When the roboraptor came out I went and got one, because well, it looked damn cool. However, in real operation, the thing was total crap. It could barely walk on carpet, never mind tile floor, and it didn't so much walk as it did shuffle. The noises it made were tinny and annoying, and it ate _a_lot_ of batteries.
I still have it, it sits on top of my bass amp where it still looks cool, but it never gets used because it doesn't work worth a damn. My advice to people looking to buy WowWee products is to try them first. Perhaps their next generation of robotics will be better. If the roboraptor was any indication though, one should steer clear of this company.
First let me start off by saying I'm not a Mac supporter - personally, I hate the machines. However, I must say that my iPod experience is much different than yours. I reflashed mine trying to put a linux firmware on it and bricked the thing. I figured, "ah, what the hell" and sent it back to Apple. Not only did they send me a replacement to a unit where I was clearly at fault, but they first sent me a self-addressed, postage paid box with packaging and even *tape* to send it back to them. Then they had the delivery company pick it up from my office. Turnaround for the whole thing? 1 business week - and it was going halfway across Canada to get there.
I still don't like Steve Jobs, and I really don't like Macs. However, in all fairness, my experience with their customer support was nothing short of surprising. Perhaps I just got the right Apple store, or maybe someone at the company just had a good day. I don't know.
Actually, you don't know what the Revolution is going to do yet. We actually do have a gamecube here, and all it does is sit on a shelf with monkeyball in it. Occasionally it does get turned on, and we do have a good time with it. On the other hand, sitting beside it is an XBox 360 (Yes, I have a 57" HD TV and yes it makes a huge difference. Anyone who says otherwise has never used one.) which has seen more action in the last month than the Gamecube has seen all year. If you want to count the regular XBox, well, then the Xboxes combined have seen more action that the gamecube ever did. Granted, I'll probably get a revolution too when it comes out, assuming it has titles that interest (ex: non-mario-and-firends) me. I'm hoping that Nintendo will examine the Gamecube's failure and learn from it. The Revolution has a lot to do in order to earn it's name
I don't know how anyone can even take that quote seriously. It's more likely a joke ballmer made that the journalist took out of context for his own benefit. I mean, think about it.
It's entirely likely that I'm not only older, but also better educated than you are. If you really want to compare penis sizes, we could start comparing income and see who comes out on top.
I don't think he cares about the PR. He's right, these $100 computers are not going to do anything to feed these people. Without food, how are they going to find the energy to turn the crank on that thing? Hell, many of these places are so poor that $100 may as well be $100,000 - for some of these people, $100 is two months of wages. For others, it's simply unattainable.
I think considering what Gates has contributed to these places that perhaps, just perhaps, we should save the foaming at the mouth comments and have a serious look at what he's saying. There may be better solutions to the world's problems but I don't see anyone here attempting to arrive at them.
You can't eat a $100 computer. Even one with a crank.
He's telling you the truth though. It's not FUD if it's true. Granted initial setup might be just as easy, or easier, but linux can still be a bitch once you get past that point. In many cases, even in the 'easy' linux distros there is still far too much fooling around with the commandline for most people.
And it's a copout. Who cares if you can't change the name. Honestly, I'd reprint the reply, but it would be a waste of time. I've already written it (attached to another silly comment similar to yours) here.
So? It's not an unreasonable request for them to maintain the rights to their name. They don't say anywhere that you're not allowed to fork it, all they say is that they don't want you calling it PHP after. Big deal. If this is the only reason to bitch, you don't have a lot of room to bitch. At the end of the day, you're getting something for nothing.
There isn't really anything to hate about the PHP license. It's free to use for business or personal use, and it's distributed in source form so you can poke at the internals. You're allowed to modify it and even redistribute it. I don't see what the problem is here. You're whining about nothing, I suggest you find some cheese to go with it.
Negative, you won't win at all. Or at the very least, not any time soon. FOSS has been saying for years that they're going to put the final nail in the Microsoft coffin, and they haven't even come close to making good on their claims. Why? FOSS operating system solutions are *still* not ready for mainstream desktop users. They do things in a counter-intuative way. Often times, it's confusing for people with little computer experience/knowledge to do things as simple as playing MP3s, or getting a DivX video to kick over -- never mind what occurs when one or more pieces of their hardware are not supported. Keep in mind that general business adoption is only going to come because people are familiar with the environment. Want the business vote? Get it on home desktops. Can't do that? You'll lose the business vote. Sure, a few will switch over, but not many.
Linux as a server? You bet. As a desktop? Only for those who can put up with and/or understand it's failings and how to get around them.
Depending on the language, and the severity of the error, sure you can. Look at any person's PHP code where they've ignored things like defining variables before use and then accessing them even though they do not exist, using constants instead of strings in array (hash) keys which PHP automagically translates in to a string, using error suppression to stop error output from bad fopen() calls, and let's not forget that errors in MySQL queries won't stop the code from executing either.
It's possible to have all kinds of errors, and still have a functional program. While I don't advocate this, it does in fact make your statement blatently false.
Re:There are still games for gamers low on time
on
Flashback NES
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· Score: 1
Actually, i've played DC. It's not hard to come by. I've played all of the battlefield series, and many of the modifications. Thanks for asking.
Speaking of the leather case (which was a good idea, but...) have you seen the PRICE on it? Jesus. What did they do with this thing to make it $100? Inlay it with diamonds? I almost got one of these for my iPod until I saw the ridiculous pricing. What is funnier, is that the case for the nano (which we would assume would be smaller, and use less material) is the SAME price as the one for the iPod 60gb.
Re:There are still games for gamers low on time
on
Flashback NES
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· Score: 1
I console myself with reports that Battlefield 2 gameplay is not so great hehe
Whoever is telling you this is on smack. Go find a friend who has a decently endowed PC and BF2. Not to kick 1942 (great game, excellently playable) but BF2 on the right hardware makes it look like last year's potato chip.
my grandmother has never had a worm or virus. in fact, her machine is probably cleaner than any i've ever seen. why? she doesn't venture out in to the realm of things that she doesn't need to. she's intelligent enough not to click on attachments from people she doesn't know. she doesn't visit shady sites. she pays attention to the little icon in the tray that say updates are ready. she doesn't use internet explorer or outlook express.
Her machine has been running problem free for nearly 2 years now, without any reinstallation - I usually inspect it once or twice a year to see how it's doing. It's really not too hard to maintain a windows system if you give the person using it a little education. If they decide not to listen to you, that's their problem.
Joel provides a very slanted view of the world. In a previous article, he tries to say that universities don't teach students to do anything hard anymore because Java is used to teach them. Following that, it's easy to see he's already got a strong bias against Java.
Now, I'll be the first to say that I'm not a huge Java fan. I find it to be a particularly verbose language that doesn't allow a whole lot of flexability in how you code. It doesn't lend itself to rapid development or constantly changing requirements, and is not Object Oriented in the same respect that Smalltalk or the more recent language, Ruby are. It is far too rigid for my tastes.
However, to make an assertion like "people who learned to code using Java can't do anything hard" is pure BS - some of the best programmers I know are right at home in Java. I lost a lot of respect for Joel that day, and I find it hard to take his opinion seriously on anything anymore. He makes blanket statements, and then writes rants to back them up. Couple that with the fact that Joel really doesn't do anything all that impressive. Fog Creek Software's main claims to fame are a piece of bug tracking software (Many better alternatives exist to this), and a tech support program for remote administration of systems (solved again in a much better way by Windows 'remote assistance', SSH, VNC, etc). Neither of which are anything particularly well designed or innovative.
If Joel had his way, we'd all be writing all our applications in pure C/C++ without any tools to back us up. Not that these languages don't have their place, but they're certainly not suitable for everything. I'm not really too sure why people pay so much attention to him.
A long time ago, when they shut down the entire Apple2 clone market. Yeah, that's right. People other than Apple used to make machines to run apple software. Then Apple put their foot down, and shut them all down. Thanks Apple! This is one of those much talked-about "Microsoft moves" that Apple makes, and then people forget about. Somehow, the Mac zealots manage to keep Apple smelling rosey even though Apple walks all over them.
Apple is not your friend. Apple does not want to hold your hand and walk down the beach, nor do they want to call you up on Friday to go clubbing. They are a corporation, and they don't give a damn about what it is that you want. They are all about the bottom dollar, and if it means locking the user out of some interesting possibilities, they're going to do it. This is the only reason PCs and Windows will *forever* dominate the home computer market.
Slashdot Mirror
When the roboraptor came out I went and got one, because well, it looked damn cool. However, in real operation, the thing was total crap. It could barely walk on carpet, never mind tile floor, and it didn't so much walk as it did shuffle. The noises it made were tinny and annoying, and it ate _a_lot_ of batteries.
I still have it, it sits on top of my bass amp where it still looks cool, but it never gets used because it doesn't work worth a damn. My advice to people looking to buy WowWee products is to try them first. Perhaps their next generation of robotics will be better. If the roboraptor was any indication though, one should steer clear of this company.
That kinds of piss me off
Actually, I think you want the 'grammar for nerds' site.
First let me start off by saying I'm not a Mac supporter - personally, I hate the machines. However, I must say that my iPod experience is much different than yours. I reflashed mine trying to put a linux firmware on it and bricked the thing. I figured, "ah, what the hell" and sent it back to Apple. Not only did they send me a replacement to a unit where I was clearly at fault, but they first sent me a self-addressed, postage paid box with packaging and even *tape* to send it back to them. Then they had the delivery company pick it up from my office. Turnaround for the whole thing? 1 business week - and it was going halfway across Canada to get there.
I still don't like Steve Jobs, and I really don't like Macs. However, in all fairness, my experience with their customer support was nothing short of surprising. Perhaps I just got the right Apple store, or maybe someone at the company just had a good day. I don't know.
DS and Revolution do this. HD does not.
Actually, you don't know what the Revolution is going to do yet. We actually do have a gamecube here, and all it does is sit on a shelf with monkeyball in it. Occasionally it does get turned on, and we do have a good time with it. On the other hand, sitting beside it is an XBox 360 (Yes, I have a 57" HD TV and yes it makes a huge difference. Anyone who says otherwise has never used one.) which has seen more action in the last month than the Gamecube has seen all year. If you want to count the regular XBox, well, then the Xboxes combined have seen more action that the gamecube ever did. Granted, I'll probably get a revolution too when it comes out, assuming it has titles that interest (ex: non-mario-and-firends) me. I'm hoping that Nintendo will examine the Gamecube's failure and learn from it. The Revolution has a lot to do in order to earn it's name
I don't know how anyone can even take that quote seriously. It's more likely a joke ballmer made that the journalist took out of context for his own benefit. I mean, think about it.
I got 21, what's your point?
It's entirely likely that I'm not only older, but also better educated than you are. If you really want to compare penis sizes, we could start comparing income and see who comes out on top.
You're totally right, I guess you're the only real genius here.
Nothing here suggests Gates is trying to win anything. That's more of the best of Slashdot putting words in to people's mouths.
I don't think he cares about the PR. He's right, these $100 computers are not going to do anything to feed these people. Without food, how are they going to find the energy to turn the crank on that thing? Hell, many of these places are so poor that $100 may as well be $100,000 - for some of these people, $100 is two months of wages. For others, it's simply unattainable.
I think considering what Gates has contributed to these places that perhaps, just perhaps, we should save the foaming at the mouth comments and have a serious look at what he's saying. There may be better solutions to the world's problems but I don't see anyone here attempting to arrive at them.
You can't eat a $100 computer. Even one with a crank.
He's telling you the truth though. It's not FUD if it's true. Granted initial setup might be just as easy, or easier, but linux can still be a bitch once you get past that point. In many cases, even in the 'easy' linux distros there is still far too much fooling around with the commandline for most people.
And it's a copout. Who cares if you can't change the name. Honestly, I'd reprint the reply, but it would be a waste of time. I've already written it (attached to another silly comment similar to yours) here.
So? It's not an unreasonable request for them to maintain the rights to their name. They don't say anywhere that you're not allowed to fork it, all they say is that they don't want you calling it PHP after. Big deal. If this is the only reason to bitch, you don't have a lot of room to bitch. At the end of the day, you're getting something for nothing.
More likely this is just something you're using to spam your stupid referral links. Mod parent down.
There isn't really anything to hate about the PHP license. It's free to use for business or personal use, and it's distributed in source form so you can poke at the internals. You're allowed to modify it and even redistribute it. I don't see what the problem is here. You're whining about nothing, I suggest you find some cheese to go with it.
Negative, you won't win at all. Or at the very least, not any time soon. FOSS has been saying for years that they're going to put the final nail in the Microsoft coffin, and they haven't even come close to making good on their claims. Why? FOSS operating system solutions are *still* not ready for mainstream desktop users. They do things in a counter-intuative way. Often times, it's confusing for people with little computer experience/knowledge to do things as simple as playing MP3s, or getting a DivX video to kick over -- never mind what occurs when one or more pieces of their hardware are not supported. Keep in mind that general business adoption is only going to come because people are familiar with the environment. Want the business vote? Get it on home desktops. Can't do that? You'll lose the business vote. Sure, a few will switch over, but not many.
Linux as a server? You bet. As a desktop? Only for those who can put up with and/or understand it's failings and how to get around them.
Depending on the language, and the severity of the error, sure you can. Look at any person's PHP code where they've ignored things like defining variables before use and then accessing them even though they do not exist, using constants instead of strings in array (hash) keys which PHP automagically translates in to a string, using error suppression to stop error output from bad fopen() calls, and let's not forget that errors in MySQL queries won't stop the code from executing either. It's possible to have all kinds of errors, and still have a functional program. While I don't advocate this, it does in fact make your statement blatently false.
Actually, i've played DC. It's not hard to come by. I've played all of the battlefield series, and many of the modifications. Thanks for asking.
Speaking of the leather case (which was a good idea, but...) have you seen the PRICE on it? Jesus. What did they do with this thing to make it $100? Inlay it with diamonds? I almost got one of these for my iPod until I saw the ridiculous pricing. What is funnier, is that the case for the nano (which we would assume would be smaller, and use less material) is the SAME price as the one for the iPod 60gb.
I console myself with reports that Battlefield 2 gameplay is not so great hehe
Whoever is telling you this is on smack. Go find a friend who has a decently endowed PC and BF2. Not to kick 1942 (great game, excellently playable) but BF2 on the right hardware makes it look like last year's potato chip.
my grandmother has never had a worm or virus. in fact, her machine is probably cleaner than any i've ever seen. why? she doesn't venture out in to the realm of things that she doesn't need to. she's intelligent enough not to click on attachments from people she doesn't know. she doesn't visit shady sites. she pays attention to the little icon in the tray that say updates are ready. she doesn't use internet explorer or outlook express. Her machine has been running problem free for nearly 2 years now, without any reinstallation - I usually inspect it once or twice a year to see how it's doing. It's really not too hard to maintain a windows system if you give the person using it a little education. If they decide not to listen to you, that's their problem.
I appreciate the heads up, this is good to know. Although, it doesn't help me (or my Grandmother) in Canada.
Until someone says "Hey, you should do your taxes on the computer! I got this copy of turbotax and it's great!"
Then Grandma comes to the realization that Linux isn't all that great because it fails to do what she wants it to do.
Joel provides a very slanted view of the world. In a previous article, he tries to say that universities don't teach students to do anything hard anymore because Java is used to teach them. Following that, it's easy to see he's already got a strong bias against Java.
Now, I'll be the first to say that I'm not a huge Java fan. I find it to be a particularly verbose language that doesn't allow a whole lot of flexability in how you code. It doesn't lend itself to rapid development or constantly changing requirements, and is not Object Oriented in the same respect that Smalltalk or the more recent language, Ruby are. It is far too rigid for my tastes.
However, to make an assertion like "people who learned to code using Java can't do anything hard" is pure BS - some of the best programmers I know are right at home in Java. I lost a lot of respect for Joel that day, and I find it hard to take his opinion seriously on anything anymore. He makes blanket statements, and then writes rants to back them up. Couple that with the fact that Joel really doesn't do anything all that impressive. Fog Creek Software's main claims to fame are a piece of bug tracking software (Many better alternatives exist to this), and a tech support program for remote administration of systems (solved again in a much better way by Windows 'remote assistance', SSH, VNC, etc). Neither of which are anything particularly well designed or innovative.
If Joel had his way, we'd all be writing all our applications in pure C/C++ without any tools to back us up. Not that these languages don't have their place, but they're certainly not suitable for everything. I'm not really too sure why people pay so much attention to him.
When did you get so damn anal?
A long time ago, when they shut down the entire Apple2 clone market. Yeah, that's right. People other than Apple used to make machines to run apple software. Then Apple put their foot down, and shut them all down. Thanks Apple! This is one of those much talked-about "Microsoft moves" that Apple makes, and then people forget about. Somehow, the Mac zealots manage to keep Apple smelling rosey even though Apple walks all over them.
Apple is not your friend. Apple does not want to hold your hand and walk down the beach, nor do they want to call you up on Friday to go clubbing. They are a corporation, and they don't give a damn about what it is that you want. They are all about the bottom dollar, and if it means locking the user out of some interesting possibilities, they're going to do it. This is the only reason PCs and Windows will *forever* dominate the home computer market.