As has been repeated by many others already in this topic I think what Mozilla needs to do is simplify the core product (Firefox) and expand into other applications (like an Office suite) and add enhancements or connection to other applications through the plugin mechanism that really put them on the scene with their browser. I mean imagine an Office-like product equipped with a plugin structure not unlike Firefox? Pros and cons yes, but powerful, just like the browser!
I'd love to see Mozilla with a suite of individual product offerings that all click together easily. What I'd hate to see is them trying to cram everything on the back of Firefox, it's already bogged down with a lot of fluff.
I say make the browser just a browser and leave what tools I want to equip it with up to me through the plugin system.
Amen to that. I was happy with Clarisworks two decades ago, mind you I'm not writing much beyond code or the occasional estimate doc these days so I'm not exactly the core Office user type.
I think there was a cutoff at some point (Office 2005?) where it only went back as far as 2003, but I've had some experience working with Office guts and there are some mind-bendingly old components still being used that only kick in with specific document versions.
Mind you, it's been about 4 years since I mucked about in there so who knows what changed, but the point I was trying to make still stands.
The longer a piece of software is around the more likely it is to bloat.
'They're a productivity sink and a bandwidth suck. They're a vector for malware and a gift for corporate spies. They're a data spill just waiting to happen. And like it or not, they're already inside your enterprise,'
Hahaha! I believe those things are called "people";-)
Seriously though, if work gets done and private info stays private then who cares?
I mean, go hang with the people that smoke outside the building, they talk shop nearly constantly. I've been able to inadvertently overhear some pretty interesting details about the infrastructure of several IT shops that way just by passing by and saying "hello" to co-workers enjoying a smoke break.
My grandfather was a copy editor for the Toronto Star, he lived in a large (six bedrooms) two story house located in the Beaches in Toronto, he also had a cottage, two Buicks and 4 daughters.
My other grandfather died from cancer at age 22, but my grandmother worked for Newfoundland light and power as a telegraphist and then later as a flight dispatcher for Syncrude, she had been struggling with a single income since 1947 yet still managed to have all the amenities available to most middle class working people. She had two sons to support, which she managed to get through post secondary (and flight school for my uncle, cadets for my old man). She eventually married an Englishman who was a millwright by trade, they spent their free time travelling the world with at least one trip to England a year and one other fun trip (usually somewhere hot). She retired comfortably in 1987.
I have a television, two computers and a 2 bedroom apartment condo. I don't drive, I don't have kids and I certainly don't have any vacation property or jet set around the world every year. I can't help but think there's some kind of incongruity here.
For a lot of IT people priorities change, when I started out I was content to work my ass off for no good reason as long as there was experience, then it was pay, at some point the pay started to not matter, the fact that life was passing me by mattered, so I changed my situation. Less money rolling in but a lot more sanity.
I see people working around me that find the pace too sedentary and want to work like maniacs and make bigger money, for them, the grass is greener where I was situated before.
What I do find disturbing though is that overall the average IT persons pay doesn't seem to sync up with inflation. I look at seniors who are just a generation or two older than I am and by the time they were my age they had mortgages, vehicles, families and curious things called "savings", most of my peers are still renting, driving older vehicles or riding transit and are all about as far away from family life as one could imagine, I have a mortgage and some RRSP in the bank but not anything like my parents or grandparents.
Does IT in general just have less value these days?
My parents PC was a fully functional mail server sending out 4-5 GB of e-mail a day, they didn't know this of course and complained about internet speeds all the time, the ISP figured it out pretty fast though and sent someone over to get it off the network and clean it for 'em.
I was quite surprised at how civil they were about it.
See I can understand that because both XBox/Zune are entertainment media devices. In theory a tablet computer is everything a netbook is but with a specialized interface and form factor.
I admit that I'm in the crowd that doesn't quite understand the appeal of having a tablet computer, but I'm pretty sure that there are those that take the technology seriously and want to do things with them beyond reading books or playing games. I just don't get that vibe from Microsoft when they make press releases like this.
I don't know why but it seems like Microsoft isn't taking tablet computing seriously this time around (if I recall, they seemed very excited about it back in the early 00s).
Given their rush to make a release prior to Christmas I think it's safe to assume that Microsoft regards tablet computing as simply a toy not as a real platform.
I mean, if they were concerned about getting a serious toehold in that market they'd release something solid when its ready, not when its sales might artificially peak due to Christmas shoppers right?
It sounds like the selection of video stores where you lived sucked. Where I lived we had a half a dozen that stocked all kinds of goodies and could only afford to put all the shitty new releases on one shelf (instead of the 15 at Blockbuster).
When Blockbuster moved into town they put the squeeze on the local guys because you could go there and get a copy of new release without having to be first in line, this put the hurt on stores that banked on new releases giving them a cash injection every week. Soon there were only a couple of stores left one really decent mom n' pop holdout (thank god) and one national chain. But time wore on and then the mom n' pop store closed and you couldn't rent chopsocky kung fu flicks or notoriously bad b-movies without driving into the neighboring city.
By that point Blockbuster was only stocking the bland essentials and had dedicated more than half their store space to new releases / video games. It was about that time that DVDs started rolling in and I had a job so, I bought more than I rented because I wanted to start a collection. I don't think I've been to a video store in about 8-9 years now and the convenience of the net or VoD services for renting movies is just too sweet to avoid.
I actually agree quite a lot with the summary, I'm legally blind, I have no depth perception and I had a lot of trouble tracking moving objects (like frisbees or baseballs). When started playing video games I started to notice that my reflexes were getting a little better the more I played. Soon I was able to catch a frisbee and throw it back. It was an amazing change for me.
I've also noticed that I have some innate ability to make intricate maps of everywhere I go. I never get lost (this is important as I can't read street signs without assistance). I'm not sure if playing video games where map memorization is key or what but I do seem to be better at it than many of my non-gamer friends.
I have no idea how heavy the Shuttles (or Soyuz capsules for that matter!) are even without the massive fuel tanks/rockets but I imagine this will take a lot of energy to get the job done.
I think it's a great project for two main reasons: 1. Figure out how to generate and store a big chunk of energy. 2. Use it to accelerate and object to escape velocity.
There is so much potential for discovery in both areas it boggles the mind.
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously, who is not getting this message? Why do ad-blockers exist at all?
How about finding a new revenue stream that doesn't annoy me to the point where I get off my ass and do something about it!
Well, it did receive the highly coveted and unique 8 out of 10 review score on Slashdot...
I keed, I keed :-)
Ahh Limewire! That takes me back... to the last virus I had (2003?).
I'm surprised its lasted this long frankly.
As has been repeated by many others already in this topic I think what Mozilla needs to do is simplify the core product (Firefox) and expand into other applications (like an Office suite) and add enhancements or connection to other applications through the plugin mechanism that really put them on the scene with their browser. I mean imagine an Office-like product equipped with a plugin structure not unlike Firefox? Pros and cons yes, but powerful, just like the browser!
I'd love to see Mozilla with a suite of individual product offerings that all click together easily. What I'd hate to see is them trying to cram everything on the back of Firefox, it's already bogged down with a lot of fluff.
I say make the browser just a browser and leave what tools I want to equip it with up to me through the plugin system.
But then again, I've been known to be crazy...
Self-replicating Lego machines? That would be the end of bare feet as we know it!
Office 366 is reserved for Leap Years...
Amen to that. I was happy with Clarisworks two decades ago, mind you I'm not writing much beyond code or the occasional estimate doc these days so I'm not exactly the core Office user type.
I think there was a cutoff at some point (Office 2005?) where it only went back as far as 2003, but I've had some experience working with Office guts and there are some mind-bendingly old components still being used that only kick in with specific document versions.
Mind you, it's been about 4 years since I mucked about in there so who knows what changed, but the point I was trying to make still stands.
The longer a piece of software is around the more likely it is to bloat.
Inside every version of "Word" is every previous version of word, so you can open that Office '97 document just as easily as your 2010 document.
Bloat accrues in most software I reckon.
That said, it's sad to see when talent is trumped by management but I think we all know that's par for the course in IT.
What about when acquaintances release personal information about you on Facebook?
That's the real problem with these apps that violate privacy, if it violates an individuals privacy it violates everyones (to some degree).
Like it or not there is shared information that defines you, with our without your input.
Hahaha! I believe those things are called "people" ;-)
Seriously though, if work gets done and private info stays private then who cares?
I mean, go hang with the people that smoke outside the building, they talk shop nearly constantly. I've been able to inadvertently overhear some pretty interesting details about the infrastructure of several IT shops that way just by passing by and saying "hello" to co-workers enjoying a smoke break.
That's pretty goddamn scary...
Well, using my own family for reference...
My grandfather was a copy editor for the Toronto Star, he lived in a large (six bedrooms) two story house located in the Beaches in Toronto, he also had a cottage, two Buicks and 4 daughters.
My other grandfather died from cancer at age 22, but my grandmother worked for Newfoundland light and power as a telegraphist and then later as a flight dispatcher for Syncrude, she had been struggling with a single income since 1947 yet still managed to have all the amenities available to most middle class working people. She had two sons to support, which she managed to get through post secondary (and flight school for my uncle, cadets for my old man). She eventually married an Englishman who was a millwright by trade, they spent their free time travelling the world with at least one trip to England a year and one other fun trip (usually somewhere hot). She retired comfortably in 1987.
I have a television, two computers and a 2 bedroom apartment condo. I don't drive, I don't have kids and I certainly don't have any vacation property or jet set around the world every year. I can't help but think there's some kind of incongruity here.
For a lot of IT people priorities change, when I started out I was content to work my ass off for no good reason as long as there was experience, then it was pay, at some point the pay started to not matter, the fact that life was passing me by mattered, so I changed my situation. Less money rolling in but a lot more sanity.
I see people working around me that find the pace too sedentary and want to work like maniacs and make bigger money, for them, the grass is greener where I was situated before.
What I do find disturbing though is that overall the average IT persons pay doesn't seem to sync up with inflation. I look at seniors who are just a generation or two older than I am and by the time they were my age they had mortgages, vehicles, families and curious things called "savings", most of my peers are still renting, driving older vehicles or riding transit and are all about as far away from family life as one could imagine, I have a mortgage and some RRSP in the bank but not anything like my parents or grandparents.
Does IT in general just have less value these days?
My parents PC was a fully functional mail server sending out 4-5 GB of e-mail a day, they didn't know this of course and complained about internet speeds all the time, the ISP figured it out pretty fast though and sent someone over to get it off the network and clean it for 'em.
I was quite surprised at how civil they were about it.
Some really solid points there, I guess time will tell in the end.
See I can understand that because both XBox/Zune are entertainment media devices. In theory a tablet computer is everything a netbook is but with a specialized interface and form factor.
I admit that I'm in the crowd that doesn't quite understand the appeal of having a tablet computer, but I'm pretty sure that there are those that take the technology seriously and want to do things with them beyond reading books or playing games. I just don't get that vibe from Microsoft when they make press releases like this.
I don't know why but it seems like Microsoft isn't taking tablet computing seriously this time around (if I recall, they seemed very excited about it back in the early 00s).
Wasn't the iPad released in April/May, what market window is that? Post-grad rush?
Given their rush to make a release prior to Christmas I think it's safe to assume that Microsoft regards tablet computing as simply a toy not as a real platform.
I mean, if they were concerned about getting a serious toehold in that market they'd release something solid when its ready, not when its sales might artificially peak due to Christmas shoppers right?
Maybe I'm reading too much into this...
Exactly! It is not the tool, it is the arm that wields it.
Colossus and Guardian are bored and need a new friend...
Seriously though, isn't more supercomputing power better? More better?
Well here's a counter-anecdote I guess...
It sounds like the selection of video stores where you lived sucked. Where I lived we had a half a dozen that stocked all kinds of goodies and could only afford to put all the shitty new releases on one shelf (instead of the 15 at Blockbuster).
When Blockbuster moved into town they put the squeeze on the local guys because you could go there and get a copy of new release without having to be first in line, this put the hurt on stores that banked on new releases giving them a cash injection every week. Soon there were only a couple of stores left one really decent mom n' pop holdout (thank god) and one national chain. But time wore on and then the mom n' pop store closed and you couldn't rent chopsocky kung fu flicks or notoriously bad b-movies without driving into the neighboring city.
By that point Blockbuster was only stocking the bland essentials and had dedicated more than half their store space to new releases / video games. It was about that time that DVDs started rolling in and I had a job so, I bought more than I rented because I wanted to start a collection. I don't think I've been to a video store in about 8-9 years now and the convenience of the net or VoD services for renting movies is just too sweet to avoid.
I actually agree quite a lot with the summary, I'm legally blind, I have no depth perception and I had a lot of trouble tracking moving objects (like frisbees or baseballs). When started playing video games I started to notice that my reflexes were getting a little better the more I played. Soon I was able to catch a frisbee and throw it back. It was an amazing change for me.
I've also noticed that I have some innate ability to make intricate maps of everywhere I go. I never get lost (this is important as I can't read street signs without assistance). I'm not sure if playing video games where map memorization is key or what but I do seem to be better at it than many of my non-gamer friends.
Interesting stuff...
I have no idea how heavy the Shuttles (or Soyuz capsules for that matter!) are even without the massive fuel tanks/rockets but I imagine this will take a lot of energy to get the job done.
I think it's a great project for two main reasons:
1. Figure out how to generate and store a big chunk of energy.
2. Use it to accelerate and object to escape velocity.
There is so much potential for discovery in both areas it boggles the mind.