I must confess, I've always wondered about the legality of foreign manufacturing - after all, what is the point of having labor laws at all if you can simply have things built abroad and legally ignore them?
Especially when we're talking about Apple pricing, where one could assume the high cost was due to local manufacture (but of course, the real reason is as you say - greed)
....they're desperate to not have to pay anyone to develop original titles, so they're trawling their back-catalogue to recycle anything that might even partly make money.
....one that costs more than a laptop and does less. And in the current economic climate, with no real business justification for having one other than showing off, they'll 'dominate next year'. Uh-huh.
I spent ten years replacing mac-offices with PC's. It was really easy - just point out to the manager that staff can always be told 'If you want a mac, bring in your own. If you want a PC, you can have one for free'. Suddenly, faced with the cost of a mac, every single user plumped for a PC - users who previously 'couldn't do without a mac'. And that was when things were relatively booming compared to now.
So, to summarise - a mac-fanboy article, posted by a Slashdot mac-fanboy.
You could say that about either - you can learn to play, or learn to play well.
And musicianship is a lifelong pursuit *for you*. For me, playing a musical instrument is a lark unless you're a professional musician.
I would advise people to do the above on a real guitar - otherwise it's like PC's vs. consoles - play games on a PC, you'll pick up PC-stuff along the way. Play games on a console, and all you will achieve is the high score. And I'd much rather be a basic guitar player than a guitar-hero-simon-god.
The last time someone tried insisting on an open standard, we got the alternative to.doc - which is used by an overwhelming majority of almost no-one.
The whole open/ closed debate is all very nice, but folks are already using H.264 - so it's not 'what shall we insist that people use', more a case of 'how do we support what people are already using'. GIF isn't open, and no-one has stopped using it - ditto JPEG. It's odd, you'd think the alternatives would at least learn *something* from MS - establish dominance, create standards. Things don't usually work the other way round.
Guitar Hero wasn't that impressive to anyone that remembered Simon - AB isn't that impressive to anyone that played Tanks (or later, Worms...it's not exactly a new concept.
None of which will stop the mac crowd writing articles such as this (TL:DR; games are fun!) - but then I supposed they were starved of games for so long, it'll be a while before they run out of oldies.
This is what's odd - everyone's keen to jump on/ fine MS for ther likes of IE and WMP, but.doc format? No one even whispers. NTFS file system? Not a peep. Which is mad - to me these things are far more in the realm of 'should be accessible by all'.
You're right - everyone else *shouldn't* have to use what corps do, but it's nearly always corps that drive this sort of thing, and as a result most non-tech people are keen to use what will get them a job, not what the 'standard' is.
FF passwords - most users don't even know what the registry *is*. Alternatively, *any* user can find their way to the password list. And a properly set up Windows domain won't let you see the autocomplete files and won't save *any* passwords - but that's IE's fault; they made it open assuming everyone would lock it down, when the only people who actually do that are corp-employed domain admins. Then everyone jumps around shouting about how unsafe IE is - why don't they do the same with FF? Why does no-one point out that allowing updates *every time you start the browser* might not be for the best? I'll certainly knock MS when they deserve it, but it grates that other co's do the same and no-one says squat. Don't even get me started on Apple.
As an aside - I love Slashdot! Most of my comments are usually based in reality and experience - the way things are, as opposed to the way I wish they were. It's usually the only way to find a workable way forward.
As a result, I've never had a comment with a score higher than 1. Which made me move to reddit, where at least you can press people to *justify* the downvote.
You don't *have* to copy & paste code just to get something to save in a format - plenty of non-MS apps already save stuff in.doc format.
And with browsers, there's no pretending - if you run Exchange (which a huge number of sites do), and you users want to use Outlook Web Acces (which they always do), it's IE-only if you want all the features to work. Instantly, any other browser is pointless.
After that, you're then trying to justify supporting two browsers, two sets of patches, two sets of Internet/ Intranet 'zones', two sets of GPO's (which FF sort of supports, but the others don't - so no corporate control, another deal-breaker). Home users can switch between these apps in an instant, whereas corps are more like a huge truck - it takes ages to turn, to the point where it *really* has to be worth turning...and usually it isn't.
Or how about the chairman trick? Show your chairman how the FF his son loaded for him allows you to show all the passwords in English with two clicks. *By default*. Queue lots of spluttering from the chairman - now image in IE was that exposed out of the box...Gates would have been stoned to death.
As for open office, last year I read their CEO claiming a userbase based on the *number of downloads*, "which means lots of people must be using it" (Ri-ight). And for any serious-size company, the amount of integration with Access (as a front end), Outlook (because of Exchange) and Word (forms, etc.), OneNote, not to mention training people means that OO has never really been a serious contender. MS Office has been king for twenty years because there just isn't anything else as good or as integrated.
And you'll need to define 'somewhat expensive OS' - compare Windows 95 to Windows 7, and look at a) how much software now comes free (AV, Antispam, defrag etc.) then look at home much 95 used to cost compared to Win7 x64 costing £100 - I don't call that expensive. I do wish that the linux crowd had spent more time coming up with working alternatives instead of (for instance) bleating about how AD was just LDAP with bells on.
Well, what's the most popular word processor in the world? That might be a good place to start - if you want your alternative to have any sort of chance.
OS, Proprietary...it makes no difference if everyone is *already using it* - Otherwise you may as well bitch about NTFS and the like. Working in the industry, you tend to define 'standard' as what everyone is actually already using, not what someone has decided would be best on your behalf. If it were that simple, I'd have everyone on Amiga's and we'd be getting the same work done with a tenth the memory and storage use. Sure, you can *steer* the likes of MS towards one technology or another, but writing apps that simply ignore them is usually commercial suicide.
Chrome with it's IE-plugin is the right sort of approach - introduce people to something new without insisting they abandon what they're using now.
It's a shame everyone's waited twenty years to start pretending MS/ Windows doesn't exist, and it's hugely ironic that everyone's so FF-friendly when it was their parent company that ensured everyone moved onto IE in the first place by deciding that we all wouldn't mind paying £30 a pop for Netscape.
...how many desktops use opera as their browser again?
It's bizarre - they all seem to think that decisions like this will simply be followed by the users, when the reality will be a) find a plugin, or b) go get a browser that does it already. Like IE9:-)
If this were an open source device, everyone would be trumpeting 1.7 million slaes as a huge dent in MS.
But, as this is MS, 1.7 million means it's 'struggling'. With bonus points for lumping android in with iphone, as if android *isn't* outselling iphone by five-to-one.
I can remember the days when I *didn't* have to figure out the agenda, and slashdot simply reported news. Or maybe it's just easier to go on reddit instead.
After a single paragraph (and an 'Skip-this-ad'), we're treated to several blurry tablets, a couple of phones, a game-phone and a building, based on a slideshow with no text that reloads every page (meaning it's not really a slideshow).
I didn't realise PCMag had the cheek to make copy out of techno-fap material - but more worrying is the issue of Slashdot then linking to it as if it's worth reading.
I know it's NYE, but really guys if there's no news, don't bother with filler.
Google are one of the *largest* companies. They can afford to build their own servers from scratch, each with a built-in UPS and write their own OS for it.
So, 'if google can do it, others can' doesn't really stick - it's like saying 'Company A can afford to use HP Servers, so all other companies will follow'. And the mass-migration to OSS has been predicted for over ten years, but hasn't happened in anything like the numbers the windows-is-dead crowd have predicted again and again.
I can fully appreciate the usage of Vapps and the like, but thin clients are a bit too far IMHO. I would say they've tried it before and failed, but then I used to say that about tablets...
You can go down the linux road, but it won't last.
Nearly all new staff will need cross-training in your OS, Open Office, and whatever else is non-Windows. Remember, you can assume people will have Win7 at home, but you can't do that with linux and regular staff. And once that cost equals the money you 'saved' on MS licenses, you'll have to explain how this happened when the whole point was to 'save money'.
Slashdot Mirror
I must confess, I've always wondered about the legality of foreign manufacturing - after all, what is the point of having labor laws at all if you can simply have things built abroad and legally ignore them?
Especially when we're talking about Apple pricing, where one could assume the high cost was due to local manufacture (but of course, the real reason is as you say - greed)
....their supercomputers have cpu's ten years behind Intel's, but their science output overall will overtake the US in two years.
I think I'll wait and see if that happens, thanks.
....they're desperate to not have to pay anyone to develop original titles, so they're trawling their back-catalogue to recycle anything that might even partly make money.
Kind of like Sony with Blues Brothers 2000.
....one that costs more than a laptop and does less. And in the current economic climate, with no real business justification for having one other than showing off, they'll 'dominate next year'. Uh-huh.
I spent ten years replacing mac-offices with PC's. It was really easy - just point out to the manager that staff can always be told 'If you want a mac, bring in your own. If you want a PC, you can have one for free'. Suddenly, faced with the cost of a mac, every single user plumped for a PC - users who previously 'couldn't do without a mac'. And that was when things were relatively booming compared to now.
So, to summarise - a mac-fanboy article, posted by a Slashdot mac-fanboy.
Actually, I don't mind ads, if they don't crawl across what I'm reading.
But if someone wants me to put up with ads *and* pay, then no thanks.
Imagine if grocery stores, phone companies, or even employees earnt money from ads plastered all over their products and then asked for more off you!
>And why does a tech site need corporate visitors?
I got as far as this....there's too much to explain :-)
...slashdot wouldn't trump about how few corporate users visit their site.
But then that's the Linux attitude all over - not 'our userbase is one hundredth of the world', more 'our userbase has grown by 4000%!'
You could say that about either - you can learn to play, or learn to play well.
And musicianship is a lifelong pursuit *for you*. For me, playing a musical instrument is a lark unless you're a professional musician.
I would advise people to do the above on a real guitar - otherwise it's like PC's vs. consoles - play games on a PC, you'll pick up PC-stuff along the way. Play games on a console, and all you will achieve is the high score. And I'd much rather be a basic guitar player than a guitar-hero-simon-god.
"Hey, we completely failed to predict this, but here's an article where we confidently make more predictions!"
I expect better from Slashdot - if you're going to up guesstimates posing as real journalism, I'll just browse reddit instead.
Not when Simon was the only electronic game in the world.
And learning to play a real guitar is easier than playing GH, which doesn't help (but will get you more female attention)
...it's a step towards IE9.
The last time someone tried insisting on an open standard, we got the alternative to .doc - which is used by an overwhelming majority of almost no-one.
The whole open/ closed debate is all very nice, but folks are already using H.264 - so it's not 'what shall we insist that people use', more a case of 'how do we support what people are already using'. GIF isn't open, and no-one has stopped using it - ditto JPEG. It's odd, you'd think the alternatives would at least learn *something* from MS - establish dominance, create standards. Things don't usually work the other way round.
Guitar Hero wasn't that impressive to anyone that remembered Simon - AB isn't that impressive to anyone that played Tanks (or later, Worms...it's not exactly a new concept.
None of which will stop the mac crowd writing articles such as this (TL:DR; games are fun!) - but then I supposed they were starved of games for so long, it'll be a while before they run out of oldies.
This is what's odd - everyone's keen to jump on/ fine MS for ther likes of IE and WMP, but .doc format? No one even whispers. NTFS file system? Not a peep. Which is mad - to me these things are far more in the realm of 'should be accessible by all'.
You're right - everyone else *shouldn't* have to use what corps do, but it's nearly always corps that drive this sort of thing, and as a result most non-tech people are keen to use what will get them a job, not what the 'standard' is.
FF passwords - most users don't even know what the registry *is*. Alternatively, *any* user can find their way to the password list. And a properly set up Windows domain won't let you see the autocomplete files and won't save *any* passwords - but that's IE's fault; they made it open assuming everyone would lock it down, when the only people who actually do that are corp-employed domain admins. Then everyone jumps around shouting about how unsafe IE is - why don't they do the same with FF? Why does no-one point out that allowing updates *every time you start the browser* might not be for the best? I'll certainly knock MS when they deserve it, but it grates that other co's do the same and no-one says squat. Don't even get me started on Apple.
As an aside - I love Slashdot! Most of my comments are usually based in reality and experience - the way things are, as opposed to the way I wish they were. It's usually the only way to find a workable way forward.
As a result, I've never had a comment with a score higher than 1. Which made me move to reddit, where at least you can press people to *justify* the downvote.
You don't *have* to copy & paste code just to get something to save in a format - plenty of non-MS apps already save stuff in .doc format.
And with browsers, there's no pretending - if you run Exchange (which a huge number of sites do), and you users want to use Outlook Web Acces (which they always do), it's IE-only if you want all the features to work. Instantly, any other browser is pointless.
After that, you're then trying to justify supporting two browsers, two sets of patches, two sets of Internet/ Intranet 'zones', two sets of GPO's (which FF sort of supports, but the others don't - so no corporate control, another deal-breaker). Home users can switch between these apps in an instant, whereas corps are more like a huge truck - it takes ages to turn, to the point where it *really* has to be worth turning...and usually it isn't.
Or how about the chairman trick? Show your chairman how the FF his son loaded for him allows you to show all the passwords in English with two clicks. *By default*. Queue lots of spluttering from the chairman - now image in IE was that exposed out of the box...Gates would have been stoned to death.
As for open office, last year I read their CEO claiming a userbase based on the *number of downloads*, "which means lots of people must be using it" (Ri-ight). And for any serious-size company, the amount of integration with Access (as a front end), Outlook (because of Exchange) and Word (forms, etc.), OneNote, not to mention training people means that OO has never really been a serious contender. MS Office has been king for twenty years because there just isn't anything else as good or as integrated.
And you'll need to define 'somewhat expensive OS' - compare Windows 95 to Windows 7, and look at a) how much software now comes free (AV, Antispam, defrag etc.) then look at home much 95 used to cost compared to Win7 x64 costing £100 - I don't call that expensive. I do wish that the linux crowd had spent more time coming up with working alternatives instead of (for instance) bleating about how AD was just LDAP with bells on.
Well, what's the most popular word processor in the world? That might be a good place to start - if you want your alternative to have any sort of chance.
OS, Proprietary...it makes no difference if everyone is *already using it* - Otherwise you may as well bitch about NTFS and the like. Working in the industry, you tend to define 'standard' as what everyone is actually already using, not what someone has decided would be best on your behalf. If it were that simple, I'd have everyone on Amiga's and we'd be getting the same work done with a tenth the memory and storage use. Sure, you can *steer* the likes of MS towards one technology or another, but writing apps that simply ignore them is usually commercial suicide.
Chrome with it's IE-plugin is the right sort of approach - introduce people to something new without insisting they abandon what they're using now.
It's a shame everyone's waited twenty years to start pretending MS/ Windows doesn't exist, and it's hugely ironic that everyone's so FF-friendly when it was their parent company that ensured everyone moved onto IE in the first place by deciding that we all wouldn't mind paying £30 a pop for Netscape.
It bothers me - this isn't some codec that's up'n'coming, it's something that's in use *right now*, and it isn't some buggy app like Flash.
It reminds me of Open Office - 'hey, let's set the default format to something that *no-one uses* - oh, why has our userbase not exploded?'
...how many desktops use opera as their browser again?
It's bizarre - they all seem to think that decisions like this will simply be followed by the users, when the reality will be a) find a plugin, or b) go get a browser that does it already. Like IE9 :-)
No Dark Knight Returns tank.
For those who might not know - Dark Knight Returns is as big as it gets and one of the most important graphic novels of all time
Not including the extraordinary batmobile from DKR is like missing out Tom Baker in a Doctor Who chart.
If this were an open source device, everyone would be trumpeting 1.7 million slaes as a huge dent in MS.
But, as this is MS, 1.7 million means it's 'struggling'. With bonus points for lumping android in with iphone, as if android *isn't* outselling iphone by five-to-one.
I can remember the days when I *didn't* have to figure out the agenda, and slashdot simply reported news. Or maybe it's just easier to go on reddit instead.
....I wish they wouldn't bother with this guff.
After a single paragraph (and an 'Skip-this-ad'), we're treated to several blurry tablets, a couple of phones, a game-phone and a building, based on a slideshow with no text that reloads every page (meaning it's not really a slideshow).
I didn't realise PCMag had the cheek to make copy out of techno-fap material - but more worrying is the issue of Slashdot then linking to it as if it's worth reading.
I know it's NYE, but really guys if there's no news, don't bother with filler.
Google are one of the *largest* companies. They can afford to build their own servers from scratch, each with a built-in UPS and write their own OS for it.
So, 'if google can do it, others can' doesn't really stick - it's like saying 'Company A can afford to use HP Servers, so all other companies will follow'. And the mass-migration to OSS has been predicted for over ten years, but hasn't happened in anything like the numbers the windows-is-dead crowd have predicted again and again.
I can fully appreciate the usage of Vapps and the like, but thin clients are a bit too far IMHO. I would say they've tried it before and failed, but then I used to say that about tablets...
So....what Google does the rest of the world will copy?
In any case, this is the 'my Grandfather smoked 90-a-day and lived to 110' arguement. Your example is not the norm.
You need to update your arguments. They're pretty much all out of date.
Windows SBS. Windows 7 on all the clients.
You can go down the linux road, but it won't last.
Nearly all new staff will need cross-training in your OS, Open Office, and whatever else is non-Windows. Remember, you can assume people will have Win7 at home, but you can't do that with linux and regular staff. And once that cost equals the money you 'saved' on MS licenses, you'll have to explain how this happened when the whole point was to 'save money'.
And that's before we