Linked by weildish on Tue 20th Jan 2009 02:13 UTC
Those up top (the Presidential Inaugural Committee) chose to utilize Microsoft's Silverlight technology to stream the upcoming inaugural events for the new president of the United States. Though Microsoft certainly likes this idea, this leaves out thousands of people in the US and elsewhere who still cannot run Silverlight or an open source alternative on their systems from viewing the streamed video online. Update by Thom: Linux and PowerPC Mac fans rejoice, as they can watch the inauguration as well using Moonlight. Migel De Icaza wrote: "Microsoft worked late last night to get us access to the code that will be used during the inauguration so we could test it with Moonlight." Microsoft and the Moonlight team fixed this issue in one afternoon, so it might be a little rough.
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Member since:2007-03-06
Well, this girl is exactly that; not a mechanic. She doesn't give a damn what kind of engine the car is running on. She wants to use word, windows programs and internet explorer and that's it. Most users aren't interested in what a OS is and they're right; they have different priorities.
I'm not a mechanic either, but if I need to tighten a screw I take the time to learn I need a screwdriver instead of going straight to TV when the shop assistant sells me a B&D drill.
Member since:2005-07-06
Well, this girl is exactly that; not a mechanic. She doesn't give a damn what kind of engine the car is running on. She wants to use word, windows programs and internet explorer and that's it. Most users aren't interested in what a OS is and they're right; they have different priorities.
Surely, this girl is well prepared for this information age :-) (actually, it is not funny at all)
I expect students to learn a few basics to be succesful in the info age. And that includes some basic computer knowledge, like "what is a browser", "different applications", "what is a file format", and so on.
Maybe I expect too much. Dumbness is much easier, isn't it?
Member since:2008-07-15
Member since:2005-07-13
But the problem here is that a computer is not a simple household appliance, is more than that. It's a complex tool, that you need to learn how to use.
If she bought a Dell computer, when arrived saw that it came with a Linux distro and that was not that she wanted, she could have returned it immediately. Since she didn't, she should have learnt how to use the tools that came with the Linux distro and how to install more.
Blaming her failing at school because of her computer having Linux distro installed instead of returning it and getting a Windows one, or learning how to use it... that's tells something not so flattering about her. And unfortunately probably about most of the common users.
Lets compare: someone buying a VCR, then blaming the manufacturer because it has different buttons and operating procedures that the previous brand they ownned, and you can't tape your shows? RTFM.
Edited 2009-01-20 10:54 UTC
Member since:2007-09-06
If she was not a computer expert, she maybe should have gone to a store or asked a friend who knew more. "Say, I need a computer that can see the Internet, run Word and manage my school work."
There are real places where it is not the user's fault but this is not one of those cases. If someone buys a VM Beetle for hauling the family camping wagon or a Ford F150 for doing time trials against the ricers at the local quarter mile; yeah, that's the consumer's own fault.
I also have to wonder how this girl was all alone in this. She had no friends, family or local computer shop folk who could answer a question or two? She was taking IT related courses in college but none of the other students could help? What steps did she take previous to the purchase for research and after the purchase to solve her issues?
Member since:2005-07-08
Member since:2005-07-06
Well, this girl is exactly that; not a mechanic. She doesn't give a damn what kind of engine the car is running on.
OK, it's a bad driver who blames their car and complains that the pedals, gearstick and controls are different when they should all be equally familiar. Same difference.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."More News »
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Member since:
2008-08-05
"...well, if the "end-user" has taken so little time to actually learn anything about the computer they use, to the extent that they think Internet Explorer IS the "Internet" and that MS Word is the only product that can type a letter, then yes...it's their fault.
Something about a bad mechanic blaming his tools comes to mind.... " equals ivory tower indeed.
Well, this girl is exactly that; not a mechanic. She doesn't give a damn what kind of engine the car is running on. She wants to use word, windows programs and internet explorer and that's it. Most users aren't interested in what a OS is and they're right; they have different priorities.