The article doesn't mention what the "promiscuous" and "safe" browsers are. IE and Firefox? Firefox and Torpark? Opera? What are your suggestions for a "safe" browser?
New operating systems, be it new versions of OS X, Windows, or Linux, often experience instability/compatibility problems/etc. Why Leopard isn't the new Vista is because Leopard actually has significant new features, while Vista offers little that is actually useful/isn't easily available for XP as third-party add-ons/copied from other OSes.
I have a mighty mouse, yet it can't "run five to six kilometres at a speed of 20 meters per minute on a treadmill", feel aggression, or do "a number of other remarkable feats". All it does is sit in my hand and make clicking noises when I try to pet it. It runs a lot longer than "six hours", but it doesn't seem to do anything else. It doesn't seem to have any eyes or a tail either. I think it might be defective... maybe I should return it to Apple.
Heck I bought LoTr a few months ago, got home and the cd was missing, returned it to WalMart and got a new one no problem. I never bitch about WalMart, it's always been more than fair about these sort of things. Do feel flames a coming?
So it seems that there is an easier way to stop this - instead of going returning the game and buying it from somewhere else once a week, you could take the CD out and return it, claiming that the CD was missing!
When KOffice 2.0 is released in 2008, it won't be the only competitor to OpenOffice - if you haven't already, check out Lotus Symphony, another open source, ODF-compatible office suite that is expected to come out of Beta in 2008.
Someone I know told me about his experience with Vista yesterday. He was a non-technical person, so he didn't complain about speed, bugs, etc. He complained that there were many changes in the interface that forced him to re-learn many of the things he was used to (e.g. menus, Office 2007 interface), and that they didn't amount to any serious improvement. As silly as it seems to me and other more technically inclined people, the differences in the Vista interface are discouraging people from switching to it - people like what they are used to. He also mentioned that certain pieces of software and hardware don't run on Vista, and for these two reasons he would much rather have bought a Windows XP computer than a Vista one.
These are also reasons as to why people are discouraged from switching to Linux or Mac, but if they have to deal with these problems while upgrading to Vista, some people might decide that they might as well switch to Linux/Mac (which have more substantial advantages over XP than Vista does).
2000 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2001 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2002 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2003 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2004 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2005 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2006 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2007 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2008 is being called the year of the Linux desktop.
What will make 2008 any different from all of the other years that Linux was supposed to take off on the desktop? In my opinion, thinking that Linux will magically take over in a single year is naive. If it ever becomes a mainstream desktop OS, it'll get there by growing slowly and steadily.
Quoted from the article:
"Update 5: Jeebus, what a non-event. Even though they wield supreme control over the laws of physics, Steorn had to cancel tonight's event "due to technical difficulties." We'd laugh if it wasn't so pathetically tragic. The live stream is now rescheduled ambiguously to the 5th July. Now move along folks, there's nothing to see here."
Looks like this device is no different from any of the others, with the creators saying lines like, "Oops. It stopped. Must be some technical difficulties", or "Those wires coming out of my pocket? Those are just loose threads!".
Whoa! The Chinese government is censoring something on the internet!? What a surprise! Of all of the governments out there, I can't believe that it's them that are censoring things, especially given the fact that China has one of the most open and friendly governments in the world. This is so shocking, everyone!
Since there's no definitive evidence that these are puddles of water, saying that puddles of water have been found on mars is jumping the gun... The title of the story should be something along the lines of "Puddle-like object found on Mars". Then again, the people at NASA need more funding after all of those budget cuts... so it might be good for them to overhype stories and give them exaggerated titles to get the public/congress/president/etc. to get excited and cough up some more money for them.
IMO, the title of this article is very misleading.
OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X Released!
To me, this implies that a version of OpenOffice that I could actually use for work has been released for OSX. Hell, the whole reason I read this article is because I thought it was, and that this would have been a breakthrough of sorts. An alpha version that should not be used for "real work in a production environment" isn't what I had in mind. According to the web site, you can't even print or copy and paste! This is merely a small step forward for OpenOffice being ported to OSX since the only significant change is the removal of the need to have an X server installed to run.
It's not so much of an indicator as it is a small event in the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray format war. If a very popular movie is sold in one format, it will encourage people to buy devices that play that format, and will encourage stores to stock that format. Since the Pirates movies are outselling the Matrix collection, this may be a small but IMHO not very significant victory for Blu-Ray.
Having good apps that run on both Windows and Linux can promote Linux adoption, not "lessen the incentive for Windows users to make the switch". This is because if they use Firefox/OpenOffice/etc, chances are that many of the apps they use on Windows also run on Linux, and this would mean that switching to Linux for them would involve less learning how to use new apps/converting document formats/etc. For me learning a new app or converting formats isn't very difficult, but for many new users it is. Anything that'll lessen the learning curve will help.
Microsoft isn't trying to put their software on smartphones. They're obviously trying to patent all sorts of smartphone software so they can sue or demand licenses from Apple and Nokia for the infringement of their patents and intellectual property! It's obvious that they're trying to patent other things as well:
A Micronics portable "lab in a box" was also shown, which can take a drop of blood and perform molecular analysis to determine whether the patient is affected by a certain type of disease
Looks like Microsoft is going to patent labs, boxes, blood pressure cuffs, and diseases. What an ingenious business model - looks like everyone who gets a disease will have to pay royalties to Microsoft!
What if someone requests a takedown of someones content because the offending person uploaded a copy of their original content that is already (legally) on youtube- wouldn't this filter remove both copies?
I don't think so. Although MySpace and YouTube are both announcing that they are going to use similar copyright-protection systems, they are not part of the same system, so if a video is taken down on MySpace, it won't necessarily be taken down on YouTube.
Instead of debating whether or not hybrid cars or "intelligent" cars are more efficient, and whether or not laws/mpg gauges/etc. will make people get better mileage on their cars, why don't we make an "intelligent" hybrid car with a mileage indicator and enact some laws encouraging more fuel efficient driving, all at the same time? All of these things probably do make cars more efficient, but instead of comparing and contrasting them, perhaps we should be working towards combining these technologies together to create a car that's even more fuel efficient. Or perhaps we shouldn't be focusing as much on cars at all and focus on improving/subsidizing our mass transit systems and encouraging biking/walking, since these could potentially save more fuel than "intelligent" or hybrid cars ever will.
Although Vista isn't selling well to begin with, I find it highly unlikely that it won't succeed in the long run. Sure, most people don't see any perceived benefits from upgrading to Vista from XP and won't go out and buy a copy of Vista or an upgrade disk for their current computer. Even if few people upgrade their computers, Vista will still sell successfully. Why? Because new computers come with Vista.
Sooner or later, people are going to buy new computers. And what operating system will come with these new computers? Windows Vista. If you walk into a Best Buy or a Circuit City today, there probably won't be one computer on sale without Vista on it. Whether they like it or not, the computers that people buy will come with Vista, and that's what people will use since they probably aren't going to install other operating systems. Sure, Windows ME was a flop, but that was because it caused all sorts of problems with stability and the like. Vista, as far as I know, doesn't have major stability problems and is not a step backwards from XP (although it isn't a step forwards, either). In the next couple of years, millions and millions of computers will be sold, and along with them, millions and millions of copies of Vista will be sold as well since it will most likely be pre-loaded on these computers.
Microsoft's business model makes pretty much every operating system they make a popular one - As long as there is demand for new computers, there is demand for Vista.
Now the blight of the Blue Screen of Death will be passed on from generation to generation and will last for eternity. Even if our civilization is lost, millions of years later our descendants will unearth the artifacts we have deliberately buried and have their computers promptly crash once they extract the data from them. Perhaps they will conclude that we were inept at computer programming - or perhaps they will have finally found the missing link in the mystery as to why there was a sudden shift over to Unix-based operating systems sometime in the 21st century.
This article is yet another piece of FUD from Microsoft and nothing more. (Note that the article came from MSN, created and controlled by Microsoft, was written by John C. Dvorak, and that the $100 laptop runs Linux). The article isn't honest criticism but an attempt to make the OLPC project seem evil by suggesting that it's stealing food from people in developing nations. It's clearly a biased article because it refers to the laptops as "laughable" and "junk". The article, perhaps intentionally, generalizes on the state of developing countries and fails to mention that many people in developing countries have electricity and food and water but lack computers and have schools that lack computers. Microsoft doesn't want to lose it's market share to Linux in developing countries, so it's spewing out bad publicity to discourage people from using it. Pretty much the same concept as all of the FUD we've heard before - this time it's in a different place.
PC manufacturers don't pay much for Windows, as mentioned in the previous post. If they pre-load Linux, chances are they'll lose their deal/discount with Microsoft that allows them to pay such low prices. So major PC manufacturers probably aren't going to start offering Linux PC's to the masses any time soon.
I don't see what the big deal about a "proof-of-concept" virus for the Mac is about. It's common knowledge that a virus can be written to infect any OS. The difference is that some operating systems are less likely to be infected by viruses than others because of both market share and the design of the OS itself. A dumb user can infect his/her system with a virus, and so can security holes and design flaws (such as automatically running an executable without the user's consent).
So why is Symantec creating this "proof-of-concept" virus for the Mac? To scare people into buying their Macintosh anti-virus software. It all boils down to profit.
Slashdot Mirror
...it'll be completely useless if you're lagging.
The article doesn't mention what the "promiscuous" and "safe" browsers are. IE and Firefox? Firefox and Torpark? Opera? What are your suggestions for a "safe" browser?
New operating systems, be it new versions of OS X, Windows, or Linux, often experience instability/compatibility problems/etc. Why Leopard isn't the new Vista is because Leopard actually has significant new features, while Vista offers little that is actually useful/isn't easily available for XP as third-party add-ons/copied from other OSes.
I have a mighty mouse, yet it can't "run five to six kilometres at a speed of 20 meters per minute on a treadmill", feel aggression, or do "a number of other remarkable feats". All it does is sit in my hand and make clicking noises when I try to pet it. It runs a lot longer than "six hours", but it doesn't seem to do anything else. It doesn't seem to have any eyes or a tail either. I think it might be defective... maybe I should return it to Apple.
Heck I bought LoTr a few months ago, got home and the cd was missing, returned it to WalMart and got a new one no problem. I never bitch about WalMart, it's always been more than fair about these sort of things. Do feel flames a coming?
So it seems that there is an easier way to stop this - instead of going returning the game and buying it from somewhere else once a week, you could take the CD out and return it, claiming that the CD was missing!
When KOffice 2.0 is released in 2008, it won't be the only competitor to OpenOffice - if you haven't already, check out Lotus Symphony, another open source, ODF-compatible office suite that is expected to come out of Beta in 2008.
Everyone knows that Iapetus is dark on one side to indicate the presence of a large black monolith.
...with Firefox, but I can't because I've been blocked! Now I'll never know "Why Firefox is Blocked"!
I just went on a diet. Time to ditch all of my fat friends...
These are also reasons as to why people are discouraged from switching to Linux or Mac, but if they have to deal with these problems while upgrading to Vista, some people might decide that they might as well switch to Linux/Mac (which have more substantial advantages over XP than Vista does).
2000 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2001 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2002 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2003 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2004 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2005 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2006 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2007 was called the year of the Linux desktop.
2008 is being called the year of the Linux desktop.
What will make 2008 any different from all of the other years that Linux was supposed to take off on the desktop? In my opinion, thinking that Linux will magically take over in a single year is naive. If it ever becomes a mainstream desktop OS, it'll get there by growing slowly and steadily.
Quoted from the article: "Update 5: Jeebus, what a non-event. Even though they wield supreme control over the laws of physics, Steorn had to cancel tonight's event "due to technical difficulties." We'd laugh if it wasn't so pathetically tragic. The live stream is now rescheduled ambiguously to the 5th July. Now move along folks, there's nothing to see here." Looks like this device is no different from any of the others, with the creators saying lines like, "Oops. It stopped. Must be some technical difficulties", or "Those wires coming out of my pocket? Those are just loose threads!".
Whoa! The Chinese government is censoring something on the internet!? What a surprise! Of all of the governments out there, I can't believe that it's them that are censoring things, especially given the fact that China has one of the most open and friendly governments in the world. This is so shocking, everyone!
Since there's no definitive evidence that these are puddles of water, saying that puddles of water have been found on mars is jumping the gun... The title of the story should be something along the lines of "Puddle-like object found on Mars". Then again, the people at NASA need more funding after all of those budget cuts... so it might be good for them to overhype stories and give them exaggerated titles to get the public/congress/president/etc. to get excited and cough up some more money for them.
IMO, the title of this article is very misleading.
OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X Released!
To me, this implies that a version of OpenOffice that I could actually use for work has been released for OSX. Hell, the whole reason I read this article is because I thought it was, and that this would have been a breakthrough of sorts. An alpha version that should not be used for "real work in a production environment" isn't what I had in mind. According to the web site, you can't even print or copy and paste! This is merely a small step forward for OpenOffice being ported to OSX since the only significant change is the removal of the need to have an X server installed to run.
It's not so much of an indicator as it is a small event in the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray format war. If a very popular movie is sold in one format, it will encourage people to buy devices that play that format, and will encourage stores to stock that format. Since the Pirates movies are outselling the Matrix collection, this may be a small but IMHO not very significant victory for Blu-Ray.
Having good apps that run on both Windows and Linux can promote Linux adoption, not "lessen the incentive for Windows users to make the switch". This is because if they use Firefox/OpenOffice/etc, chances are that many of the apps they use on Windows also run on Linux, and this would mean that switching to Linux for them would involve less learning how to use new apps/converting document formats/etc. For me learning a new app or converting formats isn't very difficult, but for many new users it is. Anything that'll lessen the learning curve will help.
Microsoft Says Your Phone is Your Next PC
Microsoft isn't trying to put their software on smartphones. They're obviously trying to patent all sorts of smartphone software so they can sue or demand licenses from Apple and Nokia for the infringement of their patents and intellectual property! It's obvious that they're trying to patent other things as well:
A Micronics portable "lab in a box" was also shown, which can take a drop of blood and perform molecular analysis to determine whether the patient is affected by a certain type of disease
Looks like Microsoft is going to patent labs, boxes, blood pressure cuffs, and diseases. What an ingenious business model - looks like everyone who gets a disease will have to pay royalties to Microsoft!
What if someone requests a takedown of someones content because the offending person uploaded a copy of their original content that is already (legally) on youtube- wouldn't this filter remove both copies?
I don't think so. Although MySpace and YouTube are both announcing that they are going to use similar copyright-protection systems, they are not part of the same system, so if a video is taken down on MySpace, it won't necessarily be taken down on YouTube.
Instead of debating whether or not hybrid cars or "intelligent" cars are more efficient, and whether or not laws/mpg gauges/etc. will make people get better mileage on their cars, why don't we make an "intelligent" hybrid car with a mileage indicator and enact some laws encouraging more fuel efficient driving, all at the same time? All of these things probably do make cars more efficient, but instead of comparing and contrasting them, perhaps we should be working towards combining these technologies together to create a car that's even more fuel efficient. Or perhaps we shouldn't be focusing as much on cars at all and focus on improving/subsidizing our mass transit systems and encouraging biking/walking, since these could potentially save more fuel than "intelligent" or hybrid cars ever will.
Sooner or later, people are going to buy new computers. And what operating system will come with these new computers? Windows Vista. If you walk into a Best Buy or a Circuit City today, there probably won't be one computer on sale without Vista on it. Whether they like it or not, the computers that people buy will come with Vista, and that's what people will use since they probably aren't going to install other operating systems. Sure, Windows ME was a flop, but that was because it caused all sorts of problems with stability and the like. Vista, as far as I know, doesn't have major stability problems and is not a step backwards from XP (although it isn't a step forwards, either). In the next couple of years, millions and millions of computers will be sold, and along with them, millions and millions of copies of Vista will be sold as well since it will most likely be pre-loaded on these computers.
Microsoft's business model makes pretty much every operating system they make a popular one - As long as there is demand for new computers, there is demand for Vista.
Now the blight of the Blue Screen of Death will be passed on from generation to generation and will last for eternity. Even if our civilization is lost, millions of years later our descendants will unearth the artifacts we have deliberately buried and have their computers promptly crash once they extract the data from them. Perhaps they will conclude that we were inept at computer programming - or perhaps they will have finally found the missing link in the mystery as to why there was a sudden shift over to Unix-based operating systems sometime in the 21st century.
This article is yet another piece of FUD from Microsoft and nothing more. (Note that the article came from MSN, created and controlled by Microsoft, was written by John C. Dvorak, and that the $100 laptop runs Linux). The article isn't honest criticism but an attempt to make the OLPC project seem evil by suggesting that it's stealing food from people in developing nations. It's clearly a biased article because it refers to the laptops as "laughable" and "junk". The article, perhaps intentionally, generalizes on the state of developing countries and fails to mention that many people in developing countries have electricity and food and water but lack computers and have schools that lack computers. Microsoft doesn't want to lose it's market share to Linux in developing countries, so it's spewing out bad publicity to discourage people from using it. Pretty much the same concept as all of the FUD we've heard before - this time it's in a different place.
PC manufacturers don't pay much for Windows, as mentioned in the previous post. If they pre-load Linux, chances are they'll lose their deal/discount with Microsoft that allows them to pay such low prices. So major PC manufacturers probably aren't going to start offering Linux PC's to the masses any time soon.
I don't see what the big deal about a "proof-of-concept" virus for the Mac is about. It's common knowledge that a virus can be written to infect any OS. The difference is that some operating systems are less likely to be infected by viruses than others because of both market share and the design of the OS itself. A dumb user can infect his/her system with a virus, and so can security holes and design flaws (such as automatically running an executable without the user's consent). So why is Symantec creating this "proof-of-concept" virus for the Mac? To scare people into buying their Macintosh anti-virus software. It all boils down to profit.