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#61
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! Windows 7 Sucks
On 12/01/2011, Wolf K posted:
On 01/12/2011 7:19 PM, BillW50 wrote: [...] Have you ever written a printer driver for Windows before Dan? [...] Yes. I even recall inserting escape sequences (ie "driver" instructions) into text docs so as to make the printer do all kinds of fancy things. Glad those days are gone. Wolf K. I remember inserting escape codes into documents just to make them print properly! I'm also glad those days are over. -- Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch) |
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#62
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! Windows 7 Sucks
"Gene E. Bloch" wrote in message ... On 12/01/2011, Wolf K posted: On 01/12/2011 7:19 PM, BillW50 wrote: [...] Have you ever written a printer driver for Windows before Dan? [...] Yes. I even recall inserting escape sequences (ie "driver" instructions) into text docs so as to make the printer do all kinds of fancy things. Glad those days are gone. Wolf K. I remember inserting escape codes into documents just to make them print properly! I'm also glad those days are over. I wish they were for me - there are more businesses out there running legacy products that still use the old escape control codes than you might think... -- Zaphod Voted "Worst Dressed Sentient Being in the Known Universe" for seven years in a row. |
#63
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! Windows 7 Sucks
On 12/2/2011 12:51 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote: On 12/01/2011, Wolf K posted: On 01/12/2011 7:19 PM, BillW50 wrote: [...] Have you ever written a printer driver for Windows before Dan? [...] Yes. I even recall inserting escape sequences (ie "driver" instructions) into text docs so as to make the printer do all kinds of fancy things. Glad those days are gone. Wolf K. I remember inserting escape codes into documents just to make them print properly! I'm also glad those days are over. ASCII art is pretty cool just the same. |
#64
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! Windows 7 Sucks
In . 97.131,
DanS wrote: "BillW50" wrote in : (Note: Any deleted material does not mean I agree with it. And again, going from 32 bit to 64 bit. CPUs with new added instruction sets and other advances in hardware architecture can require changes to take advantages of it. OMG! Windows supported 16 bit for almost two decades. Now the move from 32 to 64 bit, it can't be done anymore? With the older Microsoft programmers it would happen. But with the new lazy new programmers, it is not possible. It wasn't 'lazy programmers', no matter what you say. It was a business decision. You can't support 100% of everything forever. At some point, you have to decide that instead of supporting 100% you can only support 99.9999998% of users(, in relation to this 16-bit issue.) Users are crying about Windows 'bloat', and how do you cut bloat.....by removing things that *virtually noone* uses anymore. You claim this, but DOS support is still there and Gates said about 15 years ago it would end. So why is it still there? And back in the DOS only days, every application needed its own printer driver. Have 10 DOS applications, you needed 10 printer drivers all for one printer. Windows changed all of that. Now you only need one printer driver for one printer and it doesn't matter how many applications you have. And Windows supporting printer drivers from different versions of Windows is a cakewalk. Far easier than supporting DOS. And I see no reason (hardware or software wise) why Windows can't support printer drivers from any version of Windows. Printer drivers are not all that complex. And now with the whole HP printer exploit that's in the news, who knows what's going to go on with printing technologies...maybe there wil be a push just back to dumb peripherals for most. News to me. I plead ignorance here and I must check this out. http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9076395- exclusive-millions-of-printers-open-to-devastating-hack- attack-researchers-say Interesting. But that problem has always been there. As any device that is firmware upgradeable is at risk. Cell phones, MP3 players, external drives, etc., even my old Palm IIIc. Since most of the old people at Microsoft has retired. The new replacements just don't know any better. And I see Microsoft getting into trouble because of this. Even Microsoft had to layoff people in recent times because of this (the first time in history). I'm sure the layoffs were just like every other company on Earth, the economy..... In today's world, people can't live without computers. Far different than just a few decades earlier. And computers are not going away soon. And if Microsoft can't convince the masses that newer is better, then they have to have layoffs. Just the same as it was decades ago. Remember WordStar and Lotus? The economy was great back then but they couldn't convince the masses either. Sure I remember Wordstar and Lotus, and bunches of other s/w companies, but Wordstar was one of how many word processor packages available ? Yes, they are gone because MS created an Office Suite that was lower cost, that was a viable package for most, so people stopped buying the really expensive 3rd party Word Processors. No! At the peak, upper management fired all of the programmers because they thought they were big enough they didn't need them anymore. As now they thought they could hire people far cheaper than they had. Like always it didn't work and they went under. That may be so, but, this article: (About spreadsheets, but the same applies) http://www.utd.edu/~liebowit/book/sheets/sheet.html ...ends with the conclusion of......"The long-term winner in this battle is Microsoft, which can unload Windows plus Excel for such a low site-license price that few companies can resist." It doesn't matter *why* the other the others failed, they failed. Looks like the Lotus failure was just anojther bad business decision.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Software ...."Although SmartSuite was bundled cheaply with many PCs and may initially have been more popular than Microsoft Office, Lotus quickly lost its dominance in the desktop applications market with the transition to 32 bit applications running on Windows 95. In large part due to its focusing much of its development resources on a suite of applications for IBM's then new (and eventually a market failure) OS/2 operating system, Lotus was late in delivering its suite of 32 bit products and failed to capitalize on the transition to the new version of Windows. It now has very little market share.".... Exactly! That is what I am talking about. Watching all of this unfolding over the decades I can see clearly the writing on the wall for some companies based on the decisions a given company makes. Thus why my concern about Microsoft. As they generally made the right decisions in the past. But the old people were employed back then too. Nowadays the old gang has retired. And the new people doesn't know how to make the right decisions. There are only 3 OSs now that are viable for everyday use.......Windows, Linux and OSX (MAC). There are many that tried to get into the game. Although I see a big turning point and nobody is giving what people want. So the door is wide open for even a startup to step in. The last two releases of Windows...Vista, and 7, sold more copies faster than each preceeding release. Really? MS Bob and ME were Microsoft's big flops. And this means what, that people dumped MS like hot potato ? Obviously not. Since Windows is included with about 90% of PCs. And since computer sales are increasing every year. It is a given that the newest version of Windows is going have the highest sales figures compared to earlier releases. This is a given and should come as no surprise to anybody. Some call this as the Microsoft tax. And I never saw Vista as being very exciting. Filled with bugs and all. And Windows 7 is doing far better being as the Vista bug fixed version. And that's all I see it as. Buy anyway, you have your opinion, I have mine. We can leave it at that. Lots of company are starving for cash. Microsoft is different since they have billions in the bank. They don't need to sell any stock whatsoever. And so are others..... http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/...rantz/2011-07- 20-companies-with-the-most-cash_n.htm ...and all still laying off people. If Vista and Windows 7 sold so well, why the layoffs? You can say what you want, but you can't change the truth. And the only danger Microsoft has is they lost all of the programmers who has learned the hard lessons from the past. As the new programmers don't have a clue. Well, I'm assuming by 'programmers' you are talking about the heads of individual programs...the one's that *actually make the decisions* of what is or isn't included in whatever. The people that actually do the programming, do what they are told.....unless you think the 24-year old first year out of college CS graduate is making the decisions of what goes or doesn't go into Windows. No, I see programming much like an art form. Sure anybody can take a paint brush and paint a painting. Although few can do very well at it while most can't. The same is true of programming to a certain extent. The original group of OS programmers had experience programming DOS, UNIX, Windows, OS/2, etc. And having all of this experience just made Windows much better. They also had their share of failures and survived. The new programmers doesn't have any of this experience. So they are going to make mistakes that the older retired group wouldn't make. And this time around, Microsoft might not survive such mistakes. -- Bill Gateway M465e ('06 era) - OE-QuoteFix v1.19.2 Centrino Core Duo T2400 1.83GHz - 2GB - Windows XP SP3 |
#65
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! Windows 7 Sucks
Gene E. Bloch wrote in
: On 12/02/2011, DanS posted: And now with the whole HP printer exploit that's in the news, who knows what's going to go on with printing technologies...maybe there wil be a push just back to dumb peripherals for most. News to me. I plead ignorance here and I must check this out. http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9076395- exclusive-millions-of-printers-open-to-devastating-hack- attack-researchers-say One quote from the article: "In that demonstration, a thermal switch shut the printer down – basically, causing it to self-destruct". That tends to destroy the article's credibility for me. In reality, thermal switches, like fuses, *prevent* self-destruction... But that was probably written by the reporter, and he may have been confused. Beyond that, I've been trying to figure out how the exploit can take control of me and cause me to obtain CIA documents & carry them to the printer so they could "...use a hijacked printer as a copy machine for criminals, making it easy to commit identity theft or even take control of entire networks that would otherwise be secure", or cause me to carry copied documents to the post office and mail them to Petrograd. I'm not sure.....although, if you have a large size commercial HP printer/copier, similar tot he one at work which is a Minolta, not an HP.....it could be one that has a hard drive on it that stores things it copies and print, basically forever, until it's overwritten or purposely erased, usually through some obscure front panel sequence. It was a big to-do here, when the city's leased peripherals were traded in, with city document still on them, on the HD. These could have been just copiers however, but the possibility stil remains. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/...gnews/main6412 439.shtml |
#66
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! Windows 7 Sucks
In message 31, DanS
writes: "BillW50" wrote in : (Note: Any deleted material does not mean I agree with it. And again, going from 32 bit to 64 bit. CPUs with new added instruction sets and other advances in hardware architecture can require changes to take advantages of it. OMG! Windows supported 16 bit for almost two decades. Now the move from 32 to 64 bit, it can't be done anymore? With the older Microsoft programmers it would happen. But with the new lazy new programmers, it is not possible. It wasn't 'lazy programmers', no matter what you say. It was a business decision. It's a bit of a combination of both. It takes a non-zero amount more effort to make something backwards-compatible than not to; if the choice is between maintaining backwards compatibility and adding new features (let alone fixing bugs), and your programming resources are finite, it can indeed be a business decision: you hope you will attract more new users with your new features than lose old users. You can't support 100% of everything forever. At some point, you have to decide that instead of supporting 100% you can only support 99.9999998% of users(, in relation to this 16-bit issue.) However, I think supporting older device drivers _as a whole_ - i. e. the _family_ of them - isn't a 0.0000002% of users issue. Writing a new OS so that it doesn't _work with_ older drivers _is_ lazy - not necessarily lazy programming, lazy business decision, as in "if we drop support for older drivers, we'll not even have to _think_ about it in future in our board meetings". Users are crying about Windows 'bloat', and how do you cut bloat.....by removing things that *virtually noone* uses anymore. As opposed to adding things that "virtually no-one" (note the hyphen) wants? Ideally, software should be a whole lot more modular, so you only have to buy (or at least install) the bits you want. But that's not attractive from the business point of view, as they want to be able to keep selling the whole suite every time. (It's not exclusive to softwa if I buy a new TV, for example, it is likely to include facilities I no longer not only probably don't want anyway, but also already have in the devices I'll be connecting to it.) [] There are only 3 OSs now that are viable for everyday use.......Windows, Linux and OSX (MAC). I'd eve say that for the man in the street it's only the first and third two: for whatever reason, all the main (US) or high (UK) street stores (in UK, that's PCWorld/Currys, Comet, Tesco, Sainsbury, John Lewis, Selfridges, even ToysRUs ...) do _not_ sell Linux-based computers in the mainstream, though will occasionally sell some _devices_ that are Linux inside (but not mention it, and have no need to as it's embedded). There are many that tried to get into the game. Although I see a big turning point and nobody is giving what people want. So the door is wide open for even a startup to step in. I can't see any new OS taking off in the real world: it'd have to run Windows and/or Mac applications or not enough people would buy it for it to be anything but a novelty for geeks. It's not that M$/Apple now even have to apply their (undoubtably significant) marketing force: they're just _there_ in such a big way that nothing can shift them. OK, some of the developments via the mobile and tablet markets are likely to have an effect - but I suspect it's going to be more that Microsoft and Apple incorporate ideas from those areas, rather than that those are going to replace M/A. (There is the _possibility_ that computers as we know them - desktops and laptops/netbooks - will themselves become the exception, with most people using very portable devices, but I don't think so for at least 5 years.) [] You can say what you want, but you can't change the truth. And the only danger Microsoft has is they lost all of the programmers who has learned the hard lessons from the past. As the new programmers don't have a clue. Well, I'm assuming by 'programmers' you are talking about the heads of individual programs...the one's that *actually make the decisions* of what is or isn't included in whatever. The people that actually do the programming, do what they are told.....unless you think the 24-year old first year out of college CS graduate is making the decisions of what goes or doesn't go into Windows. No, but the person making the decisions may well be a 2x-year-old fresh out of business school. (Not that that _necessarily_ means s/he'll make _wrong_ decisions, though we oldies [BillW50, does the 50 signify something?] may tend to think they tend to be _hasty_ decisions.) -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf .... his charming, bumbling best, a serial monogamist terrified of commitment, who comes across as a sort of Bertie Wooster but with a measurable IQ. - Barry Norman on Hugh Grant's persona in certain films, Radio Times 3-9 July 2010 |
#67
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! Windows 7 Sucks
In message , SC Tom writes:
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message ... In message 31, DanS writes: [] And again, going from 32 bit to 64 bit. CPUs with new added instruction sets and other advances in hardware architecture can require changes to take advantages of it. [] Yes, but _take advantage of_ is the significant phrase. You should still be able to run existing software (in the case under discussion, printer drivers); if it doesn't _take advantage of_ the new features, that's your problem. If I had a car that could do 200 miles per hour, I would accept that I might have to pay for access to places where I could take advantage of that capability; however, I'd be pretty peeved if I _couldn't_ drive it on ordinary roads (and, obviously, I'd accept that I couldn't do 200 on them). Sort of a bad analogy; there are plenty of cars that will go 200MPH, but you can't drive them on regular roads without a lot of modifications (Nascar racers), and some that wouldn't be legal no matter what you did to them (drag racers come to mind). But I get your point :-) OK - when I said "car", I meant "street legal car", not grand prix engine-on-wheels (-:! There are plenty of "supercars" that can do a lot higher speeds than are legal in UK or US (in fact I think hardly any car on sale today can't exceed those speeds), but are still usable on ordinary roads. But you got my point, which was that if I bought such a car, I'd at least expect to be able to use it. So if I buy a super new computer with the latest OS, I'm more than a bit cross that I can't use much software and hardware I already own: I don't expect to get the benefit of all the new whizzy bits of my new machine and OS when running older hardware and software (though actually I do expect it to do so somewhat faster than the previous machine), but I do expect to be able to use it - and I don't see why I shouldn't be able to. Another car analogy might be one that runs on a special fuel. Now in that case, I _would_ expect to have to hunt for filling stations that had that fuel. But that would be like buying a Linux or Mac computer/OS: I'd know I would have to replace a lot of my software, and I'd know that from before I bought the new toy. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf .... his charming, bumbling best, a serial monogamist terrified of commitment, who comes across as a sort of Bertie Wooster but with a measurable IQ. - Barry Norman on Hugh Grant's persona in certain films, Radio Times 3-9 July 2010 |
#68
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Copier & printer security (Was: ! Windows 7 Sucks)
On 02/12/2011 10:56 PM, DanS wrote:
[snip] if you have a large size commercial HP printer/copier, similar tot he one at work which is a Minolta, not an HP.....it could be one that has a hard drive on it that stores things it copies and print, basically forever, until it's overwritten or purposely erased, usually through some obscure front panel sequence. It was a big to-do here, when the city's leased peripherals were traded in, with city document still on them, on the HD. These could have been just copiers however, but the possibility stil remains. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/...gnews/main6412 439.shtml Bottom line: printer security is not an issue IMO. (But network security is.) Many (pretty well all older) office type copier/printer/mufti-function machines have hard drives (1), used to store the copy/print image while multiple copies are made. Eventually the HDD fills up and FIFO takes over as new print/copy jobs are done. Any security issue would arise at a recycling depot where the machine is taken apart. The HDD could be attached to a computer and its contents read. Forestall that by removing it before sending the machine to the dumpster. I note that the story that caused such a flurry was about using a glitch in the printer's firmware to make the printer overheat. I don't see any way to get data out of the machine without a hack of the printer's firmware so that the printer sends the contents of the HDD to the computer used to hack it. Considering there are so many easier ways to get "sensitive data", including the good old cold-cash-in-greasy-palm method, that I think it's hardly worth the trouble. But why bother? Using a zombie to send print-job data to unauthorised recipients is just another application, so to speak. (1) I've noticed that recent ads for printers list how much RAM they have. HTH Wolf K. |
#69
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! Windows 7 Sucks
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in
: In message , SC Tom writes: "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message ... In message 31, DanS writes: [] And again, going from 32 bit to 64 bit. CPUs with new added instruction sets and other advances in hardware architecture can require changes to take advantages of it. [] Yes, but _take advantage of_ is the significant phrase. You should still be able to run existing software (in the case under discussion, printer drivers); if it doesn't _take advantage of_ the new features, that's your problem. If I had a car that could do 200 miles per hour, I would accept that I might have to pay for access to places where I could take advantage of that capability; however, I'd be pretty peeved if I _couldn't_ drive it on ordinary roads (and, obviously, I'd accept that I couldn't do 200 on them). Sort of a bad analogy; there are plenty of cars that will go 200MPH, but you can't drive them on regular roads without a lot of modifications (Nascar racers), and some that wouldn't be legal no matter what you did to them (drag racers come to mind). But I get your point :-) OK - when I said "car", I meant "street legal car", not grand prix engine-on-wheels (-:! There are plenty of "supercars" that can do a lot higher speeds than are legal in UK or US (in fact I think hardly any car on sale today can't exceed those speeds), but are still usable on ordinary roads. But you got my point, which was that if I bought such a car, I'd at least expect to be able to use it. So if I buy a super new computer with the latest OS, I'm more than a bit cross that I can't use much software and hardware I already own: I don't expect to get the benefit of all the new whizzy bits of my new machine and OS when running older hardware and software (though actually I do expect it to do so somewhat faster than the previous machine), but I do expect to be able to use it - and I don't see why I shouldn't be able to. OK, so with complete honesty, how much s/w have you actually had to replace because it *really* wouldn't run, in any way shape of form, from a Windows OS upgrade. (Hardware drivers aside.) |
#70
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Modularity (Was: ! Windows 7 Sucks)
On 03/12/2011 8:43 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
[snip] Ideally, software should be a whole lot more modular, so you only have to buy (or at least install) the bits you want. But that's not attractive from the business point of view, as they want to be able to keep selling the whole suite every time. (It's not exclusive to softwa if I buy a new TV, for example, it is likely to include facilities I no longer not only probably don't want anyway, but also already have in the devices I'll be connecting to it.) True, but it's cheaper to include those bits and capabilities on all TVs than to offer a slew of models with different combinations of them. One of the costs (underestimated by the consumer for sure) is that of selling off or trashing product that doesn't appeal to enough customers. Estimates of such costs are of course built into all prices, so that all products cost more than they need to. From my POV, TVs and graphics cards should have more standard features, whether the buyer uses them or not. Eg, I'm looking for a medium sized TV for my son that can double as a monitor, so as not over-clutter his small apartment, so I want DVI. Hard to find, oddly enough, but VGA is pretty well universal. I've passed on a number of laptop deals recently (I "need" a new one ;-0 ) because they didn't have HDMI outputs. See? Wolf K. |
#71
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! Windows 7 Sucks
On 03/12/2011 9:18 AM, DanS wrote:
[snip] OK, so with complete honesty, how much s/w have you actually had to replace because it *really* wouldn't run, in any way shape of form, from a Windows OS upgrade. (Hardware drivers aside.) I'll have to update my preferred office suite soon, at a cost, as recent W7 updates have made it flakey. Bah! Wolf K. |
#72
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! Windows 7 Sucks
On Sat, 3 Dec 2011 13:43:28 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"
wrote: Ideally, software should be a whole lot more modular, so you only have to buy (or at least install) the bits you want. I have been involved with the production of modular software. It needs to be built into a common structure. The software I was involved with had thousands of modules and a "collector" system to put it all together before releasing to the customer. That worked very well but if it needed to be released in bits that the customer wanted it would have needed a collector system with every customer. It's much easier to give them the lot and tell them how to enable on the extra bits they buy. Steve -- Neural network software applications, help and support. Neural Network Software. www.npsl1.com EasyNN-plus. Neural Networks plus. www.easynn.com SwingNN. Forecast with Neural Networks. www.swingnn.com JustNN. Just Neural Networks. www.justnn.com |
#73
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! Windows 7 Sucks
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in
: In message 31, DanS writes: "BillW50" wrote in : (Note: Any deleted material does not mean I agree with it. And again, going from 32 bit to 64 bit. CPUs with new added instruction sets and other advances in hardware architecture can require changes to take advantages of it. OMG! Windows supported 16 bit for almost two decades. Now the move from 32 to 64 bit, it can't be done anymore? With the older Microsoft programmers it would happen. But with the new lazy new programmers, it is not possible. It wasn't 'lazy programmers', no matter what you say.f It was a business decision. It's a bit of a combination of both. It takes a non-zero amount more effort to make something backwards-compatible than not to; if the choice is between maintaining backwards compatibility and adding new features (let alone fixing bugs), and your programming resources are finite, it can indeed be a business decision: you hope you will attract more new users with your new features than lose old users. You can't support 100% of everything forever. At some point, you have to decide that instead of supporting 100% you can only support 99.9999998% of users(, in relation to this 16-bit issue.) However, I think supporting older device drivers _as a whole_ - i. e. the _family_ of them - isn't a 0.0000002% of users issue. Writing a new OS so that it doesn't _work with_ older drivers _is_ lazy - not necessarily lazy programming, lazy business decision, as in "if we drop support for older drivers, we'll not even have to _think_ about it in future in our board meetings". Users are crying about Windows 'bloat', and how do you cut bloat.....by removing things that *virtually noone* uses anymore. As opposed to adding things that "virtually no-one" (note the hyphen) wants? Why point out a typo, when you actually have ideas to convey? (A third of time it comes out like that, antoher 1/3 it's 'none' and the other third is 'no one'. It's because I'm *not* a typer, and my brain works faster than my fingers do, skipping letters and appearing dyslexic, like the 'antoher' typo I left above purposely.) Ideally, software should be a whole lot more modular, so you only have to buy (or at least install) the bits you want. But that's not attractive from the business point of view, as they want to be able to keep selling the whole suite every time. Of course. They're in business to sell s/w. (It's not exclusive to softwa if I buy a new TV, for example, it is likely to include facilities I no longer not only probably don't want anyway, but also already have in the devices I'll be connecting to it.) [] There are only 3 OSs now that are viable for everyday use.......Windows, Linux and OSX (MAC). I'd eve say that for the man in the street it's only the first and third two: for whatever reason, all the main (US) or high (UK) street stores (in UK, that's PCWorld/Currys, Comet, Tesco, Sainsbury, John Lewis, Selfridges, even ToysRUs ...) do _not_ sell Linux-based computers in the mainstream, though will occasionally sell some _devices_ that are Linux inside (but not mention it, and have no need to as it's embedded). Well, my list of wasn't in any particular order. There are many that tried to get into the game. Although I see a big turning point and nobody is giving what people want. So the door is wide open for even a startup to step in. I can't see any new OS taking off in the real world: it'd have to run Windows and/or Mac applications or not enough people would buy it for it to be anything but a novelty for geeks. Like Linux ? (Don't let *them* hear you say that...wait, that was me that said that. I run Linux too, 1/2 the time.) As a desktop OS, Linux is comletely useable now, for a *typical home user*, except that 1) you need to make sure the hardware will work, and two, 2) you'd need to learn new troubleshooting and repair techniques, 3) some of your s/w would need to be replaced, which would require some investment in time to familiarize yourself with it. *Some* of the most common home user apps are produced for Linux and Windows, Firefox and Thunderbird spring to mind immediately. Dropbox, Skype (although the Linux version really does s*ck), Nero, OpenOffice/LibreOffice, GIMP, Filezilla, Opera, Pidgin. My dual boot uses the same user profiles for Thunderbird and Firefox, so no matter which OS I boot into, I'v got the same user data in both. I see the same mail, same favorites, etc. Linux does run some Windows s/w using WINE, It's not that M$/Apple now even have to apply their (undoubtably significant) marketing force: they're just _there_ in such a big way that nothing can shift them. At least not over a truly significant span of time. Since car analogies are common..... ....Toyota....1958, the first year Toyota began exporting to the US. 287 cars. At that time, I believe GM ws the hands-down winner for auto sales. ....Toyota....2009, Toyota Overtakes GM as Number One in Sales It took over 50 years, but it was done. (I know, not a truly valid analogy, since the cars don't need to interop with other cars, but still.) OK, some of the developments via the mobile and tablet markets are likely to have an effect - but I suspect it's going to be more that Microsoft and Apple incorporate ideas from those areas, rather than that those are going to replace M/A. (There is the _possibility_ that computers as we know them - desktops and laptops/netbooks - will themselves become the exception, with most people using very portable devices, but I don't think so for at least 5 years.) [] You can say what you want, but you can't change the truth. And the only danger Microsoft has is they lost all of the programmers who has learned the hard lessons from the past. As the new programmers don't have a clue. Well, I'm assuming by 'programmers' you are talking about the heads of individual programs...the one's that *actually make the decisions* of what is or isn't included in whatever. The people that actually do the programming, do what they are told.....unless you think the 24-year old first year out of college CS graduate is making the decisions of what goes or doesn't go into Windows. No, but the person making the decisions may well be a 2x-year-old fresh out of business school. And, at MS, specifically, are they ?.... ---------------------------------------- "Steven Sinofsky (born 1965[1]) has been the President of the Windows Division at Microsoft since September 2008, responsible for the development and marketing of Windows, Windows Live, and Internet Explorer."..... ......In July 1989, Sinofsky joined Microsoft as a software design engineer..... You, and BillW50 can read more he http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Sinofsky but, he's *certainly* not NEW, and has been on-board MS through the *entire* PC explosion, 3.1 through Windows7 and now going into Windows 8. (Not as the head of Windows the entire time, but as a point to show that those 'running the show' certainly aren't brand- spanking new 'lazy programmers'. ) -------------------------------------------- Newly appointed head of 'Server & Tools Business' http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/nadella/ Is this *another* one of BillW50's 'lazy programmers'? ....."Nadella joined Microsoft in 1992." --------------------------------------------- Seems as though the people that *are* making the decisions aren't new young "programmers" that don't have a clue. (Not that that _necessarily_ means s/he'll make _wrong_ decisions, though we oldies.... [BillW50, does the 50 signify something?] may So the reason I'm not a typer, is because I'm not far behind that. Nowadays, 'Typing' is called 'Keyboarding'. When I was in school, 'Typing' was for girls. There was uproar among my class when in 6th grade, the boys were forced to do a 1/2 year of 'Home Ec.' and the girls to do a 1/2 year of 'Shop'. (That was, until we boys realized most of the 'Home Ec' course, for the boys version of it anyway, consisted of making and eating food.) I've been programming since my first C64 back in the 80's....had 8-tracks, watched black and white TV at times, lived through and hated disco, watched with horror with the rise of the front-wheel drive car as the standard, etc. tend to think they tend to be _hasty_ decisions.) They can be. MS has made many bad decisions before, like Bob and Me, that BillW50 pointed out, but they seem to have recovered from those, haven't they...... .....many thought that the time for MS to fall was with the release of Vista....expecting large numbers to bail and seek refuge in MAC/OSX and Linux.....and it just didn't happen. ....not that it won't, in 20 or 30 *more* years..... |
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! Windows 7 Sucks
Wolf K wrote in
m: On 03/12/2011 9:18 AM, DanS wrote: [snip] OK, so with complete honesty, how much s/w have you actually had to replace because it *really* wouldn't run, in any way shape of form, from a Windows OS upgrade. (Hardware drivers aside.) I'll have to update my preferred office suite soon, at a cost, as recent W7 updates have made it flakey. Bah! That could just be another update away from a fix. The point was, XP to Vista, or Vista to 7 mainly. |
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Copier & printer security (Was: ! Windows 7 Sucks)
Wolf K wrote in
om: On 02/12/2011 10:56 PM, DanS wrote: [snip] if you have a large size commercial HP printer/copier, similar tot he one at work which is a Minolta, not an HP.....it could be one that has a hard drive on it that stores things it copies and print, basically forever, until it's overwritten or purposely erased, usually through some obscure front panel sequence. It was a big to-do here, when the city's leased peripherals were traded in, with city document still on them, on the HD. These could have been just copiers however, but the possibility stil remains. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/...ningnews/main6 412 439.shtml Bottom line: printer security is not an issue IMO. (But network security is.) Many (pretty well all older) office type copier/printer/mufti-function machines have hard drives (1), used to store the copy/print image while multiple copies are made. Eventually the HDD fills up and FIFO takes over as new print/copy jobs are done. Any security issue would arise at a recycling depot where the machine is taken apart. The HDD could be attached to a computer and its contents read. Forestall that by removing it before sending the machine to the dumpster. I note that the story that caused such a flurry was about using a glitch in the printer's firmware to make the printer overheat. This is true. But, it all starts somewhere. I don't see any way to get data out of the machine without a hack of the printer's firmware so that the printer sends the contents of the HDD to the computer used to hack it. Which may or may not could be done. I don't have an intimate knowledge of what is required for a printer/copier firmware update. As I said, it all starts somewhere. "Super Anti-virus 2009" wasn't the first virus/whatever to appear. Not sure of the accuracy, but..... http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/17/c...irst-computer- virus-is-40-years-young-today/ ........."Creeper (named after a character in the old Scooby Doo cartoons) spread from BBN Technologies' DEC PDP-10 through Arpanet, displaying the message: "I'm the creeper, catch me if you can!" and messing with people's printers." Now isn't *that* bizarre!!!!!!!! It messed with your printer!!!!! Considering there are so many easier ways to get "sensitive data", including the good old cold-cash-in-greasy-palm method, that I think it's hardly worth the trouble. But why bother? People do stuff all the time, just because they can. |
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