"Why have they put Perl in the general puropose languages category, Ruby in the "Object Oriented languages" category and Python under "scripting languages"?"
Change it if you like.
I have to admit that I'm responsible for a load of the Perl book, and I'm still not sure if it's in programming:perl or programming:languages:perl
"I've heard tales of unnecessary book-CD bundles etc. all just to inflate prices"
"As stupid as I found the idea of printing a book about Web publishing, the idea of stuffing a CD-ROM in the back seemed to belong to a whole new category of stupidity. Macmillan initially wanted a CD-ROM, on the grounds that readers think such books have more value. I said that if we couldn't get some complete RDBMS packages for the CD-ROM then there was no point in having it (and in fact as my book came out Oracle decided to make all of its software available for download on the Web so there would not have been any point even if we could have gotten a full Oracle for the disk).
I asked Macmillan to put in the standard CD-ROM pocket but fill it with a black cardboard disk, said disk to be printed with the URL for the book's virtual CD-ROM (http://demo.webho.com). Macmillan said that would be more expensive than a real disk so we ended up printing the inside back cover with a nice "no CD" symbol underneath which ran my text:
Would you really want to take Web publishing advice from someone who had to burn a CD-ROM to distribute his software? Come to http://demo.webho.com for electronic versions of the source code examples in this book, for live demos of the software in use, and for the packaged source code to larger systems. IMHO, this URL is better than a CD-ROM. You can't lose it. You can't scratch it. You can't leave it in your office when you need it at home. You can give it to your friends and still keep it for yourself.
People laugh when they read this so I think it worked."
"is it possible for a laser beam to get so hot that it causes the air inside of it to turn visibly vapourous?"
If the energy is absorbed in the air, there's less energy to reach the kid you're trying to fry. So if it were visible in the air, it would be a sign of inefficiency.
"Give them something more useful to look at, like the contact page[URL]. You can tell them why this is unreasonable."
Why would they change their mind just because they're wrong? Opinions don't work like that.
These people aren't campaigning because they believe their stated opinions are correct. They're campaigning because people want to take away some of the power they wield over those who use their work.
Since when do humans voluntarily relinquish power?
"So, if you want to put a biblical eye-for-an-eye spin on this"
"Eye-for-an-eye" only applies if you haven't read the New Testament. Specifically, the rules changed about 2000 years ago, and christians aren't going to win any favours by retributory violence.
"Other Sandia tests evaluated a terrorist attack, subjecting a container to a device 30 times more powerful than a typical anti-tank weapon. The test resulted in a quarter-inch-diameter hole through the primary containment wall."
Okay, so instead of assuming it's impossible because the government literature tells us so, howabout getting someone involved in the design to tell us where the weak spots are? Like instead of magnificent-for-TV testing of weapons against the main side wall, approaching it with a lockpick set and set of spanners or something...
"Are we really going to tell them that we can't open the most commonly used spreadsheet format in the World?"
How is that different to telling them you can't open any other sort of spreadsheet? If I send you a Gnumeric document and you can't open it, are you going to base your entire company's software policy around gnumeric to make sure there's not even a chance you'd lose a sale if you couldn't open the document i sent? Are you really going to email back and demand I jump through hoops to convert the document to some excel format (which requires a big investment to get such a system working)?
What's worse, saying "please send CSV", or saying "please buy Windows, buy a new PC, install Windows, buy MS-Office, install MS-Office, import your document, save it as Excel format, and sent it to us"?
No. Any reasonable person would choose the best software for the job, and then make allowances for odd formats that people might send them files in. If you want to keep a spare 486 lying around for opening gnumeric documents, then I'll keep a spare 486 around for opening excel documents. The difference being that I'll be using better, cheaper, and faster software than you for my everyday work, even while we both retain the ability to deal with whatever screwy crap a customer decides to send us because they think it's normal.
"What people ask for in the corporate world is a full Outlook replacement."
The Kroupware project, with the Kolab server, is an Outlook replacement. It was paid for by the government for their own use (GPL obviously), and uses all the standard KDE email, calendar features.
It also integrates with "legacy" Outlook clients, and legacy Exchange servers. That functionality costs you money, but hey, so does Outlook and Exchange!
Other than that, if you're really serious about groupware, and need it to work and work reliably, then the Web groupware projects are really the only choice. There're about 5 really good ones, plus the usual assortment of one-person projects.
And yeah, say all you like about their stability, but you can't compete with a mail client (Outlook) that leaves you completely open to having your corporate intranet fucked by anyone who sends a properly formatted email message. "How many machines do you want to patch today?"
"If a vendor can't do trivial things, like reading my Excel file, then I being to wonder if they're also incapable of doing the hard work that I'm considering paying them for."
If you judge a programming company by what office suite they use, you'll get people working for you who can't program for shit, but know how to use MS-Office. University dropouts anyone? They all use Excel perfectly.
In fact, name some famous programmers who use Excel regularly? Like, hackers I mean. The type of people who can outprogram a team of CS graduates? In fact I can only think of Joel Spolsky, and he was project-leader of Excel for a long time. For everyone else, you can either spend your time using microsoft products, or you can spend your time programming. And people who choose the former, we don't want to do our programming.
"Not reading an Excel file is like refusing to communicate by email"
No it's not. It's not even similar. It's like taking offence because you can't read a file-format I just made up.
(y'know, those people who write linux software in the evening, in charge of deciding which $4000 graphics card to buy 10 of at work during the daytime, and with a load of money to spend on games for their home computer)
Slashdot Mirror
It seems a little ironic that the screenshots presented show-off all the best features of Windows applications.
Just about to agree to the EULA of Microsoft Office
Windows needs to be restarted to continue this installation
MS-Word asking you to register
Tell me again, why do we not use OpenOffice?
"Now i can know where i am without looking up from my games!"
Beep, beep. "We are within 100 metres of your bus stop!"
"Why have they put Perl in the general puropose languages category, Ruby in the "Object Oriented languages" category and Python under "scripting languages"?"
Change it if you like.
I have to admit that I'm responsible for a load of the Perl book, and I'm still not sure if it's in programming:perl or programming:languages:perl
Philip Greenspun, writing about his book Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing
wikibooks.org
"is it possible for a laser beam to get so hot that it causes the air inside of it to turn visibly vapourous?"
If the energy is absorbed in the air, there's less energy to reach the kid you're trying to fry. So if it were visible in the air, it would be a sign of inefficiency.
Create entrails not contrails!
"Space elevators will never be feasible"
- gnu-generation-one (2004)
In the best tradition of making pessimistic but inaccurate predictions in the hope they'll come true.
"Why do peace-types protest defense systems like this so much?"
Because they allow you to attack with impunity.
"Give them something more useful to look at, like the contact page[URL]. You can tell them why this is unreasonable."
Why would they change their mind just because they're wrong? Opinions don't work like that.
These people aren't campaigning because they believe their stated opinions are correct. They're campaigning because people want to take away some of the power they wield over those who use their work.
Since when do humans voluntarily relinquish power?
"So, if you want to put a biblical eye-for-an-eye spin on this"
"Eye-for-an-eye" only applies if you haven't read the New Testament. Specifically, the rules changed about 2000 years ago, and christians aren't going to win any favours by retributory violence.
"Other Sandia tests evaluated a terrorist attack, subjecting a container to a device 30 times more powerful than a typical anti-tank weapon. The test resulted in a quarter-inch-diameter hole through the primary containment wall."
Okay, so instead of assuming it's impossible because the government literature tells us so, howabout getting someone involved in the design to tell us where the weak spots are? Like instead of magnificent-for-TV testing of weapons against the main side wall, approaching it with a lockpick set and set of spanners or something...
"I wonder how much Longhorn is going to cost exactly?"
It'll probably cost the same "1 support tech salary per 20 business computers or 2 home computers" that any other version of Windows costs.
Plus their overtime for each virus outbreak, so maybe 10 hours every three weeks.
- Diagnoses network problems
- Answers questions sent on AIM
- Sets your minesweeper scores to 9 seconds
- Makes hot chocolate
"Hopefully after the 5th time someone gets their house broken into they will realize that they need a lock, same goes with computers."
Heh right...
Thank goodness PC owners aren't responsible for keeping their houses locked. Oh, wait..
So when will the LSASS author be under arrest?
"Are we really going to tell them that we can't open the most commonly used spreadsheet format in the World?"
How is that different to telling them you can't open any other sort of spreadsheet? If I send you a Gnumeric document and you can't open it, are you going to base your entire company's software policy around gnumeric to make sure there's not even a chance you'd lose a sale if you couldn't open the document i sent? Are you really going to email back and demand I jump through hoops to convert the document to some excel format (which requires a big investment to get such a system working)?
What's worse, saying "please send CSV", or saying "please buy Windows, buy a new PC, install Windows, buy MS-Office, install MS-Office, import your document, save it as Excel format, and sent it to us"?
No. Any reasonable person would choose the best software for the job, and then make allowances for odd formats that people might send them files in. If you want to keep a spare 486 lying around for opening gnumeric documents, then I'll keep a spare 486 around for opening excel documents. The difference being that I'll be using better, cheaper, and faster software than you for my everyday work, even while we both retain the ability to deal with whatever screwy crap a customer decides to send us because they think it's normal.
"What people ask for in the corporate world is a full Outlook replacement."
The Kroupware project, with the Kolab server, is an Outlook replacement. It was paid for by the government for their own use (GPL obviously), and uses all the standard KDE email, calendar features.
It also integrates with "legacy" Outlook clients, and legacy Exchange servers. That functionality costs you money, but hey, so does Outlook and Exchange!
Other than that, if you're really serious about groupware, and need it to work and work reliably, then the Web groupware projects are really the only choice. There're about 5 really good ones, plus the usual assortment of one-person projects.
And yeah, say all you like about their stability, but you can't compete with a mail client (Outlook) that leaves you completely open to having your corporate intranet fucked by anyone who sends a properly formatted email message. "How many machines do you want to patch today?"
Lawrence Lessig for president!
5..4..3..2..1.. Thunderfoxes are GO!
"Of course, in order to require you to work at home, the company has to subsidize your broadband connection."
And supply a computer. "No your Windows software will not run on my home PC!"
"I'm sure I've come across the surname 'Hacker' as well"
Jim Hacker, from the Ministry of Administrative Affairs
"Instead, I'm springing for commercial/business class service."
So you're paying your ISP $80 per month instead of $40 per month because they blocked ports, imposed limits, and had bad customer-service.
Isn't the market supposed to punish that sort of thing, rather than reward it?
"Just to make your day a little worse, look up "flammable" and "inflammable.""
Don't misunderestimate its noninflammability.
"If a vendor can't do trivial things, like reading my Excel file, then I being to wonder if they're also incapable of doing the hard work that I'm considering paying them for."
If you judge a programming company by what office suite they use, you'll get people working for you who can't program for shit, but know how to use MS-Office. University dropouts anyone? They all use Excel perfectly.
In fact, name some famous programmers who use Excel regularly? Like, hackers I mean. The type of people who can outprogram a team of CS graduates? In fact I can only think of Joel Spolsky, and he was project-leader of Excel for a long time. For everyone else, you can either spend your time using microsoft products, or you can spend your time programming. And people who choose the former, we don't want to do our programming.
"Not reading an Excel file is like refusing to communicate by email"
No it's not. It's not even similar. It's like taking offence because you can't read a file-format I just made up.
"Why? What's the benefit to them?"
A good reputation amongst developers.
(y'know, those people who write linux software in the evening, in charge of deciding which $4000 graphics card to buy 10 of at work during the daytime, and with a load of money to spend on games for their home computer)