> I'd rather follow carefully written instructions by copy/pasting some text > into a terminal than blindly click on pretty widgets until I find the > configuration dialogue(s) for my particular problem.
I would agree with you except that 9 times out of 10 the instructions are far from carefully written.
> And yet, Japan enjoys the lowest rates of sex crimes of all 1st world countries.
All that says to me is that they don't bother reporting it. I recall a news story where it is quite common for young girls on the subways to be sexually abused. So much so that some girls actually use it as blackmail on the attacker because they know they+friends will be attacked.
There is also the concept of what they consider child abuse. Again I had seen news reports from Japan of Japanese mums fluffing their sons so they can keep studying. Some cultures would see that as child abuse.
> Now they'll have to figure out how to move it to the next level of obnoxiousness.
You mean you never saw the episode of "Walker Texas Ranger" where he and his son take 10 minutes break from fighting crime to exercise on a bowflex (I am serious!). Not that it was a great show to begin with.
Likewise with SG-1 where the Dell XPS laptop actually gets more airtime then the main characters and in a few cases saves the day.
> Hold on a second... where are you drawing that conclusion from?
Well me personally I would take it from experience. It has come a long way but there are still a lot of things that require you to have some knowledge of the command line to get it working at all.
It is quite annoying and it will turn off the non-tech savvy user.
Saying there is graphical options to do things as well doesn't always mean it is easier. For example I have openSuse and I had to change network settings. Did I use the icon in the status bar? The network settings in the control center? The Hardware settings in the control center? The network settings in YaST? Or the command line?
Answer = Command line because it was the only instructions I could find to help fix an issue I had.
Now you show some newbie that they have to guess between 4 options (technically 5 as one option breaks off into two other options). They aren't going to do it when Windows is just one option to learn.
Linux is a brilliant operating system and if it wasn't for that annoyance I would of moved all my machines over to it by now.
Yes there is ramp up time but there is a misconception that because a person needs time to get up to speed that it will always be playing catch up. That is false.
I forget the exact wages it is generally in the ballpark of US wages are x4 to x5 more then Indian wages (they are at least x2 for the job I am doing now in Ireland).
For that amount of cash savings it still makes the ramp up time better then keeping the first guys.
The whole argument has nothing to do with who is the most intelligent, or who is more newbish. It is simply a matter of cash and many Americans have out priced themselves in relation to the world Market.
Of course that out pricing has a lot to do with your countries well being. I am sure if you could buy the same amount of stuff for the same price as Indian wages then it would be more equal footing.
If the first team of guys actually did their job well the source code would of been easy to maintain and wouldn't be an issue. If it is taking the new guys 6 months or more to start working on the system then you are probably better off firing the first group.
For the majority of code work people are pluggable resources. Sad maybe but it is true.
There is also a misconception that because someone works in India that they are somehow less intelligent then "your countrymen". This is soo far from the truth. Yes there are complete idiots being hired by Indian companies but there are people in India with more qualifications/experience and are able to outcompete on that (the less money is just a bonus for the employer).
> i know how to handle this. tell your boss or manager AND/OR IBM to shove it.
Actually I had been in that position (well watching it happen on my old team, I moved before the mess started). Certain US team members dealt with it by using this website.
I recommend you check out the site on the Laptop. They have done away with the desktop. The whole notion of Desktop doesn't apply, as people move between communities (sometimes to travel for goods). Also some places will effectively have only one laptop per family, or multiple families.
The laptops *desktop* is in fact a load of icons which show your position within the community of laptops. It is a very cool idea.
As for Rugged. The laptops are extremely rugged and are designed to be very portable, work without an electric power source (hand generator) and works as its own router for other laptops.
To be honest I can't see myself ever buying a Blu-Ray drive.
For one it is too expensive for the drive. $800. I can get a 500GB HDD for about 120 euros. Easier to store, no messing trying to find a disk. No DRM, no region messing.
It will (imho) go the way of the DAT tapes (niche market).
As I point out again Generics will work on 1.4 as long as your 1.5 compiler compiles the code to support 1.4.
Generics will also work with 1.4 / 1.5 code working together. Also 1.4 code works fine in a 1.5 JVM.
The reason being again is because it is done at the compiler level and doesn't actually add anything to bytecode in relation to Generics.
C# probably does it differently or correctly (I don't use it).
Having earlier JVMs on your machine if you have Java6 is wasteful. You just tell the compiler/eclipse to act as if the code is 1.4/1.3 and it will handle it.
> If your code uses Java 5 features then it won't run on JDK1.4.
Your wrong. Or at least when it comes to Generics (I haven't tested the rest). Everything is done at the compiler level. So even if you use Generics the code is changed to work in 1.4 if you set javac -target 1.4.
A change of what though? The way the US presidential system works your pretty much in a dictatorship. You just get to pick which dictator of the two gets to make a mess for four years.
Your absolutely correct, and if I hadn't commented on the thread I would of given you a mod point.;)
I use SLED10 in work and its primarily why I'm switching. OpenSuse I prefer (I played with a few distros).
The problem becomes then that in order for me to switch for example is.
(a). Find out how to install the card (intel 3945 is not overly intuitive on installing instructions). TBH the problem here is that documentation is written by the geeks/developers, who know you need 10 bits of knowledge to complete the task but automatically assume that as a user you should know 7 of them already so no need to document them.
I mean I've been using computers for years, and while far from an expert at Linux I can only imagine the horror of a newbie wanting to switch.
(b). Get new hardware. Which is fine when I finally move but holds me off switching now.
At the moment I bought the OpenSuse. As soon as the CD-box shows up might as well try a support call.:) Switch is taking place, just a matter of when.
tbh, if Linux worked out of the box then it would be ready for desktop.
I've tried to put Linux on a Dell XPS M170 but I am having absolutely no joy on getting the wireless card working which I need to be able to connect to the net to just download updates.
If it was painless, or I could even figure it out with simple instructions that don't require some knowledge of Linux I'd have moved all my machines at this stage.:/
Other then that I can see no benefit to using Windows at all.
One of the nice things I like about Adblock, those websites that you do want to support and are behaving when it comes to advertisments you can simply white list their site.
Yea we hear "I need ads to survive!", well stop being a dick with your adverts and people will unblock you.
Of course in the case of Slashdot, instead of adverts we get articles that are basically adverts.:)
You know you can disable the reporting part only? Its what I do. I could care less what the script was that got blocked, only that it got blocked.
If the website is one I visit often then I'll unblock it. Most of the time NoScript has saved me from getting some horrible crap to the screen (or worse my machine) by random clicking.
You make a good point but try to see it from the other end. Lets say there is no bottom price, certainly larger shops can come in and offer goods at way below market price which puts all the others out of business. They make a loss on that while still making a profit in other areas. After the competition is mostly killed off they can start to work the prices again.
This already goes on in the USA. Walmart and its famous gallon jar of pickles for example.
Every review I can find of it has more pictures of the box then the laptop. Even the youtube video doesn't show you anything at all. Their website is even worse.
Slashdot Mirror
> I'd rather follow carefully written instructions by copy/pasting some text
> into a terminal than blindly click on pretty widgets until I find the
> configuration dialogue(s) for my particular problem.
I would agree with you except that 9 times out of 10 the instructions are far from carefully written.
> And yet, Japan enjoys the lowest rates of sex crimes of all 1st world countries.
All that says to me is that they don't bother reporting it. I recall a news story where it is quite common for young girls on the subways to be sexually abused. So much so that some girls actually use it as blackmail on the attacker because they know they+friends will be attacked.
There is also the concept of what they consider child abuse. Again I had seen news reports from Japan of Japanese mums fluffing their sons so they can keep studying. Some cultures would see that as child abuse.
* These are not the norms.
> Now they'll have to figure out how to move it to the next level of obnoxiousness.
You mean you never saw the episode of "Walker Texas Ranger" where he and his son take 10 minutes break from fighting crime to exercise on a bowflex (I am serious!). Not that it was a great show to begin with.
Likewise with SG-1 where the Dell XPS laptop actually gets more airtime then the main characters and in a few cases saves the day.
It is not just two Operating systems sharing the same processor but you also have to plug in a second mouse and keyboard.
Maybe it is the one PC per two children program?
> Hold on a second... where are you drawing that conclusion from?
Well me personally I would take it from experience. It has come a long way but there are still a lot of things that require you to have some knowledge of the command line to get it working at all.
It is quite annoying and it will turn off the non-tech savvy user.
Saying there is graphical options to do things as well doesn't always mean it is easier. For example I have openSuse and I had to change network settings. Did I use the icon in the status bar? The network settings in the control center? The Hardware settings in the control center? The network settings in YaST? Or the command line?
Answer = Command line because it was the only instructions I could find to help fix an issue I had.
Now you show some newbie that they have to guess between 4 options (technically 5 as one option breaks off into two other options). They aren't going to do it when Windows is just one option to learn.
Linux is a brilliant operating system and if it wasn't for that annoyance I would of moved all my machines over to it by now.
Yes there is ramp up time but there is a misconception that because a person needs time to get up to speed that it will always be playing catch up. That is false.
I forget the exact wages it is generally in the ballpark of US wages are x4 to x5 more then Indian wages (they are at least x2 for the job I am doing now in Ireland).
For that amount of cash savings it still makes the ramp up time better then keeping the first guys.
The whole argument has nothing to do with who is the most intelligent, or who is more newbish. It is simply a matter of cash and many Americans have out priced themselves in relation to the world Market.
Of course that out pricing has a lot to do with your countries well being. I am sure if you could buy the same amount of stuff for the same price as Indian wages then it would be more equal footing.
If the first team of guys actually did their job well the source code would of been easy to maintain and wouldn't be an issue. If it is taking the new guys 6 months or more to start working on the system then you are probably better off firing the first group.
For the majority of code work people are pluggable resources. Sad maybe but it is true.
There is also a misconception that because someone works in India that they are somehow less intelligent then "your countrymen". This is soo far from the truth. Yes there are complete idiots being hired by Indian companies but there are people in India with more qualifications/experience and are able to outcompete on that (the less money is just a bonus for the employer).
> i know how to handle this. tell your boss or manager AND/OR IBM to shove it.
Actually I had been in that position (well watching it happen on my old team, I moved before the mess started). Certain US team members dealt with it by using this website.
http://www.exmsft.com/~hanss/badcode.htm
I'm not kidding!
The price of the product.
If windows can just barely beat it then it is not worth the money your paying for it.
They are right that some install stuff dropping to terminal needs to end. It is a single blocking point to full adoption for a lot of people.
Excellent post. Just to add to that. You can test out the OS yourself with VMWare Player, EasyVMX and getting the ISO of the Operating system.
I recommend you check out the site on the Laptop. They have done away with the desktop. The whole notion of Desktop doesn't apply, as people move between communities (sometimes to travel for goods). Also some places will effectively have only one laptop per family, or multiple families.
The laptops *desktop* is in fact a load of icons which show your position within the community of laptops. It is a very cool idea.
As for Rugged. The laptops are extremely rugged and are designed to be very portable, work without an electric power source (hand generator) and works as its own router for other laptops.
To be honest I can't see myself ever buying a Blu-Ray drive.
For one it is too expensive for the drive. $800. I can get a 500GB HDD for about 120 euros. Easier to store, no messing trying to find a disk. No DRM, no region messing.
It will (imho) go the way of the DAT tapes (niche market).
It wasn't that it was better. TBH the C64 had a lot going for it.
Where Sinclair won out was he was able to mass produce computers with cheap/sub-standard parts. Which is why they were so cheap.
Nice machine though and what I liked about it was how the developers squeezed everything in. Nowdays we just throw more memory/diskspace at the issue.
23659,0.
I've got two laptops (Thinkpad, XPSM170), two desktops (Dell XPS), one tablet pc (Samsung Q1) and a crappy PDA. And thats just my stuff at home. :)
They all get used for different things.
As I point out again Generics will work on 1.4 as long as your 1.5 compiler compiles the code to support 1.4.
Generics will also work with 1.4 / 1.5 code working together. Also 1.4 code works fine in a 1.5 JVM.
The reason being again is because it is done at the compiler level and doesn't actually add anything to bytecode in relation to Generics.
C# probably does it differently or correctly (I don't use it).
Having earlier JVMs on your machine if you have Java6 is wasteful. You just tell the compiler/eclipse to act as if the code is 1.4/1.3 and it will handle it.
> If your code uses Java 5 features then it won't run on JDK1.4.
Your wrong. Or at least when it comes to Generics (I haven't tested the rest). Everything is done at the compiler level. So even if you use Generics the code is changed to work in 1.4 if you set javac -target 1.4.
> And what about the document you were working on?
Odds on it still has that as well, which is why a fair few places don't allow their employees to automatically send crash reports to Microsoft.
> I think I am ready for a change.
A change of what though? The way the US presidential system works your pretty much in a dictatorship. You just get to pick which dictator of the two gets to make a mess for four years.
> Well that all depends on the box, doesn't it?
;)
:) Switch is taking place, just a matter of when.
Your absolutely correct, and if I hadn't commented on the thread I would of given you a mod point.
I use SLED10 in work and its primarily why I'm switching. OpenSuse I prefer (I played with a few distros).
The problem becomes then that in order for me to switch for example is.
(a). Find out how to install the card (intel 3945 is not overly intuitive on installing instructions). TBH the problem here is that documentation is written by the geeks/developers, who know you need 10 bits of knowledge to complete the task but automatically assume that as a user you should know 7 of them already so no need to document them.
I mean I've been using computers for years, and while far from an expert at Linux I can only imagine the horror of a newbie wanting to switch.
(b). Get new hardware. Which is fine when I finally move but holds me off switching now.
At the moment I bought the OpenSuse. As soon as the CD-box shows up might as well try a support call.
tbh, if Linux worked out of the box then it would be ready for desktop.
:/
I've tried to put Linux on a Dell XPS M170 but I am having absolutely no joy on getting the wireless card working which I need to be able to connect to the net to just download updates.
If it was painless, or I could even figure it out with simple instructions that don't require some knowledge of Linux I'd have moved all my machines at this stage.
Other then that I can see no benefit to using Windows at all.
One of the nice things I like about Adblock, those websites that you do want to support and are behaving when it comes to advertisments you can simply white list their site.
:)
Yea we hear "I need ads to survive!", well stop being a dick with your adverts and people will unblock you.
Of course in the case of Slashdot, instead of adverts we get articles that are basically adverts.
> You hit on one of my pet peeves -- web sites that break a single article into multiple pages.
;) (no seriously).
You can get a firefox plugin that will fix that.
You know you can disable the reporting part only? Its what I do. I could care less what the script was that got blocked, only that it got blocked.
If the website is one I visit often then I'll unblock it. Most of the time NoScript has saved me from getting some horrible crap to the screen (or worse my machine) by random clicking.
You make a good point but try to see it from the other end. Lets say there is no bottom price, certainly larger shops can come in and offer goods at way below market price which puts all the others out of business. They make a loss on that while still making a profit in other areas. After the competition is mostly killed off they can start to work the prices again.
m l
This already goes on in the USA. Walmart and its famous gallon jar of pickles for example.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.ht
Every review I can find of it has more pictures of the box then the laptop. Even the youtube video doesn't show you anything at all. Their website is even worse.