Absolutely Microsoft in my opinion has done more damage to the interest of seamless computing with that single "transparency" than maybe all other gaffes combined (probably thought they were creating something seamless!)! I've seen more hacks, more lost files, more corrupt files, and more hijacked files with the hidden extension "feature". Jumping from the 8.3 restriction in DOS (another thing Microsoft could've/should've fixed long ago with their bully pulpit but didn't) into Windows and GUI's and high powered computing rather than expunging extensions as a requirement to "make things work", Microsoft hid them! And so something that is ostensibly necessary in the Microsoft paradigm and probably should be opaque so people can be aware, ask questions, and learn what extensions are, how they're used, and why they exist.... Microsoft opts to make transparent!
You're right on about the filename.jpg.exe hacks.... but equally annoying are the piggybacking superfluous extensions, e.g., mypicture.jpg.JPG. Sheeesh!
The feature which everyone is talking about lately is the addition of tabbed browsing to IE. While all other popular browsers have gone the tabbed route IE has resisted, ostensibly because other Microsoft programs do not use this. The change will be made though it is less important that in the past because Windows XP's taskbar is capable of grouping similar buttons, which effectively tabs a number of IE windows.
First, Windows products do seem to use TABS.... Right-click on "My Computer" (if you've actually left it named that!), select PROPERTIES. Not only does Microsoft use TABS to manage some of the most important aspects of computers, they've done it poorly! What the....???? When you click on an upper row tab, the upper row of TABS becomes the bottom row?!? Wow! Yes, Microsoft products not only support and/or use TABS, they were the first to make me hate tabbed interfaces.
Fortunately Mozilla and Firefox came along and convinced me tabbed interfaces could be done nicely and ergonomicly. I'm back in the tabbed fold... sigh.
Second, the claim that adding tabbed browsing to IE is less important because the Taskbar can group similar activities, therefor it already is like tabbed browsing may illustrate more than I'm able how Microsoft doesn't get it. The "like apps" Taskbar browsing has been the source of more headaches for me... I've tried using it, found it obtuse and annoying -- that's okay, just my preference and opinion. But, once again, it's been frustrating in a support role because you (rhetorically) end up trouble-shooting for users an interface poorly thought out and confusing to users. I find Microsoft's "easy to use" ideas sometimes baffling.... (how many times have you over the phone tried to walk someone through a WORD problem only to stumble when they can't find the menu option, and it's because Microsoft has unilaterally decided "hiding" little-used features under menu chevrons).
Other than that, back to the main topic, hopefully more energetic competition in the browser world will mean better and higher quality browsers, but if history serves, it will be a minor spurt in advancement until Microsoft has re-landed their stranglehold on that segment of the market.... and I'm guessing that won't take very long.
Okay, I'm probably dating myself here (illegal in Nebraska, btw), but I
remember REXX when it emerged as a replacement for EXEC which I had coded
extensively in (written entire app systems) on IBM mainframes. There were a
lot of benefits to REXX back then, notably it cleaned up and made
transparent a lot of garbage and system management chores required to write
clean EXEC code (e.g., strings tokenized at 8 chars, awkward variable
interpolation)... I used REXX for a while on the mainframe and can't
remember why I abandoned it.
Fast forward 2 or 3 hundred years, and I found myself dropped into a Unix
universe, and quickly self taught myself the ins and outs of shell. Haven't
looked back since. Now, I'm looking back and am intrigued... REXX really
does have some interesting features. And, since I have a little free time
on my hands, maybe I'll re-visit REXX, but from userland out there, any
feedback would be useful:
Are there any performance issues with REXX, especially for large
implementations?
How much can you do self-contained in REXX today? One of the things I
like about a language like perl is it really abstracts a lot of utilities
otherwise passed outside of perl's purview, shielding coders from having to
write platform specific snippets for portability. From the examples it
looks like REXX takes the other philosophy and encourages dropping out
momentarily to execute a native system command or utility.
Like perl, are there ways to be strict with REXX (it wasn't totally
apparent from the article)?
Is REXX really that popular out there? The article seems to think REXX
is one of the most popular languages, but other than me I can't name a
single other programmer I've known who writes/has written REXX applications.
Maybe this is only a European seed for now (in the article).
Is anyone else uncomfortable with case insensitive languages? That was
one of the things I'd hoped REXX would address when it came out as a
replacement for EXEC, I've always thought aside from the confusion factor of
ignoring case (ever lose a file in Windows because of this?), not
distinguishing case throws away an entire semantic of elegance for creating
better and more maintainable code.
Again, I am not seeing any mention of the irony that the last Star Wars (one of the worst movies I've ever seen btw) broke all records in its debut... all this with piracy still "not under control" by Glickman's definition. I think a poster in the previous article on Glickman even suggested (and I agree) not only would totally free and available downloading not have hurt the opening of Star Wars, it may have enhanced its takings.
As for the broadcast flag.... the last thing I want my providers mucking around with is having to write code to accommodate the frigging broadcast flag. How many of you have the Comcast HD PVR box? In the last week it has "claimed" to record more than three shows that never showed up in the play list. It created an entry in the play list that had no title, claimed it was recorded in 1998, and was unplayable, and once I tried to play it, locked the machine up solid and only a power cycle recovered it.
I want my Comcast guys spending their time and effort fixing those bugs, not honoring a request by the MPAA to restrict even more my access to media.
The technology moves ever forward, and has the potential to really improve our lives, yet these guys who won't even expend the energy to pick up a ten dollar bill because they're too filthy rich making money off of other peoples' talent insist on leveraging the power of new technology to add a little more Hell to our lives.
I'll probably get modded troll..., but really, I am so close going "off grid", I am so frustrated with battling technology rather than reaping benefits from.
Obvious to game players. I've never played a game in my life where I've seen that (granted, I don't really play computer games)...
But, assuming I did, and should know derivation...., it doesn't change the experience for the people I support who are just trying to get along with their computers as best they can.... It doesn't help when the paradigm is that bizarre.
and most importantly (in my opinion), it's rock solid in its logic...
Setting aside for a moment its humorous side, the article makes a honest,
clear, and I think compelling case for linux! Right on and congratulations!
On the other hand, I'd like to make my own contribution as to one of the
most ongoing and glaring "needs fixing" of XP....
I think one thing that will eventually make Windows XP for HOME (or PRO)
ready for the desktop is fixing the START button. I'm
still trying to explain to some of the people I have to support
"LOGOFF" and "TURN OFF COMPUTER" are accessed by clicking
the START button. It's hard to explain to them why when
even I don't get it.
For me, for my music, this means having it on two hard drives and a lot of it burned to CD.
I do this, too... and, as posted in parent, I'll convert, transfer, everything I have to, it hasn't been a problem in the past, and gets easier as the media handle larger quantities of data.
I think a possible unanswered question, at least for me, is "What if there's nothing that will play mp3's down the road?" I have over 1000 CD's converted to mp3's, but here could be the dilemma.... what if, when mp3's become music format non-gratis, and there isn't any technology available to read and convert straight from my cd collection to the new format? That would imply I'd have to convert my mp3's.... now one generation removed from the original recording, and lossy in compression. Do I have to sacrifice another lossy conversion?
Granted, I'm not expecting to have to deal with this, I'm convinced, maybe naively there are way too many people with way too many cd's and mp3's for this ever to be an issue but I've heard of stores of data on old 9-track IBM tapes no longer readable because there isn't any tape drives or software available to read them. Scary.
And, given the behavior I've seen of RIAA (remember when their job was to protect the quality of our music (e.g., ensuring proper equalization standards on vinyl so reproduction would be as faithful as possible)?), it's not beyond the realm of imagination they'd fight for new formats with little or no warning, and little or no accommodation of bridging old technologies so consumers protect their collections and investments. Food for thought.
I always hestitate to take the bait of ad hominem posts.... but, you got me thinking, so I've gone back, and I've re-read my entire post.
As for the factual parts (the visit with John Connors), I stand by the accuracy of my recall of those events.
As for the interpretation of those events (which obviously are my interpretation and subject to my bias -- however much this stems from discussions with both management and technical staff that day), I stand by my interpretation as being one reasonable view (of course it looks as if your mileage actually does vary).
As for my un-ordered list of observations about.NET, if you're going to paint me completely full of shit, maybe you could enlighten us as to which of those bullets aren't believable.
And, what is "completely full of bullshit" about the speculation of and commenting on Microsoft's seemingly slow movement to their own technology?
So, I disagree with you on one point.... I don't think you'd be feeding a troll by countering my post, I think you're feeding a troll by refusing to do so.
First off, let me preface this post with the lol: I find it amazingly ironic that the advertisement on the Slashdot "read more" page has the Microsoft.NET ad, apparently Macro Flash.... with the hook: "If it takes eighteen months to write and integrate a new application...", [fade to next frame...], "It's not really new anymore, is it?".... the ad is for.NET!
I find Microsoft's "not eating their own dog food" rumors to be
significant. Why does the rest of the world have to eat it (literally and
figuratively) and not Microsoft?
More hubris from Microsoft. Apparently.NET is something Microsoft
discussed and presented and strategized around at one of Bill Gates' yearly
"meeting of the minds" at his Hood Canal retreat a number of years ago...
Former Microsoft CFO John Connors bragged on this during a one-day glad
handing session with the company I worked for at the time. He got up for a
impromptu presentation as we all worked on our.NET "labs", and described
how worked up into a slather the Microsofties were at the retreat....
describing the.NET architecture, and philosophy. He said, and I quote, "We
realized that not only had we won the battle [with.NET], but we've won the
war [against(?) the industry]".
The collective sound generated of all of the techies eyes rolling in the
conference room was deafening, but the upper level management (and really,
this entire session was about them getting to meet with Microsoft royalty,
and cinching a sale/contract) postively glowed and nodded knowingly and
smugly that they were part of this technology nirvana about to sweep the
world.
I would say we're at least four or five years into this and so far what
I've seen with.NET is:
it doesn't always work
.NET 2 is not retro compatible with.NET 1.1 (they say it is, it isn't).
.NET is monstrously large
.NET does not solve the dll hell problem (they said it
would.)
So, again, the fact that by the time (and I guess we're all speculating
here) Longhorn gets here if Longhorn is not largely based on and implemented
with.NET says a lot for either: how difficult it really is to move
applicatioins to the.NET architecture, or, how much even Microsoft itself
believes in the technology. Neither possibility is good. Other
slashdotters feel free to offer other theories.
Isn't this yet another syndrom associated with advancing
technology? I can understand wanting to sneak in a few minutes of
productivity during a quiet moment of opportunity but have always tried
being discreet (and discrete). But I've seen the described
behavior in a local Chicago coffee shop... squatters who were there at
different times of the day as I passed through. Not only did they not
really appear to be paying customers, they:
monopolized entire tables capable of seating four with: laptop, some
analog of an iPod, spare battery(ies), headhphones, and typically paperwork
typically were buried in their headphones
made no eye contact with anyone
I have a friend who has a startup refreshment shop, and foot traffic and
available space for paying customers is precious. These shop owners aren't
making any fortune with their stores, they (at least my friend) do it out of
love of the job (interacting with long-time customers, meeting new people,
becoming an established figure of the local community).
I also have another friend who frequents a local Seattle coffee shop a
lot. It seems from talking with him he is an honorable patron, but
I do get the impression he doesn't interact much with anyone there.
Cell phones, laptops, pdas, portable music devices... they all have
driven a somewhat asocial behavior. In public it's mostly annoying, maybe a
little rude, sometimes outright boorish, but in a coffe shop, good for the
owners to shut down the wireless on weekends (for example...). Sounds like
they made a right move based on the almost immediate response and thanks
received from regulars.
Frankly, the day cell phones and laptops, etc. become totally uncool in
public can't come too soon for me. In the meantime (shameless plug) if
you're looking for more social ways of using technology consider and look
into
BookCrossing.com. It's been mentioned here on slashdot before -- it's a
cool way of using technology to share books (something a little less technical, and a lot more social).
Windows is not the chief issue. USER STUPIDITY is and like hydrogen in the universe, we on Earth have an inexhaustible supply of it.
I cringe every time I hear this screed. While not every user is the brightest in the world, computers do little (especially Microsoft) to make them easy to use intelligently. I'll still never forget the day my Dad called from 2,000 miles away freaked out because his Windows 95 machine had presented the dialog box, "Windows is about to perform an illegal instruction". He had no idea what to do and really feared some legal ramifications. My Dad is a Doctor, highly intelligent, and not a STUPID USER. He is a confused user, but that really isn't his fault when messages like that pop up.
I'd continue with a point by point rebuttal of your "blaming the customer", but an ellipsis will do...
Perfect timing! I'm mad as hell with Microsoft security issues too, and
yesterday was a perfect example (though not unique) of why. Yesterday I got
bitten not only personally but professionally by Windows XP security
activity. Bear with me.... it's almost hilarious, but it's a down right
comi-tragedy at the same time.
Yesterday, our wireless network was pathologically gummed up. I
discovered that when I got on the treadmill, queued up my music for my run
(Loggins and Messina On Stage for any who care) and began.
The music sputtered and skipped... no biggy, it's happened before, someone
upstairs must be using the microwave briefly. But it didn't recover and
less than five minutes into my run it aborted and I was left to finish my
run in the Hell of boredom and silence.
Still no biggy... but checking wireless music device upstairs and finding
the same stuttering behavior with it I started to be a little uneasy. What
was jamming my network?
I was scheduled for a very important demo of my software (am selling to
large corporations) and now felt more urgency to ensure I'd debugged and
fixed my network problem before the big demo. Still no biggy.... I've been
troubleshooting networks and computers for years... I'd have it cleaned up
in no time. So, I began my standard (among other things) check list...
linksys wireless router LED on solid, yep.... something was filling
my network pipes
checked "System Task Manager" on all of the XP machines... nothing
seemed to be amiss... no CPU spiking, and virtually no
network traffic.
checked my linux box.... nothing there.
checked syslog.... hmmmmmmmmm.... got some bogon ARP messages from the
kernel.
I ran out of time to narrow anything down, so in desperation I did the
standard reboot of the XP boxes.... interestingly, there was a momentary
blip of network nirvana... but once the XP boxes were back up, the network
was molasses again.
But I had to do my demo.... and now I was worried, and it turned out with
good reason. The party for whom I did the demo was unable to connect to my
application... and I had to fall back on my backup plan, which was to walk
through a printout and describe my application.... how fscked is
that? All in all the demo ended up going well enough, but I was perturbed
as hell about losing the network like that right at the most inopportune
time.
I continued my debugging, now focusing on the bogon messages... and now
zeroing in on the tivo boxen... and while doing so, suddenly the WAN again
achieved nirvana! WTF? Happy the network was back, but dazed and confused
about why. I went back upstairs for one more check of the upstairs
machines... and there.... on the task bar...., in the system tray...., in a
bubble..., above the Microsoft icon...., was the bubble...,
"Updates have been downloaded and are ready to be installed....".
$()*&($#(*&$#(*%&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, bottom line, because of a middle of the day Microsoft update
download, I had a miserable workout (yawn, big deal, who cares...),
and was unable to give a live demo of my product to a potential
customer (which I think is really a big deal!)! WTF? I know I'll get flamed about having auto-update, blah,
blah, blah.... but it seems so "can't win".... without auto-update, you run
the risk of exposure inadvertently, with auto-update you're apparently at
the mercy and whim of Microsoft as to if and when that crap comes down the
pipe. Sigh....
Re:reason for, reason not for
on
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· Score: 1
I am typing this reply on a USB keyboard!
BTW, it's wireless!
Re:reason for, reason not for
on
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Every so often I marvel at the adaptivity of the human nervous system, the way that I can just think a word and it appears on the screen without my having to pay attention to where my individual fingers go. It's the next best thing to mental telepathy.
I absolutely agree here! It is almost nothing short of amazing. Wonder if you've ever had the experience where you are typing something, you think one word, and another perfectly spelled "other" word appears on the screen/paper? That one totally freaks me out. It's pretty clear that the adaptation by the body has just created another channel of language.... While I've never learned sign, I'm guessing it's a similar deal.
(By the way, it'd be nice if typing classes came back... I never took any classes because at the time, it was only for "secretarial" training, and computers as we know them today didn't exist.... like I stated before it was only because of a crisis in tension I even addressed the issue of learning the keyboard. Are there typing classes anymore?)
reason for, reason not for
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· Score: 5, Interesting
I like the looks of this keyboard. But, for those looking and drawing
any conclusions (I've been burned by this before), read the specs! The web
site clearly represents pictorially the keyboard as wireless (I consider
this deceptive -- even the "click to zoom" pictures fail to show a
cable!). It is not wireless! This may not concern some, but
for my uses these days I consider only wireless keyboards... not a
commentary on what technology and keyboards should be, just my personal
preference.
So, look before you buy.
On a related note, if you're looking for an excuse to improve your typing
speed this keyboard may give you that (albeit a bit pricey). I finally was
shamed into learning touch-typing when a frustrated on-looker (a friend)
wrested my keyboard from my hands to finish typing something he was
dictating. That incident prompted me to spend the next week refusing to
look at the keyboard to type instead learning the keys by touch. Everyone
around me went crazy for a week since my immediate result was essentially
less than 10 words/minute with about zero percent accuracy. Within only one
week I was typing 30 words/minute with about 80 percent accuracy. Today I
easily go 60 wpm... that one incident/response dramatically changed my life
professionally and personally.
benefits from learning the keyboard:
dramatic increase in productivity
better relationships (really!)... ever get snippy with someone because
they couldn't "get it out" of their fingers while trying to type? (no jokes
please).
expansion of your task universe... you'll take on things you'd never
have considered before. I once converted a paper "tutorial" system for my
company to an on-line ISPF set of tutorial. The main task included writing
lots of code -- that was easy and I quickly dispatched that..., but had I
not been able to touch type I wouldn't have been able to consider
the task, there were ten's of pages to type, I wouldn't have tried to do it
in my "pre-touch" days. (BTW, I got a nice company bonus for that little
effort (did it on my own time)).
better communications... you'll be able to sit down and spin off almost
at the speed of stream of consciousness letters, memos, "what if's", etc.
better karma... it's just much more satisfying and less stressful in
general to create without having to establish a relationship with the
keyboard.
I chose the quote from the summary because it worked best for what I wanted to point out. I did read the article (I always do, or I won't post against it)...
No biggy. I agree with your point we haven't found any scientific solution for morons yet, but that's sort of my point. If we let (as a policy) people just write passwords down, that little slice of moron-dom is the part that always bites us in the rear.
I know the article talked about securing the scrap of paper on which the password is written stowed, and secure, but my experience has been that doesn't happen. And, when combined with the policy that passwords be written down (he almost states they must be written down -- the exposure is greatly increased.
I'm not proposing any rebuttal or solution, I've always found the more oppressive a regime, the more determined hackers are to find a way in. I've been approached many times by the security organizations where I've worked to help them with their policies (I'm pretty good at hacking) and I've always declined -- I find it a difficult universe to exist in where no matter how hard you try, there are always people out there who break what you make.
Security in computers is a losing battle. It's an extension of our social makeup and there'll always be good guys and bad guys and there'll always be breaches. I just think what the article proposes is yet another proposal, and it adds little to overall real security.
By the way, I don't think this is at all a first, seeing a post modded +5 from a poster who hasn't read the article... I've seen a number of what are fairly obvious examples of that. Used to get my dander up, too, but I've come to accept sometimes the poster may have enough credible and useful to add to the discussion without having to read the article (though, not always:-)). And, again, for the record -- I did read the article.
"Since not all systems allow good passwords, I am going to pick
a really crappy one, use it everywhere and never change it...If I write them
down and then protect the piece of paper--or whatever it is I wrote them
down on--there is nothing wrong with that. That allows us to remember more
passwords and better passwords."
That would lead me to believe you'd have an environment where any
discovered piece of paper on which there is some non-indigenous word written
would be a candidate for plugging in as password attempts. This is just
plain silly.... passwords written down would be one of the first
things a social-engineering hack may try to leverage. I'm not a fan of
draconian policies wrapped around impossible rules to manage security, but
this "recommendation" flies in the face of reason.
For me, the crux of the usefulness and eventual adoption and finally complete embracing of AJAX lies in the article's paragraph:
Some of the buzz surrounding AJAX has been generated by Web designers as well as programmers. AJAX?s flexibility is invigorating for Web designers because JavaScript can control any aspect of any images or type on a page. Fonts can grow or shrink. Tables can add or lose lines. Colors can change. Although none of these capabilities are new to programmers accustomed to building client applications -- or, for that matter, Java applets -- they are novelties to Web designers who would otherwise be forced to rely on Macromedia (Profile, Products, Articles) Flash.
I've seen what Google has done with AJAX (e.g., Google suggest), and it's stuff I never imagined could be so repsonsive in a web context. For me it starts to make programming fun again, and web programming an acceptable form of application development.
When browsers and web first emerged I could see the writing on the wall, but I wasn't happy about it. Browser application writing from the programming perspective was probably the single most giant leap backwards in technology for me (not including technologies introduced by Microsoft)....: you mean, all the years I've spent honing skills writing applications no longer apply? You mean I no longer have "state" as a tool for maintaining sanity in my application???? Hwaahhh??? I have to do what to change the web page???
While there have been some technologies (ASP, JSP, etc) to help with these issues, none have addressed the responsiveness issue with the web page round trip message loop. AJAX comes close. Now all I have to do is learn it.
For a great example of the responsive nature of this (I've referenced this before), go to Google Personal Home, set up your own home page, and play... Configure your modules by dragging them around... open and close your g-mail previews. This all starts looking alot like programs actually running locally on your own machine. (I'm assuming all are familiar with and have played similarly with Google Maps.)
Additionally, here are some very good resources to learn more about AJAX:
A couple of things: (I actually had been thinking about this service the other day -- I had seen it demo'ed on TV quite a while ago. I thought it was interesting and had just been wondering what had happened to the concept. I never missed it, just thought it was interesting, for a couple of reasons:
I tried to think how many times I've encountered just that need to identify a song -- turns out, at least for me, not that many. I do have a good ear and memory for music, but I can only think of once or twice in my life where I really felt the NEED to have this kind of service. I wouldn't pay anything for it regardless.
Do we really need yet another distraction from driving? While I can sympathize with most cellphone users it becomes almost (almost!) a necessary evil to occasionally talk on a cellphone while driving (though I do think it a bit over used and abused and probably has contributed to an accident or two), I cringe at the thought of people fumbling for their phone not only to dial up and "use" this service, but to do it under the auspices of a deadline, i.e., before the song ends on the radio. I think this just asks for trouble!
How accurate can this really be? The demo I saw was impressive, but for the songs I need ID'ed, they are much more obscure and the stats and performance of the demo I saw (let me emphasize I'm not totally positive it was one and the same as referenced here, but how many of these can there be?) the accuracy was good for most, but fell a bit for the less mainstream stuff -- which is the stuff I need ID's for.
How good is it for: Jazz; Classical; ID'ing specific rendition of a song (cover vs. original recording)?
Bottom line for me -- I don't need it.... Sometimes I feel like we're turning into a world that's a microwave oven with 100 power level settings! And just how many power level settings do we really need to live healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives?
I find this interesting because Bill Gates himself actually uses as anecdotal evidence in the computer industry what would be the result if prices and productivity increased in, say the car industry at the same rate as the computer industry. Yet, I'm surprised more don't find Microsoft's pricing the most damning indictment of either Mr. Gates' thesis, or of Microsoft's pricing practices.
The gist of Gates' anecdote (and I'm just thumbnailing, there are far more accurate and detailed analyses available) is that if cars progressed as computers have, a car that cost $10,000 back in the early 80's today would cost about $100, would get four or five hundred miles per gallon, etc. Accordingly a glimpse at the progress in computers is quite amazing, but I find it curious why OS' prices haven't shown the same trend. Could Gates' anecdote apply ONLY to hardware? I don't think so.
Anyway, food for thought. I think this Mobile example is a pretty good indicator though of what happens when Microsoft continues to control so much of so many pieces of the industry. They put themselves out there as the benevolent "helpers", even going so far as to make it appear they will give things away..., but when noone is looking, and all of the competition has finally cried "Uncle", the kid gloves come off, and Microsoft can pretty much define the marketplace any way they want... as they've demonstrated yet again. Sigh.
I set up my personalized Google home page. I like it a lot. I don't know if I'll keep it because generally I like the uncluttered look of the standard Google Home page. But, take a look, your mileage may vary!
Some of the nice features:
from "Search, and I'm Feeling Lucky" up it's basically the same old Google page you were used to! No sweat!
at the top are convenient links to logout (pretty standard fair) and go to your search history (a nice feature if you've never yet tried that!)
modules which are handy (e.g., stock quotes, your google mail account) and
modules which are customizable (e.g., add your favorite stock symbol, collapse, uncollapse your google e-mail previews), and
very much like the dynamic miracle of drag and drop Google Maps, you can reaarange the order and placement of the modules simply by dragging and dropping the title bars of each module. I still don't know exactly how they're doing that, but compared to the clunky "customizable" personalize sites elsewhere, Google's is a joy to work with.
opt in or out of the various modules
Since this isn't even really Beta yet, I'm guessing (am almost sure) there'll be lots of improvements to this -- and probably most of the improvements address many of the "complaints" posted thus far. (I've found Google to be amazing in their willingness to listen to and respond to and take action on feedback from the consumer community.)
So, before you go ranting about the corruption of what was simple and is now crass, take a look... you may find it useful.
MPAA President and CEO Dan Glickman: 'There is no better example of how theft dims the magic of the movies for everyone than this report today regarding BitTorrent providing users with illegal copies of Revenge of the Sith.
and now, from a syndicated article in the Herald Sun (among MANY other papers):
THE final chapter in the Star Wars movie saga grossed a record $US50 million ($66 million) from its first 24 hours in North American theatres, the highest box office tally ever for a single day, 20th Century Fox said.
I guess the most revenue ever just isn't enough magic for Glickman.... he really does care about us after all!
Unfortunately Microsoft may be winning the war. And more scary
in my opinion is Microsoft has shifted to more subtle means. What could be
less intimidating than a web site dedicated to gently walking managers
through the maze of technical issues ostensibly improving their (the
managers) effectiveness?
For me, all I need to do to consider which platform costs less to manage
is look back over the span of my career... I've managed Windows and Unix
systems for over twenty years (which means I've managed Windows systems for
"x" years -- you pick when you first think that might be -- I know it hasn't
been twenty years). And when I weigh how much I invest to keep systems
running, Unix (linux included) always wins, easily.
Of course, I found it unusual for management to ask me or any of my
technical peers for recommendations, they typically get/got most of their
advice gladhanding on the golf course, or from nice glossy brochures, and
now, from slick benevolent web sites.
Microsoft is one of the best at PR, and their "Get the Facts" campaign
may be one of their most impressive successes (oh that Microsoft would be so
successful developing and creating safe and secure software). But,
Microsoft knows perception is 90% of reality. What they say only has to
feel true and assuage the fears of managers justifying manager's
choices to stay with Microsoft. Unfortunately it has become a Nobody
ever got fired for choosing Microsoft world (remember when it was IBM?),
and with Microsoft's huge lead and head start in controlling the marketplace
I don't see this changing any time soon.
What bugs me is when it bleeds into my area (I prefer doing my work in
the Unix world...). For example, the time our team got a new member -- a
new sysadmin who previously had been working and support Windows machines at
our company. Our main server was a workhorse Sun Server and I had with
reverence watched it chug away doing good work with an up time that had
finally exceeded 550 days (not a huge record in the Unix world, but it was
fun to see it go...). The Monday of week two of our new admin I was
dismayed to see that our trusty Sun server now only had an uptime of less
than two days. Sigh. Wasn't sure why, but reboots/crashes happen. Before
I could do any more checking, "Bob" (not his real name) dropped by
positively beaming and let me know he had noticed that luna
(the server) had not been rebooted for a long time so over the weekend he
had rebooted it for us! Universes collide! Sigh, again.
I'd love to see good technology prevail -- unfortunately today the
combination of effective PR and FUD campaigns combined with Microsoft's
products turns out to be good cough enough.
You're right to be fair... another poster replied on a similar note.... Here is my reply.
I'm not shooting down technology, and specifically not voice recognition.... it's pretty cool stuff... I'm mostly trying to frame and set context to what Gates and Ballmer say and do... they're very little about advancing technology, and very much about advancing Microsoft.... admittedly their jobs, I just think they're incredibly disingenuous in their approach. And, with their recent affinity for attacking the competition they're rhetoric has taken an even more ugly turn.
Lots of FUD is spread in slashdot about Gates, Ballmer, Microsoft, etc.... I don't think that's what I was doing.
Slashdot Mirror
Absolutely Microsoft in my opinion has done more damage to the interest of seamless computing with that single "transparency" than maybe all other gaffes combined (probably thought they were creating something seamless!)! I've seen more hacks, more lost files, more corrupt files, and more hijacked files with the hidden extension "feature". Jumping from the 8.3 restriction in DOS (another thing Microsoft could've/should've fixed long ago with their bully pulpit but didn't) into Windows and GUI's and high powered computing rather than expunging extensions as a requirement to "make things work", Microsoft hid them! And so something that is ostensibly necessary in the Microsoft paradigm and probably should be opaque so people can be aware, ask questions, and learn what extensions are, how they're used, and why they exist.... Microsoft opts to make transparent!
You're right on about the filename.jpg.exe hacks.... but equally annoying are the piggybacking superfluous extensions, e.g., mypicture.jpg.JPG. Sheeesh!
From the fine article:
First, Windows products do seem to use TABS.... Right-click on "My Computer" (if you've actually left it named that!), select PROPERTIES. Not only does Microsoft use TABS to manage some of the most important aspects of computers, they've done it poorly! What the....???? When you click on an upper row tab, the upper row of TABS becomes the bottom row?!? Wow! Yes, Microsoft products not only support and/or use TABS, they were the first to make me hate tabbed interfaces.
Fortunately Mozilla and Firefox came along and convinced me tabbed interfaces could be done nicely and ergonomicly. I'm back in the tabbed fold... sigh.
Second, the claim that adding tabbed browsing to IE is less important because the Taskbar can group similar activities, therefor it already is like tabbed browsing may illustrate more than I'm able how Microsoft doesn't get it. The "like apps" Taskbar browsing has been the source of more headaches for me... I've tried using it, found it obtuse and annoying -- that's okay, just my preference and opinion. But, once again, it's been frustrating in a support role because you (rhetorically) end up trouble-shooting for users an interface poorly thought out and confusing to users. I find Microsoft's "easy to use" ideas sometimes baffling.... (how many times have you over the phone tried to walk someone through a WORD problem only to stumble when they can't find the menu option, and it's because Microsoft has unilaterally decided "hiding" little-used features under menu chevrons).
Other than that, back to the main topic, hopefully more energetic competition in the browser world will mean better and higher quality browsers, but if history serves, it will be a minor spurt in advancement until Microsoft has re-landed their stranglehold on that segment of the market.... and I'm guessing that won't take very long.
Okay, I'm probably dating myself here (illegal in Nebraska, btw), but I remember REXX when it emerged as a replacement for EXEC which I had coded extensively in (written entire app systems) on IBM mainframes. There were a lot of benefits to REXX back then, notably it cleaned up and made transparent a lot of garbage and system management chores required to write clean EXEC code (e.g., strings tokenized at 8 chars, awkward variable interpolation)... I used REXX for a while on the mainframe and can't remember why I abandoned it.
Fast forward 2 or 3 hundred years, and I found myself dropped into a Unix universe, and quickly self taught myself the ins and outs of shell. Haven't looked back since. Now, I'm looking back and am intrigued... REXX really does have some interesting features. And, since I have a little free time on my hands, maybe I'll re-visit REXX, but from userland out there, any feedback would be useful:
Again, I am not seeing any mention of the irony that the last Star Wars (one of the worst movies I've ever seen btw) broke all records in its debut... all this with piracy still "not under control" by Glickman's definition. I think a poster in the previous article on Glickman even suggested (and I agree) not only would totally free and available downloading not have hurt the opening of Star Wars, it may have enhanced its takings.
As for the broadcast flag.... the last thing I want my providers mucking around with is having to write code to accommodate the frigging broadcast flag. How many of you have the Comcast HD PVR box? In the last week it has "claimed" to record more than three shows that never showed up in the play list. It created an entry in the play list that had no title, claimed it was recorded in 1998, and was unplayable, and once I tried to play it, locked the machine up solid and only a power cycle recovered it.
I want my Comcast guys spending their time and effort fixing those bugs, not honoring a request by the MPAA to restrict even more my access to media.
The technology moves ever forward, and has the potential to really improve our lives, yet these guys who won't even expend the energy to pick up a ten dollar bill because they're too filthy rich making money off of other peoples' talent insist on leveraging the power of new technology to add a little more Hell to our lives.
I'll probably get modded troll..., but really, I am so close going "off grid", I am so frustrated with battling technology rather than reaping benefits from.
But, assuming I did, and should know derivation...., it doesn't change the experience for the people I support who are just trying to get along with their computers as best they can.... It doesn't help when the paradigm is that bizarre.
Great article! On more than one level:
On the other hand, I'd like to make my own contribution as to one of the most ongoing and glaring "needs fixing" of XP....
I think one thing that will eventually make Windows XP for HOME (or PRO) ready for the desktop is fixing the START button. I'm still trying to explain to some of the people I have to support "LOGOFF" and "TURN OFF COMPUTER" are accessed by clicking the START button. It's hard to explain to them why when even I don't get it.
I do this, too... and, as posted in parent, I'll convert, transfer, everything I have to, it hasn't been a problem in the past, and gets easier as the media handle larger quantities of data.
I think a possible unanswered question, at least for me, is "What if there's nothing that will play mp3's down the road?" I have over 1000 CD's converted to mp3's, but here could be the dilemma.... what if, when mp3's become music format non-gratis, and there isn't any technology available to read and convert straight from my cd collection to the new format? That would imply I'd have to convert my mp3's.... now one generation removed from the original recording, and lossy in compression. Do I have to sacrifice another lossy conversion?
Granted, I'm not expecting to have to deal with this, I'm convinced, maybe naively there are way too many people with way too many cd's and mp3's for this ever to be an issue but I've heard of stores of data on old 9-track IBM tapes no longer readable because there isn't any tape drives or software available to read them. Scary.
And, given the behavior I've seen of RIAA (remember when their job was to protect the quality of our music (e.g., ensuring proper equalization standards on vinyl so reproduction would be as faithful as possible)?), it's not beyond the realm of imagination they'd fight for new formats with little or no warning, and little or no accommodation of bridging old technologies so consumers protect their collections and investments. Food for thought.
I always hestitate to take the bait of ad hominem posts.... but, you got me thinking, so I've gone back, and I've re-read my entire post.
As for the factual parts (the visit with John Connors), I stand by the accuracy of my recall of those events.
As for the interpretation of those events (which obviously are my interpretation and subject to my bias -- however much this stems from discussions with both management and technical staff that day), I stand by my interpretation as being one reasonable view (of course it looks as if your mileage actually does vary).
As for my un-ordered list of observations about .NET, if you're going to paint me completely full of shit, maybe you could enlighten us as to which of those bullets aren't believable.
And, what is "completely full of bullshit" about the speculation of and commenting on Microsoft's seemingly slow movement to their own technology?
So, I disagree with you on one point.... I don't think you'd be feeding a troll by countering my post, I think you're feeding a troll by refusing to do so.
First off, let me preface this post with the lol: I find it amazingly ironic that the advertisement on the Slashdot "read more" page has the Microsoft .NET ad, apparently Macro Flash.... with the hook: "If it takes eighteen months to write and integrate a new application...", [fade to next frame...], "It's not really new anymore, is it?".... the ad is for .NET!
I find Microsoft's "not eating their own dog food" rumors to be significant. Why does the rest of the world have to eat it (literally and figuratively) and not Microsoft?
More hubris from Microsoft. Apparently .NET is something Microsoft
discussed and presented and strategized around at one of Bill Gates' yearly
"meeting of the minds" at his Hood Canal retreat a number of years ago...
Former Microsoft CFO John Connors bragged on this during a one-day glad
handing session with the company I worked for at the time. He got up for a
impromptu presentation as we all worked on our .NET "labs", and described
how worked up into a slather the Microsofties were at the retreat....
describing the .NET architecture, and philosophy. He said, and I quote, "We
realized that not only had we won the battle [with .NET], but we've won the
war [against(?) the industry]".
The collective sound generated of all of the techies eyes rolling in the conference room was deafening, but the upper level management (and really, this entire session was about them getting to meet with Microsoft royalty, and cinching a sale/contract) postively glowed and nodded knowingly and smugly that they were part of this technology nirvana about to sweep the world.
I would say we're at least four or five years into this and so far what I've seen with .NET is:
So, again, the fact that by the time (and I guess we're all speculating here) Longhorn gets here if Longhorn is not largely based on and implemented with .NET says a lot for either: how difficult it really is to move
applicatioins to the .NET architecture, or, how much even Microsoft itself
believes in the technology. Neither possibility is good. Other
slashdotters feel free to offer other theories.
Isn't this yet another syndrom associated with advancing technology? I can understand wanting to sneak in a few minutes of productivity during a quiet moment of opportunity but have always tried being discreet (and discrete). But I've seen the described behavior in a local Chicago coffee shop... squatters who were there at different times of the day as I passed through. Not only did they not really appear to be paying customers, they:
I have a friend who has a startup refreshment shop, and foot traffic and available space for paying customers is precious. These shop owners aren't making any fortune with their stores, they (at least my friend) do it out of love of the job (interacting with long-time customers, meeting new people, becoming an established figure of the local community).
I also have another friend who frequents a local Seattle coffee shop a lot. It seems from talking with him he is an honorable patron, but I do get the impression he doesn't interact much with anyone there.
Cell phones, laptops, pdas, portable music devices... they all have driven a somewhat asocial behavior. In public it's mostly annoying, maybe a little rude, sometimes outright boorish, but in a coffe shop, good for the owners to shut down the wireless on weekends (for example...). Sounds like they made a right move based on the almost immediate response and thanks received from regulars.
Frankly, the day cell phones and laptops, etc. become totally uncool in public can't come too soon for me. In the meantime (shameless plug) if you're looking for more social ways of using technology consider and look into BookCrossing.com. It's been mentioned here on slashdot before -- it's a cool way of using technology to share books (something a little less technical, and a lot more social).
I cringe every time I hear this screed. While not every user is the brightest in the world, computers do little (especially Microsoft) to make them easy to use intelligently. I'll still never forget the day my Dad called from 2,000 miles away freaked out because his Windows 95 machine had presented the dialog box, "Windows is about to perform an illegal instruction". He had no idea what to do and really feared some legal ramifications. My Dad is a Doctor, highly intelligent, and not a STUPID USER. He is a confused user, but that really isn't his fault when messages like that pop up.
I'd continue with a point by point rebuttal of your "blaming the customer", but an ellipsis will do...
Perfect timing! I'm mad as hell with Microsoft security issues too, and yesterday was a perfect example (though not unique) of why. Yesterday I got bitten not only personally but professionally by Windows XP security activity. Bear with me.... it's almost hilarious, but it's a down right comi-tragedy at the same time.
Yesterday, our wireless network was pathologically gummed up. I discovered that when I got on the treadmill, queued up my music for my run (Loggins and Messina On Stage for any who care) and began. The music sputtered and skipped... no biggy, it's happened before, someone upstairs must be using the microwave briefly. But it didn't recover and less than five minutes into my run it aborted and I was left to finish my run in the Hell of boredom and silence.
Still no biggy... but checking wireless music device upstairs and finding the same stuttering behavior with it I started to be a little uneasy. What was jamming my network?
I was scheduled for a very important demo of my software (am selling to large corporations) and now felt more urgency to ensure I'd debugged and fixed my network problem before the big demo. Still no biggy.... I've been troubleshooting networks and computers for years... I'd have it cleaned up in no time. So, I began my standard (among other things) check list...
I ran out of time to narrow anything down, so in desperation I did the standard reboot of the XP boxes.... interestingly, there was a momentary blip of network nirvana... but once the XP boxes were back up, the network was molasses again.
But I had to do my demo.... and now I was worried, and it turned out with good reason. The party for whom I did the demo was unable to connect to my application... and I had to fall back on my backup plan, which was to walk through a printout and describe my application.... how fscked is that? All in all the demo ended up going well enough, but I was perturbed as hell about losing the network like that right at the most inopportune time.
I continued my debugging, now focusing on the bogon messages... and now zeroing in on the tivo boxen... and while doing so, suddenly the WAN again achieved nirvana! WTF? Happy the network was back, but dazed and confused about why. I went back upstairs for one more check of the upstairs machines... and there.... on the task bar...., in the system tray...., in a bubble..., above the Microsoft icon...., was the bubble..., "Updates have been downloaded and are ready to be installed....". $()*&($#(*&$#(*%&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, bottom line, because of a middle of the day Microsoft update download, I had a miserable workout (yawn, big deal, who cares...), and was unable to give a live demo of my product to a potential customer (which I think is really a big deal!)! WTF? I know I'll get flamed about having auto-update, blah, blah, blah.... but it seems so "can't win".... without auto-update, you run the risk of exposure inadvertently, with auto-update you're apparently at the mercy and whim of Microsoft as to if and when that crap comes down the pipe. Sigh....
I am typing this reply on a USB keyboard!
BTW, it's wireless!
I absolutely agree here! It is almost nothing short of amazing. Wonder if you've ever had the experience where you are typing something, you think one word, and another perfectly spelled "other" word appears on the screen/paper? That one totally freaks me out. It's pretty clear that the adaptation by the body has just created another channel of language.... While I've never learned sign, I'm guessing it's a similar deal.
(By the way, it'd be nice if typing classes came back... I never took any classes because at the time, it was only for "secretarial" training, and computers as we know them today didn't exist.... like I stated before it was only because of a crisis in tension I even addressed the issue of learning the keyboard. Are there typing classes anymore?)
I like the looks of this keyboard. But, for those looking and drawing any conclusions (I've been burned by this before), read the specs! The web site clearly represents pictorially the keyboard as wireless (I consider this deceptive -- even the "click to zoom" pictures fail to show a cable!). It is not wireless! This may not concern some, but for my uses these days I consider only wireless keyboards... not a commentary on what technology and keyboards should be, just my personal preference.
So, look before you buy.
On a related note, if you're looking for an excuse to improve your typing speed this keyboard may give you that (albeit a bit pricey). I finally was shamed into learning touch-typing when a frustrated on-looker (a friend) wrested my keyboard from my hands to finish typing something he was dictating. That incident prompted me to spend the next week refusing to look at the keyboard to type instead learning the keys by touch. Everyone around me went crazy for a week since my immediate result was essentially less than 10 words/minute with about zero percent accuracy. Within only one week I was typing 30 words/minute with about 80 percent accuracy. Today I easily go 60 wpm... that one incident/response dramatically changed my life professionally and personally.
benefits from learning the keyboard:
I chose the quote from the summary because it worked best for what I wanted to point out. I did read the article (I always do, or I won't post against it)...
No biggy. I agree with your point we haven't found any scientific solution for morons yet, but that's sort of my point. If we let (as a policy) people just write passwords down, that little slice of moron-dom is the part that always bites us in the rear.
I know the article talked about securing the scrap of paper on which the password is written stowed, and secure, but my experience has been that doesn't happen. And, when combined with the policy that passwords be written down (he almost states they must be written down -- the exposure is greatly increased.
I'm not proposing any rebuttal or solution, I've always found the more oppressive a regime, the more determined hackers are to find a way in. I've been approached many times by the security organizations where I've worked to help them with their policies (I'm pretty good at hacking) and I've always declined -- I find it a difficult universe to exist in where no matter how hard you try, there are always people out there who break what you make.
Security in computers is a losing battle. It's an extension of our social makeup and there'll always be good guys and bad guys and there'll always be breaches. I just think what the article proposes is yet another proposal, and it adds little to overall real security.
By the way, I don't think this is at all a first, seeing a post modded +5 from a poster who hasn't read the article... I've seen a number of what are fairly obvious examples of that. Used to get my dander up, too, but I've come to accept sometimes the poster may have enough credible and useful to add to the discussion without having to read the article (though, not always :-)). And, again, for the record -- I did read the article.
Good feedback.
That would lead me to believe you'd have an environment where any discovered piece of paper on which there is some non-indigenous word written would be a candidate for plugging in as password attempts. This is just plain silly.... passwords written down would be one of the first things a social-engineering hack may try to leverage. I'm not a fan of draconian policies wrapped around impossible rules to manage security, but this "recommendation" flies in the face of reason.
When you make a phone call, why is it called "dialing"?
For me, the crux of the usefulness and eventual adoption and finally complete embracing of AJAX lies in the article's paragraph:
I've seen what Google has done with AJAX (e.g., Google suggest), and it's stuff I never imagined could be so repsonsive in a web context. For me it starts to make programming fun again, and web programming an acceptable form of application development.
When browsers and web first emerged I could see the writing on the wall, but I wasn't happy about it. Browser application writing from the programming perspective was probably the single most giant leap backwards in technology for me (not including technologies introduced by Microsoft)....: you mean, all the years I've spent honing skills writing applications no longer apply? You mean I no longer have "state" as a tool for maintaining sanity in my application???? Hwaahhh??? I have to do what to change the web page???
While there have been some technologies (ASP, JSP, etc) to help with these issues, none have addressed the responsiveness issue with the web page round trip message loop. AJAX comes close. Now all I have to do is learn it.
For a great example of the responsive nature of this (I've referenced this before), go to Google Personal Home, set up your own home page, and play... Configure your modules by dragging them around... open and close your g-mail previews. This all starts looking alot like programs actually running locally on your own machine. (I'm assuming all are familiar with and have played similarly with Google Maps.)
Additionally, here are some very good resources to learn more about AJAX:
That's it, I'm done.
A couple of things: (I actually had been thinking about this service the other day -- I had seen it demo'ed on TV quite a while ago. I thought it was interesting and had just been wondering what had happened to the concept. I never missed it, just thought it was interesting, for a couple of reasons:
Bottom line for me -- I don't need it.... Sometimes I feel like we're turning into a world that's a microwave oven with 100 power level settings! And just how many power level settings do we really need to live healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives?
I find this interesting because Bill Gates himself actually uses as anecdotal evidence in the computer industry what would be the result if prices and productivity increased in, say the car industry at the same rate as the computer industry. Yet, I'm surprised more don't find Microsoft's pricing the most damning indictment of either Mr. Gates' thesis, or of Microsoft's pricing practices.
The gist of Gates' anecdote (and I'm just thumbnailing, there are far more accurate and detailed analyses available) is that if cars progressed as computers have, a car that cost $10,000 back in the early 80's today would cost about $100, would get four or five hundred miles per gallon, etc. Accordingly a glimpse at the progress in computers is quite amazing, but I find it curious why OS' prices haven't shown the same trend. Could Gates' anecdote apply ONLY to hardware? I don't think so.
Anyway, food for thought. I think this Mobile example is a pretty good indicator though of what happens when Microsoft continues to control so much of so many pieces of the industry. They put themselves out there as the benevolent "helpers", even going so far as to make it appear they will give things away..., but when noone is looking, and all of the competition has finally cried "Uncle", the kid gloves come off, and Microsoft can pretty much define the marketplace any way they want... as they've demonstrated yet again. Sigh.
I set up my personalized Google home page. I like it a lot. I don't know if I'll keep it because generally I like the uncluttered look of the standard Google Home page. But, take a look, your mileage may vary!
Some of the nice features:
Since this isn't even really Beta yet, I'm guessing (am almost sure) there'll be lots of improvements to this -- and probably most of the improvements address many of the "complaints" posted thus far. (I've found Google to be amazing in their willingness to listen to and respond to and take action on feedback from the consumer community.)
So, before you go ranting about the corruption of what was simple and is now crass, take a look... you may find it useful.
From TFA:
and now, from a syndicated article in the Herald Sun (among MANY other papers): I guess the most revenue ever just isn't enough magic for Glickman.... he really does care about us after all!Unfortunately Microsoft may be winning the war. And more scary in my opinion is Microsoft has shifted to more subtle means. What could be less intimidating than a web site dedicated to gently walking managers through the maze of technical issues ostensibly improving their (the managers) effectiveness?
For me, all I need to do to consider which platform costs less to manage is look back over the span of my career... I've managed Windows and Unix systems for over twenty years (which means I've managed Windows systems for "x" years -- you pick when you first think that might be -- I know it hasn't been twenty years). And when I weigh how much I invest to keep systems running, Unix (linux included) always wins, easily.
Of course, I found it unusual for management to ask me or any of my technical peers for recommendations, they typically get/got most of their advice gladhanding on the golf course, or from nice glossy brochures, and now, from slick benevolent web sites.
Microsoft is one of the best at PR, and their "Get the Facts" campaign may be one of their most impressive successes (oh that Microsoft would be so successful developing and creating safe and secure software). But, Microsoft knows perception is 90% of reality. What they say only has to feel true and assuage the fears of managers justifying manager's choices to stay with Microsoft. Unfortunately it has become a Nobody ever got fired for choosing Microsoft world (remember when it was IBM?), and with Microsoft's huge lead and head start in controlling the marketplace I don't see this changing any time soon.
What bugs me is when it bleeds into my area (I prefer doing my work in the Unix world...). For example, the time our team got a new member -- a new sysadmin who previously had been working and support Windows machines at our company. Our main server was a workhorse Sun Server and I had with reverence watched it chug away doing good work with an up time that had finally exceeded 550 days (not a huge record in the Unix world, but it was fun to see it go...). The Monday of week two of our new admin I was dismayed to see that our trusty Sun server now only had an uptime of less than two days. Sigh. Wasn't sure why, but reboots/crashes happen. Before I could do any more checking, "Bob" (not his real name) dropped by positively beaming and let me know he had noticed that luna (the server) had not been rebooted for a long time so over the weekend he had rebooted it for us! Universes collide! Sigh, again.
I'd love to see good technology prevail -- unfortunately today the combination of effective PR and FUD campaigns combined with Microsoft's products turns out to be good cough enough.
I'm not shooting down technology, and specifically not voice recognition.... it's pretty cool stuff... I'm mostly trying to frame and set context to what Gates and Ballmer say and do... they're very little about advancing technology, and very much about advancing Microsoft.... admittedly their jobs, I just think they're incredibly disingenuous in their approach. And, with their recent affinity for attacking the competition they're rhetoric has taken an even more ugly turn.
Lots of FUD is spread in slashdot about Gates, Ballmer, Microsoft, etc.... I don't think that's what I was doing.