It has been years since I purchased anything from Sun, but at the time you could not purchase directly from the website. It would not even tell you the price of a workstation, only connect you to a sales agent who would haggle with you when he got around to it. Given the fact that this service will probably require personal interaction, I fear it will be just as bad. Maybe it will not. Maybe they will even have it all nicely automated. We shall see.
but it can be "test driven" for literally any budget, to the dollar... can pay a minimal fee (like a dollar) to install its "spec test" code on each available grid
I'll believe that when I see it. I imagine everyone else here who has dealt with Sun before is thinking the same thing. "Hello Sun, anybody there, I want to spend 5K on a workstation. Will anybody sell it to me? Anyone? Call me back? Are you guys awake?"
Maybe they have gotten better over the years, but for those of us who had trouble making a small purchase (5k) in the past it is hard to believe their sales people will call you back to set up a $10 test. I think you are dreaming.
The advantage that M$ has, over Google, is its huge R&D budget.
Not really. Their advantage is that they have a monopoly consumer OS's. They will bundle their search with their OS, which is already bundled with their browser and their media player. Most users will never think to install something better, or go to google when their is a search already built in. It does not have to be as good as Google. It does not have to be close. It only has to be functional enough to barely work for most people's searches. It can return only 1/3 of the results Google does and have 10 times the ads and lack most of the cool features. All that it has to do is return basic results for the top 1K searches and it will win. You can't beat a monopoly's bundling without a vastly better system for the average user.
Think of it this way. If the telephone company gave out free cheese with every phone bill, what would happen to cheese sellers? Most would have to stop selling cheese. Maybe the phone company's cheese is not as good, but if it is not terrible, most people won't go buy more cheese from somewhere else. There will always be cheese and computer aficionados that will pay to get the best, but that is only about 5% of the market. The rest goes to the monopoly (which is why what MS is doing was made illegal in the first place).
Well, I guess I'm ignorant, because I don't know what the hell you're talking about when you say "multiplier"
Wireless RF multipliers aren't all that expensive these days. they take a regular cable signal, including the high channels convert to a radio signal, and then convert back. The generally clone either 1 channel at a time or all channels, depending upon how much you want to spend.
And I don't know where you live, but around here building codes and common sense tell you that your smoke detectors should be wired together so if one goes off at one end of the house, they all go off
Building codes do not require any communication between fire alarms. I know a number of builders and I have never heard of them being connected in any system that was not integrated with a burglar alarm. My house is made of concrete, it does not burn well.
even if it's just to a wireless bridge. It's still a wire
Strangely enough they all have wires inside the cases too. We were talking about running wires through walls, not between two stacked devices.
just because alarm systems can use the same type of wire as phone lines, that doesn't mean that wireless phone jacks will carry every kind of signal that phone wire will.
Heh, I take it you have never worked on security systems. The variation in signal due to carrying a conversation is much, much larger than sending some 1's and 0's. The signals transmit just fine.
Putting conduit in an existing wall and attaching it firmly to studs makes pulling wire easier?
Well, technically it would, but we were talking about what to include when building a house. Yes, having conduit to pull wire through is much easier than running it beside an existing wire.
interior walls generally aren't insulated
True, but if you are doing all of this to make a really good sound system adding insulation on the interior is very good sound proofing. Or you could double up in the sheet rock, like my house, but that is more expensive.
Your arguments seem to be in flux. You keep changing the situation to try to fit your arguments. weak.
That would probably get a single synched signal, but I imagine you would lose some sound quality to interference, even with a signal that was at the top end of the FCC specs. The digital signal is fine across an RF transmission because you don't have to really worry about interference or degradation of the signal (it is 1s and 0s and their is redundancy). Converting to analog and then transmitting is probably going to lower your sound quality though.
I guess it depends upon how clean of a signal you need. If the quality is good enough an FM signal might be fine. Otherwise, wires would probably be better.
You're string statement is so obvious I overlooked mentioning it, and even if you don't drop string, if you plan ahead like I suggest, you'll always have a spare cable you can use instead.
Conduit makes pulling wires much easier and isolates your holes from the interior insulation. It reduces fire risks. It can be firmly attached to studs. You suggest that it is obvious, or that a string is, but I have never, ever seen a single house pre-wired with a conduit for miscellaneous applications, nor one with an extra string. I've heard several geeks and builders talk about including such a thing, but I have never personally known anyone who lived in a home that has had that done. It is pretty bloody uncommon.
I said going all wireless (aside from power) is a bad idea, but it can be done. I stand by my statement.
smoke detectors - can be free standing units
motion sensors - there are 802.11 and prop. RF versions or can be attached to a wireless phone jack multiplier
alarm system keypads - ethernet can go to a wireless router, phone jack can be attached to a wireless phone jack multiplier
I stream audio across my wireless network all the time. There are usually 3 or 4 clients on the network. The audio gets buffered for a second or two and then streams just fine. I've never heard any discontinuity. Perhaps the fact that it is 802.11g helps.
Several people have mentioned issues with synching multiple clients in different parts of a house over wireless. I've never dealt with that issue, but I can see where it might be a problem. Wired may very well be a better setup if you need the same music in different rooms with different wireless nodes.
There are now speakers that are digital (USB) all the way to chip connecting to the crossover. I only know two people who own them. Most, as you say, are digital up to the tuner or amp.
Anyway, I can't see a hacked-together wireless sound solution with P3 laptops and whatnot being nearly as good as a few well-placed wired speakers.
Digital sound. Wired, wireless, whatever, the transport medium does not really make a difference. It's 1's and 0's and whether they get from point A to point B via a wire or via EM it does not matter. P3 laptops should be fine for reassembling that audio and if they have a USB port or other digital audio out and connect to good speakers there is no reason why the sound quality would be any worse than any other solution. The wirelessness just makes it more portable (if you are a renter) and keeps you from having to run wires through your walls, ceiling, or floor.
Re:Apple has had many quality problems...
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Top 10 Apple Flops
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· Score: 1
I don't think Apple is anything special when it comes to quality. Trendy, perhaps a bit innovative, yes. But based on my own experience, I'd say it's quite average.
Highest resale in the industry, check. Highest customer satisfaction according to consumer reports, check. First mainstream offering of GUIs, mice, USB, firewire, etc., check. My six year old tower that has never been turned off for more than a day and runs 24/7 is still running as a PVR/mp3 player/DVD player/Web server having never had a single hardware failure, check. Based on my experience, and a great many industry evaluations, I'd say Apple is one of the best in the industry. They are innovative like no other retail PC vendor in hardware and software. As far as laptops are concerned, their are as many powerbooks here in my office as PCs, and many of them were purchased by the owner, not the company. Why do you suppose that is? I suppose it is because the engineers at this network security firm are really concerned about being trendy? Or maybe it is because quality hardware and software and good prices lead people who spend all their time on computers and do a lot of research into them to want to buy a good one.
Heh, I ran a tangerine imac as a mail server once too. I remember seeing an article about the popularity of imac colors. Tangerine ones were something like 10% of sales in the U.S. and 90% of the sales in Japan.
Islamic terrorists are very little threat to the U.S.A. The entire history of Islamic terrorism has so far managed to kill about as many people as die every week in car crashes. It is more likely that you will be struck by lightning and then die in a plane crash than be killed by a terrorist act.
The so called terrorists are just radical militants. Their are plenty of every religion, especially christian. Islam is a traditionally peaceful religion, with less of a history of forced conversions than christianity which wiped out entire cultures in the process of enslaving and converting them. The religion does stress submission to the authority of the church more so than the christian religion, but both are pretty strict about it.
The majority of the people in Iraq could not care less about our freedom or anything else about us up until a few years ago. Now many of them hate us, but probably because we blew up a lot of their country and killed thousands of them, then put a dictator in charge of their country, emptied all their government funds into the pockets of various governments and corporations, took out a large loan on their behalf, and then divided that up. We raped their people in prisons, tortured them, beat them in the streets, murdered them on camera, and built a giant wall in the middle of their largest city and filled it with Americans an foreigners. These people now legally own everything in the country and go out surrounded by armed guards to order their "workers."
If their are people who hate the U.S. enough to die in a fiery explosion to hurt us, we have only ourselves to blame. We did everything possible to goad them into it.
If you want to see some scary radicals how about looking at the KKK, or the Michigan Militia. They have killed more Americans than anyone else and are much more likely to kill you. The threat from the Islamic "terrorists" is hugely overblown although we are doing our best to make it real. Right now they are just a scape goat and a reason why you have to give up all your rights, which will somehow, magically, make you safe.
Its almost like poor = stupid. And I'm not convinced that being poor causes stupidity
I think their are two issues; ignorance and stupidity. These are often mistaken for one another. An ignorant person can seem very stupid or foolish, but they can be acting on the best information they have. The amount of misinformation that can be assimilated by an intelligent person is astounding. The poor quality of education delivered in some schools can ruin a person for life.
The 'jesus is god' teacher should be fired if he's working for a public school. Thats his personal belief and he shouldn't be trying to force it onto others' children.
Heh, I take it you did not go to public school. They did not even fire the teacher who was regularly drunk and assaulted one of the girls. (Some classmates of mine busted is nose though.)
I'm not sure why you'd want to legalize cannibalism (or even what it really has to do with this topic). Most people don't want to be someone else's lunch so killing them for that is denying them their rights.
Cannibalism was a tangent used to provide an extreme example of how a teacher grades on their opinions, not on the assignment. I never mentioned anything about repealing the murder laws. The eating of human flesh, however, is a taboo and is illegal even with the consent of all parties. Why is that? Who exactly is getting hurt? This is a religious practice in some parts of the world, and was one in several more before being exterminated by another prominent, violent religion that I won't bother to name.
given that no other living creature i'm aware of will 'eat' its own species tells me something. Look no further then mad cow disease to get an idea of why this might be a bad idea.
That is definitely not a given. Many, many, many animals eat their own kind. Sharks, insects, frogs, snakes, wolves, weasels, birds, etc. all eat their own. The prion issue as demonstrated by mad cow disease is a real concern. I'm sure that proper cooking can degrade them far enough to be safe, but I'm not sure what that cooking would entail. Eating any animal after it has died of natural causes is a little iffy, so there would really need to be either very careful food preparation, or a great deal of selectivity when selecting who is used for meat. These are, however, just health risks, and in a culture that eats undercooked beef on a regular basis and has no legal problems with fu-go, I think the risks assessment should be in the hands of the diner.
Please, I'm curious...why should cannibalism be legalized?
Why should it be illegal? It was a common religious practice in some parts of the world. It is just recycling meat. Certainly their are health concerns, but most of them are mitigated by proper preparation. If my friends want to eat my flesh after I die and I want to include a provision in my will to allow for that, what logical reason is their to prevent it?
I'm one of those people who thinks space travel will probably happen via generational ships if we don't make ourselves extinct first. Perhaps they will be large enough to support a complex ecosystem and recycle us that way, but just eating the meat is a fairly effective first recycling step. It is also one that is taboo in our society for no real reason.
Yeah. Communism is the same way. If you support welfare or subsidized housing for the elderly then you are supporting the communist regime. The Reds are trying to kill every one of us, because they are jealous of, and hate our freedom. If your parents or spouse or friends support communism, then you are guilty of supporting the evil empire by not informing the house un-American activities committee. If you aren't one of us, then you are part of the cancer that is infecting our nation. Those damn, evil, godless commies are trying to kill us all. The Russians would love to stomp on the heads of every free American baby and squish their brains....what? Oh we're against the Muslims now? Sorry, I have not been keeping up. I'll start over.
If you support anti-globalism or free speech and rights for "suspected" terrorists then you are supporting the terrorist regime. The Muslim fanatics are trying to kill every one of us, because they are jealous of, and hate our freedom. If your parents or spouse or friends support Islam, then you are guilty of supporting the evil empire by not informing the republican party and department of Homeland Defense. If you aren't one of us, then you are part of the cancer that is infecting our nation. Those damn, evil, godless terrorists are trying to kill us all....
I don't know where you went to school, but in my HS the essay writing was more like your college profs. expectations.
Their are good teachers and poor teachers in both high schools and colleges. I had a high school teacher who was quite willing to give good grades to people with opinions differing from hers, I had another try to get me kicked out of his class for not agreeing that Jesus is god is a proven fact. In college I had professors who were very open minded. I also had a public speaking teacher who gave me a barely passing grade on a persuasive essay when my topic was "legalize cannibalism." This was at a fairly conservative school and I had several people at the end of my speech agree with me and decide cannibalism should be legal. Personally, I thought that should count as very successful persuasion. He disagreed.
My point is, lousy, small minded teachers can be found in any setting.
I normally do this, but I also include links in my mail message that will allow any HR people to download a version in.doc, RTF, plain text, and HTML. If you are looking to be hired, make things easy for the employer. Even UNIX shops with no Windows machines anywhere to be seen, often have a corporate office with an HR department that may not know anything but Word.
Note, for security positions, consider adding a web bug style image in.doc files. There is nothing like calling up an HR department and saying "Hi, I noticed that you are reading my Resume right now. I thought I'd call and ask if you know when you will be starting interviews" to make a good impression.:)
Re:Car analogies rarely work, however...
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I think it has 2 target markets
You missed a market. Clueless users with family for tech support. How many people on Slashdot provide free tech support for their extended family? How many are sick of supporting Windows? How many think it is worth $500 just so that they don't have to waste any more time cleaning up viruses and spyware?
I imagine mac minis will be christmas and birthday gifts for a number of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, etc. It is a cheap way for Mac users to evangelize the platform and reduce their wasted support time.
Using a touchscreen is easy on a UI designed for a single button. Using one on a UI designed for 2-3 button mice is painful.
Using voice control is also easy if everything is in the regular menus. The same goes for simplified interfaces for people with muscular problems. The same probably holds true for other interfaces that I have not considered. Most importantly though, it makes it easier for regular people using regular mice (1 button or 7). It is much easier for me to find a function if I have only one place to look. If functionality can only be found in a contextual menu or toolbar, I end up looking in manual to perform a task.
I prefer to use a multi-button mouse. I want Apple to start shipping them on their professional line just as soon as they can force all third party developers to not include functionality that can only accessed by using a second button, and as soon as they can insure that anything a 3rd party adds that is accessed by a second button, is customizable by the end user.
The addition of a second mouse button would otherwise slow down and annoy users like myself, who like to add the most often used functionality there. Otherwise, it would quickly degrade the UI to be just as bad as the second mouse buttons on Windows.
I don't think it is elitist to expect people to be able to weild their own launguage properly.
I think it is funny that the above sentence includes two misspellings and one grammatical error.
I certainly wouldn't want to have every gun owner out there carrying around a manual that they have to reference every time they reach for their pistol
The purpose of a pistol is to kill. The purpose language, written or spoken, is to communicate. Hopefully the average pistol owner can aim, fire, and hit a target safely. Hopefully the average communicator can successfully transmit their meaning to another person. Not too many pistol owners can hit a playing card, while shooting from the hip, at 20 meters, with their off hand. If someone can do so using a laser sight, I'd say it is a good investment. Similarly, if someone can more effectively communicate a message using a grammar checker, that too is probably a wise investment.
I am not elitist, you have just accepted lower standards because it is more convenient for you.
Computers are tools, that make things easier. A truly artistic communicator would write everything by hand, in beautiful calligraphy, with each character expressing nuances that cannot be achieved with electronic type. That is impractical. Expecting everyone to memorize pedantic rules, that are more or less arbitrary, and often related to some old rule of typesetting, or latin conjugation, just in order to express basic information is equally impractical. The "Chicago Manual of Style" is about 4 inches thick, and lists all sorts of rules that most people just don't care about. If you do care, well that's just peachy. Just don't expect other people to devote the time. It is unnecessary 99.99% of the time, in order for effective communication. That time could be better spent learning logic, cascading reasoning, or the psychology of discourse. All three would better serve a person who wanted to communicate more effectively. None are generally taught in the public school system.
People who harp about grammar are generally just trying to prove how smart or educated they are. Anyone who studies grammar quickly realizes that it can always be "more proper." If you are truly concerned about effective communication, look to the content of someone's writing, their logic, their reasoning, the progression of ideas, and order of presentation. Grammar is mostly just window dressing.
It is? The HTML makes text in the form of a URL into links automatically. I am not too keen on that, but I can see where other people would like it. It would be nice to have an option to customize the export and remove that feature. Aside from that, HTML and Word formats both seem pretty perfect. What issues have you found?
I think that you are trying very hard to distinguish qualitatively why spelling checkers are less of a "dumbing down" than "grammar checkers." There is not really much difference. Dictionaries are used to learn meanings, spellings, and pronunciation. Books like the "Chicago Manual of Style" are used to check grammar and usage. Meaning, spelling, pronunciation, grammar, and use are all misapplied, some in writing, some in speech, some in both. Professional writers like to have access to both. Most professional writers have others proof and edit their work anyway. If you are concerned about someone's writing skills, for a particular job, looking at a writing sample is a good way to judge. If they know how to use a grammar checker effectively, all the better. If you are concerned about their speaking ability, and personal interaction... talk to them before hiring them.
As you can probably tell from this post that I am not using a grammar checker right now. I do have one installed as a system service, but I usually only apply it to works that are destined for print, or customers. It is useful for catching minor issues, although it is wrong more often than it is right. (It is still better than the one that came with Word.) Your ideas about grammar checkers are elitist. Please stop using a spell checker and start complaining about how spell checkers make people dumber. At least then you will be consistent.
but they're almost definitely missing a pile of nice OSX features only available to native apps.
Yeah, like the services that allowed me to determine that "lyriad" is not a word in the English language. It is, however, a welsh word, and one spelling for an annual meteor shower. I think you meant "myriad."
Omnidictionary service allows lookup of words in multiple online dictionaries simultaneously from any cocoa app. The look up in google service is offered by Safari.:)
Slashdot Mirror
It has been years since I purchased anything from Sun, but at the time you could not purchase directly from the website. It would not even tell you the price of a workstation, only connect you to a sales agent who would haggle with you when he got around to it. Given the fact that this service will probably require personal interaction, I fear it will be just as bad. Maybe it will not. Maybe they will even have it all nicely automated. We shall see.
but it can be "test driven" for literally any budget, to the dollar... can pay a minimal fee (like a dollar) to install its "spec test" code on each available grid
I'll believe that when I see it. I imagine everyone else here who has dealt with Sun before is thinking the same thing. "Hello Sun, anybody there, I want to spend 5K on a workstation. Will anybody sell it to me? Anyone? Call me back? Are you guys awake?"
Maybe they have gotten better over the years, but for those of us who had trouble making a small purchase (5k) in the past it is hard to believe their sales people will call you back to set up a $10 test. I think you are dreaming.
The advantage that M$ has, over Google, is its huge R&D budget.
Not really. Their advantage is that they have a monopoly consumer OS's. They will bundle their search with their OS, which is already bundled with their browser and their media player. Most users will never think to install something better, or go to google when their is a search already built in. It does not have to be as good as Google. It does not have to be close. It only has to be functional enough to barely work for most people's searches. It can return only 1/3 of the results Google does and have 10 times the ads and lack most of the cool features. All that it has to do is return basic results for the top 1K searches and it will win. You can't beat a monopoly's bundling without a vastly better system for the average user.
Think of it this way. If the telephone company gave out free cheese with every phone bill, what would happen to cheese sellers? Most would have to stop selling cheese. Maybe the phone company's cheese is not as good, but if it is not terrible, most people won't go buy more cheese from somewhere else. There will always be cheese and computer aficionados that will pay to get the best, but that is only about 5% of the market. The rest goes to the monopoly (which is why what MS is doing was made illegal in the first place).
Well, I guess I'm ignorant, because I don't know what the hell you're talking about when you say "multiplier"
Wireless RF multipliers aren't all that expensive these days. they take a regular cable signal, including the high channels convert to a radio signal, and then convert back. The generally clone either 1 channel at a time or all channels, depending upon how much you want to spend.
And I don't know where you live, but around here building codes and common sense tell you that your smoke detectors should be wired together so if one goes off at one end of the house, they all go off
Building codes do not require any communication between fire alarms. I know a number of builders and I have never heard of them being connected in any system that was not integrated with a burglar alarm. My house is made of concrete, it does not burn well.
even if it's just to a wireless bridge. It's still a wire
Strangely enough they all have wires inside the cases too. We were talking about running wires through walls, not between two stacked devices.
just because alarm systems can use the same type of wire as phone lines, that doesn't mean that wireless phone jacks will carry every kind of signal that phone wire will.
Heh, I take it you have never worked on security systems. The variation in signal due to carrying a conversation is much, much larger than sending some 1's and 0's. The signals transmit just fine.
Putting conduit in an existing wall and attaching it firmly to studs makes pulling wire easier?
Well, technically it would, but we were talking about what to include when building a house. Yes, having conduit to pull wire through is much easier than running it beside an existing wire.
interior walls generally aren't insulated
True, but if you are doing all of this to make a really good sound system adding insulation on the interior is very good sound proofing. Or you could double up in the sheet rock, like my house, but that is more expensive.
Your arguments seem to be in flux. You keep changing the situation to try to fit your arguments. weak.
FM Transmitter.
That would probably get a single synched signal, but I imagine you would lose some sound quality to interference, even with a signal that was at the top end of the FCC specs. The digital signal is fine across an RF transmission because you don't have to really worry about interference or degradation of the signal (it is 1s and 0s and their is redundancy). Converting to analog and then transmitting is probably going to lower your sound quality though.
I guess it depends upon how clean of a signal you need. If the quality is good enough an FM signal might be fine. Otherwise, wires would probably be better.
You're string statement is so obvious I overlooked mentioning it, and even if you don't drop string, if you plan ahead like I suggest, you'll always have a spare cable you can use instead.
Conduit makes pulling wires much easier and isolates your holes from the interior insulation. It reduces fire risks. It can be firmly attached to studs. You suggest that it is obvious, or that a string is, but I have never, ever seen a single house pre-wired with a conduit for miscellaneous applications, nor one with an extra string. I've heard several geeks and builders talk about including such a thing, but I have never personally known anyone who lived in a home that has had that done. It is pretty bloody uncommon.
I said going all wireless (aside from power) is a bad idea, but it can be done. I stand by my statement.
smoke detectors - can be free standing units
motion sensors - there are 802.11 and prop. RF versions or can be attached to a wireless phone jack multiplier
alarm system keypads - ethernet can go to a wireless router, phone jack can be attached to a wireless phone jack multiplier
cable tv / modem - can go to a cable multiplier
Satellite TV - can go to a cable multiplier
So are you a dumb smartass or a smart dumbass?
Are you stupid or ignorant?
I stream audio across my wireless network all the time. There are usually 3 or 4 clients on the network. The audio gets buffered for a second or two and then streams just fine. I've never heard any discontinuity. Perhaps the fact that it is 802.11g helps.
Several people have mentioned issues with synching multiple clients in different parts of a house over wireless. I've never dealt with that issue, but I can see where it might be a problem. Wired may very well be a better setup if you need the same music in different rooms with different wireless nodes.
There are now speakers that are digital (USB) all the way to chip connecting to the crossover. I only know two people who own them. Most, as you say, are digital up to the tuner or amp.
And if you plan ahead and think out every possible configuration, and run all the cabling at once
Yeah, use your crystal ball for that. Then buy some optical cabling of the type that will be invented in 5 years from a time traveller on e-bay.
Or you could just run some medium sized conduit with a string in it so you can pull whatever wires you later decide you need. That works well too.
you just cannot go completely wireless, even in this day and age
Aside from power, you probably can. Although I think for security systems, cameras, etc. wires are a safer choice.
Anyway, I can't see a hacked-together wireless sound solution with P3 laptops and whatnot being nearly as good as a few well-placed wired speakers.
Digital sound. Wired, wireless, whatever, the transport medium does not really make a difference. It's 1's and 0's and whether they get from point A to point B via a wire or via EM it does not matter. P3 laptops should be fine for reassembling that audio and if they have a USB port or other digital audio out and connect to good speakers there is no reason why the sound quality would be any worse than any other solution. The wirelessness just makes it more portable (if you are a renter) and keeps you from having to run wires through your walls, ceiling, or floor.
I don't think Apple is anything special when it comes to quality. Trendy, perhaps a bit innovative, yes. But based on my own experience, I'd say it's quite average.
Highest resale in the industry, check. Highest customer satisfaction according to consumer reports, check. First mainstream offering of GUIs, mice, USB, firewire, etc., check. My six year old tower that has never been turned off for more than a day and runs 24/7 is still running as a PVR/mp3 player/DVD player/Web server having never had a single hardware failure, check. Based on my experience, and a great many industry evaluations, I'd say Apple is one of the best in the industry. They are innovative like no other retail PC vendor in hardware and software. As far as laptops are concerned, their are as many powerbooks here in my office as PCs, and many of them were purchased by the owner, not the company. Why do you suppose that is? I suppose it is because the engineers at this network security firm are really concerned about being trendy? Or maybe it is because quality hardware and software and good prices lead people who spend all their time on computers and do a lot of research into them to want to buy a good one.
Heh, I ran a tangerine imac as a mail server once too. I remember seeing an article about the popularity of imac colors. Tangerine ones were something like 10% of sales in the U.S. and 90% of the sales in Japan.
Dear coward,
Islamic terrorists are very little threat to the U.S.A. The entire history of Islamic terrorism has so far managed to kill about as many people as die every week in car crashes. It is more likely that you will be struck by lightning and then die in a plane crash than be killed by a terrorist act.
The so called terrorists are just radical militants. Their are plenty of every religion, especially christian. Islam is a traditionally peaceful religion, with less of a history of forced conversions than christianity which wiped out entire cultures in the process of enslaving and converting them. The religion does stress submission to the authority of the church more so than the christian religion, but both are pretty strict about it.
The majority of the people in Iraq could not care less about our freedom or anything else about us up until a few years ago. Now many of them hate us, but probably because we blew up a lot of their country and killed thousands of them, then put a dictator in charge of their country, emptied all their government funds into the pockets of various governments and corporations, took out a large loan on their behalf, and then divided that up. We raped their people in prisons, tortured them, beat them in the streets, murdered them on camera, and built a giant wall in the middle of their largest city and filled it with Americans an foreigners. These people now legally own everything in the country and go out surrounded by armed guards to order their "workers."
If their are people who hate the U.S. enough to die in a fiery explosion to hurt us, we have only ourselves to blame. We did everything possible to goad them into it.
If you want to see some scary radicals how about looking at the KKK, or the Michigan Militia. They have killed more Americans than anyone else and are much more likely to kill you. The threat from the Islamic "terrorists" is hugely overblown although we are doing our best to make it real. Right now they are just a scape goat and a reason why you have to give up all your rights, which will somehow, magically, make you safe.
Its almost like poor = stupid. And I'm not convinced that being poor causes stupidity
I think their are two issues; ignorance and stupidity. These are often mistaken for one another. An ignorant person can seem very stupid or foolish, but they can be acting on the best information they have. The amount of misinformation that can be assimilated by an intelligent person is astounding. The poor quality of education delivered in some schools can ruin a person for life.
The 'jesus is god' teacher should be fired if he's working for a public school. Thats his personal belief and he shouldn't be trying to force it onto others' children.
Heh, I take it you did not go to public school. They did not even fire the teacher who was regularly drunk and assaulted one of the girls. (Some classmates of mine busted is nose though.)
I'm not sure why you'd want to legalize cannibalism (or even what it really has to do with this topic). Most people don't want to be someone else's lunch so killing them for that is denying them their rights.
Cannibalism was a tangent used to provide an extreme example of how a teacher grades on their opinions, not on the assignment. I never mentioned anything about repealing the murder laws. The eating of human flesh, however, is a taboo and is illegal even with the consent of all parties. Why is that? Who exactly is getting hurt? This is a religious practice in some parts of the world, and was one in several more before being exterminated by another prominent, violent religion that I won't bother to name.
given that no other living creature i'm aware of will 'eat' its own species tells me something. Look no further then mad cow disease to get an idea of why this might be a bad idea.
That is definitely not a given. Many, many, many animals eat their own kind. Sharks, insects, frogs, snakes, wolves, weasels, birds, etc. all eat their own. The prion issue as demonstrated by mad cow disease is a real concern. I'm sure that proper cooking can degrade them far enough to be safe, but I'm not sure what that cooking would entail. Eating any animal after it has died of natural causes is a little iffy, so there would really need to be either very careful food preparation, or a great deal of selectivity when selecting who is used for meat. These are, however, just health risks, and in a culture that eats undercooked beef on a regular basis and has no legal problems with fu-go, I think the risks assessment should be in the hands of the diner.
Please, I'm curious...why should cannibalism be legalized?
Why should it be illegal? It was a common religious practice in some parts of the world. It is just recycling meat. Certainly their are health concerns, but most of them are mitigated by proper preparation. If my friends want to eat my flesh after I die and I want to include a provision in my will to allow for that, what logical reason is their to prevent it?
I'm one of those people who thinks space travel will probably happen via generational ships if we don't make ourselves extinct first. Perhaps they will be large enough to support a complex ecosystem and recycle us that way, but just eating the meat is a fairly effective first recycling step. It is also one that is taboo in our society for no real reason.
even moral support all count as "involvement"
Yeah. Communism is the same way. If you support welfare or subsidized housing for the elderly then you are supporting the communist regime. The Reds are trying to kill every one of us, because they are jealous of, and hate our freedom. If your parents or spouse or friends support communism, then you are guilty of supporting the evil empire by not informing the house un-American activities committee. If you aren't one of us, then you are part of the cancer that is infecting our nation. Those damn, evil, godless commies are trying to kill us all. The Russians would love to stomp on the heads of every free American baby and squish their brains....what? Oh we're against the Muslims now? Sorry, I have not been keeping up. I'll start over.
If you support anti-globalism or free speech and rights for "suspected" terrorists then you are supporting the terrorist regime. The Muslim fanatics are trying to kill every one of us, because they are jealous of, and hate our freedom. If your parents or spouse or friends support Islam, then you are guilty of supporting the evil empire by not informing the republican party and department of Homeland Defense. If you aren't one of us, then you are part of the cancer that is infecting our nation. Those damn, evil, godless terrorists are trying to kill us all....
I don't know where you went to school, but in my HS the essay writing was more like your college profs. expectations.
Their are good teachers and poor teachers in both high schools and colleges. I had a high school teacher who was quite willing to give good grades to people with opinions differing from hers, I had another try to get me kicked out of his class for not agreeing that Jesus is god is a proven fact. In college I had professors who were very open minded. I also had a public speaking teacher who gave me a barely passing grade on a persuasive essay when my topic was "legalize cannibalism." This was at a fairly conservative school and I had several people at the end of my speech agree with me and decide cannibalism should be legal. Personally, I thought that should count as very successful persuasion. He disagreed.
My point is, lousy, small minded teachers can be found in any setting.
Also, try PDF for resumes
I normally do this, but I also include links in my mail message that will allow any HR people to download a version in .doc, RTF, plain text, and HTML. If you are looking to be hired, make things easy for the employer. Even UNIX shops with no Windows machines anywhere to be seen, often have a corporate office with an HR department that may not know anything but Word.
Note, for security positions, consider adding a web bug style image in .doc files. There is nothing like calling up an HR department and saying "Hi, I noticed that you are reading my Resume right now. I thought I'd call and ask if you know when you will be starting interviews" to make a good impression. :)
I think it has 2 target markets
You missed a market. Clueless users with family for tech support. How many people on Slashdot provide free tech support for their extended family? How many are sick of supporting Windows? How many think it is worth $500 just so that they don't have to waste any more time cleaning up viruses and spyware?
I imagine mac minis will be christmas and birthday gifts for a number of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, etc. It is a cheap way for Mac users to evangelize the platform and reduce their wasted support time.
Using a touchscreen is easy on a UI designed for a single button. Using one on a UI designed for 2-3 button mice is painful.
Using voice control is also easy if everything is in the regular menus. The same goes for simplified interfaces for people with muscular problems. The same probably holds true for other interfaces that I have not considered. Most importantly though, it makes it easier for regular people using regular mice (1 button or 7). It is much easier for me to find a function if I have only one place to look. If functionality can only be found in a contextual menu or toolbar, I end up looking in manual to perform a task.
I prefer to use a multi-button mouse. I want Apple to start shipping them on their professional line just as soon as they can force all third party developers to not include functionality that can only accessed by using a second button, and as soon as they can insure that anything a 3rd party adds that is accessed by a second button, is customizable by the end user.
The addition of a second mouse button would otherwise slow down and annoy users like myself, who like to add the most often used functionality there. Otherwise, it would quickly degrade the UI to be just as bad as the second mouse buttons on Windows.
I don't think it is elitist to expect people to be able to weild their own launguage properly.
I think it is funny that the above sentence includes two misspellings and one grammatical error.
I certainly wouldn't want to have every gun owner out there carrying around a manual that they have to reference every time they reach for their pistol
The purpose of a pistol is to kill. The purpose language, written or spoken, is to communicate. Hopefully the average pistol owner can aim, fire, and hit a target safely. Hopefully the average communicator can successfully transmit their meaning to another person. Not too many pistol owners can hit a playing card, while shooting from the hip, at 20 meters, with their off hand. If someone can do so using a laser sight, I'd say it is a good investment. Similarly, if someone can more effectively communicate a message using a grammar checker, that too is probably a wise investment.
I am not elitist, you have just accepted lower standards because it is more convenient for you.
Computers are tools, that make things easier. A truly artistic communicator would write everything by hand, in beautiful calligraphy, with each character expressing nuances that cannot be achieved with electronic type. That is impractical. Expecting everyone to memorize pedantic rules, that are more or less arbitrary, and often related to some old rule of typesetting, or latin conjugation, just in order to express basic information is equally impractical. The "Chicago Manual of Style" is about 4 inches thick, and lists all sorts of rules that most people just don't care about. If you do care, well that's just peachy. Just don't expect other people to devote the time. It is unnecessary 99.99% of the time, in order for effective communication. That time could be better spent learning logic, cascading reasoning, or the psychology of discourse. All three would better serve a person who wanted to communicate more effectively. None are generally taught in the public school system.
People who harp about grammar are generally just trying to prove how smart or educated they are. Anyone who studies grammar quickly realizes that it can always be "more proper." If you are truly concerned about effective communication, look to the content of someone's writing, their logic, their reasoning, the progression of ideas, and order of presentation. Grammar is mostly just window dressing.
the export is just poor
It is? The HTML makes text in the form of a URL into links automatically. I am not too keen on that, but I can see where other people would like it. It would be nice to have an option to customize the export and remove that feature. Aside from that, HTML and Word formats both seem pretty perfect. What issues have you found?
I think that you are trying very hard to distinguish qualitatively why spelling checkers are less of a "dumbing down" than "grammar checkers." There is not really much difference. Dictionaries are used to learn meanings, spellings, and pronunciation. Books like the "Chicago Manual of Style" are used to check grammar and usage. Meaning, spelling, pronunciation, grammar, and use are all misapplied, some in writing, some in speech, some in both. Professional writers like to have access to both. Most professional writers have others proof and edit their work anyway. If you are concerned about someone's writing skills, for a particular job, looking at a writing sample is a good way to judge. If they know how to use a grammar checker effectively, all the better. If you are concerned about their speaking ability, and personal interaction... talk to them before hiring them.
As you can probably tell from this post that I am not using a grammar checker right now. I do have one installed as a system service, but I usually only apply it to works that are destined for print, or customers. It is useful for catching minor issues, although it is wrong more often than it is right. (It is still better than the one that came with Word.) Your ideas about grammar checkers are elitist. Please stop using a spell checker and start complaining about how spell checkers make people dumber. At least then you will be consistent.
but they're almost definitely missing a pile of nice OSX features only available to native apps.
Yeah, like the services that allowed me to determine that "lyriad" is not a word in the English language. It is, however, a welsh word, and one spelling for an annual meteor shower. I think you meant "myriad."
Omnidictionary service allows lookup of words in multiple online dictionaries simultaneously from any cocoa app. The look up in google service is offered by Safari. :)