'Using it up' is probably a bad way of saying 'removing it from the atmosphere earlier than normal'. Imagine you own a farm, and you require a certain amount of rainfall per annum for your crops. If the big city 40 miles away invests in this technology and does (and obviously we've got no real idea what the large scale effects are yet) disrupt your annual rainfall, you've got to find that water from elsewhere. You could use the local river, but then you have to deal with irrigation etc.
The water never disappears or is used up, but this device could certainly affect the way you 'get' that water.
What does it say about my values? Well, it says that I'm aware that initially promising technology could have a rather devasting affect on enviroments that we're already messing with. Time and time again, 'progress' has resulting in some frankly appalling effects on the environment, and I value that environment enough to ask the question. Better to ask and stand corrected, than not ask, surely?
Consider just how profound the consequences of this device could be for sub-Saharan Africa, if it's economically viable.
If this does work, and it doesn't make a bad situation worse, what does it say about your values if you would only consider the device if it was economically sound?
Excellent, so now anyone living near, but not in a city can enjoy a barren landscape when the rain no longer falls.
Alright, sarcasm aside, surely there are bound to be some less-than-good effects on the surrounding enviroment if large amounts of water are 'sucked' out of the atmosphere prematurely?
Well, SONICblue (formerly S3 / Diamond) are essentially dead as well(chapter 11, most product lines sold off), but Matrox still survive with a 3-5% share of the market, and they're doing fairly well in niche markets - scientific, medical, military and financial. As for 3dfx, their assets (intellectual and staff) where purchased by NVIDIA; so any innovation from their prime years is probably still alive and well (to a degree).
. And finally, three, I've seen on a few recent travel shows something referred to as a "traditional English breakfast", a monstrous affair with multiple starches and sausages, eggs, some tomato, and more. Is that real or something they just serve to tourists? Either way, it looks mighty good to me.
It is indeed real, and I'm quite fond of them myself (well, I'm British so I guess I should be!).
I typically go for the following; bacon, fried/scrambled eggs, sausages, hash browns, mushrooms, grilled/fried tomatoes, baked beans and blood pudding. I'll typically take toast and a few cups of tea on the side as well.
Assuming most of the oil/fat is drained off the various components beforehand, it isn't particually unhealthy. If you are interested, check out the history of the 'Little Chef' brand; these roadside restaurants became famous for selling an 'all-day breakfast' for hungry travellers.
Whats your role in schools mate, tech/teach/support/other?
I'm a Network Manager myself, based in a school/college in Essex. Couldn't agree more with what you say about RM. We're currently in the process of ditching our RM servers, and the disgrace that is CC3! However, we're not moving to OSS or anything. In fact, we're pushing through a pure MS Terminal Services / thin client setup.
We did trial a linux (SuSE I think) solution, but backwards-compatability and integration with our existing network was something the company who offered the solution seemed unwilling to think about.
So, we're rolling our own solution. MS-based datacentre, full remote access for students and staff, 24/7. We're building the thin clients ourselves using our existing hardware and thinstation ( http://www.2x.com/pxes/ ), and new thin clients such as HP's T5520.
Microsoft licensing is the smallest part of my (sadly many) budgets; it accounts for barely 5% of my annual spend. It'd be more useful if Becta started to get manufacturers to provide decent hardware pricing to schools, since hardware is vastly more expensive than software.
I'm 24, live in the UK, and I have no credit or debit cards. All I have is a savings account card for the classic 'hole in the wall' money system. Shell (the petrol station) removed their Chip and Pin facilities for 3 months because of security concerns. Think I'll stick with cash for my purchases in the future.
I didn't originally think of that, but you've made a fine point my friend. After years of copying the look and feel of Microsoft Office, Star/Open Office will now be closer to the 'known' UI than the new product. However, Open Office isn't going to be rolled out across corporations and educational establishments automatically; thats a big advantage when trying something new.
Face it, users are lazy. Most users probably use barely 5% of Office's functionality. And from my experience (Beta tester - June onwards) the useful 5% of Office has been made an awful lot clearer for those lazy users.
Maybe Star/Open Office should try something new. Release a '2007' UI fork with a redesigned interface. Then see what happens?
I agree completely, but schools already control their own connections, or at least they should be. The NASUWT, along with most teaching unions, are a pain the ass when it comes to over-reacting to things, and you can be sure they'll try and implement a completely unwarranted nationwide filtering system, given half the chance. And that is something I don't agree with, based on what I mentioned in my first post.
I'm a Network Manager at a UK school / college. I guess I'm perfectly placed to speak on these matters, so here we go...
I have a duty of care, in my role, to protect students from certain inappropriate material on the internet. The obvious ones are there; pornography, paedophilia, unmonitored chatrooms, unmonitored messaging sites, etc.
Myspace is blocked, because I can't honestly say that I can be 100% certain that students couldn't use the site and put themselves at risk. Porn websites are blocked, because the students are not 18. All chat programs, such as MSN/AOL/IRC are not installed on student profiles, and students do not have administration rights to install software either. Proxy websites are blocked, so that students can't bypass the restrictions and vew unfiltered content. All fairly common stuff. Ironically, the biggest complaints I get about myspace being blocked are from teachers, but thats another story altogether.
I use active content filtering to block access to inappropriate content on all other websites, such as youtube or google vids, which might contain any of the things I first mentioned.
However, I don't block anything just 'because I'm told to'. A teacher can request that anything in the world gets filtered out, but ultimately the decision lies with me.
If a teacher cannot control his or her students in a classroom, then it is the fault of the teacher, not the students are finding the material. And personally, I think that is the way it should stay. Technology shouldn't be used to simply 'restrict access' to material when that material doesn't fit within the narrow categories I first mentioned. If anything, teachers should be embracing sites such as youtube and google videos because they provide a wealth of material that can be used in the classroom.
Yep, we actually got that before you did by a few months (October against January) because Sky One funded some of the development and production costs. This funding wasn't repeated for 2 or 3, so back to the normal time lag scenarios.
Ok, so from TFA: "One thing is for certain, Vienna won't be just an operating system, but a new generation in computing."
How, we all ask, will it achieve such wonders?
The answer: "Windows Fiji will feature a more powerful sidebar, Monaco, a music authoring tool similar to Apple's Garageband, default playback of HD-DVD, more advanced Speech Recognition, and new themes, icons, wallpapers, games, and minor tweaks to almost everything."
Mmmhmm. I can't be the only one sitting here thinking 'what a load of bull'. I mean, really, if I wanted to get this apparently 'new generation' of computing, I'd go out and buy a.Mac. Or, come to think of it, do what I've already done; use LiteStep and mod my current XP install.
Yeah, I realised afterwards about the channel issue. Oops, my bad. Shows you how up to date I am with what is actually shown on what. That Arquette (sp?) lass has Medium on Sci-Fi UK which can be a bit of a laugh.
Still, is HD enough for me to re-watch BSG? I'll be honest, probably not. By the time the HD versions hit our screens, I'll be back to watching the second half of the series from the US....
I'll be honest; the ratings in the UK would be a lot higher if we didn't have such a huge wait. Whilst you in the US are enjoying Series 3, we haven't even started yet.
I watch the US versions, a day after they air. You can work out the rest for yourself. But there is no point viewing on Sci-Fi UK when I've already seen it. If we had parity with the US, or at least something more sensible like a week, the viewing figures would be much higher!
I have quite a large TV - a 37" widescreen - and the playback on that screen was quite poor. Whether this was related to the widescreen issues mentioned below or the general quality of my input source I'm not sure, but I certainly won't be using the OSD to record TV for playback on my TV.
I'm not sure I can justify spending money on something that'll record stuff that only looks good on the PC or a portable player... if I wanted that I'd just use my PC's inbuilt functionality. Still, a good start.
And when the Police roll into an abandoned warehouse and find the phone, but no child...
As has been mentioned earlier, there are numerous ways to get round this tracking feature, the easiest of which is to just throw the phone in the trash.
I've got nothing wrong with 'thinking of the children' but lets be honest with each other; this idea has nothing to do with post-abduction rescues.
If I buy a house, and then don't pay the morgage, they'll repossess the house. I can't use the argument of 'I didn't read the Terms and Conditions' to get myself out of the mess I'm in.
Last time I installed a piece of software like Kazaa, it stated what it was going to do at each step, and clearly explained what would happen, and that I shouldn't share files to which I didn't own the copyright.
And if you use an official installation image, that you've properly licensed, you'll know exactly what you are getting.
Now if someone wants to download an third-party image for something they haven't paid for, and gets stung with malware, how on earth is this Microsoft's fault?
IF IE under Vista is reasonably secure and isn't missing any "must-have" features, they will enjoy steady or rising market share in the future.
That statement raises an interesting point. Given that Vista isn't exactly receiving stunning press at the moment, are there any reasons for Joe User to upgrade? And given that most installs of Vista (initially) will come from people buying new machines, will FF's marketshare actually change.
I'm under the impression that most FF users (outside of the geek community) have been converted because FF has been recommended as a superior product. If / when those users move to Vista, I reckon a fair percentage might carry on with Firefox because they 'know it was better than IE'.
Why the *HELL* Microsoft doesn't offer Warranty protection like this.
I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that having the lion's share of the world's virus, trojan, spyware and other such crap being targetted at your system precludes such an option. (Reasons for this left as an exercise for the reader...)
The GPLv2 is old and out of date and though it still works today, will start to crumble in a few years.
The rest of your points I'd tend to agree with, but I'm not sure what you mean by the one above.
Considering how Sun and Microsoft have been making a mess of 'open' licences lately, the main reason I can think of for continuing to use v2 is that it is stable. It is a known quantity, and everyone (within certain circles obviously) is aware of what they can do with it. I can't see how time would 'age' a licence really.
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'Using it up' is probably a bad way of saying 'removing it from the atmosphere earlier than normal'. Imagine you own a farm, and you require a certain amount of rainfall per annum for your crops. If the big city 40 miles away invests in this technology and does (and obviously we've got no real idea what the large scale effects are yet) disrupt your annual rainfall, you've got to find that water from elsewhere. You could use the local river, but then you have to deal with irrigation etc.
The water never disappears or is used up, but this device could certainly affect the way you 'get' that water.
What does it say about my values? Well, it says that I'm aware that initially promising technology could have a rather devasting affect on enviroments that we're already messing with. Time and time again, 'progress' has resulting in some frankly appalling effects on the environment, and I value that environment enough to ask the question. Better to ask and stand corrected, than not ask, surely?
Consider just how profound the consequences of this device could be for sub-Saharan Africa, if it's economically viable.
If this does work, and it doesn't make a bad situation worse, what does it say about your values if you would only consider the device if it was economically sound?
Excellent, so now anyone living near, but not in a city can enjoy a barren landscape when the rain no longer falls.
Alright, sarcasm aside, surely there are bound to be some less-than-good effects on the surrounding enviroment if large amounts of water are 'sucked' out of the atmosphere prematurely?
Well, SONICblue (formerly S3 / Diamond) are essentially dead as well(chapter 11, most product lines sold off), but Matrox still survive with a 3-5% share of the market, and they're doing fairly well in niche markets - scientific, medical, military and financial. As for 3dfx, their assets (intellectual and staff) where purchased by NVIDIA; so any innovation from their prime years is probably still alive and well (to a degree).
. And finally, three, I've seen on a few recent travel shows something referred to as a "traditional English breakfast", a monstrous affair with multiple starches and sausages, eggs, some tomato, and more. Is that real or something they just serve to tourists? Either way, it looks mighty good to me.
;)
It is indeed real, and I'm quite fond of them myself (well, I'm British so I guess I should be!).
I typically go for the following; bacon, fried/scrambled eggs, sausages, hash browns, mushrooms, grilled/fried tomatoes, baked beans and blood pudding. I'll typically take toast and a few cups of tea on the side as well.
Assuming most of the oil/fat is drained off the various components beforehand, it isn't particually unhealthy. If you are interested, check out the history of the 'Little Chef' brand; these roadside restaurants became famous for selling an 'all-day breakfast' for hungry travellers.
Dammit, I'm far too hungry now
Whats your role in schools mate, tech/teach/support/other?
I'm a Network Manager myself, based in a school/college in Essex. Couldn't agree more with what you say about RM. We're currently in the process of ditching our RM servers, and the disgrace that is CC3! However, we're not moving to OSS or anything. In fact, we're pushing through a pure MS Terminal Services / thin client setup.
We did trial a linux (SuSE I think) solution, but backwards-compatability and integration with our existing network was something the company who offered the solution seemed unwilling to think about.
So, we're rolling our own solution. MS-based datacentre, full remote access for students and staff, 24/7. We're building the thin clients ourselves using our existing hardware and thinstation ( http://www.2x.com/pxes/ ), and new thin clients such as HP's T5520.
Microsoft licensing is the smallest part of my (sadly many) budgets; it accounts for barely 5% of my annual spend. It'd be more useful if Becta started to get manufacturers to provide decent hardware pricing to schools, since hardware is vastly more expensive than software.
I'm 24, live in the UK, and I have no credit or debit cards. All I have is a savings account card for the classic 'hole in the wall' money system. Shell (the petrol station) removed their Chip and Pin facilities for 3 months because of security concerns. Think I'll stick with cash for my purchases in the future.
I didn't originally think of that, but you've made a fine point my friend. After years of copying the look and feel of Microsoft Office, Star/Open Office will now be closer to the 'known' UI than the new product. However, Open Office isn't going to be rolled out across corporations and educational establishments automatically; thats a big advantage when trying something new.
Face it, users are lazy. Most users probably use barely 5% of Office's functionality. And from my experience (Beta tester - June onwards) the useful 5% of Office has been made an awful lot clearer for those lazy users.
Maybe Star/Open Office should try something new. Release a '2007' UI fork with a redesigned interface. Then see what happens?
I agree completely, but schools already control their own connections, or at least they should be. The NASUWT, along with most teaching unions, are a pain the ass when it comes to over-reacting to things, and you can be sure they'll try and implement a completely unwarranted nationwide filtering system, given half the chance. And that is something I don't agree with, based on what I mentioned in my first post.
I'm a Network Manager at a UK school / college. I guess I'm perfectly placed to speak on these matters, so here we go...
I have a duty of care, in my role, to protect students from certain inappropriate material on the internet. The obvious ones are there; pornography, paedophilia, unmonitored chatrooms, unmonitored messaging sites, etc.
Myspace is blocked, because I can't honestly say that I can be 100% certain that students couldn't use the site and put themselves at risk. Porn websites are blocked, because the students are not 18. All chat programs, such as MSN/AOL/IRC are not installed on student profiles, and students do not have administration rights to install software either. Proxy websites are blocked, so that students can't bypass the restrictions and vew unfiltered content. All fairly common stuff. Ironically, the biggest complaints I get about myspace being blocked are from teachers, but thats another story altogether.
I use active content filtering to block access to inappropriate content on all other websites, such as youtube or google vids, which might contain any of the things I first mentioned.
However, I don't block anything just 'because I'm told to'. A teacher can request that anything in the world gets filtered out, but ultimately the decision lies with me.
If a teacher cannot control his or her students in a classroom, then it is the fault of the teacher, not the students are finding the material. And personally, I think that is the way it should stay. Technology shouldn't be used to simply 'restrict access' to material when that material doesn't fit within the narrow categories I first mentioned. If anything, teachers should be embracing sites such as youtube and google videos because they provide a wealth of material that can be used in the classroom.
Yep, agreed on that one.
If I'm going to be using a VR-type setup, nothing is going to ruin the experience as well as typing a domain name!
Yep, we actually got that before you did by a few months (October against January) because Sky One funded some of the development and production costs. This funding wasn't repeated for 2 or 3, so back to the normal time lag scenarios.
Oh, classic, I've got the new versions confused. My apologies... *facedesk*.
;)
Windows Vienna will change the OS by not having a start bar or explorer interace, just the Sidebar.
Hang on a minute, I can do that now using Litestep. Oh, so they are the same then!
Ok, so from TFA: "One thing is for certain, Vienna won't be just an operating system, but a new generation in computing."
.Mac. Or, come to think of it, do what I've already done; use LiteStep and mod my current XP install.
How, we all ask, will it achieve such wonders?
The answer: "Windows Fiji will feature a more powerful sidebar, Monaco, a music authoring tool similar to Apple's Garageband, default playback of HD-DVD, more advanced Speech Recognition, and new themes, icons, wallpapers, games, and minor tweaks to almost everything."
Mmmhmm. I can't be the only one sitting here thinking 'what a load of bull'. I mean, really, if I wanted to get this apparently 'new generation' of computing, I'd go out and buy a
Yeah, I realised afterwards about the channel issue. Oops, my bad. Shows you how up to date I am with what is actually shown on what. That Arquette (sp?) lass has Medium on Sci-Fi UK which can be a bit of a laugh.
Still, is HD enough for me to re-watch BSG? I'll be honest, probably not. By the time the HD versions hit our screens, I'll be back to watching the second half of the series from the US....
I'll be honest; the ratings in the UK would be a lot higher if we didn't have such a huge wait. Whilst you in the US are enjoying Series 3, we haven't even started yet.
I watch the US versions, a day after they air. You can work out the rest for yourself. But there is no point viewing on Sci-Fi UK when I've already seen it. If we had parity with the US, or at least something more sensible like a week, the viewing figures would be much higher!
I RTFA and noticed the following snippet;
I have quite a large TV - a 37" widescreen - and the playback on that screen was quite poor. Whether this was related to the widescreen issues mentioned below or the general quality of my input source I'm not sure, but I certainly won't be using the OSD to record TV for playback on my TV.
I'm not sure I can justify spending money on something that'll record stuff that only looks good on the PC or a portable player... if I wanted that I'd just use my PC's inbuilt functionality. Still, a good start.
And when the Police roll into an abandoned warehouse and find the phone, but no child...
As has been mentioned earlier, there are numerous ways to get round this tracking feature, the easiest of which is to just throw the phone in the trash.
I've got nothing wrong with 'thinking of the children' but lets be honest with each other; this idea has nothing to do with post-abduction rescues.
No fair, my sub was written off this morning by a Trent engine manifold...
If I buy a house, and then don't pay the morgage, they'll repossess the house. I can't use the argument of 'I didn't read the Terms and Conditions' to get myself out of the mess I'm in.
Last time I installed a piece of software like Kazaa, it stated what it was going to do at each step, and clearly explained what would happen, and that I shouldn't share files to which I didn't own the copyright.
Sueing for being stupid is... well, stupid.
And if you use an official installation image, that you've properly licensed, you'll know exactly what you are getting.
Now if someone wants to download an third-party image for something they haven't paid for, and gets stung with malware, how on earth is this Microsoft's fault?
IF IE under Vista is reasonably secure and isn't missing any "must-have" features, they will enjoy steady or rising market share in the future.
That statement raises an interesting point. Given that Vista isn't exactly receiving stunning press at the moment, are there any reasons for Joe User to upgrade? And given that most installs of Vista (initially) will come from people buying new machines, will FF's marketshare actually change.
I'm under the impression that most FF users (outside of the geek community) have been converted because FF has been recommended as a superior product. If / when those users move to Vista, I reckon a fair percentage might carry on with Firefox because they 'know it was better than IE'.
Then again, I could be wrong. Thoughts, anyone?
Yep, adverts are going to kill LJ; just look at Myspace, they've got ads everywhere and no-one uses that site at all... oh, wait..
Why the *HELL* Microsoft doesn't offer Warranty protection like this.
I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that having the lion's share of the world's virus, trojan, spyware and other such crap being targetted at your system precludes such an option. (Reasons for this left as an exercise for the reader...)
The GPLv2 is old and out of date and though it still works today, will start to crumble in a few years.
The rest of your points I'd tend to agree with, but I'm not sure what you mean by the one above.
Considering how Sun and Microsoft have been making a mess of 'open' licences lately, the main reason I can think of for continuing to use v2 is that it is stable. It is a known quantity, and everyone (within certain circles obviously) is aware of what they can do with it. I can't see how time would 'age' a licence really.