A few years ago, Firefox's popularity is very similar to what Opera's is today. Pretty marginal, but rising fast. No-one could say now that Firefox is not a threat, it's popularity in Europe is something like 25%. Opera becoming free and being the only browser available for several Nintendo products has caused its popularity to rise fast and steadily. It may not repeat the success of Firefox, but be wary of ignoring it entirely.
Ha, damn right. I share a net connection with my flatmates, we abuse it heavily. They wrote to us within about three weeks of being connected and asked us to leave, said they would waive all the connection charges (about £50 or nearly $100) and the yearly contract. If you do get one of these letters, take the ISP's offer: they might drastically cut your line-speed if you don't. We didn't leave, a particular flatmate didn't want to, so they massively slowed our line speed down, it's supposed to be 8Mbps, but sometimes my 2G phone's internet runs faster...
Jonathan, I see you're a stranger to sarcasm... but equally, even if it is better than Windows, in what way does the argument against bundled Windows not apply to Macs? The hardware is very nice, and you might not want to run OS X. (For instance, if a critical application is only available for another platform, and you can't be bothered switching to a different OS just to check your email.)
This "offsite word processing" crap is for chumps - anyone with sensitive data would be utter idiots to go there.
What about the people with non-sensitive data who want to do their word processing anywhere? The collaboration features are also pretty cool...although for cool collaboration features check out SubEthaEdit
This may make the problem worse: Plants absorb carbon dioxide (the most abundant greenhouse gas) and turn it into oxygen, effectively neutralising it. To perform this process (photosynthesis) they need light from the sun. All the plant life is slowing the onset of global warming, folks. Global warming isn't a problem with the amount of light reaching the earth, it's a problem because the infra-red radiation re-released by the Earth is trapped. The plants cannot use this kind of radiation. That said, the sun's output does vary over time, and the measured 'level' of global warming correlates well with changes in the suns's output. There would almost certainly be an optimum amount of solar radiation to shield the earth from. Regardless of changes in the sun's output, global warming is very real, and will have extremely detrimental effects over a roughly 35 year time-frame. Approximately a 90% cut is required to avert these effects, but this need not alter our quality of life seriously. What it will require is serious technological commitment from Governments globally into moving almost energy generation to renewable or low-carbon options. An interesting option in combating global warming is geosequestration. Plant growth can be used to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. If this material is then pumped into depleted oil or gas reservoirs, it will remain there indefinitely. The engineering solution to the problem!
A similarly confusing configuration would be to have your application menus appear at the bottom of the screen and scrolling upward to select the option you need.
All these gadgets sucking power, where does it go?
Heat.
So if you live somewhere cold enough that you have to heat your place, the energy isn't waste, it just makes your heating click off quicker. I.e. extra cost on your electricity bill decreases your heating bill.
When calculating the heating requirements of (for example) an office building, computers and people are all factored in as ~250W.
Moviegoers will tolerate out of focus shots, unknown actors, and less than ideal theatres just for the hope to see something slightly original. Will gamers make the same compromises?
Moviegoers have to tolerate the movie's foibles for a couple of hours. Gamers spend a lot more time with a game. The originality may wear off, but the foibles are there to stay, and they get annoying.
The difference is that once the Chinese Gov. blocks you, you can't undo it. If you administering your own IP blocking, you have the choice to turn it off in the future. China is becoming more accessible as a country and I think it unwise to cut yourself off from 1/6th of the world's population like that!
The GIMP also doesn't have a CMYK colour-space. This is essential for print work: I know plug-ins exist, but this just isn't as friendly as native support: I'm extremely surprised there's no native support for CMYK. In comparison Film GIMP/CinePaint has the RGB colourspace required for film work, and a notable user-base. If CMYK support is added, the GIMP would stand a much better chance against Photoshop.
I know it's no trouble to the slashdot crowd, but if the average user doesn't know how to change their homepage, how will they install the many extensions required to bring Firefox initial functionality up to the standard of IE. Firefox has many benefits for nerds, but it isn't as functional out of the box.
The feds aren't asking for any identifiable information. They're asking for a random sample of 1 million URLs and 1 million searches from Google's database, with the user-identifying information removed.
Google is making a big fuss over this lawsuit in order to gain some great PR and appear to be on the side of the users. Whether they are or not is open to debate (see below).
The GIMP will never be taken seriously until it has a different name.
When a client inquires, would you rather say you work on Photoshop, or you work on the GIMP (and get sniggered at).
The version of the GIMP remade for edting film was renamed CinePaint [wikipedia] and has a serious user base: Harry Potter, Scooby Doo, Stuart Little.
Slashdot Mirror
A few years ago, Firefox's popularity is very similar to what Opera's is today. Pretty marginal, but rising fast.
No-one could say now that Firefox is not a threat, it's popularity in Europe is something like 25%.
Opera becoming free and being the only browser available for several Nintendo products has caused its popularity to rise fast and steadily. It may not repeat the success of Firefox, but be wary of ignoring it entirely.
Ha, damn right.
I share a net connection with my flatmates, we abuse it heavily. They wrote to us within about three weeks of being connected and asked us to leave, said they would waive all the connection charges (about £50 or nearly $100) and the yearly contract.
If you do get one of these letters, take the ISP's offer: they might drastically cut your line-speed if you don't. We didn't leave, a particular flatmate didn't want to, so they massively slowed our line speed down, it's supposed to be 8Mbps, but sometimes my 2G phone's internet runs faster...
Jonathan, I see you're a stranger to sarcasm...
but equally, even if it is better than Windows, in what way does the argument against bundled Windows not apply to Macs? The hardware is very nice, and you might not want to run OS X. (For instance, if a critical application is only available for another platform, and you can't be bothered switching to a different OS just to check your email.)
Why won't Apple sell naked hardware?
Now that their (pretty) hardware will run Linux, it seems ridiculous to pay such a premium for OS X.
The collaboration features are also pretty cool...although for cool collaboration features check out SubEthaEdit
This may make the problem worse:
Plants absorb carbon dioxide (the most abundant greenhouse gas) and turn it into oxygen, effectively neutralising it. To perform this process (photosynthesis) they need light from the sun. All the plant life is slowing the onset of global warming, folks.
Global warming isn't a problem with the amount of light reaching the earth, it's a problem because the infra-red radiation re-released by the Earth is trapped. The plants cannot use this kind of radiation.
That said, the sun's output does vary over time, and the measured 'level' of global warming correlates well with changes in the suns's output. There would almost certainly be an optimum amount of solar radiation to shield the earth from.
Regardless of changes in the sun's output, global warming is very real, and will have extremely detrimental effects over a roughly 35 year time-frame. Approximately a 90% cut is required to avert these effects, but this need not alter our quality of life seriously. What it will require is serious technological commitment from Governments globally into moving almost energy generation to renewable or low-carbon options.
An interesting option in combating global warming is geosequestration. Plant growth can be used to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. If this material is then pumped into depleted oil or gas reservoirs, it will remain there indefinitely. The engineering solution to the problem!
All these gadgets sucking power, where does it go?
Heat.
So if you live somewhere cold enough that you have to heat your place, the energy isn't waste, it just makes your heating click off quicker. I.e. extra cost on your electricity bill decreases your heating bill. When calculating the heating requirements of (for example) an office building, computers and people are all factored in as ~250W.
An engineer from the University of Bath, UK recently invented the world's most fuel efficient car: 8000mpg.
non-comprehension?
Moviegoers will tolerate out of focus shots, unknown actors, and less than ideal theatres just for the hope to see something slightly original. Will gamers make the same compromises?
Moviegoers have to tolerate the movie's foibles for a couple of hours.
Gamers spend a lot more time with a game.
The originality may wear off, but the foibles are there to stay, and they get annoying.
The difference is that once the Chinese Gov. blocks you, you can't undo it. If you administering your own IP blocking, you have the choice to turn it off in the future. China is becoming more accessible as a country and I think it unwise to cut yourself off from 1/6th of the world's population like that!
The GIMP also doesn't have a CMYK colour-space. This is essential for print work: I know plug-ins exist, but this just isn't as friendly as native support: I'm extremely surprised there's no native support for CMYK. In comparison Film GIMP/CinePaint has the RGB colourspace required for film work, and a notable user-base. If CMYK support is added, the GIMP would stand a much better chance against Photoshop.
Duke Nukem
forever in production.
I know it's no trouble to the slashdot crowd, but if the average user doesn't know how to change their homepage, how will they install the many extensions required to bring Firefox initial functionality up to the standard of IE. Firefox has many benefits for nerds, but it isn't as functional out of the box.
The feds aren't asking for any identifiable information. They're asking for a random sample of 1 million URLs and 1 million searches from Google's database, with the user-identifying information removed. Google is making a big fuss over this lawsuit in order to gain some great PR and appear to be on the side of the users. Whether they are or not is open to debate (see below).
The GIMP will never be taken seriously until it has a different name.
When a client inquires, would you rather say you work on Photoshop, or you work on the GIMP (and get sniggered at).
The version of the GIMP remade for edting film was renamed CinePaint [wikipedia] and has a serious user base: Harry Potter, Scooby Doo, Stuart Little.