Really, not trying to cause a flame attack here...
The author bashes MS for his wasted time, and although he doesn't push linux as the answer, I'll ask the/. crowd this: Is a linux-based solution really that much easier for a typical home family setup? Would a mom+pop+siblings+optional grandma really be able to figure out how to setup, use, and maintain a network of linux boxes, under any gui of choice?
Without a "computer guy" (m/f), I don't think so.
This is one thing that has made the Mac so beloved within its niche -- it's a much shorter and shallower learning curve to knowing the ins and outs of a Mac OS (even now, with OS X) than any other OS+hardware combination. And this is what will keep so many Win users from exploring any other option -- they don't know how to start, and starting takes *time*. Even more than 11 hrs.
This is good advice if the computer is considered as an "entertainment device."
But there is this faint possibility that the kids might actually use the computer for *schoolwork*. So shoving it in the "entertainment room" might make it difficult for them to use it for anything else than entertainment. If you've got the space, can it go somewhere with more of an office/study type of setting? It can be easier to do work in a space that's designated for it, and it's less fun to look for or do naughty stuff in that space as well.
Moreover, the intrusion into private affairs made possible with a GPS device is quite extensive as the information obtained can disclose a great deal about an individual's life. For example, the device can provide a detailed record of travel to doctors' offices, banks, gambling casinos, tanning salons, places of worship, political party meetings, bars, grocery stores, exercise gyms, places where children are dropped off for school, play, or day care, the upper scale restaurant and the fast food restaurant, the strip club, the opera, the baseball game, the 'wrong' side of town, the family planning clinic, the labor rally. In this age, vehicles are used to take people to a vast number of places that can reveal preferences, alignments, associations, personal ails and foibles. The GPS tracking devices record all of these travels, and thus can provide a detailed picture of one's life.
By this philosophy, any similar tracking of one's on-line "travels" without a warrant would be just as revealing. In this day and age, a person can visit internet locations that easily reveal his/her "preferences, alignments, associations, personal ails and foibles." I don't know if the court had this association in mind when this concept was drafted, but it does seem to apply...
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The author bashes MS for his wasted time, and although he doesn't push linux as the answer, I'll ask the /. crowd this: Is a linux-based solution really that much easier for a typical home family setup? Would a mom+pop+siblings+optional grandma really be able to figure out how to setup, use, and maintain a network of linux boxes, under any gui of choice?
Without a "computer guy" (m/f), I don't think so. This is one thing that has made the Mac so beloved within its niche -- it's a much shorter and shallower learning curve to knowing the ins and outs of a Mac OS (even now, with OS X) than any other OS+hardware combination. And this is what will keep so many Win users from exploring any other option -- they don't know how to start, and starting takes *time*. Even more than 11 hrs.
This is good advice if the computer is considered as an "entertainment device."
But there is this faint possibility that the kids might actually use the computer for *schoolwork*. So shoving it in the "entertainment room" might make it difficult for them to use it for anything else than entertainment. If you've got the space, can it go somewhere with more of an office/study type of setting? It can be easier to do work in a space that's designated for it, and it's less fun to look for or do naughty stuff in that space as well.
Moreover, the intrusion into private affairs made possible with a GPS device is quite extensive as the information obtained can disclose a great deal about an individual's life. For example, the device can provide a detailed record of travel to doctors' offices, banks, gambling casinos, tanning salons, places of worship, political party meetings, bars, grocery stores, exercise gyms, places where children are dropped off for school, play, or day care, the upper scale restaurant and the fast food restaurant, the strip club, the opera, the baseball game, the 'wrong' side of town, the family planning clinic, the labor rally. In this age, vehicles are used to take people to a vast number of places that can reveal preferences, alignments, associations, personal ails and foibles. The GPS tracking devices record all of these travels, and thus can provide a detailed picture of one's life.
By this philosophy, any similar tracking of one's on-line "travels" without a warrant would be just as revealing. In this day and age, a person can visit internet locations that easily reveal his/her "preferences, alignments, associations, personal ails and foibles." I don't know if the court had this association in mind when this concept was drafted, but it does seem to apply...