Who wants a f*cking sticker on his or her new computer anyway? The whole thing is laughable and completely absurd. Customers didn't ask for Vista, it was shoved down their throats. I hope Microsoft dies horribly some day soon, because it deserves to. Who needs Windows these days anyway?
I mean, normally, planets are what scientists call "very, very large". So how is it done? How can they know what a planet weighs unless they know what it's made of? It could be solid basalt, dirty ice or a mix of different materials with varying densities.
You can't charge for something that's free, and so your friend should not pay. That site doesn't have a legal status, and there was no contract, so she should of course refuse to pay anything.
I'm actually surprised this hasn't happened before. People are too lazy to type or read anyway, so why bother with a keyboard? But using the terminal will be a bit tricky...
That's a very interesting and clever assessment. Your last paragraph sums it up very well.
Ultimately it's a management problem. I am not a programmer, but I used to be a software localizer, and the principle in that line of work is the same.
"Underperformers" are usually meticulous and quality-minded people who care about the end product, not only from a linguistic standpoint. They also spot coding errors, that can be fixed!
A good software localizer or linguist works close together with the programmers. Translators and localizers who are fast are usually sloppy and only care about doing X thousand words per day! I know, I worked in software localization more than 10 years.
I would NEVER hire a careless person like that do do my translation project, just as I would NEVER hire a sloppy programmer for a project! The end result is what's important: the products the company will sell to customers.
But back to your post. The structural problems within a company will more often than not go unnoticed as long as the company seems to be doing fine, but really, the problems were there all along, but it will probably never be addressed... In a recession, the company management has to make quick cutbacks. And so they get rid of the "underperformers" and not the structural problem, since they are sometimes part of said problems.
And that's why we have crappy software and poorly run companies. That's why we have companies such as Microsoft.
I think that is a fair assessment. While I don't know what goes on in Jobs' head, I know he is almost fanatical about the user experience, some thing Microsoft and others only have a superficial idea about. (They still haven't figured it out, which is obvious to anyone who has been exposed to Windows Vista or seen the Windows 7 betas.) The way the users sees the product is the most important part.
Second, Steve Jobs has built the Apple brand from an empty shell of a logo to a dominant player. Apple is now a leader in consumer electronics. Before Jobs, Apple was a small niche player, now it's about to go mainstream in a major way. But market share is not all that important to Apple, and I will try to explain why. The third thing, and the only thing that matters from a business point of view, is profitability. Apple is a VERY profitable business now. The company also has a cash reserve of about 25 billion US dollars. Profitability is more important then market share to Apple, because it means it has the freedom to go anywhere and be anything it wants. Something that will become apparent in the years ahead.
And my intention was not to offend andy British people, quite the contrary, I have tre greatest respect for them. However, regarding the Queen, I mean c'mon, she's been doing this since 1952. I think it is high time she retires and lets her son run the show for a while. I don't know, but I actually like Prince Charlie. There is something tragic about him.
True, but it's called tradition. I do agree that the cult around the British royal family, and other royal families around Europe, still has ludicrous proportions, though many Britons think the Queen's just a boring old bat, stuck in the 1940s. But then again there is a similar cult and a large amount of unnecessary pomp around the US president and military. All that needs to be scaled back.
Well, all other Apple keyboards I have used in the past, with the exception of the Apple Extended Keyboard II (aka USS Enterprise, Saratoga or Nimitz... because it was as large as an aircraft carrier), have has a terrible tactile feel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Extended_Keyboard
And the same goes for almost every PC keyboard I have ever used. There are exceptions of course. I have owned two IBM ThinkPads, a T22 and a X31, (the ThinkPads are now made by the Chinese company Lenovo) and they had excellent, high-precision keyboards with just the right touch-sensitive feel, short, but not to short travel and keys that do not wiggle sideways or clatter. Solid and precise! Dependable.
The same goes for most Apple PowerBooks and MacBook Pros. (But forget about iBooks and MacBooks, they are home user gear, and I am a professional who use professional tools.)
My current work & play machine is a MacBook Pro (the 2007 model, not the new unibody machine). I use the internal keyboard, which is good, or Apple's aluminum Bluetooth keyboard.
The keys are completely flat and low profile, which at first I though would be a disadvantage. But it isn't - it actually makes typing effortless and fast. Also, the travel of the keys is short, like on a laptop, and the keys are just the right size.
The lack of a numerical keypad is an advantage as this makes the keyboard smaller, which reduces the stress on your wrists.
If you need a numerical keypad you can always get the USB version.
This is the one I use:
http://www.apple.com/keyboard/
I *used to be* a full-time translator and software localizer, but had to switch careers some years ago because if RSI. I now use an Apple USB keyboard (all aluminum design) and it has cured me.
I love the standard aluminum USB keyboard (and the USB-based Mighty Mouse) that comes with the MacPro and iMac. It has cure me from my RSI. But I now use the Bluetooth version. It lacks a numerical keypad but has exactly the same feel as the USB version. All earlier Apple key boards were horrible, with the exception of the very large Apple Extended Keyboard II from back in the 1990s.
Ease of use, speed, stability, consistency... and you cant accuse MS Office of any of that. The problem with Numbers is that it's limited in scope since it only works on the Mac. What I want is a web-based solution, but with real power, and it should be free and open source software.
Numbers is not nearly the same thing or better than Excel. I really with Apple would put more resources intio Numbers and Pages, but I guess they have better things to do. I want something that's truly portable from the Mac OS X platform to Windows (XP, Vista, 7), or Linux (any flavor), or the iPhone, etc, without any conversion. Something that's vastly BETTER than Excel and Word.
I agree completely with you.
The only way to beat Microsoft, or create a viable alternative to MS Office, which is the only reason to use Windows in the first place, is to break out of the mould and create something that stands on a solid and independent foundation and "does office better than Office".
Microsoft Office has become this bloated fat pig of an office suite, and it is miserably complex and user-hostile. The only reason it has become the standard in business administration is that nobody else has come up with something better, leaner, easier, more reliable and consistent.
But hey, someone has a great opportunity here!
What's needed is something that's better and more useful than MS Office, particularly Excel, which is Microsoft's real killer app, at least on Windows.
I'm a Mac user myself, so I don't care one flying fart about Microsoft or any of their products, but if anyone wants to beat MS, they'd better come up with something *different and superior* than Office, not something similar, but free.
From a business perspective, it's what the thing *does*, not what it costs or how *free* it is, that matters.
I am not a programmer, but I would probably go for something that's entirely web based, but that can also be used offline. It would do everything Excel and Word does, but much better and with some unique features and great usability. That's the real challenge.
Google Docs are terrible!
How could Microsoft with all their resources fail so miserable with XP and especially Vista? It's a mystery to me. No matter what they do they just can't shed the old baggage from Windows and move on.
They need to kill every part of the Win XP and Vista code base, and destroy every remnant of their pre-existing thinking or they will die. It will take many years but they will die unless they do this.
They are still stuck with device letters, DLLs and all that junk. They should KILL IT as soon is humanly possible and move on! They should also fire Steve Ballmer right now. The man is a disaster for Microsoft.
Meanwhile I am happily using a different operating system that actually works as advertised and is fun to use. I really don't have to care one flying fart about Microsoft.:)
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We don't use Windows at all. No need for it.
Who wants a f*cking sticker on his or her new computer anyway? The whole thing is laughable and completely absurd. Customers didn't ask for Vista, it was shoved down their throats. I hope Microsoft dies horribly some day soon, because it deserves to. Who needs Windows these days anyway?
Why would you want to ever shut down a modern computer? My Macbook Pro wakes up from sleep in one second.
Like in "Silent Running"?
I mean, normally, planets are what scientists call "very, very large". So how is it done? How can they know what a planet weighs unless they know what it's made of? It could be solid basalt, dirty ice or a mix of different materials with varying densities.
I wonder if there is money to be made from OS/2 software these days...
You can't charge for something that's free, and so your friend should not pay. That site doesn't have a legal status, and there was no contract, so she should of course refuse to pay anything.
You mean like you have like a computer with a mouse? You must have a newer model than me.
Why spoil the fun?
And no-one will ever read it! But someone has to pretend they did. :)
Actually, there is already such a program for the iPhone.
I'm actually surprised this hasn't happened before. People are too lazy to type or read anyway, so why bother with a keyboard? But using the terminal will be a bit tricky...
Ultimately it's a management problem. I am not a programmer, but I used to be a software localizer, and the principle in that line of work is the same.
"Underperformers" are usually meticulous and quality-minded people who care about the end product, not only from a linguistic standpoint. They also spot coding errors, that can be fixed!
A good software localizer or linguist works close together with the programmers. Translators and localizers who are fast are usually sloppy and only care about doing X thousand words per day! I know, I worked in software localization more than 10 years.
I would NEVER hire a careless person like that do do my translation project, just as I would NEVER hire a sloppy programmer for a project! The end result is what's important: the products the company will sell to customers.
But back to your post. The structural problems within a company will more often than not go unnoticed as long as the company seems to be doing fine, but really, the problems were there all along, but it will probably never be addressed... In a recession, the company management has to make quick cutbacks. And so they get rid of the "underperformers" and not the structural problem, since they are sometimes part of said problems.
And that's why we have crappy software and poorly run companies. That's why we have companies such as Microsoft.
I think that is a fair assessment. While I don't know what goes on in Jobs' head, I know he is almost fanatical about the user experience, some thing Microsoft and others only have a superficial idea about. (They still haven't figured it out, which is obvious to anyone who has been exposed to Windows Vista or seen the Windows 7 betas.) The way the users sees the product is the most important part. Second, Steve Jobs has built the Apple brand from an empty shell of a logo to a dominant player. Apple is now a leader in consumer electronics. Before Jobs, Apple was a small niche player, now it's about to go mainstream in a major way. But market share is not all that important to Apple, and I will try to explain why. The third thing, and the only thing that matters from a business point of view, is profitability. Apple is a VERY profitable business now. The company also has a cash reserve of about 25 billion US dollars. Profitability is more important then market share to Apple, because it means it has the freedom to go anywhere and be anything it wants. Something that will become apparent in the years ahead.
Why do you write in French? Just curious.
And my intention was not to offend andy British people, quite the contrary, I have tre greatest respect for them. However, regarding the Queen, I mean c'mon, she's been doing this since 1952. I think it is high time she retires and lets her son run the show for a while. I don't know, but I actually like Prince Charlie. There is something tragic about him.
True, but it's called tradition. I do agree that the cult around the British royal family, and other royal families around Europe, still has ludicrous proportions, though many Britons think the Queen's just a boring old bat, stuck in the 1940s. But then again there is a similar cult and a large amount of unnecessary pomp around the US president and military. All that needs to be scaled back.
Well, all other Apple keyboards I have used in the past, with the exception of the Apple Extended Keyboard II (aka USS Enterprise, Saratoga or Nimitz... because it was as large as an aircraft carrier), have has a terrible tactile feel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Extended_Keyboard And the same goes for almost every PC keyboard I have ever used. There are exceptions of course. I have owned two IBM ThinkPads, a T22 and a X31, (the ThinkPads are now made by the Chinese company Lenovo) and they had excellent, high-precision keyboards with just the right touch-sensitive feel, short, but not to short travel and keys that do not wiggle sideways or clatter. Solid and precise! Dependable. The same goes for most Apple PowerBooks and MacBook Pros. (But forget about iBooks and MacBooks, they are home user gear, and I am a professional who use professional tools.) My current work & play machine is a MacBook Pro (the 2007 model, not the new unibody machine). I use the internal keyboard, which is good, or Apple's aluminum Bluetooth keyboard. The keys are completely flat and low profile, which at first I though would be a disadvantage. But it isn't - it actually makes typing effortless and fast. Also, the travel of the keys is short, like on a laptop, and the keys are just the right size. The lack of a numerical keypad is an advantage as this makes the keyboard smaller, which reduces the stress on your wrists. If you need a numerical keypad you can always get the USB version. This is the one I use: http://www.apple.com/keyboard/
I *used to be* a full-time translator and software localizer, but had to switch careers some years ago because if RSI. I now use an Apple USB keyboard (all aluminum design) and it has cured me.
I love the standard aluminum USB keyboard (and the USB-based Mighty Mouse) that comes with the MacPro and iMac. It has cure me from my RSI. But I now use the Bluetooth version. It lacks a numerical keypad but has exactly the same feel as the USB version. All earlier Apple key boards were horrible, with the exception of the very large Apple Extended Keyboard II from back in the 1990s.
Ease of use, speed, stability, consistency... and you cant accuse MS Office of any of that. The problem with Numbers is that it's limited in scope since it only works on the Mac. What I want is a web-based solution, but with real power, and it should be free and open source software.
Numbers is not nearly the same thing or better than Excel. I really with Apple would put more resources intio Numbers and Pages, but I guess they have better things to do. I want something that's truly portable from the Mac OS X platform to Windows (XP, Vista, 7), or Linux (any flavor), or the iPhone, etc, without any conversion. Something that's vastly BETTER than Excel and Word.
I agree completely with you. The only way to beat Microsoft, or create a viable alternative to MS Office, which is the only reason to use Windows in the first place, is to break out of the mould and create something that stands on a solid and independent foundation and "does office better than Office". Microsoft Office has become this bloated fat pig of an office suite, and it is miserably complex and user-hostile. The only reason it has become the standard in business administration is that nobody else has come up with something better, leaner, easier, more reliable and consistent. But hey, someone has a great opportunity here!
What's needed is something that's better and more useful than MS Office, particularly Excel, which is Microsoft's real killer app, at least on Windows. I'm a Mac user myself, so I don't care one flying fart about Microsoft or any of their products, but if anyone wants to beat MS, they'd better come up with something *different and superior* than Office, not something similar, but free. From a business perspective, it's what the thing *does*, not what it costs or how *free* it is, that matters. I am not a programmer, but I would probably go for something that's entirely web based, but that can also be used offline. It would do everything Excel and Word does, but much better and with some unique features and great usability. That's the real challenge. Google Docs are terrible!
How could Microsoft with all their resources fail so miserable with XP and especially Vista? It's a mystery to me. No matter what they do they just can't shed the old baggage from Windows and move on. They need to kill every part of the Win XP and Vista code base, and destroy every remnant of their pre-existing thinking or they will die. It will take many years but they will die unless they do this. They are still stuck with device letters, DLLs and all that junk. They should KILL IT as soon is humanly possible and move on! They should also fire Steve Ballmer right now. The man is a disaster for Microsoft. Meanwhile I am happily using a different operating system that actually works as advertised and is fun to use. I really don't have to care one flying fart about Microsoft. :)