I think it's also that the curve has flattened out and that for many applications, processor speed is a non-issue.
How much difference does it make having a 3Ghz processor to run MS Office as a 1Ghz? Most people are better off getting a SCSI or SATA hard drive installed as an upgrade, or spending time learning keyboard shortcuts.
I remember upgrading from a P75 to a P233 to a P350 (in the period of about 3 years). It then took me over 5 until my next upgrade, and another 5 after that.
Where I once worked, they ran a DOS program in quick basic. It worked. Sure, it would have been nicer NOT to have to deal with GOSUB commands, but it only got changed about once a year, so no big deal.
The reason why many countries have more parties/more variety is because they use systems like single transferrable vote or proportional representation.
Here in the UK, you end up with huge amounts of tactical voting. People might like Labour, but prefer the Liberal Democrats, and dislike the Conservatives, but if they perceive that the seat is Conservative vs Labour with LDs trailing, they will not choose who they want, but who will defeat who they don't want.
Then, there's the issue of "safe seats". If you live in somewhere like Henley or Huntingdon, and you don't support the Conservatives, is it worth voting? Your vote doesn't count for shit because they have such huge majorities in those seats.
Also, it creates a huge disparity. No-one chases the votes of people in Henley. They are more interested in the votes of people in Worcester. Opens up huge potential for jerrymandering.
In fact one site I went to had two questions...
a)Tick here if you want us to send marketing info.
b) Tick here if you don't want to receive marketing info from our competititors.
Note...one question has to be answered with a negative and one with a positive.
You could say something like "Don't tick here if you don't want offers". Which would mean "tick here if you want offers. Would confuse most people.
APS is going the way of the disc film (remember that). It has smaller negatives, and the marketplace it exists in (family/holiday snaps) is being taken over by digital in a big way (most family people I know have gone digital because the saving on processing/film is so large).
Had Kodak developed APS with a larger neg size, they could have sold it on it's beautiful prints. They might have got amateurs to convert from 35mm and even got SLRs released for it.
There's something quite reassuring about the Olympus OM series. I used to have an OM10, and it always felt rock solid - like you could drop it from a great height and it would carry on working.
I changed it for a Canon EOS, which didn't feel so solid, but I did prefer it as a camera.
As for digital SLR prices, they are already starting to fall. Here in the UK, the baby Canon EOS digital body is now about 700UKP. A few months ago it was being sold for about 900UKP.
Good time to be looking. Most people are switching to digital. Personally, I'm going to get a digital SLR when the price comes down (which they will massively over the next 18 months). I'd use film in the meantime (although personally, I'm using a digital compact for cost saving reasons).
I've used film 3 SLRs - a Zenith EM (Russian, nightmare hard - metering a bastard - I don't recommend), an Olympus OM10 and a Canon EOS.
The EOS is a great camera - does point and click/auto focus OR you can just override everything and manual focus.
I know some purists will be offended by the autofocus, but there's times like family events where it means that anyone can pick it up and use it.
The thing is, the NHS doesn't work well for the money provided, and both parties know it. That's why they are both going to dismantle the NHS as it stands and replace it with insurance IMO.
In most European countries, they work on a system where you get health care for free or nearly free (in France, you pay 10% of the treatment cost unless you are a breadline case where you get it free). The difference is that YOU choose the hospital to get the treatment, who then claim the money back. Result? Hospitals improve or die.
The way that some doctors, nurses and health care providers have dealt with me would not happen in a competitive market. Rude, patronising and unprofessional. People missing appointments, and no call to tell me. Of course, I can complain to some quango, but what will they do. Money talks much better. If some hospital screw up it's appointment system, people will go elsewhere. The hospital will have to do something about it or go out of business.
The NHS is run badly because the government dishes out the money. And in nearly every case where government hands out money to corporations and companies, money is wasted. It shouldn't be this way - the huge bargaining power should mean that government should be able to save money. But because they lack imagination, more is wasted. I heard something recently about a messaging project (like Jabber) being commissioned which was going to cost 10s of millions.
The government doesn't provide supermarkets to make sure poor people are fed, but it gives them the money to do so. If they did, we'd probably have chronic famine and shop prices running at double.
The NHS is hideously inefficient and mostly despises any patient who they think gets a bit "uppity" (like demanding the service they were promised). They think that they run your patient care - and it seems to me that they really don't like the idea of being "patient-led".
I once had an appointment broken - a health visitor didn't turn up. No phone call from a supervisor - nothing. Two hours later, I phoned up and got a fairly standard apology. Now, had that been a company in a competitive market (like a plumber), I'd be reconsidering my options for next time. But with the NHS, I don't have that choice.
That's not to say that everyone in the NHS is bad - some doctors and nurses are great, and some of them try and fight the system and work with alternative medicines/improve their practises. It's just that when they are shit, nothing gets done about them.
The NHS is such a great system that we should be proud of. After all, no other country in the western world has thought it was good enough to copy.
IIRC there was also a bit of a "deal" struck between Tony and Bill which may have been a "misunderstanding", and caused them not to be big buddies anymore - something about wiring up schools IIRC.
Whilst true, there are a lot of file swappers who also buy a lot of music too.
When you start attacking them, it might just sour their view of you.
Think in these terms... if you booked a hotel room and then checked out 30 minutes late, and no-one was following you, would that be theft? And if someone started threatening you with criminal action at a ludicrous rate, how would you feel about ever staying in that hotel?
Is it also significant that SCO have not revealed the details of the code?
ISTM that if you want someone to stop using something, you tell them exactly what the infringement is in order for them to cease doing so, and then seek redress on monies lost.
I keep hearing about them suing companies, but I'm inclined to believe it's all hot air. There's all this... we will be doing this blah, blah blah.
The minute they sue someone for using Linux, the game is really on. Hopefully, they'll be a bunch of schmucks and go after Google. I'm dying to see the ad at the top of the Google search engine when "SCO" is typed in. The one that says "buy a 'SCO can kiss my Googling ass' T-shirt".
And what's the betting that the $699 license price remains after new year?
I don't seem to recall the movie industry fighting DVD. IIRC, they were rather pro-DVD, probably thinking of all the people replacing VHS and giving them an excuse to raise prices.
As for new stuff, don't knock it. I agree that the 40s produced some great movies, but look at the 70s or the early 90s. And you have to sometimes dig deeper than the super-hyped blockbusters.
Slashdot Mirror
How much difference does it make having a 3Ghz processor to run MS Office as a 1Ghz? Most people are better off getting a SCSI or SATA hard drive installed as an upgrade, or spending time learning keyboard shortcuts.
I remember upgrading from a P75 to a P233 to a P350 (in the period of about 3 years). It then took me over 5 until my next upgrade, and another 5 after that.
Where I once worked, they ran a DOS program in quick basic. It worked. Sure, it would have been nicer NOT to have to deal with GOSUB commands, but it only got changed about once a year, so no big deal.
Here in the UK, you end up with huge amounts of tactical voting. People might like Labour, but prefer the Liberal Democrats, and dislike the Conservatives, but if they perceive that the seat is Conservative vs Labour with LDs trailing, they will not choose who they want, but who will defeat who they don't want.
Then, there's the issue of "safe seats". If you live in somewhere like Henley or Huntingdon, and you don't support the Conservatives, is it worth voting? Your vote doesn't count for shit because they have such huge majorities in those seats.
Also, it creates a huge disparity. No-one chases the votes of people in Henley. They are more interested in the votes of people in Worcester. Opens up huge potential for jerrymandering.
It will probably end up with a staff of 3, and the most they'll do is send warning letters to people.
This government will only put an effort in to prosecute people when they can make some money or spoil people's fun.
In fact one site I went to had two questions...
a)Tick here if you want us to send marketing info.
b) Tick here if you don't want to receive marketing info from our competititors.
Note...one question has to be answered with a negative and one with a positive.
You could say something like "Don't tick here if you don't want offers". Which would mean "tick here if you want offers. Would confuse most people.
There's a centre built for it, somewhere in Cuba.
Had Kodak developed APS with a larger neg size, they could have sold it on it's beautiful prints. They might have got amateurs to convert from 35mm and even got SLRs released for it.
I changed it for a Canon EOS, which didn't feel so solid, but I did prefer it as a camera.
As for digital SLR prices, they are already starting to fall. Here in the UK, the baby Canon EOS digital body is now about 700UKP. A few months ago it was being sold for about 900UKP.
I've used film 3 SLRs - a Zenith EM (Russian, nightmare hard - metering a bastard - I don't recommend), an Olympus OM10 and a Canon EOS.
The EOS is a great camera - does point and click/auto focus OR you can just override everything and manual focus.
I know some purists will be offended by the autofocus, but there's times like family events where it means that anyone can pick it up and use it.
Nikons are also excellent cameras.
In most European countries, they work on a system where you get health care for free or nearly free (in France, you pay 10% of the treatment cost unless you are a breadline case where you get it free). The difference is that YOU choose the hospital to get the treatment, who then claim the money back. Result? Hospitals improve or die.
The way that some doctors, nurses and health care providers have dealt with me would not happen in a competitive market. Rude, patronising and unprofessional. People missing appointments, and no call to tell me. Of course, I can complain to some quango, but what will they do. Money talks much better. If some hospital screw up it's appointment system, people will go elsewhere. The hospital will have to do something about it or go out of business.
The NHS is run badly because the government dishes out the money. And in nearly every case where government hands out money to corporations and companies, money is wasted. It shouldn't be this way - the huge bargaining power should mean that government should be able to save money. But because they lack imagination, more is wasted. I heard something recently about a messaging project (like Jabber) being commissioned which was going to cost 10s of millions.
The government doesn't provide supermarkets to make sure poor people are fed, but it gives them the money to do so. If they did, we'd probably have chronic famine and shop prices running at double.
They'd probably want a "postcode lottery" mod for it where you have to shoot patients in certain areas of the country.
I once had an appointment broken - a health visitor didn't turn up. No phone call from a supervisor - nothing. Two hours later, I phoned up and got a fairly standard apology. Now, had that been a company in a competitive market (like a plumber), I'd be reconsidering my options for next time. But with the NHS, I don't have that choice.
That's not to say that everyone in the NHS is bad - some doctors and nurses are great, and some of them try and fight the system and work with alternative medicines/improve their practises. It's just that when they are shit, nothing gets done about them.
The NHS is such a great system that we should be proud of. After all, no other country in the western world has thought it was good enough to copy.
IIRC there was also a bit of a "deal" struck between Tony and Bill which may have been a "misunderstanding", and caused them not to be big buddies anymore - something about wiring up schools IIRC.
When you start attacking them, it might just sour their view of you.
Think in these terms... if you booked a hotel room and then checked out 30 minutes late, and no-one was following you, would that be theft? And if someone started threatening you with criminal action at a ludicrous rate, how would you feel about ever staying in that hotel?
Where do they get any list where anyone likes Vanilla Ice?
Probably laying low, trying to avoid getting subpoaenaed by IBM.
The best bits were the "laws" like: Whatever reason you give for buying a computer, you'll end up playing games on it.
I'd love to get a copy of the book as I lost mine.
There's a levy in the UK on these, but not on normal blanks.
ISTM that if you want someone to stop using something, you tell them exactly what the infringement is in order for them to cease doing so, and then seek redress on monies lost.
Make use of public spaces. You'll get that general thing of people being around.
Eat well. Don't graze.
Get dressed every morning. If you are at home, don't just start working in a dressing gown.
Try and get to do some work at the office. Like 1 day per week. It will help to retain focus.
Enjoy your freedom. Personally, I used to love being able to go shopping or take in a movie mid-afternoon and then work in the evening.
The minute they sue someone for using Linux, the game is really on. Hopefully, they'll be a bunch of schmucks and go after Google. I'm dying to see the ad at the top of the Google search engine when "SCO" is typed in. The one that says "buy a 'SCO can kiss my Googling ass' T-shirt".
And what's the betting that the $699 license price remains after new year?
If we all link to this, do you think there's a chance we can push it up the page ranks? :)
As for new stuff, don't knock it. I agree that the 40s produced some great movies, but look at the 70s or the early 90s. And you have to sometimes dig deeper than the super-hyped blockbusters.
So, some user is going to get "are you sure you want to trust the 'porn and not really a virus.exe' application?"
And how many dunces will just click "Yes".
Best way to stop users screwing up: educate them or give them telnet.
And what sort of things?