the reason why "99% of end-users couldn't care less" is because they do not comprehend the implications involved with such "personalization" and retention of data. i'd be willing to wager that most of that "clueless majority", if properly educated on the issue in a way they can understand, would be shocked and outraged when they learn the real truth.
this is a good move for yahoo, and for the users; and hopefully yahoo still has enough clout to start a trend away from wholesale collection of user data.
was google PAYING sun for (the commercially licensed) staroffice? perhaps this is just the first step in replacing staroffice with (the free) openoffice to eliminate that (unnecessary) expense.
note that staroffice 8 is also over three years old (derived from openoffice 2.0), compared to openoffice 3, which was recently released... google could simply be moving to openoffice to stay more current with the software.
but i wouldn't put it past 'em to be removing it completely in order to drive users to their (less capable) web applications; as the article suggests. if they do not actually replace staroffice with another offline equivalent (e.g. openoffice), though, there may be some user backlash.
the majority of ms office users could easily get by with either openoffice or abiword/gnumeric. basic typed documents and simple spreadsheets are the most common types of documents and many users simply do not do anything more "involved" than that, ever, with ms office.
the only reason we have ms office (or windows, for that matter) in our office is because we support users and companies that buy them, and the most common reason they give us as to why they did is simply "because everybody else has them", NOT because they NEEDED them.
we promote and support open source solutions wherever possible. we live and work in a poor, rural part of the US and not everybody has money to burn on things they don't truly NEED. saving a couple hundred bucks or more by skipping ms office and maybe windows, too, is one way a lot of people can save some cash (so they can afford other things like food, electricity and fuel; which are all steadily rising in cost).
so what if the open source product is missing feature XYZ; how many people actually use feature XYZ and is it really crucial to have in the first place? is it worth spending $$$ just to have it? is there another open source product that'll work better? or can you simply do what you need to do a different way and save the money? the beauty of open source projects is that if people do want and need feature XYZ, it stands a chance of being added.. or if you're so inclined, you can add it yourself. how often do big, greedy corporations actually listen to their consumers instead of the ka-ching their money makes when they blindly hand it over?
of course, the only reason the feds caved-in at all is because they obtained the information they were after via some other means and no longer needed archive.org's "cooperation".
Wind is great, but it does not blow 100% of the time given this town's strategic geographic location; wedged between southeastern nebraska and southwestern iowa... and the fact that iowa sucks and nebraska blows... they needn't worry about the wind dying down.
it is friggin' windy there in northwest mo; just like west texas... only greener, cooler, and with less trash on the sides of roads.
you wanna voluntarily give your phone number to a company in an industry known for rather aggressive telemarketing practices? (you know that they'd have some fine print somewhere that says you OK them calling.. even to your cell phone)
A good firmware won't help you in any way if you are limited by the specs of your camera. or if the camera is limited by the 'specs' of the person wielding it. P&S digital camera owners, for the most part, are among the WORST photographers ever!
and the thrashing the gNewSense name is getting here (deservedly so! ugh.. i thought microsoft had the lock on the nuisance operating system and the patents to back it up) will speedup the aforementioned merge as well as the assumption of the gobuntu name for the combined project.
imagine being able to call your _______ (politician, boss, ex; fill in the blank) and finally be able to truly express how you feel about them, where mere words just won't do.
of the dozen or so pc's laying around here (ranging from celeron 500 to athlon x2 and a p4 3.2), the longest one takes to show something on an already-powered-on (like in the video) flat panel monitor is less than 5 seconds.
granted, i haven't had a mac since the mac plus was all the rage, but even it didn't take that long just to put something on the screen -- and that had a crt to warm-up.
Instead, Look at Zimbra. Start with OSS, go sponsored if you need it, and the company can pay for it. Plus no IBM or Microsoft hanging over your head. that is.. until microsoft forcibly takes over yahoo (who owns zimbra).
is the money-grubbin' big business bastards that started this whole forced-obsolescence game in the first place. it's a friggin conspiracy between microsoft, intel, hp, dell and other major players.
not only that, but the ipod and every other mp3 player plays COPIES of music, not the original CD.. the very device that drives legal sales of digital music can be illegally used to play copies of CD's. oh, my..
next, they'll argue that SPEAKERS connected to an audio device constitutes DISTRIBUTION and/or public performance (even in your home) if someone other than the actual owner of the CD is listening. want to use a headphone splitter so you and your partner can listen to the same music next time you fly? forget it.. that'd be illegal "distribution".
and then you've got all the other backup services (on or offline), online "file folders" and ftp servers, that can be used to hold COPIES of music; and lets not forget about backup software, from windows to veritas to cobain and everything in between.. hell, lets just shut down the whole of the interweb since it can be used to "distribute" music illegally.
As a record store owner, My business faces ruin. CD sales have dropped through the floor. People aren't buying half as many CDs as they did just a year ago......... I don't sell sick stuff like Marilyn Manson or cop-killer rap, and I'm proud to have one of the most extensive Christian rock sections that I know of. so.. you're saying that even the bible thumpin' crowd is pirating music and driving you out of business?... for shame!
have you tried putting a sign in the window saying "music piracy is a sin. buy from us and save your ticket to heaven." ?
if the major isp's that oppose net neutrality don't bother to show up for a hearing on the issue put on by their government regulatory agency, then they should LOSE by default and net neutrality should be mandated.
So if there is a federal law prohibiting Internet access taxing, why do so many states actually have the tax? I know for a fact that at least Texas has a tax on it.
They're grandfathered in.. i.e. they were all specifically charging tax in internet access before the first federal prohibition on such taxes. It was a compromise added to the original internet access tax prohibition legislation in order to get the support and votes from lawmakers in those affected states.
dell has over a dozen models that are available with windows xp. add those to their linux desktop offerings, and the "non vista" models likely outnumber the vista ones... and then there's dfo which is well-stocked with xp systems too.
It makes good business sense for the PC manufacturers.
No, "downgrade rights" make good business sense for MICROSOFT... don't forget, downgrade rights requires the more expensive licenses for Vista. Microsoft still gets their money for Vista when you downgrade, and can chalk up another sale (of Vista) for their marketing boys to spin.
If you WANT (or need) XP (or earlier) and not Vista, the thing to do is BUY XP in the first place, NOT (the more expensive) Vista to downgrade from. Yes, Microsoft still gets their money (less money, btw) BUT they LOSE the crucial Vista sale. Finding new systems with XP instead of Vista isn't hard.. just stay away from the mass-market retail B&M outlets (Dell Small Business is where we've been going).
Don't forget that some licenses of XP Pro (DSP/OEM, some types of volume licensing) still have their own downgrade rights to previous versions (to 98se, NT4 Workstation or 2000 Pro).
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the reason why "99% of end-users couldn't care less" is because they do not comprehend the implications involved with such "personalization" and retention of data. i'd be willing to wager that most of that "clueless majority", if properly educated on the issue in a way they can understand, would be shocked and outraged when they learn the real truth.
this is a good move for yahoo, and for the users; and hopefully yahoo still has enough clout to start a trend away from wholesale collection of user data.
was google PAYING sun for (the commercially licensed) staroffice? perhaps this is just the first step in replacing staroffice with (the free) openoffice to eliminate that (unnecessary) expense.
note that staroffice 8 is also over three years old (derived from openoffice 2.0), compared to openoffice 3, which was recently released... google could simply be moving to openoffice to stay more current with the software.
but i wouldn't put it past 'em to be removing it completely in order to drive users to their (less capable) web applications; as the article suggests. if they do not actually replace staroffice with another offline equivalent (e.g. openoffice), though, there may be some user backlash.
Overall downloads of Devils0wn WinXP Pro Corporate the day it came out
dallas isn't the first with this idea..nor will they be the last, so long as the technology remains unregulated...
2004 in spring, texas:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/technology/17tag.html?ei=5006&en=edeb6cd5169d554b&ex=1101272400&partner=ALTAVISTA1&pagewanted=
alt summary for nyt article: http://www.rfidupdate.com/articles/index.php?id=652
2005 in brittan, california:
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2005/02/66554
later dropped in brittan:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/16/2341200&from=rss
and just so our good friends over there on the camera-happy isles don't feel left out, here's a test program at an edenthorpe, england school last year:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/06/2223218&from=rss
...has learned that lesson twice... TWICE? once should have been more than enough.and what happens when it DOES become a STATE issue?
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9940361-7.html
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/RIAA-Pursues-StateLevel-AntiPiracy-Bills-94284
and most of them sit there unused...
the majority of ms office users could easily get by with either openoffice or abiword/gnumeric. basic typed documents and simple spreadsheets are the most common types of documents and many users simply do not do anything more "involved" than that, ever, with ms office.
the only reason we have ms office (or windows, for that matter) in our office is because we support users and companies that buy them, and the most common reason they give us as to why they did is simply "because everybody else has them", NOT because they NEEDED them.
we promote and support open source solutions wherever possible. we live and work in a poor, rural part of the US and not everybody has money to burn on things they don't truly NEED. saving a couple hundred bucks or more by skipping ms office and maybe windows, too, is one way a lot of people can save some cash (so they can afford other things like food, electricity and fuel; which are all steadily rising in cost).
so what if the open source product is missing feature XYZ; how many people actually use feature XYZ and is it really crucial to have in the first place? is it worth spending $$$ just to have it? is there another open source product that'll work better? or can you simply do what you need to do a different way and save the money? the beauty of open source projects is that if people do want and need feature XYZ, it stands a chance of being added.. or if you're so inclined, you can add it yourself. how often do big, greedy corporations actually listen to their consumers instead of the ka-ching their money makes when they blindly hand it over?
today, the zune...
tomorrow**, windows 7.
** well.. give or take years or so
of course, the only reason the feds caved-in at all is because they obtained the information they were after via some other means and no longer needed archive.org's "cooperation".
wedged between southeastern nebraska and southwestern iowa...
and the fact that iowa sucks and nebraska blows...
they needn't worry about the wind dying down.
it is friggin' windy there in northwest mo; just like west texas... only greener, cooler, and with less trash on the sides of roads.
you wanna voluntarily give your phone number to a company in an industry known for rather aggressive telemarketing practices? (you know that they'd have some fine print somewhere that says you OK them calling.. even to your cell phone)
works for me.. but nobody would pay if that were the case...
and the thrashing the gNewSense name is getting here (deservedly so! ugh.. i thought microsoft had the lock on the nuisance operating system and the patents to back it up) will speedup the aforementioned merge as well as the assumption of the gobuntu name for the combined project.
it can actually capture and transmit any scent.
imagine being able to call your _______ (politician, boss, ex; fill in the blank) and finally be able to truly express how you feel about them, where mere words just won't do.
i noticed that too..
of the dozen or so pc's laying around here (ranging from celeron 500 to athlon x2 and a p4 3.2), the longest one takes to show something on an already-powered-on (like in the video) flat panel monitor is less than 5 seconds.
granted, i haven't had a mac since the mac plus was all the rage, but even it didn't take that long just to put something on the screen -- and that had a crt to warm-up.
is the money-grubbin' big business bastards that started this whole forced-obsolescence game in the first place. it's a friggin conspiracy between microsoft, intel, hp, dell and other major players.
not only that, but the ipod and every other mp3 player plays COPIES of music, not the original CD.. the very device that drives legal sales of digital music can be illegally used to play copies of CD's. oh, my..
next, they'll argue that SPEAKERS connected to an audio device constitutes DISTRIBUTION and/or public performance (even in your home) if someone other than the actual owner of the CD is listening. want to use a headphone splitter so you and your partner can listen to the same music next time you fly? forget it.. that'd be illegal "distribution".
and then you've got all the other backup services (on or offline), online "file folders" and ftp servers, that can be used to hold COPIES of music; and lets not forget about backup software, from windows to veritas to cobain and everything in between.. hell, lets just shut down the whole of the interweb since it can be used to "distribute" music illegally.
have you tried putting a sign in the window saying "music piracy is a sin. buy from us and save your ticket to heaven." ?
if the major isp's that oppose net neutrality don't bother to show up for a hearing on the issue put on by their government regulatory agency, then they should LOSE by default and net neutrality should be mandated.
They're grandfathered in.. i.e. they were all specifically charging tax in internet access before the first federal prohibition on such taxes. It was a compromise added to the original internet access tax prohibition legislation in order to get the support and votes from lawmakers in those affected states.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_taxes#Internet_access_tax lists the ten states that grandfathered-in and allowed to collect tax on internet access.
dell has over a dozen models that are available with windows xp. add those to their linux desktop offerings, and the "non vista" models likely outnumber the vista ones... and then there's dfo which is well-stocked with xp systems too.
it wouldn't be their first fukked-up decision though, would it?
No, "downgrade rights" make good business sense for MICROSOFT... don't forget, downgrade rights requires the more expensive licenses for Vista. Microsoft still gets their money for Vista when you downgrade, and can chalk up another sale (of Vista) for their marketing boys to spin.
If you WANT (or need) XP (or earlier) and not Vista, the thing to do is BUY XP in the first place, NOT (the more expensive) Vista to downgrade from. Yes, Microsoft still gets their money (less money, btw) BUT they LOSE the crucial Vista sale. Finding new systems with XP instead of Vista isn't hard.. just stay away from the mass-market retail B&M outlets (Dell Small Business is where we've been going).
Don't forget that some licenses of XP Pro (DSP/OEM, some types of volume licensing) still have their own downgrade rights to previous versions (to 98se, NT4 Workstation or 2000 Pro).