When I'm searching for something online, I'm usually looking for a single item or a set of related items. This usually makes Froogle a good starting point; I search for arcade pushbuttons, and I get links to stores that sell them along with other arcade console items. Poking around a few sites usually leads to one with good prices on the things I want, and I make a purchase.
Really, I don't see the benefit of aggregating content across stores. How often does someone go looking for a doorknob, a picture frame, and a KVM all at once? Online shopping is fundamentally different than shopping at a physical store, but it's not that different: I want to find a competent supplier of each thing, not a one-stop-shop where I have to wonder about the quality of service and related issues. And if they're just showing me info from three different places in a single search, but I am actually making three orders, what's the advantage?
Color me unimpressed
Agree:Take breaks.
on
Preventing RSI?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I was getting RSI in my hands from too much mousing and typing. After a couple of months of ignoring it, things got bad enough that I was feeling some low-level discomfort all the time, not just when at the PC. It got to the point where my wife would ask me to open jars and I couldn't seem to grip them tight enough to get the lids off. Bad. (Sometimes I'm sure that's the only reason she married me:-> )
Anyway, I did some research and started taking breaks. I get out of my chair for at least 5-10 minutes every hour. I walk down to the break room and grab a bottle of water, wander over to visit the developers (I'm a writer), or walk around the outside of the building. This has helped immensely, and at this point the pain is pretty much completely gone.
If you use the mouse a lot and the pain is mostly in your right hand/wrist, you might think about trying to use the keyboard as much as possible. It seems that squeezing the mouse tightly (which is something that's easy to do unconsciously) and holding your arm out of line from your body (since the mouse is too far to the right because of the keyboard) are common causes of RSI in the right hand. Switching to keyboard shortcuts is a way to limit the amount of mousing you have to do.
There are many non-computer, single-player games, and there have been for a long time. The game where you catch the ball in the cup (where the ball and cup are attached by a string) is at least several hundred years old. Games where you move a single piece to eliminate others on a board are also old.
His "point" is nonsensical to the point of idiocy,
What the Army is using is not a "robot" in the traditional sci-fi sense. The devices are not autonomous, and are under the control of a soldier who is the one making the decisions to pull or not pull the trigger. This is more of a "remote controlled gun platform" than a robot.
The distinction is hard to get non-geeks to make though, as all sorts of remote controlled devices are talked about as "robots." They misuse this term all the time when talking about devices to search dangerous locations for earthquake survivors, for instance. The devices are like remote controlled cars with a camera on the front (and are not wirelessly controlled--they drag a cable behind them for power and control) but they call them "robots" all the time in the news
I dunno about the rest of that stuff, but the Adobe update manager is a virus in my opinion.
It seems to have "infected" all of Adobe's recent product install CDs. Once it "infects" your computer it displays a popup whenever you open an Adobe app. As far as I can tell, there's no way to shut this off in the latest versions. So I've paid $x00 dollars for Acrobat, and it comes with a virus.
It's easy to get caught up in the idea that either everything cool that's discoverable by amateurs has already been discovered, or that it takes years of experience or expensive tools to do "new" work in science. This discovery, by someone whose interest was piqued a few days ago by a translated article, should serve as a reminder that there are still things out there that people without a formal science degree can discover.
I buy both the monthly and single-book Webscriptions, and I really appreciate the price, DRM-free format, and the fact that the books are by authors whose actual paper books I have bought in the past. I remember as a kid looking for the Tor logo on the spines of books (our tiny library didn't have a separate SF section) and I have fond memories of some of the cool SF I read back then. I wonder if they will make their back catalog available if this takes off?
And in most cases, especially when reading for relaxation, I too prefer actual paper books. Leather bound paper, if I can get it (I have some Easton Press books that I'm especially fond of).
The portability issue I can see going either way. Since I read eBooks on my Treo (PDA/phone) it's actually smaller than a paperback (with the associated screen size drawback) but with a 1GB SD card, I can drag a whole library of electronic books around instead of having just one paper book.
And I agree 100% on the ambience. I wouldn't trade the bookcases in my house for any other furniture.
I keep a large library of ebooks on my Treo because I take my phone with me everywhere... and sometimes it's "inappropriate" to have a paperback.
My boss would not be happy with me reading a paperback in meetings (even meetings where I have little or no place). It appears "rude" to read a novel during the VP's presentation on our new marketing strategy, but looking at my PDA makes it seem like I'm being "productive." More importantly though, is my wife. If she wants me to go out shopping with her and I take along a paperback, then it's like I'm planning on being bored. She wouldn't put it quite that way, but I know that's the impression I'm giving (after 10 years I still don't completely understand her, but I have a clue on this). However, if I put my phone in my pocket, I'm just taking along my phone, right? And if I happen to take it out and read an ebook while she's in Ann Taylor (or wherever) that's different. (Don't ask me why it's different, it just is. Again, I don't understand why it's that way, I just know it is)
I also like the ability to choose among the hundred-or-so titles on my 1GB SD card based on my mood. It's like having a whole library in my pocket.
Baen's Webscriptions actually offers "prerelease" versions of books. That is, the un-proofed electronic version of the book, available before the print version.
but it's an interesting parallel between religious fanatics and other types of fanatics.
Whether GPL 3 will create the type of infighting the article seems to suggest is an open question. My suspicion is that those on the fringes (Stallman and Microsoft's lawyers, for instance) will have a lot less to say about whether this is widely adopted than people actually doing open source work--the hundreds of programmers working on small hobby projects for their own purposes. It's the acceptance of those folks, who will or will not adopt or reject GPL 3 for reasons other than politics or profit, that matters most.
I'm not against free software; I use and enjoy an number of free and open source apps. Heck, I've even contributed to the documentation efforts of some projects of this type. I suppose I support, in a general way, the four freedoms in the parent article, though calling software restrictions "violence" is, IMO adolescent.
But I'm opposed on principle to any fanaticism, whether it be in favor of free software or Microsoft products. The type of rabid dogmatism propounded by Stallman is the enemy of rational thought and compromise. In my view, these (rationalism and compromise) are two requirements for the advancement of science/technology and continuance of civil society.
But two and three are right out. Google already has the money from the IPO. They are profitable, unlike a lot of newly-IPO companies that pay operating costs out of the cash raised, so the cash they raised isn't going anywhere. The price of Google's stock has no affect on Google's cash in hand, and no effect on their ability to buy technology, companies, or invest in hardware.
It might have an effect on their ability to raise additional cash in the future by issuing more stock, but that's about it.
My guess is that this won't take off, and it especially won't kill Blackberry devices. Most of RIMs new products include a phone. They're not just text message devices anymore, they're like a combination of the "traditional" Blackberry device and a cell phone. Since this new device doesn't offer phone functionality, and since a phone is a business requirement for a lot of folks, I think the "combo" Blackberries will continue to sell well. After all, do you want to carry one phone-sized device, or this big Origami brick AND a phone?
Your point about MS integration is interesting, but a lot of companies already have RIM devices deployed, so I don't know if it holds true. Maybe a small shop where they don't want to deal with running RIM's software... but you can bet that any required MS software, while heavily itegrated, won't come free with Exchange.
I don't think this device is a "Blackberry killer" any more than it's an "iPod killer"
Yep--hardware is the one thing they get right
on
Microsoft Origami Unfolds
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I have three MS keyboards and two MS mice. The ergonomic "split-key" keyboards are great, with excellent "feel," a good layout, and they are quite durable. I know there are folks who take issue with the extra buttons (above the F keys) but they don't bother me (since I don't use them). The wireless mouse/keyboard combo that I use on my XP game machine at home is really nice, and the battery life has been decent. Since I spend my days typing (I'm a tech writer) a good keyboard is a must, and despite looking around quite a bit, I really haven't found anything as good as the MS keyboards.
On the other hand, I'm doing my best to switch away from MS's software. But that's another story.
We all want to have it all, but like every other area of life, choosing a notebook involves choosing between incompatible choices. You can have small, thin, and light, or you can have powerful and robust. There doesn't seem to be an option for an ultra-thin, ultra-light notebook with a top-of-the-line processor and long battery life.
My personal leaning has always been towards the small/lightweight side of the equation. After all, I'm much less likely to lug around a 15x17", 15-pound behemoth that runs on batteries for 20 minutes than I am to tuck my 8x11" 4-pound powerbook under my arm. As it is, I still frequently leave the PowerBook behind when I don't think I'll need it. Of course, I do carry it to meetings and when I'm traveling overnight--but there are a lot of times when it might be nice to have it "just in case" where I leave even this fairly small and light computer behind.
1. I'm not sure why the current Mini had problems: The G4 was older tech and had limited memory. In addition, it was a refurb, so it's possible that the problem was something that wasn't resolved before it was sent out again. I had hoped that it would suffice for a living room media PC, despite the former. I haven't had problems with refurbs before, so I wasn't expecting the latter. From some research I've done, it seems most likely that my experience is unusual, so I suspect that this is a machine that wasn't completely "fixed" before being resold.
2. I like Macs. (Not a fanboi, but I like them:o) )OS X has excellent usability, great features, and a pleasing look.
3. I appreciate the Mini form factor, as this box is going to wind up in a piece of furniture behind my couch. Because I'll be using this in the living room, fanless operation is also important.
In any case, Apple offers free shipping and 100% satisfaction guarantee, so I'm not out any money (except the return shipping cost) and since I've been so happy with my PowerBook, I thought I'd give them another chance. If the new machine doesn't perform, then I'll go looking for something else.
A couple weeks back I ordered a refurbished Mac Mini (I buy all my Apple stuff as refurbished--I think the "new car price" is significantly too high) and was very disappointed. It was a G4 1.4GHz with 512MB of RAM and ran as slow as molasses. I understand that this is a "low end" machine, but the machine was so slow as to be barely usable. Despite the fact that the processor speed is close to that of my PowerBook (at 1.5), startup, opening apps, and performing routine tasks was excruciating. There was a periodic lag typing in text in Text Edit, though oddly enough, DVD playback was fine. This was an "out of the box" machine with no 3rd-party software on it (and not net connection) so there's just no excuse for that.
In any event, I'll be sending it back. I'm going to order a Core Duo and see if it's any better. If not, I'll have to find something else to run my living room entertainment system on.
Page rank has less to do with "popularity and usefulness" than with the interrelationship between pages. For instance, Google assumes that pages that are frequently linked to from other pages are "better" than pages that are linked to from fewer pages. This is why link farms work.
I'd be willing to tell Google if I found a page useful if that feedback would be used to rank "useful" pages higher. At this point, my Google searches return about 1/3 aggregators (link farms) and about 1/3 other "optimized" crud. Essentially forcing me to manually "search" the search results. Which wasn't the case a few years ago. The usefulness of Google (which is still better than other engines) has declined as its popularity has increased.
Of course vendor support and/or getting a complete package is a big part of the picture.
A lot of teachers have to do their own IT work. In my school, there was an IT supported computer lab (with about 20 three-year-old PCs). If there was a problem in the lab, you either fixed it yourself, or waited three or four days until one of the IT guys from the district office could come out and troubleshoot. This means that something that's familiar (Windows, Office, etc) is a better bet for a lot of teachers, because it's a lot easier to figure out how to resolve a problem with something you're already familiar with. Printing is a good example; if the printer went on the fritz, I already knew the five Windows-centric things to try. If the computers had been running Linux, I'd have had no idea (at that point) where to start.
Another issue is that most teachers aren't geeks, so they want a "just works" system. They don't want to have to fiddle around to get things working--they want to insert the Oklahoma Trail CD and have the students playing the game. Right or wrong, there's a perception that "other" operating systems are more complicated. When you're at school eight hours, then at home grading and planning for a couple hours, and commuting thirty minutes a day, you just don't want to add anything else that takes time.
Both of these issues mean that teachers believe that OSS isn't "ready" for educational use. Of course, a lot of that is perception. Remember that most non-techies are a few years behind the curve, so a lot of them don't know about Linux distros like Ubuntu or about OSS programs like Open Office.
Finally, there isn't really a lot of appealing software out there (OSS or closed source) for educational use. Indeed, there isn't really a strong argument to be made in favor of using computers in the classroom in the first place. In my opinion (which is based on three years of teaching experience), a lot of computer use in classrooms is misdirected--it's generally intended to be used as a reward or an activity to keep part of the class quiet while the rest of the students do something else. It's not that OSS isn't ready for education, it's that educators haven't yet worked out how to fit computers into education in an effective way.
Though obviously for geeks it's going to be more expensive. To be honest, there's "tiered Internet" right now, in terms of paying more for faster speeds.
Bandwidth is a limited resource, and there's a need for providers to be able to allocate that resource (or at least do resource planning) based on known factors. At first, they were assuming that everyone they gave "unlimited" access to would spend a couple hours a day surfing. Now it's looking more and more like they should assume that everyone will be downloading torrents of their favorite MS software and TV shows.
Charging granny $25 a month for 2GB of transfer at 128K and charging Pete the Pirate $50 a month for 20GB at 256k seems a reasonable way to help ISPs do capacity planning, as well as making money.
I'm not sure where the "businesses are evil if they make a profit" meme on Slashdot comes from (and this isn't pointed at the parent poster), but this is a gentle reminder that if ISPs can't make money, they're going to go under... and then where will all the geeks get their p0rn?:o)
Frontpage may be ugly, but it is more than just a wysiwyg editor---that's an understatement for the ages.
Frontpage is not only NOT wysiwyg, it's hilariously non-wysiwyg. Anyone remember bulleted lists that showed
in the "code" view, but were actually tables containing images for bullets? Or ever run the Dreamweaver "Clean up Word HTML" tool on a fairly simple page and have it clear over 600 empty tags and clean up 300 improperly nested tags.
One of my first jobs as a writer involved editing technical info pages that someone had created in FP... When I looked at the page sizes versus file sizes, I was a little surprised (it didn't seem like it should require 50kb of ASCII text for that little on-screen content. When first opened a page in a text editor I was boggled. I'd never seen such a mess. I actually bought Dreamweaver specifically to clean up the pages (there were quite a few and manual cleanup didn' appeal)
The (well-deserved) death of Frontpage is looooong overdue.
Slashdot Mirror
When I'm searching for something online, I'm usually looking for a single item or a set of related items. This usually makes Froogle a good starting point; I search for arcade pushbuttons, and I get links to stores that sell them along with other arcade console items. Poking around a few sites usually leads to one with good prices on the things I want, and I make a purchase.
Really, I don't see the benefit of aggregating content across stores. How often does someone go looking for a doorknob, a picture frame, and a KVM all at once? Online shopping is fundamentally different than shopping at a physical store, but it's not that different: I want to find a competent supplier of each thing, not a one-stop-shop where I have to wonder about the quality of service and related issues. And if they're just showing me info from three different places in a single search, but I am actually making three orders, what's the advantage?
Color me unimpressed
I was getting RSI in my hands from too much mousing and typing. After a couple of months of ignoring it, things got bad enough that I was feeling some low-level discomfort all the time, not just when at the PC. It got to the point where my wife would ask me to open jars and I couldn't seem to grip them tight enough to get the lids off. Bad. (Sometimes I'm sure that's the only reason she married me :-> )
Anyway, I did some research and started taking breaks. I get out of my chair for at least 5-10 minutes every hour. I walk down to the break room and grab a bottle of water, wander over to visit the developers (I'm a writer), or walk around the outside of the building. This has helped immensely, and at this point the pain is pretty much completely gone.
If you use the mouse a lot and the pain is mostly in your right hand/wrist, you might think about trying to use the keyboard as much as possible. It seems that squeezing the mouse tightly (which is something that's easy to do unconsciously) and holding your arm out of line from your body (since the mouse is too far to the right because of the keyboard) are common causes of RSI in the right hand. Switching to keyboard shortcuts is a way to limit the amount of mousing you have to do.
YMMV, of course.
There are many non-computer, single-player games, and there have been for a long time. The game where you catch the ball in the cup (where the ball and cup are attached by a string) is at least several hundred years old. Games where you move a single piece to eliminate others on a board are also old.
His "point" is nonsensical to the point of idiocy,
What the Army is using is not a "robot" in the traditional sci-fi sense. The devices are not autonomous, and are under the control of a soldier who is the one making the decisions to pull or not pull the trigger. This is more of a "remote controlled gun platform" than a robot.
The distinction is hard to get non-geeks to make though, as all sorts of remote controlled devices are talked about as "robots." They misuse this term all the time when talking about devices to search dangerous locations for earthquake survivors, for instance. The devices are like remote controlled cars with a camera on the front (and are not wirelessly controlled--they drag a cable behind them for power and control) but they call them "robots" all the time in the news
Something that combines the sense of technical terms (a la jargon) and inappropriate use (as in malapropism)
:o)
I propose: malargon. It combines malapropism and jargon in a word that sounds suspiciously like malarky
Jingoism means extreme patriotism, and generally implies support of war.
Jargon is specialized technical language or terms
I dunno about the rest of that stuff, but the Adobe update manager is a virus in my opinion.
It seems to have "infected" all of Adobe's recent product install CDs. Once it "infects" your computer it displays a popup whenever you open an Adobe app. As far as I can tell, there's no way to shut this off in the latest versions. So I've paid $x00 dollars for Acrobat, and it comes with a virus.
It's easy to get caught up in the idea that either everything cool that's discoverable by amateurs has already been discovered, or that it takes years of experience or expensive tools to do "new" work in science. This discovery, by someone whose interest was piqued a few days ago by a translated article, should serve as a reminder that there are still things out there that people without a formal science degree can discover.
I buy both the monthly and single-book Webscriptions, and I really appreciate the price, DRM-free format, and the fact that the books are by authors whose actual paper books I have bought in the past. I remember as a kid looking for the Tor logo on the spines of books (our tiny library didn't have a separate SF section) and I have fond memories of some of the cool SF I read back then. I wonder if they will make their back catalog available if this takes off?
I'll be anxiously awaiting further developments.
And in most cases, especially when reading for relaxation, I too prefer actual paper books. Leather bound paper, if I can get it (I have some Easton Press books that I'm especially fond of).
The portability issue I can see going either way. Since I read eBooks on my Treo (PDA/phone) it's actually smaller than a paperback (with the associated screen size drawback) but with a 1GB SD card, I can drag a whole library of electronic books around instead of having just one paper book.
And I agree 100% on the ambience. I wouldn't trade the bookcases in my house for any other furniture.
I keep a large library of ebooks on my Treo because I take my phone with me everywhere... and sometimes it's "inappropriate" to have a paperback.
My boss would not be happy with me reading a paperback in meetings (even meetings where I have little or no place). It appears "rude" to read a novel during the VP's presentation on our new marketing strategy, but looking at my PDA makes it seem like I'm being "productive." More importantly though, is my wife. If she wants me to go out shopping with her and I take along a paperback, then it's like I'm planning on being bored. She wouldn't put it quite that way, but I know that's the impression I'm giving (after 10 years I still don't completely understand her, but I have a clue on this). However, if I put my phone in my pocket, I'm just taking along my phone, right? And if I happen to take it out and read an ebook while she's in Ann Taylor (or wherever) that's different. (Don't ask me why it's different, it just is. Again, I don't understand why it's that way, I just know it is)
I also like the ability to choose among the hundred-or-so titles on my 1GB SD card based on my mood. It's like having a whole library in my pocket.
Baen's Webscriptions actually offers "prerelease" versions of books. That is, the un-proofed electronic version of the book, available before the print version.
Too bad Baen's library is so limited.
but it's an interesting parallel between religious fanatics and other types of fanatics.
Whether GPL 3 will create the type of infighting the article seems to suggest is an open question. My suspicion is that those on the fringes (Stallman and Microsoft's lawyers, for instance) will have a lot less to say about whether this is widely adopted than people actually doing open source work--the hundreds of programmers working on small hobby projects for their own purposes. It's the acceptance of those folks, who will or will not adopt or reject GPL 3 for reasons other than politics or profit, that matters most.
like Savonarola.
I'm not against free software; I use and enjoy an number of free and open source apps. Heck, I've even contributed to the documentation efforts of some projects of this type. I suppose I support, in a general way, the four freedoms in the parent article, though calling software restrictions "violence" is, IMO adolescent.
But I'm opposed on principle to any fanaticism, whether it be in favor of free software or Microsoft products. The type of rabid dogmatism propounded by Stallman is the enemy of rational thought and compromise. In my view, these (rationalism and compromise) are two requirements for the advancement of science/technology and continuance of civil society.
"...that would constitute an act of violence"
Now we see the violence inherent in the system!
But two and three are right out. Google already has the money from the IPO. They are profitable, unlike a lot of newly-IPO companies that pay operating costs out of the cash raised, so the cash they raised isn't going anywhere. The price of Google's stock has no affect on Google's cash in hand, and no effect on their ability to buy technology, companies, or invest in hardware.
It might have an effect on their ability to raise additional cash in the future by issuing more stock, but that's about it.
My guess is that this won't take off, and it especially won't kill Blackberry devices. Most of RIMs new products include a phone. They're not just text message devices anymore, they're like a combination of the "traditional" Blackberry device and a cell phone. Since this new device doesn't offer phone functionality, and since a phone is a business requirement for a lot of folks, I think the "combo" Blackberries will continue to sell well. After all, do you want to carry one phone-sized device, or this big Origami brick AND a phone?
Your point about MS integration is interesting, but a lot of companies already have RIM devices deployed, so I don't know if it holds true. Maybe a small shop where they don't want to deal with running RIM's software... but you can bet that any required MS software, while heavily itegrated, won't come free with Exchange.
I don't think this device is a "Blackberry killer" any more than it's an "iPod killer"
I have three MS keyboards and two MS mice. The ergonomic "split-key" keyboards are great, with excellent "feel," a good layout, and they are quite durable. I know there are folks who take issue with the extra buttons (above the F keys) but they don't bother me (since I don't use them). The wireless mouse/keyboard combo that I use on my XP game machine at home is really nice, and the battery life has been decent. Since I spend my days typing (I'm a tech writer) a good keyboard is a must, and despite looking around quite a bit, I really haven't found anything as good as the MS keyboards.
On the other hand, I'm doing my best to switch away from MS's software. But that's another story.
We all want to have it all, but like every other area of life, choosing a notebook involves choosing between incompatible choices. You can have small, thin, and light, or you can have powerful and robust. There doesn't seem to be an option for an ultra-thin, ultra-light notebook with a top-of-the-line processor and long battery life.
My personal leaning has always been towards the small/lightweight side of the equation. After all, I'm much less likely to lug around a 15x17", 15-pound behemoth that runs on batteries for 20 minutes than I am to tuck my 8x11" 4-pound powerbook under my arm. As it is, I still frequently leave the PowerBook behind when I don't think I'll need it. Of course, I do carry it to meetings and when I'm traveling overnight--but there are a lot of times when it might be nice to have it "just in case" where I leave even this fairly small and light computer behind.
Several points:
:o) )OS X has excellent usability, great features, and a pleasing look.
1. I'm not sure why the current Mini had problems: The G4 was older tech and had limited memory. In addition, it was a refurb, so it's possible that the problem was something that wasn't resolved before it was sent out again. I had hoped that it would suffice for a living room media PC, despite the former. I haven't had problems with refurbs before, so I wasn't expecting the latter. From some research I've done, it seems most likely that my experience is unusual, so I suspect that this is a machine that wasn't completely "fixed" before being resold.
2. I like Macs. (Not a fanboi, but I like them
3. I appreciate the Mini form factor, as this box is going to wind up in a piece of furniture behind my couch. Because I'll be using this in the living room, fanless operation is also important.
In any case, Apple offers free shipping and 100% satisfaction guarantee, so I'm not out any money (except the return shipping cost) and since I've been so happy with my PowerBook, I thought I'd give them another chance. If the new machine doesn't perform, then I'll go looking for something else.
A couple weeks back I ordered a refurbished Mac Mini (I buy all my Apple stuff as refurbished--I think the "new car price" is significantly too high) and was very disappointed. It was a G4 1.4GHz with 512MB of RAM and ran as slow as molasses. I understand that this is a "low end" machine, but the machine was so slow as to be barely usable. Despite the fact that the processor speed is close to that of my PowerBook (at 1.5), startup, opening apps, and performing routine tasks was excruciating. There was a periodic lag typing in text in Text Edit, though oddly enough, DVD playback was fine. This was an "out of the box" machine with no 3rd-party software on it (and not net connection) so there's just no excuse for that.
In any event, I'll be sending it back. I'm going to order a Core Duo and see if it's any better. If not, I'll have to find something else to run my living room entertainment system on.
Page rank has less to do with "popularity and usefulness" than with the interrelationship between pages. For instance, Google assumes that pages that are frequently linked to from other pages are "better" than pages that are linked to from fewer pages. This is why link farms work.
I'd be willing to tell Google if I found a page useful if that feedback would be used to rank "useful" pages higher. At this point, my Google searches return about 1/3 aggregators (link farms) and about 1/3 other "optimized" crud. Essentially forcing me to manually "search" the search results. Which wasn't the case a few years ago. The usefulness of Google (which is still better than other engines) has declined as its popularity has increased.
Of course vendor support and/or getting a complete package is a big part of the picture.
A lot of teachers have to do their own IT work. In my school, there was an IT supported computer lab (with about 20 three-year-old PCs). If there was a problem in the lab, you either fixed it yourself, or waited three or four days until one of the IT guys from the district office could come out and troubleshoot. This means that something that's familiar (Windows, Office, etc) is a better bet for a lot of teachers, because it's a lot easier to figure out how to resolve a problem with something you're already familiar with. Printing is a good example; if the printer went on the fritz, I already knew the five Windows-centric things to try. If the computers had been running Linux, I'd have had no idea (at that point) where to start.
Another issue is that most teachers aren't geeks, so they want a "just works" system. They don't want to have to fiddle around to get things working--they want to insert the Oklahoma Trail CD and have the students playing the game. Right or wrong, there's a perception that "other" operating systems are more complicated. When you're at school eight hours, then at home grading and planning for a couple hours, and commuting thirty minutes a day, you just don't want to add anything else that takes time.
Both of these issues mean that teachers believe that OSS isn't "ready" for educational use. Of course, a lot of that is perception. Remember that most non-techies are a few years behind the curve, so a lot of them don't know about Linux distros like Ubuntu or about OSS programs like Open Office.
Finally, there isn't really a lot of appealing software out there (OSS or closed source) for educational use. Indeed, there isn't really a strong argument to be made in favor of using computers in the classroom in the first place. In my opinion (which is based on three years of teaching experience), a lot of computer use in classrooms is misdirected--it's generally intended to be used as a reward or an activity to keep part of the class quiet while the rest of the students do something else. It's not that OSS isn't ready for education, it's that educators haven't yet worked out how to fit computers into education in an effective way.
Though obviously for geeks it's going to be more expensive. To be honest, there's "tiered Internet" right now, in terms of paying more for faster speeds.
:o)
Bandwidth is a limited resource, and there's a need for providers to be able to allocate that resource (or at least do resource planning) based on known factors. At first, they were assuming that everyone they gave "unlimited" access to would spend a couple hours a day surfing. Now it's looking more and more like they should assume that everyone will be downloading torrents of their favorite MS software and TV shows.
Charging granny $25 a month for 2GB of transfer at 128K and charging Pete the Pirate $50 a month for 20GB at 256k seems a reasonable way to help ISPs do capacity planning, as well as making money.
I'm not sure where the "businesses are evil if they make a profit" meme on Slashdot comes from (and this isn't pointed at the parent poster), but this is a gentle reminder that if ISPs can't make money, they're going to go under... and then where will all the geeks get their p0rn?
Frontpage is not only NOT wysiwyg, it's hilariously non-wysiwyg. Anyone remember bulleted lists that showed
in the "code" view, but were actually tables containing images for bullets? Or ever run the Dreamweaver "Clean up Word HTML" tool on a fairly simple page and have it clear over 600 empty tags and clean up 300 improperly nested tags.
One of my first jobs as a writer involved editing technical info pages that someone had created in FP... When I looked at the page sizes versus file sizes, I was a little surprised (it didn't seem like it should require 50kb of ASCII text for that little on-screen content. When first opened a page in a text editor I was boggled. I'd never seen such a mess. I actually bought Dreamweaver specifically to clean up the pages (there were quite a few and manual cleanup didn' appeal)
The (well-deserved) death of Frontpage is looooong overdue.