! Hand it over to THE MAN!
[cluebat]*thwack*
Or as the anonymous tip on TheForce.net put it, "Of course, since when has the flannel one been consistent?"
I was very bothered to see that the news outlets printing this quote changed "the flannel one" to just "Lucas". They didn't even bother to use [Lucas] like they should have done to show a substitution of their own. It may seem small, but that is just an example of journalistic integrity gone down the tubes. They just edit the quotes however they feel to make them sound how they want them.
This reminds me of the McDonald's advertising about their french fries, which were "preferred 2 to 1" over other places' fries. When you read the fine print, it revealed that it did not mean "preferred" as in by taste testing, but rather by sales volume. More fries sold my McDonald's must mean they're preferred, huh? I'm sure it had nothing to with McD being on every corner and in every mall food court, did it?
The only reason this question of court testing even comes up is that the GPL has some unusual conditions, but so what? I keep thinking of funny types of conditions that could be written in distribution licenses:
"Hm, this license says that we have to meet them and shake hands to copy or redistribute their code. Something like this hasn't been tested in court, so maybe it's not valid."
I thought I would tell you that your sig is cut off. Here is what it displays:
"The Kerry campaign is unstoppable because "An object at rest can not be stopped." --The Evil Midnight Bomber what bombs"
and here are my own little contributions...
So he says to me, "You gotta do something smart, baby--something BIG!" And I go, "Yeah, baby, YEAH YEAH what do I gotta do?" And he says, "You got bombs...Blow up the Comet Club; it's packed with superheroes. You'll go down in supervillain history!" And I go, "Yeah, baby. Cause I'm The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight!"
"You'll never prove a thing coppers. I'm just a part-time electrician. I..I...BAD IS GOOD, BABY! DOWN WITH GOVERNMENT!"
Narrator : Wait. What is this place?
Tyler Durden : A liposuction clinic.
Your thing about "Point in Case" reminds me of one my wife uses all the time. If we are over at someone's house and it's getting late and time to go, my wife will say, "We should go. We don't want to overstay our keep." It's a merging of "overstay our welcome" and "earn our keep". The first one is what she means, but the phrases are closely related.
No I didn't report it yet. He did that one while I wasn't around. I'll see if I can get that file and duplicate the failed sorting he ran into so I have something specific to report.
You failed to comprehend what I wrote. I did not say a MERGE command in Excel. Maybe I should have said "importing into Publisher", but I was just using the term my friend used. He was just sorting the rows of data in the spreadsheet and saving the file--period. The part about bringing the file into Publisher for printing postcards was just to mention what the info was for--not related to the spreadsheet issue, so maybe I should have just not mentioned that step. I still don't see your point about why Open Office's inability to sort data in alphabetical order is somehow the fault of the user.
Wow. That's a beauty of an attitude.
"We'll give employees hunks of graphite because the cost of pencils is too much."
"But they can't erase with that hunk of graphite."
"They're f***ing sheep! They don't need to erase. They probably don't even know how to erase!"
You know what? I would have thought OOo would be a no-brainer if it was all I heard it was cracked up to be because MS Office seems way too expensive. I hadn't used Open Office before, though, so I didn't really know first-hand how it was.
Just recently, I installed OOo on one of our computers at home. My wife works with Excel every day at work--a lot of crunching numbers, auditing, complex formulas. I turned her loose on the spreadsheet app and watched as she ran it through a test. She put in some sample data and then entered a formula to do a VLOOKUP on some of the data. This is a basic formula she uses every day at work. OOo has a VLOOKUP function, but it just barfed and reported an error for the value in that cell. We looked up the parameters for that function in Open Office, and it did have one more parameter to enter, but we filled in that extra value and tried the thing several different ways and couldn't get it to report anything other than an error.
Second story. A friend of ours had to use our computer to do some stuff with an Excel file (list of about 1,000 contacts--name, address, etc.) before merging into Publisher to print postcards to these people. He didn't need any formulas; just needed to sort the contacts--by zip code or by name or whatever. He ran the sort he wanted, and it seemed good, except as he was getting through the output, he found that it had barfed on even that. It had partially sorted the list, but a lot of it was still random and there were parts of the list that hadn't been sorted at all, so he had to go through manually sorting a bunch of them.
So, from personal experience, if you are just going to look at static data in a spreadsheet and not do anything to it, OOo might be fine, but to...I don't know...actually USE it, OOo just doesn't work. Not something you can just teach people in a one-day training course. So how are companies supposed to switch to all open source applications when some won't even do the job needed? Maybe they could go with Linux and Crossover Office in this case, but keep a sense of reality people.
I did get to use the word processing app, and that worked fine--didn't run into any weird problems there, but the spreadsheet app was garbage.
I'm not trolling or flaming on this. I like open source and really wanted Open Office to work. I'll keep using open source programs where they are effective, but it has to pass that functional test.
I think the solution is to keep using Win98 for Ms. Boxwine(?). Win98 isn't vulnerable to as many security issues as XP, and really if you can install a firewall and show her how to update it and use a non-IE browser, it should run fine for a long time to come. Who cares how old the OS is? If her computing needs haven't changed, why should she change operating systems?
From a maintenance point of view, I would probably recommend sticking a second hard drive in the machine (could even be a small one since she doesn't do much) and having her save everything she would ever want to keep there, so that there would be no worries about wiping and re-installing the OS on the main drive if needed. Trying to deal with messed up installations without being able to re-install because of important data on the drive is just unnecessary pain.
I hadn't thought of the movie ticket idea. The first one that came to my mind was airplane tickets. Check the ticket prices paid by the people in coach. You may not find two people on there who paid the same price for their tickets.
"You're a frequent flyer? You paid $XXX"
"You planned ahead and bought these 3 months in advance? You paid $XXX"
"This is a last minute trip and you bought these last night? You got screwed and had to pay $XXX."