Look, I'd love to think you are right. The overweening reliance on microsoft shits me to tears. And you've got a good point about, maybe, big companies driving the move away from M$ in their rollouts. (FWIW, I've recently spent a lot of time lookig at where linux has got to on the desktop, and ubuntu 6.06 impresses me very very much, fedora 5 less so, and I think ubuntu, suitably and easily tweaked, is a strong candidate for corp rollout.)
But I can't help seeing the blank, despairing, almost hateful look on my users' faces when I tell them to learn something even 5% different from what they know. Because for them it's truly a case of trying to avoid learning anything, partly though fear of looking stupid, but mostly because they are just fed up. They know full well that the "trust us", "this time it's more reliable" line from M$ is bullshit, but it's precisely that that has made them so resistant to ever bothering to go throught he most minor learning curve ever again - that'll it all be a waste of time, they'll hear the same old promises. In a sense, it's M$ consistent under-delivery which has created the environment that traps users in their orbit. Cynicism gets manipulated into intrangigence.
My experience with users over the last decade is that they have stopped giving a shit about anything on their desktop except that it works like what they know. There is no curiosity, no "look under the hood" left in them. They've got total change fatigue and no interest in anything. They cannot (I mean, "CANNOT") be convinced there's any better way to do anything than the dreary, (often) unproductive, wintel way, and they think anyone who says otherwise is a snake-oil salesman. The bottom line doesn't matter, their productivity doesn't matter, they just don't want to learn anything. And also, even with windows, they have no clue how to make the most of what they have, they can't can't configure their systems enen to a very basic level (I'm talking engineers here, for christ's sake) and they don't even know what is possible ("you mean, I can plug in a monitor to my laptop and have both screens up and running?"). The situation is hopeless, Microsoft will stay near-monopoly on the desktop for at least another 20 years.
Well, I think InP HBTs (indium phosphide heterojunction bipolar transistors) are up to around 500GHz these days. The number is the transistor's ft (big f, little t) which denotes the frequencey are which the transconductance falls to unity, all other things being perfect. I assume that's the same numebr the Southhampton guys are using, since the ft/10 figure of merit is commonly used for respectable high efficiancy power amplifiers (what you want in a mobile phone), though you make them work at even ft/2.
Fair point, but that does hamper the response time you can get aircraft in the air to support ops over the Gulf or Iraq should emergenicies arise, plus, with the huge troop buildups in the area, there will still be plenty of US targets in the Gulf. Not to mention the ecomonic effects of a tripling in oil prices on account of a bloackaded Gulf. Won't go down to well. US allies in the region (Saudi, and the Gulf states) will also be somewhat pissed off, and even more so when the Iranians forment a Shia uprising in northern SA (where the oil is), but that's for another thread. Oh, and did I say China? They like their cheap Iranian oil. In short, there's more than one way to skin a cat, and the Sunburns just add to the mix.
Dude, Sunburn missiles have a portable launch platform. Plus, go look at at a map of the Persian Gulf. You'll notice an enormous range of mountains on the Iranian side, plus a very narrow cutoff point called the Straits of Hormuz. It's custom made for a missile choke. There's no way known US forces can take out every Sunburn launch platform, and they know it. Detecting and intercepting missiles in flight is also extremely difficult (not impossible) but I don't think anyone in the military is kidding themselves that no missiles will get to their targets. The numbers are aganst it.
Yeah, and Iran has them too (courtesy of a little Russian realpolitik). Will be tested in the Persian Gulf if any miltary moves are made against Iran. Ditto the Chinese and the Taiwan Straights. Large surface ships are of rather limited use.
I can't believe that situation (with providers locking in phones to their networks - you have to buy a phone from them to use on their network) still exist in the US. That's so 1997 as far as the rest of the world is concerned. Revolt! (Still, don't you still, in effect pay to receive calls, at least with some providers?)
New to Opera, so.....
Is there an way to implement the same functionality as the "adblock" extension in mozilla/firefox? If there is, I'll consider Opera. I reckon it's the standout killer feature in the firefox world.
Slashdot Mirror
Look, I'd love to think you are right. The overweening reliance on microsoft shits me to tears. And you've got a good point about, maybe, big companies driving the move away from M$ in their rollouts. (FWIW, I've recently spent a lot of time lookig at where linux has got to on the desktop, and ubuntu 6.06 impresses me very very much, fedora 5 less so, and I think ubuntu, suitably and easily tweaked, is a strong candidate for corp rollout.) But I can't help seeing the blank, despairing, almost hateful look on my users' faces when I tell them to learn something even 5% different from what they know. Because for them it's truly a case of trying to avoid learning anything, partly though fear of looking stupid, but mostly because they are just fed up. They know full well that the "trust us", "this time it's more reliable" line from M$ is bullshit, but it's precisely that that has made them so resistant to ever bothering to go throught he most minor learning curve ever again - that'll it all be a waste of time, they'll hear the same old promises. In a sense, it's M$ consistent under-delivery which has created the environment that traps users in their orbit. Cynicism gets manipulated into intrangigence.
Nice work, very good piece.
But.
My experience with users over the last decade is that they have stopped giving a shit about anything on their desktop except that it works like what they know. There is no curiosity, no "look under the hood" left in them. They've got total change fatigue and no interest in anything. They cannot (I mean, "CANNOT") be convinced there's any better way to do anything than the dreary, (often) unproductive, wintel way, and they think anyone who says otherwise is a snake-oil salesman. The bottom line doesn't matter, their productivity doesn't matter, they just don't want to learn anything. And also, even with windows, they have no clue how to make the most of what they have, they can't can't configure their systems enen to a very basic level (I'm talking engineers here, for christ's sake) and they don't even know what is possible ("you mean, I can plug in a monitor to my laptop and have both screens up and running?"). The situation is hopeless, Microsoft will stay near-monopoly on the desktop for at least another 20 years.
Well, I think InP HBTs (indium phosphide heterojunction bipolar transistors) are up to around 500GHz these days. The number is the transistor's ft (big f, little t) which denotes the frequencey are which the transconductance falls to unity, all other things being perfect. I assume that's the same numebr the Southhampton guys are using, since the ft/10 figure of merit is commonly used for respectable high efficiancy power amplifiers (what you want in a mobile phone), though you make them work at even ft/2.
-p
Funnily enough, excel and word were written and sold for the Mac (1985), and only after a couple of years were ported to dos (1987). Bless.
Absolutely a-men, 100%, true. Truly nice to type on. I make far fewer mistakes. Loud, but in a reassuring way ;)
-p
Fair point, but that does hamper the response time you can get aircraft in the air to support ops over the Gulf or Iraq should emergenicies arise, plus, with the huge troop buildups in the area, there will still be plenty of US targets in the Gulf. Not to mention the ecomonic effects of a tripling in oil prices on account of a bloackaded Gulf. Won't go down to well. US allies in the region (Saudi, and the Gulf states) will also be somewhat pissed off, and even more so when the Iranians forment a Shia uprising in northern SA (where the oil is), but that's for another thread. Oh, and did I say China? They like their cheap Iranian oil. In short, there's more than one way to skin a cat, and the Sunburns just add to the mix.
Dude, Sunburn missiles have a portable launch platform. Plus, go look at at a map of the Persian Gulf. You'll notice an enormous range of mountains on the Iranian side, plus a very narrow cutoff point called the Straits of Hormuz. It's custom made for a missile choke. There's no way known US forces can take out every Sunburn launch platform, and they know it. Detecting and intercepting missiles in flight is also extremely difficult (not impossible) but I don't think anyone in the military is kidding themselves that no missiles will get to their targets. The numbers are aganst it.
Yeah, and Iran has them too (courtesy of a little Russian realpolitik). Will be tested in the Persian Gulf if any miltary moves are made against Iran. Ditto the Chinese and the Taiwan Straights. Large surface ships are of rather limited use.
I can't believe that situation (with providers locking in phones to their networks - you have to buy a phone from them to use on their network) still exist in the US. That's so 1997 as far as the rest of the world is concerned. Revolt! (Still, don't you still, in effect pay to receive calls, at least with some providers?)
-p
New to Opera, so..... Is there an way to implement the same functionality as the "adblock" extension in mozilla/firefox? If there is, I'll consider Opera. I reckon it's the standout killer feature in the firefox world.