As much as I love what I have seen so far about MacOS X, I can't see a serious vision of the future in this article, founded on too many prejudices and far enough from the reality, as well technically and in market terms. Here are three of the most evident prejudices:
Apple is currently the only company other than Windows, Inc. with a viable consumer operating system.
Err... Be ? RedHat, SuSE & other Linux distributors ?
Mac OS X is not just available for purchase, it's available for purchase running on PC hardware.
Since Apple makes money by selling hardware and has always done that, this scenario is less than probable. See what happened to Mac clones two years ago.
The vast majority of computer users--even professionals--want nothing to do with a command line.
Are you sure ? For some tasks, it's just the opposite : I don't want a GUI on my firewall, for instance.
Stéphane
Have you checked out Badtech The daily online cartoon? Have you checked out BadtechThe daily online cartoon?
Here in Belgium, a guy was arrested yesterday for having downloaded 4 000 mp3 files and having put them on a cable server : "the equivalent of 9 500 CD in the mp3 format" -- the math is strange, they just counted that he transferred 95 000 files since the begining of the year, with a mean of 10 songs/CD. No word about Napster/Gnutella, only a vague sentence about the Galaxy server.
The complaint issued from the IFTI, the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (?).
It was a hot topic on Belgian IRC channels today. I'm amazed how mp3 stories begin to appear everywhere, even for non-computer-litterate people.
Here's a link from a local newspaper about it. It's French, but those of you who read it should find it as scary as I found it myself.
The recent discussion about alpha channels is about a complete and solid support for the PNG file format. GIF isn't a./-loved format due to it's stupid license.
I can't see why a Linux implementation of OpenGL/ Direct3D/Glide/Grits3D or any other 3D API I can think of would hurt anyone.
If Linux's creed was unification, it would hurt, but Linux is about choice. So if you think OpenGL is the best 3D API, it's OK. But it's OK if some folks decide to implement Direct3D too (and they do !), it's OK too.
I really can't understand why the parent was moderated Score:0, Flamebait ! It's sad I'm not a moderator right now, because I think he has a valid point:
OK, CLI has its strong points (I can't see why I should use a GUI to make a copy of an audio CD, for instance). But some tasks just need a GUI. Image manipulation is a good example.
Mmmh... And by the way. Word processing too. I know... TeX/LaTeX... OK ! But I can't agree : when I (and lots of people I know) have to type a text, literature or not, I just don't want to wonder about how it will look once printed, I have to keep 100% of my attention for what I write, not for the tags. WYSIWYG is really useful for this.
The parent post, and mine, aren't flamebait : we mean that CLI fanaticals are bad for the systems they advocate. Really.
...the wheel by itself is the third button, and wheel up & wheel left are button four and five. I think you can remap 4 and 5 to something else than scroll up/down.
Microsoft (!) and Logitech sell very nice, quite cheap wheel mouses. Very ergonomical and pleasant design.
Please don't tell me "but it's made by Microsoft". Yes it is. And ?
Is that open source corrects one of intellectual property (as we know it by now) flaws : this model just doesn't work with computer code (and, to a certain extent, with music, which travels on the same media).
Intellectual property just can't work because it was basically though for books, paintings, etc. in the 1800's and the 1900's, mostly from jurisprudence that followed American and French Revolution.
That was a long time ago. In theory, good laws are flexible enough to adapt themselves to new facts (lots of our europeans countries' laws are straight from Roman law), but for intellectual propriety, it just doesn't work.
My understanding is that the open source movement, even if it is *not* the solution, is a leap in the good direction. A piece of the puzzle, in other words.
Please, don't take that last sentence as an insult. The movement is a good thing, but I take zealotry with a grain of salt : nobody has the perfect intellectual property system, provided this system can exist.
That was my point : I was not "attacking" the PSX 2 in particular, but the general trend of new consoles which are losing their gaming vocation in favor of this Internet appliance marketing ploy.:o)
And about the X-Box, just imagine how simple it will be to code an emulator for it !;)
The next PSX 2 in the US will have a modem, a hard drive,... In other words, il will be a computer with proprietary harware.
I can't see the point of it : wouldn't a cheap console be better for simple gaming ? With a cheap PC next to it for Internet apps and word processing ?
OK, it would have an refreshing architecture compared to the usual x86 crap. But I'll be really happy the day I'll see a story about cheap PowerPC boxes, or something like this.
I mean... Real non-x86 computers with open hardware which aren't labeled as 'game consoles'.
Moderator : this is NOT flamebait nor troll... In fact, those are just my ideas;)
Large bandwith would sure be cool, but that's not really a priority IMHO.
What I think is THE priority is a 24/ 24 Internet connection for everybody, at lower costs (wireless 24/ 24 would be cool too;)).
Here in Europe, the connection costs are slowing down the evolution and the general acceptance of the Internet as a concept and as a communication tool. If you use it as a real communication tool (E-Mail, WWW, or even IRC and IM's), you don't need a large bandwidth, even 28.8 is enough. But for that, you need to get it for an acceptable cost. we still haven't that here. (And I suspect the problem is the same in lots of other countries/ continents too).
I can see at least two good reasons for this Netscape 6 beta release:
The most important one : face it, Mozilla's binaries are only downloaded and tested by geeks. People who like computers, sometimes write a little bit of HTML, but nothing fabulous. Giving a Netscape-branded beta will make non-geeks HTML developers (those working with the big companies) try it and post bug reports about it, but bug reports from a different, non-technical point of view, can be very useful too.
Now we can test our java-enabled sites. Java support is quite useful for some sites.
Stéphane
Hmmm not an explosion, but what about melting ?
on
Your CPU Will Explode
·
· Score: 1
I was thinking about a thing : with the new "jumperless" mobo's, I think it would be possible to write an overclocking virus which would be aware of usual boards (say the Abit BX-6) settings and able to overclock them.
There are utilities which allow you to overclock your system on the fly, from the os, why not virii ?
This, coupled with an algorithm that would make the CPU do more and more calculations, making it heat progressively... wouldn't there be a potential to cause the melting of some CPU's ? Not an infallible method, but it should sometimes work... Or not ?
You should take a look the iiyama Vision Master Pro 510, click on "TrueFlat". Very cool 22" monitor, at an affordable price. Its Diamontron tube (equal to Sony's Trinitron) gives you a very clean text, even at high resolutions. That's Sony's Trinitron quality, for a lower price.
The only problem I have with mine ("just" a 19" 450, but the 510 is just as good) is that its name is almost impossible to spell right !;)
Something you should consider too is the quality of the graphics card. Low end board are quite weak in high resolutions. I've searched a bit around the net about the best choice and it seems that Matrox cards give the cleanest, sharpest image. I'm very happy with my G200. Definitely not a gamers card -- I don't like games --, but a great 2D card.
I understand what you mean, but, even considering you're not on a linux-centric news site (you sure are), it's an important event for Linux !
Linux stories would have a place even on a non-linux-centric "news for nerd" site, right ?
And this story is everything but an insignifiant anecdote ! Linux cruelly misses a new filesystem, that is a journaling and 64-bit fs, allowing more than 2 Gb per file : this is really needed for the entreprise.
A story about a filesystem that fills this gap is just an important story !
Remember that Linux's real name is "GNU/Linux" and as we all know, "GNU=GNU's Not Unix".
Oh, come on...
Linus himself never talks about GNU/Linux... I think he has the authority to choose his OS name, right ? OK, RMS wrote the GPL, OK, RMS want Linuw to be called GNU/Linux... But it's called Linux and that will probably never change !
And for that recursive play on words that GNU's Not Unix... That's so kiddy ! I don't mean to flame anyone here, but if you want acceptance in the real-world server markets, puns just won't make it.
Oh well... This will kill my karma, but I had to say it.
PLEASE consider this time to build a computer and not a buzz-word thing like an Amiga Multimedia Convergence.
Or, if you don't feel able to build good hardware, why not a good software offer ? An OS ? Or better, some extensions to Linux to make it a real desktop or, even better, real time multimedia machine (two domains where Linux is still far from what other less meritant OSes can give).
But not a stupid Multimedia Internet blah-blah-blah ! That's just not what Amiga followers want.
This topic has generated some comments on AMD's weird choice to stay with an x86 architecture, where Intel finally decided to abandon it (except through emulation).
As I can see, AMD had only two possible choices:
Continue with an x86 arch and hack it once again. That's the way they have chosen.
Design a new, but not-Itanium-compatible 64-bit CPU. Technically, a far better choice. But they knew they haven't Intel's marketing strength to impose this new arch to the world.
Lots of comments have said that this choice is the result of AMD's will to dissociate themselves from Intel. I wouldn't say that : in my opinion, it comes from the fact that it would be impossible for AMD to impose a new CPU architecture.
This article (from AMDZone, I know) seems to forget that this new AMD CPU is one more hack to the x86 architecture.
Intel, with the Itanium, did the right thing and designed their new processor from scratch. Do we really need a new x86 chip, with its horrible design, when the open source concept allow you to recompile virtually anything in seconds, provided a compiler exist ?
Personally, I can't imagine how AMD can success with this.
Is a said in an earlier post today on this topic, multi-disciplin is IMHO the key of success if you want to have rock-solid apps with nice interfaces on top of them.
That implies psychologists and professionnal designers (in other words, artists) too.
The mistake of much of the open source movement is to believe that application design is the work of hardcore programmers alone.
I've no proof about it, but I'm convinced that more non-CS people have worked on the design of Windows or MacOS UI than CS people have worked on the code for those UI.
In this essay, the author suggests that the average/poor quality of user interface in open source projects is due to the lack of feedback loop to end-users.
I agree that's an important reason, but not the only reason.
IMHO, the problem comes from the facts that:
very good programmers and experts in ergonomics are two very different jobs
creating an interface is more an artistic work than a programming work : here again, artists (designers, graphists, colorists) are more competent than pure programmers.
The non-open source firms pay experts in ergonomics and artists to make their products more attractive for the end-user. There's nothing like this in the open source circuit. Usually, the same guy works on the code, the interface, icons design, etc. The exceptions are rare.
Now, I don't see it as a flaw in the open source model : artists and experts in ergonomics can work together with the programmer and open source their work too. But for a mysterious reason, it just doesn't happen... Hey ! It's not too late !
The whole 1 Ghz thing is "only" pure marketing, of course. It's not a lot faster than 900 Mhz, OK, but it's 1 000 times faster than my 1 Mhz C=64 !
In my mind (call it perverted with the metric & decimal system if you want), this looks like a milestone : wow my god ! 1 000 times faster (not talking in MIPS, of course) than my first computer.
Psychologically, it's a bigger step than the adoption of a 64 bits CPU. There's nothing rational here.
Jean-Loup is a quite common French first name. As everyone know since the masterpiece "Godzilla", we, French-speaking people, all have a first name beginning with "Jean";))
Loup doesn't exist as a first name by itself, only with the "Jean". And yes, loup means wolf in French.
Slashdot Mirror
As much as I love what I have seen so far about MacOS X, I can't see a serious vision of the future in this article, founded on too many prejudices and far enough from the reality, as well technically and in market terms. Here are three of the most evident prejudices :
Apple is currently the only company other than Windows, Inc. with a viable consumer operating system.
Err... Be ? RedHat, SuSE & other Linux distributors ?
Mac OS X is not just available for purchase, it's available for purchase running on PC hardware.
Since Apple makes money by selling hardware and has always done that, this scenario is less than probable. See what happened to Mac clones two years ago.
The vast majority of computer users--even professionals--want nothing to do with a command line.
Are you sure ? For some tasks, it's just the opposite : I don't want a GUI on my firewall, for instance.
Stéphane
Have you checked out Badtech The daily online cartoon?
Have you checked out Badtech The daily online cartoon?
Here in Belgium, a guy was arrested yesterday for having downloaded 4 000 mp3 files and having put them on a cable server : "the equivalent of 9 500 CD in the mp3 format" -- the math is strange, they just counted that he transferred 95 000 files since the begining of the year, with a mean of 10 songs/CD. No word about Napster/Gnutella, only a vague sentence about the Galaxy server.
The complaint issued from the IFTI, the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (?).
It was a hot topic on Belgian IRC channels today. I'm amazed how mp3 stories begin to appear everywhere, even for non-computer-litterate people.
Here's a link from a local newspaper about it. It's French, but those of you who read it should find it as scary as I found it myself.
Stéphane
The recent discussion about alpha channels is about a complete and solid support for the PNG file format. GIF isn't a ./-loved format due to it's stupid license.
Stéphane
Isn't Linux a matter of choice ?
I can't see why a Linux implementation of OpenGL/ Direct3D/Glide/Grits3D or any other 3D API I can think of would hurt anyone.
If Linux's creed was unification, it would hurt, but Linux is about choice. So if you think OpenGL is the best 3D API, it's OK. But it's OK if some folks decide to implement Direct3D too (and they do !), it's OK too.
Stéphane
I really can't understand why the parent was moderated Score:0, Flamebait ! It's sad I'm not a moderator right now, because I think he has a valid point :
OK, CLI has its strong points (I can't see why I should use a GUI to make a copy of an audio CD, for instance). But some tasks just need a GUI. Image manipulation is a good example.
Mmmh... And by the way. Word processing too. I know... TeX/LaTeX... OK ! But I can't agree : when I (and lots of people I know) have to type a text, literature or not, I just don't want to wonder about how it will look once printed, I have to keep 100% of my attention for what I write, not for the tags. WYSIWYG is really useful for this.
The parent post, and mine, aren't flamebait : we mean that CLI fanaticals are bad for the systems they advocate. Really.
Stéphane
the original greek would be spelled kappa-epsilon-beta-epsilon-rho-omikron-sigma: Kerberos.
;))
Mmmh... I think you're forgetting one "rho"...
Should not that be kappa-epsilon-rho-beta-epsilon-rho-omikron-sigma ?
Just my 7.38539 drachmas
Stéphane
...the wheel by itself is the third button, and wheel up & wheel left are button four and five. I think you can remap 4 and 5 to something else than scroll up/down.
Microsoft (!) and Logitech sell very nice, quite cheap wheel mouses. Very ergonomical and pleasant design.
Please don't tell me "but it's made by Microsoft". Yes it is. And ?
Stéphane
Is that open source corrects one of intellectual property (as we know it by now) flaws : this model just doesn't work with computer code (and, to a certain extent, with music, which travels on the same media).
Intellectual property just can't work because it was basically though for books, paintings, etc. in the 1800's and the 1900's, mostly from jurisprudence that followed American and French Revolution.
That was a long time ago. In theory, good laws are flexible enough to adapt themselves to new facts (lots of our europeans countries' laws are straight from Roman law), but for intellectual propriety, it just doesn't work.
My understanding is that the open source movement, even if it is *not* the solution, is a leap in the good direction. A piece of the puzzle, in other words.
Please, don't take that last sentence as an insult. The movement is a good thing, but I take zealotry with a grain of salt : nobody has the perfect intellectual property system, provided this system can exist.
And that's not certain !
Stéphane
That was my point : I was not "attacking" the PSX 2 in particular, but the general trend of new consoles which are losing their gaming vocation in favor of this Internet appliance marketing ploy. :o)
;)
And about the X-Box, just imagine how simple it will be to code an emulator for it !
Stéphane
The next PSX 2 in the US will have a modem, a hard drive,... In other words, il will be a computer with proprietary harware.
;)
I can't see the point of it : wouldn't a cheap console be better for simple gaming ? With a cheap PC next to it for Internet apps and word processing ?
OK, it would have an refreshing architecture compared to the usual x86 crap. But I'll be really happy the day I'll see a story about cheap PowerPC boxes, or something like this.
I mean... Real non-x86 computers with open hardware which aren't labeled as 'game consoles'.
Moderator : this is NOT flamebait nor troll... In fact, those are just my ideas
Stéphane
Large bandwith would sure be cool, but that's not really a priority IMHO.
;)).
What I think is THE priority is a 24/ 24 Internet connection for everybody, at lower costs (wireless 24/ 24 would be cool too
Here in Europe, the connection costs are slowing down the evolution and the general acceptance of the Internet as a concept and as a communication tool. If you use it as a real communication tool (E-Mail, WWW, or even IRC and IM's), you don't need a large bandwidth, even 28.8 is enough. But for that, you need to get it for an acceptable cost. we still haven't that here. (And I suspect the problem is the same in lots of other countries/ continents too).
Just my thoughts.
Stéphane
The most important one : face it, Mozilla's binaries are only downloaded and tested by geeks. People who like computers, sometimes write a little bit of HTML, but nothing fabulous. Giving a Netscape-branded beta will make non-geeks HTML developers (those working with the big companies) try it and post bug reports about it, but bug reports from a different, non-technical point of view, can be very useful too.
Now we can test our java-enabled sites. Java support is quite useful for some sites.
Stéphane
I was thinking about a thing : with the new "jumperless" mobo's, I think it would be possible to write an overclocking virus which would be aware of usual boards (say the Abit BX-6) settings and able to overclock them.
There are utilities which allow you to overclock your system on the fly, from the os, why not virii ?
This, coupled with an algorithm that would make the CPU do more and more calculations, making it heat progressively... wouldn't there be a potential to cause the melting of some CPU's ? Not an infallible method, but it should sometimes work... Or not ?
Just wondering...
Stéphane
You should take a look the iiyama Vision Master Pro 510, click on "TrueFlat". Very cool 22" monitor, at an affordable price. Its Diamontron tube (equal to Sony's Trinitron) gives you a very clean text, even at high resolutions. That's Sony's Trinitron quality, for a lower price.
;)
The only problem I have with mine ("just" a 19" 450, but the 510 is just as good) is that its name is almost impossible to spell right !
Something you should consider too is the quality of the graphics card. Low end board are quite weak in high resolutions. I've searched a bit around the net about the best choice and it seems that Matrox cards give the cleanest, sharpest image. I'm very happy with my G200. Definitely not a gamers card -- I don't like games --, but a great 2D card.
Stéphane
I understand what you mean, but, even considering you're not on a linux-centric news site (you sure are), it's an important event for Linux !
Linux stories would have a place even on a non-linux-centric "news for nerd" site, right ?
And this story is everything but an insignifiant anecdote ! Linux cruelly misses a new filesystem, that is a journaling and 64-bit fs, allowing more than 2 Gb per file : this is really needed for the entreprise.
A story about a filesystem that fills this gap is just an important story !
Stéphane
Remember that Linux's real name is "GNU/Linux" and as we all know, "GNU=GNU's Not Unix".
Oh, come on...
Linus himself never talks about GNU/Linux... I think he has the authority to choose his OS name, right ? OK, RMS wrote the GPL, OK, RMS want Linuw to be called GNU/Linux... But it's called Linux and that will probably never change !
And for that recursive play on words that GNU's Not Unix... That's so kiddy ! I don't mean to flame anyone here, but if you want acceptance in the real-world server markets, puns just won't make it.
Oh well... This will kill my karma, but I had to say it.
Stéphane
Dear Mr. Amiga,
PLEASE consider this time to build a computer and not a buzz-word thing like an Amiga Multimedia Convergence.
Or, if you don't feel able to build good hardware, why not a good software offer ? An OS ? Or better, some extensions to Linux to make it a real desktop or, even better, real time multimedia machine (two domains where Linux is still far from what other less meritant OSes can give).
But not a stupid Multimedia Internet blah-blah-blah ! That's just not what Amiga followers want.
Stéphane
As I can see, AMD had only two possible choices
Continue with an x86 arch and hack it once again. That's the way they have chosen.
Design a new, but not-Itanium-compatible 64-bit CPU. Technically, a far better choice. But they knew they haven't Intel's marketing strength to impose this new arch to the world.
Lots of comments have said that this choice is the result of AMD's will to dissociate themselves from Intel. I wouldn't say that : in my opinion, it comes from the fact that it would be impossible for AMD to impose a new CPU architecture.
What do you think ?
Stéphane
This article (from AMDZone, I know) seems to forget that this new AMD CPU is one more hack to the x86 architecture.
Intel, with the Itanium, did the right thing and designed their new processor from scratch. Do we really need a new x86 chip, with its horrible design, when the open source concept allow you to recompile virtually anything in seconds, provided a compiler exist ?
Personally, I can't imagine how AMD can success with this.
Stéphane
April 1st is very early this year ! ;)
I can't agree with you more !
Is a said in an earlier post today on this topic, multi-disciplin is IMHO the key of success if you want to have rock-solid apps with nice interfaces on top of them.
That implies psychologists and professionnal designers (in other words, artists) too.
The mistake of much of the open source movement is to believe that application design is the work of hardcore programmers alone.
I've no proof about it, but I'm convinced that more non-CS people have worked on the design of Windows or MacOS UI than CS people have worked on the code for those UI.
Stéphane
I agree that's an important reason, but not the only reason.
IMHO, the problem comes from the facts that
very good programmers and experts in ergonomics are two very different jobs
creating an interface is more an artistic work than a programming work : here again, artists (designers, graphists, colorists) are more competent than pure programmers.
The non-open source firms pay experts in ergonomics and artists to make their products more attractive for the end-user. There's nothing like this in the open source circuit. Usually, the same guy works on the code, the interface, icons design, etc. The exceptions are rare.
Now, I don't see it as a flaw in the open source model : artists and experts in ergonomics can work together with the programmer and open source their work too. But for a mysterious reason, it just doesn't happen... Hey ! It's not too late !
Stéphane
The whole 1 Ghz thing is "only" pure marketing, of course. It's not a lot faster than 900 Mhz, OK, but it's 1 000 times faster than my 1 Mhz C=64 !
In my mind (call it perverted with the metric & decimal system if you want), this looks like a milestone : wow my god ! 1 000 times faster (not talking in MIPS, of course) than my first computer.
Psychologically, it's a bigger step than the adoption of a 64 bits CPU. There's nothing rational here.
Stéphane
LOL !
;)
I was expecting this question
Actually I don't live in France, but in Belgium. That's probably what saved me ! Jean-Stéphane... It sounds horrible !
Uh-Uh... Yeah ! (Puff Daddy ruining Led Zeppelin, Godzilla Soundtrack.
Stéphane
Jean-Loup is a quite common French first name. As everyone know since the masterpiece "Godzilla", we, French-speaking people, all have a first name beginning with "Jean" ;))
Loup doesn't exist as a first name by itself, only with the "Jean". And yes, loup means wolf in French.
Stéphane