Wish I had mod points- an excellent discussion. In addition, the OLPC has brought this discussion to the forefront- without the project nobody would be having these discussions. Would anyone argue that distributing OLPC among the poor of the Americas, Europe and industrialized Asia would be useful? The red herring raised as an objection to the OLPC always seems to be some hypothetical starving African in the bush- that's pretty much a very small demographic among the computer deprived.
I was really glad to hear students in Alabama (http://www.jasonbradbury.com/jason_bradbury/2007/11/latest-developi.html) will be getting the OLPC. I was stationed in Montgomery, AL- not exactly the third world but there's a DoD school on the base. I found out why during orientation to the area. I actually though the Montgomery school (on the other side of the base fence from the DoD school) was the relic of the old DoD school and asked why it hadn't been demolished already. It was that bad. An OLPC won't give the students who had to attend that school better teachers, books or buildings but it might give them a better view of the wider world.
So far as I know the publishing world may be concerned with making a profit but so few authors make any money that I would think redistribution is the least of their worries. Do paperbacks self distruct when you're finished reading them? Are we prohibited from giving them away? Why should we pay extra to do less with an inconvenient medium?
You should check with your local library esp if that's a University or large public library. I know many of these facilities offer free acess to huge databanks of pulications. My Uni (UMASS) for instance provides unfettered access to Safari among others.
My guess is that this 20 ton truck (dragon wagon?) would be target of the mortars, just as APCs have begun the target of IEDs. Something which only serves itself is, in the business, known as a self-licking ice-cream cone; think battleships and to some measure aircraft carriers. They might have a purpose, but it's only accidental and definitely not what was envisioned when the weapon system was designed. I actually worked on one of the first deployed laser weapons- it was and is fantastic in it's place. Unfortunately, that place is NOT the modern day battlefield. Something which illuminated an area and temporarily blinded the recipients, that would be useful, the described purpose is fanciful and designed to appeal to people who think Star Wars (the movie) type weapons will be invented with the next decade (hint: they won't).
This will come in really handy among the hills of Afghanistan and the narrow streets of Bagdhad. Imagine being able to pinpoint terrorists, find weapon caches and occupy territory with these weapons- why they are just as useful in these scenarios as they are against the imaginary massive army of mechanized forces for which they might have been of some use. Just the thing to run up the deficit and a great trade off compared to say, more active duty end strength or veteran education programs.
The ONLY reasons everyone doesn't own an iPhone a) ATT (wtf was Jobs thinking) b) (refer to a) p) Price. It costs a lot of money- not out of line with it's competitors by the way but way more than the freebies or $50 after MIR that most people are used to.
and it is for precisely this reason (laptops suck for gaming so people who use laptops aren't using them for gaming and gaming is the SOLE remaining strength for MS Windows) that Linux should be concentrating on making the "laptop experience" very, very good. Power consumption, useful utilities, synching to phones, etc. I struck me that Linux is beginning to lag. The portable consumer devices just haven't materialized. MS Mobile 6 is just about everywhere due to it's integrated GSM/GPS/MS Crap functionality. Same with MS Windows XP and Vista on laptops. No matter how much they suck, unless there's a superior alternative they will win.
As far as laptops- they are like cars. Let someone else buy them new. Desktops are orders of magnitude cheaper and you can't haul a 37" screen or good speaker system around with you no matter how efficient batteries get on laptops. Physics and all are are against laptops.
It's produced in China using toxic chemicals. The shareholders of MSFT all drive SUVs and wack Bald Eagles as they motor down Pennsylvania Avenue. How about considering how we might turn this on it's head and generating some effective retribution through mainstream channels. Yeah, we're all convinced on Slashdot but how about convincing all the readers of Time or Myspace.
Yeah- that worked great for OS/2 and sales of Macs have really skyrocketed since basecamp. The last thing Linux needs to do is support MS Windows applications in any way shape or fashion; it's an admission that what we have is not as good. Things which do work in Linux will be quickly debilitated by Microsoft.
How can you say this with a straight face? Do think this was driven by ANYTHING other than commercial interests? That is all this is about- the commercial interests of potential lawsuits which might be filed against the BBC by copyright holders if they aren't putting in the appearance of protecting the content.
The question of whether or not they are actually protecting anything is unclear. Freezing out non-Microsoft Windows users is a deliberate step (guess who they hired to manage the program and where they worked before...). If they were going to deploy Realplay (no great improvement) they would have figured out a way in the last three years to do so. Claims to the contrary are attempt to defuse the situation until MS has a things solidified and the non MS users have given up an gone away. Unless you are on BBC board or a high-ranking UK or EU official an personally involved the BBC couldn't give a shit who you are or what you think- they are sucking Microsoft's hind teat.
I used to have DSL- yeah you had to have a POTS to sign up but I cancelled that 8 seconds after the loser installer left the house. They never followed up to see if I kept the POTS. If there's any industry that needs a shakeup it's the telecom one- those early days of small companies offering internet access and the hope (make that a dream) of equal access need to stange a comeback. I will never get any product via AT&T but I do wish they'd start challenging the cable companies so both of these butthead monopolies would start to compete.
" I'm actually quite fond of Linux, despite being mainly based in Microsoft tech and I'd actually like Linux to thrive..
Hold on there for a second- aren't you conceding Microsoft's argument? There is NO evidence that Linux is based on Microsoft tech- in fact if the source be known there might be quite a bit of "code sharing" on Microsoft's part. We just don't know.
So be careful of accepting statements without evidence backing them up. Just as Microsoft would like to kill Linux, Linux would certainly be better off if Microsoft Windows were not sold. I don't think anyone in the Linux community feels beholden to anything coming out of Redmond.
Ummm- no in my experience (US based) the Universities have already succumbed. Between WebCT, Exchange servers and let's not forget SAP basically everything administration wise many Universities do is MS only. I run into it every day.
It's interesting, having watched the podcast and having recently attended an OLPC presentation, to compare and contrast. At the OLPC demo I was VERY impressed by the dedication and enthusiasm of the OLPC reps. Each and everyone was sincere and very focused on what might improve the PC. They were open to any and all ideas and very seemingly adept at both implementing good ideas quickly and removing cruft whenever it was discovered.
The MS presentation was also very focused- in this case not on what might help the person do their job better or save them money but - how soon you could sell and what their potential revenue stream was. Yeah- the "zunecast" was a sales pitch but couldn't they at least have thrown in a bone about helping the customer?
I experience it all the time. MS Fanboys are SELL, SELL, SELL. Every pitch is dedicated to SELL, SELL, SELL. So I get it- sales are important to a business but really, it's annoying. Right up there with telemarketers at this stage.
Bullshit. NOBODY and I mean NOBODY wastes their time calling Dell or virtually any other software vendor with the expectation that vendor will solve any problems or even give a fly fuck about anything they have to say. Who here has ever gotten a straight and enlightening answer from a vendor on anything other than a hardware related question? I never gotten anything other than bullshit and excuses. How about you? It's time for the support FUD to end.
Users, well businesses anyway don't seem to care one bit whether MS WIndows, any version, works or not. That's my observation. Use it and shut up...
My work PC is a 2.8GHz P4. Not high end but typically over 40% of it's processor is taken up doing god knows what security wise. There's "service" after "service" designed to bolt on what should have been there from the start but won't ever bet. Put Sparcos, tinted glass and 20in spinners on a piece of crap and it'll still handle like crap and throw you out the windshield the first time it hits the curb.
So it'll be with Vista evidently. We can whine as we wish- anyone here making purchasing decisions? Anyone here said no, I'm making the decisions here and we're moving this business or University or town to Linux or OSX or anything but? If we're not a position to make that sort of decision in our little corner of the world, we're rocks Vista's going to crush into the pavement.
Write them and your own rep and let them know how you feel- I mean are you shocked? Biden is from Delaware where most large corporations are headquartered, Feinstein is from California, Lindsey Grahama and Lamar are well known freakamazoid. Check out who donates to these clowns and see if this isn't exactly what you'd expect!
If this is the best Ford has got, not wonder they are tanking. I can see powerpoint briefs instead of manuals, having to reformat your stereo and of course being lost when the required (expensive) upgrade to the nav system refuses to read your old route files. Come on Ford, why not bring back a big of reliability, build quality and mileage instead of wasting your R&D on this nonsense. Given your presence in the EU and their attitude toward Microsoft, do you really publicizing this relationship is wise?
Since when is "Definitely, Vista is very very improved OS over the previous versions,.." a given? It's just been released to businesses, it has NO track record outside of the beta program and it's yet to be established if there is any compelling reason for businesses or homes to purchase it. It'll gradually be deployed as MS leverages it's OEM agreements and forces game designers to support DX10 but shoving something down someone's throat doesn't mean they'll like the taste of it or that it will be good for them.
It is not so much HTML mail which has been blocked as access to all web-based email "clients" such as gmail, yahoo and of course the Outlook web client. HTML formatted MIME mail still is enabled- I just tested it.
So what- what reason, besides it comes from Microsoft, would ANYONE have to buy one of this pieces of plastic shit. It's brown and it's a piece of shit.
If you want a decent player, get a Cowon A2, X5, etc. They use Linux and play it all. And what's with the Bill Bork. Shouldn't MS be represented by an overweight, chair throwing baldie doing a River Dance all over the stage? I think that's the modern Microsoft.
Slashdot Mirror
Wish I had mod points- an excellent discussion. In addition, the OLPC has brought this discussion to the forefront- without the project nobody would be having these discussions. Would anyone argue that distributing OLPC among the poor of the Americas, Europe and industrialized Asia would be useful? The red herring raised as an objection to the OLPC always seems to be some hypothetical starving African in the bush- that's pretty much a very small demographic among the computer deprived.
I was really glad to hear students in Alabama (http://www.jasonbradbury.com/jason_bradbury/2007/11/latest-developi.html) will be getting the OLPC. I was stationed in Montgomery, AL- not exactly the third world but there's a DoD school on the base. I found out why during orientation to the area. I actually though the Montgomery school (on the other side of the base fence from the DoD school) was the relic of the old DoD school and asked why it hadn't been demolished already. It was that bad. An OLPC won't give the students who had to attend that school better teachers, books or buildings but it might give them a better view of the wider world.
So far as I know the publishing world may be concerned with making a profit but so few authors make any money that I would think redistribution is the least of their worries. Do paperbacks self distruct when you're finished reading them? Are we prohibited from giving them away? Why should we pay extra to do less with an inconvenient medium?
You should check with your local library esp if that's a University or large public library. I know many of these facilities offer free acess to huge databanks of pulications. My Uni (UMASS) for instance provides unfettered access to Safari among others.
Couldn't believe nobody had acknowledged this mod-point worthy pun so I did it myself. Well done.
My guess is that this 20 ton truck (dragon wagon?) would be target of the mortars, just as APCs have begun the target of IEDs. Something which only serves itself is, in the business, known as a self-licking ice-cream cone; think battleships and to some measure aircraft carriers. They might have a purpose, but it's only accidental and definitely not what was envisioned when the weapon system was designed. I actually worked on one of the first deployed laser weapons- it was and is fantastic in it's place. Unfortunately, that place is NOT the modern day battlefield. Something which illuminated an area and temporarily blinded the recipients, that would be useful, the described purpose is fanciful and designed to appeal to people who think Star Wars (the movie) type weapons will be invented with the next decade (hint: they won't).
This will come in really handy among the hills of Afghanistan and the narrow streets of Bagdhad. Imagine being able to pinpoint terrorists, find weapon caches and occupy territory with these weapons- why they are just as useful in these scenarios as they are against the imaginary massive army of mechanized forces for which they might have been of some use. Just the thing to run up the deficit and a great trade off compared to say, more active duty end strength or veteran education programs.
As a former long time ATI/AMD fanboy (never owned Intel until last year, never owned nvidia yet) I can say I think the boat is the Titanic.
Call it "9", put it in a tight suit and give it big tits and a camel toe. Now THAT will sell.
An ATI card that can perform as well as the two generations previous nVidia card....
The ONLY reasons everyone doesn't own an iPhone a) ATT (wtf was Jobs thinking) b) (refer to a) p) Price. It costs a lot of money- not out of line with it's competitors by the way but way more than the freebies or $50 after MIR that most people are used to.
and it is for precisely this reason (laptops suck for gaming so people who use laptops aren't using them for gaming and gaming is the SOLE remaining strength for MS Windows) that Linux should be concentrating on making the "laptop experience" very, very good. Power consumption, useful utilities, synching to phones, etc. I struck me that Linux is beginning to lag. The portable consumer devices just haven't materialized. MS Mobile 6 is just about everywhere due to it's integrated GSM/GPS/MS Crap functionality. Same with MS Windows XP and Vista on laptops. No matter how much they suck, unless there's a superior alternative they will win.
As far as laptops- they are like cars. Let someone else buy them new. Desktops are orders of magnitude cheaper and you can't haul a 37" screen or good speaker system around with you no matter how efficient batteries get on laptops. Physics and all are are against laptops.
It's produced in China using toxic chemicals. The shareholders of MSFT all drive SUVs and wack Bald Eagles as they motor down Pennsylvania Avenue. How about considering how we might turn this on it's head and generating some effective retribution through mainstream channels. Yeah, we're all convinced on Slashdot but how about convincing all the readers of Time or Myspace.
Yeah- that worked great for OS/2 and sales of Macs have really skyrocketed since basecamp. The last thing Linux needs to do is support MS Windows applications in any way shape or fashion; it's an admission that what we have is not as good. Things which do work in Linux will be quickly debilitated by Microsoft.
How can you say this with a straight face? Do think this was driven by ANYTHING other than commercial interests? That is all this is about- the commercial interests of potential lawsuits which might be filed against the BBC by copyright holders if they aren't putting in the appearance of protecting the content.
The question of whether or not they are actually protecting anything is unclear. Freezing out non-Microsoft Windows users is a deliberate step (guess who they hired to manage the program and where they worked before...). If they were going to deploy Realplay (no great improvement) they would have figured out a way in the last three years to do so. Claims to the contrary are attempt to defuse the situation until MS has a things solidified and the non MS users have given up an gone away. Unless you are on BBC board or a high-ranking UK or EU official an personally involved the BBC couldn't give a shit who you are or what you think- they are sucking Microsoft's hind teat.
I used to have DSL- yeah you had to have a POTS to sign up but I cancelled that 8 seconds after the loser installer left the house. They never followed up to see if I kept the POTS. If there's any industry that needs a shakeup it's the telecom one- those early days of small companies offering internet access and the hope (make that a dream) of equal access need to stange a comeback. I will never get any product via AT&T but I do wish they'd start challenging the cable companies so both of these butthead monopolies would start to compete.
Hold on there for a second- aren't you conceding Microsoft's argument? There is NO evidence that Linux is based on Microsoft tech- in fact if the source be known there might be quite a bit of "code sharing" on Microsoft's part. We just don't know.
So be careful of accepting statements without evidence backing them up. Just as Microsoft would like to kill Linux, Linux would certainly be better off if Microsoft Windows were not sold. I don't think anyone in the Linux community feels beholden to anything coming out of Redmond.
Ummm- no in my experience (US based) the Universities have already succumbed. Between WebCT, Exchange servers and let's not forget SAP basically everything administration wise many Universities do is MS only. I run into it every day.
Steve,
Damn- don't you have chairs to throw?
Steve (J)
It's interesting, having watched the podcast and having recently attended an OLPC presentation, to compare and contrast. At the OLPC demo I was VERY impressed by the dedication and enthusiasm of the OLPC reps. Each and everyone was sincere and very focused on what might improve the PC. They were open to any and all ideas and very seemingly adept at both implementing good ideas quickly and removing cruft whenever it was discovered.
The MS presentation was also very focused- in this case not on what might help the person do their job better or save them money but - how soon you could sell and what their potential revenue stream was. Yeah- the "zunecast" was a sales pitch but couldn't they at least have thrown in a bone about helping the customer?
I experience it all the time. MS Fanboys are SELL, SELL, SELL. Every pitch is dedicated to SELL, SELL, SELL. So I get it- sales are important to a business but really, it's annoying. Right up there with telemarketers at this stage.
Bullshit. NOBODY and I mean NOBODY wastes their time calling Dell or virtually any other software vendor with the expectation that vendor will solve any problems or even give a fly fuck about anything they have to say. Who here has ever gotten a straight and enlightening answer from a vendor on anything other than a hardware related question? I never gotten anything other than bullshit and excuses. How about you? It's time for the support FUD to end.
Users, well businesses anyway don't seem to care one bit whether MS WIndows, any version, works or not. That's my observation. Use it and shut up...
My work PC is a 2.8GHz P4. Not high end but typically over 40% of it's processor is taken up doing god knows what security wise. There's "service" after "service" designed to bolt on what should have been there from the start but won't ever bet. Put Sparcos, tinted glass and 20in spinners on a piece of crap and it'll still handle like crap and throw you out the windshield the first time it hits the curb.
So it'll be with Vista evidently. We can whine as we wish- anyone here making purchasing decisions? Anyone here said no, I'm making the decisions here and we're moving this business or University or town to Linux or OSX or anything but? If we're not a position to make that sort of decision in our little corner of the world, we're rocks Vista's going to crush into the pavement.
Write them and your own rep and let them know how you feel- I mean are you shocked? Biden is from Delaware where most large corporations are headquartered, Feinstein is from California, Lindsey Grahama and Lamar are well known freakamazoid. Check out who donates to these clowns and see if this isn't exactly what you'd expect!
? cid=N00009975&cycle=2002
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/sector.asp
Of course they represent those who donate to them and unless you write their offices and your own they'll get away with this sort of crap!
If this is the best Ford has got, not wonder they are tanking. I can see powerpoint briefs instead of manuals, having to reformat your stereo and of course being lost when the required (expensive) upgrade to the nav system refuses to read your old route files. Come on Ford, why not bring back a big of reliability, build quality and mileage instead of wasting your R&D on this nonsense. Given your presence in the EU and their attitude toward Microsoft, do you really publicizing this relationship is wise?
Since when is "Definitely, Vista is very very improved OS over the previous versions,.." a given? It's just been released to businesses, it has NO track record outside of the beta program and it's yet to be established if there is any compelling reason for businesses or homes to purchase it. It'll gradually be deployed as MS leverages it's OEM agreements and forces game designers to support DX10 but shoving something down someone's throat doesn't mean they'll like the taste of it or that it will be good for them.
It is not so much HTML mail which has been blocked as access to all web-based email "clients" such as gmail, yahoo and of course the Outlook web client. HTML formatted MIME mail still is enabled- I just tested it.
So what- what reason, besides it comes from Microsoft, would ANYONE have to buy one of this pieces of plastic shit. It's brown and it's a piece of shit.
If you want a decent player, get a Cowon A2, X5, etc. They use Linux and play it all. And what's with the Bill Bork. Shouldn't MS be represented by an overweight, chair throwing baldie doing a River Dance all over the stage? I think that's the modern Microsoft.