No. If a designer can't code their web design, then they are not a web developer; they should hand their design over to someone who is capable and qualified, rather than make a half-assed attempt in a WYSIWYG tool. After all, if a developer can't design, nobody would suggest that they should be allowed to draw the pictures.
A graphic designer is very unlikely to try to write a desktop application, and this is the problem with the web. People see applications like FrontPage and Dreamweaver, and they think that's all there is to it. You end up with people who call themselves professionals churning out pretty designs that are unusable and inaccessible because they don't understand the first thing about HTML or even designing for the web.
Saying that a designer should use a WYSIWYG editor to implement a design because they don't understand HTML is like saying that a doctor should use Google to diagnose their patients because they don't understand medicine. There's nothing wrong with using a tool to supplement or apply your knowledge, but the knowledge has to be there in the first place.
The problem for clients who want a website is that, unlike patients, they have no easy way to tell the professional developers apart from the cowboys.
He is a judge, and does not need to know about IT. He would probably know what a car was, because I imagine that either he drives one, or is driven in one. He has probably heard of a computer, his secretary probably uses one, he has no doubt heard of the internet and websites, and has probably seen the odd URL or two. However, I wouldn't expect him to understand what they were, and would far rather he admit it than stumble on blindly. Being out of touch with IT just means that he has better or more important things to do than use computers; granted, a foreign concept to most of us on Slashdot, but many people in other industries get by just fine without using anything more complicated than a telephone - that's what secretaries are for.
By asking for an exact definition of a website, it does not preclude his ability as a judge to pass judgement on the case; it merely builds a solid base of understanding (for judge and jury alike) for the expert witness to build upon when they call him later in the week, and demonstrates the sensible and professional attitude of the judge. It is far better to be ruled by men who know their limits, than men who declare that the internet is made of tubes.
I don't think he should step down. As a judge, he is an expert in the law; that is why he is there. I would expect that he has probably seen hundreds of cases where he doesn't understand the terminology - he cannot be expected to be an expert in every subject.
As a judge, he is there to apply his understanding of the law to the case; if he doesn't understand a term that is important to the case, he should be expected to admit it and to find out about it, but not to hand the case over (and cause it to be restarted) every time he hears something that he doesn't understand.
It's like me, a web developer, being asked to make a website about law. I don't understand law, I don't understand the terms, but I am an expert in making websites. I am there to apply my understanding of how to make a website; if I don't understand a legal term that is important to the website, I should be expected to admit it and find out about it, but not to resign every time I hear something that I don't understand.
Sure, this time it may be that he doesn't understand what a website or a forum is - if that was someone in the computing world then yes, they should step down. But this is the whole point of having professionals - acknowledge that there are people who understand more than you, and that you need to go and ask them for help so that you can do your job properly. A lot of people I know in the computing world could learn a valuable lesson from this judge.
I very much doubt that this would be opt-in. It's not going to be a little chip that retailers can glue to the DVD once it gets to the store - it's going to have to be build in as an extra layer when it is manufactured. I very much doubt that DVD manufacturers would go to the extra fuss and expense of running two separate production lines and managing the distribution of chipped and non-chipped DVDs. If this technology is adopted, it will be adopted across the board.
Well, if the number of times I've set off store alarms is anything to go by (after buying something and the monkey at the till forgetting to deactive the security tag), then I'd expect a lot of people to get home and find their shiny new DVD doesn't actually work, and they have to take it back. I dread to think of the nightmare that would be for online retailers.
Just get a standalone DVD player - it'll be better than a console anyway. No waiting for it to turn on, no 'I want to watch a DVD' or 'No, I said pause the damned thing' menus, just put the DVD in and it'll start to play. It's not like they're expensive - you can get them here for under £20, and I remember hearing the same about the US. You can't blame space requirements either - the Wii is about the size of a PC CD drive.
I'm in the same position as the parent AC - sent word and publisher files that I couldn't open. I also experienced some crashes, but it was the little bugs that annoyed me, like the delay accessing the clipboard when you've loaded it from OpenOffice, or the rendering issues when your page was more complicated than half a paragraph.
You're right, publisher files are completely unreasonable, especially when they're just used to enter four paragraphs of text (grr!) - but if that's what my semi-computer-illiterate clients are using, it saves a whole bunch of "Please convert it to a PDF"; "What's a PDF?" conversations. I'm a programmer, I don't want to spend my days supporting and teaching clients how to use their computers.
I agree that the compatibility problems exist between MS office versions, but that's not such an issue for me - I've got Office 2007 now, so I can open their files no matter the version they're using. Most of the time I don't have to edit and send it back to them, but if I ever do and something goes wrong, it will make a refreshing change to be able to blame them for using an outdated version of Office:)
Fair enough, can't comment on how well stock lasts when it does arrive - I took an early lunch and got to the counter just as they went on sale. Perhaps I'm one of the lucky ones - makes a change!
Ahh, maybe I was just lucky then, although this store is a fair-sized national retail chain, and they were operating a 'first come first served' rule too. They couldn't tell me definitely when they'd be receiving a shipment, so they took my details to let me know one was in. I can't see why a store wouldn't do that - it just makes good business sense to tell customers that they can come and buy stuff from you. Maybe they'll buy other stuff when they're there, even if you've sold out.
I still had to get there while they had stock, but from what he said it sounded like they had plenty left. It seemed to me that if you are determined you should be able to find one, but then I guess that depends on where you live, how friendly your local stores are, and how easily you can drop everything to get there when they are in stock.
For those still looking, from what I've picked up, your best bet is to try large out-of-town stores, and smaller local shops who may be willing to go a bit further than the larger ones. I didn't even bother trying to get one off the internet though - better to compete with a few locals than the rest of the country.
I walked into a shop on Monday, left my details, they rang me on Friday and I went and picked one up. Sure, they might not be in stock, but they don't seem to be that hard to come by?
Apparently the black hole would be so small that it would only last for a fraction of a second. But then that is just a theoretical outcome, based on unproven theories - who knows what will actually happen?
I guess that since the only way to prove a theory is through experimentation, the only way to find out what will happen is to try. We're a curious species, but I can't help thinking that curiosity killed the cat, and we're getting pretty close to killing the whole planet - maybe not with black holes, but one way or another.
I've seen Ubuntu lately, and while I agree that it's pretty damned good, you can't say it's ready to take over from Windows.
I would love to make the switch, but I need to use Flash for my work, and like to play some of the latest games, like HL2. Although I may be able to get both working, it wouldn't be as simple as putting the CD in and clicking go.
If I switch, I have to wait for the Linux community to catch up and support whatever software I want or need to run - assuming it's possible. And as for the old argument that if I want it to do something I can contribute a patch, I don't have the time to figure it out.
If it's just Office or notepad you want, then yes, it's ready. But for the majority of users, I'm afraid it's still got a way to go.
While your comment may be true for taking new photographs, they can't use a digital camera, because they are old photos. Your comment seems to ignore their two main requirements - scanning old negatives, and doing it cheaply.
I'm faced with a similar situation - after the recent sale of my family home, I have several boxes full of photos and negatives, I believe some go back over 100 years. However, I doubt the original quality of the camera would justify the cost involved in scanning it on anything other than a cheap-ish flatbed scanner.
The important thing for me, and I assume for the original poster too, is to digitise the photographs for three reasons:
To make it easier for me to label and browse them so my family's photographic history is not lost
To make it possible to make copies for family members
To back up the irreplaceable photos at a reasonable quality, should they be lost in fire, a roof leak, mouse infestation etc.
For that reason I'm looking at getting a reasonably-priced flatbed scanner. I have too many photos to be able to afford have them scanned professionally, and their quality is not high enough to warrant such costs in the first place.
However, what I would be interested in is are there any ways to automate the loading and scanning of a set of photos? Can you buy flatbed scanners with sheet feeders that would work with photos? Do the flatbed negative scanners have software that will automatically separate out the photos? It's been a while since I had a flatbed scanner, so I hope the technology has moved on a bit - I don't want to spend the rest of my life cropping and rotating my ancestors!
Wow, I didn't realise my comments would cause such a fuss. I was just talking from my personal experience.
I was exposed to Linux by friends at school, but that didn't help the people I installed Linux for. I was called in as a friend of a friend because their family tired of helping them with their problems running Windows - and that's exactly my point. There's always going to be a friend of a friend who fancies themselves as a Windows expert because they can run Word and surf for porn. However, right now, at least in my area, Linux is certainly not wide-spread. There was nobody else for these people to ask for help, so they kept coming to me.
I'm all for Linux, and I'd really prefer to install it over Windows, but I don't want to get tied in to being their sole support person. That's exactly the same reason why many small businesses don't want me to install a Linux server for them - they don't know how to run it, and they realise that it's not a good idea to tie yourself to just one person for support. Perhaps in a few years time things will have changed, and people will be advertising Linux support in the local papers alongside the adverts for Windows. But I can't see any in there at the moment.
I didn't say they were stupid, just that most of them will take longer to pick something up due to their age. Certainly there are exceptions to every rule.
Although I feel that age is an issue, my main point is not just about the elderly. As the person who switches someone over to Linux, whether they are 19 or 90, I feel you have a responsibility to help them when they do have a problem. However, because the market share of Linux is so much smaller than Windows, it is that much harder to find somebody else to refer them to when you don't have the time. As long as you're happy to provide them with support for as long as they need it, then yes, Linux is a wonderful solution - however, in my experience, it can end up causing you a lot of hassle when you need it least.
No, you are incorrect. I am not pro-MS, I am not anti-linux, I am just a pragmatist. I was, in fact, speaking from personal experience, although with generic friend-of-a-friend OAPs as opposed to ones I am related to.
Yes, she will probably find it just as easy as a Microsoft OS - but it will be different. It will be different to her, and different to anyone else she might ask for help, and that's the problem.
In the past I have been quite eager to suggest to people to install Knoppix (and later Ubuntu) when I got called in because their hard drives failed or when Windows ME/XP got so clogged with malware that they couldn't do simple tasks such as open the filer. However, it became a nightmare to support them - by the time I was at university I'd be getting called several times a week with one problem or another. But I couldn't send them to someone else - there wasn't anybody else who had linux experience.
You say that she would need no extra help from now on. Have you ever actually met an old person? They're not like us. They're slow. They're senile. They're virtually dead. It's a miracle they can remember how to turn the machine on in the first place. Even if you write them out detailed bullet-point instructions with screenshots (which I've tried) they still manage to get it wrong. This happens with Windows, it happens with Linux. Sure, I've come across a few who have taken to computers and haven't needed any help past the first few days, but in my experience the majority will always need someone to hold their hand. Hell, that bit's not just limited to OAPs, most people I meet over 50 seem to have that same problem.
In your rush to flame me as an MS fanboy, you seem to have completely missed the key point in my original post - sure, little Johnny might be able to train her up in how to use it, but she will always have problems and questions. She will always want to learn how to do something new with her expensive toy, she will always want to fiddle with things, and she will always get confused. She will always need help. And by installing an OS that most people don't have experience of, he'd just be tying himself into supporting her until she dies.
I love Linux, I run my business on top of it, I tell my friends to use it. Software compatability is a minor issue, re-training is a minor issue. But when it comes to installing it for someone else, the deal-breaker is that there is no wide-spread support readily available for them yet, so I'm stuck helping them until they die, or until I reinstall Windows and can palm them off onto someone else.
Have you actually tried doing this? I'll tell you what happens when he shows her that Ubuntu CD - she doesn't have a clue what Ubuntu is, so lets Johnny go ahead and install it.
She'll then turn her computer on the next day, get confused, will find it harder to send her e-mails, will wonder why she can't run Encarta any more, and will then take her computer back to PC World and pay them stupid money to get them to install Microsoft again.
Even if little 10-year-old Johnny could set Ubuntu up perfectly, can get everything running that his gran wants and then persuade her to stick with it, he's the only person she knows who can help her do anything on her computer. He has to train her to use all the software she needs, and support her when anything goes wrong - that or risk getting cut out of her will for being an ingrate. Her other grandchildren breathe a sigh of relief and Johnny's now tied in to support her until she dies.
Nice one, I'm sure he'll thank you for your advice a few years later when he's up to his eyeballs in school work and she rings asking how to run the latest version of the internet AOL just sent her, or how to install the new copy of AutoRoute she bought. What is it with old people and route planning software anyway?
It really annoys me when people tout Linux as the answer to the worlds problems. It's great in its place, but that place is not in the hands of an OAP. Johnny needs to stop being so tight and realise that losing a few hundred from his inheritance really will make him better off in the long-run.
I too carry a Knoppix cd. I also carry net installs of Debian and Ubuntu.
One other thing I have found useful is a copy of hard drive manufacturers' hd test utils - not only do they load up quick and show me what the problem is, but when I get called out to a friend-of-a-friend, it also helps me prove to them that they need to fork out some cash;)
For reference, the hd tools I carry are Seatools (Seagate), PowerMax (Maxtor), Drive Fitness Test (IBM/Hitachi). I also carry Memtest86+.
One thing I would also recommend is writing the software version and date of burn onto the face of your CDs - helps avoid confusion in the future, and also lets you know when it's time to make a new version.
As the article I linked to above states, although Nintendo have said that they'll be giving Opera away for free until June 2007, they have also said that this would be a temporary promotion and that from July you will have to purchase it using Wii points.
I therefore stand by my original comment - now that it has been revealed that a reduced-functionality Opera is already built in to the Wii, perhaps some post-June adopters will be happy to avoid buying Opera by setting up their router to hijack the page requests and build their own web browsing interface. I guess that will depend on how much of a geek they are, and how much Opera Wii will cost.
Well, seeing as this shows that the channels are web-based, I would imagine that one possible next step would be to hijack the connection when it reaches your router, and then, depending on the page request, return your own content.
I'm guessing this would allow you to create custom channels by returning whatever content you wanted to the Wii. Perhaps it might also bypassing the need to buy Opera, as it sounds like it's already built in.
Slashdot Mirror
You can only use the SD for store; you can't run VC games from it, you have to move them to main memory first.
No. If a designer can't code their web design, then they are not a web developer; they should hand their design over to someone who is capable and qualified, rather than make a half-assed attempt in a WYSIWYG tool. After all, if a developer can't design, nobody would suggest that they should be allowed to draw the pictures.
A graphic designer is very unlikely to try to write a desktop application, and this is the problem with the web. People see applications like FrontPage and Dreamweaver, and they think that's all there is to it. You end up with people who call themselves professionals churning out pretty designs that are unusable and inaccessible because they don't understand the first thing about HTML or even designing for the web.
Saying that a designer should use a WYSIWYG editor to implement a design because they don't understand HTML is like saying that a doctor should use Google to diagnose their patients because they don't understand medicine. There's nothing wrong with using a tool to supplement or apply your knowledge, but the knowledge has to be there in the first place.
The problem for clients who want a website is that, unlike patients, they have no easy way to tell the professional developers apart from the cowboys.
The underpants gnomes look upon you in disgust.
He is a judge, and does not need to know about IT. He would probably know what a car was, because I imagine that either he drives one, or is driven in one. He has probably heard of a computer, his secretary probably uses one, he has no doubt heard of the internet and websites, and has probably seen the odd URL or two. However, I wouldn't expect him to understand what they were, and would far rather he admit it than stumble on blindly. Being out of touch with IT just means that he has better or more important things to do than use computers; granted, a foreign concept to most of us on Slashdot, but many people in other industries get by just fine without using anything more complicated than a telephone - that's what secretaries are for.
By asking for an exact definition of a website, it does not preclude his ability as a judge to pass judgement on the case; it merely builds a solid base of understanding (for judge and jury alike) for the expert witness to build upon when they call him later in the week, and demonstrates the sensible and professional attitude of the judge. It is far better to be ruled by men who know their limits, than men who declare that the internet is made of tubes.
I don't think he should step down. As a judge, he is an expert in the law; that is why he is there. I would expect that he has probably seen hundreds of cases where he doesn't understand the terminology - he cannot be expected to be an expert in every subject.
As a judge, he is there to apply his understanding of the law to the case; if he doesn't understand a term that is important to the case, he should be expected to admit it and to find out about it, but not to hand the case over (and cause it to be restarted) every time he hears something that he doesn't understand.
It's like me, a web developer, being asked to make a website about law. I don't understand law, I don't understand the terms, but I am an expert in making websites. I am there to apply my understanding of how to make a website; if I don't understand a legal term that is important to the website, I should be expected to admit it and find out about it, but not to resign every time I hear something that I don't understand.
Sure, this time it may be that he doesn't understand what a website or a forum is - if that was someone in the computing world then yes, they should step down. But this is the whole point of having professionals - acknowledge that there are people who understand more than you, and that you need to go and ask them for help so that you can do your job properly. A lot of people I know in the computing world could learn a valuable lesson from this judge.
I very much doubt that this would be opt-in. It's not going to be a little chip that retailers can glue to the DVD once it gets to the store - it's going to have to be build in as an extra layer when it is manufactured. I very much doubt that DVD manufacturers would go to the extra fuss and expense of running two separate production lines and managing the distribution of chipped and non-chipped DVDs. If this technology is adopted, it will be adopted across the board.
Well, if the number of times I've set off store alarms is anything to go by (after buying something and the monkey at the till forgetting to deactive the security tag), then I'd expect a lot of people to get home and find their shiny new DVD doesn't actually work, and they have to take it back. I dread to think of the nightmare that would be for online retailers.
Because there's half as much oxygen as they thought! We're all going to die!
Just get a standalone DVD player - it'll be better than a console anyway. No waiting for it to turn on, no 'I want to watch a DVD' or 'No, I said pause the damned thing' menus, just put the DVD in and it'll start to play. It's not like they're expensive - you can get them here for under £20, and I remember hearing the same about the US. You can't blame space requirements either - the Wii is about the size of a PC CD drive.
I'm in the same position as the parent AC - sent word and publisher files that I couldn't open. I also experienced some crashes, but it was the little bugs that annoyed me, like the delay accessing the clipboard when you've loaded it from OpenOffice, or the rendering issues when your page was more complicated than half a paragraph.
:)
You're right, publisher files are completely unreasonable, especially when they're just used to enter four paragraphs of text (grr!) - but if that's what my semi-computer-illiterate clients are using, it saves a whole bunch of "Please convert it to a PDF"; "What's a PDF?" conversations. I'm a programmer, I don't want to spend my days supporting and teaching clients how to use their computers.
I agree that the compatibility problems exist between MS office versions, but that's not such an issue for me - I've got Office 2007 now, so I can open their files no matter the version they're using. Most of the time I don't have to edit and send it back to them, but if I ever do and something goes wrong, it will make a refreshing change to be able to blame them for using an outdated version of Office
Fair enough, can't comment on how well stock lasts when it does arrive - I took an early lunch and got to the counter just as they went on sale. Perhaps I'm one of the lucky ones - makes a change!
Ahh, maybe I was just lucky then, although this store is a fair-sized national retail chain, and they were operating a 'first come first served' rule too. They couldn't tell me definitely when they'd be receiving a shipment, so they took my details to let me know one was in. I can't see why a store wouldn't do that - it just makes good business sense to tell customers that they can come and buy stuff from you. Maybe they'll buy other stuff when they're there, even if you've sold out.
I still had to get there while they had stock, but from what he said it sounded like they had plenty left. It seemed to me that if you are determined you should be able to find one, but then I guess that depends on where you live, how friendly your local stores are, and how easily you can drop everything to get there when they are in stock.
For those still looking, from what I've picked up, your best bet is to try large out-of-town stores, and smaller local shops who may be willing to go a bit further than the larger ones. I didn't even bother trying to get one off the internet though - better to compete with a few locals than the rest of the country.
I walked into a shop on Monday, left my details, they rang me on Friday and I went and picked one up. Sure, they might not be in stock, but they don't seem to be that hard to come by?
I wondered that same thing :)
Apparently the black hole would be so small that it would only last for a fraction of a second. But then that is just a theoretical outcome, based on unproven theories - who knows what will actually happen?
I guess that since the only way to prove a theory is through experimentation, the only way to find out what will happen is to try. We're a curious species, but I can't help thinking that curiosity killed the cat, and we're getting pretty close to killing the whole planet - maybe not with black holes, but one way or another.
Does too.
Not everyone likes playing games with one of those crappy little keypads - we feel that the mouse is infinitely better, in FPS games at least.
I've seen Ubuntu lately, and while I agree that it's pretty damned good, you can't say it's ready to take over from Windows.
I would love to make the switch, but I need to use Flash for my work, and like to play some of the latest games, like HL2. Although I may be able to get both working, it wouldn't be as simple as putting the CD in and clicking go.
If I switch, I have to wait for the Linux community to catch up and support whatever software I want or need to run - assuming it's possible. And as for the old argument that if I want it to do something I can contribute a patch, I don't have the time to figure it out.
If it's just Office or notepad you want, then yes, it's ready. But for the majority of users, I'm afraid it's still got a way to go.
While your comment may be true for taking new photographs, they can't use a digital camera, because they are old photos. Your comment seems to ignore their two main requirements - scanning old negatives, and doing it cheaply.
I'm faced with a similar situation - after the recent sale of my family home, I have several boxes full of photos and negatives, I believe some go back over 100 years. However, I doubt the original quality of the camera would justify the cost involved in scanning it on anything other than a cheap-ish flatbed scanner.
The important thing for me, and I assume for the original poster too, is to digitise the photographs for three reasons:
For that reason I'm looking at getting a reasonably-priced flatbed scanner. I have too many photos to be able to afford have them scanned professionally, and their quality is not high enough to warrant such costs in the first place.
However, what I would be interested in is are there any ways to automate the loading and scanning of a set of photos? Can you buy flatbed scanners with sheet feeders that would work with photos? Do the flatbed negative scanners have software that will automatically separate out the photos? It's been a while since I had a flatbed scanner, so I hope the technology has moved on a bit - I don't want to spend the rest of my life cropping and rotating my ancestors!
Wow, I didn't realise my comments would cause such a fuss. I was just talking from my personal experience.
I was exposed to Linux by friends at school, but that didn't help the people I installed Linux for. I was called in as a friend of a friend because their family tired of helping them with their problems running Windows - and that's exactly my point. There's always going to be a friend of a friend who fancies themselves as a Windows expert because they can run Word and surf for porn. However, right now, at least in my area, Linux is certainly not wide-spread. There was nobody else for these people to ask for help, so they kept coming to me.
I'm all for Linux, and I'd really prefer to install it over Windows, but I don't want to get tied in to being their sole support person. That's exactly the same reason why many small businesses don't want me to install a Linux server for them - they don't know how to run it, and they realise that it's not a good idea to tie yourself to just one person for support. Perhaps in a few years time things will have changed, and people will be advertising Linux support in the local papers alongside the adverts for Windows. But I can't see any in there at the moment.
I didn't say they were stupid, just that most of them will take longer to pick something up due to their age. Certainly there are exceptions to every rule.
Although I feel that age is an issue, my main point is not just about the elderly. As the person who switches someone over to Linux, whether they are 19 or 90, I feel you have a responsibility to help them when they do have a problem. However, because the market share of Linux is so much smaller than Windows, it is that much harder to find somebody else to refer them to when you don't have the time. As long as you're happy to provide them with support for as long as they need it, then yes, Linux is a wonderful solution - however, in my experience, it can end up causing you a lot of hassle when you need it least.
No, you are incorrect. I am not pro-MS, I am not anti-linux, I am just a pragmatist. I was, in fact, speaking from personal experience, although with generic friend-of-a-friend OAPs as opposed to ones I am related to.
Yes, she will probably find it just as easy as a Microsoft OS - but it will be different. It will be different to her, and different to anyone else she might ask for help, and that's the problem.
In the past I have been quite eager to suggest to people to install Knoppix (and later Ubuntu) when I got called in because their hard drives failed or when Windows ME/XP got so clogged with malware that they couldn't do simple tasks such as open the filer. However, it became a nightmare to support them - by the time I was at university I'd be getting called several times a week with one problem or another. But I couldn't send them to someone else - there wasn't anybody else who had linux experience.
You say that she would need no extra help from now on. Have you ever actually met an old person? They're not like us. They're slow. They're senile. They're virtually dead. It's a miracle they can remember how to turn the machine on in the first place. Even if you write them out detailed bullet-point instructions with screenshots (which I've tried) they still manage to get it wrong. This happens with Windows, it happens with Linux. Sure, I've come across a few who have taken to computers and haven't needed any help past the first few days, but in my experience the majority will always need someone to hold their hand. Hell, that bit's not just limited to OAPs, most people I meet over 50 seem to have that same problem.
In your rush to flame me as an MS fanboy, you seem to have completely missed the key point in my original post - sure, little Johnny might be able to train her up in how to use it, but she will always have problems and questions. She will always want to learn how to do something new with her expensive toy, she will always want to fiddle with things, and she will always get confused. She will always need help. And by installing an OS that most people don't have experience of, he'd just be tying himself into supporting her until she dies.
I love Linux, I run my business on top of it, I tell my friends to use it. Software compatability is a minor issue, re-training is a minor issue. But when it comes to installing it for someone else, the deal-breaker is that there is no wide-spread support readily available for them yet, so I'm stuck helping them until they die, or until I reinstall Windows and can palm them off onto someone else.
Have you actually tried doing this? I'll tell you what happens when he shows her that Ubuntu CD - she doesn't have a clue what Ubuntu is, so lets Johnny go ahead and install it.
She'll then turn her computer on the next day, get confused, will find it harder to send her e-mails, will wonder why she can't run Encarta any more, and will then take her computer back to PC World and pay them stupid money to get them to install Microsoft again.
Even if little 10-year-old Johnny could set Ubuntu up perfectly, can get everything running that his gran wants and then persuade her to stick with it, he's the only person she knows who can help her do anything on her computer. He has to train her to use all the software she needs, and support her when anything goes wrong - that or risk getting cut out of her will for being an ingrate. Her other grandchildren breathe a sigh of relief and Johnny's now tied in to support her until she dies.
Nice one, I'm sure he'll thank you for your advice a few years later when he's up to his eyeballs in school work and she rings asking how to run the latest version of the internet AOL just sent her, or how to install the new copy of AutoRoute she bought. What is it with old people and route planning software anyway?
It really annoys me when people tout Linux as the answer to the worlds problems. It's great in its place, but that place is not in the hands of an OAP. Johnny needs to stop being so tight and realise that losing a few hundred from his inheritance really will make him better off in the long-run.
I too carry a Knoppix cd. I also carry net installs of Debian and Ubuntu.
;)
One other thing I have found useful is a copy of hard drive manufacturers' hd test utils - not only do they load up quick and show me what the problem is, but when I get called out to a friend-of-a-friend, it also helps me prove to them that they need to fork out some cash
For reference, the hd tools I carry are Seatools (Seagate), PowerMax (Maxtor), Drive Fitness Test (IBM/Hitachi). I also carry Memtest86+.
One thing I would also recommend is writing the software version and date of burn onto the face of your CDs - helps avoid confusion in the future, and also lets you know when it's time to make a new version.
Yes, Opera is free. Free as Opera for a desktop, free as Opera Mini for a mobile.
But it is not free for other devices like the DS, and it's not going to be free for the Wii either.
As the article I linked to above states, although Nintendo have said that they'll be giving Opera away for free until June 2007, they have also said that this would be a temporary promotion and that from July you will have to purchase it using Wii points.
I therefore stand by my original comment - now that it has been revealed that a reduced-functionality Opera is already built in to the Wii, perhaps some post-June adopters will be happy to avoid buying Opera by setting up their router to hijack the page requests and build their own web browsing interface. I guess that will depend on how much of a geek they are, and how much Opera Wii will cost.
Well, seeing as this shows that the channels are web-based, I would imagine that one possible next step would be to hijack the connection when it reaches your router, and then, depending on the page request, return your own content.
I'm guessing this would allow you to create custom channels by returning whatever content you wanted to the Wii. Perhaps it might also bypassing the need to buy Opera, as it sounds like it's already built in.