Internet Explorer may not be the best browser, but it's the one most individuals (read: people who buy computers from CompUSA/Dell) are likely to use - simply because it's there and it's supported.
Now the moron option:
"Slowly but surely" is the most bullshit phrase in the English language. A pretty strong argument could be made that the Internet Explorer crisis is at its peak right now. It has had a number of years as the front-runner, and almost exclusively used browser in the world. Virus and malware writers have had time to examine and exploit IE to its fullest. Despite this fact, adoption of alternative browsers hasn't happened en masse (see "joking" argument above). Thus, the slow adoption of Firefox could potentially come to a halt should Microsoft remedy even 1/3 of the issues plaguing Internet Explorer.
Saying "good riddance" to IE is like forecasting the rapid adoption of Linux/Unix/OSX. Just because there are sometimes better alternatives doesn't mean that the current dominant force will suddenly vanish. In any case, Firefox adoption wouldn't happen all at once, and certainly not all within the next few years, as you seem to imply will happen.
The first job search. A lot of companies that use human resource firms (recruiters) will specify what credentials they want an applicant to have before the recruiting firm even considers forwarding the resume. In many instances, the company will specify a range of schools (and the recruiters have a pretty good feel for what the companies mean) that an applicant should have a degree from. Recruiters will then use this list as the "first cut" for potential resumes. If you make the first cut, then it doesn't really matter where you went. It's just a way of separating the wheat from the chaffe.
As others have said, after your first job, where the degree came from is of less significance. The only place I disagree with some other replies is that the level of "beginner positions" available to you as a graduate from a bigger name school is generally a notch higher than it would be otherwise. That is to say, a degree from a better known school may open up positions for you immediately that someone from a lesser known school will only be offered after a year to two years of experience. As always, YMMV.
Anyone else find it slightly ironic that the claimed number of songs that 5GB of storage can hold is growing? For instance, the Zen Micro claims to hold 2,500 songs on its drive. However, wasn't the original 5 gig iPod advertised as being able to hold "1000 songs in your pocket"? Is 5 gigs of capacity growing, or are our standards for music quality shrinking?
Once again a/. informant has become overzealous en route to forming a coalition of tinfoil-laden individuals.
Courts tend to take most EULAs with a grain of salt - they frown on "legally binding agreements" where one party can not alter the terms of the agreement. The main logic here is... let's say a corporation you're subscribed to offers a new service, and retroactively changes the TOS to abide by the rules applicable to that given service. Say that the added clause is, "our constituents, lessees of a service provided herein by Corporation X, are bound within contract to not breathe. Since you're subscribed to the service at the time of the change, it's implied that those who are in agreement with the terms thereto should stop breathing. But wait, did they have any say in the changes that were retroactively applied to a contract they signed years ago? Nope. It doesn't give people any choice, and, as a result, is not taken with much gravity.
Anyways... EULAs are crap. Even microsoft realizes that.
I don't really understand the rush to make linux as small as possible. I mean honestly, Feather and Damn Small Linux can already fit on USB thumb drives. Has this just become a contest to see how stripped down of a distrobution people can produce? We understand that Linux is versatile, and that we can apply it in small storage spaces if need be. But really, to what extent do Linux developers need to keep hammering the point that Linux can fit in spaces that the Windows kernel would need a magnifying glass just to identify? I think this is a case of Dead Horse meets Mr. Stick.
Anyways, yes - we can make linux small. But wouldn't it be even cooler if we could make linux even better within the comparatively small spaces it fits already? Or maybe it's that I don't use CF cards enough to really see the full potential for this.
I tried this once. People called it "fraud", though... they were so disappointed when they saw the Staples price sticker still on the cardboard and tin-foil.
Just goes to show you, those British folk can get away with anything!:)
Anyways... back to planning my quest for world dominaton using nothing more than a stick of gum and a paperclip.
To be perfectly honest, this isn't very shocking. 80% of all new businesses within the United States fail within their first year. The fact that many smaller software corporations stuck around was mostly a result of the dot com effect. Now that the cash kitties are finally drying up, any lag that perpetuating the existence of the Small Business is a memory.
While this means layoffs in the short term, I'm not convinced the consolidation is a bad thing. People scream that large software corporations tend to be heartless... and to some extent that's true. However, name small corporations that compete with the stock/options and health benefits corporations like Microsoft provide for their employees.
There's a stigma in our society that all consolidation leads to monopoly - not true. In the late '90s and early on in this century, bank consolidation has actually afforded people greater security, redundancy in systems and access, and better financial services as a result of greater infrastructure. While software corporations aren't like ATMs in the mobility and transparancy of operations, larger corporations might fair better.
In any event, regulation of software corporations, and promotion of worker benefits will be at a premium.
This robot reminds me a lot of the build-it-yourself Lego machines thay have been produced for a number of years now. The kits provide you with the base legos, along with motors, gears, and a nifty computer interface device that lets you write programs for a robot to execute.
The legos were a lot of fun, but the batteries for the remote/receiver never lasted that long.
This could be a nice next-generation version of the lego system, or it could turn into (brace yourself) this.
Isn't this exactly what we wanted to happen? Microsoft realized that a competing product (mozilla, opera, etc.) is advancing at a rate that might cause MS to lose market share on the browser front.
The positive of this is that the world gets an improved Internet Exploder^H^H^Hrer and Microsoft is adding new jobs. I think that's a win for everyone.
However, my question is why is Microsoft going to great lengths to improve Internet Explorer? Though they could lose browser market share, they haven't yet. The vast majority of desktops running Windows use Internet Explorer, flaws and all. Also, Microsoft doesn't really have much to gain by revamping IE. There's not much money to be made in the browser business anymore. It's not about the browser that is used online, so much as it is the content people are viewing. As long as Microsoft's patented.NET framework becomes mainstream, why care so much about IE? Maybe this is a PR move?
I think you're missing the point slightly... The main advantage of building these cars "atom by atom" is the use of nano-devices to check structural integrity of the vehicle. The main hope for these nano-devices is that they'll provide more accurate measures of stress tolerance in an impact.
One of the other added benefits from using nano-technology in this field is that certain devices could be used as a warning system, or sensor. In that sense, implanting these tools in the framework of the vehicle can be considered going "atom by atom" to choose the most likely places an impact will occur, and using the nano-machines as information relay to the vehicle's on-board computer. This way, instead of relying on crush sensitive technologies to deploy air bags and the like, we can use more precise measuring devices to help improve safety in vehicles.
Of course, the one trade-off of this is that as these technologies allow for more driver error, there is the potential we could lean too hard on these devices to protect human life. It's a very dangerous idea to have a vehicle that is so protective of its passengers that the passengers become careless... but I think we're a long way off from that.
While some people really like GNOME's design, I have significant issues with the software available to it and the desktop environment itself. GNOME has a hard time separating out libraries that it's not using for a given applications. The environment tends to take a shotgun approach at loading up EVERYTHING and then just dismissing libraries it's not using. The memory footprint, however, ends up being much larger than KDE (I didn't think this was possible until I ran GNOME).
I just hope that with this new incentive to bring in GTK+ apps that people start more closely examining the underlying software support for the GNOME project. I think GNOME is still light-years behind KDE, not so much in interface, but in foundation and logic.
I'd like to see more developers optimize GTK apps to only load needed libraries. I think this is one of the reasons linux has come under fire recently for being "unusable" on older systems - it loads up too much junk with the standard desktop environments. I don't mean for this to be a flame towards the GNOME project, but it's just an unfortunate trend I'm noticing.
GTK apps need to be refined, such that they don't start following the Microsoft paradigm of, "since we have it, let's bring everything in and add it to the toolbar... woot woot".
The spread of free WiFi and possible security breaches by cyber criminals? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have easy access to information of my coffee break. But what is to prevent a person from using wireless access, which probably isn't as closely monitored (user by user), to avoid restrictions/restraints on their personal access? It seems like until we have methods for identifying criminals on a wireless network, and locking down security, free access is extended to even those who would abuse it.
Is there anyone who is better versed on this matter who can enlighten me as to security procedures in these "hot-spots" that the article praises?
What I mean is... if he'd given people a little more time to examine the situation - even a week would have been sufficient - people who liked his service might have tried to set up a fund-raising activity of some variety. I'm sure his users wouldn't have minded contributing a dollar or two in order to continue service.
People just needed a small amount of time to prepare, even if they wouldn't have the chance to back up their data.
In my experience, people tend to react more favorably towards disappointing situations if they have fair warning. People are a little more understanding if they have the chance to react to this news, as opposed to suddenly just seeing their information disappear.
That's why "trading curbs" were implemented on the New York Stock Exchange. People needed time to react to news that could potentially cost them money/time. It's a lot easier to deal with losses if you either see them coming, or are given a fair chance to recover from drastic swings. (A little off-topic, but I think this relates).
So let me get this straight... He didn't know even 1 day in advance that rising costs and other technical/logistical difficulties were going to force him to shut down service? That seems rather ridiculous and is a huge oversight on his part. To not even warn people that he was having difficulties... it's mind boggling. I'm sure someone would have come to his aid, or at least tried to organize a fund to assist in maintaining service.
Honestly, though... to not see this coming even a few days in advance? That's very disappointing.
Release 0.9 looks pretty good so far. The new default theme looks spiffy, and basic functionality seems to be improved (rendering/loading is a tad faster, in my opinion). I also really like the extensions manager.
The one flaw I've noticed so far, though, is that the extensions options frame is a little buggy. When I finish modifying one extension and go to load up the preferences from another, the extension I just finished modifying pops up. If I go back and load the new extension prefs again, everything is fine. It's nothing major... just a little something that could be fixed for the big 1.0.
FreeBSD is used on over 95 of the top 100 servers (greatest average uptime). FreeBSD is tested and true on the server-side in a way few linux distrobutions can claim. The closest any distro has come to actually matching reliability with FreeBSD is Debian. But even then, FreeBSD is still light-years ahead. I'm not really sure what inspired this article, but a simple google search reveals that BSD is the route most major corporations are taking with servers. So while I do appreciate GNU/GPL support, try to be less blatant.;)
Why the fuck do you keep just posting articles off the front of Wikipedia? This isn't even the news part of that site, it's the "what happened on this date X years ago".
Honestly, this is bullshit. Slashdot is quickly going from news filter to toilet bowl filter. Stop posting this crap, or let someone else edit the site.
The University of Texas at Austin makes up about 90% of the city. And, seeing as UT claims to have a fully wireless campus, is this such a shock? Or does 2+2 suddenly = 5?
C'mon, guys... simple logic. It's no grand colaborative effort, it's just a really big-ass University.
First - it makes it easier to determine if a felony was committed by a previously arrested criminal. It also expedites the speed at which information is shared if we can pinpoint perpetrators in this way.
Second - should someone be sentenced to death, reversing said conviction/sentencing is easier if you have DNA evidence to back up claims. Though, I suppose it sucks for the criminal if they then do some retests, and the final verdict of the testing is that you did it.
The article talks about the government releasing software under the GPL, and not about government intervention in GNU/GPL projects.
In many cases, assuming the software is not proprietary, the work is available to the whole government for unlimited use and it falls under the public domain. Public domain materials can be requested by anyone...
Please READ before you post. It's very frustrating to see posts exactly opposite the subject of the article./rant
Slashdot Mirror
You can find a ROSD screenshot in a virtual machine in his weblog entry.
Not anymore, heheheh....
You're either joking, or you're a moron.
Let's deal with the joking option first:
Internet Explorer may not be the best browser, but it's the one most individuals (read: people who buy computers from CompUSA/Dell) are likely to use - simply because it's there and it's supported.
Now the moron option:
"Slowly but surely" is the most bullshit phrase in the English language. A pretty strong argument could be made that the Internet Explorer crisis is at its peak right now. It has had a number of years as the front-runner, and almost exclusively used browser in the world. Virus and malware writers have had time to examine and exploit IE to its fullest. Despite this fact, adoption of alternative browsers hasn't happened en masse (see "joking" argument above). Thus, the slow adoption of Firefox could potentially come to a halt should Microsoft remedy even 1/3 of the issues plaguing Internet Explorer.
Saying "good riddance" to IE is like forecasting the rapid adoption of Linux/Unix/OSX. Just because there are sometimes better alternatives doesn't mean that the current dominant force will suddenly vanish. In any case, Firefox adoption wouldn't happen all at once, and certainly not all within the next few years, as you seem to imply will happen.
The first job search. A lot of companies that use human resource firms (recruiters) will specify what credentials they want an applicant to have before the recruiting firm even considers forwarding the resume. In many instances, the company will specify a range of schools (and the recruiters have a pretty good feel for what the companies mean) that an applicant should have a degree from. Recruiters will then use this list as the "first cut" for potential resumes. If you make the first cut, then it doesn't really matter where you went. It's just a way of separating the wheat from the chaffe.
As others have said, after your first job, where the degree came from is of less significance. The only place I disagree with some other replies is that the level of "beginner positions" available to you as a graduate from a bigger name school is generally a notch higher than it would be otherwise. That is to say, a degree from a better known school may open up positions for you immediately that someone from a lesser known school will only be offered after a year to two years of experience. As always, YMMV.
Anyone else find it slightly ironic that the claimed number of songs that 5GB of storage can hold is growing? For instance, the Zen Micro claims to hold 2,500 songs on its drive. However, wasn't the original 5 gig iPod advertised as being able to hold "1000 songs in your pocket"? Is 5 gigs of capacity growing, or are our standards for music quality shrinking?
Once again a /. informant has become overzealous en route to forming a coalition of tinfoil-laden individuals.
Courts tend to take most EULAs with a grain of salt - they frown on "legally binding agreements" where one party can not alter the terms of the agreement. The main logic here is... let's say a corporation you're subscribed to offers a new service, and retroactively changes the TOS to abide by the rules applicable to that given service. Say that the added clause is, "our constituents, lessees of a service provided herein by Corporation X, are bound within contract to not breathe. Since you're subscribed to the service at the time of the change, it's implied that those who are in agreement with the terms thereto should stop breathing. But wait, did they have any say in the changes that were retroactively applied to a contract they signed years ago? Nope. It doesn't give people any choice, and, as a result, is not taken with much gravity.
Anyways... EULAs are crap. Even microsoft realizes that.
I don't really understand the rush to make linux as small as possible. I mean honestly, Feather and Damn Small Linux can already fit on USB thumb drives. Has this just become a contest to see how stripped down of a distrobution people can produce? We understand that Linux is versatile, and that we can apply it in small storage spaces if need be. But really, to what extent do Linux developers need to keep hammering the point that Linux can fit in spaces that the Windows kernel would need a magnifying glass just to identify? I think this is a case of Dead Horse meets Mr. Stick.
Anyways, yes - we can make linux small. But wouldn't it be even cooler if we could make linux even better within the comparatively small spaces it fits already? Or maybe it's that I don't use CF cards enough to really see the full potential for this.
I tried this once. People called it "fraud", though... they were so disappointed when they saw the Staples price sticker still on the cardboard and tin-foil.
:)
Just goes to show you, those British folk can get away with anything!
Anyways... back to planning my quest for world dominaton using nothing more than a stick of gum and a paperclip.
And you thought tin-foil was just for hats!
Syphon All Profits.
:)
To be perfectly honest, this isn't very shocking. 80% of all new businesses within the United States fail within their first year. The fact that many smaller software corporations stuck around was mostly a result of the dot com effect. Now that the cash kitties are finally drying up, any lag that perpetuating the existence of the Small Business is a memory.
While this means layoffs in the short term, I'm not convinced the consolidation is a bad thing. People scream that large software corporations tend to be heartless... and to some extent that's true. However, name small corporations that compete with the stock/options and health benefits corporations like Microsoft provide for their employees.
There's a stigma in our society that all consolidation leads to monopoly - not true. In the late '90s and early on in this century, bank consolidation has actually afforded people greater security, redundancy in systems and access, and better financial services as a result of greater infrastructure. While software corporations aren't like ATMs in the mobility and transparancy of operations, larger corporations might fair better.
In any event, regulation of software corporations, and promotion of worker benefits will be at a premium.
In other words, there's nothing to fear.
This robot reminds me a lot of the build-it-yourself Lego machines thay have been produced for a number of years now. The kits provide you with the base legos, along with motors, gears, and a nifty computer interface device that lets you write programs for a robot to execute.
The legos were a lot of fun, but the batteries for the remote/receiver never lasted that long.
This could be a nice next-generation version of the lego system, or it could turn into (brace yourself) this.
Isn't this exactly what we wanted to happen? Microsoft realized that a competing product (mozilla, opera, etc.) is advancing at a rate that might cause MS to lose market share on the browser front.
.NET framework becomes mainstream, why care so much about IE? Maybe this is a PR move?
The positive of this is that the world gets an improved Internet Exploder^H^H^Hrer and Microsoft is adding new jobs. I think that's a win for everyone.
However, my question is why is Microsoft going to great lengths to improve Internet Explorer? Though they could lose browser market share, they haven't yet. The vast majority of desktops running Windows use Internet Explorer, flaws and all. Also, Microsoft doesn't really have much to gain by revamping IE. There's not much money to be made in the browser business anymore. It's not about the browser that is used online, so much as it is the content people are viewing. As long as Microsoft's patented
I think you're missing the point slightly... The main advantage of building these cars "atom by atom" is the use of nano-devices to check structural integrity of the vehicle. The main hope for these nano-devices is that they'll provide more accurate measures of stress tolerance in an impact.
One of the other added benefits from using nano-technology in this field is that certain devices could be used as a warning system, or sensor. In that sense, implanting these tools in the framework of the vehicle can be considered going "atom by atom" to choose the most likely places an impact will occur, and using the nano-machines as information relay to the vehicle's on-board computer. This way, instead of relying on crush sensitive technologies to deploy air bags and the like, we can use more precise measuring devices to help improve safety in vehicles.
Of course, the one trade-off of this is that as these technologies allow for more driver error, there is the potential we could lean too hard on these devices to protect human life. It's a very dangerous idea to have a vehicle that is so protective of its passengers that the passengers become careless... but I think we're a long way off from that.
While some people really like GNOME's design, I have significant issues with the software available to it and the desktop environment itself. GNOME has a hard time separating out libraries that it's not using for a given applications. The environment tends to take a shotgun approach at loading up EVERYTHING and then just dismissing libraries it's not using. The memory footprint, however, ends up being much larger than KDE (I didn't think this was possible until I ran GNOME).
I just hope that with this new incentive to bring in GTK+ apps that people start more closely examining the underlying software support for the GNOME project. I think GNOME is still light-years behind KDE, not so much in interface, but in foundation and logic.
I'd like to see more developers optimize GTK apps to only load needed libraries. I think this is one of the reasons linux has come under fire recently for being "unusable" on older systems - it loads up too much junk with the standard desktop environments. I don't mean for this to be a flame towards the GNOME project, but it's just an unfortunate trend I'm noticing.
GTK apps need to be refined, such that they don't start following the Microsoft paradigm of, "since we have it, let's bring everything in and add it to the toolbar... woot woot".
Any thoughts on this?
The spread of free WiFi and possible security breaches by cyber criminals? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have easy access to information of my coffee break. But what is to prevent a person from using wireless access, which probably isn't as closely monitored (user by user), to avoid restrictions/restraints on their personal access? It seems like until we have methods for identifying criminals on a wireless network, and locking down security, free access is extended to even those who would abuse it.
Is there anyone who is better versed on this matter who can enlighten me as to security procedures in these "hot-spots" that the article praises?
Make the Star Trek name absolute mud? Honestly, it has all been downhill since TNG...
Star Trek DS9: "To boldly go... no where. We're on a freaking space station people. We stay stationary, people... that's our job - to be dull!"
Star Trek Voyager: "To boldly promote the worst captain ever! Yeah, Janeway - you go, girl. Magically know stuff that no one else does. Cool, baby!!!"
Star Trek Enterprise: "To boldly go and fuck up the entire timeline."
Give it up, already... this is just getting pathetic. Leave us with the good stuff and get rid of this marketing money-driven drivel.
What I mean is... if he'd given people a little more time to examine the situation - even a week would have been sufficient - people who liked his service might have tried to set up a fund-raising activity of some variety. I'm sure his users wouldn't have minded contributing a dollar or two in order to continue service.
People just needed a small amount of time to prepare, even if they wouldn't have the chance to back up their data.
In my experience, people tend to react more favorably towards disappointing situations if they have fair warning. People are a little more understanding if they have the chance to react to this news, as opposed to suddenly just seeing their information disappear.
That's why "trading curbs" were implemented on the New York Stock Exchange. People needed time to react to news that could potentially cost them money/time. It's a lot easier to deal with losses if you either see them coming, or are given a fair chance to recover from drastic swings. (A little off-topic, but I think this relates).
So let me get this straight... He didn't know even 1 day in advance that rising costs and other technical/logistical difficulties were going to force him to shut down service? That seems rather ridiculous and is a huge oversight on his part. To not even warn people that he was having difficulties... it's mind boggling. I'm sure someone would have come to his aid, or at least tried to organize a fund to assist in maintaining service.
Honestly, though... to not see this coming even a few days in advance? That's very disappointing.
Release 0.9 looks pretty good so far. The new default theme looks spiffy, and basic functionality seems to be improved (rendering/loading is a tad faster, in my opinion). I also really like the extensions manager.
The one flaw I've noticed so far, though, is that the extensions options frame is a little buggy. When I finish modifying one extension and go to load up the preferences from another, the extension I just finished modifying pops up. If I go back and load the new extension prefs again, everything is fine. It's nothing major... just a little something that could be fixed for the big 1.0.
It's good to have a low score.
Bugs -
Linux: 1
Windows: 3043096736907034tu3jtr4kghgpew34906
Oh, yes, it is! OMG!!!
IT'S SMELLY CAT!You can so totally see his eyes and nose. It's those three big craters about 60% of the way down the surface.
Damn I miss that show... Jennifer Aniston was so hot.
FreeBSD is used on over 95 of the top 100 servers (greatest average uptime). FreeBSD is tested and true on the server-side in a way few linux distrobutions can claim. The closest any distro has come to actually matching reliability with FreeBSD is Debian. But even then, FreeBSD is still light-years ahead. I'm not really sure what inspired this article, but a simple google search reveals that BSD is the route most major corporations are taking with servers. So while I do appreciate GNU/GPL support, try to be less blatant. ;)
Why the fuck do you keep just posting articles off the front of Wikipedia? This isn't even the news part of that site, it's the "what happened on this date X years ago".
Honestly, this is bullshit. Slashdot is quickly going from news filter to toilet bowl filter. Stop posting this crap, or let someone else edit the site.
The University of Texas at Austin makes up about 90% of the city. And, seeing as UT claims to have a fully wireless campus, is this such a shock? Or does 2+2 suddenly = 5?
C'mon, guys... simple logic. It's no grand colaborative effort, it's just a really big-ass University.
First - it makes it easier to determine if a felony was committed by a previously arrested criminal. It also expedites the speed at which information is shared if we can pinpoint perpetrators in this way.
Second - should someone be sentenced to death, reversing said conviction/sentencing is easier if you have DNA evidence to back up claims. Though, I suppose it sucks for the criminal if they then do some retests, and the final verdict of the testing is that you did it.
The article talks about the government releasing software under the GPL, and not about government intervention in GNU/GPL projects.
/rant
In many cases, assuming the software is not proprietary, the work is available to the whole government for unlimited use and it falls under the public domain. Public domain materials can be requested by anyone...
Please READ before you post. It's very frustrating to see posts exactly opposite the subject of the article.