What do YOU think??

I've tried to keep to things I know a little about, or have a strong opinion on. Then again, you could argue that I don't know much about certain things after reading this. Some of these may be controversial, but keep in mind that it's only my opinion. Everyone is entitled to their own after all!! Email me with any flames/agreements. I've used frames, with the latest versions of both Netscape and IE being distributed free I assume it won't be a problem.

What's cool...

What is very cool for the computing world: the iMac. Apple have taken a very bold step in launching the iMac. It's been Apple's big success story in their recent comeback from the huge losses they've been making. The iMac also embodies a big wake-up call to the computing world. Once again the PC world has fallen behind Apple in terms of innovation. How long have we been using floppies? They've served us well for many years but have outlasted their usefulness. Not much, even compressed, will fit onto a single floppy anymore. Networks, including the internet, have taken over the role of file transfer, and where it is necessary to use removable media, products such as Iomega's Zip disks have taken over.
The idea of lots of different types of leads for different peripherals is confusing to a computers newcomer and a pain in the ... for the experienced computer user. The iMac only has USB for all peripherals you want to attach, including the keyboard and mouse. Anyone else remember playing 'match the holes with the pins'?
The iMac has shown that this strange thing the computer industry seems to have for beige (while there's nothing wrong with beige) is maybe a bit obsessive.

Sun winning the injunction against Microsoft's bastardisation of Java. Microsoft got the licence for creating the software to run Java on the Windows platform but decided to add their own bits, varying from the Java specification. This meant that anything written in Java using the Microsoft implementation will probably not work on other platforms, such as Unix or the Mac OS. This removes the one advantage that Java gives the user above other languages such as C/C++, which is that software you write in Java will run on any platform which supports Java. This means that if you write an application in Java using (for example) your Macintosh it will not only run on the Mac OS but also Unix, Windows and any other platform supporting Java. => no need to rewrite code for it to work on other platforms, simply recompiling it is sufficient. (you still get an executable, a Windows .exe won't work on other platforms)
It also took the role of a common programming language for the World Wide Web. VERY useful as you can now reduce the workload your server has to cope with by running the task on the viewer's machine without knowing what OS the user is running under! (of course there are numerous other advantages too)

The American Department of Justice taking on Microsoft in a bid to stop it's many bullying activities in the computing world. It has transpired so far that Microsoft has attempted to bully several of it's competitors and even some of it's allies, including Apple, Netscape, Intel (!!) and AOL. I haven't been keeping very up to date with that trial but Microsoft has finally been shown up for what it really is.

... and what's not

The American top brass' apparent belief that they are above the law. I completely agree that Saddam Hussein can't be given free rein to create more weapons and that Iraq should be severely reprimanded for their crimes against Kuwait, but who gave Bill Clinton and co. the licence to freely attack another country? If military action was the only solution, and I'm not arguing that it wasn't, surely any such act should have gone through the U.N. first. In metaphorical terms what would happen to you if you went over to a criminal's house and broke his T.V. aerial and cut his phone lines? Arrested and slapped on the wrist rather hard I'd guess.
What was it that Iraq did wrong in the first place? Answer: attack and take over control of another country.
What have America just done? Answer: attack and take over control of another country.
Ok, obviously it's a bit more complicated than that but you can see where I'm going with this...
I wonder how the American taxpayer feels about paying for the exploits of 'SuperBill' acting as world police?? I very much doubt if they're getting any funding from other countries for all these millions of dollars they're spending throwing their weight around.

Windows '98 - Microsoft have the gaul to charge all that money for an upgrade which doesn't have any new features and doesn't add anything to the user experience?? I've been reading magazines in an attempt to find out what's new in Windows '98 and whether it's worth my while updating the OS on my laptop. Noone I've asked knew of any new features in it, and when I sat down with it on a machine myself all I could find were new screen savers and a slightly changed CD player. It took a company the size of Microsoft 3 years to come up with THAT???? Methinks the consumer is being taken serious advantage of here...

Boyzone, or should it be called 'Shanezone'. Has anyone actually ever heard any of those other 3 guys sing? Can any of the 5 play an instrument or write a half decent song instead of only doing cover versions?

Smoking!

Your lovely shiney just-washed car getting dirty within sight of your house the first time you take it out afterwards! *sigh*

World hunger, poverty, etc.....

Made With Mac This page was last modified on Friday, 1st January 1999. Comments, suggestions or ANYTHING else are welcome.