I'm so sick of all the anti bush people who lack the capacity to think that pehaps he is doing the right thing. You sound just like the John Stewart press and CNN and are apparently unable to think for yourself and equally unable to present constructive solutions to the problems that would still exist if you had your way. Stop your Star Trek induced vision of what you think "freedom" is and look at things as they are. This country isn't perfect but it is the closest system humans have devised to perfect. The system doesn't work if your enemies can game it. As for wire taps I'm all for them. They were INTERNATIONAL wire taps. Cell phones change the game and you would think that slashdot readers would recognize that law enforcement has to keep up to keep people from getting blown up. It would be impossible to defend this country or enforce the law if the world was the way you think it should be. Law enforcement is acting to keep peace and safety. If they are not allowed to your mostly free society collapses and "intellectuals" like you will be the first to go when brute force once again rules (just like it does in most of the middle east).
I have never found Apple's support to be particularly good. Their people are evangelists not techs. I asked our Apple "rep" for help solving an appletalk problem (where printers would pick new names and zones when the power goes off) and all he could do was talk about Itunes and tell each of our 400 users to upgrade. We did . . we bought PCs.
Their record of not screwing over their customers for profit is also very suspect (anyone else buy a clone mac?). In the end they are no better than Dell who has good tech support for business clients who have servers with support contracts (like me) and crappy support for people who buy $500 laptops.
-R
Yeah, you probably think Jeff Goldblum is cool and that your MAC can interface with alien technology. Your MAC is an etch-a-sketch with a dumbed down user interface so even you can understand it. If you want dumb fine but I'll stick with multiple mouse buttons and operating systems that people actually write software to do things other than use I-Movie to share creepy videos of themselves smelling their own farts.
-R
Einstein said to make things as simple as possible . . . but no simpler. I shake my head at some of the anti Microsoft comments I routinely see on this site. On the one hand you have people who think Windows and mail systems like Exchange are for idiots but fail to realize that Linux is much harder for the average "idiot" to understand. The overarching idea on this site that all the "idiots" should start running a more cryptic OS and compile all of their software themselves is absurd. The majority of users don't want to. Work with people who are really good at something OTHER than computers and you realize that computers are just a means for most people not the end. If the world matched slashdots frame of reference change would have happened years ago and everyone would be downloading a new version of gcc as we speak.
Unfortunately it doesn't work this way. There are and will always be Morlocks and Eloi. Face it slashdot, we are Morlocks and no amount of convincing or lecturing will transmogrify the Eloi.
Another thing that bothers me in these posts is the lack of value placed on the variability in skill level of Windows administrators. It is like everyone on here is blind to the fact that that yes, having a skilled Windows Admin can and does make a difference. I have worked with Windows Admins that should not be allowed near computers. I have also worked with Windows admins that are just as knowledgable about Windows as their Linux counterparts are. I don't have a major preference. I can administer and program either platform but I support what people will pay me to support - Windows (not that I don't sneak in opensource and linux based "helper" servers IF it would make my job easier).
As far as I can tell, the VB6 widgets from 10 years ago are still pretty that what you generally find on a Linux front end. Outlook is a good experience for the end user. If people don't like that, write something better.
For people to continually fool themselves into thinking that no variability exists when dealing with admin quality on a windows platform but somehow this quality determines everything on Linux is not only hypocritically it is illogical. The economy couldn't budge if the MS software that runs it was in as dire a situation as what you hear described in slashdot posts daily.
Make the software easier . . . yeah, that goes for Linux software too (substitute days of reading cryptic "manuals" instead of days of clicking random buttons in Windows. You are what you despise.
As far as MS as a company I think they should clean by getting rid of the middle managers. MS has the resources and plenty of examples to *ahem* learn from. It has nowhere to go but up.
I'd agree with this. I am also a perl and VB6 programmer. I use perl for the hard stuff (your can't beat CPAN) and VB for the GUI (you can't beat VB6's IDE despite what your read here). VB.NET is nothing like VB6. It reads like C# but medium level VB6 programmer (say 1,000,000 lines of code) won't be able to do all that much without wasting more time learning MS's latest paradigm. As for VB6 being dead, why is a VB6 core still the core of Office 2003? I'll tell you why, because the business community still uses it and that is more important a fact than most people here probably think.
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I'm so sick of all the anti bush people who lack the capacity to think that pehaps he is doing the right thing. You sound just like the John Stewart press and CNN and are apparently unable to think for yourself and equally unable to present constructive solutions to the problems that would still exist if you had your way. Stop your Star Trek induced vision of what you think "freedom" is and look at things as they are. This country isn't perfect but it is the closest system humans have devised to perfect. The system doesn't work if your enemies can game it. As for wire taps I'm all for them. They were INTERNATIONAL wire taps. Cell phones change the game and you would think that slashdot readers would recognize that law enforcement has to keep up to keep people from getting blown up. It would be impossible to defend this country or enforce the law if the world was the way you think it should be. Law enforcement is acting to keep peace and safety. If they are not allowed to your mostly free society collapses and "intellectuals" like you will be the first to go when brute force once again rules (just like it does in most of the middle east).
Are you crazy? Microsoft release OS updates all the time. The only thing that doesn't change often is the logo.
I have never found Apple's support to be particularly good. Their people are evangelists not techs. I asked our Apple "rep" for help solving an appletalk problem (where printers would pick new names and zones when the power goes off) and all he could do was talk about Itunes and tell each of our 400 users to upgrade. We did . . we bought PCs. Their record of not screwing over their customers for profit is also very suspect (anyone else buy a clone mac?). In the end they are no better than Dell who has good tech support for business clients who have servers with support contracts (like me) and crappy support for people who buy $500 laptops. -R
Yeah, you probably think Jeff Goldblum is cool and that your MAC can interface with alien technology. Your MAC is an etch-a-sketch with a dumbed down user interface so even you can understand it. If you want dumb fine but I'll stick with multiple mouse buttons and operating systems that people actually write software to do things other than use I-Movie to share creepy videos of themselves smelling their own farts. -R
Einstein said to make things as simple as possible . . . but no simpler. I shake my head at some of the anti Microsoft comments I routinely see on this site. On the one hand you have people who think Windows and mail systems like Exchange are for idiots but fail to realize that Linux is much harder for the average "idiot" to understand. The overarching idea on this site that all the "idiots" should start running a more cryptic OS and compile all of their software themselves is absurd. The majority of users don't want to. Work with people who are really good at something OTHER than computers and you realize that computers are just a means for most people not the end. If the world matched slashdots frame of reference change would have happened years ago and everyone would be downloading a new version of gcc as we speak. Unfortunately it doesn't work this way. There are and will always be Morlocks and Eloi. Face it slashdot, we are Morlocks and no amount of convincing or lecturing will transmogrify the Eloi. Another thing that bothers me in these posts is the lack of value placed on the variability in skill level of Windows administrators. It is like everyone on here is blind to the fact that that yes, having a skilled Windows Admin can and does make a difference. I have worked with Windows Admins that should not be allowed near computers. I have also worked with Windows admins that are just as knowledgable about Windows as their Linux counterparts are. I don't have a major preference. I can administer and program either platform but I support what people will pay me to support - Windows (not that I don't sneak in opensource and linux based "helper" servers IF it would make my job easier). As far as I can tell, the VB6 widgets from 10 years ago are still pretty that what you generally find on a Linux front end. Outlook is a good experience for the end user. If people don't like that, write something better. For people to continually fool themselves into thinking that no variability exists when dealing with admin quality on a windows platform but somehow this quality determines everything on Linux is not only hypocritically it is illogical. The economy couldn't budge if the MS software that runs it was in as dire a situation as what you hear described in slashdot posts daily. Make the software easier . . . yeah, that goes for Linux software too (substitute days of reading cryptic "manuals" instead of days of clicking random buttons in Windows. You are what you despise. As far as MS as a company I think they should clean by getting rid of the middle managers. MS has the resources and plenty of examples to *ahem* learn from. It has nowhere to go but up.
I'd agree with this. I am also a perl and VB6 programmer. I use perl for the hard stuff (your can't beat CPAN) and VB for the GUI (you can't beat VB6's IDE despite what your read here). VB.NET is nothing like VB6. It reads like C# but medium level VB6 programmer (say 1,000,000 lines of code) won't be able to do all that much without wasting more time learning MS's latest paradigm. As for VB6 being dead, why is a VB6 core still the core of Office 2003? I'll tell you why, because the business community still uses it and that is more important a fact than most people here probably think.