You really need to give this a try. I'm not purely objective, as I'm working with them on something, but let me tell you, beyond any cool factor, the coffee is exquisite. On a regular cup of black coffee the crema is so thick you'll think it's cappucino, and you get an amazing taste without it having to be so thick it's like mud. There's no sourness or bitterness. Where you'd at first think someone crazy for starting a new coffee chain when Starbucks so dominates the industry, after trying this you'll wonder why you've never had decent coffee before.
I've heard of quite a few motherboard failures, among others, on Apple equipment. I don't think the premium being paid is for reliability, it is for performance. If people cared about reliability we'd be using desktops with RAIDs, hot swapable equipment, and hardware that alerted us when things started to go wrong.
That's for sure. Most OS comparisons are not comparing the same things. OS X and Vista are memory hogs that demand fast processors just to run. If you don't feel like spending Rolls Royce money for a computer, there are options - keep the hardware you have that's been running Windows 98 or whatever, and put a free OS on it. Don't bog it down with the same graphical junk that's bloating other OSes (and you don't need to have it just be command prompt, either).
Will it play high end games that run on Windows? Will it handle video editing? Likely no. But if you don't need those things, there are excellent options that even the poor can afford.
I took a look at the Appleseed site. I didn't really know what I was looking at. I know building a pretty site is not what you're setting out to do, but I have a recommendation - make your effort to build this technology based on the same factors that make networking on the sites mentioned so successful.
Make it easy for people to contribute. Make it beneficial to them. Instead of making them add to your big code base, have an API that they can hook their own stuff in to. Make it a no brainer to be part of it.
Compared to IE with a boatload of viruses Firefox may not be bad for memory usage. But I don't think anybody is holding up IE as the best a browser can be.
I recently did some testing of browsers to run on my minimalistic OpenBSD laptop (64MB of RAM, baby), and Firefox was just too resource intensive. I'm not saying this is a market Firefox is trying to target, but it would be nice to see us take a break from the sprint up Morse's Laws curve in hardware needs.
If you care to read about the test, it's here: afterboot.com. If you want the executive summary - check out Konqueror Embedded.
I don't think there's one right way. It depends on what your goal is.
Are they developing for 1)themselves, 2)users, 3)clients/customers?
If you're developing for yourself, scratch your own itch, have fun. If you're getting paid, develop what your client wants. If you're trying to develop for users, good luck. Figuring out what they want and doing all that is a thankless task.
As far as there being few source based distros, I suppose so... but BSDs, which he got inspiration from, are all source based. Not saying Gentoo doesn't have it's redeemeing qualities, and you did say source based distros weren't a new concept, but there were already options for running an open OS and building it from source.
I've been searching for QA people and.NET programmers. Super hard to find. Let me clarify something for people who might misunderstand the need to have someone who can work in.NET - it doesn't mean that's the best programming environment out there. Clients make choices, if we want to have them as clients, we have to work with what they've got, especially if we can't convince them to use something else.
Excerpt of description of NTP's patents from Judgement in 2004 from the Richmond Federal Appeal court : "A message originating in an electronic mail system may be transmitted not only by wireline but also via RF, in which case it is received by the user and stored on his or her mobile RF receiver. The user can view the message on the RF receiver and, at some later point, connect the RF receiver to a fixed destination processor, i.e., his or her personal desktop computer, and transfer the stored message. Id. at col. 18, ll. 39-66. Intermediate transmission to the RF receiver is advantageous because it "eliminat[es] the requirement that the destination processor [be] turned on and carried with the user" to receive messages. Id. at col. 18, ll. 44-46. Instead, a user can access his or her email stored on the RF receiver and "review . . . its content without interaction with the destination processor,""
Re:Some people just don't learn
on
The New Boom
·
· Score: 1
What I learned was: -live below your means -make money while you can -diversify your earning opportunities and skill base with the realization that some of them may disappear -network like a madman. Connections are what get you work
I don't know... I'm no mainframe guy, but I've seen guarantees of the impending doom of big iron for a decade now, and they still seem to be chugging along. Reliable, can segment them, run other OSes ontop, good history... it's going to take some time for other options to get the history needed for people to chuck the iron.
"To produce enough ethanol to sustain the US alone, would require hudreds of thousands of acres of crops."
I don't know what the whole ethanol making process entails, or what types of crops would need to be grown, but it seems like the growing phase of the production of ethanol could help clean the air, no? Couldn't this be a good thing? And if the crop used would be edible, couldn't it be used in emergencies as a food source, too?
It takes more energy to make H than what you get from burning it.
Is this necessarily a bad thing? Isn't hydrogen energy supposed to be portable, to power electronics or cars and such? I imagine it takes more energy to make a AA battery than it holds. Also, whenever these discussions come up, people always talk about the difficulty in storing and transporting energy.
I don't think I've heard of a laptop that won't work, at least partially, with some version of a free operating system. The partially part means some things like sleep/hibernate or firewire or something may not work.
By imposing proprietary software, you would be indoctrinating them, even if it were Mac software. Linux works, arguably better in tight places, like this laptop is sure to have hardware-wise. And they'll never have to pay for an upgrade. If they learn to use the OS, and decide to start a university and need more powerful machines, they won't have to beg to anyone for the software.
That's a very sad and scarey sentiment, and not even necessary in this case. I'm sure a fine system will be made without Mac.
"We forget that using a computer is a difficult and even scary experience for the vast majority of folks, particularly those with very little education."
My guess is you don't have kids. Kids who aren't even in school don't hesitate to watch, learn and copy. They'll login, they'll click where they have to, etc. Children, the target of this project, are not afraid of computers.
"I just don't have to spend as much time "messing" with things." This is going to be one hardware platform for everyone, with the OS and apps preloaded. Probably little to no messing needed.
"So is this laptop going to include some sort of lockout chip whereby it will refuse to run any code that doesn't include source? I have to admit I haven't used red hat in a couple of years, but don't they still include, for example, closed source device drivers and a closed source JDK?"
You're right, Linux isn't completely free usually. But rather than that make the point for Mac, I think it makes the point for an OS like OpenBSD instead of Linux. This project is too important to not have everything be free in every sense. If anything on it cannot be freely used, or if some company could control all these computers in any sense, it's not working quite right.
I think Apple's offer was a generous one, but I'm sure the limitations on what you could do with the computer legally would be huge. Additionally, OS X is a total RAM hog, and stripping down an OS is no easy task.
"Microsoft Office 12 will have massive GUI changes to it"
What's the rate of upgrade? I doubt most people buy new copies/upgrade except maybe when they buy a new computer, and even then I'm not sure. It's pretty expensive, after all. For most users I think older versions of MS Office are fine.
Beyond the valid reaons the parent poster listed, there's the "I don't want to get fired" one. OpenOffice may work 98% of the time and save gobs of money, but if you lose a big client b/c you couldn't read some document they sent in time, or you sent them something that they couldn't figure out and they just chucked, then you're in trouble.
I wouldn't look to OpenOffice as a solution only if it can work seemlessly with MS Office. I think if it does what you need it to, you can print out or make PDFs, and maybe you have somebody with a copy of MS Office that can validate or troubleshoot, you're OK.
ok, so now Google has to make browser based software to satisfy all the needs people have that keep them returning to the MS trough, right? So browser based Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Visio...
It's conceivable that people will still want to do some pro computer work - Photoshop, 3D work, etc. on a machine in front of them, but for the masses, just a browser and an OS could handle it.
Being un/under employed sucks. It kills your morale, you devote tons of time to unproductive hunts for work. It makes you desperate for any offer. Your depression at the hopelessness of it all makes you aimless and unproductive.
Being in the cycle to get a decent position takes at least a month. So if you can handle it all, before your unemployed (which can happen at any time, no matter how wonderful you are), network like mad, donate time and effort to projects to get your name out, be kind to people who you may have to call up later.
Then when the time comes that your job is no more, you strut into offices like a rock star and wait for the cardboard boxes overflowing with filthy cash to drop at your feet.
It said the intention of the community service was "... recipients of welfare payments have to be involved in some sort of activity that improves their chances of finding employment."
So this would be more relevant if they're trying to get back to work in something having to do with software development.
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You really need to give this a try. I'm not purely objective, as I'm working with them on something, but let me tell you, beyond any cool factor, the coffee is exquisite. On a regular cup of black coffee the crema is so thick you'll think it's cappucino, and you get an amazing taste without it having to be so thick it's like mud. There's no sourness or bitterness. Where you'd at first think someone crazy for starting a new coffee chain when Starbucks so dominates the industry, after trying this you'll wonder why you've never had decent coffee before.
You talk about Linux as if it's a business. While some businesses are based on it, it is not a business.
In some areas users consider both options, but for many they serve very different needs.
I've heard of quite a few motherboard failures, among others, on Apple equipment. I don't think the premium being paid is for reliability, it is for performance. If people cared about reliability we'd be using desktops with RAIDs, hot swapable equipment, and hardware that alerted us when things started to go wrong.
"...you are going to pay more"
That's for sure. Most OS comparisons are not comparing the same things. OS X and Vista are memory hogs that demand fast processors just to run. If you don't feel like spending Rolls Royce money for a computer, there are options - keep the hardware you have that's been running Windows 98 or whatever, and put a free OS on it. Don't bog it down with the same graphical junk that's bloating other OSes (and you don't need to have it just be command prompt, either).
Will it play high end games that run on Windows? Will it handle video editing? Likely no. But if you don't need those things, there are excellent options that even the poor can afford.
I took a look at the Appleseed site. I didn't really know what I was looking at. I know building a pretty site is not what you're setting out to do, but I have a recommendation - make your effort to build this technology based on the same factors that make networking on the sites mentioned so successful.
Make it easy for people to contribute. Make it beneficial to them. Instead of making them add to your big code base, have an API that they can hook their own stuff in to. Make it a no brainer to be part of it.
I can't imagine Apple or Microsoft would be the least bit concerned about losing users to OpenBSD.
Compared to IE with a boatload of viruses Firefox may not be bad for memory usage. But I don't think anybody is holding up IE as the best a browser can be.
I recently did some testing of browsers to run on my minimalistic OpenBSD laptop (64MB of RAM, baby), and Firefox was just too resource intensive. I'm not saying this is a market Firefox is trying to target, but it would be nice to see us take a break from the sprint up Morse's Laws curve in hardware needs.
If you care to read about the test, it's here: afterboot.com. If you want the executive summary - check out Konqueror Embedded.
I don't think there's one right way. It depends on what your goal is.
Are they developing for 1)themselves, 2)users, 3)clients/customers?
If you're developing for yourself, scratch your own itch, have fun.
If you're getting paid, develop what your client wants.
If you're trying to develop for users, good luck. Figuring out what they want and doing all that is a thankless task.
As far as there being few source based distros, I suppose so... but BSDs, which he got inspiration from, are all source based. Not saying Gentoo doesn't have it's redeemeing qualities, and you did say source based distros weren't a new concept, but there were already options for running an open OS and building it from source.
I've been searching for QA people and .NET programmers. Super hard to find. Let me clarify something for people who might misunderstand the need to have someone who can work in .NET - it doesn't mean that's the best programming environment out there. Clients make choices, if we want to have them as clients, we have to work with what they've got, especially if we can't convince them to use something else.
O'Reilly has a useful summary of the patents in question (http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/8782?wlg=yes).
Excerpt of description of NTP's patents from Judgement in 2004 from the Richmond Federal Appeal court : "A message originating in an electronic mail system may be transmitted not only by wireline but also via RF, in which case it is received by the user and stored on his or her mobile RF receiver. The user can view the message on the RF receiver and, at some later point, connect the RF receiver to a fixed destination processor, i.e., his or her personal desktop computer, and transfer the stored message. Id. at col. 18, ll. 39-66. Intermediate transmission to the RF receiver is advantageous because it "eliminat[es] the requirement that the destination processor [be] turned on and carried with the user" to receive messages. Id. at col. 18, ll. 44-46. Instead, a user can access his or her email stored on the RF receiver and "review . . . its content without interaction with the destination processor,""
What I learned was:
-live below your means
-make money while you can
-diversify your earning opportunities and skill base with the realization that some of them may disappear
-network like a madman. Connections are what get you work
I don't know... I'm no mainframe guy, but I've seen guarantees of the impending doom of big iron for a decade now, and they still seem to be chugging along. Reliable, can segment them, run other OSes ontop, good history... it's going to take some time for other options to get the history needed for people to chuck the iron.
"To produce enough ethanol to sustain the US alone, would require hudreds of thousands of acres of crops."
I don't know what the whole ethanol making process entails, or what types of crops would need to be grown, but it seems like the growing phase of the production of ethanol could help clean the air, no? Couldn't this be a good thing? And if the crop used would be edible, couldn't it be used in emergencies as a food source, too?
It takes more energy to make H than what you get from burning it.
Is this necessarily a bad thing? Isn't hydrogen energy supposed to be portable, to power electronics or cars and such? I imagine it takes more energy to make a AA battery than it holds. Also, whenever these discussions come up, people always talk about the difficulty in storing and transporting energy.
All things don't work perfectly on a Mac all the time, either. At least when they have to mess with things, they'll be able to.
I don't think I've heard of a laptop that won't work, at least partially, with some version of a free operating system. The partially part means some things like sleep/hibernate or firewire or something may not work.
By imposing proprietary software, you would be indoctrinating them, even if it were Mac software. Linux works, arguably better in tight places, like this laptop is sure to have hardware-wise. And they'll never have to pay for an upgrade. If they learn to use the OS, and decide to start a university and need more powerful machines, they won't have to beg to anyone for the software.
"Principles is one thing, succeeding is another."
That's a very sad and scarey sentiment, and not even necessary in this case. I'm sure a fine system will be made without Mac.
"We forget that using a computer is a difficult and even scary experience for the vast majority of folks, particularly those with very little education."
My guess is you don't have kids. Kids who aren't even in school don't hesitate to watch, learn and copy. They'll login, they'll click where they have to, etc. Children, the target of this project, are not afraid of computers.
"I just don't have to spend as much time "messing" with things."
This is going to be one hardware platform for everyone, with the OS and apps preloaded. Probably little to no messing needed.
"So is this laptop going to include some sort of lockout chip whereby it will refuse to run any code that doesn't include source? I have to admit I haven't used red hat in a couple of years, but don't they still include, for example, closed source device drivers and a closed source JDK?"
You're right, Linux isn't completely free usually. But rather than that make the point for Mac, I think it makes the point for an OS like OpenBSD instead of Linux. This project is too important to not have everything be free in every sense. If anything on it cannot be freely used, or if some company could control all these computers in any sense, it's not working quite right.
I think Apple's offer was a generous one, but I'm sure the limitations on what you could do with the computer legally would be huge. Additionally, OS X is a total RAM hog, and stripping down an OS is no easy task.
"Microsoft Office 12 will have massive GUI changes to it"
What's the rate of upgrade? I doubt most people buy new copies/upgrade except maybe when they buy a new computer, and even then I'm not sure. It's pretty expensive, after all. For most users I think older versions of MS Office are fine.
Beyond the valid reaons the parent poster listed, there's the "I don't want to get fired" one. OpenOffice may work 98% of the time and save gobs of money, but if you lose a big client b/c you couldn't read some document they sent in time, or you sent them something that they couldn't figure out and they just chucked, then you're in trouble.
I wouldn't look to OpenOffice as a solution only if it can work seemlessly with MS Office. I think if it does what you need it to, you can print out or make PDFs, and maybe you have somebody with a copy of MS Office that can validate or troubleshoot, you're OK.
Josh
ok, so now Google has to make browser based software to satisfy all the needs people have that keep them returning to the MS trough, right? So browser based Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Visio...
It's conceivable that people will still want to do some pro computer work - Photoshop, 3D work, etc. on a machine in front of them, but for the masses, just a browser and an OS could handle it.
Being un/under employed sucks. It kills your morale, you devote tons of time to unproductive hunts for work. It makes you desperate for any offer. Your depression at the hopelessness of it all makes you aimless and unproductive.
Being in the cycle to get a decent position takes at least a month. So if you can handle it all, before your unemployed (which can happen at any time, no matter how wonderful you are), network like mad, donate time and effort to projects to get your name out, be kind to people who you may have to call up later.
Then when the time comes that your job is no more, you strut into offices like a rock star and wait for the cardboard boxes overflowing with filthy cash to drop at your feet.
It said the intention of the community service was "... recipients of welfare payments have to be involved in some sort of activity that improves their chances of finding employment."
So this would be more relevant if they're trying to get back to work in something having to do with software development.