Microsoft may not be making money off of their browser, but it does help them keep a name for themselves. Firefox helps end users realize that other companies make good or, *gasp*, better software than Microsoft. This, in turn, lessens their reliance on MS products.
Also, I think the Firefox project has been an inspiration to open source developers and users. As stated in TFA, it's one of the first open source projects to really make it into the mainstream. That's seen as something that can be done now, which is pretty important IMHO.
I don't see Firefox as being the end of Microsoft by any means. What I see is that Firefox may be the beginning of something big.
Other than the type of light emitted, you've also got to think about the fact that your eyes are staying focussed at the same length for all of the time that you spend working on your computer. Your eyes normally get excercise from changing focus, but because everything is on the same plain when working on a computer, they never get that exercise. As far as I know this causes people to have a tendency towards being nearsighted.
There's always that degree of "I won't get caught" though. People don't really rob banks anymore because they know that they're going to get caught, no matter what. Security is just too tight. The people who deal drugs, and that spam, however, know that the ratio of people who do the deeds and get punished for them are in their favor, therefore they don't think there's much chance of them getting caught and they decide that the risk is acceptable. That's my view on the whole thing anyway.
I have to dissagree about 16mm film not being made anymore. I think you'll find that it's used quite often in film schools and for independant films.
Re:What's wrong with freezing a drive?
on
Creative Data Loss
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I've had the same thing happen. Actually all the work for that entire semester of school was on the drive and I almost didn't graduate because of it. (now I'm a bit more careful).
Anyway, I noticed that the deathstar would have problems at certain points and give the well known 4 scrapes and two clicks. After some hard though and a lot of research (a lot pointing to freezing) I ended up waiting till it was having trouble reading and then I twisted it with a decent amount of force. My hypothesis was that if I did this, the drive would realize that the heads were misaligned and reset them. Luckily, it did the trick and after some fsck'ng I was able to get all the data off the drive.
So in this scenario you work directly for the end user? If so, how is the payment structured? Let's say you have 100 end users and a piece of software that will take 1000 dollars (to make things easy) to create. Does each of them pay 100 dollars? What happens when someone else comes along and the software has already been made? If you're not working for the end user, but for a business, where are they recieving the income to pay you with?
I'm not discounting your idea, but I find it a little hard to implement. Props to you, however, for thinking about the problem. It's more than a lot of people do.
Unfortunately, I think a lot of that has to do with marketing. With these new formats, the amount of storage is the real selling point, just as it is with hard drives. You always hear about the new huge drive that came out, but how about higher spindle speeds, faster seek times and *gasp* better reliability! I agree with you that if things are going to get better we need to find a way to head toward solid state storage, but it doesn't seem like any of the major manufacturers give a damn.
Personally, I ended up with a cable modem from Adelphia, who I can't stand, because verizon wanted to charge me 35 dollars a month for a phone that I wouldn't ever use. They insisted that I had to have a valid phone number and that there was no way to get that phone number without the base phone service. I don't know if it's different in other areas, but there was no way around it for me.
One thing you have to think about is web developers. Personally I can't wait for PNG to be fully supported because it's going to make things a lot easier and we'll probably see some nice effects on web sites once all browsers support it. The box model is a major annoyance, and the list goes on. That's at least one reason to care whether you use the browser or not.
I'm not so sure. How much does the need for technical understanding come into play here? I may be amazingly paranoid, but isn't it a possibility for a judge or jury to be confused enough by fast talking lawyers who bring fast talking technical witnesses to the stand? Look at all the patents that have recently been on slashdot. I seriously doubt that they were all won with everyone knowing all of the facts. Yes, it's far off and unlikely, but I shudder thinking about what would happen if it did happen.
My apologies if I've wasted someone's time who read this, but with all this FUD going around, it's bound to get people a bit freaked out and I'm not ashamed to say that I'm one of them. Every one of us here knows what could happen if Microsoft pulled off every scheme that they wanted to, and it wouldn't be a good thing.
hell, if not for the social faux pa I'd wear a purse with me. It gets annoying having a cell phone in one pocket, my big ring of keys in another, my pda somewhere else (actually I don't even take it with me because it's so hard to find a place for it)... the list goes on and on.
I'd be more worried about installing illegal software personally. Also, we rarely turn customers away in a case like this. They might get mad and huff and puff but in the end they usually just tell us to go ahead and sell them another copy.
Sepluv, is there any chance you could provide a link or two to sources showing microsofts encouragement of piracy? Not that I doubt you, I just find the idea interesting and would like to read more about it.
It may not keep them happy, but it's not the fault of the store. When we do a reinstall of XP at the store I work at if they've lost their key, we tell them they need to buy a new copy and that's the end of it. If they don't like it they can go somewhere else.
Honestly, depending upon cost, I wouldn't have much problem with that. A lot of the things I watch on tv don't need to be highly detailed. Granted it would be nice to see it at 640x480, but either way I'd do it if it was a buck a month per channel or something
I disagree. The companies selling the hardware are aiding the companies who are manufacturing it. I think they should be held accountable (if the patent is upheld).
That's true, but it is very valuable to anyone that runs windows, which still (unfortunately) holds a large share of the market. Unfortunately, that means that about 90+% of the home user market still has to open IE every once in a while whether they want to or not.
I do, however, get your point and I agree completely. While working on a mac I have little to no reason to browse with anything other than safari.
Slashdot Mirror
And this is why I don't go to the doctor unless I'm near death.
Microsoft may not be making money off of their browser, but it does help them keep a name for themselves. Firefox helps end users realize that other companies make good or, *gasp*, better software than Microsoft. This, in turn, lessens their reliance on MS products.
Also, I think the Firefox project has been an inspiration to open source developers and users. As stated in TFA, it's one of the first open source projects to really make it into the mainstream. That's seen as something that can be done now, which is pretty important IMHO.
I don't see Firefox as being the end of Microsoft by any means. What I see is that Firefox may be the beginning of something big.
Other than the type of light emitted, you've also got to think about the fact that your eyes are staying focussed at the same length for all of the time that you spend working on your computer. Your eyes normally get excercise from changing focus, but because everything is on the same plain when working on a computer, they never get that exercise. As far as I know this causes people to have a tendency towards being nearsighted.
I say they take the one they're always advertising to grow for us :)
There's always that degree of "I won't get caught" though. People don't really rob banks anymore because they know that they're going to get caught, no matter what. Security is just too tight. The people who deal drugs, and that spam, however, know that the ratio of people who do the deeds and get punished for them are in their favor, therefore they don't think there's much chance of them getting caught and they decide that the risk is acceptable. That's my view on the whole thing anyway.
I have to dissagree about 16mm film not being made anymore. I think you'll find that it's used quite often in film schools and for independant films.
I've had the same thing happen. Actually all the work for that entire semester of school was on the drive and I almost didn't graduate because of it. (now I'm a bit more careful).
Anyway, I noticed that the deathstar would have problems at certain points and give the well known 4 scrapes and two clicks. After some hard though and a lot of research (a lot pointing to freezing) I ended up waiting till it was having trouble reading and then I twisted it with a decent amount of force. My hypothesis was that if I did this, the drive would realize that the heads were misaligned and reset them. Luckily, it did the trick and after some fsck'ng I was able to get all the data off the drive.
So in this scenario you work directly for the end user? If so, how is the payment structured? Let's say you have 100 end users and a piece of software that will take 1000 dollars (to make things easy) to create. Does each of them pay 100 dollars? What happens when someone else comes along and the software has already been made? If you're not working for the end user, but for a business, where are they recieving the income to pay you with?
I'm not discounting your idea, but I find it a little hard to implement. Props to you, however, for thinking about the problem. It's more than a lot of people do.
Unfortunately, I think a lot of that has to do with marketing. With these new formats, the amount of storage is the real selling point, just as it is with hard drives. You always hear about the new huge drive that came out, but how about higher spindle speeds, faster seek times and *gasp* better reliability! I agree with you that if things are going to get better we need to find a way to head toward solid state storage, but it doesn't seem like any of the major manufacturers give a damn.
Well, if a cheap video card is all you're looking for to get that mac running the way you want it, here you go: Apple Mac ATI Radeon 7000 32MB 32 MB PCI Video Card
Personally, I ended up with a cable modem from Adelphia, who I can't stand, because verizon wanted to charge me 35 dollars a month for a phone that I wouldn't ever use. They insisted that I had to have a valid phone number and that there was no way to get that phone number without the base phone service. I don't know if it's different in other areas, but there was no way around it for me.
One thing you have to think about is web developers. Personally I can't wait for PNG to be fully supported because it's going to make things a lot easier and we'll probably see some nice effects on web sites once all browsers support it. The box model is a major annoyance, and the list goes on. That's at least one reason to care whether you use the browser or not.
Check your logs. There's usually some pretty good information about why it quit.
I'm not so sure. How much does the need for technical understanding come into play here? I may be amazingly paranoid, but isn't it a possibility for a judge or jury to be confused enough by fast talking lawyers who bring fast talking technical witnesses to the stand? Look at all the patents that have recently been on slashdot. I seriously doubt that they were all won with everyone knowing all of the facts. Yes, it's far off and unlikely, but I shudder thinking about what would happen if it did happen.
My apologies if I've wasted someone's time who read this, but with all this FUD going around, it's bound to get people a bit freaked out and I'm not ashamed to say that I'm one of them. Every one of us here knows what could happen if Microsoft pulled off every scheme that they wanted to, and it wouldn't be a good thing.
hell, if not for the social faux pa I'd wear a purse with me. It gets annoying having a cell phone in one pocket, my big ring of keys in another, my pda somewhere else (actually I don't even take it with me because it's so hard to find a place for it)... the list goes on and on.
Hmm, that's interesting. Thanks for the info.
I'd be more worried about installing illegal software personally. Also, we rarely turn customers away in a case like this. They might get mad and huff and puff but in the end they usually just tell us to go ahead and sell them another copy.
Sepluv, is there any chance you could provide a link or two to sources showing microsofts encouragement of piracy? Not that I doubt you, I just find the idea interesting and would like to read more about it.
It may not keep them happy, but it's not the fault of the store. When we do a reinstall of XP at the store I work at if they've lost their key, we tell them they need to buy a new copy and that's the end of it. If they don't like it they can go somewhere else.
Honestly, depending upon cost, I wouldn't have much problem with that. A lot of the things I watch on tv don't need to be highly detailed. Granted it would be nice to see it at 640x480, but either way I'd do it if it was a buck a month per channel or something
Bah, I've gotta do that with my car whenever it rains anyway.
What's with the redundant moderation on this post? I think there are some valid points made here.
I disagree. The companies selling the hardware are aiding the companies who are manufacturing it. I think they should be held accountable (if the patent is upheld).
That's true, but it is very valuable to anyone that runs windows, which still (unfortunately) holds a large share of the market. Unfortunately, that means that about 90+% of the home user market still has to open IE every once in a while whether they want to or not.
I do, however, get your point and I agree completely. While working on a mac I have little to no reason to browse with anything other than safari.
Hey, I think there might be a market for this. Man-made meteor showers could replace fireworks for the 4th of july!