After reading through about 70% of the responses to the article, your post struck a chord for me since it hits rather close to home. I happen to live in Columbus too and someday if/when I have kids they'll probably be going to the Columbus city schools since I abhor suburbia.
I think that if you NEED to have that many computers in a school, the biggest problem is that they're Microsoft based. Schools that can barely afford to pay their teachers definitely don't need to hire full time help desk people. If I was in charge, I probably would've put in a Unix server with thin-clients in the classrooms.
When I was a kid, the first time I ever touched a computer at school were on Apple IIe's in 7th grade. We learned how to program some in BASIC, and those of us who had been using computers for awhile and got our work done could compete in some sort of "Tower" game. (I won:) 8th grade we had the IIe's and a couple Macs, we did LOGO programs (mine was an elaborate animation with birds singing an actual song... most everyone else just had trucks driving on a street) and students could go to the computer lab during study hall and play some of the educational games. (number munchers is one I recall vividly...) In high school we had a couple Macs in the graphic arts room that were used for layouts, and my English teacher had a classroom full of IIe's (VERY old by anyone's standards at that point) that she used for the students to write their papers on.
And how did I, or anyone else that I know who didn't have a laptop strapped to their back turn out, in the real world? JUST FINE. Just as knowing how to type LOAD "$",8,1 on a C-64 doesn't help me now, I really doubt that all the applications that kids learn on the computers are going to help them later, if the reason for having them is simply for them to learn the applications.
Back to the laptop subject, the problems that I see: 1. Damage control (Kids seem to find creative ways to break things. I remember kids breaking their toys cause it was "fun") 2. Theft control (people will steal things, just for the sake of stealing them. Even if you make the laptop so unusable outside of the school environment, people will STILL steal someone else's.) 3. Cheating (putting extra notes that you close the window when the teacher comes around...) 4. Cost (teachers can hardly afford to live and subsist in places like California, THIS is the real problem if you want to keep good teachers around!) 5. Distraction (game playing) 6. They WON'T teach kids about computers... they may be able to double click an icon, just as I knew how to type LOAD "$",8 on a C-64 or plug in a cartridge on a vic-20, but it doesn't teach them anything about the real intricacities of the machine. They are still simple users, and there's no reason why they can't learn that later when they'll get more utility out of it. 7. Vendor-centric. The world is really becoming too GUI based. They know how to click a button on a GUI but have no idea how it works underneath. People will know how to use Windows or Mac or whatever they decide to choose at the school, favoring one vendor over all the others. 7a. And even if they choose to have their own proprietary hardware/software/OS deal on the laptops, how is this really useful for home and in the real world? 8. Forgetting or not learning things they need to learn. Not being able to hand write very well, relying on spellcheck, etc. It's so easy to start relying on technology for things, but if you never learn the fundamentals to begin with, you won't be better off - you'll be WORSE off.
Oh yeah, benefits. 1) Becoming one with technology.
I haven't used Napster myself, but everyone I know who uses Napster uses it to trade illegal mp3s. I imagine the reason the San Diego ISP banned Napster users is not just the bandwidth issue, but that they don't want to be held liable for the illegal activity that takes place. Also, the users may not have been going over their bandwidth limit, but think of all the bandwidth they would save if they weren't shuffling mp3s back and forth over the network. The one thing I see happening is the unhappy people switching ISPs to one that will allow them to use Napster, which will affect this ISP's bottom line.
I figured it only would be a short amount of time before a band (that has money) came out and sued Napster. After all, the trading mp3s is affecting how much in royalties they get. The no-name bands don't really mind so much because it gets their name out there so they can sell concert tickets and band paraphenelia, but the bands that already have a name don't need the publicity.
I know one of my friends said that he can definitely tell the difference between the sound that mp3s and CDs, and he only listens to mp3s on his crappy computer speakers (I have a computer hooked up to my stereo), and buys the CDs to listen with his Bose speakers. I mostly just rip my CDs into mp3s so I have a tracklist of 800+ songs and don't have to switch CDs. I like having the CD on hand to listen to in the car.
Hear hear. I have no desire to OC my computer. Maybe females just have more common sense. You run the risk of screwing up your chip and having to pay money to get a new one. At least if you don't OC and the chip has problems, it's still under warranty. OCing just isn't really good financial sense. It MIGHT work well, it MIGHT not. I'd rather just pay the extra money for a chip that's guaranteed to run at a certain rate, and if it doesn't and has problems, I can take it back to the store.
Well that, and I don't really play DOOM style games and care whether I die.:) I'd rather be doing nifty things with my home network and have my friends going "wow, oh mighty computer goddess"
Isn't it a psychological female/male thing that females are less likely to be risk takers?
Fact - It takes FOREVER to get people to change to a new technology when there are legacy issues. Just look at how slow it's taking HDTV to really catch on. We're still using the same old type of phone lines from 50 years ago. There are still companies running 30 yr old mainframes, people with non-cableready TVs... etc.
I think in the future (probably 15-20 yrs down the line), new houses will be built, already connected to the Internet, with jacks in most rooms - Standard, not a thing that the owners put in themselves. Kind of like how any house built during or after the 80's has cable jacks already built in. Houses will have a standard line (be it satellite, cable, dsl), you call your provider, they turn it on remotely for you, you plug in your appliance/computer/toaster/whatevers and they're automatically configured and on the Internet.
Let's face it though, not everyone has the money to pay for internet, there are people who don't even have phones or cable tv. People in Africa don't have enough food to eat, why would they even think of networking their huts? This ipv6 will come but it will be slow. Not EVERYONE on the planet will need a household IP (also since there's more than 1 person living in each house, plus the 3rd world countries aren't even close to being there yet). They'll run out eventually, but not quick enough for people to be worried about it quite yet.
Nah doubt it. I've gotten telemarketing calls on my cell phone. I yell at them "You're calling my cell phone!!!" They say "oh. sorry." *click* I get the 1st minute free.:)
The regular telemarketers, (even though I used to be a telemarketer:) I say "I'm not interested, don't call me ever again *click*" I'm not generally home during business hours so I miss a lot of the calls, when I do get them at home, they're usually at inopportune times which piss me off, which make me get rude with them. Hah . serves them right.
Intellimouse and Natural Keyboard come from hardware vendors that pay MS to put the MS name on the label.
It can be argued about whether or not the start menu is innovative. The Mac interface always had a "files" sort of menu on the task bar.
The red squiggly line for spellchecking as you type they also bought from another company.
OLE, and DDE I'm not sure about but I bet they were also acquired/stolen.
What's left is Office Assistant. The annoying thing everyone turns off the first time they start up their Microsoft Office. Boy the world is such a better place now that we have that talking paperclip.
So if I kill someone back in 1985, and get away with it for 15 years, and my family would be oh so very sad if I got the electric chair, I should get off scot free?
That's what Microsoft would like you to believe. There really is no telling what would have happened had there been no Microsoft. Apple, Commodore, Atari, were really the PCs that made computing viable for the average consumer. Granted they weren't "open" platforms, but Microsoft wasn't the company that created the idea of open hardware, it was IBM that (pretty much accidently) started it. Microsoft didn't "innovate" or "invent" anything, most everything they have they either bought the rights to, or outright copied from other sources. What does this mean? This means that everything you have today you would still be able to get, without a Microsoft! Maybe it would've been OS/2 that would've proliferated, or maybe Apple would've seized the opportunity to make a Mac-like OS for the IBM compatibles. Who knows.
They also didn't introduce any real standards, the standards you're thinking of are "a world with only Microsoft" standards. ASP, J++, COM,.DOC, yadda yadda yadda. If there wasn't Office, there would be Corel or Lotus and they probably would've eventually made their file formats compatible had the market asked for it at the time. You act like Office and DevStudio are the be-all, end-all to applications when there are OTHER vendors that sell programs that are just as good! You've been drinking the Microsoft Kool-aid for too long.
The fact remains that MS didn't innovate squat, and you need to read up on your computer history, and read the findings of fact, and then maybe you wouldn't be prone to believe every little bit o' garbage that MS feeds the consumers via the full page ads in USA today and the commercials with Bill Gates.
I think that there's gonna be problems no matter what they decide to do. Had they figured this out back in 96 there wouldn't be as many problems as there is going on today.
MS obviously thinks that they're immune to whatever the DOJ has planned for them. They've tightly integrated even more stuff into Windows than before, even in the midst of the legal battle.
They've also hired a political guy to rally to the other political guys and get them to do what MS wants. They think that they have money and are more powerful than the government.
Breaking up MS will cause some problems, namely because unlike AT&T, there isn't any real obvious way of doing the breakup. The different parts of MS compete against each other even today (from what I heard... which is why WebTV isn't obligated to use Windows as their platform) and even being part of the same company.
I think MS should go the way of IBM. IBM has to publish specs for whatever they do, if people could make their own platforms & file formats TRULY compatible with the Microsoft ones, the world would be a much better place.
As it is, what MS publishes now, only are sorta kinda like the real deal, and anything compatible that people want to create, they have to do a lot of guesswork, and even then there still are problems.
Another thing that the DOJ could do would be to make MS sell a version of their OS without all the little wingdings and dingdongs. No IE, no media player, etc. No links to service providers, and especially no hard-to-get-rid-of link to MSN. Sell it for $30, and then sell your everything-plus-the-kitchen sink version for the $99 "upgrade" cost.
Yeah but the difference between nutrient patches from another company and MS nutrient patches are that from the other company you'll get 100% of your nutritional needs... the MS ones you have to take it off and put it on every so often, upgrade to MS Nutrient Patch 2000 (or die as they EOL MS NP 99). You also can't wear a regular anti-smoking patch, you'd have to wear MS Nico-patch or you'll have a conflict between the two patches.
I'm having visions of MS taking over the world and it ain't a pretty sight.
I was at Circuit City checking out the I-opener after reading about it on slashdot a few weeks ago, and they were backlogged with orders for it. The price tag on it was $99, but I moved the tag and behind it was a price for $299. I honestly think that they lowered the price to $99 intending on making the profit on the monthly service. $299 would be the break even + profit without the monthly service. You can buy a cheezy cheapo computer for $299 (no monitor)... not as slick as the Iopener, but hell, for $299 why don't they add a hard drive, Linux, and the right cables/drivers (well, for $399 with the hard drive) and sell it that way. I'd buy it. Especially if it had an ethernet card to plug it into my home network.
Right, but what I was replying to was the fact that the guy is blaming Linux for not partaking of these "standards" when 1) they're not standards and 2) they're not sharing the code so that people can make the things compatible on their platforms.
I'm unfamiliar with DCOM, but DirectX and ASP are Microsoft "standards". DirectX doesn't even run on Mac, and Microsoft of course doesn't create a version for Linux. So what would be the point of game designers trying to use DirectX in their games for Linux? As for ASP, the browsers on all platforms work with ASP just fine. I believe though that to serve ASP pages on the server, the server needs to have Microsoft server extensions. And those extensions are only available whereever the hell Microsoft wants to write them for. If I recall correctly, they're available for Linux though.
I have yet to see where your argument holds water.
After reading the article, I don't really agree with it. If someone wants to have teeny tiny dark blue print on a black background that's their own perogative. I think more customization is a GOOD thing. I wish I could do more customization with my Win98 (especially get rid of My Documents and Temporary Internet Files) and according to things I've read, it seems that MS is getting rid of some customization that users used to have (I always rearrange what's under the start menu to have just 5-6 folders with just the executables - I don't need a folder for EACH company, in addition to all the READMEs and Uninstallers they want to put under there. Even if they close up folders you don't use very often, it still isn't how _I_ want it to be.) Once I get sick of all my windows games, I'll put Linux on there...
Anyways, I don't think that all your applications HAVE to look and act the same. Who is the Grand Pooba of interface design who says that all the applications have to look like Microsoft windows? Just cause MS designed it doesn't mean it's so great and then some. Just because I use Windows doesn't mean I want all my programs to look like Windows. I think that other companies CAN do it better than MS can, so what the hell, why not try?
"nobody wants a hammer with racing stripes and a horn."
Maybe YOU don't... a horn might be interesting, and racing stripes would probably ensure that your neighbors wouldn't steal it. My mom has baby blue spraypainted tools.
How it helps the artist: 1) Gaining more fans of them (like the radio does) 2) MP3s aren't as high quality as CDs are. I personally can't hear the difference, but one of my friends can, and ONLY listens to mp3s on his computer, but with his Bose speakers and nice sound system, will only listen to the CDs. 3) The more people who listen to them, the more people who will come to their concerts... and tickets aren't exactly cheap either.
SO supports comments in cells. You put an apostrophe before the text just like every other spreadsheet program.
The big problem is that MS doesn't publish the specs for their file formats. If they would do that, it would take a lot of the guesswork out of trying to make an office suite compatible with them.
Does WinCE use the same drivers as full blown Windows? I was under the perception that it didn't. If you're going to sell a ton of these devices how hard is it to write some drivers for your hardware? I mean, come on. Everybody else has to write their own drivers. You go to any of the hardware manufacturers' websites and who wrote the drivers? The manufacturers did.
The only problem is the manufacturers only write them for Windows. THIS manufacturer shouldn't rely on other people writing their WinCE drivers, chances are they won't work as well if their hardware is modified at all.
I think the main reason is that they think that WinCE is a safe bet - one of those "I won't get fired if I pick Microsoft". The drivers thing was just an excuse... they WILL have to write some drivers, they'll just be windows ones.
Refinements: 1) Be able to dodge a deer that all of a sudden jumps into the middle of the road. 2) Know when you will want to exit the highway so that you don't pass it... 3) See far ahead for the a$$hole who tries to pass someone in your lane, so as to avoid a head-on collision. 4) Know when to slow down if it detects a cop...:) 5) Know when to slow down if it's a construction zone or an otherwise lower speed limit than before. 6) basically just be able to predict what other drivers are going to do... accidents that you can avoid by swerving/slowing down, the computer would have to be able to do too.
Actually, knowing MS, you'd have Microsoft Brakes 2000 and Microsoft Tires 2000 but if you didn't buy Microsoft Axle 2000, Microsoft Hubcaps 2000, and Microsoft Timing Belts 2000 but rather went for Corel Hubcaps 2000, Netscape Timing Belts 2000, and Ford Hubcaps, your car wouldn't be able to start, but if you did manage to get it to start, your hazard lights would go off, the horn would start to blow inconcessantly, and the only way to turn them off would be to hold the accelerator pedal down while holding down the Microsoft Power Windows button, and at the same time holding down the cruise control button. Then it would shut down so you could replace the offending parts.
I think I'd have to buy an Apple Macintosh car. They'd come in five flavors and have one button in the entire car, which depending on what the car thought you wanted to do, would do it. The hood of the car would be a translucent color, so you can peer through there and go WOW but never open it to touch anything. My "blueberry" car would have the "new car" smell of artificial blueberries...
Re:My standard response...
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Hoax-a-go-go!
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AMEN BRUTHA!!!!!! My usual response is "You goddamned sonofabitch muthafucka... What the HELL are you thinking sending that SHIT to me?!?!?!"
But yours works. definitely.
Re:Typical C|Net Picks
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Hoax-a-go-go!
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They should rename it to "Net Hoaxes that we got the bored interns to put together for us". And you know the 18 yr old, zit-faced H@CkER D00d (forgive me my hacker dude linguistics are lacking) only have tech industry memories that go back ohhhhh 5 months or so.
"Join the Crew", "Bill Gates will send you $1000 if you pass this along", "the internet tax", "PBS is losing funding"... and some of those other ones that people have actually HEARD OF, are probably a bit more worthy. You don't even want to know how many of my friends I've written to and said
"Hey... I thought that you, having worked in the tech industry for 5 years, are a bit more savvy than to pass on stupid hoax emails!"
Actually I think one of the best hoaxes are when you get a spam email on AOL (I have a free acct) that tells you that something is wrong with your AOL billing and you need to to go to a website that looks like the real AOL website, but the URL is usually and IP address. People don't know any better (it's AOL... nuff said) so they put their username and password and click submit on the website... and then they wonder why their account gets closed down 5 days later or that they can't log on, or that their credit card is charged up a lot. HAHAHAHHA:)
Lucent can make money by a) writing some damn Linux drivers and b) making hardware that works on ALL platforms.
The person you're responding to didn't whine and bitch about having to pay for software. NO... it's about being able to use the hardware that you get from the store on your platform of choice. Linux is not some obscure OS anymore.
I for one am really really glad that we'll be able to use our dvd players on Linux. If the companies are going to get into agreements with other companies the least they can do is make the software multiplatform.
That was what was going through my head when I saw the headline. Does it run 41000 instances of Linux REALLY REALLY SLOWLY, or do you get good performance from it?
I think that most large businesses that have been around awhile have some mainframes, but enterprise class/datacenter systems have gotten to the point that they're taking over the mainframe spots. Kind of like what the PC did to the "minicomputer".
Considering you're asking Slashdot people... selling your domain would be selling out to the Bad People Who Sell Software Which Should Be Free (tm). The answer is simple.:)
Slashdot Mirror
After reading through about 70% of the responses to the article, your post struck a chord for me since it hits rather close to home. I happen to live in Columbus too and someday if/when I have kids they'll probably be going to the Columbus city schools since I abhor suburbia.
:) 8th grade we had the IIe's and a couple Macs, we did LOGO programs (mine was an elaborate animation with birds singing an actual song... most everyone else just had trucks driving on a street) and students could go to the computer lab during study hall and play some of the educational games. (number munchers is one I recall vividly...) In high school we had a couple Macs in the graphic arts room that were used for layouts, and my English teacher had a classroom full of IIe's (VERY old by anyone's standards at that point) that she used for the students to write their papers on.
I think that if you NEED to have that many computers in a school, the biggest problem is that they're Microsoft based. Schools that can barely afford to pay their teachers definitely don't need to hire full time help desk people. If I was in charge, I probably would've put in a Unix server with thin-clients in the classrooms.
When I was a kid, the first time I ever touched a computer at school were on Apple IIe's in 7th grade. We learned how to program some in BASIC, and those of us who had been using computers for awhile and got our work done could compete in some sort of "Tower" game. (I won
And how did I, or anyone else that I know who didn't have a laptop strapped to their back turn out, in the real world? JUST FINE. Just as knowing how to type LOAD "$",8,1 on a C-64 doesn't help me now, I really doubt that all the applications that kids learn on the computers are going to help them later, if the reason for having them is simply for them to learn the applications.
Back to the laptop subject, the problems that I see:
1. Damage control (Kids seem to find creative ways to break things. I remember kids breaking their toys cause it was "fun")
2. Theft control (people will steal things, just for the sake of stealing them. Even if you make the laptop so unusable outside of the school environment, people will STILL steal someone else's.)
3. Cheating (putting extra notes that you close the window when the teacher comes around...)
4. Cost (teachers can hardly afford to live and subsist in places like California, THIS is the real problem if you want to keep good teachers around!)
5. Distraction (game playing)
6. They WON'T teach kids about computers... they may be able to double click an icon, just as I knew how to type LOAD "$",8 on a C-64 or plug in a cartridge on a vic-20, but it doesn't teach them anything about the real intricacities of the machine. They are still simple users, and there's no reason why they can't learn that later when they'll get more utility out of it.
7. Vendor-centric. The world is really becoming too GUI based. They know how to click a button on a GUI but have no idea how it works underneath. People will know how to use Windows or Mac or whatever they decide to choose at the school, favoring one vendor over all the others.
7a. And even if they choose to have their own proprietary hardware/software/OS deal on the laptops, how is this really useful for home and in the real world?
8. Forgetting or not learning things they need to learn. Not being able to hand write very well, relying on spellcheck, etc. It's so easy to start relying on technology for things, but if you never learn the fundamentals to begin with, you won't be better off - you'll be WORSE off.
Oh yeah, benefits.
1) Becoming one with technology.
Let's save the technology for colleges.
I haven't used Napster myself, but everyone I know who uses Napster uses it to trade illegal mp3s. I imagine the reason the San Diego ISP banned Napster users is not just the bandwidth issue, but that they don't want to be held liable for the illegal activity that takes place. Also, the users may not have been going over their bandwidth limit, but think of all the bandwidth they would save if they weren't shuffling mp3s back and forth over the network. The one thing I see happening is the unhappy people switching ISPs to one that will allow them to use Napster, which will affect this ISP's bottom line.
I figured it only would be a short amount of time before a band (that has money) came out and sued Napster. After all, the trading mp3s is affecting how much in royalties they get. The no-name bands don't really mind so much because it gets their name out there so they can sell concert tickets and band paraphenelia, but the bands that already have a name don't need the publicity.
I know one of my friends said that he can definitely tell the difference between the sound that mp3s and CDs, and he only listens to mp3s on his crappy computer speakers (I have a computer hooked up to my stereo), and buys the CDs to listen with his Bose speakers. I mostly just rip my CDs into mp3s so I have a tracklist of 800+ songs and don't have to switch CDs. I like having the CD on hand to listen to in the car.
Hear hear. I have no desire to OC my computer. Maybe females just have more common sense. You run the risk of screwing up your chip and having to pay money to get a new one. At least if you don't OC and the chip has problems, it's still under warranty. OCing just isn't really good financial sense. It MIGHT work well, it MIGHT not. I'd rather just pay the extra money for a chip that's guaranteed to run at a certain rate, and if it doesn't and has problems, I can take it back to the store.
:) I'd rather be doing nifty things with my home network and have my friends going "wow, oh mighty computer goddess"
Well that, and I don't really play DOOM style games and care whether I die.
Isn't it a psychological female/male thing that females are less likely to be risk takers?
Fact - It takes FOREVER to get people to change to a new technology when there are legacy issues. Just look at how slow it's taking HDTV to really catch on. We're still using the same old type of phone lines from 50 years ago. There are still companies running 30 yr old mainframes, people with non-cableready TVs... etc.
I think in the future (probably 15-20 yrs down the line), new houses will be built, already connected to the Internet, with jacks in most rooms - Standard, not a thing that the owners put in themselves. Kind of like how any house built during or after the 80's has cable jacks already built in. Houses will have a standard line (be it satellite, cable, dsl), you call your provider, they turn it on remotely for you, you plug in your appliance/computer/toaster/whatevers and they're automatically configured and on the Internet.
Let's face it though, not everyone has the money to pay for internet, there are people who don't even have phones or cable tv. People in Africa don't have enough food to eat, why would they even think of networking their huts? This ipv6 will come but it will be slow. Not EVERYONE on the planet will need a household IP (also since there's more than 1 person living in each house, plus the 3rd world countries aren't even close to being there yet). They'll run out eventually, but not quick enough for people to be worried about it quite yet.
My 2 cents.
Nah doubt it. :)
:) I say "I'm not interested, don't call me ever again *click*" I'm not generally home during business hours so I miss a lot of the calls, when I do get them at home, they're usually at inopportune times which piss me off, which make me get rude with them.
I've gotten telemarketing calls on my cell phone. I yell at them "You're calling my cell phone!!!"
They say "oh. sorry." *click*
I get the 1st minute free.
The regular telemarketers, (even though I used to be a telemarketer
Hah . serves them right.
Intellimouse and Natural Keyboard come from hardware vendors that pay MS to put the MS name on the label.
It can be argued about whether or not the start menu is innovative. The Mac interface always had a "files" sort of menu on the task bar.
The red squiggly line for spellchecking as you type they also bought from another company.
OLE, and DDE I'm not sure about but I bet they were also acquired/stolen.
What's left is Office Assistant. The annoying thing everyone turns off the first time they start up their Microsoft Office. Boy the world is such a better place now that we have that talking paperclip.
So if I kill someone back in 1985, and get away with it for 15 years, and my family would be oh so very sad if I got the electric chair, I should get off scot free?
I think not.
That's what Microsoft would like you to believe. There really is no telling what would have happened had there been no Microsoft. Apple, Commodore, Atari, were really the PCs that made computing viable for the average consumer. Granted they weren't "open" platforms, but Microsoft wasn't the company that created the idea of open hardware, it was IBM that (pretty much accidently) started it. Microsoft didn't "innovate" or "invent" anything, most everything they have they either bought the rights to, or outright copied from other sources. What does this mean? This means that everything you have today you would still be able to get, without a Microsoft! Maybe it would've been OS/2 that would've proliferated, or maybe Apple would've seized the opportunity to make a Mac-like OS for the IBM compatibles. Who knows.
.DOC, yadda yadda yadda. If there wasn't Office, there would be Corel or Lotus and they probably would've eventually made their file formats compatible had the market asked for it at the time. You act like Office and DevStudio are the be-all, end-all to applications when there are OTHER vendors that sell programs that are just as good! You've been drinking the Microsoft Kool-aid for too long.
They also didn't introduce any real standards, the standards you're thinking of are "a world with only Microsoft" standards. ASP, J++, COM,
The fact remains that MS didn't innovate squat, and you need to read up on your computer history, and read the findings of fact, and then maybe you wouldn't be prone to believe every little bit o' garbage that MS feeds the consumers via the full page ads in USA today and the commercials with Bill Gates.
I think that there's gonna be problems no matter what they decide to do. Had they figured this out back in 96 there wouldn't be as many problems as there is going on today.
MS obviously thinks that they're immune to whatever the DOJ has planned for them. They've tightly integrated even more stuff into Windows than before, even in the midst of the legal battle.
They've also hired a political guy to rally to the other political guys and get them to do what MS wants. They think that they have money and are more powerful than the government.
Breaking up MS will cause some problems, namely because unlike AT&T, there isn't any real obvious way of doing the breakup. The different parts of MS compete against each other even today (from what I heard... which is why WebTV isn't obligated to use Windows as their platform) and even being part of the same company.
I think MS should go the way of IBM. IBM has to publish specs for whatever they do, if people could make their own platforms & file formats TRULY compatible with the Microsoft ones, the world would be a much better place.
As it is, what MS publishes now, only are sorta kinda like the real deal, and anything compatible that people want to create, they have to do a lot of guesswork, and even then there still are problems.
Another thing that the DOJ could do would be to make MS sell a version of their OS without all the little wingdings and dingdongs. No IE, no media player, etc. No links to service providers, and especially no hard-to-get-rid-of link to MSN. Sell it for $30, and then sell your everything-plus-the-kitchen sink version for the $99 "upgrade" cost.
Yeah but the difference between nutrient patches from another company and MS nutrient patches are that from the other company you'll get 100% of your nutritional needs... the MS ones you have to take it off and put it on every so often, upgrade to MS Nutrient Patch 2000 (or die as they EOL MS NP 99). You also can't wear a regular anti-smoking patch, you'd have to wear MS Nico-patch or you'll have a conflict between the two patches.
I'm having visions of MS taking over the world and it ain't a pretty sight.
I was at Circuit City checking out the I-opener after reading about it on slashdot a few weeks ago, and they were backlogged with orders for it. The price tag on it was $99, but I moved the tag and behind it was a price for $299. I honestly think that they lowered the price to $99 intending on making the profit on the monthly service. $299 would be the break even + profit without the monthly service. You can buy a cheezy cheapo computer for $299 (no monitor)... not as slick as the Iopener, but hell, for $299 why don't they add a hard drive, Linux, and the right cables/drivers (well, for $399 with the hard drive) and sell it that way. I'd buy it. Especially if it had an ethernet card to plug it into my home network.
Right, but what I was replying to was the fact that the guy is blaming Linux for not partaking of these "standards" when 1) they're not standards and 2) they're not sharing the code so that people can make the things compatible on their platforms.
I'm unfamiliar with DCOM, but DirectX and ASP are Microsoft "standards". DirectX doesn't even run on Mac, and Microsoft of course doesn't create a version for Linux. So what would be the point of game designers trying to use DirectX in their games for Linux? As for ASP, the browsers on all platforms work with ASP just fine. I believe though that to serve ASP pages on the server, the server needs to have Microsoft server extensions. And those extensions are only available whereever the hell Microsoft wants to write them for. If I recall correctly, they're available for Linux though.
I have yet to see where your argument holds water.
After reading the article, I don't really agree with it. If someone wants to have teeny tiny dark blue print on a black background that's their own perogative. I think more customization is a GOOD thing. I wish I could do more customization with my Win98 (especially get rid of My Documents and Temporary Internet Files) and according to things I've read, it seems that MS is getting rid of some customization that users used to have (I always rearrange what's under the start menu to have just 5-6 folders with just the executables - I don't need a folder for EACH company, in addition to all the READMEs and Uninstallers they want to put under there. Even if they close up folders you don't use very often, it still isn't how _I_ want it to be.) Once I get sick of all my windows games, I'll put Linux on there...
Anyways, I don't think that all your applications HAVE to look and act the same. Who is the Grand Pooba of interface design who says that all the applications have to look like Microsoft windows? Just cause MS designed it doesn't mean it's so great and then some. Just because I use Windows doesn't mean I want all my programs to look like Windows. I think that other companies CAN do it better than MS can, so what the hell, why not try?
"nobody wants a hammer with racing stripes and a horn."
Maybe YOU don't... a horn might be interesting, and racing stripes would probably ensure that your neighbors wouldn't steal it. My mom has baby blue spraypainted tools.
MY computer is MY computer.
How it helps the artist:
1) Gaining more fans of them (like the radio does)
2) MP3s aren't as high quality as CDs are. I personally can't hear the difference, but one of my friends can, and ONLY listens to mp3s on his computer, but with his Bose speakers and nice sound system, will only listen to the CDs.
3) The more people who listen to them, the more people who will come to their concerts... and tickets aren't exactly cheap either.
SO supports comments in cells. You put an apostrophe before the text just like every other spreadsheet program.
The big problem is that MS doesn't publish the specs for their file formats. If they would do that, it would take a lot of the guesswork out of trying to make an office suite compatible with them.
If it runs on top of RH Linux, then wouldn't that just make it a shell or user interface rather than an OS?
Does WinCE use the same drivers as full blown Windows? I was under the perception that it didn't. If you're going to sell a ton of these devices how hard is it to write some drivers for your hardware? I mean, come on. Everybody else has to write their own drivers. You go to any of the hardware manufacturers' websites and who wrote the drivers? The manufacturers did.
The only problem is the manufacturers only write them for Windows. THIS manufacturer shouldn't rely on other people writing their WinCE drivers, chances are they won't work as well if their hardware is modified at all.
I think the main reason is that they think that WinCE is a safe bet - one of those "I won't get fired if I pick Microsoft". The drivers thing was just an excuse... they WILL have to write some drivers, they'll just be windows ones.
Refinements:
1) Be able to dodge a deer that all of a sudden jumps into the middle of the road.
2) Know when you will want to exit the highway so that you don't pass it...
3) See far ahead for the a$$hole who tries to pass someone in your lane, so as to avoid a head-on collision.
4) Know when to slow down if it detects a cop...:)
5) Know when to slow down if it's a construction zone or an otherwise lower speed limit than before.
6) basically just be able to predict what other drivers are going to do... accidents that you can avoid by swerving/slowing down, the computer would have to be able to do too.
Actually, knowing MS, you'd have Microsoft Brakes 2000 and Microsoft Tires 2000 but if you didn't buy Microsoft Axle 2000, Microsoft Hubcaps 2000, and Microsoft Timing Belts 2000 but rather went for Corel Hubcaps 2000, Netscape Timing Belts 2000, and Ford Hubcaps, your car wouldn't be able to start, but if you did manage to get it to start, your hazard lights would go off, the horn would start to blow inconcessantly, and the only way to turn them off would be to hold the accelerator pedal down while holding down the Microsoft Power Windows button, and at the same time holding down the cruise control button. Then it would shut down so you could replace the offending parts.
I think I'd have to buy an Apple Macintosh car. They'd come in five flavors and have one button in the entire car, which depending on what the car thought you wanted to do, would do it. The hood of the car would be a translucent color, so you can peer through there and go WOW but never open it to touch anything. My "blueberry" car would have the "new car" smell of artificial blueberries...
AMEN BRUTHA!!!!!!
My usual response is "You goddamned sonofabitch muthafucka... What the HELL are you thinking sending that SHIT to me?!?!?!"
But yours works. definitely.
They should rename it to "Net Hoaxes that we got the bored interns to put together for us". And you know the 18 yr old, zit-faced H@CkER D00d (forgive me my hacker dude linguistics are lacking) only have tech industry memories that go back ohhhhh 5 months or so.
... and some of those other ones that people have actually HEARD OF, are probably a bit more worthy. You don't even want to know how many of my friends I've written to and said
:)
"Join the Crew", "Bill Gates will send you $1000 if you pass this along", "the internet tax", "PBS is losing funding"
"Hey... I thought that you, having worked in the tech industry for 5 years, are a bit more savvy than to pass on stupid hoax emails!"
Actually I think one of the best hoaxes are when you get a spam email on AOL (I have a free acct) that tells you that something is wrong with your AOL billing and you need to to go to a website that looks like the real AOL website, but the URL is usually and IP address. People don't know any better (it's AOL... nuff said) so they put their username and password and click submit on the website... and then they wonder why their account gets closed down 5 days later or that they can't log on, or that their credit card is charged up a lot. HAHAHAHHA
Lucent can make money by a) writing some damn Linux drivers and b) making hardware that works on ALL platforms.
The person you're responding to didn't whine and bitch about having to pay for software. NO... it's about being able to use the hardware that you get from the store on your platform of choice. Linux is not some obscure OS anymore.
I for one am really really glad that we'll be able to use our dvd players on Linux. If the companies are going to get into agreements with other companies the least they can do is make the software multiplatform.
That was what was going through my head when I saw the headline. Does it run 41000 instances of Linux REALLY REALLY SLOWLY, or do you get good performance from it?
I think that most large businesses that have been around awhile have some mainframes, but enterprise class/datacenter systems have gotten to the point that they're taking over the mainframe spots. Kind of like what the PC did to the "minicomputer".
Considering you're asking Slashdot people... selling your domain would be selling out to the Bad People Who Sell Software Which Should Be Free (tm). The answer is simple. :)