It doesn't matter what you hacker geeks think is the better windows manager, whether you prefer C or C++, whether Qt is evile or saviour, etc.
What matters is what the majority of end users prefer.
And at some point, the majority are going to be people like me: people who use the computer as a tool, and choose our software not for geek-karma, but for how productive it can make us.
I don't give two short strokes whatthefuck OS or general GUI I'm using. I spend so little time with either, that they're both irrelevent.
What's important to me are my bread-and-butter applications and how they make me work faster or better. Yes, their GUI component is a factor, but these days, all GUIs are pretty darn similar once they hit application level.
So is it gonna be KDE or GNOME or what that wins? Answer: it's gonna be whichever one gets the killer "office" applications first.
And given that there's a dearth of killer Linux "office" apps right now -- yah, sure, StarOffice and Applix and Corel and shite, but none of the are primo and complete -- it's probably all moot.
You're incorrect, Daisy. The brain is enormously pre-wired. Who you are is, on the whole, by nature, not nurture. Shyness, for instance, can be predicted with startling accuracy *before* the baby is born, by monitoring its reaction to stimulus. Baby pre-speech gurgles and noises are wired-in, and the brain is already configured to learn language.
It's not a blank slate. There's quite a bit of structure built-in, and the entire thing is primed for learning and pattern recognition.
Well, now, let me just rip this off directly from a Python website (http://www.python.org/psa/ Users.html). And there was a recent thread in the Python newsgroup, mentioning about a dozen more big names.
Thing of it is, Python does what it does so well that no one notices it.
It's like when you walk into a retail store. You don't notice that the carpets are clean. The carpets don't call attention to themselves. They're just *there*, doing their job.
Only time you notice a carpet is when it's filthy. When its syntax is filled with !@$% symbols. When it has memory leaks. Etc.
Anyway, the shortlist of companies using Python in commercial apps:
Advanced Management Solutions Inc.
* AMS provides the AMS REALTIME suite of enterprise software for project management, resource management, cost management and timesheets. The Python language engine is embedded in AMS REALTIME as a means of extending the products, and also as a way of enabling custom behavior and company-specific business rules to be supported.
CWI
* CWI, Python's home, has used Python in, among other things, GrINS, a 20,000 line authoring environment for transportable hypermedia presentations, and a 5,000 line multimedia teleconferencing tool, as well as many many smaller programs. See the collection of multi-media project papers.
Digital Creations
* A long-time sponsor of the PSA, Digital creations develops with Python - and also makes some of their Python software available for free!
ILU
* ILU (it's spelled Inter-Language Unification but it's pronounced eye-loo) is a (very) CORBA-ish multi-language object interface system. It has bindings for Common Lisp, C++, ANSI C, Modula-3 and Python.
Automatrix
* Musi-Cal(tm) is the first online calendar that provides easy access to the most up-to-date worldwide live music information: concerts, festivals, gigs and other musical events. It is maintained by Python scripts. So is their Internet
Conference Calendar.
Nightmare Software, Inc.
* Nightmare Software builds 32-bit Windows software with Python - and gives some away!
Infoseek
* Ultraseek Server, Infoseek's commercial search engine product, is implemented as an elaborate multi-threaded Python program with the primitive indexing and search operations performed by a built-in module. Most of the program is written in Python, and both a built-in spider and HTTP server can be customized with additional Python code. The program contains over 11,000 lines of Python code, and the user interface is implemented with over 17,000 lines of Python-scripted HTML templates. Try it out on the Python.Org web search page or download an evaluation copy from Infoseek Software.
eGroups.com (previously Findmail)
* A comprehensive public archive of Internet mailing lists, implemented in pure Python. Latest statistics from Scott Hassan: 180,000 lines of Python doing everything from a 100% dynamic website to all email delivery, pumping out 200 messages/second on a single 400 MHz Pentium!
DataViews Corporation
* DataViews Corporation in Northampton, Mass., have been using Python internally quite a bit.
LLNL
* A group at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories is basing a new numerical engineering environment on Python, replacing a home-grown scripting language of ten-year standing. Paul Dubois is a central figure in that effort.
NASA
* Johnson Space Center uses Python in its Integrated Planning System as the standard scripting language. Efforts are underway to develop a modular collection of tools for assisting shuttle pre-mission planning and to replace older tools written in PERL and shell dialects. Python will also be installed in the new Mission Control Center to perform auxiliary processing integrated with a user interface shell. Ongoing developments include an automated grammar based system whereby C++ libraries may be interfaced directly to Python via compiler techniques. This technology can be extended to other languages in the future.
IV Image Systems AB
* IV Image Systems uses Python for many projects, including a satellite image production system for the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) (see next entry).
This system receives raw data from several weather satellites, and produces images for many purposes, including the satellite images used for the presentation of the daily weather on Swedish TV 4.
For more information, contact Goran Bondeson.
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute
* SMHI is the home of the Swedish civilian weather, hydrological and oceanographic services. It's Python-based remote sensing software for automatic product generation, using NOAA and Meteosat data, provides information to bench forecasters, objective analysis schemes, and commercial interests such as the media. At SMHI's Research & Development Unit, a Python-based "Radar Analysis and Visualization Environment"
Good god. I get ill just looking at the still shots!
--
Re:I hope they don't make fridge magnets
on
Magnet Patent Suits
·
· Score: 2
Oh, it's a geek mecca, let me tell you!
Look for their little black engineering reference book. Filled with arcane data.
Or their custom-made graph paper. Because regular graph paper, frankly, sucks wind.
Or... well, no. I best stop. I'm getting urges to purchase more shit...
--
Re:I hope they don't make fridge magnets
on
Magnet Patent Suits
·
· Score: 2
If you're in the market for super magnets, check out [Lee Valley Tools]. They're mainly a woodworking tools store, with some of the world's most beautiful and best tools.
They have also invented any number of handy tools and accessories -- an example where patenting is a good thing, because Lee Valley deserves to make a bundle from their brilliant innovations. It doesn't hurt that they price their stuff reasonably, too!
Anyway, back to their magnets: they sell rare-earth magnets in sizes from.25" to 1". The direct-pull strength, when sandwiched between two pieces of steel, ranges from 2.5lbs to 30lbs.
Or in other metrics, their 3/4" magnet will, when placed in a steel cup, hold 3lbs on your fridge door... and that's with a felt pad to keep your enamel from being scratched!
They seel 'em flat and thin, as tall cylinders, or as rings. They're great fun to play with!
Alas, you can't mail-order them. You'll just have to go to the store, where you will then be tempted to spend thousands of dollars on all sorts of workshop toys!
He had a single lense camera and a triple lense projector. I've double-checked: what everyone is thinking was a camera is, in fact, the projector.
This is one of the major problems with the Internet: it's a "skim" media -- the visual analogue of the soundbite -- and it's so very easy to end up misinformed because one didn't actually pay close attention.
The article re: how the fellow did his work *clearly* tells us that he used a standard-issue camera, taking three pictures in succession. The *one* image of a three-lensed machine is, if one actually reads the text, the projector that he used to combine the three images.
So, no, the colour fringing isn't parallax, perspective or any other such thing: it's caused by movement, because there was a time interval between each shot.
What leaves me remaining curious, is whether the colours are true to life, or have been exagerated. I simply don't expect turn-of-the-century fabrics to be so boldly and richly coloured! They look fake to me... but there's every chance that they really were those colours. True dyes on natural fiber must look more colourful than printed dyes on synthetics...
I don't beleive he used three lenses. My reading of the article describing his process is that he used a single lense, and moved the film two times (three frames) using the three colour filters. Yes, there was an illustration of a three-lensed camera.
In particular, the article mentions how he had to change filters "in rapid succession." This sounds like a single-lense situation to me, otherwise a single mechanism would trigger three shutters simultaneously.
You must be getting filtered by your provider. My circumstances are extremely similar to yours; I get a dozen or two spam a day, depending on how successful the latest "get 10bijillion email addresses free" campaign is.
It just must be. Because if this trend continues, they're gonna have to classify computers as munitions, and keep 'em out of the hands of everyday citizens.
When computers become outlawed, only outlaws will have computers...
Well, sure, but the tech kid is stupid: he'll be blowing all his cash on fast cars, expensive meals out, and most of his net worth will be in overpriced company stock, that'll be completely devalued when the company folds!:-)
So move to another town. Why choose to live where it's too expensive to have any other life but a worklife?
Yes, if we popped out some kids, we'd need to work more. That'd be one of those lifestyle choices I'm talking about. We wouldn't need to work 60hr weeks, though!
Take the late shift, if that's what floats your boat. I said nothing disparaging about working nights.
My entire point was this: people need to wake up and make healthy lifestyle choices. If working 60hrs a week excites you, drives you forward, makes you *alive*, man, *alive!*, then by all means, go for it.
But if those sorts of hours are a drag, if they're making you unhappy, if they're overwhelming -- for chrissakes, quit working so much! Make lifestyle choices that give you the ability to work in ways that makes you happy.
I'm surprised my trollish post garnered a response (or was even read, given it's post #488!)
My wife and I live in a modest condo in a small town. We own a ten-year-old car. Except for a mortgage, we owe *nothing* to anyone.
Because we've made these lifestyle decisions -- ie. the decision to *not* purchase a $40k truck, a palatial house, or the other materialism-for-the-ego crap -- we are able to live on part-time incomes. *And* still save money for retirement at age 50. And go one four weeks of backpacking vacation every year.
We've never worked a 60-hour week in our lives, and we're never going to. It's far more important to us to have a great relationship and time together, than to earn money so we can spend money.
Those who focus on accumulation of money as quickly as possible, should consider a couple things. First, you could be dead tomorrow, which would rather moot your bank account. Second, if you train yourself to slave 60hr/week, you will never, ever be able to stop working: it'd kill you. Your entire life will be wasted slaving away for some boss-man.
I think what it is, is a demonstration that Linus doesn't give two shits for what Microsoft has to say. In other words, Linus has no respect whatsoever for Mundie. The man isn't worth the effort it would take to write a respectful rebuttal.
As a minor aside, the opposite of love is not hate. Both hate and love are strong emotions: flipsides of the very same coin. Love and hate both indicate that you really, strongly care.
The opposite of love, and of hate, is apathy. It's not caring, in the least.
What I see in most messages is that everyone cares enough about Microsoft to hate them...
Life is too fucking short to screw around with bullshit like work.
When it's time to die -- say, tomorrow, after the bus hits you -- are you gonna say "geez, I wish I'd put in an extra 10 hours last week"... or are you going to kick yourself for ignoring your wife and kids, because you were too damn greedy for the almighty-fucking-buck?
Now, if you're truly in love with your work, and it's more of a thrill for you than any other aspect of your life, then by all means, work your ass off! You're one of the lucky few for whom work is the pinnacle of life.
The rest of you: getaclue! You don't *NEED* to live an expensive lifestyle. You are *CHOOSING* to sacrifice the enjoyment of living for the greed of mere having. Downsize your life. Learn to live.
Frankly, I think what many of you need is a near-death experience. It'll put a proper perspective on the value of life. Sixty-hour work weeks won't be high on the list of "musts"!
I think there are a couple of key things to remember when providing technical support.
1) Never provide support to anyone you're related to or love. The stakes are just too high, mainly because of your need for them to do well, lest they fall off their pedestal.
2) The users are always doing what makes logical sense to them. It's just that their logic is flawed, or based on faulty assumptions. The story in a message below, about the "I"nput and "O"utput switch is a perfect example.
3) For some people, fear will utterly destroy their ability to learn the new paradigms needed to work with the computer.
Now, my theory: Using a GUI is learning a new language, one that uses physical movement to communicate. And for many people it's just as difficult to learn GUI as it is to learn a French, Russian, or Japanese. If they're not immersed in it every day, they'll never be any good at it...
People who use the spacebar instead of the tab key (or, even better, "style" tagging) in MSWord, WordPerfect, or other good wordprocessors, shouldn't be given remedial training: they should be taken out back and shot, to the benefit of all humanity.
There is nothing wrong with a REGULATED monopoly. Please, actually read the post before you respond to it.
For the dimwits who were yammering about the government being incompetent at regulating, it's worth noting that the successful implementations have been regulated by a non-government advisory board, which has strong representation for consumer interests.
[BTW, AT&T charged for each and every handset, because those handsets were owned by AT&T. You rented them. In return, however, AT&T also had to repair them, no matter how they got damaged. That's why they were built like a brick.]
Why should I give an incomplete, buggy browser a chance?
It's time to quit being silly about software. It's not a moral system, it's not art: it's just a tool.
And like tools, you can run off and get ones that are so cheap, they're damn near free. But the first time you use them, they snap off and you bust your knuckles on the engine block! That's Netscape/Mozilla for ya.
Or you can go out and pay good money and get good tools. MSIE is like that; you may not pay immediately out of pocket, but you do through your other MS purchases. They're kind of like the Craftsman of tools: pretty darn good quality, but maybe they don't carry the particular special-duty gadget you need.
Or you can go out and pay a premiumish sort of amount and get a *great* tool. That's Opera. It's the Snap-On of tools. And if you need a special-duty gadget, and you're willing to pay, Opera will customize for you.
Over the years, I've bought cheap and I've bought quality.
And I have never regretted spending the extra money on quality.
I'm not going to choose software that "may not be [great], but it'll do the job." Not for software that I rely on every single hour of my working day.
So fuck MSIE, fuck Mozilla, and, in particular, fuck Netscape. I'm using Opera: it works better than any of them, making me more productive and less frustrated.
Slashdot Mirror
Daft buggers, all of you.
It doesn't matter what you hacker geeks think is the better windows manager, whether you prefer C or C++, whether Qt is evile or saviour, etc.
What matters is what the majority of end users prefer.
And at some point, the majority are going to be people like me: people who use the computer as a tool, and choose our software not for geek-karma, but for how productive it can make us.
I don't give two short strokes whatthefuck OS or general GUI I'm using. I spend so little time with either, that they're both irrelevent.
What's important to me are my bread-and-butter applications and how they make me work faster or better. Yes, their GUI component is a factor, but these days, all GUIs are pretty darn similar once they hit application level.
So is it gonna be KDE or GNOME or what that wins? Answer: it's gonna be whichever one gets the killer "office" applications first.
And given that there's a dearth of killer Linux "office" apps right now -- yah, sure, StarOffice and Applix and Corel and shite, but none of the are primo and complete -- it's probably all moot.
--
You're incorrect, Daisy. The brain is enormously pre-wired. Who you are is, on the whole, by nature, not nurture. Shyness, for instance, can be predicted with startling accuracy *before* the baby is born, by monitoring its reaction to stimulus. Baby pre-speech gurgles and noises are wired-in, and the brain is already configured to learn language.
It's not a blank slate. There's quite a bit of structure built-in, and the entire thing is primed for learning and pattern recognition.
--
Well, now, let me just rip this off directly from a Python website (http://www.python.org/psa/ Users.html). And there was a recent thread in the Python newsgroup, mentioning about a dozen more big names.
Thing of it is, Python does what it does so well that no one notices it.
It's like when you walk into a retail store. You don't notice that the carpets are clean. The carpets don't call attention to themselves. They're just *there*, doing their job.
Only time you notice a carpet is when it's filthy. When its syntax is filled with !@$% symbols. When it has memory leaks. Etc.
Anyway, the shortlist of companies using Python in commercial apps:
Advanced Management Solutions Inc.
* AMS provides the AMS REALTIME suite of enterprise software for project management, resource management, cost management and timesheets. The Python language engine is embedded in AMS REALTIME as a means of extending the products, and also as a way of enabling custom behavior and company-specific business rules to be supported.
CWI
* CWI, Python's home, has used Python in, among other things, GrINS, a 20,000 line authoring environment for transportable hypermedia presentations, and a 5,000 line multimedia teleconferencing tool, as well as many many smaller programs. See the collection of multi-media project papers.
Digital Creations
* A long-time sponsor of the PSA, Digital creations develops with Python - and also makes some of their Python software available for free!
ILU
* ILU (it's spelled Inter-Language Unification but it's pronounced eye-loo) is a (very) CORBA-ish multi-language object interface system. It has bindings for Common Lisp, C++, ANSI C, Modula-3 and Python.
Automatrix
* Musi-Cal(tm) is the first online calendar that provides easy access to the most up-to-date worldwide live music information: concerts, festivals, gigs and other musical events. It is maintained by Python scripts. So is their Internet
Conference Calendar.
Nightmare Software, Inc.
* Nightmare Software builds 32-bit Windows software with Python - and gives some away!
Infoseek
* Ultraseek Server, Infoseek's commercial search engine product, is implemented as an elaborate multi-threaded Python program with the primitive indexing and search operations performed by a built-in module. Most of the program is written in Python, and both a built-in spider and HTTP server can be customized with additional Python code. The program contains over 11,000 lines of Python code, and the user interface is implemented with over 17,000 lines of Python-scripted HTML templates. Try it out on the Python.Org web search page or download an evaluation copy from Infoseek Software.
eGroups.com (previously Findmail)
* A comprehensive public archive of Internet mailing lists, implemented in pure Python. Latest statistics from Scott Hassan: 180,000 lines of Python doing everything from a 100% dynamic website to all email delivery, pumping out 200 messages/second on a single 400 MHz Pentium!
DataViews Corporation
* DataViews Corporation in Northampton, Mass., have been using Python internally quite a bit.
LLNL
* A group at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories is basing a new numerical engineering environment on Python, replacing a home-grown scripting language of ten-year standing. Paul Dubois is a central figure in that effort.
NASA
* Johnson Space Center uses Python in its Integrated Planning System as the standard scripting language. Efforts are underway to develop a modular collection of tools for assisting shuttle pre-mission planning and to replace older tools written in PERL and shell dialects. Python will also be installed in the new Mission Control Center to perform auxiliary processing integrated with a user interface shell. Ongoing developments include an automated grammar based system whereby C++ libraries may be interfaced directly to Python via compiler techniques. This technology can be extended to other languages in the future.
IV Image Systems AB
* IV Image Systems uses Python for many projects, including a satellite image production system for the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) (see next entry).
This system receives raw data from several weather satellites, and produces images for many purposes, including the satellite images used for the presentation of the daily weather on Swedish TV 4.
For more information, contact Goran Bondeson.
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute
* SMHI is the home of the Swedish civilian weather, hydrological and oceanographic services. It's Python-based remote sensing software for automatic product generation, using NOAA and Meteosat data, provides information to bench forecasters, objective analysis schemes, and commercial interests such as the media. At SMHI's Research & Development Unit, a Python-based "Radar Analysis and Visualization Environment"
--
Heck, you don't even need a laptop.
The [NEC SimpleEm], available from Dynamism, is truly cool.
Flat panel, touchpad, keyboard -- all connected by IR. No cables. Sweet.
And very much eye-candy!
--
Good god. I get ill just looking at the still shots!
--
Oh, it's a geek mecca, let me tell you!
Look for their little black engineering reference book. Filled with arcane data.
Or their custom-made graph paper. Because regular graph paper, frankly, sucks wind.
Or... well, no. I best stop. I'm getting urges to purchase more shit...
--
If you're in the market for super magnets, check out [Lee Valley Tools]. They're mainly a woodworking tools store, with some of the world's most beautiful and best tools.
.25" to 1". The direct-pull strength, when sandwiched between two pieces of steel, ranges from 2.5lbs to 30lbs.
They have also invented any number of handy tools and accessories -- an example where patenting is a good thing, because Lee Valley deserves to make a bundle from their brilliant innovations. It doesn't hurt that they price their stuff reasonably, too!
Anyway, back to their magnets: they sell rare-earth magnets in sizes from
Or in other metrics, their 3/4" magnet will, when placed in a steel cup, hold 3lbs on your fridge door... and that's with a felt pad to keep your enamel from being scratched!
They seel 'em flat and thin, as tall cylinders, or as rings. They're great fun to play with!
Alas, you can't mail-order them. You'll just have to go to the store, where you will then be tempted to spend thousands of dollars on all sorts of workshop toys!
--
He had a single lense camera and a triple lense projector. I've double-checked: what everyone is thinking was a camera is, in fact, the projector.
This is one of the major problems with the Internet: it's a "skim" media -- the visual analogue of the soundbite -- and it's so very easy to end up misinformed because one didn't actually pay close attention.
The article re: how the fellow did his work *clearly* tells us that he used a standard-issue camera, taking three pictures in succession. The *one* image of a three-lensed machine is, if one actually reads the text, the projector that he used to combine the three images.
So, no, the colour fringing isn't parallax, perspective or any other such thing: it's caused by movement, because there was a time interval between each shot.
What leaves me remaining curious, is whether the colours are true to life, or have been exagerated. I simply don't expect turn-of-the-century fabrics to be so boldly and richly coloured! They look fake to me... but there's every chance that they really were those colours. True dyes on natural fiber must look more colourful than printed dyes on synthetics...
--
He had a single-lense camera and a triple-lense projector.
Should have read the entire article first, instead of just browsing it...
--
I don't beleive he used three lenses. My reading of the article describing his process is that he used a single lense, and moved the film two times (three frames) using the three colour filters. Yes, there was an illustration of a three-lensed camera.
In particular, the article mentions how he had to change filters "in rapid succession." This sounds like a single-lense situation to me, otherwise a single mechanism would trigger three shutters simultaneously.
--
You must be getting filtered by your provider. My circumstances are extremely similar to yours; I get a dozen or two spam a day, depending on how successful the latest "get 10bijillion email addresses free" campaign is.
--
It just must be. Because if this trend continues, they're gonna have to classify computers as munitions, and keep 'em out of the hands of everyday citizens.
When computers become outlawed, only outlaws will have computers...
--
Well, sure, but the tech kid is stupid: he'll be blowing all his cash on fast cars, expensive meals out, and most of his net worth will be in overpriced company stock, that'll be completely devalued when the company folds! :-)
--
Let's see... $40K in debt after four years of college, plus the costs of having not earned $60K per year during those four years.
Versus Repo Man, who socks away $60K for four years, compounding interest.
I'll guarantee that Repo Man will have more money at retirement.
--
New-Age mantra my ass: there are many people living in your own "rapidly expanding town" who are living quite well without overworking themselves.
If you're overworked, it is by *choice.* Have the guts to accept ownership of your *choice.*
Anything else is just pansy-assed self-victimization.
--
So move to another town. Why choose to live where it's too expensive to have any other life but a worklife?
Yes, if we popped out some kids, we'd need to work more. That'd be one of those lifestyle choices I'm talking about. We wouldn't need to work 60hr weeks, though!
Take the late shift, if that's what floats your boat. I said nothing disparaging about working nights.
My entire point was this: people need to wake up and make healthy lifestyle choices. If working 60hrs a week excites you, drives you forward, makes you *alive*, man, *alive!*, then by all means, go for it.
But if those sorts of hours are a drag, if they're making you unhappy, if they're overwhelming -- for chrissakes, quit working so much! Make lifestyle choices that give you the ability to work in ways that makes you happy.
--
I'm surprised my trollish post garnered a response (or was even read, given it's post #488!)
My wife and I live in a modest condo in a small town. We own a ten-year-old car. Except for a mortgage, we owe *nothing* to anyone.
Because we've made these lifestyle decisions -- ie. the decision to *not* purchase a $40k truck, a palatial house, or the other materialism-for-the-ego crap -- we are able to live on part-time incomes. *And* still save money for retirement at age 50. And go one four weeks of backpacking vacation every year.
We've never worked a 60-hour week in our lives, and we're never going to. It's far more important to us to have a great relationship and time together, than to earn money so we can spend money.
Those who focus on accumulation of money as quickly as possible, should consider a couple things. First, you could be dead tomorrow, which would rather moot your bank account. Second, if you train yourself to slave 60hr/week, you will never, ever be able to stop working: it'd kill you. Your entire life will be wasted slaving away for some boss-man.
That's just sad.
--
I think what it is, is a demonstration that Linus doesn't give two shits for what Microsoft has to say. In other words, Linus has no respect whatsoever for Mundie. The man isn't worth the effort it would take to write a respectful rebuttal.
As a minor aside, the opposite of love is not hate. Both hate and love are strong emotions: flipsides of the very same coin. Love and hate both indicate that you really, strongly care.
The opposite of love, and of hate, is apathy. It's not caring, in the least.
What I see in most messages is that everyone cares enough about Microsoft to hate them...
--
Life is too fucking short to screw around with bullshit like work.
When it's time to die -- say, tomorrow, after the bus hits you -- are you gonna say "geez, I wish I'd put in an extra 10 hours last week"... or are you going to kick yourself for ignoring your wife and kids, because you were too damn greedy for the almighty-fucking-buck?
Now, if you're truly in love with your work, and it's more of a thrill for you than any other aspect of your life, then by all means, work your ass off! You're one of the lucky few for whom work is the pinnacle of life.
The rest of you: getaclue! You don't *NEED* to live an expensive lifestyle. You are *CHOOSING* to sacrifice the enjoyment of living for the greed of mere having. Downsize your life. Learn to live.
Frankly, I think what many of you need is a near-death experience. It'll put a proper perspective on the value of life. Sixty-hour work weeks won't be high on the list of "musts"!
--
Alternatively, there are innumerable MiniDisc recorders that should do the trick. Several have extended-record features, specifically for dictation.
--
I think there are a couple of key things to remember when providing technical support.
1) Never provide support to anyone you're related to or love. The stakes are just too high, mainly because of your need for them to do well, lest they fall off their pedestal.
2) The users are always doing what makes logical sense to them. It's just that their logic is flawed, or based on faulty assumptions. The story in a message below, about the "I"nput and "O"utput switch is a perfect example.
3) For some people, fear will utterly destroy their ability to learn the new paradigms needed to work with the computer.
Now, my theory: Using a GUI is learning a new language, one that uses physical movement to communicate. And for many people it's just as difficult to learn GUI as it is to learn a French, Russian, or Japanese. If they're not immersed in it every day, they'll never be any good at it...
--
People who use the spacebar instead of the tab key (or, even better, "style" tagging) in MSWord, WordPerfect, or other good wordprocessors, shouldn't be given remedial training: they should be taken out back and shot, to the benefit of all humanity.
Not that I feel strongly about this.
--
There is nothing wrong with a REGULATED monopoly. Please, actually read the post before you respond to it.
For the dimwits who were yammering about the government being incompetent at regulating, it's worth noting that the successful implementations have been regulated by a non-government advisory board, which has strong representation for consumer interests.
[BTW, AT&T charged for each and every handset, because those handsets were owned by AT&T. You rented them. In return, however, AT&T also had to repair them, no matter how they got damaged. That's why they were built like a brick.]
--
The California problem is because they *deregulated* the power industry.
They *had* a private, well-regulated monopoly, and it worked well.
--
Why should I give an incomplete, buggy browser a chance?
It's time to quit being silly about software. It's not a moral system, it's not art: it's just a tool.
And like tools, you can run off and get ones that are so cheap, they're damn near free. But the first time you use them, they snap off and you bust your knuckles on the engine block! That's Netscape/Mozilla for ya.
Or you can go out and pay good money and get good tools. MSIE is like that; you may not pay immediately out of pocket, but you do through your other MS purchases. They're kind of like the Craftsman of tools: pretty darn good quality, but maybe they don't carry the particular special-duty gadget you need.
Or you can go out and pay a premiumish sort of amount and get a *great* tool. That's Opera. It's the Snap-On of tools. And if you need a special-duty gadget, and you're willing to pay, Opera will customize for you.
Over the years, I've bought cheap and I've bought quality.
And I have never regretted spending the extra money on quality.
I'm not going to choose software that "may not be [great], but it'll do the job." Not for software that I rely on every single hour of my working day.
So fuck MSIE, fuck Mozilla, and, in particular, fuck Netscape. I'm using Opera: it works better than any of them, making me more productive and less frustrated.
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