And perhaps more importantly, older browsers (and special-purpose ones, like text-speech) could transparently be redirected to pages designed for that technology level.
Cool, will it have sound support? I'm imagining a heated discussion between the system and conflicting packets...
And why does this remind me of a certain scene in "Dark Star"?
Doolittle: Hello, Bomb? Are you with me? Bomb #20: Of course. Doolittle: Are you willing to entertain a few concepts? Bomb #20: I am always receptive to suggestions. etc...
[...]give them the right to make "cosmetic" changes like this.
Adding links like this is beyond mere 'cosmetic' changes.
Displaying nested quotes in different colors is cosmetic. Turning some url or email address that I provided in the post into a hyperlink is cosmetic. Adding a link to content that I didn't provide is no longer just cosmetic. That's changing what I said in my post.
If you don't want to pay the licence fee, no-one's using 'force and violence' to extract the fee.
So it's a voluntary fee? What happens if you own a TV and you don't pay the fee? (Granted, there probably isn't any violence involved, but force is not quite unthinkable.)
the Beeb is *not* financed by taxes but by a licence fee that people who own televisions must pay. I don't own a TV and I don't pay a penny.
So it's a tax on TVs.
I don't know exactly what it's like in.uk, but here in.nl we have a similar scheme, and you have to pay the 'license fee'. (read: TV tax.) Or pay a hefty fine if they find out you haven't...
Which is a totally stupid system. It's not like it's a license fee that allows you to watch the beeb, or in my case the.nl public channels. No, even if you only use the TV for playing tapes on your VCR you have to pay the TV tax.
But people using programs like WinAmp and Mozilla have no choice! They can't even use a normal Windows or Mac interface if they want to, let alone having it as the default.
You mean they want no choice. They have too much choice with themes, and that frightens them so they just want the old no-choice standard interface.
Well, tough shit. Should the use of themes be restricted because of a bunch of people who can't deal with change? Things change all the time. If they can't deal with that, then why are they upgrading their browser in the first place?
That said, it is probably a good idea to use a sensible standard theme, one that looks more or less like a standard windows interface, and leave the funkier ones as options.
most sites nowadays seem to be "ooh - look at my ugly photo" with a piece of text describing the life of some halfwit from the Midwest who thinks that they're an 31337 haXoR because they can make a web page in Frontpage Express.
Then again, those sites invariably have a hitcounter showing a grand total of 17 hits. 12 from said halfwit, 3 from 'friends', and the remaining 2 from people who have inadvertently stumbled across it on some search engine.
So they only take up server space, and that's not really a big deal. Besides, the 'web' is a bit of a lost cause anyway. Now if you'd said usenet and email...
I personally would love to see MS voluntarily release the source code [...] The average consumer would not be interested in downloading 30 megs of source and compiling it to have a new OS.
An atheist who prays to satan ? That's a cool oxymoron if ever I saw one;)
Yes. And it's really sad that that assumption is made all the time. Really. Example:
Preaching-type on a street corner is going on about his wonderful faith: "Do you believe in God?" Me: "No." Him: "Then you're in league with Satan and you'll burn in hell." Me: "Uh, no. I don't believe in him either." Him: "That doesn't matter, you'll burn anyway."
Oh. Right. Somehow it makes sense to them that if I don't believe in one of the figureheads of their particular religion, that I'm automatically believing in the other figurehead of the same damn religion.
Let's say, hypothetically, that I knock on your door and ask the following questions: "Do you know God? Have you asked Jesus to be your savior?". What's the issue there?
Not much of an issue, as long as the hypothetical you will react sensible if my answer is "No. Bugger off." (ie. Do so, and don't argue.)
Maybe where your from they insist you're going to hell, are damned forever, and you're generally evil
Loudly. Repeatedly.
Oh, it gets really enjoyable when they start yelling after me when I walk away from them because I don't feel like being insulted by some fanatical religious whackjob..:-(
That is my problem with religion. All those people who think they're so important that they NEED to win me over. I don't care about religion. I'm fine, really. And I don't care about your religion either, whether it's christianity or furniture worshipping. Go ahead if you want to, just don't bother me with it.
So, what's the difference between windows 95, windows 98, and windows 2000, for the average computer illiterate? Just looking at the version numbers and the pretty pictures on the box...
And the windows-for-home vs windows-for-corporate distinction IS a fork. They're not even compatible. I mean, can they even read each others file systems by now?
Re:Buy this book at Amazon...
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Database Nation
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· Score: 1
Not only that, Amazon also tells you where this book has been sold a lot. Which companies, stuff like that.
Seems awfully ironic while selling a book about all that...
There are already plenty of really great open-source projects out there (have a look at Crystal Space and WorldForge for instance), so there isn't really anything missing.
*Twitch*
Isn't that kind of like saying "We don't need (Free|Open|Net)BSD to be open source because linux is already out there and there isn't really anything missing"?
2.What if other non-MS software needs the file to exist someplace, even if it is a duplicate, and Win2K symlinks it out-ta there?
Well, if this is a decent link, then as far as the app is concerned, the file *is* there. Unless you're talking about the app using direct drive access, in which case it should be killed off with extreme prejudice.
In addition to the Single Instance Store, Microsoft Research?s contributed a text-to-speech engine to Windows 2000. This technology, developed by the Speech Technology Group, is used by a "screen reader" that converts text to speech on a user?s display, allowing blind and visually impaired people to use Windows 2000 and the applications that run on it.
How do you do that with a GUI?
"Dear $BLIND_USER, I am Microsoft Text To Speech, and I'm your guide for tonight. To the left here we have a squarish grey object with the letters "start" on it. You can use your mouse to click it, and you'll get the start menu, from which you can launch applications. Now, if you just move your mouse around, I will tell you when you get closer."
It would be easy with a command line, but I'm curious how they intend to do that to something like the Windows GUI...
I think I'll hang on to my Thinkpad 701, it's about the same size (just a bit thicker) and it has a bigger screen. Runs Debian just fiiine too. Excellent for playing nethack on train trips. And the folding 'butterfly' keyboard impresses people.:-)
Too bad the battery is dying, though... Anyone know where I can get replacement batteries for a 701C in.nl?
Re:Isn't it just replacing television!?
on
LonelyNet
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· Score: 1
The difference here is that watching TV can be a shared experience which encourages human to human interaction. How many times have you snuggled up w/ your loved one to watch a movie?
True, but how big do you think that group is compared to the group of people who are sitting in their room, lonely, bored out of their skulls, so they turn on the tv to watch Jerry Springer or worse...
Or the "Bugger off I'm watching tv" crowd?
At least the internet is a two-way medium. It's not just hanging on the couch and getting blasted with images until you pass out and go to bed, there are actual people on the other end of that wire that you can talk to.
We can even estimate how long a system such as distributed.net would take to do it, actually doing it adds nothing whatsoever to the debate, it is a waste of time and resources, and tells us nothing.
Isn't that kind of like saying "I know I can run a marathon in under 3 hours, there's no need to actually DO it, it's a waste of time and resources."
Imagine Kennedy had said such a thing in 1960-something. "We estimate we can get to the moon before the soviets do, so we're not actually going to do it, it's a waste of resources, and tells us nothing."
There is a difference between estimating it and actually doing it, you know...
Letting someone carry one like that (at least from where I come from) is bad manners.
Oh boo! It's bad manners? Well that's just too bad now is it? I don't think the idea of that call was to be nice to people. The idea was to find out exactly how stupid this company is, or thinks we are. Now if in that process some phonedroids precious little ego got shattered, that's too bad.
If someone says something stupid I don't just let them hang themselves.
Neither do I. If someone who represents a company that's doing all kinds of nasty stuff to something I like and care about is saying stupid stuff, I don't just let them hang themselves either. I'd give 'em some extra rope.
It would be like talking to a small child and snickering behind their back.
Sure. Except the kid isn't in a position where it's supposed to know what the grownups are talking about. The phonedroid is. Or should be.
Slashdot Mirror
And don't say javascript.
And why does this remind me of a certain scene in "Dark Star"?
Doolittle: Hello, Bomb? Are you with me?
Bomb #20: Of course.
Doolittle: Are you willing to entertain a few concepts?
Bomb #20: I am always receptive to suggestions.
etc...
Adding links like this is beyond mere 'cosmetic' changes.
Displaying nested quotes in different colors is cosmetic. Turning some url or email address that I provided in the post into a hyperlink is cosmetic. Adding a link to content that I didn't provide is no longer just cosmetic. That's changing what I said in my post.
Yeah that's really funny if you have 6000 posts in the archives.
Have you even looked at how that nuke page works?
If similar things are in place for the other TLDs, then it'll be a load of fun to see who gets microsoft.sex, and what they'll put up on it.
I don't know exactly what it's like in .uk, but here in .nl we have a similar scheme, and you have to pay the 'license fee'. (read: TV tax.) Or pay a hefty fine if they find out you haven't...
Which is a totally stupid system. It's not like it's a license fee that allows you to watch the beeb, or in my case the .nl public channels. No, even if you only use the TV for playing tapes on your VCR you have to pay the TV tax.
Well, tough shit. Should the use of themes be restricted because of a bunch of people who can't deal with change? Things change all the time. If they can't deal with that, then why are they upgrading their browser in the first place?
That said, it is probably a good idea to use a sensible standard theme, one that looks more or less like a standard windows interface, and leave the funkier ones as options.
So they only take up server space, and that's not really a big deal. Besides, the 'web' is a bit of a lost cause anyway. Now if you'd said usenet and email...
I see...
Preaching-type on a street corner is going on about his wonderful faith: "Do you believe in God?"
Me: "No."
Him: "Then you're in league with Satan and you'll burn in hell."
Me: "Uh, no. I don't believe in him either."
Him: "That doesn't matter, you'll burn anyway."
Oh. Right. Somehow it makes sense to them that if I don't believe in one of the figureheads of their particular religion, that I'm automatically believing in the other figurehead of the same damn religion.
Oh, it gets really enjoyable when they start yelling after me when I walk away from them because I don't feel like being insulted by some fanatical religious whackjob.. :-(
That is my problem with religion. All those people who think they're so important that they NEED to win me over. I don't care about religion. I'm fine, really. And I don't care about your religion either, whether it's christianity or furniture worshipping. Go ahead if you want to, just don't bother me with it.
And the windows-for-home vs windows-for-corporate distinction IS a fork. They're not even compatible. I mean, can they even read each others file systems by now?
Seems awfully ironic while selling a book about all that...
Isn't that kind of like saying "We don't need (Free|Open|Net)BSD to be open source because linux is already out there and there isn't really anything missing"?
"Dear $BLIND_USER, I am Microsoft Text To Speech, and I'm your guide for tonight. To the left here we have a squarish grey object with the letters "start" on it. You can use your mouse to click it, and you'll get the start menu, from which you can launch applications. Now, if you just move your mouse around, I will tell you when you get closer."
It would be easy with a command line, but I'm curious how they intend to do that to something like the Windows GUI...
I think I'll hang on to my Thinkpad 701, it's about the same size (just a bit thicker) and it has a bigger screen. Runs Debian just fiiine too. Excellent for playing nethack on train trips. And the folding 'butterfly' keyboard impresses people. :-)
Too bad the battery is dying, though... Anyone know where I can get replacement batteries for a 701C in .nl?
Or the "Bugger off I'm watching tv" crowd?
At least the internet is a two-way medium. It's not just hanging on the couch and getting blasted with images until you pass out and go to bed, there are actual people on the other end of that wire that you can talk to.
Imagine Kennedy had said such a thing in 1960-something. "We estimate we can get to the moon before the soviets do, so we're not actually going to do it, it's a waste of resources, and tells us nothing."
There is a difference between estimating it and actually doing it, you know...
Ronald Rivest, Adi Shamir, Leonard Adleman.