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Comment Re:I use (Score 1) 204

I like rST, but Markdown seemed to get wider support so I gradually switched to using it instead because they're sufficiently similar that it's annoying using both and lots of things didn't support rST. They're both roughly equal for the sorts of things I use them for: blog posts, articles, doc comments in code. There's no way I'd write a scientific paper or a book in either though: LaTeX is still the king there.

Comment Re:Office 365 (Score 3, Insightful) 337

I just had management freak out over this at my workplace last week. ... even though I am not the damn IT guy at the other company who setup Citrix!...

Anyway you need to set the default printer and then open it Citrix remote desktop. If it is not default then they call you and expect you to fix another company's system that is remote ... and fix the internet while you are at it.

Citrix cost some employees their job as IE pops randomly do not go up when it gets busy and they can't read HIPPA documents to customers on the phone. It freezes up even under a light load where the cpu usage is 15% and ram only 40%.

I hate that thing with a passion and wish VMWare clients were cheaper.

Comment Re:What's this obession with EOL. (Score 0) 337

I used Win2K for years after it was EOL. I had far less problems with security than I now have Windows 7.

IMO: Win2K was best OS Microsoft ever released.

LOL

I call bs on that one. I hope you did not do any online banking on that machine seriously. DOS was the best ever because I am familiar with it. To hell what imrovements have been made too right?

Windows 7 has kernel level sandboxing, DSLR (ram scrambling), DEP (data execution prevention), no real admin acount but a token broker, seperation or privledges and many many other improvements. Stack smashing, buffer overflows, and inserting data into ram addresses of .dlls are difficult on Windows 7. On XP they can just do it easily if you are admin and go through the front door rather than breaking through the back.

My guess is your Win2k did not have flash, java, or internet access which made it have less vectors. Windows 7 has more security than even Linux at this point with features making it very hard to hack. Most hackers just use flash and PDFs to get around this. However this past 1.5 Adobe now uses Windows Vista/7 kernel leveling sandboxing as well.

Comment Re:Peope use what works (Score 1) 337

No support is an excellent reason to change.

The ribbon is much easier to use and learn. The issue is why change and a resistence to it because the change came from MS. It is silly.

Having documents not formatted properly in later versions will make customers question the professionalism of your employer. Office 2013 makes .docx that are not compatible with office 2003 right now! Office 2014 will be out next year and the newer versions have cloud services and app stores so employees can work at home with skydrive pro as well as Salesforce app etc.

That is important in business and time has moved on. I might as well say it takes time to learn Windows since dos is what employees are familair with so why change too.

A single excel macro can take down a company after April since MS wont patch it! Can you say code red and you can bet your ass hackers and criminals are stockpilling macros and XP exploits as I type this waiting for April to come by and bring all hell out.

Comment Re:Peope use what works (Score 0) 337

Pull your panties out of your ass crack. It's unusable for him. 2003 does whatever he needs and he has no reason to "upgrade" just for the ribbon.

Jeesus, people take such offense about personal preferences here. It's lame.

When he gets 0wn3d because his version no longer recieves updates afte april don't blame me. ... better yet call me and I will clean it off his XP system for $75 an hour :-)

Comment Re:Office 365 (Score 2) 337

Look at OwnCloud if you want to host your own stuff "in a cloud". But the sales pitch for Office 365 is that they do all the "icky computery" stuff, like backups and upgrades.

Of course the drawbacks of cloud are well known, too: you need to be online, you need to pay them monthly, and it can be read by anyone with a warrant (or not a warrant, if they're the NSA. )

Vendor lock-in changes, too. Sure, you can download an Office 365 document to import into Open Office. Today. And just because the TOS says you can today doesn't mean those terms can't be changed tomorrow.

There's a lot to dislike about cloud solutions. But they sure meet the needs of a lot of people - at least those who don't think about it too much.

Just throw it on any server at work or on an ISP. This is FOSS like apache where a user can do whatever the hell he or she wants. Office 365 is managed by someone else. This would be managed by you and your ISP backs it up or your IT department, or yourself. This is a we cloud instead of a their cloud.

Comment Re:Office 2003 (Score 3, Insightful) 337

Have you tried Office 2010? Try the ribbon for a week? Afterwards you will see you can preview changes with just a mouse hovering over items. Hit the alt key and you have smart tags showing all the shortcuts with it which is nice with a laptop.

Office 2010 is much better. I saw the research back then and was exciting to learn something new as real scientist had data to show it is better and statistics back them up with real usage. It is not Metro by a longshot or pushed by marketing folks unlike Windows 8.

Office 2003 is old and it is a horrible pain in the butt to get to a custom function and will be very insecure after April of next year. I do not want to go back to that release.

Want a reason to switch? How about file compatibility? You think the .docx of 2013 is compatible and a future manager will be able to read your resume in a few years when Office 2014, 2015, come out? Think again.

Comment Re:Peope use what works (Score 2, Insightful) 337

I find using Office without the ribbon unusable. I can't find where anything is at now.

Does that mean menus are inferior? No. It means I got used to a different way of doing them.

Now if you want to argue that I am stupid and do not know how to use a menu I would like to point out I have used Office since the 3.1 days and knew it fairly well before 2008 when my brain still reserved these things in memory as it was important to remember. I also remember hating the hiding function in office 2003 where you had to hid the the arrow to get to anything. I always disabled it after a fresh install back then.

But the fact of the matter is I can preview changes, make graphical effects and titles, and get to seldomly used functions in a fraction of the time now! Statistics back me up on this too as 80% of users only used 40% of the functions and kept requesting things Office has already been doing for years.

Do not be offended when I say it is hard to change sometimes, as even people with great computer skills can get stuck with a particular gui like Firefox 3.x for years as it has 100 security exploits at this stage. It took a week for me to get someone productivity with the ribbon. After seeing how I did not need a mouse with the newer keyboard shortcuts which navigate the ribbon with smart tags and I was in bliss.

Today I am happy feel Office 2010 is the best release.

Comment Re:Office 365 (Score 5, Interesting) 337

What is the benefit of cloud-based office software? I understand it allows the service provider to demand rent indefinitely. What benefit does it provide to the end-user?

Easy. I can view my docs anywhere. From my phone, home pc, work pc, whatever. Dropbox has some of this but office file compatibility is a problem for example when it comes to spreadsheets.

Second, it is a damn pain in the ass to setup software to be updated and pushed on thousands of PCs in a work envrionment. With this you push a group policy for a hyperlink. Sovled as the website or intranet site takes care of everything. No hunting down damn Outlook archive folders when upgrading a PC. If a company wants something confidential they flag it and it instantly is unavailable elsewhere. On the cloud means it wont leave on flash drivers either.

Comment Neowin is the anti slashdot (Score 2) 337

Posting that here is like someone on Moveon.org hyperlinking an article from www.redstateblog.com (or whatever the hell the right wing version is).

I read Neowin as well. I like balance.

I notice they have things like Windows Server 2012 R2 launch details that slashdot feels is not important. But if it is Linux related, I feel a link from there is like reading a link here about a non-baised spin about IE and Windows on slashdot if you know what I mean?

I wonder if those statistics include governments that tried to use it but went back due to users hating change? Or used an ancient version of OpenOffice that was not as compatible as MS Office?

As much as I love free software I admit I paid a lot of money for Office. It is the only thing that I know that works when making critical documents that must look write and be editable. No replacement for Outlook as well sadly (I HATE OUTLOOK). I feel it is kind of like the old Gimp vs Photoshop debate all over every article comes out.

People need a reason for change. Being just as good wont cut it. Better different and better will. Windows CE and blackberry were untouchable in 2007 ... the iphone redefined the standards and crippled both. No one could stop IE. It wasn't until Firefox was freaking fast and secure before anyone wanted to leave though Mozilla did exist prior. I think making a better LibreOffice wont help as clouds and having your documents anytime and anywhere are taking over as evident with Google Docs and Office 365. An open source web based office suite that is cloud based and works anywhere might be where the FOSS can really shine and give somethign different.

Comment Re:Office 365 (Score 1) 337

Well with 365 at least the Windows tie is broken as any modern browser can be used on any device or platform.

  But one less tie in is better than 2 I guess. I shudder if Mozilla failed then we would have 3 ties as well with IE 6!

Maybe an opensource cloud office suite that anyone can run on any webserver is what geeks should be working on next? The cloud is gaining traction and my fear is if we just sit around with Libreoffice we will miss this and the cloud will have MS lockin all over with skydrive too.

Any ones thoughts?

Comment Hold On For Just One Minute Bubba... (Score 4, Funny) 444

Is it any coincidence that Iowa is like right next door to Nebraska, and that both of these stories involve so called "scientists"?

I smell a conspiracy to pollute our precious bodily fluids. Or communists. Or something.

And Isn't Area 51 almost also next door to Iowa? You never can be sure, since the government also makes all of the maps.

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