Most software written isn't sold. It is customer written for a single company. Your comment doesn't even work when the software is sold to the public. If the same decision is made by 1000 different software companies since the extra $100 that each customer pays will allow every software development company to save on developer cost for optimization.
Software sold to the public is not a one to many relationship. It is a many to many relationship.
There seems to be a very good chance that you are the guy you are describing. If you think it takes "proper instructions" to install Linux, you are so far out of the loop that you would need to be Joe Average's slow brother. The fact that you think there is anything wrong with someone who isn't above average loading Linux and doing all sorts of cool stuff, you would be Joe Average's slow brother with an attitude.
The back-door kill-switch just involves shutting down the activation servers. It won't kill XP systems on day one, but it will put a timer on them since the systems would never be able to be reinstalled again.
That may have been me. I say that periodically. The point being, the two things are not the same at all, but those who don't bother to pay attention will just make up whatever values they want. Someone in your conversation was confused, but since I wasn't there, I can't tell who.
Don't say sorry. Your right. Spending $100k on code optimization to avoid spending an extra $100 on hardware makes no sense at all. Code optimization makes sense if $1000 worth of development time will save $10000 in new hardware, sure. But using the sky rocketing of hardware speed and plummeting of hardware prices to avoid large amounts of development cost is certainly a valid path.
Writing inefficient bloated code more often than not has nothing to do with being lazy. It frequently has to do with looking at the big picture. Spending $100k in developer time to optimize code that could run unoptimized on $100 worth of extra hardware isn't being industrious. It is wasting resources.
There are plenty of places that optimization makes sense, but more often than not, ease of future maintenance should be much higher on the list of priorities.
Ooops. I did miss read accessible as acceptable in the previous post. I was not trying to equate them. I actually miss read the word. I'm not sure how I managed that. So, please ignore my last few posts, and I will respond correctly....
There is no excuse for a CompSci professor has no excuse for not knowing that the data is accessible. Just as there is no excuse for a medical doctor to not know that humans have lungs.
I would go so far as to say that those people don't really even understand what a tablet is. It IS a computer. "Tablet" is just a name that we give to computers with a predefined group of features. Pretty much "Tablet" means a portable, battery powered computer with a touch screen that can be used without a keyboard. If you include those features in a desktop, it would be a tablet too.
I'm not going to disagree with you, but I would like to put in that there is another factor that gets over looked.
Middle management is a necessary job that is not taken seriously. I have worked for great middle managers, and I have worked for (lots) of bad ones. The C level management has no idea what the actual employees do. In a company of any size, they couldn't get a grip on it anyway just do to the vast quantity of different jobs being done. Middle management is there to manage the day to day work, and to report to the higher level management. When this breaks down, the C level management can't informed decisions, and the worker doesn't have the tools necessary to do their job effectively.
Middle management has become such a joke that neither the C level management, nor the workers take them seriously. No doubt the fact that the C level management doesn't take them seriously is a big reason why so many people that are bad at management end up in middle management.
I know that when I have worked for a middle manager that was skilled in his trade, my productivity has often doubled or tripled over the times I have worked for those that were not skilled in their field.
Well, child psychologist have come to a consensus that classical conditioning doesn't exist. Just look at the huge body of works that claim making a child uncomfortable will not discourage the activity that makes them uncomfortable.
That is only true if you place no meaning to the word "Cheap". When I look at laptops, ALL of them are "cheap" compared to a decade ago. Where are the $4k and $5k laptops of yesteryear? They don't exist because as time marches on, technology gets better AND cheaper. A year ago, a good $100 tablet just wasn't going to happen. Today, it would be a real surprise. Next year, I would be surprised if there were not several models available. I would also expect to start seeing Android displace the control panels to other devices as well. The GPS/Stereo touch interface of my brand new Prius is total crap. I mean really bad. So bad that I keep thinking about how I could install a cheap 7" android tablet over top of it. Yeah, the cheap tablet would likely have a low quality resistive touch screen, but it would still be better than the one that came in my car.
I am actually surprised that Apple hasn't targeted the iPad to developers. Programming is exactly the kind of task that works great remotely. If Apple set up a VPS farm and included that in their iOS developer subscription, there would be no need for an entire class of developer to have a regular desktop. Video out for a larger screen, and bluetooth keyboard/mouse and your ready to go.
He is the target audience for a tablet. Just not for an iPad. iPad != tablet. He even starts his post with a description of what he is looking for with a tablet.
Yes, the sub $100 tablet certainly does have a lot of uses. As you say, picture frames are a good example. Being Android devices means that they can also update from your PC as you add more photos from your camera. You also have things like TV remotes. The physical button simple remotes are great, and I prefer them for day to day use, but there are a lot of people that buy Harmony remotes. An android tablet could compete well in that area in both function and cost. Home automation becomes a lot cheaper with a $100 video display controller compared to the hundreds or thousands that they have traditionally cost. Even as clocks, they start to become attractive. Atomic clocks are getting cheap now, but it wasn't long ago that people would spend over $100 on them. Add network set clock with weather, and a news headline, and you've got something. I was just looking at a cheap Android tablet last night. There was no way I would have bought it for general tablet use, but at $80, I would have bought it for a bedside alarm clock/home automation control panel/book reader. Unfortunately, it was priced at $150, and it wasn't worth $150. There are $80 tablets out there though.
They also make better tablets for waitresses. A ton of restaurants in my area are now switching to tablets for their order taking, and 100% of the ones I have seen are using Android tablets. As you say, iPods are too small and iPads are too big.
Slashdot Mirror
That other people are talking about the tablet market.
I don't recall Microsoft ever making that announcement, and you still need the key because XP starts locking down without it.
Most software written isn't sold. It is customer written for a single company. Your comment doesn't even work when the software is sold to the public. If the same decision is made by 1000 different software companies since the extra $100 that each customer pays will allow every software development company to save on developer cost for optimization.
Software sold to the public is not a one to many relationship. It is a many to many relationship.
There seems to be a very good chance that you are the guy you are describing. If you think it takes "proper instructions" to install Linux, you are so far out of the loop that you would need to be Joe Average's slow brother. The fact that you think there is anything wrong with someone who isn't above average loading Linux and doing all sorts of cool stuff, you would be Joe Average's slow brother with an attitude.
Well, that is the rational that AT&T used to dictate that you couldn't attach your own telephone handset to their wired phone network.
I'm pretty sure "Darth" is the honored title....
As far as I understand KDE, it already is a tablet/phone UI. They just did it in a sane way so that it didn't break the desktop.
The back-door kill-switch just involves shutting down the activation servers. It won't kill XP systems on day one, but it will put a timer on them since the systems would never be able to be reinstalled again.
That may have been me. I say that periodically. The point being, the two things are not the same at all, but those who don't bother to pay attention will just make up whatever values they want. Someone in your conversation was confused, but since I wasn't there, I can't tell who.
Don't say sorry. Your right. Spending $100k on code optimization to avoid spending an extra $100 on hardware makes no sense at all. Code optimization makes sense if $1000 worth of development time will save $10000 in new hardware, sure. But using the sky rocketing of hardware speed and plummeting of hardware prices to avoid large amounts of development cost is certainly a valid path.
Writing inefficient bloated code more often than not has nothing to do with being lazy. It frequently has to do with looking at the big picture. Spending $100k in developer time to optimize code that could run unoptimized on $100 worth of extra hardware isn't being industrious. It is wasting resources.
There are plenty of places that optimization makes sense, but more often than not, ease of future maintenance should be much higher on the list of priorities.
Ooops. I did miss read accessible as acceptable in the previous post. I was not trying to equate them. I actually miss read the word. I'm not sure how I managed that. So, please ignore my last few posts, and I will respond correctly....
There is no excuse for a CompSci professor has no excuse for not knowing that the data is accessible. Just as there is no excuse for a medical doctor to not know that humans have lungs.
I never said they were the same. I'm saying that a CompSci professor has no excuse for not knowing that the data is accessible.
So, your one of the confused. Check.
I would go so far as to say that those people don't really even understand what a tablet is. It IS a computer. "Tablet" is just a name that we give to computers with a predefined group of features. Pretty much "Tablet" means a portable, battery powered computer with a touch screen that can be used without a keyboard. If you include those features in a desktop, it would be a tablet too.
The problem isn't that he didn't know what was acceptable. The problem is that the story claims he was unaware that the data would be accessible.
I'm not going to disagree with you, but I would like to put in that there is another factor that gets over looked.
Middle management is a necessary job that is not taken seriously. I have worked for great middle managers, and I have worked for (lots) of bad ones. The C level management has no idea what the actual employees do. In a company of any size, they couldn't get a grip on it anyway just do to the vast quantity of different jobs being done. Middle management is there to manage the day to day work, and to report to the higher level management. When this breaks down, the C level management can't informed decisions, and the worker doesn't have the tools necessary to do their job effectively.
Middle management has become such a joke that neither the C level management, nor the workers take them seriously. No doubt the fact that the C level management doesn't take them seriously is a big reason why so many people that are bad at management end up in middle management.
I know that when I have worked for a middle manager that was skilled in his trade, my productivity has often doubled or tripled over the times I have worked for those that were not skilled in their field.
I know I do.
Actually spear hunting is alive and well. http://www.google.com/search?q=boar+spear+hunting
Well, child psychologist have come to a consensus that classical conditioning doesn't exist. Just look at the huge body of works that claim making a child uncomfortable will not discourage the activity that makes them uncomfortable.
That is only true if you place no meaning to the word "Cheap". When I look at laptops, ALL of them are "cheap" compared to a decade ago. Where are the $4k and $5k laptops of yesteryear? They don't exist because as time marches on, technology gets better AND cheaper. A year ago, a good $100 tablet just wasn't going to happen. Today, it would be a real surprise. Next year, I would be surprised if there were not several models available. I would also expect to start seeing Android displace the control panels to other devices as well. The GPS/Stereo touch interface of my brand new Prius is total crap. I mean really bad. So bad that I keep thinking about how I could install a cheap 7" android tablet over top of it. Yeah, the cheap tablet would likely have a low quality resistive touch screen, but it would still be better than the one that came in my car.
I am actually surprised that Apple hasn't targeted the iPad to developers. Programming is exactly the kind of task that works great remotely. If Apple set up a VPS farm and included that in their iOS developer subscription, there would be no need for an entire class of developer to have a regular desktop. Video out for a larger screen, and bluetooth keyboard/mouse and your ready to go.
He is the target audience for a tablet. Just not for an iPad. iPad != tablet. He even starts his post with a description of what he is looking for with a tablet.
Yes, the sub $100 tablet certainly does have a lot of uses. As you say, picture frames are a good example. Being Android devices means that they can also update from your PC as you add more photos from your camera. You also have things like TV remotes. The physical button simple remotes are great, and I prefer them for day to day use, but there are a lot of people that buy Harmony remotes. An android tablet could compete well in that area in both function and cost. Home automation becomes a lot cheaper with a $100 video display controller compared to the hundreds or thousands that they have traditionally cost. Even as clocks, they start to become attractive. Atomic clocks are getting cheap now, but it wasn't long ago that people would spend over $100 on them. Add network set clock with weather, and a news headline, and you've got something. I was just looking at a cheap Android tablet last night. There was no way I would have bought it for general tablet use, but at $80, I would have bought it for a bedside alarm clock/home automation control panel/book reader. Unfortunately, it was priced at $150, and it wasn't worth $150. There are $80 tablets out there though.
They also make better tablets for waitresses. A ton of restaurants in my area are now switching to tablets for their order taking, and 100% of the ones I have seen are using Android tablets. As you say, iPods are too small and iPads are too big.