Secondly, a ruling against whirlpool means a precedent would be set which basically ensured that forums in Australia would be practically eliminated. This is both bad for a lot of businesses and bad for users.
To be fair, it's worth pointing out that "forums", despite their growing popularity and usefulness, are neither the only available source of information on the internet, nor the only manner in which information can be made public.
Usenet, for example, is alive and well, and friendly enough for the point and click crowd. I don't see any groups dedicated to ISP issues, but it would be fairly trivial to set up one up and circumvent any and all privacy or censorship issues.
At first glance, it would seem very strange how people could suffer from dyslexia...
You've reminded me of a law firm where I once worked. It was one of those international prestigious, original-art-on-the-walls kind of places. One of the regular receptionists, it turns out, suffered from dyslexia. Not a quality one would want in someone whose job it is to take and give out names and numbers. To make things worse, she was a native or Rochester, New York. The sound of her accent was something like you'd get if you fed a sendmail.cf file to speech recognition software. Sweet girl, and kind of pretty, but still.
There's a point to this story, but I forget what it is.
In fact, I am an experienced IT professional, and I have only a vague idea what you are talking about. The fact is, I do not spend my time studying the innards of Linux: I have other kinds of issues that I worry about.
LOL. You don't need to spend your time studying the innards of Linux any more than you would with any operating system. Just buy supported hardware. That's what "IT professionals" do, as does any reasonably informed consumer.
Granted, most hardware is designed for Windows, but then again, most hardware is crap, something of which you may be blissfully ignorant. It's not hard to see the correlation why such hardware has, under Linux and other operating systems, a level of support that ranges from barely with a lot of grief, to not at all, to not ever.
And if you think this is all too much trouble, then have a glance at, for example, HARDWARE.TXT. You don't need to be a kernel programmer to be able to jot down a few model numbers before you make that purchase. And if you take a minute to review your scribbled notes, you can come up with some general rules of your own without having to memorise things: buy Intel NICs, use Atheros-based chipsets for wireless, insist on 3Ware RAID cards, and so on. Such rules will address 99% of all hardware concerns and things will "just work." The irony, of course, is that while such hardware enjoys full support, you may still be faced with installing drivers under Windows.
The important issue here is extending the level of support for certain hardware outside of the Windows ecosystem, not the consequences of making ill-informed purchasing decisions or addressing the wildly inaccurate assumptions a typical consumer can make. Hell, if people spent a fraction of time they spent reading the label on a box breakfast cereal on deciding on a piece of computer equipment, then we wouldn't be having these distracting discussions.
A good alternative is script. Flushing output at 30 second intervals is probably more efficient in circumstances where there's heavy IO, like a long compile job.
Some of these wonky new vi's with their fancy colouring and extra modes which coincide with legacy vi commands are evil.
Granted vi is everywhere and fast, but you have a problem with colouring?
Using vi to perform even a trivial edit to a file that's heavily commented is as mind-numbing as it is counter-productive, to say nothing of the added bonus of mucking things up with a simple typo because you consider syntax hi-lighting to be something "fancy" rather than functional.
IMHO, the only reason why someone would inist on vi rather than any of the IMproved versions, is that either they don't use it much, or that it's installed by default and anything else seems too troublesome. The counter argument, however, holds more weight. Using a featureful (in all circumstances) program that you've mastered and are accustomed to relying on almost always outweighs the benefits of insisting on an idealogue-ist minimalism.
I write everything in sh, but I sure wouldn't want to be using it as an interactive shell. Installing bash (instead of tcsh or whatever the default is) and vim is the first thing I do. And if I have to slog through a big inbox, I'll expect to be using mutt instead of mail. I'd wager my approach is more productive in the long term. That doesn't mean I don't respect your point of view; I'm just wondering how often it is you need to visit the opthalmologist for a new eyeglass prescription.;-)
Maybe you should be sent to concentration camp... you know... to learn to concentrate.
Maybe my attention span is too long. I actually didn't get that at first reading.;-)
This reminds of a friend of my mine telling me the story of how he dealt with his daughter's teenage years. At a certain point after puberty, teenagers naturally become rebellious, but in her case, she became insolent, short-tempered to the point of making everyone around her miserable, and was generally antisocial. Sounds familiar, huh?
Well, one day when she was mouthing off to him about something while the TV blared in the background, he decided to pull the plug. Literally. Out of the wall and out of the TV. The deal was that there would be no TV in the house until she straightened out.
She screamed for the first few days, was somewhere between angry and resentful the week after, and in time settled down, resigned herself to the situation and started reading books (again). By the end of the month, things were harmonious for everyone. When she asked her dad whether she would be able to watch TV again, she did so calmly and politely. He said yes, of course, but with limitations. From then on, things were different for everyone. Today, she doesn't even own a TV.
My guess is that TV, per se, doesn't reduce attention span. It just lowers the level of patience for anyone who watches too much of it. In some way, it's analogous to the current state of affairs with electronic communication (email, posting on web forums, etc.) -- it seems to invite or even encourage a short-tempered rudeness that would be unheard of if the person had to take the time to sit down and write it out the old fashioned way.
Right, because everyone knows how to find the registry, everyone knows how to find how to find the registry, everyone knows how to interpret the registry, everyone knows how to kill programs running as "SYSTEM" and keep them from running again, and all malware is immediately obvious as being on your hard drive.
I didn't say everyone. I implied anyone armed with the knowledge that comes from simply reading a fairly ordinary book. Again, a cursory understanding of the registry and such things startup routines and how to manage what is started and turn off what is undesired (irrespective of what account it will run under) isn't rocket science. It's fundamental to how Windows works, i.e., it should be basic knowledge, just like being able to find a file. The folks who consider themselves "power users" (whatever that is), can google for how to start cmd.exe under the SYSTEM account to impress friends and family; unlikely that they'll ever come across a reason to use it.
You're an idiot.
Look, you won't find a more patient or sympathetic individual when it comes to helping people who don't know very much. I could teach any of the above to a new user in an hour or two, or they could buy a book and learn for themselves. Hardly an onerous requirement, given that most of us are (and will be, for the forseeable future) spending our waking hours using a computer. Hell, I'd bet most of the positive results from these malware scanners is a direct result of simply people not bothering to configure whatever program they installed and now need a tool to uncheck the radio boxes they left checked.
If you're thinking "Well, no one needs to know anything -- they just want to use a tool", then consider two fairly evident truths. First, a computer isn't a single-purpose tool. The "La la la I can't hear you!" approach won't make it so. Second, the investment in time learning something always outweighs the costs of insisting on (or trumpeting) ignorance, and then dealing consequences thereof. Only an idealogue would suggest otherwise.
In that light, installing and running malware scanners, etc., etc., etc., I see as a convience at best, and a false economy at worst. That's a fair statement. Put another way, you don't need them.
Uh, someone remind me what the modern way to remove spyware is? I still use those programs:-/
The programs are a convenience (friendly GUI, progress dialogs, etc.).
Determining what files are sitting on your hard drive, what settings (startup, etc.) are contained in your registry, or what programs or services are currently running on your system, etc., etc., doesn't require the installation of any these "scanner" programs. It's basic administration. Boring job, maybe, but it's a fact of life. And no more difficult than picking a good book and learning to use the tools already available to you.
They did. And most people liked their moo-cow store decor. IIRC, things went into the toilet around the time they started selling systems with Windows ME installed.
I also have Comcast cable and ADSL (but although AT&T owns the copper, I'm not using them as a service provider due to them using PPPoE...
I'm curious as to why you have two connections. That aside, you probably know that PPPoE is not used for customers with static IP plans. If you're willing to pay for two connections, why not spend an extra few bucks and skip the PPPoE issues altogether?
I know about LaTeX, I wrote 2 theses and 10 papers in LaTeX, and it is not an adequate replacement.
Not to sound criticial, but writing 2 theses and 10 papers sounds like what most any student does in their first term in a typical year in high school. Hardly evidence of extended or advanced usage.
I've used Framemaker longer than I care to remember, but I'd choose LaTeX any day of the week for any kind of project. Put another way, I've invested years learning and mastering my text editor and related tools (shell, sed/awk, Perl, cvs, diff, etc.) and would be a fool to throw that away for an approach that's narrow and implies vendor lock-in.
As a point of reference, this text has been in the OpenBSD dhcpd man page for as long as I can remember...
An even better point of reference are the installers.
With respect to the BSDs, for example, new users typically bitch or are so put off by it that they refuse to consider it. Most everyone else doesn't care both for multiple reasons, among which is the reason cited in your DHCPD example, that none of use can't fathom the concept of repeatedly installing/reinstalling the OS to fix a problem, and that a full-blown GUI installer with limited features for customisation or automation is as counter productive as it is a waste of time.
At any rate, the bitch fest is entertaining to read.;-)
The registrars I've used charge nothing to substitute their own details for the registrants in the public WHOIS response. And their "profits far in excess"? On the $15-a-year fees, they're welcome to any profit they can take.
Well, I'm sure there's sellers on eBay that don't charge for shipping, but the ones I've dealt with always do.;-) Godaddy charges $6.99 per year for private registation.
As a side note, people on DSL (cable?) connections may want to a whois lookup on their own address. I was miffed when I discovered my personal info published. Asking my provider to mask the private information required a formal request, but unlike some registars, they did it for free.
The new model can fill 100Mbit ethernet. Fairly useful, given that with 4 NICs, you might have more than one network (aside from your slow cable/ADSL link) through which to pass traffic.
Seems interesting, but not enough to trawl the website!
Judging from your laundry list of questions, you're unaware of both Soekris products and their widespread popularity. I'd suggest first visiting the link I provided for people in your position, and then do a Google search for 'Soekris' using 'inurl:slashdot'.
Soekris is now shipping a New and Improved product, the net5501. Early reports suggest that this is their first product that's able to route at line speed. I have two on order that I should receive next week.
The release of Vista suggests that we need more and more powerful systems to do our work, but the irony, at least for me, is that I keep buying more of the little guys. Being able to use fanless cases and/or flash drives is a definite selling point, but there's a surprising amount of processing power available in such products and their uses are as limitless as your own imagination. Besides, hacking those ubiquitous blue boxes can never be as satisfying as building your own.
The VIA units I own could be described as underpowered, but having onboard MPEG decoders, for example, can make up for the shortcomings.
Spike TV and one 'o them 'God' channels. Just to keep some balance.
Speaking of 'God' channels, John Safran vs. God is quite good. Was that what you were thinking of?
Personally, I'm interested in more worldly matters. I have an extended cable subscription, but my regular viewing is limited to PBS (news and entertainment), C-SPAN and an occasional Dog Whisperer episode. My sojourns onto other channels mostly serve to remind me how much crap is out there, how often that same crap is repeated, and how much I hate my cable provider.
The funny thing is that I would be willing to pay the same amount of money to see only the stations I want. Provided, of course, that I could something like Al Jazeera, for example, without upsetting the general population.
The only thing that can induce these telcos to make costly infrastructure upgrades is competition, which is in pretty short supply currently.
Well, maybe the government can step in and develop a public/private partnership, and then offer them tax breaks to offset the costs of infrastructure upgrades. IIRC, similar models are in place for the military, the oil industry, and big pharma.
Well, to be fair testing, testing and more testing may appear to be onerous and cause all sorts of unfortunate results for everyone involved, but there has to be a standard against which progress is measured. It's hardly unusual to find high school seniors in both poor and good schools that excel in their coursework, but can't read or write. That said, it is true that some of those unfortunate results are profound, widespread and serious.
My take on the matter is that society has made a decision to help those most in need. That means dealing with, to use a very unpolitically-correct phrase, the lame, infirm and the stupid, as well as those who simply can't speak English (of which the numbers are staggering). You can argue against it, fight it, or work around it, but it won't change any time soon. And if it makes you mad, try not to think about how much of the education budget is set aside for such efforts.
I'm thinking back to an old New Yorker cartoon I saw... there was a Red Dwarf episode... the Egyptians... [t]he Soviets were also proficient...
LOL. A well rounded invididual. There's hope for Slashdot, yet.
I remember that New Yorker cartoon, but what came to my mind was an article in Harper's concerning something Tacitus wrote in the Annals about Seneca that was applicable to the Bush administration handling of the war in Iraq. I'd quote it but I'd have to work in the story line of a Dr. Who episode and a reference to both Proust and truthiness to compete and remain on topic. Instead, I'll offer a Vonnegut quote:
There was a writer in 'Life' magazine... who claimed that rabbits have no memory, which is one of their defensive mechanisms. If they recalled every close shave they had in the course of just an hour life would become insupportable.
I don't think counting documents on the web is particularly a useful way to try to measure the dominance of office suites or their associated file formats. Its, perhaps, an easy measure, but not a meaningful one.
Agreed, but only if you're a rational sort.
I'm reminded of my head exploding some years ago when I read about Bill Gates' disappointment at learning that of all the rich and varied content available on the web, so little of it was offered in.doc file format.
Slashdot Mirror
Secondly, a ruling against whirlpool means a precedent would be set which basically ensured that forums in Australia would be practically eliminated. This is both bad for a lot of businesses and bad for users.
To be fair, it's worth pointing out that "forums", despite their growing popularity and usefulness, are neither the only available source of information on the internet, nor the only manner in which information can be made public.
Usenet, for example, is alive and well, and friendly enough for the point and click crowd. I don't see any groups dedicated to ISP issues, but it would be fairly trivial to set up one up and circumvent any and all privacy or censorship issues.
At first glance, it would seem very strange how people could suffer from dyslexia ...
You've reminded me of a law firm where I once worked. It was one of those international prestigious, original-art-on-the-walls kind of places. One of the regular receptionists, it turns out, suffered from dyslexia. Not a quality one would want in someone whose job it is to take and give out names and numbers. To make things worse, she was a native or Rochester, New York. The sound of her accent was something like you'd get if you fed a sendmail.cf file to speech recognition software. Sweet girl, and kind of pretty, but still.
There's a point to this story, but I forget what it is.
In fact, I am an experienced IT professional, and I have only a vague idea what you are talking about. The fact is, I do not spend my time studying the innards of Linux: I have other kinds of issues that I worry about.
LOL. You don't need to spend your time studying the innards of Linux any more than you would with any operating system. Just buy supported hardware. That's what "IT professionals" do, as does any reasonably informed consumer.
Granted, most hardware is designed for Windows, but then again, most hardware is crap, something of which you may be blissfully ignorant. It's not hard to see the correlation why such hardware has, under Linux and other operating systems, a level of support that ranges from barely with a lot of grief, to not at all, to not ever.
And if you think this is all too much trouble, then have a glance at, for example, HARDWARE.TXT. You don't need to be a kernel programmer to be able to jot down a few model numbers before you make that purchase. And if you take a minute to review your scribbled notes, you can come up with some general rules of your own without having to memorise things: buy Intel NICs, use Atheros-based chipsets for wireless, insist on 3Ware RAID cards, and so on. Such rules will address 99% of all hardware concerns and things will "just work." The irony, of course, is that while such hardware enjoys full support, you may still be faced with installing drivers under Windows.
The important issue here is extending the level of support for certain hardware outside of the Windows ecosystem, not the consequences of making ill-informed purchasing decisions or addressing the wildly inaccurate assumptions a typical consumer can make. Hell, if people spent a fraction of time they spent reading the label on a box breakfast cereal on deciding on a piece of computer equipment, then we wouldn't be having these distracting discussions.
tee. Only two command-line options.
A good alternative is script. Flushing output at 30 second intervals is probably more efficient in circumstances where there's heavy IO, like a long compile job.
Some of these wonky new vi's with their fancy colouring and extra modes which coincide with legacy vi commands are evil.
;-)
Granted vi is everywhere and fast, but you have a problem with colouring?
Using vi to perform even a trivial edit to a file that's heavily commented is as mind-numbing as it is counter-productive, to say nothing of the added bonus of mucking things up with a simple typo because you consider syntax hi-lighting to be something "fancy" rather than functional.
IMHO, the only reason why someone would inist on vi rather than any of the IMproved versions, is that either they don't use it much, or that it's installed by default and anything else seems too troublesome. The counter argument, however, holds more weight. Using a featureful (in all circumstances) program that you've mastered and are accustomed to relying on almost always outweighs the benefits of insisting on an idealogue-ist minimalism.
I write everything in sh, but I sure wouldn't want to be using it as an interactive shell. Installing bash (instead of tcsh or whatever the default is) and vim is the first thing I do. And if I have to slog through a big inbox, I'll expect to be using mutt instead of mail. I'd wager my approach is more productive in the long term. That doesn't mean I don't respect your point of view; I'm just wondering how often it is you need to visit the opthalmologist for a new eyeglass prescription.
Maybe you should be sent to concentration camp... you know... to learn to concentrate.
;-)
Maybe my attention span is too long. I actually didn't get that at first reading.
This reminds of a friend of my mine telling me the story of how he dealt with his daughter's teenage years. At a certain point after puberty, teenagers naturally become rebellious, but in her case, she became insolent, short-tempered to the point of making everyone around her miserable, and was generally antisocial. Sounds familiar, huh?
Well, one day when she was mouthing off to him about something while the TV blared in the background, he decided to pull the plug. Literally. Out of the wall and out of the TV. The deal was that there would be no TV in the house until she straightened out.
She screamed for the first few days, was somewhere between angry and resentful the week after, and in time settled down, resigned herself to the situation and started reading books (again). By the end of the month, things were harmonious for everyone. When she asked her dad whether she would be able to watch TV again, she did so calmly and politely. He said yes, of course, but with limitations. From then on, things were different for everyone. Today, she doesn't even own a TV.
My guess is that TV, per se, doesn't reduce attention span. It just lowers the level of patience for anyone who watches too much of it. In some way, it's analogous to the current state of affairs with electronic communication (email, posting on web forums, etc.) -- it seems to invite or even encourage a short-tempered rudeness that would be unheard of if the person had to take the time to sit down and write it out the old fashioned way.
Right, because everyone knows how to find the registry, everyone knows how to find how to find the registry, everyone knows how to interpret the registry, everyone knows how to kill programs running as "SYSTEM" and keep them from running again, and all malware is immediately obvious as being on your hard drive.
I didn't say everyone. I implied anyone armed with the knowledge that comes from simply reading a fairly ordinary book. Again, a cursory understanding of the registry and such things startup routines and how to manage what is started and turn off what is undesired (irrespective of what account it will run under) isn't rocket science. It's fundamental to how Windows works, i.e., it should be basic knowledge, just like being able to find a file. The folks who consider themselves "power users" (whatever that is), can google for how to start cmd.exe under the SYSTEM account to impress friends and family; unlikely that they'll ever come across a reason to use it.
You're an idiot.
Look, you won't find a more patient or sympathetic individual when it comes to helping people who don't know very much. I could teach any of the above to a new user in an hour or two, or they could buy a book and learn for themselves. Hardly an onerous requirement, given that most of us are (and will be, for the forseeable future) spending our waking hours using a computer. Hell, I'd bet most of the positive results from these malware scanners is a direct result of simply people not bothering to configure whatever program they installed and now need a tool to uncheck the radio boxes they left checked.
If you're thinking "Well, no one needs to know anything -- they just want to use a tool", then consider two fairly evident truths. First, a computer isn't a single-purpose tool. The "La la la I can't hear you!" approach won't make it so. Second, the investment in time learning something always outweighs the costs of insisting on (or trumpeting) ignorance, and then dealing consequences thereof. Only an idealogue would suggest otherwise.
In that light, installing and running malware scanners, etc., etc., etc., I see as a convience at best, and a false economy at worst. That's a fair statement. Put another way, you don't need them.
Uh, someone remind me what the modern way to remove spyware is? I still use those programs :-/
The programs are a convenience (friendly GUI, progress dialogs, etc.).
Determining what files are sitting on your hard drive, what settings (startup, etc.) are contained in your registry, or what programs or services are currently running on your system, etc., etc., doesn't require the installation of any these "scanner" programs. It's basic administration. Boring job, maybe, but it's a fact of life. And no more difficult than picking a good book and learning to use the tools already available to you.
Gateway has customers?!
They did. And most people liked their moo-cow store decor. IIRC, things went into the toilet around the time they started selling systems with Windows ME installed.
Coincidence, bad karma or unfortunate timing?
I doubt many get it, so in the interests of general education, a quick linky:
ablative
WTF is a 'case' and why should I care?
I also have Comcast cable and ADSL (but although AT&T owns the copper, I'm not using them as a service provider due to them using PPPoE ...
I'm curious as to why you have two connections. That aside, you probably know that PPPoE is not used for customers with static IP plans. If you're willing to pay for two connections, why not spend an extra few bucks and skip the PPPoE issues altogether?
Merci pour les emissions gratuits, mes amis!
... ;-)
Je suis fier d'être le premier à déclarer bienvenue à nos nouveaux legal streaming suzerains Français!
Ok, it could use some work
I know about LaTeX, I wrote 2 theses and 10 papers in LaTeX, and it is not an adequate replacement.
Not to sound criticial, but writing 2 theses and 10 papers sounds like what most any student does in their first term in a typical year in high school. Hardly evidence of extended or advanced usage.
I've used Framemaker longer than I care to remember, but I'd choose LaTeX any day of the week for any kind of project. Put another way, I've invested years learning and mastering my text editor and related tools (shell, sed/awk, Perl, cvs, diff, etc.) and would be a fool to throw that away for an approach that's narrow and implies vendor lock-in.
I guess that makes the score 1-1.
As a point of reference, this text has been in the OpenBSD dhcpd man page for as long as I can remember ...
;-)
An even better point of reference are the installers.
With respect to the BSDs, for example, new users typically bitch or are so put off by it that they refuse to consider it. Most everyone else doesn't care both for multiple reasons, among which is the reason cited in your DHCPD example, that none of use can't fathom the concept of repeatedly installing/reinstalling the OS to fix a problem, and that a full-blown GUI installer with limited features for customisation or automation is as counter productive as it is a waste of time.
At any rate, the bitch fest is entertaining to read.
The registrars I've used charge nothing to substitute their own details for the registrants in the public WHOIS response. And their "profits far in excess"? On the $15-a-year fees, they're welcome to any profit they can take.
;-) Godaddy charges $6.99 per year for private registation.
Well, I'm sure there's sellers on eBay that don't charge for shipping, but the ones I've dealt with always do.
As a side note, people on DSL (cable?) connections may want to a whois lookup on their own address. I was miffed when I discovered my personal info published. Asking my provider to mask the private information required a formal request, but unlike some registars, they did it for free.
What does 'route at line speed' mean?
The new model can fill 100Mbit ethernet. Fairly useful, given that with 4 NICs, you might have more than one network (aside from your slow cable/ADSL link) through which to pass traffic.
Seems interesting, but not enough to trawl the website!
Judging from your laundry list of questions, you're unaware of both Soekris products and their widespread popularity. I'd suggest first visiting the link I provided for people in your position, and then do a Google search for 'Soekris' using 'inurl:slashdot'.
Soekris is now shipping a New and Improved product, the net5501. Early reports suggest that this is their first product that's able to route at line speed. I have two on order that I should receive next week.
The release of Vista suggests that we need more and more powerful systems to do our work, but the irony, at least for me, is that I keep buying more of the little guys. Being able to use fanless cases and/or flash drives is a definite selling point, but there's a surprising amount of processing power available in such products and their uses are as limitless as your own imagination. Besides, hacking those ubiquitous blue boxes can never be as satisfying as building your own.
The VIA units I own could be described as underpowered, but having onboard MPEG decoders, for example, can make up for the shortcomings.
Spike TV and one 'o them 'God' channels. Just to keep some balance.
Speaking of 'God' channels, John Safran vs. God is quite good. Was that what you were thinking of?
Personally, I'm interested in more worldly matters. I have an extended cable subscription, but my regular viewing is limited to PBS (news and entertainment), C-SPAN and an occasional Dog Whisperer episode. My sojourns onto other channels mostly serve to remind me how much crap is out there, how often that same crap is repeated, and how much I hate my cable provider.
The funny thing is that I would be willing to pay the same amount of money to see only the stations I want. Provided, of course, that I could something like Al Jazeera, for example, without upsetting the general population.
At the very least, it might make for an interesting scene in a movie.
I for one welcome our new SMTP overlords.
More probably, it's the new MAPI overlords you'll have to welcome.
The only thing that can induce these telcos to make costly infrastructure upgrades is competition, which is in pretty short supply currently.
...
Well, maybe the government can step in and develop a public/private partnership, and then offer them tax breaks to offset the costs of infrastructure upgrades. IIRC, similar models are in place for the military, the oil industry, and big pharma.
Oh, wait
Well, to be fair testing, testing and more testing may appear to be onerous and cause all sorts of unfortunate results for everyone involved, but there has to be a standard against which progress is measured. It's hardly unusual to find high school seniors in both poor and good schools that excel in their coursework, but can't read or write. That said, it is true that some of those unfortunate results are profound, widespread and serious.
My take on the matter is that society has made a decision to help those most in need. That means dealing with, to use a very unpolitically-correct phrase, the lame, infirm and the stupid, as well as those who simply can't speak English (of which the numbers are staggering). You can argue against it, fight it, or work around it, but it won't change any time soon. And if it makes you mad, try not to think about how much of the education budget is set aside for such efforts.
LOL. A well rounded invididual. There's hope for Slashdot, yet.
I remember that New Yorker cartoon, but what came to my mind was an article in Harper's concerning something Tacitus wrote in the Annals about Seneca that was applicable to the Bush administration handling of the war in Iraq. I'd quote it but I'd have to work in the story line of a Dr. Who episode and a reference to both Proust and truthiness to compete and remain on topic. Instead, I'll offer a Vonnegut quote:
Discuss.
I don't think counting documents on the web is particularly a useful way to try to measure the dominance of office suites or their associated file formats. Its, perhaps, an easy measure, but not a meaningful one.
.doc file format.
Agreed, but only if you're a rational sort.
I'm reminded of my head exploding some years ago when I read about Bill Gates' disappointment at learning that of all the rich and varied content available on the web, so little of it was offered in
My head has exploded many times since then.