Auto-hide: imnsho, worst thing ever. Now, I really do like the NVidia dual monitor drivers though. Make the task bar mostly transparent. You can still see and read the status bars through the task bar... that's cool. At least for those programs that have status bars.
And I run at the highest res my monitors are capable of with a decent refresh rate. I think my next one will meet or exceed 1600X1200 @ 80Hz. As soon as those come down in price a bit....
But the point isn't whether you care to, but that the 95% folks do care to. They like that flashy stuff. They want that flashy stuff. And they'll run whatever gives them that flashy stuff.
So, having the ability to as easily use the flashy stuff in the browser of your choice as it is in IE, makes the argument to switch from IE almost moot. At least as far as flashy plug ins go. Also, having it be platform independent removes the issues of OSes, freeing vendors just that little bit more.
I don't disagree about your point about plugins. I think I have flash installed on 1 or 2, but that would be the only plugin. I don't have any installed on my *nix boxes.
If this could be completed quickly, this would be a huge boon to consumers everywhere, making life much simpler for Joe Sixpack. It would be another step in commoditizing the underlying OS, and the web browser in a sense as well, as you don't have to worry about plug in support as long as it was a compliant browser.
And with CERT saying ditch IE, there's no better time than today to have this type of action. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist yet....
I'd be surprised if there aren't around 8 threads for network downloading. This was pretty much standard in the original mosiac/netscape browsers, and I'd be surprised if it wasn't carried forward.
Breaking all the separate functions out to be handled by separate threads makes lots of sense, especially if those functions wind up having to wait on network downloads and not on each other.
I believe those little pauses et al are a direct result of the original monolithic GDI, of which vestiges still run rampant through MS code.
If you don't believe this, then try doing anything in an MS app while Outlook is grabbing a 50 or 100MB file from an exchange server. It's gotten better, but still not good. Now, to prove that this is solely a code problem on MS's part, download PMMail2000, and do any large file manipulations with it. The differences in system performance are astounding.
Why something obscure like PMMail2000? Well, PMMail2000 was ported from PMMail, an OS/2 app, which has a properly threaded UI model. OS/2 encouraged proper threading practices for it's UI components, and evidently those practices hold true for MS OSes as well, although they are rarely practiced. The complete deduction is left as an exercise for the reader.
Turns out one of the key objectives of this patent:
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a picture and sound transmission system wherein the selected audio/video material is sent over any one of several existing communication channels in a fraction of real time to any location chosen by the user that has a specified receiver.
Seems to me that all current broadcasters I know of that are listed in the suit fail to meet this criteria of sending the signal in a fraction of real time, and hence, bye bye lawsuit. I wish they would, but I have to record only one show at a time, during the broadcast window, and cannot record anything else during that broadcast window, hence, I believe they fail to infringe upon this patent.
of course, the obligatory: IANAL.
Quite interesting concept there, that knob. (Which in and of itself is another entire frame of reference. "knob" has a very particular meaning to a subset of the internet generation of 90-96 or so, when MUDs were large. They're much smaller percentage-wise now)
But, I think things will continue as long as groups like the RIAA/MPAA exist and have the use of Clear Channel and the like to drive their crap down the population's collective throats. They truly still control what you see, and hence, some of culture. The internet, in its current incarnation, is providing some relief, and lets people know via various forms of communication that perhaps what big industry wants you to believe is not really true. Free and open communication is definitely something we need to combat the "brain-washing" we'd otherwise be subject to.
That said, the growing but still minority group that seeks alternative "culture", for lack of a better term, will utilize that knob of yours to explore new things.:)
Generation X, the band, existed since 1976
The also shortened their name to Gen X and also documented
here
An interesting repudiation of Gen Xers as slackers was listed by none other than David Schwimmer in 1995.
Douglas Coupland's Generation X dates from 1991 and is listed as the source of the term generation-x here
Now, I can't find a single source about Gen Xers, as in when the term was first used, but I seem to recall it being used for a long long time. Pre 1991? I can't tell you for sure. I can't even tell you for sure when the Baby Boomlet term was first used, nor when Gen-Y, what I consider the current youth generation to be, was first used. I can tell you that the "Gen-X" movement, attitude, etc, was already noticed as early as 1982. The media at the time just couldn't understand the punk movement at all. (Things got a little out of whack on a large scale right around then, teens wearing earings, dyed hair, spikes, etc.) It was also the time in the 80s that we noticed that gee, our economy wouldn't keep growing insanely, and thus the first of us to graduate college started looking at ever bleaker job prospects, getting paid barely enough to get by, with no real prospects of advancement if you happened to get a job. (Sort of one defining aspect of GenX)
But I want to say all 3 terms have been in use more than 10 years, and I would swear that Gen X was in use prior to 1991. I would love to have this nailed down, but who's to say for sure? It's been almost 15 years and predates most of the internet (there were only a couple of thousand USENET newsgroups around at that time, and the myriad BBS's, the survivors that eventually comprised FIDONET. But that's going down almost forgotten memory lanes...even the waybackmachine doesn't go far enough back for this.
Now having done the research, I do recall we were initially called the Post-Baby Boom generation, in the early 80s on some of the freakier stuff that got reported in the news. Oh well, at the very least, Coupland is not in my frame of reference when someone mentions Generation X. I always related it to the band, who's single, Dancing with Myself, was re-released on Idol's first solo album and was a big hit at my high school, anyways. So I've 100% dated myself now!:)
Ahh, Gen-X, the disenfranchised, depending on the day and the source, I'm a gen-xer, or a baby-boomer (the latter sources I think had one too many tokes and couldn't count properly...;) Grunge was definitely a repeat of the core gen-x, redone a bit. I still recall the non-conformists of the day, the "punks" that made even bands like the Clash and the Sex Pistols look like Gramma's favorite kids.
gen-x came into their own around the early 80s. You do realize there was a band called Generation-X? I'm not sure what the exact relation was, whether the band was named for the generation, or the generation took the name from the band, or if was all a big coincidence. The band members, including Billy Idol, were ironically the last of the true baby-boomers. That's a whole other topic though.
bah, try 30+ years ago. I still remember the hippies, and I'd have to say the last original fads I can recall were parachute pants, leg warmers, and big hair - Not the "big" hair of the 50s, or the piled wigs of the 1400s-early 1900s, but that big teased looked like someone tried blow drying their hair while bathing look. These fads were all possible because of technological marvels of the day - artificial satin-like material, lycra, and the combined blow dryers, perms, and super hold hair spray.
OK, that's not entirely true, the last cool original fad I can recall was the punk/modern rock/post-modern/alternative music movements, all original before the "alternative" mainstream movement began around 1990. This was driven by the "new" electric guitar and newer multi-phonic electronic keyboards. The last 2 major innovations in musical instruments.
That whole wearing pants too big for you was pretty much done in the 30s, when people were so poor they bought clothes for their kids to grow into. The body piercing et al - pre-1900s folks. Same for "body art", which I think they've actually dated for women as a fad in the 1700s.
As for being less cool, what's less cool than walking around in corduroys, parachute pants, or leg warmers, much less that fire-hazard hair? And let's not forget the left-is-cool right-is-wrong escapade. All were phases, and they passed, for the most part. The only thing less cool in the last 10-15 years is the music scene, which thanks to the pandering of the members of the RIAA, now targets 12 yo's and has dropped all pretense of actually supporting music.
Haven't the EULAs been relegated to the same legal status as those waivers you sign before participating in an event? (ie, no real force of law, such as waivers not alleviating responsibility for negligence, etc)
I agree though, EULAs should be reformed, and should be standard. I had no issue with the standard EULA that used to be associated with just about every piece of software I saw, stuff about not being suitable for mission critical apps, gov specific conditions, etc.
The ones associated with many new products are apparently "customized" to an extent as to make them ludicrous.
Who uses IE? Seriously, that goes right back to the argument against MS being target #1 for this law.
At least I learned another reason not to use IE! That seriously blows my mind that MS thought that a good idea [TM]. Maybe XP SP2 will remove the "security" settings below medium? Heck, I can't call it that without laughing. What security? Let's invite people on in. This machine is open for worldwide use.
While I knew MS sucked wind on the security front, this blows my mind.
Hmm, MS software has more than once been proven to cause large amounts of loss. Some people would even go so far as to call it malware. After all, what's the purpose of the messenger service being on by default? What's the purpose of sharing the root drive by default?
They don't put anything on your PC, you put it there. Otherwise, they would be listed as a virus (your personal opinions aside, they do not technically qualify as a computer virus).
I cannot 100% disagree with their position. If someone is foolish enough to click through the agreement and installs spyware, as repulsive as it is, who do they really have to blame except themselves? As long as they don't act like a virus and stealth install along with another program as some programs have been known to do, I don't see how you can complain. Basically, as long as they agree, they agreed. Are you going to sue MS for typing "format c:" and then losing your system?
I should mention that Hotbar is fresh in my memory from having to step my dad remotely through the painful removal process (no network access thanks to hotbar, sort of ironic;). However, the fact that is is painful, or even if it could not be removed at all, is not cause for legislation. Otherwise, I'd like MS to be the first victim. Ever try to uninstall an IE hotfix that causes problems? How about that "Outlook security fix"? Can't see your JPGs anymore? Tough. So, while I agree that Spyware sucks rocks, I don't think Utah's legislation is very well thought out or even correct.
I think a better law would actually address personal privacy. The more I think about it, the more I think I like the EU's privacy laws, and perhaps the US should step up to that level of privacy protection. (Be hell on advertisers, but who really gives a sh!t about them anyways?)
Still, DOS, urk! Seriously, haven't had a DOS based system since about 91. Haven't missed it either.
The P4 system I was thinking about for $400 included parts that won't smoke the second you turn it on;) You might want to keep an eye on your local Fry's (if you have one) as they have weekly sales and sometimes put a rather decent motherboard comparable to a Tyan (once even a Tyan) paired with a P4 for $200.
Netscape helped dig its own grave, although MS's practice of bundling in no way helped their situation. I do not know that the outcome would have been any different had Netscape continued development with their existing code-base.
DEC was a victim of the "me too" philosophy. They saw a huge market opening, and wanted to participate, but came late to the party carrying nothing but a paper hat. You're correct, they certainly had no vision, but became followers in the biggest sense (this is in the software and services arenas). In hardware, they designed and built a great chip, and we're seeing the legacy of that chip now with the Opteron. HP must be hitting itself over the head over that "minor" mistake.
As for American auto makers, they designed and built huge crap cars (I owned and worked on many from the era right before the imports really started) and also several of the new imports. The US cars needed constant maintenance to run, were expensive, had absolutely crap gas mileage: an in-line 6 cylinder 250 cu in engine in a 2 ton car got around 6 mpg on a good day. The imports were crappy tin boxes, light, but the engines only required minor maintenance to run well over 100K miles while getting relatively good gas mileage to boot. The imports also didn't suffer from drive train problems, many were manuals, during that 100K+ miles. American cars generally lost a tranny by 80K, or, if automatic, and what wasn't in those days, slipped like mad. So, put all that together with the oil embargo and economy of 73-78, and there's no problem in seeing why the imports spanked domestics.
TC - another EEEEEK. But, like your analogy, I think an MS/TC Haves camp won't last, just like AOL didn't last. Last I heard, AOL's membership is dropping. Their move to "broadband" is hugely flawed, as they're using a proprietary PPoE solution not supported by routers, and thus people wanting to utilize a router for multiple computers or laptops wirelessly with their cable solution pretty much are SOL. Unless, of course, you pay AOL's $10 per additional computer per month charge. (or whatever ridiculous amount it was, since you didn't get a second connection, more bandwidth, or anything)
Oh, and that's provided an MS/TC thing ever happens. I'm not so sure it will, as TC is going to have some hurdles to overcome. Especially when it comes to custom software that's currently running in the business, and may not be TC friendly. Guess which product will get the boot?
Well, I use Firefox now, wonderful browser. I cringe whenever some site forces me to use IE (not often, but it does occassionally happen)
Personally, I'm looking forward to a dual Opteron system. Something that can spank an 8-way RISC system for under $2K is definitely something I'd like. Right now though, I just cannot justify it. My machines, likewise, do everything I need. (BTW, a P4 system can be had for <$400 if you need to build from scratch, won't be the biggest or the baddest, but definitely doable, AMD is even cheaper)
As to MS, I cannot help but recall the days of DEC, IBM, or Netscape, or even the big 3 car makers for that matter. Just when you thought they owned the market... someone came along and yanked them. Some are no longer around. Others are transformed and coming back. In any case, the next couple of years will be very interesting to observe MS's actions. Things will happen.
As for system wide uses, apps such as AV might have the need to add to an OS entry in the registry. Personally, I feel very strongly against keeping anything for other apps out in the registry. I actually have trouble thinking of an app that's not part of a suite (like Corel) that would require that.
That said, there is the process of registering COM objects, and that's probably done in the registry too nowadays - it's really been a while.... That's another story though.
As for XP, it multi-tasks fine. Then again, I don't run anything IE-wise except "explorer". Firefox for web browsing, Mozilla or Thunderbird (if I can get it to work reliably) for mail, and the rest is pretty much non-MS code. Office is probably the worst pig you can install on XP. It's almost like instantly downgrading your PC a couple of generations of CPUs.;)
Hardware is dirt cheap. Get a dual Opteron with 6GB of RAM for under $2K!!! That's less than either of my first three machines, a 286, a Pentium 133, and a 180MHz PPro. That latter box was $3600 due to an incredible deal with a pricing mistake on Micron's part. A top end 800 FSB P4 (not extreme) costs about $1000 with 1GB RAM and a good video card. You can compare that with the dual opteron with 2GB RAM for $1200 (these were prices I looked at about 2 weeks ago) Oh, and that dual opteron will smoke a heck of a lot more than that P4... Try some comparisons with Sun boxes;) Of course, it does matter what you run on it.
Linux does require you to be slightly choosy about hardware, and the latest and greatest hardware may not have Linux drivers, yet. I see this changing (optimistically hopefully) this year. If it does, that would spell serious trouble for MS.
I've not been a France fanboy for quite some time, but I'll have to grudgingly give them their due here, they're making a step in the right direction by not giving MS automatic license fees.
With a few more current government clients joining this wave, MS might actually become a company again instead of the software dictator it is now. It will have to compete for business. This could only help software. (I still laugh at Sun and MS's statement that software will be what people pay for, and hardware will be free. Duh. Hardware is what you can hold in your hand and has real costs. Software will be free, the service/maintenance of that software is where the money is)
Those extensions might not be 0.9 compatible. Seems that quite a few things changed between 0.7 and 0.9. I noticed that when I downloaded the new one that there was a warning somewhere about some older extensions.
That said, I'd love a couple of more features in Firefox, namely the Forms tool from Mozilla, and the ability to default cookies to a set maximum lifetime. (Forms tool is probably an extension, just haven't found it yet) I'd also love to be able to block cookies from entire subnets (probably haven't read the appropriate part in the manual about how to set this) such as *.doubleclick.net, and *.hitbox.com. Being able to do this upon the resulting "Prompt to accept cookies" dialog would be very cool and user friendly.
Those would be enough on Firefox. Thunderbird, the list is very very long on additional features. However, I'd like the current features to work more smoothly, and some interface improvements would be nice (have just downloaded 0.7, so I haven't delved into it yet, but I strongly suspect the UI friendly things I want won't be in there)
I've had this problem with multiple POP3 mailboxes, in 0.5 and Mozilla 1,7rc2 and 1.8a1. Mozilla 1.6 seems to work fine. It seems that shutting down the mail window and restarting the app solves the problem with Mozilla 1.8a1, but I believe Thunderbird 0.5 just couldn't read one of the new messages in one of the mboxes, and that was that. Really strange, it'd read the rest.
No, I have not yet reported this, as I don't have a clue how to reproduce it.
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Auto-hide: imnsho, worst thing ever. Now, I really do like the NVidia dual monitor drivers though. Make the task bar mostly transparent. You can still see and read the status bars through the task bar... that's cool. At least for those programs that have status bars.
And I run at the highest res my monitors are capable of with a decent refresh rate. I think my next one will meet or exceed 1600X1200 @ 80Hz. As soon as those come down in price a bit....
But the point isn't whether you care to, but that the 95% folks do care to. They like that flashy stuff. They want that flashy stuff. And they'll run whatever gives them that flashy stuff.
So, having the ability to as easily use the flashy stuff in the browser of your choice as it is in IE, makes the argument to switch from IE almost moot. At least as far as flashy plug ins go. Also, having it be platform independent removes the issues of OSes, freeing vendors just that little bit more.
I don't disagree about your point about plugins. I think I have flash installed on 1 or 2, but that would be the only plugin. I don't have any installed on my *nix boxes.
If this could be completed quickly, this would be a huge boon to consumers everywhere, making life much simpler for Joe Sixpack. It would be another step in commoditizing the underlying OS, and the web browser in a sense as well, as you don't have to worry about plug in support as long as it was a compliant browser.
And with CERT saying ditch IE, there's no better time than today to have this type of action. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist yet....
I'd be surprised if there aren't around 8 threads for network downloading. This was pretty much standard in the original mosiac/netscape browsers, and I'd be surprised if it wasn't carried forward.
Breaking all the separate functions out to be handled by separate threads makes lots of sense, especially if those functions wind up having to wait on network downloads and not on each other.
I believe those little pauses et al are a direct result of the original monolithic GDI, of which vestiges still run rampant through MS code.
If you don't believe this, then try doing anything in an MS app while Outlook is grabbing a 50 or 100MB file from an exchange server. It's gotten better, but still not good. Now, to prove that this is solely a code problem on MS's part, download PMMail2000, and do any large file manipulations with it. The differences in system performance are astounding.
Why something obscure like PMMail2000? Well, PMMail2000 was ported from PMMail, an OS/2 app, which has a properly threaded UI model. OS/2 encouraged proper threading practices for it's UI components, and evidently those practices hold true for MS OSes as well, although they are rarely practiced. The complete deduction is left as an exercise for the reader.
Turns out one of the key objectives of this patent:
Seems to me that all current broadcasters I know of that are listed in the suit fail to meet this criteria of sending the signal in a fraction of real time, and hence, bye bye lawsuit. I wish they would, but I have to record only one show at a time, during the broadcast window, and cannot record anything else during that broadcast window, hence, I believe they fail to infringe upon this patent. of course, the obligatory: IANAL.Quite interesting concept there, that knob. (Which in and of itself is another entire frame of reference. "knob" has a very particular meaning to a subset of the internet generation of 90-96 or so, when MUDs were large. They're much smaller percentage-wise now)
:)
But, I think things will continue as long as groups like the RIAA/MPAA exist and have the use of Clear Channel and the like to drive their crap down the population's collective throats. They truly still control what you see, and hence, some of culture. The internet, in its current incarnation, is providing some relief, and lets people know via various forms of communication that perhaps what big industry wants you to believe is not really true. Free and open communication is definitely something we need to combat the "brain-washing" we'd otherwise be subject to.
That said, the growing but still minority group that seeks alternative "culture", for lack of a better term, will utilize that knob of yours to explore new things.
Generation X, the band, existed since 1976 The also shortened their name to Gen X and also documented here
An interesting repudiation of Gen Xers as slackers was listed by none other than David Schwimmer in 1995.
Douglas Coupland's Generation X dates from 1991 and is listed as the source of the term generation-x here
Now, I can't find a single source about Gen Xers, as in when the term was first used, but I seem to recall it being used for a long long time. Pre 1991? I can't tell you for sure. I can't even tell you for sure when the Baby Boomlet term was first used, nor when Gen-Y, what I consider the current youth generation to be, was first used. I can tell you that the "Gen-X" movement, attitude, etc, was already noticed as early as 1982. The media at the time just couldn't understand the punk movement at all. (Things got a little out of whack on a large scale right around then, teens wearing earings, dyed hair, spikes, etc.) It was also the time in the 80s that we noticed that gee, our economy wouldn't keep growing insanely, and thus the first of us to graduate college started looking at ever bleaker job prospects, getting paid barely enough to get by, with no real prospects of advancement if you happened to get a job. (Sort of one defining aspect of GenX)
But I want to say all 3 terms have been in use more than 10 years, and I would swear that Gen X was in use prior to 1991. I would love to have this nailed down, but who's to say for sure? It's been almost 15 years and predates most of the internet (there were only a couple of thousand USENET newsgroups around at that time, and the myriad BBS's, the survivors that eventually comprised FIDONET. But that's going down almost forgotten memory lanes...even the waybackmachine doesn't go far enough back for this.
Now having done the research, I do recall we were initially called the Post-Baby Boom generation, in the early 80s on some of the freakier stuff that got reported in the news. Oh well, at the very least, Coupland is not in my frame of reference when someone mentions Generation X. I always related it to the band, who's single, Dancing with Myself, was re-released on Idol's first solo album and was a big hit at my high school, anyways. So I've 100% dated myself now!:)
Ahh, Gen-X, the disenfranchised, depending on the day and the source, I'm a gen-xer, or a baby-boomer (the latter sources I think had one too many tokes and couldn't count properly...;) Grunge was definitely a repeat of the core gen-x, redone a bit. I still recall the non-conformists of the day, the "punks" that made even bands like the Clash and the Sex Pistols look like Gramma's favorite kids.
gen-x came into their own around the early 80s. You do realize there was a band called Generation-X? I'm not sure what the exact relation was, whether the band was named for the generation, or the generation took the name from the band, or if was all a big coincidence. The band members, including Billy Idol, were ironically the last of the true baby-boomers. That's a whole other topic though.
bah, try 30+ years ago. I still remember the hippies, and I'd have to say the last original fads I can recall were parachute pants, leg warmers, and big hair - Not the "big" hair of the 50s, or the piled wigs of the 1400s-early 1900s, but that big teased looked like someone tried blow drying their hair while bathing look. These fads were all possible because of technological marvels of the day - artificial satin-like material, lycra, and the combined blow dryers, perms, and super hold hair spray.
OK, that's not entirely true, the last cool original fad I can recall was the punk/modern rock/post-modern/alternative music movements, all original before the "alternative" mainstream movement began around 1990. This was driven by the "new" electric guitar and newer multi-phonic electronic keyboards. The last 2 major innovations in musical instruments.
That whole wearing pants too big for you was pretty much done in the 30s, when people were so poor they bought clothes for their kids to grow into. The body piercing et al - pre-1900s folks. Same for "body art", which I think they've actually dated for women as a fad in the 1700s.
As for being less cool, what's less cool than walking around in corduroys, parachute pants, or leg warmers, much less that fire-hazard hair? And let's not forget the left-is-cool right-is-wrong escapade. All were phases, and they passed, for the most part. The only thing less cool in the last 10-15 years is the music scene, which thanks to the pandering of the members of the RIAA, now targets 12 yo's and has dropped all pretense of actually supporting music.
Well, that's enough of a rant in one posting.
Haven't the EULAs been relegated to the same legal status as those waivers you sign before participating in an event? (ie, no real force of law, such as waivers not alleviating responsibility for negligence, etc)
I agree though, EULAs should be reformed, and should be standard. I had no issue with the standard EULA that used to be associated with just about every piece of software I saw, stuff about not being suitable for mission critical apps, gov specific conditions, etc.
The ones associated with many new products are apparently "customized" to an extent as to make them ludicrous.
Look on the bright side, I think that means it's shrinking. :)
Who uses IE? Seriously, that goes right back to the argument against MS being target #1 for this law.
At least I learned another reason not to use IE! That seriously blows my mind that MS thought that a good idea [TM]. Maybe XP SP2 will remove the "security" settings below medium? Heck, I can't call it that without laughing. What security? Let's invite people on in. This machine is open for worldwide use.
While I knew MS sucked wind on the security front, this blows my mind.
Hmm, MS software has more than once been proven to cause large amounts of loss. Some people would even go so far as to call it malware. After all, what's the purpose of the messenger service being on by default? What's the purpose of sharing the root drive by default?
They don't put anything on your PC, you put it there. Otherwise, they would be listed as a virus (your personal opinions aside, they do not technically qualify as a computer virus).
Then I'd like to prosecute MS under it. After all, they're the #1 trespasser.
I'm probably going to be modded WAY down for this
I cannot 100% disagree with their position. If someone is foolish enough to click through the agreement and installs spyware, as repulsive as it is, who do they really have to blame except themselves? As long as they don't act like a virus and stealth install along with another program as some programs have been known to do, I don't see how you can complain. Basically, as long as they agree, they agreed. Are you going to sue MS for typing "format c:" and then losing your system?
I should mention that Hotbar is fresh in my memory from having to step my dad remotely through the painful removal process (no network access thanks to hotbar, sort of ironic;). However, the fact that is is painful, or even if it could not be removed at all, is not cause for legislation. Otherwise, I'd like MS to be the first victim. Ever try to uninstall an IE hotfix that causes problems? How about that "Outlook security fix"? Can't see your JPGs anymore? Tough. So, while I agree that Spyware sucks rocks, I don't think Utah's legislation is very well thought out or even correct.
I think a better law would actually address personal privacy. The more I think about it, the more I think I like the EU's privacy laws, and perhaps the US should step up to that level of privacy protection. (Be hell on advertisers, but who really gives a sh!t about them anyways?)
Still, DOS, urk! Seriously, haven't had a DOS based system since about 91. Haven't missed it either.
;) You might want to keep an eye on your local Fry's (if you have one) as they have weekly sales and sometimes put a rather decent motherboard comparable to a Tyan (once even a Tyan) paired with a P4 for $200.
The P4 system I was thinking about for $400 included parts that won't smoke the second you turn it on
Netscape helped dig its own grave, although MS's practice of bundling in no way helped their situation. I do not know that the outcome would have been any different had Netscape continued development with their existing code-base.
DEC was a victim of the "me too" philosophy. They saw a huge market opening, and wanted to participate, but came late to the party carrying nothing but a paper hat. You're correct, they certainly had no vision, but became followers in the biggest sense (this is in the software and services arenas). In hardware, they designed and built a great chip, and we're seeing the legacy of that chip now with the Opteron. HP must be hitting itself over the head over that "minor" mistake.
As for American auto makers, they designed and built huge crap cars (I owned and worked on many from the era right before the imports really started) and also several of the new imports. The US cars needed constant maintenance to run, were expensive, had absolutely crap gas mileage: an in-line 6 cylinder 250 cu in engine in a 2 ton car got around 6 mpg on a good day. The imports were crappy tin boxes, light, but the engines only required minor maintenance to run well over 100K miles while getting relatively good gas mileage to boot. The imports also didn't suffer from drive train problems, many were manuals, during that 100K+ miles. American cars generally lost a tranny by 80K, or, if automatic, and what wasn't in those days, slipped like mad. So, put all that together with the oil embargo and economy of 73-78, and there's no problem in seeing why the imports spanked domestics.
TC - another EEEEEK. But, like your analogy, I think an MS/TC Haves camp won't last, just like AOL didn't last. Last I heard, AOL's membership is dropping. Their move to "broadband" is hugely flawed, as they're using a proprietary PPoE solution not supported by routers, and thus people wanting to utilize a router for multiple computers or laptops wirelessly with their cable solution pretty much are SOL. Unless, of course, you pay AOL's $10 per additional computer per month charge. (or whatever ridiculous amount it was, since you didn't get a second connection, more bandwidth, or anything)
Oh, and that's provided an MS/TC thing ever happens. I'm not so sure it will, as TC is going to have some hurdles to overcome. Especially when it comes to custom software that's currently running in the business, and may not be TC friendly. Guess which product will get the boot?
And to think, a mere 5 or so years ago, people could barely afford 1 PC that would even pretend to capture video at an acceptable rate!
The progress amazes me. (I too own multiple boxes, of which currently 4 are off and closeted.)
Eek. DOS.
Well, I use Firefox now, wonderful browser. I cringe whenever some site forces me to use IE (not often, but it does occassionally happen)
Personally, I'm looking forward to a dual Opteron system. Something that can spank an 8-way RISC system for under $2K is definitely something I'd like. Right now though, I just cannot justify it. My machines, likewise, do everything I need. (BTW, a P4 system can be had for <$400 if you need to build from scratch, won't be the biggest or the baddest, but definitely doable, AMD is even cheaper)
As to MS, I cannot help but recall the days of DEC, IBM, or Netscape, or even the big 3 car makers for that matter. Just when you thought they owned the market... someone came along and yanked them. Some are no longer around. Others are transformed and coming back. In any case, the next couple of years will be very interesting to observe MS's actions. Things will happen.
Hear, hear. I agree on DLLs 100%.
;)
;) Of course, it does matter what you run on it.
As for system wide uses, apps such as AV might have the need to add to an OS entry in the registry. Personally, I feel very strongly against keeping anything for other apps out in the registry. I actually have trouble thinking of an app that's not part of a suite (like Corel) that would require that.
That said, there is the process of registering COM objects, and that's probably done in the registry too nowadays - it's really been a while.... That's another story though.
As for XP, it multi-tasks fine. Then again, I don't run anything IE-wise except "explorer". Firefox for web browsing, Mozilla or Thunderbird (if I can get it to work reliably) for mail, and the rest is pretty much non-MS code. Office is probably the worst pig you can install on XP. It's almost like instantly downgrading your PC a couple of generations of CPUs.
Hardware is dirt cheap. Get a dual Opteron with 6GB of RAM for under $2K!!! That's less than either of my first three machines, a 286, a Pentium 133, and a 180MHz PPro. That latter box was $3600 due to an incredible deal with a pricing mistake on Micron's part. A top end 800 FSB P4 (not extreme) costs about $1000 with 1GB RAM and a good video card. You can compare that with the dual opteron with 2GB RAM for $1200 (these were prices I looked at about 2 weeks ago) Oh, and that dual opteron will smoke a heck of a lot more than that P4... Try some comparisons with Sun boxes
Linux does require you to be slightly choosy about hardware, and the latest and greatest hardware may not have Linux drivers, yet. I see this changing (optimistically hopefully) this year. If it does, that would spell serious trouble for MS.
Yes, Microsoft has a consultancy arm, has since at least 96, they're called, originally enough, Microsoft Consultant Services.
I've not been a France fanboy for quite some time, but I'll have to grudgingly give them their due here, they're making a step in the right direction by not giving MS automatic license fees.
With a few more current government clients joining this wave, MS might actually become a company again instead of the software dictator it is now. It will have to compete for business. This could only help software. (I still laugh at Sun and MS's statement that software will be what people pay for, and hardware will be free. Duh. Hardware is what you can hold in your hand and has real costs. Software will be free, the service/maintenance of that software is where the money is)
Those extensions might not be 0.9 compatible. Seems that quite a few things changed between 0.7 and 0.9. I noticed that when I downloaded the new one that there was a warning somewhere about some older extensions.
That said, I'd love a couple of more features in Firefox, namely the Forms tool from Mozilla, and the ability to default cookies to a set maximum lifetime. (Forms tool is probably an extension, just haven't found it yet) I'd also love to be able to block cookies from entire subnets (probably haven't read the appropriate part in the manual about how to set this) such as *.doubleclick.net, and *.hitbox.com. Being able to do this upon the resulting "Prompt to accept cookies" dialog would be very cool and user friendly.
Those would be enough on Firefox. Thunderbird, the list is very very long on additional features. However, I'd like the current features to work more smoothly, and some interface improvements would be nice (have just downloaded 0.7, so I haven't delved into it yet, but I strongly suspect the UI friendly things I want won't be in there)
I've had this problem with multiple POP3 mailboxes, in 0.5 and Mozilla 1,7rc2 and 1.8a1. Mozilla 1.6 seems to work fine. It seems that shutting down the mail window and restarting the app solves the problem with Mozilla 1.8a1, but I believe Thunderbird 0.5 just couldn't read one of the new messages in one of the mboxes, and that was that. Really strange, it'd read the rest.
No, I have not yet reported this, as I don't have a clue how to reproduce it.