I was angling for 'insightful' with a side of 'funny', yeah.
Yes, I know IRC is ancient. The summary acts like communication with experts over the internet is something completely new, so I did, too.
I've used IRC for fun (and pron, I admit it) but never yet had to resort to it for technical information. If wikipedia is shakey about information, IRC is downright scary. I expect the same thing from this new 'tech chat' but with many more know-it-alls to clog up the works. If you want an example, read a few experts-exchange posts and their answers. You'll find a bunch of people that THINK they have some idea what they are talking about, didn't read the questions correctly, and replied with an answer that not only didn't answer the question, but was wrong. And you'll find a couple little gems that ARE right. If you find 2 in the same thread that are right, you've hit pay dirt.
The thought of weeding through these answers in real time makes my head spin. People will be jumping all over each other because they think they are right, quite often obscuring or 'refuting' the right answer.
My friend Tito tells me this is called 'IRC'. It's a quaint little service where people of all kinds of tech knowledge get together and 'chat' about things. If you're not a jerk, and you go to the right room, you can get on and ask about just about anything and get an answer.
I haven't used it personally. I can usually find more, and more precise information using Google, but it's helped Tito tremendously in the past when he was stuck on a systems issue.
I'm not sure labelling a chat 'tech support' will work any better, and I've a feeling it'll be worse. It'll draw the know-it-alls like flies, for instance. (These are people that have an answer for every question, whether or not they truly know what they are doing. Some do it for attention, some do it because they 'feel the need to return the help they got.' They're just a nuisance.)
I haven't seen Gigli (and I think I'm glad), so I can't compare the 2.
But Elephant's Dream does lack of a lot of the things that make a movie successful. You know, plot, good voice acting, good dialog... that stuff. the only things it DOES have going for it are pretty good CG and a neat idea. Oh, and it's free.
I've installed that on my desktop machine and managed to mount my ntfs drive (for dual boot) and read files. I didn't try to write anything yet, though. It seems to work fine.
So Dell and Apple grow 1% slower than previously expected and suddenly the entire market is on the 'decline'? Let's put it back in perspective.
When they first started selling TVs, nobody had one, obviously. But very few could afford them, so they didn't sell many. Then they got cheaper, and more sold. And cheaper, and more, etc etc etc. Until everyone owned a TV. Oh no, people aren't buying as many TVs now. It's not because they are any less popular, or something replaced them. They are simply so common that there isn't a market for people that don't have one. There is only a market for replacements.
This is the market PCs are enterring. My mother and father each have a PC. They can barely use them, but find them essential. My younger sister has a laptop and a PC. I have a PC, a server-pc, a pc that doesn't even get turned on, an old 733mhz pc that's in the closet, a 500mhz laptop and a 133mhz laptop. Everyone I know has a PC. Or 6.
PCs are still in a growing market, as the 5.7% figure in the summary states. It simply isn't growing as fast. The real slump will hit when everyone has all the PCs they 'need' and are only buying replacements.
Actually, in that situation, I wouldn't have been punished. It happened quick enough that I didn't 'plan' anything, but it simply looked like I kicked the foot of someone while they were trying to trip me. I had a few seconds warning and so I was prepared for the trip, but I doubt any teacher would have been paying enough attention to notice.
As for 'exerting supremecy' with my 'smartness'... How would I do that, without resorting to violence? Name calling doesn't really affect them much. And there are very, very few social situations where knowledge will help you come out on top when everyone else is against you. Quick wits, yes, but not knowledge or logic.
You said 'justice' is impossible, but I think you mean 'equality.' Of course equality is not possible. Not at school, not at work, not on the street. Everyone is different. Equal rights, that's available in theory but it rarely works out that way.
Also, don't assume religion is the result of stupidity. It's not. It's the result of the very human desire to believe in something. But we could have a dark age that's fueled by many other things than religion. Political desires, for instance.
All of this actually helps prove my point, though. Online virtual schooling will remove some of the barriers preventing 'equality' in school, and it can be done without sacrificing the social interaction the detractors so strongly voice the need for.
And yes, Oblivion borders on FPS-hood. Only its intricate plot, numerous side-quests, and flexible weapons, armor and magic systems push it over into RPG-land. (I'm an Oblivion fan, but this is still true.)
No, that's wrong. They have the chance to ammend. There is no restriction about 'manual editting'.
FTA:
Fogel specifically dismissed some of the claims against Google "with leave to amend," meaning that KinderStart can modify and refile the complaint.
-snip-
"The decision suggests that, if properly alleged, Google may be defaming a whole class of Web sites sacked with a '0' PageRank," he wrote in a statement. "If plaintiffs show Google manually tampered with even a single Web site's PageRank, Google's entire claim of 'objectivity' of search results and rankings could collapse."
This only says that Google's defense may fail if the defendent can (this time) prove that Google manually modified anything. They couldn't prove it the first time, so I fail to see how they could with a second chance.
They'll have radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and are meant to cut down on human error of immigration officials, speed the processing of visitors and safeguard against counterfeit passports.
Sounds to me like it's an additional way to verify the identity, not a replacement. Assuming they use encryption/etc, it should be a lot harder to fake a passport.
Nothing will stop a determined counterfeiter, I'm sure, but the newbies won't be able to handle this.
Being smart IS rewarded. That's part of the problem.
Everyone saw how easily I floated through school. It was quite obvious that I did all my homework in-class before the bell and had nothing to take home. It was obvious that I went to 'Gifted' 1 day a week because my IQ was high enough (learned that years later) and I could obvious handle in 4 days what others couldn't handle in 5. The teachers that noticed this helped this along. My 3rd grade teacher made me write stories with my spelling words. And when it become clear that it was too easy, she made me read the stories to the class. I was the -only- one doing this. Next year, everyone had to do it, but by then, I was challenging myself by using the words in the order they were given to me. (I think I failed at that 1 time.)
My reward? Knowledge came extremely easy and I didn't 'work' as hard as everyone else.
The obvious response was that every other kid hated me. I was teased, tripped (fixed that later) and called names. (I fixed the tripping issue by kicking someone's foot as hard as a could, at a run, when they tried to trip me. Didn't happen again for years.)
So don't assume that rewarding aberrant behavior is the way to make others copy it. They must find out for themselves that such behavior is desirable.
Maybe the problem is that I envision these online classrooms differently. Without streaming audio (and probably video) they would be the problems everyone states.
But it is relatively easy these days to use that. I talk to friends in Norway and the UK (I'm in the US) all the time. We play online games, including the ones without built-in support, as if we are right there.
Without the instant communication, this is bound to fail.
However, this is meant fo K-8. Kindergarteners cannot read, for the most part. They will definitely need help getting on the computer to start with, but constant help through the school day as well. This will require some effort on the parents' parts, but the teacher needs to be 'there' too. Only with video can that be done remotely.
I think this idea is an eventual certainty. We may have to get a little more used to the availability of video communication first, and this project may not succeed, but I think it will happen. (In fact, it may require a tech advance in VR.)
For the Teacher's Union to oppose this is like a cow opposing a new steak restaurant. Of COURSE they don't want it. The reasons given will probably not be the real reasons, either.
Quite simply, this means fewer teachers and probably lower pay for teachers as well.
And since when do teachers have responsibility for our children? Oh, that's right, it used to be that way and recently we've taken away all their power. They can't discipline children, they can't even give them a good stern talking to without a parent claiming they are singling out their child. And now they think they have the right to dictate WHERE children are taught? Yeah, right.
If a parent wants to send their child to a virtual school, LET THEM. It's FAR better than home schooling. There WILL be interactions with other people, just not interactions as people born in the 50s require. My best friends are on the internet, not local. (I'm 29.) You CAN learn to work with others at a distance. You CAN learn to appreciate that others have feelings. In fact, with the internet being what it is, I find it vital that they DO learn that skill. Many people today hide behind the internet and use it to 'grief' people, inside games and outside.
This type of school will require a different teaching style, of course. There will have to be more emphasis on group projects and individual accountability within groups. I have seen very little of that in public schools, and not much more in college, despite the 'group project' class we had for programming.
And this isn't saying there won't be field trips and occasional group physical projects. There just won't be an official classroom to have to go to every day.
Also, let's not forget the time savings. Riding the bus to school is an hour trip. Another hour getting home. That's 2 more hours for studying, socializing, or relaxing, depending on how the teacher deals with it. I think you might find that 2 hours is a LOT of extra time to get things done.
This goes WAY beyond 'we're not forcing them to socialize'. This could be a very very useful method of teaching children.
Last, as noted in other posts, some schools have severe problems with violence. Those same students will still be disruptive, but when they can be contained with a click of a button and prevent disruption of the class, without taking away their option to learn (1-way communication, instead of group conference for that student) then most of their motivation is gone. Class clowns won't have a reason to pull that for more than a few seconds.
It costs a LOT more to make a song than take a picture of a nude girl. (Or guy, if that's your thing. Or a whole group. Whatever.) Some of the crazy twits will even let you do it for free. Set up a cheapo website, get some way to take money and you're set. There's no need for expensive artists, studios, managerial overhead, etc, etc. It can be done dirt cheap and still get quality goods that people love. (That's not to say it always is cheap, just that it can be.) Cheap songs suck. There's a lot of futzing needed to produce a good song.
I'm not saying the music industry couldn't do it a LOT cheaper than they do, but they couldn't get it down to the cost of producing porn.
And not all porn producers let their goods be stolen. Quite a few can and do sue anyone who redistributes their work, if they catch them. They just don't try nearly as hard as the RIAA does because they know the cost outweighs the benefit, most times. Unfortunately for us, the RIAA's cost doesn't.
On the note of allofmp3.com, I haven't bought music for almost 10 years. The last album was 'First band on the moon' by the Cardigans. That ENTIRE CD, including the song I loved so much on the radio, sucked so badly I swore I'd never buy a cd again. I've spent about $15 on allofmp3.com now, and I plan to spend quite a bit more. They could triple their rates and I'd still buy from them. Getting what I want, when I want it... That's the key. The preview function to make sure I'm not getting a dud is also quite handy.
Hellgate is meant to be a hack, slash and shoot kind of game. One of its main objectives is to deliver non-stop fast paced action and for that, having enemies throwing themselves onto your sword is the most satisfying kind of gameplay one could wish for.
Unfortunately, it also notes that to hack n slash, you will probably be required to use third person mode, and of course, shooting pretty much requires first person.
To me, it sounds like the tried to mix genres (and I like the idea) but they didn't quite get it right. We won't know for sure until after release, of course.
The position of the animals in the maze is detected using colour-tracking via a camera, and linked to the ghosts in the game.
The 'virtual ghost' is not controlled directly by the bugs' brains any more than my computer is controlled by my brain. There are other physical interfaces present. This story was made up to be sensational and actually provides no news at all, other than some bored kid with a webcam and several tortured bugs.
Admission: I'm a control freak. Linux lets me control anything and everything, if I want to spend the time. Having said that...
I find Linux/KDE to be a better environment now. It has everything I want in a desktop except some games and is at least as stable as Windows. (A claim I didn't used to make... bad experiences in the past.)
I do indeed use VMWare now to run Windows inside X to do what it will handle, but the cpu/gpu power isn't there for the games, unfortunately.
And there's always remote desktop, if I want to remote in to a windows machine... That seems to work fairly well.
Sorry, a monopoly forces you to use the resource, regardless of how much you'd be willing to sacrifice to use a different vendor.
By your definition, Sony has a monopoly on the console market because nobody else has Final Fantasy X. I HAVE to own a ps2 if I want to play that game. And Nintendo has a monopoly on the SAME MARKET because I have to have a gamecube to play Pikmin.
On the other hand, as stated before, to buy a computer (for non-techs) you have to pay the windows tax. That is why MS has a monopoly.
The fact that there's SO much software that only runs on Windows helps them maintain their monopoly, but it is not the reason that it IS a monopoly.
The reason I really tried linux was because I basically had to at work. The reason I switched at home was because there is no yakuake-like app on windows. (And not any decent consoles that I can find, actually.) After getting used to it with Slackware, Kubuntu came out and made it quite a bit easier to deal with. K3b is now my favorite burning app (instead of alcohol 120) and many other apps are just as good as the Windows counterparts. So I formatted and have a dual boot now that hardly ever sees Windows.
The attitude towards Linux as a desktop is changing, and more and more apps will work on Linux in the near future, but Microsoft will still have a monopoly.
* 95% of my linux software doesn't work on Windows. And that software is WHY I switched, not out of some altruistic nonsense.
* Games are the only reason I still own windows. There ARE games that linux-only, and quite a few good ones that run on both, though.
* Bzzzt. Wrong. I've got a LOT of high-end hardware and most of it just magically works now. Try upgrading your kernel.
* VERY few websites don't work anymore. My bank (Wachovia) switched quite a while back and has worked perfectly on Firefox (linux and windows) for quite a while. It's only flash 8 sites that reject me now, and most of those are crap I don't want to deal with anyhow.
* They do what? My family wouldn't be able to 'create an executable' if I was sitting there with them. No matter what program they used.
* Even non-free operating systems have this problem.
* Wow, yeah, this point really failed and you even pointed it out.
So, besides the fact that none of these is the reason Windows is a monopoly (which has already been pointed out) none of them is specific to Windows, either.
If I was in his position (with his knowledge set) and that happened, I'd have said the same thing. Now, you and I KNOW that firefox 'can't' cause that to happen. But I've seen too many things that 'can't' happen, happen. Especially if uninstalling firefox fixed his problem, and you didn't offer another fix instead.
No, it doesn't work like that. If you post something online you may think you have some 'privacy rights' but you actually don't. And even if you DID have those rights, and if you mark it private and everything goes well, you're okay. But if a script-kiddie or a search engine gets ahold of your stuff, you're toast. Heaven forbid a government agency need a look at it. You've got about the same amount of privacy that you have in a bar. Most people aren't going to snoop your conversation, but you definitely can't count on it.
Slashdot Mirror
The communication component is the same basic idea as RFID, probably just lower power.
Nope, it's always been all those. Remove any 1 of them and AJAX doesn't exist.
I was angling for 'insightful' with a side of 'funny', yeah.
Yes, I know IRC is ancient. The summary acts like communication with experts over the internet is something completely new, so I did, too.
I've used IRC for fun (and pron, I admit it) but never yet had to resort to it for technical information. If wikipedia is shakey about information, IRC is downright scary. I expect the same thing from this new 'tech chat' but with many more know-it-alls to clog up the works. If you want an example, read a few experts-exchange posts and their answers. You'll find a bunch of people that THINK they have some idea what they are talking about, didn't read the questions correctly, and replied with an answer that not only didn't answer the question, but was wrong. And you'll find a couple little gems that ARE right. If you find 2 in the same thread that are right, you've hit pay dirt.
The thought of weeding through these answers in real time makes my head spin. People will be jumping all over each other because they think they are right, quite often obscuring or 'refuting' the right answer.
No thanks.
My friend Tito tells me this is called 'IRC'. It's a quaint little service where people of all kinds of tech knowledge get together and 'chat' about things. If you're not a jerk, and you go to the right room, you can get on and ask about just about anything and get an answer.
I haven't used it personally. I can usually find more, and more precise information using Google, but it's helped Tito tremendously in the past when he was stuck on a systems issue.
I'm not sure labelling a chat 'tech support' will work any better, and I've a feeling it'll be worse. It'll draw the know-it-alls like flies, for instance. (These are people that have an answer for every question, whether or not they truly know what they are doing. Some do it for attention, some do it because they 'feel the need to return the help they got.' They're just a nuisance.)
I haven't seen Gigli (and I think I'm glad), so I can't compare the 2.
But Elephant's Dream does lack of a lot of the things that make a movie successful. You know, plot, good voice acting, good dialog... that stuff. the only things it DOES have going for it are pretty good CG and a neat idea. Oh, and it's free.
If you want to install this, you'll need FUSE 2.5. (K|X)Ubuntu only has 2.4, so you'll need to get an update.
- ubuntu-dapper/
http://www.debuntu.org/2006/06/26/71-fuse-253-for
I've installed that on my desktop machine and managed to mount my ntfs drive (for dual boot) and read files. I didn't try to write anything yet, though. It seems to work fine.
Enjoy!
Ah, but it wasn't sentences I had to write. It was stories. There's quite a bit more brainwork goes into making a story than simply a sentence.
So Dell and Apple grow 1% slower than previously expected and suddenly the entire market is on the 'decline'? Let's put it back in perspective.
When they first started selling TVs, nobody had one, obviously. But very few could afford them, so they didn't sell many. Then they got cheaper, and more sold. And cheaper, and more, etc etc etc. Until everyone owned a TV. Oh no, people aren't buying as many TVs now. It's not because they are any less popular, or something replaced them. They are simply so common that there isn't a market for people that don't have one. There is only a market for replacements.
This is the market PCs are enterring. My mother and father each have a PC. They can barely use them, but find them essential. My younger sister has a laptop and a PC. I have a PC, a server-pc, a pc that doesn't even get turned on, an old 733mhz pc that's in the closet, a 500mhz laptop and a 133mhz laptop. Everyone I know has a PC. Or 6.
PCs are still in a growing market, as the 5.7% figure in the summary states. It simply isn't growing as fast. The real slump will hit when everyone has all the PCs they 'need' and are only buying replacements.
Actually, in that situation, I wouldn't have been punished. It happened quick enough that I didn't 'plan' anything, but it simply looked like I kicked the foot of someone while they were trying to trip me. I had a few seconds warning and so I was prepared for the trip, but I doubt any teacher would have been paying enough attention to notice.
... How would I do that, without resorting to violence? Name calling doesn't really affect them much. And there are very, very few social situations where knowledge will help you come out on top when everyone else is against you. Quick wits, yes, but not knowledge or logic.
As for 'exerting supremecy' with my 'smartness'
You said 'justice' is impossible, but I think you mean 'equality.' Of course equality is not possible. Not at school, not at work, not on the street. Everyone is different. Equal rights, that's available in theory but it rarely works out that way.
Also, don't assume religion is the result of stupidity. It's not. It's the result of the very human desire to believe in something. But we could have a dark age that's fueled by many other things than religion. Political desires, for instance.
All of this actually helps prove my point, though. Online virtual schooling will remove some of the barriers preventing 'equality' in school, and it can be done without sacrificing the social interaction the detractors so strongly voice the need for.
You do realize that FPS means First Person Shooter, right?
And yes, System Shock is an FPS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Shock
And yes, Oblivion borders on FPS-hood. Only its intricate plot, numerous side-quests, and flexible weapons, armor and magic systems push it over into RPG-land. (I'm an Oblivion fan, but this is still true.)
FTA:
-snip-
This only says that Google's defense may fail if the defendent can (this time) prove that Google manually modified anything. They couldn't prove it the first time, so I fail to see how they could with a second chance.Sounds to me like it's an additional way to verify the identity, not a replacement. Assuming they use encryption/etc, it should be a lot harder to fake a passport.
Nothing will stop a determined counterfeiter, I'm sure, but the newbies won't be able to handle this.
You'd be amazed what can be done wrong if the government is in charge of it. If teachers make more than minimum wage, it can be reduced.
Don't confuse this with 'should be reduced.' I'm firmly in the 'teachers aren't paid enough and don't have enough power' camp.
Being smart IS rewarded. That's part of the problem.
Everyone saw how easily I floated through school. It was quite obvious that I did all my homework in-class before the bell and had nothing to take home. It was obvious that I went to 'Gifted' 1 day a week because my IQ was high enough (learned that years later) and I could obvious handle in 4 days what others couldn't handle in 5. The teachers that noticed this helped this along. My 3rd grade teacher made me write stories with my spelling words. And when it become clear that it was too easy, she made me read the stories to the class. I was the -only- one doing this. Next year, everyone had to do it, but by then, I was challenging myself by using the words in the order they were given to me. (I think I failed at that 1 time.)
My reward? Knowledge came extremely easy and I didn't 'work' as hard as everyone else.
The obvious response was that every other kid hated me. I was teased, tripped (fixed that later) and called names. (I fixed the tripping issue by kicking someone's foot as hard as a could, at a run, when they tried to trip me. Didn't happen again for years.)
So don't assume that rewarding aberrant behavior is the way to make others copy it. They must find out for themselves that such behavior is desirable.
Maybe the problem is that I envision these online classrooms differently. Without streaming audio (and probably video) they would be the problems everyone states.
But it is relatively easy these days to use that. I talk to friends in Norway and the UK (I'm in the US) all the time. We play online games, including the ones without built-in support, as if we are right there.
Without the instant communication, this is bound to fail.
However, this is meant fo K-8. Kindergarteners cannot read, for the most part. They will definitely need help getting on the computer to start with, but constant help through the school day as well. This will require some effort on the parents' parts, but the teacher needs to be 'there' too. Only with video can that be done remotely.
I think this idea is an eventual certainty. We may have to get a little more used to the availability of video communication first, and this project may not succeed, but I think it will happen. (In fact, it may require a tech advance in VR.)
Disclaimer: I don't like unions.
For the Teacher's Union to oppose this is like a cow opposing a new steak restaurant. Of COURSE they don't want it. The reasons given will probably not be the real reasons, either.
Quite simply, this means fewer teachers and probably lower pay for teachers as well.
And since when do teachers have responsibility for our children? Oh, that's right, it used to be that way and recently we've taken away all their power. They can't discipline children, they can't even give them a good stern talking to without a parent claiming they are singling out their child. And now they think they have the right to dictate WHERE children are taught? Yeah, right.
If a parent wants to send their child to a virtual school, LET THEM. It's FAR better than home schooling. There WILL be interactions with other people, just not interactions as people born in the 50s require. My best friends are on the internet, not local. (I'm 29.) You CAN learn to work with others at a distance. You CAN learn to appreciate that others have feelings. In fact, with the internet being what it is, I find it vital that they DO learn that skill. Many people today hide behind the internet and use it to 'grief' people, inside games and outside.
This type of school will require a different teaching style, of course. There will have to be more emphasis on group projects and individual accountability within groups. I have seen very little of that in public schools, and not much more in college, despite the 'group project' class we had for programming.
And this isn't saying there won't be field trips and occasional group physical projects. There just won't be an official classroom to have to go to every day.
Also, let's not forget the time savings. Riding the bus to school is an hour trip. Another hour getting home. That's 2 more hours for studying, socializing, or relaxing, depending on how the teacher deals with it. I think you might find that 2 hours is a LOT of extra time to get things done.
This goes WAY beyond 'we're not forcing them to socialize'. This could be a very very useful method of teaching children.
Last, as noted in other posts, some schools have severe problems with violence. Those same students will still be disruptive, but when they can be contained with a click of a button and prevent disruption of the class, without taking away their option to learn (1-way communication, instead of group conference for that student) then most of their motivation is gone. Class clowns won't have a reason to pull that for more than a few seconds.
Something to think about.
I wonder if it occurs to them at the same time that if you don't fight well, they could be quite a bit worse off?
Oh man, I can't believe I'm going to say this.
It costs a LOT more to make a song than take a picture of a nude girl. (Or guy, if that's your thing. Or a whole group. Whatever.) Some of the crazy twits will even let you do it for free. Set up a cheapo website, get some way to take money and you're set. There's no need for expensive artists, studios, managerial overhead, etc, etc. It can be done dirt cheap and still get quality goods that people love. (That's not to say it always is cheap, just that it can be.) Cheap songs suck. There's a lot of futzing needed to produce a good song.
I'm not saying the music industry couldn't do it a LOT cheaper than they do, but they couldn't get it down to the cost of producing porn.
And not all porn producers let their goods be stolen. Quite a few can and do sue anyone who redistributes their work, if they catch them. They just don't try nearly as hard as the RIAA does because they know the cost outweighs the benefit, most times. Unfortunately for us, the RIAA's cost doesn't.
On the note of allofmp3.com, I haven't bought music for almost 10 years. The last album was 'First band on the moon' by the Cardigans. That ENTIRE CD, including the song I loved so much on the radio, sucked so badly I swore I'd never buy a cd again. I've spent about $15 on allofmp3.com now, and I plan to spend quite a bit more. They could triple their rates and I'd still buy from them. Getting what I want, when I want it... That's the key. The preview function to make sure I'm not getting a dud is also quite handy.
This preview Says:
Unfortunately, it also notes that to hack n slash, you will probably be required to use third person mode, and of course, shooting pretty much requires first person.
To me, it sounds like the tried to mix genres (and I like the idea) but they didn't quite get it right. We won't know for sure until after release, of course.
The 'virtual ghost' is not controlled directly by the bugs' brains any more than my computer is controlled by my brain. There are other physical interfaces present. This story was made up to be sensational and actually provides no news at all, other than some bored kid with a webcam and several tortured bugs.
Admission: I'm a control freak. Linux lets me control anything and everything, if I want to spend the time. Having said that...
I find Linux/KDE to be a better environment now. It has everything I want in a desktop except some games and is at least as stable as Windows. (A claim I didn't used to make... bad experiences in the past.)
I do indeed use VMWare now to run Windows inside X to do what it will handle, but the cpu/gpu power isn't there for the games, unfortunately.
And there's always remote desktop, if I want to remote in to a windows machine... That seems to work fairly well.
Sorry, a monopoly forces you to use the resource, regardless of how much you'd be willing to sacrifice to use a different vendor.
By your definition, Sony has a monopoly on the console market because nobody else has Final Fantasy X. I HAVE to own a ps2 if I want to play that game. And Nintendo has a monopoly on the SAME MARKET because I have to have a gamecube to play Pikmin.
On the other hand, as stated before, to buy a computer (for non-techs) you have to pay the windows tax. That is why MS has a monopoly.
The fact that there's SO much software that only runs on Windows helps them maintain their monopoly, but it is not the reason that it IS a monopoly.
The reason I really tried linux was because I basically had to at work. The reason I switched at home was because there is no yakuake-like app on windows. (And not any decent consoles that I can find, actually.) After getting used to it with Slackware, Kubuntu came out and made it quite a bit easier to deal with. K3b is now my favorite burning app (instead of alcohol 120) and many other apps are just as good as the Windows counterparts. So I formatted and have a dual boot now that hardly ever sees Windows.
The attitude towards Linux as a desktop is changing, and more and more apps will work on Linux in the near future, but Microsoft will still have a monopoly.
* 95% of my linux software doesn't work on Windows. And that software is WHY I switched, not out of some altruistic nonsense.
* Games are the only reason I still own windows. There ARE games that linux-only, and quite a few good ones that run on both, though.
* Bzzzt. Wrong. I've got a LOT of high-end hardware and most of it just magically works now. Try upgrading your kernel.
* VERY few websites don't work anymore. My bank (Wachovia) switched quite a while back and has worked perfectly on Firefox (linux and windows) for quite a while. It's only flash 8 sites that reject me now, and most of those are crap I don't want to deal with anyhow.
* They do what? My family wouldn't be able to 'create an executable' if I was sitting there with them. No matter what program they used.
* Even non-free operating systems have this problem.
* Wow, yeah, this point really failed and you even pointed it out.
So, besides the fact that none of these is the reason Windows is a monopoly (which has already been pointed out) none of them is specific to Windows, either.
If I was in his position (with his knowledge set) and that happened, I'd have said the same thing. Now, you and I KNOW that firefox 'can't' cause that to happen. But I've seen too many things that 'can't' happen, happen. Especially if uninstalling firefox fixed his problem, and you didn't offer another fix instead.
Hey, I said not to look!
No, it doesn't work like that. If you post something online you may think you have some 'privacy rights' but you actually don't. And even if you DID have those rights, and if you mark it private and everything goes well, you're okay. But if a script-kiddie or a search engine gets ahold of your stuff, you're toast. Heaven forbid a government agency need a look at it. You've got about the same amount of privacy that you have in a bar. Most people aren't going to snoop your conversation, but you definitely can't count on it.