I agree, but I wonder... Sending something up (even a new satellite) is expensive. Wouldn't it be cheaper to have some kind of in-orbit repair facility? Last I checked, it cost several million just to launch. I wonder if something could be set up that was capable of robotic repair. Maybe have it refuel at the space station as needed, or have it hover in one of the Lagrange points? Just a random thought...
I wonder what the possibilities would be for starting a Steam-like service, but instead of peddling one's own games, instead distributing inexpensive indie games in exchange for a percentage? Would many casual gamers install a client like that?
While this probably isn't what you had in mind, I've found Emerge to be a very nice client for installing games, both casual and not so casual. Check out http://www.gentoo-portage.com/Browse and look through the various game categories. Plenty of games are available, from Doom3 to xshipwars. Unfortunately, Emerge hasn't been ported to Windows yet. I beleave it's avalable on Linux, BSD, and OSX though.
The very reason that people did not create wave after wave of FPS games is that they were not technically possible on the Commodore 64, Apple II, or Atari 800. Sure, there were some wireframe simulations of FPS exploration like Cholo, The Colony and others, but they did not move fast enough to give the visceral feelings modern hardware can (Run! Shoot! Flee!), so they just did not appeal to the mass populace.
One of my favorite games on the Atari 800 was Alternate Reality: The City, and sequel, The Dungeon. While it didn't move fast enough to give the visceral feelings modern hardware can, it wasn't some wireframe simulation of FPS exploration. The graphics were very nice for the time. I still play it via emulation.
I have no idea if it's true, but someone once told me that the original Doom engine was based on this game.
I agree with what you are saying. I like the per-key permissions. However, the registry does have a few problems. Most of these problems could probably be overcome with software. The most notable is corruption. If the registry gets corrupted, you have to reinstall everything. If an INI file gets corrupted, it only affects the applications that depend on it and it's simple to restore.
There doesn't seem to be an easy way to extract and restore entries made by a particular application. Yes, I know you can extract single keys and trees. However, how do you extract only the keys that belong to the application? Applications that use an INI file are simple to back up, restore, or even move to a new system. Applications that use the registry (generally) must be completely reinstalled.
The search functionality seems a bit limited. In the registry editor, is there a way for me to find orphaned entries? Can I search out non system entries that haven't been accessed in x number of days? Is it possible to do a simple search and replace? This is fairly easy to do with INI files using basic file system utilities.
I can think of a few more problems. However, they have more to do with standard usage than the registry itself. It would be nice if applications would protect their entries from other applications using the registry security settings. However, the only way I can think of doing this would be to set up a per application user that only has security rights to that application's settings, kind of like Unix system accounts.
Keep in mind, I don't dislike the registry. However, it would be nice if it were as flexable as INI files. Yes, I am a Linux user. However, between gconf for desktop and application settings, and openldap for user/network settings, Linux seems to slowly be moving in the same direction.
Wars are started and administered by very calm and thoughtful people. They have goals, they know what it takes to accomplish those goals and then they actually carry out their plans.
Strange on how those same people are rarly the ones doing the fighting. Killing and maiming can be logical and even concidered sane. In one case, it doesn't involve you. You just give the orders. In the other case, it's killed or be killed.
Oh please! Children learn to differentiate between fantasy and reality. You learned to right? The content of their imaginations doesn't affect that process. It's part of developmental biology.
Besides, it sounds to me like HE's the one doing the parenting, and you're just letting the ESRB parent for you. Playing GTA is nothing more than a modern cowboys and indians. And kids know this.
Being a parent, I've always wondered about this. If we hide everything that is bad from our children, how will they learn what is bad and what is good?
Concider alcohol, It's illegal for anyone (in most of the US) to have any amount of alcohol until they are 21. However, at 21, they are expected to already know how much alcohol they can handle before becoming drunk. How do they gain this knowedge? I know how I did it. I ignored the law and had my first drink at 14. However, I can hardly advocate breaking the law as a parent.
Naw, try Citadel instead. It has some really nice features and is still maintained. With all of the lawsuits, privacy problems, spam, and governments fighting for control (of both the Internet and it's users), it's something I've considered.
Our levels of Spam would suddenly become a fraction of what it is now. No more spam from russia and china.
Now we just need to do something about Florida...
So, bring it on world. Cut us off. See if we care! The South shall rise again!
Um, we're the west. We're also in the north, at least until the magnetic poles switch.
I'd have to agree with the rest of your post, at least until you take international corporations into account. But hey, international shipping is a pain, why not communication as well.
It's as if I complained to the city government about how the local newspaper manages their subscription list. The city doesn't own the subscription list, they don't manage the subscription list, so why would I complain to them about it?
Because you are not a government. If the next city over had a complaint about how your local newspaper manages their subscription list, they would talk to your local city government. If they tried to talk to your local paper directly, they would be told that they have no jurisdiction and should talk to the local government.
The only way your argument makes sense is if you concider ICANN a government. Being that I don't care for corperate control any more than I care for government control, this isn't a pleasant image in my head.
So, what exactly is at stake here? I've followed this for a while. However, I don't really understand the issue.
As I understand it, all the root DNS servers provide are the addresses of lower DNS servers. So, if I needed the address of slashdot.org, and the request ended up at a root server, the server would respond: I don't have a clue, but here is the address of a DNS server that might know the addresses of all the.org domains.
I can see why the international community might want control of these servers. They want a say in which top level domains exist. It seems to be a purely political issue. With UN control, China might be able to (with a vote) remove the.tw domain. They might also vote against a.xxx domain. However, it's a vote. It's not even a new power. If China wanted to remove.xxx from within China, they could simply require that their ISPs block all.xxx domains. This isn't any different then the ability each user has to make entries in their host files to block advertising.
(Personally, I think the US should have.com,.net, etc (due to ARPA's legacy), and every country should be responsible for their own country TLD. So Russia would be responsible for.ru, US would be responsible for.us, and Columbia would be responsible for.co, etc.)
I've made a few posts on this topic agreeing with this idea. I just fail to understand why the US must have control of which top level domains get created or are maintained.
Keep in mind, this isn't about control of the Internet. DNS has nothing to do with assigning IP addresses or creating/maintaning internet protocols. It just translates an IP address into a name and vice versa. Even if every DNS server were to go down, I should still be able to type http://66.35.250.150/ and read Slashdot.
Hmm, interesting. HTML Formatted translates http://66.35.250.150/ into a hyperlink, without using a URL or A tag. I'll have to remember that.
Good point. I started each of my kids on the computer at age one. The oldest started on Windows 95. The second oldest started on 2000, but has more experience on SuSE and XP. The third is getting his start on Gentoo under KDE. I really do like the gcompris program, childsplay is nice as well.
Now, if you want a interesting usability study, try watching the oldest. I'm just introducing her to email. She's currently useing SuSE 9.2, KDE, and Evolution. I added my email address to her contacts, using Dad as the nickname. She was having problems sending me email, so I watched what she was doing. She was typing Dad into the To: field. Instead of subsituting Dad with my email address, Evolution was trying to send the email to Dad. So I told her to click the To: button and select my name (the nickname Dad didn't show up in the dialog box, but my name did). She clicked To:, clicked on my name, and then closed the box. Nothing showed up in the To: field. I told her she needed to click To:, then my name, then To: again, then close. She wanted to know why she had to click To: twice in two different places. I didn't have an answer. Lately, she has taken an interest in Bash and wants me to install Gentoo on her computer. I'm tempted to walk her through the installation.
The rest of my family would be interesting to study as well. My Wife's only real computer experience, before meeting me, was running the school paper on a Mac. Interestingly enough, she prefers a CLI. To her, it's just easier to type what she wants rather then hunting through menus. She's not much on eye candy either. The last time we talked about usability, I told her about a Slashdot converstion where several posters said consistency between programs was important. She thought this was a horrible idea. She likes the fact that programs all look different. It's how she identifies which program just opened a dialog box. The middle child is mostly visual. She like lots of eye candy and icons. The youngest just likes to mash the keyboard, move the mouse, and see things happen. The only insight to usability I've discovered with him is the importance of full screen mode on any given program.
In your post a bit up, you used FireFox as an example of a hard to install application. This was a poor choice for an example as FireFox is included with just about every distribution. The post I'm replying to makes a bit more sense. You seem to be having problems installing software that is not included with your distribution. I agree this can be a problem in Linux. A lot of improvement has been made in this area. However, with user feedback and contribution, more can be made.
Now the rest of your post is a bit confusing to me.
I have a keen interest in getting Linux to work with some ease that I'm accustomed to in Windows and that AS a Windows user, I can figure out in OS X. Linux doesn't offer that...
Your problem so far has been software installation, so I'll comment about that here. OS X does have a nice software installer from what I've heard. However, I haven't used OS X a lot, so I really can't comment. Windows software installation can go smoothly, or horribly wrong. I once installed a spell checker on Windows that took days because it depended on a runtime VB.dll that wasn't included with the download. What's worse, I was never warned that the.dll was needed until after I had installed the software. I then had to hunt for it. It took a while. Back in the Win95 days, I kept having problems with installers overwriting system files. Microsoft fixed this in latter Windows versions by protecting system files from the installation software. However, Windows still has a problem with software wanting write access to the C:\Windows folder. Comparing Linux to Windows software installation in not a good example of how Windows is easier to use.
And I will be *stuck* with a OS that's easy and familiar instead of venturing out with training wheels.
If you're looking for training wheels, why not use a distribution that comes with them? I supose this is a point that many Windows users fail to grasp. Linux is the kernel. The GNU/Linux operating system comes in many flavors, from simple to use, to everything and the kitchen sink included, to here is a boot sector, compiler, and book. If you know what software you want, and aren't ready to do some of the more advanced tasks, do a little research and find a distribution that meets your needs.
One other gotcha I find with Windows users; if you really are having problems with the software, check the software's project page. If that doesn't help, email the programmer. Just about every programmer I've emailed has been friendly and replied. There are some programmers that don't accept direct email. However, they generally have some kind of feedback service, be it bugzilla or a message board. I've always found help when I needed it.
I've done the first two items you list in both Linux and Windows. The procedure is about the same. 1. Scan a picture, create a new document and write something about the picture.
Linux: Open Gimp, import from scanner, save image, open OpenOffice, insert image, add text
Windows: Open Photoshop, import from scanner, save image, open Word, insert image, add text
2. Move the pictures of your camera to the place where you save your pictures in the computer.
Linux: Attach camera to USB port, Konqueror window appears with images, drag images to prefered folder.
Windows: Attach camera to USB port, Explorer window appears with images, drag images to prefered folder.
I've played with 3 a bit, but the last person I chatted with that had a webcam stoped because their webcam didn't work after the upgrade to XP.
I'm dead-set against the broadcast flag. However, I wonder...
I don't watch naked TV. All my viewing is done through my PVR, so that I can watch shows when I want to, not when some schmuck at a Network wants me to.
I wonder how many others are like you. I wonder how many will be like you when this law reaches a majority of Americans. Perhaps people will treat broadcast flag protected content the same way they treat infomercials now. "Gee, the TV is off the air again." If a majority of people can't see the show because of this flag, ratings will drop and so will advertising dollars. Shows with this flag will get canceled, thus leaving more non-flagged content on the air.
Personaly, I think people will just start watching shows on DVD and IPTV. You'll then start to see the advertising industry trying to pass laws to force people to watch commercials.
I've been watching the debate over RFID for a while now. The technology could have a lot of benifit. I currently work in a high security warehouse. I have to walk through a metel detector, have a wand passed over my body, pull my pockets inside out, remove belts and shoes, pull my pant waist away from my body, and pull up my pant legs to get outside. It would be nice if RFID would allow me to simply be scanned for RFID tags and exit. In the home, it could make computerized inventory a reality. My pantry would be able to tell me I'm low on tomato sauce before I go to the store.
However, I can also see the dark side. I've lived in neiborhoods where you're asked to leave if you don't cut your grass a certain way. RFID would be a godsend to the busybodies that live in these places. Just think, they could kick you out for buying generic food. Of course I can choose not to live in such places. I currently avoid them if I know about them in advance. However, I can see other problems.
1. Alcohol. You say good because If you engage in a risky behavior, your insurance premium should be higher. You go on to say that premiums might be lower for those who drink in moderation. What about those places where alcohol is illegal? What if you have children? Have you heard the garbage taught in schools concerning alcohol?
2. Birth Control. You say There's no way to know WHEN you used a condom, so this is impossible. What does it matter if anyone knows you used them? The fact that you have them can cause all sorts of problems. Many religious groups would like to see birth control made illegal. The examples are only silly if you exclude all of the silly people out there. Thinking back to high school, I wonder how many girls carried condoms. I wonder if people would have considered them sluts if everyone knew they were on birth control. It kind of discourages the use of contraceptives.
I'll pass on three. Though I don't want everone knowing what perscriptions are on my body, thieves don't need RFID to find out what is in my garbage.
4. Books You say More ridiculous alarmist thinking... I'm not too worried about my employer knowing what books I read. Actually, I'd be more interested in knowing what books my employer read. However, I can certainly see getting nasty anonymous letters in the mail based on my reading habits. When you expand this to movies and games, I might even end up in jail or having my children taken away. I have violent games in my house. My daughter loves to watch me play Halo. However, she's not allowed in the game room when I'm playing Doom III.
On my way to work this morning, there was a news story on the radio about a couple that had been arrested for watching porn. They confiscated the TV and DVD player. The police had received a complaint about the TV being too loud. Just think, with RFID, the police won't need a complaint to dictate how you live your life in the privacy of your own home.
If most of your customers are still dealing in Microsoft Office documents...
Any company that deals with the Government has to be asking when they are going to be required to submit documents in OpenDocument format. MS Office doesn't plan on supporting this any time soon.
What would be an example of a Net-based "killer app" that would cause someone to stop using Microsoft Word...
How many people still use Outlook as an email client? Most people I know use the web interface for gmail, hotmail, etc. Granted, this only replaces one function of the office suite. However, it's certainly an example. I've seen a few web interfaces that offer practical word processing abilities. Add a few front end capabilities (tables come to mind), and a few backend capabilities (mail merge?) and you would have a Word replacment that can be accessed anywhere. Sounds killer to me.
I can think of a few ways Google could make money off of this.
For home/small business users, having easily accessed online storage would be nice. I already use gmail to store small files (I email them to myself). Ad-revenue would work for basic functionality. If you needed/wanted an ad-free experience, a monthly subscription would work.
Larger business would want to control the server for security and reliability reasons. Google could license the technology to these business for inhouse use. The main benifit to larger businesses would be simplicity of maintenance. Most large businesses already run a host of web applications for this reason.
A decentralized network of root servers makes a lot of sense. However, who decides what TLD goes to whom? Didn't Iraq recently lose theirs? Was this a US decision?
I know that people like you don't want to hear it, but being part of the UN is of great benefit to the US (do you really think the "war against terror" can be won by the US alone for example) so the US leaving the UN, thereby destroying the international system would be a very stupid move indeed, to put it mildly.
It's interesting that you mension the "War against Terror". Last I checked, the only country that really supported the US was England.
You go on to say that the US leaving the UN would destroy the international system. Why? Are you saying that the US is all that holds the UN together?
Several years ago, most of Europe decided to band together for economic reasons. I had (and still have) great hopes for that union. In many ways, the EU acts as a single country. In many ways it is simular to how the national government of the US governs the state governments. Note, I say simular and not the same.
Why do I have hope for this union? Because without it, the US will slowly turn into an empire where the citizens have fewer and fewer rights. The US needs competition. However, if the general consensus is that the UN will fall apart without the US, then the EU is not up to the task of providing that competition. I do hope it gets there soon.
What you say makes sence if you're an American citizen. However, if you are a citizen of any other country, you don't have any say. You say your government is accountable to you. Does that extend to you being accountable to the world when your government screws up?
Personally, I don't want a world government. I think it would be bad to have a single entity deciding what is best for everyone. However, I also think that there should be an international organization (government if you like) that handles international exchanges. Currently, there are only two groups that have stepped up to the plate, the UN and the international corporations. At least with the UN, each country has some say.
As usual, Microsoft is behind the times. In the past they bought companies that innovated so that they could catch up with the industry. However, they have a real problem this time around.
For some time now, there has been a push to run applications in the web browser. First it was e-mail and Microsoft purchased Hotmail. As the technology was refined, people started using web interfaces more and more. A while back, Microsoft sent me an e-mail saying they were dropping support for using Outlook to connect to Hotmail. Instead, they are pushing Outlook online. It works fine under Linux, though Google has a much better interface.
Now Google is working on OpenOffice online. OpenOffice still has some deficiencies. However, with all of the PhD's working at Google, I'm sure most of those deficiencies will disappear. Microsoft will have to follow suit to compete. I heard rumors that they are working on this, but don't have anything to back it up. The thing is, this time they have to develop the technology in-house. Who would they buy out? Google? I don't see that happening.
Once Office is turned into an online application, who cares what platform it's developed for. It should work on anything with a browser.
The other side of this is that Linux is moving onto the corporate desktop. If history repeats itself, people will want to use the same technology at home. One way or another, Office will either be availalbe under Linux, or it will die.
That's one way to describe it. I always described it as an early experiment in human interfaces created by people who watched too much Max Headroom. I do have to admit that the fictional human interface where you talk to your computer and an animated face replies is an interesting idea. However, the primitive real-world attempts at this leave much to be desired. Some examples include Bonzai Buddy, Bob, Clippy (aka paperclip), and (the best of the bunch) Verbot.
Bonzai Buddy was, as you said, a spyware version of the Microsoft paperclip. I never used Bob. Clippy was amusing, but ultimately annoying. Verbot looks interesting, but I don't see a use.
And for the non-Windows people out there, *NIX has it's own characters. Microsoft Office is available for the Mac. OpenOffice has a character that shows up from time to time. Someone even made one of these for vi. It's called Vigor. Vigor claims to have all the problems and twice the bugs.
If you want real choice just find your local vendors and get them to order what you want. You support local business, you get what you want and often you don't pay more [or much more] than the monopoly controlled "wonder box" you get from Dell [et al.]
I agree, and I'll add that you get local support. All of the local shops have in-house techs. Just bring the computer in and they will fix it. Some even offer on-site repairs. To the best of my knowedge, none of the nationals offer this level of support. Instead, they tell you to mail it to them. You might get it back in a month and maybe it'll be fixed.
I run a refurbishing shop. We sell Dell (as well as others) laptops. I'd have to say our sales numbers would disagree. Dell without an OS does quite well.
It's been a while (about five years), but I ran the IT department for a mapping company that used AutoCAD and MicroStation. My experience with MicroStation was that it's rough around the edges, but a good CAD package. I did a lot of scripting in AutoLISP at the time. MicroStation supported C++ for plugins and had just started to support Java. We had to have a full time programer to support it. It's support of arcs was weak and (as I recall) it didn't support polylines. Everything wanted to be a line. It did have a nice interface. If I remember right, they have a Linux version.
One interesting note, according to one of the engineer's I talked to regularly, MicroStation was based on AutoCAD's early code base. No way to confirm it though.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree, but I wonder... Sending something up (even a new satellite) is expensive. Wouldn't it be cheaper to have some kind of in-orbit repair facility? Last I checked, it cost several million just to launch. I wonder if something could be set up that was capable of robotic repair. Maybe have it refuel at the space station as needed, or have it hover in one of the Lagrange points? Just a random thought...
I wonder what the possibilities would be for starting a Steam-like service, but instead of peddling one's own games, instead distributing inexpensive indie games in exchange for a percentage? Would many casual gamers install a client like that?
While this probably isn't what you had in mind, I've found Emerge to be a very nice client for installing games, both casual and not so casual. Check out http://www.gentoo-portage.com/Browse and look through the various game categories. Plenty of games are available, from Doom3 to xshipwars. Unfortunately, Emerge hasn't been ported to Windows yet. I beleave it's avalable on Linux, BSD, and OSX though.
The very reason that people did not create wave after wave of FPS games is that they were not technically possible on the Commodore 64, Apple II, or Atari 800. Sure, there were some wireframe simulations of FPS exploration like Cholo, The Colony and others, but they did not move fast enough to give the visceral feelings modern hardware can (Run! Shoot! Flee!), so they just did not appeal to the mass populace.
One of my favorite games on the Atari 800 was Alternate Reality: The City, and sequel, The Dungeon. While it didn't move fast enough to give the visceral feelings modern hardware can, it wasn't some wireframe simulation of FPS exploration. The graphics were very nice for the time. I still play it via emulation.
I have no idea if it's true, but someone once told me that the original Doom engine was based on this game.
I agree with what you are saying. I like the per-key permissions. However, the registry does have a few problems. Most of these problems could probably be overcome with software. The most notable is corruption. If the registry gets corrupted, you have to reinstall everything. If an INI file gets corrupted, it only affects the applications that depend on it and it's simple to restore.
There doesn't seem to be an easy way to extract and restore entries made by a particular application. Yes, I know you can extract single keys and trees. However, how do you extract only the keys that belong to the application? Applications that use an INI file are simple to back up, restore, or even move to a new system. Applications that use the registry (generally) must be completely reinstalled.
The search functionality seems a bit limited. In the registry editor, is there a way for me to find orphaned entries? Can I search out non system entries that haven't been accessed in x number of days? Is it possible to do a simple search and replace? This is fairly easy to do with INI files using basic file system utilities.
I can think of a few more problems. However, they have more to do with standard usage than the registry itself. It would be nice if applications would protect their entries from other applications using the registry security settings. However, the only way I can think of doing this would be to set up a per application user that only has security rights to that application's settings, kind of like Unix system accounts.
Keep in mind, I don't dislike the registry. However, it would be nice if it were as flexable as INI files. Yes, I am a Linux user. However, between gconf for desktop and application settings, and openldap for user/network settings, Linux seems to slowly be moving in the same direction.
Wars are started and administered by very calm and thoughtful people. They have goals, they know what it takes to accomplish those goals and then they actually carry out their plans.
Strange on how those same people are rarly the ones doing the fighting. Killing and maiming can be logical and even concidered sane. In one case, it doesn't involve you. You just give the orders. In the other case, it's killed or be killed.
Oh please! Children learn to differentiate between fantasy and reality. You learned to right? The content of their imaginations doesn't affect that process. It's part of developmental biology. Besides, it sounds to me like HE's the one doing the parenting, and you're just letting the ESRB parent for you. Playing GTA is nothing more than a modern cowboys and indians. And kids know this.
Being a parent, I've always wondered about this. If we hide everything that is bad from our children, how will they learn what is bad and what is good?
Concider alcohol, It's illegal for anyone (in most of the US) to have any amount of alcohol until they are 21. However, at 21, they are expected to already know how much alcohol they can handle before becoming drunk. How do they gain this knowedge? I know how I did it. I ignored the law and had my first drink at 14. However, I can hardly advocate breaking the law as a parent.
Naw, try Citadel instead. It has some really nice features and is still maintained. With all of the lawsuits, privacy problems, spam, and governments fighting for control (of both the Internet and it's users), it's something I've considered.
Our levels of Spam would suddenly become a fraction of what it is now. No more spam from russia and china.
Now we just need to do something about Florida...
So, bring it on world. Cut us off. See if we care! The South shall rise again!
Um, we're the west. We're also in the north, at least until the magnetic poles switch.
I'd have to agree with the rest of your post, at least until you take international corporations into account. But hey, international shipping is a pain, why not communication as well.
It's as if I complained to the city government about how the local newspaper manages their subscription list. The city doesn't own the subscription list, they don't manage the subscription list, so why would I complain to them about it?
Because you are not a government. If the next city over had a complaint about how your local newspaper manages their subscription list, they would talk to your local city government. If they tried to talk to your local paper directly, they would be told that they have no jurisdiction and should talk to the local government.
The only way your argument makes sense is if you concider ICANN a government. Being that I don't care for corperate control any more than I care for government control, this isn't a pleasant image in my head.
So, what exactly is at stake here? I've followed this for a while. However, I don't really understand the issue.
.org domains.
.tw domain. They might also vote against a .xxx domain. However, it's a vote. It's not even a new power. If China wanted to remove .xxx from within China, they could simply require that their ISPs block all .xxx domains. This isn't any different then the ability each user has to make entries in their host files to block advertising.
.com, .net, etc (due to ARPA's legacy), and every country should be responsible for their own country TLD. So Russia would be responsible for .ru, US would be responsible for .us, and Columbia would be responsible for .co, etc.)
As I understand it, all the root DNS servers provide are the addresses of lower DNS servers. So, if I needed the address of slashdot.org, and the request ended up at a root server, the server would respond: I don't have a clue, but here is the address of a DNS server that might know the addresses of all the
I can see why the international community might want control of these servers. They want a say in which top level domains exist. It seems to be a purely political issue. With UN control, China might be able to (with a vote) remove the
(Personally, I think the US should have
I've made a few posts on this topic agreeing with this idea. I just fail to understand why the US must have control of which top level domains get created or are maintained.
Keep in mind, this isn't about control of the Internet. DNS has nothing to do with assigning IP addresses or creating/maintaning internet protocols. It just translates an IP address into a name and vice versa. Even if every DNS server were to go down, I should still be able to type http://66.35.250.150/ and read Slashdot.
Hmm, interesting. HTML Formatted translates http://66.35.250.150/ into a hyperlink, without using a URL or A tag. I'll have to remember that.
Good point. I started each of my kids on the computer at age one. The oldest started on Windows 95. The second oldest started on 2000, but has more experience on SuSE and XP. The third is getting his start on Gentoo under KDE. I really do like the gcompris program, childsplay is nice as well.
Now, if you want a interesting usability study, try watching the oldest. I'm just introducing her to email. She's currently useing SuSE 9.2, KDE, and Evolution. I added my email address to her contacts, using Dad as the nickname. She was having problems sending me email, so I watched what she was doing. She was typing Dad into the To: field. Instead of subsituting Dad with my email address, Evolution was trying to send the email to Dad. So I told her to click the To: button and select my name (the nickname Dad didn't show up in the dialog box, but my name did). She clicked To:, clicked on my name, and then closed the box. Nothing showed up in the To: field. I told her she needed to click To:, then my name, then To: again, then close. She wanted to know why she had to click To: twice in two different places. I didn't have an answer. Lately, she has taken an interest in Bash and wants me to install Gentoo on her computer. I'm tempted to walk her through the installation.
The rest of my family would be interesting to study as well. My Wife's only real computer experience, before meeting me, was running the school paper on a Mac. Interestingly enough, she prefers a CLI. To her, it's just easier to type what she wants rather then hunting through menus. She's not much on eye candy either. The last time we talked about usability, I told her about a Slashdot converstion where several posters said consistency between programs was important. She thought this was a horrible idea. She likes the fact that programs all look different. It's how she identifies which program just opened a dialog box. The middle child is mostly visual. She like lots of eye candy and icons. The youngest just likes to mash the keyboard, move the mouse, and see things happen. The only insight to usability I've discovered with him is the importance of full screen mode on any given program.
In your post a bit up, you used FireFox as an example of a hard to install application. This was a poor choice for an example as FireFox is included with just about every distribution. The post I'm replying to makes a bit more sense. You seem to be having problems installing software that is not included with your distribution. I agree this can be a problem in Linux. A lot of improvement has been made in this area. However, with user feedback and contribution, more can be made.
.dll that wasn't included with the download. What's worse, I was never warned that the .dll was needed until after I had installed the software. I then had to hunt for it. It took a while. Back in the Win95 days, I kept having problems with installers overwriting system files. Microsoft fixed this in latter Windows versions by protecting system files from the installation software. However, Windows still has a problem with software wanting write access to the C:\Windows folder. Comparing Linux to Windows software installation in not a good example of how Windows is easier to use.
Now the rest of your post is a bit confusing to me.
I have a keen interest in getting Linux to work with some ease that I'm accustomed to in Windows and that AS a Windows user, I can figure out in OS X. Linux doesn't offer that...
Your problem so far has been software installation, so I'll comment about that here. OS X does have a nice software installer from what I've heard. However, I haven't used OS X a lot, so I really can't comment. Windows software installation can go smoothly, or horribly wrong. I once installed a spell checker on Windows that took days because it depended on a runtime VB
And I will be *stuck* with a OS that's easy and familiar instead of venturing out with training wheels.
If you're looking for training wheels, why not use a distribution that comes with them? I supose this is a point that many Windows users fail to grasp. Linux is the kernel. The GNU/Linux operating system comes in many flavors, from simple to use, to everything and the kitchen sink included, to here is a boot sector, compiler, and book. If you know what software you want, and aren't ready to do some of the more advanced tasks, do a little research and find a distribution that meets your needs.
One other gotcha I find with Windows users; if you really are having problems with the software, check the software's project page. If that doesn't help, email the programmer. Just about every programmer I've emailed has been friendly and replied. There are some programmers that don't accept direct email. However, they generally have some kind of feedback service, be it bugzilla or a message board. I've always found help when I needed it.
I've done the first two items you list in both Linux and Windows. The procedure is about the same.
1. Scan a picture, create a new document and write something about the picture.
Linux: Open Gimp, import from scanner, save image, open OpenOffice, insert image, add text
Windows: Open Photoshop, import from scanner, save image, open Word, insert image, add text
2. Move the pictures of your camera to the place where you save your pictures in the computer.
Linux: Attach camera to USB port, Konqueror window appears with images, drag images to prefered folder.
Windows: Attach camera to USB port, Explorer window appears with images, drag images to prefered folder.
I've played with 3 a bit, but the last person I chatted with that had a webcam stoped because their webcam didn't work after the upgrade to XP.
I'm dead-set against the broadcast flag. However, I wonder...
I don't watch naked TV. All my viewing is done through my PVR, so that I can watch shows when I want to, not when some schmuck at a Network wants me to.
I wonder how many others are like you. I wonder how many will be like you when this law reaches a majority of Americans. Perhaps people will treat broadcast flag protected content the same way they treat infomercials now. "Gee, the TV is off the air again." If a majority of people can't see the show because of this flag, ratings will drop and so will advertising dollars. Shows with this flag will get canceled, thus leaving more non-flagged content on the air.
Personaly, I think people will just start watching shows on DVD and IPTV. You'll then start to see the advertising industry trying to pass laws to force people to watch commercials.
Whatever happens, it will be interesting.
I've been watching the debate over RFID for a while now. The technology could have a lot of benifit. I currently work in a high security warehouse. I have to walk through a metel detector, have a wand passed over my body, pull my pockets inside out, remove belts and shoes, pull my pant waist away from my body, and pull up my pant legs to get outside. It would be nice if RFID would allow me to simply be scanned for RFID tags and exit. In the home, it could make computerized inventory a reality. My pantry would be able to tell me I'm low on tomato sauce before I go to the store.
However, I can also see the dark side. I've lived in neiborhoods where you're asked to leave if you don't cut your grass a certain way. RFID would be a godsend to the busybodies that live in these places. Just think, they could kick you out for buying generic food. Of course I can choose not to live in such places. I currently avoid them if I know about them in advance. However, I can see other problems.
1. Alcohol. You say good because If you engage in a risky behavior, your insurance premium should be higher. You go on to say that premiums might be lower for those who drink in moderation. What about those places where alcohol is illegal? What if you have children? Have you heard the garbage taught in schools concerning alcohol?
2. Birth Control. You say There's no way to know WHEN you used a condom, so this is impossible. What does it matter if anyone knows you used them? The fact that you have them can cause all sorts of problems. Many religious groups would like to see birth control made illegal. The examples are only silly if you exclude all of the silly people out there. Thinking back to high school, I wonder how many girls carried condoms. I wonder if people would have considered them sluts if everyone knew they were on birth control. It kind of discourages the use of contraceptives.
I'll pass on three. Though I don't want everone knowing what perscriptions are on my body, thieves don't need RFID to find out what is in my garbage.
4. Books You say More ridiculous alarmist thinking... I'm not too worried about my employer knowing what books I read. Actually, I'd be more interested in knowing what books my employer read. However, I can certainly see getting nasty anonymous letters in the mail based on my reading habits. When you expand this to movies and games, I might even end up in jail or having my children taken away. I have violent games in my house. My daughter loves to watch me play Halo. However, she's not allowed in the game room when I'm playing Doom III.
On my way to work this morning, there was a news story on the radio about a couple that had been arrested for watching porn. They confiscated the TV and DVD player. The police had received a complaint about the TV being too loud. Just think, with RFID, the police won't need a complaint to dictate how you live your life in the privacy of your own home.
If most of your customers are still dealing in Microsoft Office documents...
Any company that deals with the Government has to be asking when they are going to be required to submit documents in OpenDocument format. MS Office doesn't plan on supporting this any time soon.
What would be an example of a Net-based "killer app" that would cause someone to stop using Microsoft Word...
How many people still use Outlook as an email client? Most people I know use the web interface for gmail, hotmail, etc. Granted, this only replaces one function of the office suite. However, it's certainly an example. I've seen a few web interfaces that offer practical word processing abilities. Add a few front end capabilities (tables come to mind), and a few backend capabilities (mail merge?) and you would have a Word replacment that can be accessed anywhere. Sounds killer to me.
I can think of a few ways Google could make money off of this.
For home/small business users, having easily accessed online storage would be nice. I already use gmail to store small files (I email them to myself). Ad-revenue would work for basic functionality. If you needed/wanted an ad-free experience, a monthly subscription would work.
Larger business would want to control the server for security and reliability reasons. Google could license the technology to these business for inhouse use. The main benifit to larger businesses would be simplicity of maintenance. Most large businesses already run a host of web applications for this reason.
A decentralized network of root servers makes a lot of sense. However, who decides what TLD goes to whom? Didn't Iraq recently lose theirs? Was this a US decision?
I know that people like you don't want to hear it, but being part of the UN is of great benefit to the US (do you really think the "war against terror" can be won by the US alone for example) so the US leaving the UN, thereby destroying the international system would be a very stupid move indeed, to put it mildly.
It's interesting that you mension the "War against Terror". Last I checked, the only country that really supported the US was England.
You go on to say that the US leaving the UN would destroy the international system. Why? Are you saying that the US is all that holds the UN together?
Several years ago, most of Europe decided to band together for economic reasons. I had (and still have) great hopes for that union. In many ways, the EU acts as a single country. In many ways it is simular to how the national government of the US governs the state governments. Note, I say simular and not the same.
Why do I have hope for this union? Because without it, the US will slowly turn into an empire where the citizens have fewer and fewer rights. The US needs competition. However, if the general consensus is that the UN will fall apart without the US, then the EU is not up to the task of providing that competition. I do hope it gets there soon.
What you say makes sence if you're an American citizen. However, if you are a citizen of any other country, you don't have any say. You say your government is accountable to you. Does that extend to you being accountable to the world when your government screws up?
Personally, I don't want a world government. I think it would be bad to have a single entity deciding what is best for everyone. However, I also think that there should be an international organization (government if you like) that handles international exchanges. Currently, there are only two groups that have stepped up to the plate, the UN and the international corporations. At least with the UN, each country has some say.
As usual, Microsoft is behind the times. In the past they bought companies that innovated so that they could catch up with the industry. However, they have a real problem this time around.
For some time now, there has been a push to run applications in the web browser. First it was e-mail and Microsoft purchased Hotmail. As the technology was refined, people started using web interfaces more and more. A while back, Microsoft sent me an e-mail saying they were dropping support for using Outlook to connect to Hotmail. Instead, they are pushing Outlook online. It works fine under Linux, though Google has a much better interface.
Now Google is working on OpenOffice online. OpenOffice still has some deficiencies. However, with all of the PhD's working at Google, I'm sure most of those deficiencies will disappear. Microsoft will have to follow suit to compete. I heard rumors that they are working on this, but don't have anything to back it up. The thing is, this time they have to develop the technology in-house. Who would they buy out? Google? I don't see that happening.
Once Office is turned into an online application, who cares what platform it's developed for. It should work on anything with a browser.
The other side of this is that Linux is moving onto the corporate desktop. If history repeats itself, people will want to use the same technology at home. One way or another, Office will either be availalbe under Linux, or it will die.
That's one way to describe it. I always described it as an early experiment in human interfaces created by people who watched too much Max Headroom. I do have to admit that the fictional human interface where you talk to your computer and an animated face replies is an interesting idea. However, the primitive real-world attempts at this leave much to be desired. Some examples include Bonzai Buddy, Bob, Clippy (aka paperclip), and (the best of the bunch) Verbot.
Bonzai Buddy was, as you said, a spyware version of the Microsoft paperclip. I never used Bob. Clippy was amusing, but ultimately annoying. Verbot looks interesting, but I don't see a use.
And for the non-Windows people out there, *NIX has it's own characters. Microsoft Office is available for the Mac. OpenOffice has a character that shows up from time to time. Someone even made one of these for vi. It's called Vigor. Vigor claims to have all the problems and twice the bugs.
If you want real choice just find your local vendors and get them to order what you want. You support local business, you get what you want and often you don't pay more [or much more] than the monopoly controlled "wonder box" you get from Dell [et al.]
I agree, and I'll add that you get local support. All of the local shops have in-house techs. Just bring the computer in and they will fix it. Some even offer on-site repairs. To the best of my knowedge, none of the nationals offer this level of support. Instead, they tell you to mail it to them. You might get it back in a month and maybe it'll be fixed.
I run a refurbishing shop. We sell Dell (as well as others) laptops. I'd have to say our sales numbers would disagree. Dell without an OS does quite well.
It's been a while (about five years), but I ran the IT department for a mapping company that used AutoCAD and MicroStation. My experience with MicroStation was that it's rough around the edges, but a good CAD package. I did a lot of scripting in AutoLISP at the time. MicroStation supported C++ for plugins and had just started to support Java. We had to have a full time programer to support it. It's support of arcs was weak and (as I recall) it didn't support polylines. Everything wanted to be a line. It did have a nice interface. If I remember right, they have a Linux version.
One interesting note, according to one of the engineer's I talked to regularly, MicroStation was based on AutoCAD's early code base. No way to confirm it though.