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There are come compelling reasons in the article. Don't think it is enough for me to rush and replace my Windows 7 with Windows 8 though. We will see if this is another Windows ME or not.
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Hmm, copying files seems to be a lot slower to me. Plus you get stupid security messages. That would be more like a reason not to upgrade
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Magnetic tape was common for storage in pre-personal computing days, but it had two main annoyances: it held tiny amounts of data, and it was slower than a slug on a cold spring morning. There had to be something better, for those of us excited about technology. And there was: the floppy disk. 720k ought to be enough for anyone.
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I worked with a number of computers that had floppy disks. From what I remember Apple with its Macintosh was very much responsible for 3.4" floppy disk. What was really interesting was that the Macintosh version had more bits on the outside track than the inside. The IBM PC version had the same number. This meant that the Macintosh computer floppy could hold more data than the PC. Of course the PC format won out since there were eventually so many more PC's with 3.5" drives than there were Macintoshes.
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This history was pulled out of his arse by the author.
This is so full of inaccuracies that I don't even know where to begin.
"Magnetic tape was common for storage in pre-personal computing days, but it had two main annoyances: it held tiny amounts of data, and it was slower than a slug on a cold spring morning."
Tiny amounts of data? Magnetic tapes were commonly 2400' in length and held data at 3200 bits/inch. That translatesd to about 90 megabytes. Since there were 9 tracks on the tape, that is about 720 megabits of storage (1 bit being used for parity check). Even if fully half the tape is wasted on inter-record gaps, that works out to 45 megabytes of data.Compare that to 1.44 megabytes on the final iteration of the 3.5" floppy.
Slower than a slug? At a speed of 120 inches/second, you get a data transfer rate of 384,000 bytes/second. The floppy, according to Wikipedia, had a maximum transfer rate of 1 million bits/second, translating to 125K bytes/second.
"I didn't know that IBM had decided as early as 1967 that tape-drives, while fine for back-ups, simply weren't good enough to load software on mainframes. So it was that Alan Shugart assigned David L. Noble to lead the development of “a reliable and inexpensive system for loading microcode into the IBM System/370 mainframes using a process called Initial Control Program Load (ICPL).” From this project came the first 8-inch floppy disk."
A tape could get lost in the vast library of tapes that a company would have. If the microprogram could be somehow stored in such a manner that it would never get lost, that would be one service call less for the IBM customer engineer each time someone misplaced the tape containing the microcode. The floppy drive was built into the cabinet of the CPU and the floppy drive containg the microcode for the IBM mainframe was copied into the flopp[y disk and put inside the floppy drive. I don't remember if it was possible to eject the media out of the floppy drive but somehow I think the user couldn't.
There were three buttons one rarely touched on the front panel (or, back side) of the IBM 360 mainframes. The first of these is the IPL (Initial Program Load) button. This would re-boot the computer by reloading the operating system. The second is the IMPL (Initial Micro Program Load, not ICPL) button, which actually reloaded the instruction set that the mainframe was capable of executing into ROM from the floppy disk. The third was the big red switch that turned the power off to the mainframe.
"According to Don Massaro (PDF link), another IBMer who followed Shugart to the new business, Wang’s founder Charles Wang said, “I want to come out with a much lower-end word processor. It has to be much lower cost and I can't afford to pay you $200 for your 8" floppy; I need a $100 floppy.”"
First of all, the founder of Wang Computers was An Wang; Charles Wang founded Computer Associates, Inc.
Even after several iterations the 5-1/4" floppy drive was being sold at $650. Some years after the IBM PC came out - that would make it the mid-to-late-1980's - Tandon Corporation announced the first sub-$400 floppy drive. It was the 1990s before you got to the $100 floppy drive.
Enough already!
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Just curious, thought that there had been 8" drives on the early PCs, so the price was not that bad. Can't confirm. Wikipedia has pretty much the same information.
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Bill Gates would be the first to point out all the cases where Microsoft’s competitors made a key mistake that let Microsoft succeed. Office is perhaps the most notable example, where competitors’ reluctance to support Microsoft Windows took Word and Excel from second-tier status to leadership as customers shifted from DOS to Windows.... That is why Microsoft historically keeps the pressure up even when its cause looks hopeless. Android may stumble, but Windows Phone needs to keep going the distance.
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Many of us will accumulate vast libraries of digital books and music over the course of our lifetimes. But when we die, our collections of words and music may expire with us. Part of the problem is that with digital content, one doesn’t have the same rights as with print books and CDs. Customers own a license to use the digital files—but they don’t actually own them. There are no second-hand books in the Matrix.
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Had a friend with ITunes. Seemed like it was hell to backup, especially a large library. Then the licenses were limited by email address, so once had installed 5 times could not anymore, even if you had bought multiple iPods. I like MP3. Just copy those albums you want where you want them. No hassles. Death to Apple.
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So somebody votes me down. If you vote down you should at least tell me why you like ITunes. Maybe it is because it is proprietary???
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I'm sure he is a Apple fanboy...
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And does not like other people to have opinions different from himself, but does not want anybody to know he is that much of a bigot.
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The issue you have is with DRM, and that is a non issue now (maybe because I only have a handful of DRM protected AAC files and I don't listen to them often ( heck I don't remember which one they are).
iTunes work well, much better than Windows Media something that f*cks up my collection (well, not really, but importing the tracks into it just makes a mess of classification and does not "load" all tracks, or takes a hell of a long time to do it )
Watched code never compiles.
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I use WMP for playing songs/movies, and that is it. I know about WMP screwing up customization of tags. It also seems to have problems some times keeping soundtracks and pictures in track. Not a fan of WMP, and would like something different, but just have not gone to the trouble of figuring out what to replace it with.
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It was not so much the DRM, as the problems a friend of mine had with iTunes when she changed computers. Has a massive collection, and the export and import suck. I would have avoided iTunes for DRM also, but that is not what really pissed me off.
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Mine is empty, so I don't care! 
Note that I do own an iPhone, but I refuse to install this iTunes crap onto my PC. So far I've been using the Capriccio app, and I just ftp my music onto it using Beyond Compare (marvelous synching tool!).
Wout
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The hole idea of juries for civil lawsuits in my mind is crazy anyway. The reason for a Jury is to protect the people from the government. This is two independent organizations. Where there should always be juries is cases between individuals and the government. Also, presedence should be used in awarding damages. Why should one person get millions for a case almost identical to another case where there is almost no award. When i was on a jury I was amazed at how stupid some of the people could be. The system is out of control.
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The microblogging company joins the Linux Foundation just days after imposing tighter restrictions on its APIs. [ITworld]
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That's what happens to any company once you have two or more employees. The left hand doesn't know what the right one is doing. 
Chris Meech
I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar]
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra]
posting about Crystal Reports here is like discussing gay marriage on a catholic church’s website.[Nishant Sivakumar]
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We need something to bridge the gap between the huge population of OO programmers, and the growing need for functional programmers. I’ve seen nothing else that fills this need so well. Here's a review of Brian Marick's new book and why it's important.
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I don't think using a Lisp - like language (Clojure) is the best way to make Java and C# programmers feel at home with functional programming
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For a Java or C# programmer, functional programming would take away the imperative style, such as long sequence of commands and assignment. It will take some adjustment to use the language.
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_beauw_ wrote: Object-oriented programming is eliminated entirely from the introductory curriculum
Oh good grief. OOP and FP are complementary - there are appropriate uses of each, and lots of inappropriate uses. I couldn't imagine writing an entire application in an FP language, but I can certainly see the benefits of writing pieces of it in FP.
Unfortunately there is always a trend to see one thing as completely better than the other rather than simply better at addressing needs in a specific area.
Marc
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