I believe the portion that is being referred to as the "tax" is the penalty an individual would have to pay if they were found to not be covered. That WOULD be going to the government.
The federal government has done this for decades. Goes back to Nixon, who got universal adoption of the 55 MPH speed limit from all states--despite highways being a state responsibility--by threatening to withhold federal highway taxes.
I actually agree with your "tail-wags-the-dog" sentiment, especially when Dan Dodge (former head of QNX) is now a senior RIM VP. It isn't a bad thing at all; QNX has a solid business all their own and now it broadens RIM's reach and increases its potential market.
The Palm comparison only works on a superficial level, though. For one thing, RIM is still profitable, with a fair wad of cash in the bank. They actually have time to make this work. Palm MIGHT have made it work with more money, and getting acquired by a company for whom mobile wasn't a core business didn't help them out at all.
There are a few very important areas where the RIM/Palm comparison falls apart: 1) RIM has made a couple of crucial acquisitions with QNX and TAT, essentially buying the most important parts of the OS. 2) Portability is going to be key to BB10's success; the ability to port apps (extremely) easily from iOS and Android means it's very easy for a developer to decide to support the platform. 3) It's a "content" market now, not a "device" market, and RIM has some pretty good partnerships. Their music store is actually very good now, and in some ways I prefer it to iTunes. Music is roughly the same price, and, like Apple, there's no DRM. Palm had no such partnerships.
In the case of RIM (and that is who we're discussing here), they are building absolutely the best HTML infrastructure for their devices. Better-than-desktop standards compatibility and rendering.
The browser in the Playbook is among the very best for HTML5 compatibility and rendering, and the browsers in the BB10 prototypes are the VERY best available right now.
Java is basically a resource-sucking abstraction layer. Native code is much more efficient in every way (lower memory footprint, easier execution).
That said, HTML5 isn't a bad choice for certain lightweight tasks. An accomplished developer or team can break down the needed functionality of an app and figure out which functions are best executed on which platform.
Where BB10 has a chance is in the new UI, which will have all kinds of goodies baked in and written in native code. If it works (and there's still some question, for sure), it stands a chance of not just performing better than Android and iOS, but even introducing new functionality.
The QNX core should, in theory, provide better security and performance than Android. Android developers can port their apps over either as BB10 native code or as converted apk's, and have exposure to two different markets. Yesterday, a game developer demonstrated that they could recompile one of their iOS apps with minimal re-coding and had it running on BB10 in minutes.
I know of at least one Android dev who claims to be getting much better sales with his Playbook app than he got with the original Android app he ported it from.
Yes, I agree. The raw data is only as useful as its interpretation. If the resources aren't out there to conduct that interpretation properly, then it invalidates the whole approach.
This is not to far away from the rape kits that have been stockpiled all over the US because the money isn't there to send them off to the crime lab.
GPS tracking is an outstanding concept. It allows convicts to live out in the world, with the understanding that if they cross certain geographic boundaries, they run the risk of intervention from the law. This can aid rehabilitation, if those boundaries are enforced, and it saves a pantload of money on housing them in jail.
One use I'd like to see: many repeat drunk drivers find ways to get access to vehicles, even with lifetime license bans. Set an alert on such a convict so that if they're travelling over, say, 30 mph, it sends an alert and if there's a patrol nearby, get them to pull the vehicle over and see if the convict is the one behind the wheel. Even if he isn't, it sends the message that he is always running the risk of being caught...
Windows 7 was expected to be a better performer than Vista right out of the gate, and if you paid attention to Microsoft's timeline you'd understand why.
Here's the quick-and-dirty rundown: Windows XP was codenamed "Whistler", for the BC ski mountain, and essentially represented what was meant to be the ultimate development of the NT kernel. The next version was codenamed "Blackcomb" (for another ski mountain neighboring Whistler), and was intended to be a radical shift in the codebase to rely more on the.NET platform. The shift would be huge, and disruptive, since it would require a whole new driver model and would use new technologies for communications and presentation.
It would, in fact, be such a disruptive shift that Microsoft elected to create an "interim" version that would maintain compatibility for the most part. The inside joke here is that the code name for this interim version was taken from a bar located right in between Whistler and Blackcomb, namely the "Longhorn".
The trouble with "Longhorn" (which we all know and love now as Windows Vista) was that the attempt to maintain compatibility--AND improve security--led to some significant performance issues. Windows 7 resolves these issues, and it was always intended to.
As it happens, netbooks have come on the scene, and they'll clearly have an impact for years to come. In many ways, these really are truly "personal" computers, and the technology has finally matured to the point that such machines can be both cheap and genuinely useful. It's just a happy coincidence that MS has been finalizing a leaner, better-performing OS to run on them
...but I'm definitely frustrated to have not one but TWO Barracuda 7200.11 drives fail. The first was DOA, and the RMA'd replacement just failed after only a few weeks.
I've heard rumors that Seagate is returning different drives to customers. Like, larger ones. I'll wait and see.
Re:The topic title is so misleading
on
Barenaked USB Drive
·
· Score: 2, Funny
You know, this technology could be used to distribute porn, too...;)
While I know what you mean, I'm not sure you're being completely fair. As I understand it, MS managers monitored requests for new features in Office, and discovered that an overwhelming majority of the requests were for features that were already there.
The new UI is supposed to make it easier for users to locate features, and it actually looks like it will make the apps more usable.
I think the pro-lifers would call this an essentially semantic evasion. Fertilization is fertilization, no matter where it happens. If you believe that life begins at conception, this would not be a way around it, because a human life is still theoretically being conceived.
There was an article in WIRED a couple of months ago about a biologist who wanted to engineer genetically incomplete humans specifically for the purpose of harvesting stem cells. Essentially, they would be genetically-engineered embryos that would be missing some component vital to further development. I don't remember the doctor's name, but he claimed to be very much "pro-life", but he hoped that this would somehow please both pro-lifers and the scientists who wanted to expand the research and use of stem cells. Personally, I just found the whole prospect deeply creepy.
Interesting, though, that the "moral furore" over in vitro fertilization seems to have been largely dropped.
For your average person, when doing the "right" thing involves spending $12k more for a hybrid vs a Honda with nearly as good fuel efficiency (or a diesel of some sort), then the "right" thing isn't necessarily the "right" decision.
Not a fair comparison. Someone who's looking at 27k isn't in the market for a Rio/Civic, they're looking at something more like an Accord or Camry. And the Prius compares fairly well with these cars in terms of performance, room, and comfort and convenience items. Four people can travel a LOT more comfortably in a Prius than they would in a Rio.
And people who mention the issue of gas/diesel vehicles getting almost as good as hybrids do have a point; it's definitely a step in the right direction. But dissing hybrids as a whole is a bad idea. The "energy-recapture" seen in regen braking can be applied to ANY kind of vehicle, and if it's one that already uses a great technology (say, diesel), hybrid tech will only make it better.
Imagine a Camry-sized diesel hybrid that reliably gets 80 mpg.
I honestly don't think there's any such thing as "too much information" (with the possible exception of the Paris Hilton sex video). In this case, the information is only "bad" if you assume that the only use for it is to find favorable courts for patent cases.
Eventually, the judges will find out (either directly from the database, or because their dockets are severely backed up) that their findings have favored a particular side, and they may choose to adjust their basis for ruling. Or, other factors will come up as a result of this feedback that will help correct the situation.
Software evolves. We've only been using personal computers for a couple of decades now, and the whole concept of UI wasn't really taken seriously for a long time.
To make the argument that MS must maintain a standard interface risks there ever being an improvement.
That said, many of us ARE used to the "classic" interface; if they have to make changes, they better be worthwhile and genuinely functional.
Personally, from what I've seen in demos, I think this is a potentially useful advance. Instead of leaving 100 buttons in your toolbars, the new interface presents a "ribbon" that changes contextually. The benefit? Instead of having menus, toolbars, and taskpanes, the controls are unified in the same area. And because they're contextual, they can be made large enough to be far more understandable than the current model.
I'm going to be trying this out when it's available. I think they MAY be on to something.
As another Office developer, I too am very interested in where the suite is going. I even managed to find a demo online with one of Microsoft's managers walking through features.
Some features didn't require changes to the UI (for instance, you can zoom in and out to view all the pages of a document, or right in to look at a detail; more useful in Excel than you might think). OTOH, I think this new system is actually more unified and intuitive than the "classic" menus/toolbars/task panes we now know and love.
For one thing, they seem to have done a fair job of logically grouping actions, and placing a limit on the number of top-level options. Click the INSERT tab, and the top of the screen presents a variety of things you can insert in your document (they're calling that area the "ribbon", btw). Click FORMAT, and there's all your formatting tools. The ribbon is contextual, yes, but because it doesn't have to present all the buttons all the time (like a toolbar), it can present large enough icons that they can actually be understood!
I think MS is actually presenting something useful. Even--dare I say--original?
"Brushed metal"? Maybe not, but definitely some shading and light effects that give a decided "metal" look (not to mention the glassy-looking buttons--naw, that's not Aqua AT ALL!).
One thing I DO find interesting about the pictures is that the various controls are somewhat larger. Yes, this may be a reflection of the generally larger screens we're using these days, but I also think it's meant to make the entire interface more useful for Tablet PC users.
The failing of any testing methodology is that it may do a fair job of testing factual knowledge, but not PRACTICAL knowledge. This goes for certification testing and a lot of formal education.
That said, I still think certification exams have their place. For the young and inexperienced, they indicate a willingness to develop professionally, and that they have at least SOME knowledge. And even for an older guy like me, I find I learn valuable information in the course of studying. It's certainly cheaper than going back to school for an BSc in Comp Sci.
If I were hiring, I'd NEVER consider certifications in the absence of anything else. I don't just want to know what a candidate knows, I want to know how he (or she) THINKS. This is much trickier to determine, but communication skills count for a lot.
Slashdot Mirror
I believe the portion that is being referred to as the "tax" is the penalty an individual would have to pay if they were found to not be covered. That WOULD be going to the government.
Because a lot of younger, healthier people are now going to be buying in, costs may actually come DOWN.
The federal government has done this for decades. Goes back to Nixon, who got universal adoption of the 55 MPH speed limit from all states--despite highways being a state responsibility--by threatening to withhold federal highway taxes.
I actually agree with your "tail-wags-the-dog" sentiment, especially when Dan Dodge (former head of QNX) is now a senior RIM VP. It isn't a bad thing at all; QNX has a solid business all their own and now it broadens RIM's reach and increases its potential market.
The Palm comparison only works on a superficial level, though. For one thing, RIM is still profitable, with a fair wad of cash in the bank. They actually have time to make this work. Palm MIGHT have made it work with more money, and getting acquired by a company for whom mobile wasn't a core business didn't help them out at all.
There are a few very important areas where the RIM/Palm comparison falls apart: 1) RIM has made a couple of crucial acquisitions with QNX and TAT, essentially buying the most important parts of the OS. 2) Portability is going to be key to BB10's success; the ability to port apps (extremely) easily from iOS and Android means it's very easy for a developer to decide to support the platform. 3) It's a "content" market now, not a "device" market, and RIM has some pretty good partnerships. Their music store is actually very good now, and in some ways I prefer it to iTunes. Music is roughly the same price, and, like Apple, there's no DRM. Palm had no such partnerships.
In the case of RIM (and that is who we're discussing here), they are building absolutely the best HTML infrastructure for their devices. Better-than-desktop standards compatibility and rendering. The browser in the Playbook is among the very best for HTML5 compatibility and rendering, and the browsers in the BB10 prototypes are the VERY best available right now.
Java is basically a resource-sucking abstraction layer. Native code is much more efficient in every way (lower memory footprint, easier execution). That said, HTML5 isn't a bad choice for certain lightweight tasks. An accomplished developer or team can break down the needed functionality of an app and figure out which functions are best executed on which platform. Where BB10 has a chance is in the new UI, which will have all kinds of goodies baked in and written in native code. If it works (and there's still some question, for sure), it stands a chance of not just performing better than Android and iOS, but even introducing new functionality.
The QNX core should, in theory, provide better security and performance than Android. Android developers can port their apps over either as BB10 native code or as converted apk's, and have exposure to two different markets. Yesterday, a game developer demonstrated that they could recompile one of their iOS apps with minimal re-coding and had it running on BB10 in minutes. I know of at least one Android dev who claims to be getting much better sales with his Playbook app than he got with the original Android app he ported it from.
Yes, I agree. The raw data is only as useful as its interpretation. If the resources aren't out there to conduct that interpretation properly, then it invalidates the whole approach.
This is not to far away from the rape kits that have been stockpiled all over the US because the money isn't there to send them off to the crime lab.
GPS tracking is an outstanding concept. It allows convicts to live out in the world, with the understanding that if they cross certain geographic boundaries, they run the risk of intervention from the law. This can aid rehabilitation, if those boundaries are enforced, and it saves a pantload of money on housing them in jail.
One use I'd like to see: many repeat drunk drivers find ways to get access to vehicles, even with lifetime license bans. Set an alert on such a convict so that if they're travelling over, say, 30 mph, it sends an alert and if there's a patrol nearby, get them to pull the vehicle over and see if the convict is the one behind the wheel. Even if he isn't, it sends the message that he is always running the risk of being caught...
Windows 7 was expected to be a better performer than Vista right out of the gate, and if you paid attention to Microsoft's timeline you'd understand why. Here's the quick-and-dirty rundown: Windows XP was codenamed "Whistler", for the BC ski mountain, and essentially represented what was meant to be the ultimate development of the NT kernel. The next version was codenamed "Blackcomb" (for another ski mountain neighboring Whistler), and was intended to be a radical shift in the codebase to rely more on the .NET platform. The shift would be huge, and disruptive, since it would require a whole new driver model and would use new technologies for communications and presentation.
It would, in fact, be such a disruptive shift that Microsoft elected to create an "interim" version that would maintain compatibility for the most part. The inside joke here is that the code name for this interim version was taken from a bar located right in between Whistler and Blackcomb, namely the "Longhorn".
The trouble with "Longhorn" (which we all know and love now as Windows Vista) was that the attempt to maintain compatibility--AND improve security--led to some significant performance issues. Windows 7 resolves these issues, and it was always intended to.
As it happens, netbooks have come on the scene, and they'll clearly have an impact for years to come. In many ways, these really are truly "personal" computers, and the technology has finally matured to the point that such machines can be both cheap and genuinely useful. It's just a happy coincidence that MS has been finalizing a leaner, better-performing OS to run on them
...but I'm definitely frustrated to have not one but TWO Barracuda 7200.11 drives fail. The first was DOA, and the RMA'd replacement just failed after only a few weeks. I've heard rumors that Seagate is returning different drives to customers. Like, larger ones. I'll wait and see.
You know, this technology could be used to distribute porn, too... ;)
While I know what you mean, I'm not sure you're being completely fair. As I understand it, MS managers monitored requests for new features in Office, and discovered that an overwhelming majority of the requests were for features that were already there.
The new UI is supposed to make it easier for users to locate features, and it actually looks like it will make the apps more usable.
I think the pro-lifers would call this an essentially semantic evasion. Fertilization is fertilization, no matter where it happens. If you believe that life begins at conception, this would not be a way around it, because a human life is still theoretically being conceived.
There was an article in WIRED a couple of months ago about a biologist who wanted to engineer genetically incomplete humans specifically for the purpose of harvesting stem cells. Essentially, they would be genetically-engineered embryos that would be missing some component vital to further development. I don't remember the doctor's name, but he claimed to be very much "pro-life", but he hoped that this would somehow please both pro-lifers and the scientists who wanted to expand the research and use of stem cells. Personally, I just found the whole prospect deeply creepy.
Interesting, though, that the "moral furore" over in vitro fertilization seems to have been largely dropped.
Not a fair comparison. Someone who's looking at 27k isn't in the market for a Rio/Civic, they're looking at something more like an Accord or Camry. And the Prius compares fairly well with these cars in terms of performance, room, and comfort and convenience items. Four people can travel a LOT more comfortably in a Prius than they would in a Rio.
And people who mention the issue of gas/diesel vehicles getting almost as good as hybrids do have a point; it's definitely a step in the right direction. But dissing hybrids as a whole is a bad idea. The "energy-recapture" seen in regen braking can be applied to ANY kind of vehicle, and if it's one that already uses a great technology (say, diesel), hybrid tech will only make it better.
Imagine a Camry-sized diesel hybrid that reliably gets 80 mpg.
I honestly don't think there's any such thing as "too much information" (with the possible exception of the Paris Hilton sex video). In this case, the information is only "bad" if you assume that the only use for it is to find favorable courts for patent cases.
Eventually, the judges will find out (either directly from the database, or because their dockets are severely backed up) that their findings have favored a particular side, and they may choose to adjust their basis for ruling. Or, other factors will come up as a result of this feedback that will help correct the situation.
Software evolves. We've only been using personal computers for a couple of decades now, and the whole concept of UI wasn't really taken seriously for a long time.
To make the argument that MS must maintain a standard interface risks there ever being an improvement.
That said, many of us ARE used to the "classic" interface; if they have to make changes, they better be worthwhile and genuinely functional.
Personally, from what I've seen in demos, I think this is a potentially useful advance. Instead of leaving 100 buttons in your toolbars, the new interface presents a "ribbon" that changes contextually. The benefit? Instead of having menus, toolbars, and taskpanes, the controls are unified in the same area. And because they're contextual, they can be made large enough to be far more understandable than the current model.
I'm going to be trying this out when it's available. I think they MAY be on to something.
As another Office developer, I too am very interested in where the suite is going. I even managed to find a demo online with one of Microsoft's managers walking through features. Some features didn't require changes to the UI (for instance, you can zoom in and out to view all the pages of a document, or right in to look at a detail; more useful in Excel than you might think). OTOH, I think this new system is actually more unified and intuitive than the "classic" menus/toolbars/task panes we now know and love. For one thing, they seem to have done a fair job of logically grouping actions, and placing a limit on the number of top-level options. Click the INSERT tab, and the top of the screen presents a variety of things you can insert in your document (they're calling that area the "ribbon", btw). Click FORMAT, and there's all your formatting tools. The ribbon is contextual, yes, but because it doesn't have to present all the buttons all the time (like a toolbar), it can present large enough icons that they can actually be understood! I think MS is actually presenting something useful. Even--dare I say--original?
"Brushed metal"? Maybe not, but definitely some shading and light effects that give a decided "metal" look (not to mention the glassy-looking buttons--naw, that's not Aqua AT ALL!). One thing I DO find interesting about the pictures is that the various controls are somewhat larger. Yes, this may be a reflection of the generally larger screens we're using these days, but I also think it's meant to make the entire interface more useful for Tablet PC users.
Thank you VERY much. After 10 minutes the graphics were STILL loading from the original page!
Not on a fresh install you didn't. On an UPGRADE, maybe...
Why do I get the feeling you've lived through a bad migration or two. Or is "bad migration" redundant?
LOL
The failing of any testing methodology is that it may do a fair job of testing factual knowledge, but not PRACTICAL knowledge. This goes for certification testing and a lot of formal education. That said, I still think certification exams have their place. For the young and inexperienced, they indicate a willingness to develop professionally, and that they have at least SOME knowledge. And even for an older guy like me, I find I learn valuable information in the course of studying. It's certainly cheaper than going back to school for an BSc in Comp Sci. If I were hiring, I'd NEVER consider certifications in the absence of anything else. I don't just want to know what a candidate knows, I want to know how he (or she) THINKS. This is much trickier to determine, but communication skills count for a lot.