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Someone send me this link. Is this the Apple/Intel machine?

It was that got me involved in Un*x, back in 1988. I had decided it was time to move from the Long Island defense industry, and make a move to Silicon Valley. I started with Andy's "MINIX" and then paid the $1200 bucks or so for SCO Xenix, installed it on my 80386 PC (with an American Megatrends/Mylex motherboard!) and learned Unix (especially low-level matters like writing device drivers.) Shortly after, I was able to get a job with Olivetti Advanced Technology Lab in Cupertino.

My job involved close interaction with the engineering staff at SCO--folks like Mike Patnode (whose name sounds like a Unix command) and others who knew SysV inside and out.

The company is completely different now. The same in name only. They're not in Santa Cruz anymore (a hippy beach resort in Central California)--instead they're in Utah.

Just wait until Ghiradelli goes after them!

Mine's *much* too loud! And I ordered the acoustic dampening, too.. Anyway, they lost credibility by putting OS-X on the list.

I also can't imagine that any of the clicks the advertisers get are legit. It's probably mostly accidental clicks as people are navigating around.

Of course, the best thing would be to encourage people to make their sites a little more user-friendly with more than a few words of text on each page. But barring that, some form of ad blocker that finds and kills these things would be a good idea. Maybe someone can write one for Firefox and Internet Explorer?

That Hexus site is one of the most anoying I've ever seen. Every other word is highlighted with a sponsored link that's often not related at all to the subject at hand. It seems to me that the whole point of that site is to have mildly-useful content simply as click fodder.

There's another instance of Gmail, too! Ghirardelli Chocolate has a Gmail service! As of two weeks ago, they were still calling it G-MAIL, and their use of the term goes back several years. I don't know if they've ever registered the trademark.

I heard that the reason is that Ghirardelli (the chocolate company) owns the trademark for gmail!

Anyway, now that it's public, I can't be Mr. Popular anymore by handing out gmail invites. Guess I'll have to try another tactic!

you can see the inside of a HD TiVo.

As a former iPod owner I agree with you. That's why I switch to a SamPod. And my Sampod has SCREWS in the back so I can open it and get to the battery. And it "just works" with Windows. Plug it in, and it'll sync with WMP 10.

Maybe Apple's AAC sounds fine if you listen to hip-hop "music" with nothing but "thump thump" and "sss sss" (not to mention disgusting lyrics about drugs, prostitutes, and violence).

Nothing personal, but it just sounds like you set out to hate the iPod from the start and you're going to throw every lump of shit you can find at it regardless of relevance. I looked at lots of mp3 players and the iPod had lots of advantages--the design (how it works not necessarily how it looks), how it sounded (great to my ears), its seamless integration with iTunes and the amazing number of accessories available for it (the iTrip makes it worth the price alone.) I decided in the end that all this made the iPod a great value, regardless of the situation with the battery (which I agree is a flaw and hopefully Apple will rectify it in the future.)

Besides, if the battery lasts a few years (which it reasonably should) it will have outlived its life with most consumers anyway so I don't think it's something most people really care about.

But I know you won't hear most of this out. You can write most people off with this kind of thing (also from your site):

If you're some kid that listens to noise instead of music, and you think that overpriced overhyped products are "cool", get an iPod.

I'm not a kid. I listen to music not noise. I don't think the iPod is overpriced or overhyped. I don't buy things for the "cool" factor. I also bought an iPod. I know others who are the same.

Your opinion should be expressed with a more adult tone. As it is, you sound exactly like the bonehead "kid" you try to decry.

My G2 iPod 20 GB gets about 1 hour, and the headset connector is all crackly. (To compare, my 1984 Sony FM Walkman still works fine.)

Class Action Lawsuits are great for consumers. Even if all you get is a low-value gift certificate. It keeps Greedy Companies from overstepping their bounds.

It supports open, industry standards like OGG Vorbis. Also, the "DRM" is used by a wide number of vendors, giving me the choice of at least 8 on-line music stores to purchase or "lease" music from.

I simply plugged it into my Windows XP laptop and it worked--no software to install. Just press the "sync" button from Windows Media player 10.

Copying music off is as easy as copying music on.

This is good news for Samsung, who has the market lead in innovative portable music players like the YH-925. A solid state version of the sampod will really help solidify their lead.

Samsung's products support open standards like Vorbis, instead of closed, locked down systems from other companies.

This satellite will be great--when there's a good HD PVR solution to replace TiVo for DirectTV customers....

...I'll use it. I've wasted several hours trying it and rejecting it. (In fact, it doesn't even render slashdot correctly!

That's an excellent point (which I talked about here). In fact, the reason I switched from Macintosh development to Windows development is because the tools on Windows are many times better than Apple's crashy UI slapped on top of Gnu's Objective-C compiler and GDB.

I found the software to be easy to install and use. There's a nice review of it here.

Of course, I'm not as stupid as that woman in the video (read the review) so my machine isn't as infected.

Has the Slashdot bug been fixed in the 1.7 branch?
http://www.robert.to/mozilla/mozbug.html

Currently I use a trunk nightly, because it's fixed there.

*I* do!

I switched back to IE from Firefox because I got tired of bugs like this

It seems that all Computer Scientists of a previous generations, like Don Knuth, Alan Kay, and of course myself all play the pipe organ.

I don't know why the current generation of Computer Scientists don't.

Seeing that the top link on your homepage was audaciously called Me and the WORLD'S LARGEST ORGAN, I had to click it.

Unfortunately, I think that any regular slashdot reader will be disappointed.

You mean it looks like this? I know what you're talking about, but every time I mention it here, they tell me it must be *my own* fault!

So what do you think is the cause of this?

The most interesting thing is that slashdot is one of the sites it has the most trouble with. Take a look at the screenshot on this page! Most of the time it will render /. like that until I hit reload and that will fix it.

I've seen this behavior on Mac, Windows, and Linux. And there's a bug posted on it in the Firefox bug database. What perplexes me is why the /. folks with the necessary skills haven't fixed this problem yet!

...is the 3D Web Cam of the guy who submitted this /. article!

• I don't like to associate with the folks who invented it
• It's impossible to write a good-looking app with it
• It's SLOW
• It's not a STANDARD, like C# and .NET are
• There are no good Open Source Implementations available

..from embracing (and extending!) C# and .NET. Programmers generally like C# and .NET for application development, and Objective-C has some serious flaws.

I put a screenshot of it here

It's funny, because /. is the only site I've seen so far that has any sort of a problem with Mozilla! You'd think that /. would look best with it.

As an aside, Thunderbird is *MUCH* better than Outlook for POP email. I'm sorry it took so long for me to switch.

And, while it's unfortunate that many people don't (or can't) run Windows Update, it works well for people with fast connections who are behind firewalls so their systems don't get screwed up before they can patch them!

I've switched to Firefox (and Thunderbird!), but it seems to me that it's possible to go into IE preferences, disable cross-domain frames, JavaScript, and ActiveX controls, and come up with something that's pretty safe, and roughly comparable to Mozilla.

I'm a big Microsoft fan, but their reaction to these latest attacks against them has me confused.

I decided to switch anyway. You can see my "review" of Firefox and Thunderbird here

I got mine on the 3rd try, but I figure seeing the text of the screen will help you boys and girls that are trying to write SCRIPTS automatically keep trying the Gmail Machine!

And no, you're not getting my new gmail address! I want to keep it spam free.

I got mine on the 3rd try, but I figure seeing the text of the screen will help you boys and girls that are trying to write SCRIPTS automatically keep trying the Gmail Machine!

And no, you're not getting my new gmail address! I want to keep it spam free.

Well, here's a 3D Live Webcam site! All you'd have to do is ask the guy on the other end to take his shirt off!

I'm really hoping that autostereo displays will catch on, not just for gaming, but for natural appearance 3D photography.

Once you've seen how nice a 3D photo can appear (the best way is to view Realist 3D Slides on a polarized screen), you'll never want to go pack to "flat" photography again.

Yes! My 3D web cam!

We've been working with 3D video and 3D live web cams for the past few years, and the biggest obsticle is the need to wear "funny glasses".

Actually, I wanted to be Liberace. I never made it.

You're a guy with a 3D Web Cam and you think bloggers are un-cool?

I do cool things like the world's first true-3D web cam and slashdot won't give me the time of day! But some joker from alt.syntax.tactical makes a fake, lame, document, and /. is all over it.

I don't get it.

Maybe folks will be able to actually move about in their virtual 3D worlds by moving their peephole! Think of it--millions of Ultima or Sim players walking around the streets with their portable peepholes, instead of sitting alone begind their computer screens!

It makes a lot of sense for movies. Why let some mastering company control your pan and scan? Pan and scan yourself. If there's a really w-i-d-e scene, either look around during it, or watch it again on the other side.

ROTFLMAO! (BTW: I really like your 3D WebCam! Does it run on a Macintosh?

Seriously, I've been a BIG fan of your low-budged 3D web movie work, and think that your 3D WebCam is the COOLEST thing I've seen on the web in a long time. Now if we could get good 3D pr0n

Well, if you can't view infrared, perhaps you'd rather look at blue/cyan anaglyphs?

• On a real piano, you don't "feel the hammers hitting the strings". There's an "escapement mechanism" that releases the hammer before it hits the strings. There's no mechanical linkage between key and hammer at the actual moment of impact. Inertia carries it there.
• Harder hit doesn't mean more sound. FASTER hit does. This is how a concert pianist can play for hours without killing his hands and wrists. Want more sound? Lift your fingers higher so they press the keys faster.
• A synth is not a piano. It's an instument--usually contolled by a keyboard--that can produce a wide range of sounds.