they told him NOT to fix the computers as good as he could because otherwise "they wouldn't get repeat business". Luckily he had enough morals to quit as this disgusted him. I don't expect them to be around too much longer.
Openoffice had its day in the sun (no pun intended) but its days are numbered. Overall, the package is slow and bloated and the reports from Office 2007 say that it is still quick even with all that bloated GUI crap (i.e. The Ribbon). OO is incredibly slow in loading and in use without all the functionality of Office and non of the GUI.
OOWriter,
Great program, slow as a dog w/heatstroke but has a good drawing package, bibliography, and eqn editor.
OOCalc
Nothing to see here, move along. Excel has nothing to fear. Charting works like crap.
OOImpress
Nothing new here with less functionality than Powerpoint and animations work like hell in Linux. So much for cross platform.
OODraw
Nice drawing package and better than that in Word. Yeah, that's 1.
Anyhow, I've stopped holding my breath for a kick-ass free package and the package has been in a death spiral ever since Sun got their grubby hands on the package. They should have left it with StarDivision and just paid them $$ to incorporate features as opposed to having developers work on both StarOffice (SUN's) and Openoffice. What, didn't you know that most of the OO.org developers are Sun employees, LOL - it explains the bloatware and Java integration now, doesn't it.
Be done with it already - fine them and move on as the threats aren't working. Now we'll see if the EU has the backbone to enforce their policies or not. That's the problem with making threats and not carrying out on them; sometimes it's not worth the threats and you'd be better served carrying out on your word.
Uhhhh, just how accountable is the corporate software? Seriously, when was the last time anyone say MS or any of the other companies held liable for their creations?
Let's be fair now; OSS shouldn't be held accountable to a degree that is different than what current software creators are held accountable to.
Let's hope that they can help improve Ubuntu like they've helped out Staroffice/Openoffice. Let's see
1) Add a couple useful features every 6 yrs
2) Slow down the system by _at least_ five-fold over 6 yrs
3) Incorporate Java like crazy to help point (2)
4) Ignore major user complaints like bug 366 for years
Am I missing anything else?
In the 6 yrs that they've had Openoffice they've done the following,
Promised
a) speed increases by ripping the _huge, superslow, super resource intensive_ package into a bunch of "smaller and quicker" sub-packages
but delivered
b) a package of packages that requires more room, more memory, loads in 10 seconds instead of the original 3 and runs _significantly_ SLOWER than the original monolithic package. If this is progress then send me backwards.
Here is something that I haven't been able to figure out,
I argue that we made a mistake with Iraq by not identifying the root cause of terrorism. I subscribe to the school of thought that the war on terror is an economic and educational problem and THAT is why it is going all wrong.
Why didn't we just hire Iraqis to rebuild their own country WITH US money? It would have,
1) kept the Iraqis occupied with rebuilding their country
2) put money in their pockets
3) cost the US a fraction of what it is currently costing us
4) built up a collaboration with the Iraqis
I don't know about you guys but I firmly believe that a busy-body is just too busy to worry about politics. I person with $$ in their pockets is just too happy to worry about politics
when I'm dog-tired at the end of the day from working, I just want to sit on the couch and hang with family and friends - not pick up an AK and run around.
By building infrastructure that isn't Iraqi designed or Iraqi built, these guys can't help but resent us. I just don't get why our gov't didn't do the responsible thing and put these guy/girls to work AND save the taxpayers money? Flame-suit on!
Let's see, all cpus have a CPUID string, the memory is reported by the BIOS, and I would think the chipsets should be able to get worked out also. In other words, isn't all the hardware able to get probed during boot up and if so, then let the OS set the flags properly and take 1.5 hrs to install instead of 0.5 hours (if I so choose).
If I want other packages installed, just be sure to check a config file created by the OS during install and set the proper flags and go to town.
Gentoo is based on the user knowing the ins and outs of their system but isn't this something that can be automated? Why can't the OS figure out what the best flags are to set? Oh well, call me K-RAY-Z!
also don't discount the dissatisfaction that exists between Ebay and their users. I dislike the 10% Ebay surcharge that gets assessed to each auction between listing fees, final value fees, and paypal deduction fees. I'll be the first to hop off the Ebay bus and onto the Google bus when it happens.
I've got six digits in loans thanks to med school and they're growing by the day.
Is this supposed to make us feel bad as you embark on your 6 figure + salary?
avg cost of engineering school = $80k
avg starting salary of engineer = $55k
avg cost of med school = $120k
avg starting salary of family practitioner = $100k
avg starting salary of specialist = $300k (with $500-$600k attainable)
avg cost of teaching education = $60k
avg starting salary of teacher $30k
So a teacher has MORE to pay back compared to their salary, and engineer a little less and an MD a LOT less. Now throw in that an engineer will cap at about $100k, a teacher at $60k (unless in N.E.), and that MDs can make a butt-load more (no BS, I know) and you'll see that all the excuses that MDs throw up for their astronomical salaries is easily debunked.
Cost of higher education - explain that to the PhDs who get squat in comparison and have studied their field for 10+ yrs whereas I can get into a med school with basket weaving so long as I have the basic 5 -core courses for the MCATs.
Huge loans - already debunked.
Medical malpractice - excuse me, I'd gladly pay $50k in insurance to make $250k/yr. Anyone else?
Just tired of hearing people in well compensated professions complain about how poor they are while the rest get (relatively) screwed.
For you AA players out there go to Bridge Crossing SE and look for "tony_montana" - he fits this perfectly.
He's got high honor because he's always on even though he isn't that good. He just keeps SCREAMING "respect me, I have more honor" and "give me that weapon because you should respect me because I have more honor". Needless to say, nobody respects him.
That being said, WoW isn't alone in creating a REAL contrast between hard-earned achievements and the easily gotten ones.
Between this as evidence and the US wanting to sell their ports to the UAE I'm thoroughly convinced that those that run a country and those that inhabit said country are completely disconnected. It should be interesting to see what happens when pandemonium sets in within a country that has an extreme number of arms and complete resentment for the "have" by the "have-nots".
So we'll have TBird, Firefox, and a Calendar all running off 3 instances of the same runtime engine - hey, that's SMART!
Yes, it is, because it means that they all can use different versions of the runtime engine.
For the life of me, I can't figure out:
Well, keep thinking about it, maybe eventually you will figure it out. It makes sense to me: Firefox, Thunderbird, and OOo get the job done with a memory footprint, speed, and release dates that I can live with. That's what counts.
If using 3 of the same thing loaded into memory makes sense to you then have at it. I struggle enough with using 3 somewhat different forks to stab my food and have now resorted to the barbaric ways of using 1 fork for my salad, dinner, & dessert. I guess I'm crazy but I prefer efficiency and common sense. You only have a point, IMHO, if the GRE is vastly different but to my knowledge it isn't. If 80% of it is the same then they should use a common GRE, where it is common, and different libraries where it is different.
As far as your last comment goes it's all a matter of opinion. I'm FORCING myself to use OO as it is barely useable (no exaggeration) when I do large presentations with fonts of multiple sizes. The time it takes to update font information when clicking on boxes of various fonts is about.5-1 second - barely tolerable. I _should not_ be able to think and move faster than a 2Ghz Dothan Processor w/1GB of RAM. Especially considering that I haven't seen level of application interface sluggishness since I left my 486pc using MSOffice. If THAT is progress then we are using 2 _totally_ different rulers by which to measure. And should you forget, try downloading and installing StarOffice 5.2 and then come back and reply about speed improvements - you'll be shocked at the difference. You can live with regression, I cannot keep silent about it. I've offered my help and offered $$ if they'd fix things - the OO team has been deadly silent on both counts as has been reported numerous times.
Now all they need to do is use 1 Runtime Engine
on
Thunderbird 1.5 Arrives
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
So we'll have TBird, Firefox, and a Calendar all running off 3 instances of the same runtime engine - hey, that's SMART!
why not have the runtime engine built into all three products but only install if it isn't already present? Ya know, save memory and work on improving 1 engine instead of 3. Oh yeah, that's too smart and already exists as Mozilla (which was canned)...err...SeaMonkey.
This is being brought to you by the same category of boffins that duped you into believing that tearing apart the StarOffice Suite would IMPROVE system response when, in fact, it has slowed things down about tenfold while using up MORE memory.
I don't doubt that they are good products on their own but how about using a runtime engine that is already present instead of loading a new one each time - PAY ATTENTION SUN AND OO.ORG.
The regression of these 2 areas (i.e. Mozilla and openoffice) is so sad and considering that they are the 2 most used packages says something about the leaders of these software packages.
For the life of me, I can't figure out:
1) Why Sun dumped the integrated package and didn't make it opensource while opensourcing the split apps.
2) Why the promise of increased speed hasn't been fulfilled?
3) Why things would get 10x worse, in terms of speed, with OO?
4) Why the FF and TB creaters aren't working on a common GRE? How many people DON'T use both at the same time?! I love the packages but after seeing the memory useage when using both and comparing to Mozilla, I quickly went back to the Mozilla Suite.
OK, we all realize that engineers tend to be very bright people BUT they just aren't smart enough.
Disclaimer: I'm about 1yr away from a PhD in, God forbid, Mechanical Engineering.
Here are some of my thoughts...
One of the lies that we are told growing up is education leads to increased incomes and that is true up to a point. The other lie is that the more we learn the more we make - also true up to a point. For PhDs that isn't necessarily true.
1) Engineers are overworked and underpaid compared to their managerial counterparts.
2) The road to wealth doesn't lie with engineering. It lies with insurance industries - in particular, medicine or better yet pseudo-medicine. My Chiropractor makes $500k/yr. That's with a BS in basket weaving and another 2yrs of coursework and another 2 yrs of interning-type work in an educational setting. With 4yrs of education with respect to his field he's making 5x what I could expect to make because he can bill like crazy. I guess now would be a good time to mention that he works 3.5 days a week. My dual-certified MD sister-in-law was ripped when she heard those figures (I also happen to think that MDs aren't as educated in their field as much as a PhD is in their field but that's another aside).
3) we claim that we need/want scientists, mathematicians, and engineers but are unwilling to pay them what they are worth. If you want to make $$ in your company then you need to climb the corporate ladder while taking all of what you learned with you. Engineers should be paid just as much as the managers w/o having to leave the job that they succeed at.
A perfect example of the screwed up situation is US auto companies
a) they are losing in the market because of their shoddily created products. The quality just isn't there and that is just common knowledge.
b) to improve quality you need to improve the engineering (possibly even the engineers) and even assembly (this includes subcontracted parts).
c) ask yourselves who gets cut first when the belt tightens and it is the research, engineers, and assembly guys. You know, the guys that add value to the product. How do the managers add quality or improve the product?
It's no wonder why we can't compete. We don't respect the potential impact that quality engineers could have on a company and force them to jump into management to make more money.
My take on this is to have engineers leave companies and form a consulting group and consult for companies. Something tells me they'd have no problem paying engineers 2x what they'd normally pay them in-house as consultants. Something else businesses do that doesn't make any sense.
In summary, we're undervalued, underpaid, and most people don't have ANY clue just how talented engineers are. Heck, most of my friends are only working at 10% of their potential - and they aren't happy about it. They want to do more TRUE engineering but the damned managers get in the way.
Again, I'm smart (truly I am) but not smart enough to get out of engineering and into a Chiropractic College although I AM thinking about it. Ultimately, we have to be happy at what we do and we have to provide for our family. What if we "could" be happy providing for our family at 5x the rate, working 3.5 days a week, and being an engineer the other 2 days a week. Ultimately, doesn't your happiness lie with what you do when you are NOT working (i.e. family, friends, vacations, wealth, etc). I'm hoping that I smarten up soon.
"I think Brown is a bit impatient for the future to be here now. "
Actually, I'm sure he's JUST like me. I'm impatient for the PAST TO BE HERE NOW. The usability and speed of StarDivision's StarOffice 5.1 was MUCH MUCH MUCH faster (10x) than OpenOffice 1.0 and even slower now.
Why can't Sun opensource 5.2? I'd personally like to see someone fork an openoffice based on 5.2 instead of this crap that runs significantly slower than the original. Unfortunately, they opensourced the ripped apart version which has yet to claim the speed or the memory savings of the original.
Admittedly, "emergencies" should have been clarified. I'm not talking 911 emergencies but "oh crap, can you pick up a loaf of bread on your way home" emergencies:-) - ya, know - the 1 minute conversation ones or the "I'm at work late tonight" or "I'm out with the girls". That's the use that I'm talking about instead of the "blah-blah-blah I'm just out driving around - oh shit, I almost ran someone off the road - so what were you saying" type of use.
Here's to hoping that some legislation passes to keep people from using cell phones while driving unless it is an emergency as I live near a college town and
18-22 yr olds + cell phones = hazardous roads.
When I grew up, I learned about blind spots due to design flaws in automobiles - I never thought that blind spots would change definition. The new definition is that a blind spot is to the side of the head that the driver is holding their phone to (i.e. if a driver has a phone on the left side of their head then they don't bother looking to the left). Oh well.
On a side note, I can just see my wife with a CB radio, LOL.
Why is it that I can't even get an inexpensive plan?
5 yrs ago when I started with my cell-phone my phone company had an inexpensive $20/month plan with 60 minutes and more expensive plans that scaled with subscription costs but the base plan started at $20. By the time my 1 yr contract expired the base plan was $25/month with 100 minutes. 2 yrs after that contract expired the base plan was $35 w/300 minutes, free nights & weekends, and a slew of other features. All the plans offered a free phone w/the contract. We just need a phone for emergency situations so paying this much money for an emergency phone is pretty ridiculous. No plan even offers a low-cost plan and I think that this is price inflation & price fixing by the industry.
I find it hard to believe that either:
1) the phones cost that much more
2) the cost of providing the service is 100% more expensive now than before
I would imagine that like everything in the tech sector that the phones are actually cheaper to subsidize now compared to before and that the cost of doing business per customer is cheaper now than before - YET - the prices are going up with no options for inexpensive plans.
That's funny. They were tooting the GRE to others as a common API to get things done but they aren't doing it themselves. I wonder how far down the road this'll be.
You make a good point about using the strong word disgusted.
That is just how I feel. I've posted numerous bugs that are just plain broken and they rate them as "enhancements". There are MANY of us that feel the same way and it gets listed as "Later". I get disgusted with the developers because they don't listen to their supposed audience and do what they want which if fine.
If I donate to the OO development, should I have a say in what gets done? If not, and they don't listen, why should I donate?
I'm just sick of them claiming to be the almighty MSO killer when in fact they are a distant second and when MSO 12 comes out the gap will increase even more.
If they are free to work on whatever they want, whenever they want, then why should I feel obligated to donate (I do feel obligated and I've spend more on FOSS software than MS software). The problem is that they are wanting to work on the problems that they see as fun while those of us who see something as broken continue to be ignored. I've championed OO in the past but have stopped because of this behavior.
Free or not, I can get disgusted by their behavior and the way they deal with criticism.
Maybe that is the problem of FOSS. If they are free to work on what they want, when they want, then how can they get the backing of a company if they don't get my backing? In other words, if they don't listen to me and are free to work on whatever they want and thereby not listening to me, why should anyone donate. I've even offered to pay to get certain things implemented and been ignored. That leaves a crappy taste in my mouth.
I want to know how much RAM is used up by the FF & TB combo and how much is used by the Mozilla suite with web browser and email client opened.
That's what I thought.. SHUT-IT!
FF is fine for those that don't need an email client but once you need both the suite is better suited. I've done both and I'm back at the suite due to the smaller memory footprint.
It's amazing how ignorant people are. They will say FF and TB are better because they are smaller. Yeah, smaller downloads individually. Now look at what is happening to your system when you run them both.
The sad part is that the proponents never post a comparison between the two that highlight this fact or even want to discuss it. I'd rather see FF & TB die than the Mozilla Suite. If SeaMonkey disappears then I'll probably use Opera or some other suite.
Feel free to mod me down since only the ignoramuses get modded up. Stuff that is just downright dumb gets modded as "insightful" and comments that lend weight to an argument get modded down.
I disagree,
I think you make a good point about Win98, Win2k being issues but in those cases the $70 Win2k3 will still blow away OO.
I also think you underestimate the 3-4yr cycle of PCs. WinXP has been out for 4 yrs now so people are just itching to dump their old hardware for a new shiny box. I've fixed 6 computers that were headed for the dumps due to spyware/malware. I just don't think that there are that many people that have an issue with dropping a few hundred dollars for a new PC with the new shiny OS. The cost of MSO 12 could, and probably will, be prohibitive though.
There are some pretty nice productivity features. I recommend you watch the video and you'll see that the UI is really nice. Again, not a fanboi but I'll tip my hat to MS when they do something right. I spend most of my time in the linux environment and the incredibly slow pace of a true office competitor has me rethinking my ways.
I like the office suites to have apps that work together. In this case OLE. I like to insert a well-made chart (not possible w/OO) into my document and if I want to edit the chart later then I can double-click it and make changes.
I like to have one environment running so if Word, Excel, etc use the same DLLs to get the job done then they are more efficient and work faster. This is seen by how fast the 700MB suite is compared to OO. I just don't see how OO will ever get to #1. In fact, I see them going backwards in terms of speed. Before I get flamed, I ask any of you to download and install 5.2 and then let me know, based on speed, if OO is progressing or regressing.
Slashdot Mirror
they told him NOT to fix the computers as good as he could because otherwise "they wouldn't get repeat business". Luckily he had enough morals to quit as this disgusted him. I don't expect them to be around too much longer.
Let's face it,
Openoffice had its day in the sun (no pun intended) but its days are numbered. Overall, the package is slow and bloated and the reports from Office 2007 say that it is still quick even with all that bloated GUI crap (i.e. The Ribbon). OO is incredibly slow in loading and in use without all the functionality of Office and non of the GUI.
OOWriter,
Great program, slow as a dog w/heatstroke but has a good drawing package, bibliography, and eqn editor.
OOCalc
Nothing to see here, move along. Excel has nothing to fear. Charting works like crap.
OOImpress
Nothing new here with less functionality than Powerpoint and animations work like hell in Linux. So much for cross platform.
OODraw
Nice drawing package and better than that in Word. Yeah, that's 1.
Anyhow, I've stopped holding my breath for a kick-ass free package and the package has been in a death spiral ever since Sun got their grubby hands on the package. They should have left it with StarDivision and just paid them $$ to incorporate features as opposed to having developers work on both StarOffice (SUN's) and Openoffice. What, didn't you know that most of the OO.org developers are Sun employees, LOL - it explains the bloatware and Java integration now, doesn't it.
the kids aren't listening!
Be done with it already - fine them and move on as the threats aren't working. Now we'll see if the EU has the backbone to enforce their policies or not. That's the problem with making threats and not carrying out on them; sometimes it's not worth the threats and you'd be better served carrying out on your word.
Either way, SUPER-boring news!
Uhhhh, just how accountable is the corporate software? Seriously, when was the last time anyone say MS or any of the other companies held liable for their creations?
Let's be fair now; OSS shouldn't be held accountable to a degree that is different than what current software creators are held accountable to.
Let's hope that they can help improve Ubuntu like they've helped out Staroffice/Openoffice. Let's see
1) Add a couple useful features every 6 yrs
2) Slow down the system by _at least_ five-fold over 6 yrs
3) Incorporate Java like crazy to help point (2)
4) Ignore major user complaints like bug 366 for years
Am I missing anything else?
In the 6 yrs that they've had Openoffice they've done the following,
Promised
a) speed increases by ripping the _huge, superslow, super resource intensive_ package into a bunch of "smaller and quicker" sub-packages
but delivered
b) a package of packages that requires more room, more memory, loads in 10 seconds instead of the original 3 and runs _significantly_ SLOWER than the original monolithic package. If this is progress then send me backwards.
Here is something that I haven't been able to figure out,
I argue that we made a mistake with Iraq by not identifying the root cause of terrorism. I subscribe to the school of thought that the war on terror is an economic and educational problem and THAT is why it is going all wrong.
Why didn't we just hire Iraqis to rebuild their own country WITH US money? It would have,
1) kept the Iraqis occupied with rebuilding their country
2) put money in their pockets
3) cost the US a fraction of what it is currently costing us
4) built up a collaboration with the Iraqis
I don't know about you guys but I firmly believe that a busy-body is just too busy to worry about politics.
I person with $$ in their pockets is just too happy to worry about politics
when I'm dog-tired at the end of the day from working, I just want to sit on the couch and hang with family and friends - not pick up an AK and run around.
By building infrastructure that isn't Iraqi designed or Iraqi built, these guys can't help but resent us. I just don't get why our gov't didn't do the responsible thing and put these guy/girls to work AND save the taxpayers money? Flame-suit on!
I wondered this when I heard about Gentoo.
Let's see, all cpus have a CPUID string, the memory is reported by the BIOS, and I would think the chipsets should be able to get worked out also. In other words, isn't all the hardware able to get probed during boot up and if so, then let the OS set the flags properly and take 1.5 hrs to install instead of 0.5 hours (if I so choose).
If I want other packages installed, just be sure to check a config file created by the OS during install and set the proper flags and go to town.
Gentoo is based on the user knowing the ins and outs of their system but isn't this something that can be automated? Why can't the OS figure out what the best flags are to set? Oh well, call me K-RAY-Z!
also don't discount the dissatisfaction that exists between Ebay and their users. I dislike the 10% Ebay surcharge that gets assessed to each auction between listing fees, final value fees, and paypal deduction fees. I'll be the first to hop off the Ebay bus and onto the Google bus when it happens.
avg cost of engineering school = $80k
avg starting salary of engineer = $55k
avg cost of med school = $120k
avg starting salary of family practitioner = $100k
avg starting salary of specialist = $300k (with $500-$600k attainable)
avg cost of teaching education = $60k
avg starting salary of teacher $30k
So a teacher has MORE to pay back compared to their salary, and engineer a little less and an MD a LOT less. Now throw in that an engineer will cap at about $100k, a teacher at $60k (unless in N.E.), and that MDs can make a butt-load more (no BS, I know) and you'll see that all the excuses that MDs throw up for their astronomical salaries is easily debunked.
Cost of higher education - explain that to the PhDs who get squat in comparison and have studied their field for 10+ yrs whereas I can get into a med school with basket weaving so long as I have the basic 5 -core courses for the MCATs.
Huge loans - already debunked.
Medical malpractice - excuse me, I'd gladly pay $50k in insurance to make $250k/yr. Anyone else?
Just tired of hearing people in well compensated professions complain about how poor they are while the rest get (relatively) screwed.
For you AA players out there go to Bridge Crossing SE and look for "tony_montana" - he fits this perfectly.
He's got high honor because he's always on even though he isn't that good. He just keeps SCREAMING "respect me, I have more honor" and "give me that weapon because you should respect me because I have more honor". Needless to say, nobody respects him.
That being said, WoW isn't alone in creating a REAL contrast between hard-earned achievements and the easily gotten ones.
The ICE is falling, the ICE is falling!
Between this as evidence and the US wanting to sell their ports to the UAE I'm thoroughly convinced that those that run a country and those that inhabit said country are completely disconnected. It should be interesting to see what happens when pandemonium sets in within a country that has an extreme number of arms and complete resentment for the "have" by the "have-nots".
Just being skeptical here...
Look, it's the spend-happy, fat Americans. We need to make $$. We need a drug. We need a problem. We need a virus.
Ca-ching!
If using 3 of the same thing loaded into memory makes sense to you then have at it. I struggle enough with using 3 somewhat different forks to stab my food and have now resorted to the barbaric ways of using 1 fork for my salad, dinner, & dessert. I guess I'm crazy but I prefer efficiency and common sense. You only have a point, IMHO, if the GRE is vastly different but to my knowledge it isn't. If 80% of it is the same then they should use a common GRE, where it is common, and different libraries where it is different.
As far as your last comment goes it's all a matter of opinion. I'm FORCING myself to use OO as it is barely useable (no exaggeration) when I do large presentations with fonts of multiple sizes. The time it takes to update font information when clicking on boxes of various fonts is about
So we'll have TBird, Firefox, and a Calendar all running off 3 instances of the same runtime engine - hey, that's SMART!
why not have the runtime engine built into all three products but only install if it isn't already present? Ya know, save memory and work on improving 1 engine instead of 3. Oh yeah, that's too smart and already exists as Mozilla (which was canned)...err...SeaMonkey.
This is being brought to you by the same category of boffins that duped you into believing that tearing apart the StarOffice Suite would IMPROVE system response when, in fact, it has slowed things down about tenfold while using up MORE memory.
I don't doubt that they are good products on their own but how about using a runtime engine that is already present instead of loading a new one each time - PAY ATTENTION SUN AND OO.ORG.
The regression of these 2 areas (i.e. Mozilla and openoffice) is so sad and considering that they are the 2 most used packages says something about the leaders of these software packages.
For the life of me, I can't figure out:
1) Why Sun dumped the integrated package and didn't make it opensource while opensourcing the split apps.
2) Why the promise of increased speed hasn't been fulfilled?
3) Why things would get 10x worse, in terms of speed, with OO?
4) Why the FF and TB creaters aren't working on a common GRE? How many people DON'T use both at the same time?! I love the packages but after seeing the memory useage when using both and comparing to Mozilla, I quickly went back to the Mozilla Suite.
Enough ranting for the day
OK, we all realize that engineers tend to be very bright people BUT they just aren't smart enough.
Disclaimer: I'm about 1yr away from a PhD in, God forbid, Mechanical Engineering.
Here are some of my thoughts...
One of the lies that we are told growing up is education leads to increased incomes and that is true up to a point. The other lie is that the more we learn the more we make - also true up to a point. For PhDs that isn't necessarily true.
1) Engineers are overworked and underpaid compared to their managerial counterparts.
2) The road to wealth doesn't lie with engineering. It lies with insurance industries - in particular, medicine or better yet pseudo-medicine. My Chiropractor makes $500k/yr. That's with a BS in basket weaving and another 2yrs of coursework and another 2 yrs of interning-type work in an educational setting. With 4yrs of education with respect to his field he's making 5x what I could expect to make because he can bill like crazy. I guess now would be a good time to mention that he works 3.5 days a week. My dual-certified MD sister-in-law was ripped when she heard those figures (I also happen to think that MDs aren't as educated in their field as much as a PhD is in their field but that's another aside).
3) we claim that we need/want scientists, mathematicians, and engineers but are unwilling to pay them what they are worth. If you want to make $$ in your company then you need to climb the corporate ladder while taking all of what you learned with you. Engineers should be paid just as much as the managers w/o having to leave the job that they succeed at.
A perfect example of the screwed up situation is US auto companies
a) they are losing in the market because of their shoddily created products. The quality just isn't there and that is just common knowledge.
b) to improve quality you need to improve the engineering (possibly even the engineers) and even assembly (this includes subcontracted parts).
c) ask yourselves who gets cut first when the belt tightens and it is the research, engineers, and assembly guys. You know, the guys that add value to the product. How do the managers add quality or improve the product?
It's no wonder why we can't compete. We don't respect the potential impact that quality engineers could have on a company and force them to jump into management to make more money.
My take on this is to have engineers leave companies and form a consulting group and consult for companies. Something tells me they'd have no problem paying engineers 2x what they'd normally pay them in-house as consultants. Something else businesses do that doesn't make any sense.
In summary, we're undervalued, underpaid, and most people don't have ANY clue just how talented engineers are. Heck, most of my friends are only working at 10% of their potential - and they aren't happy about it. They want to do more TRUE engineering but the damned managers get in the way.
Again, I'm smart (truly I am) but not smart enough to get out of engineering and into a Chiropractic College although I AM thinking about it. Ultimately, we have to be happy at what we do and we have to provide for our family. What if we "could" be happy providing for our family at 5x the rate, working 3.5 days a week, and being an engineer the other 2 days a week. Ultimately, doesn't your happiness lie with what you do when you are NOT working (i.e. family, friends, vacations, wealth, etc). I'm hoping that I smarten up soon.
"I think Brown is a bit impatient for the future to be here now. "
Actually, I'm sure he's JUST like me. I'm impatient for the PAST TO BE HERE NOW. The usability and speed of StarDivision's StarOffice 5.1 was MUCH MUCH MUCH faster (10x) than OpenOffice 1.0 and even slower now.
Why can't Sun opensource 5.2? I'd personally like to see someone fork an openoffice based on 5.2 instead of this crap that runs significantly slower than the original. Unfortunately, they opensourced the ripped apart version which has yet to claim the speed or the memory savings of the original.
So I HAVE to ask - Is this progress?
Is THAT your lightsaber?! Bwah-ha-ha laughed Darth Vader sinisterly.
Admittedly, "emergencies" should have been clarified. I'm not talking 911 emergencies but "oh crap, can you pick up a loaf of bread on your way home" emergencies :-) - ya, know - the 1 minute conversation ones or the "I'm at work late tonight" or "I'm out with the girls". That's the use that I'm talking about instead of the "blah-blah-blah I'm just out driving around - oh shit, I almost ran someone off the road - so what were you saying" type of use.
Here's to hoping that some legislation passes to keep people from using cell phones while driving unless it is an emergency as I live near a college town and
18-22 yr olds + cell phones = hazardous roads.
When I grew up, I learned about blind spots due to design flaws in automobiles - I never thought that blind spots would change definition. The new definition is that a blind spot is to the side of the head that the driver is holding their phone to (i.e. if a driver has a phone on the left side of their head then they don't bother looking to the left). Oh well.
On a side note, I can just see my wife with a CB radio, LOL.
Here's the question that I'd like answered:
Why is it that I can't even get an inexpensive plan?
5 yrs ago when I started with my cell-phone my phone company had an inexpensive $20/month plan with 60 minutes and more expensive plans that scaled with subscription costs but the base plan started at $20. By the time my 1 yr contract expired the base plan was $25/month with 100 minutes. 2 yrs after that contract expired the base plan was $35 w/300 minutes, free nights & weekends, and a slew of other features. All the plans offered a free phone w/the contract. We just need a phone for emergency situations so paying this much money for an emergency phone is pretty ridiculous. No plan even offers a low-cost plan and I think that this is price inflation & price fixing by the industry.
I find it hard to believe that either:
1) the phones cost that much more
2) the cost of providing the service is 100% more expensive now than before
I would imagine that like everything in the tech sector that the phones are actually cheaper to subsidize now compared to before and that the cost of doing business per customer is cheaper now than before - YET - the prices are going up with no options for inexpensive plans.
That's funny. They were tooting the GRE to others as a common API to get things done but they aren't doing it themselves. I wonder how far down the road this'll be.
Darnit, hanging my head in shame. I take it all back. OpenOffice Rulez!!!!
You make a good point about using the strong word disgusted.
That is just how I feel. I've posted numerous bugs that are just plain broken and they rate them as "enhancements". There are MANY of us that feel the same way and it gets listed as "Later". I get disgusted with the developers because they don't listen to their supposed audience and do what they want which if fine.
If I donate to the OO development, should I have a say in what gets done? If not, and they don't listen, why should I donate?
I'm just sick of them claiming to be the almighty MSO killer when in fact they are a distant second and when MSO 12 comes out the gap will increase even more.
If they are free to work on whatever they want, whenever they want, then why should I feel obligated to donate (I do feel obligated and I've spend more on FOSS software than MS software). The problem is that they are wanting to work on the problems that they see as fun while those of us who see something as broken continue to be ignored. I've championed OO in the past but have stopped because of this behavior.
Free or not, I can get disgusted by their behavior and the way they deal with criticism.
Maybe that is the problem of FOSS. If they are free to work on what they want, when they want, then how can they get the backing of a company if they don't get my backing? In other words, if they don't listen to me and are free to work on whatever they want and thereby not listening to me, why should anyone donate. I've even offered to pay to get certain things implemented and been ignored. That leaves a crappy taste in my mouth.
I want to know how much RAM is used up by the FF & TB combo and how much is used by the Mozilla suite with web browser and email client opened.
That's what I thought.. SHUT-IT!
FF is fine for those that don't need an email client but once you need both the suite is better suited. I've done both and I'm back at the suite due to the smaller memory footprint.
It's amazing how ignorant people are. They will say FF and TB are better because they are smaller. Yeah, smaller downloads individually. Now look at what is happening to your system when you run them both.
The sad part is that the proponents never post a comparison between the two that highlight this fact or even want to discuss it. I'd rather see FF & TB die than the Mozilla Suite. If SeaMonkey disappears then I'll probably use Opera or some other suite. Feel free to mod me down since only the ignoramuses get modded up. Stuff that is just downright dumb gets modded as "insightful" and comments that lend weight to an argument get modded down.
I disagree,
I think you make a good point about Win98, Win2k being issues but in those cases the $70 Win2k3 will still blow away OO.
I also think you underestimate the 3-4yr cycle of PCs. WinXP has been out for 4 yrs now so people are just itching to dump their old hardware for a new shiny box. I've fixed 6 computers that were headed for the dumps due to spyware/malware. I just don't think that there are that many people that have an issue with dropping a few hundred dollars for a new PC with the new shiny OS. The cost of MSO 12 could, and probably will, be prohibitive though.
There are some pretty nice productivity features. I recommend you watch the video and you'll see that the UI is really nice. Again, not a fanboi but I'll tip my hat to MS when they do something right. I spend most of my time in the linux environment and the incredibly slow pace of a true office competitor has me rethinking my ways.
No problem.
I like the office suites to have apps that work together. In this case OLE. I like to insert a well-made chart (not possible w/OO) into my document and if I want to edit the chart later then I can double-click it and make changes.
I like to have one environment running so if Word, Excel, etc use the same DLLs to get the job done then they are more efficient and work faster. This is seen by how fast the 700MB suite is compared to OO. I just don't see how OO will ever get to #1. In fact, I see them going backwards in terms of speed. Before I get flamed, I ask any of you to download and install 5.2 and then let me know, based on speed, if OO is progressing or regressing.