It is an amazing device, but I think the reason it's omitted is that it didn't have a conditional branch, so although theoretically Turing-complete, it was in practice impossible to program and use in the same way as a modern computing device; i.e. it was effectively a very clever calculator. Later machines, e.g. ENIAC, were programable in the modern sense, even though initially using plugboards. I had always thought that Colossus wasn't a true programable computer, but having browsed around a few descriptions, it seems that it was, so it is fair to give it credit as the first modern computer.
Fair point, I was thinking of trojan-style malware that presented the user with a realistic-looking window and invited them to click something. Back in the day, I was the local "computer expert" who could kill the process with Task Manager and remove the executables. These days it's much harder to remove Windows malware of that type, although with a little persistence it's usually possible. My point was, this "epidemic" of Mac OS X malware is where Windows was 16 years ago, i.e. anyone who has ever killed a rouge process and uninstalled an application could deal with it (although, admittedly, it could move on quite rapidly).
I don't think they're contradictory, you've just spotted the obvious version of the story that would "accommodate the unambiguous computer record", and make the NY Times article a load of hot air. The maid will claim he shut the door to imprison her, he will claim they shut the door after mutually agreeing to sex. So these records prove nothing, other than that the encounter most likely started with the usual practice of the maid propping the door open to valet the room.
You do know that the iPhone 4 has screws to allow you to remove the back? Or are you just trolling? Checkout the fourth picture in this teardown article. The battery is on a proper connector, so can be easily replaced by a reasonable competent end user.
It's also worth noting that the 'malware' of which there is an 'explosion' of discussion about on the forums according to the article (about 200 threads) is about as sophisticated as that seen for Windows circa-1995. Checkout these removal instructions. The Mac equivalent of CTRL+ALT+DEL, opening the task manager and killing the process, then trashing the executables. I could knock up something with the same level of sophistication on Mac, Windows or Linux in an afternoon. Even the first Internet worm used two executables that would each relaunch the other when the user killed the process. This 'malware' even politely closes when the standard close button is clicked.
I'm not sure this can even be properly classed as malware - I'm not sure what you'd call it - it's more like a phishing scam as it doesn't do any harm (other than the embarrassment of porn popping up) - it's really fraudware, designed to extract money from the user.
That's right, I can't think of any situations in everyday life, then or now, when people had to remember >= 7 digit numbers. At least, not since telephones switched in the late 80's to using easily memorable names rather than numbers.
No. ICQ was the first messenger that was used by a significant number of "normal" people, globally speaking. AIM was an almost exclusively US phenomenon. ICQ predates AIM by over a year, and on a global scale was more popular than AIM until bought by, and integrated into, AOL.
I'm inclined to speculate that there might, just might, be a difference between the terms of a contract of employment, and a license provided with a hardware/software combination. I'm not even sure that the catch-all clauses in employment contracts are enforceable for inventions or creations that don't directly relate to the business of the employer, but I'm too lazy/busy to look up case law on that one.
I understand all that, and hey - it's your site, so it's up to you. My point was, the first couple of paragraphs of the site just tell people to upgrade to a 'real browser' which isn't really the answer at all. Without Javascript you'll probably have problems, but I'd say on the scale of technical cludgery, using some JS is more elegant than telling people to change their browser. A hack that might work is: <link rel="stylesheet" media="screen and min-device-pixel-ratio: 0" href="safari3.css"/>.
The trick is to use stylesheets properly so that it downgrades gracefully on older / less standards-compliant browsers. I use Safari on my Mac because it's fast and doesn't get in the way. At the moment your site is an empty page with a few graphical decorations. That's not a problem with my browser, it's a problem with your coding.
Yes... but lots of people don't. They enjoy the unpredictability and hands-on visceral feeling of messing with circuitry. Often it produced garbage, but occasionally you stumble upon an amazing sound that turns into something musical (if arguably atonal).
These sorts of ideas come from a 1980s understanding of digital technology in CD players, where a bitstream is being converted in a DAC. The audio on HDMI is transmitted in packets, so the idea of jitter is a nonsense as there aren't clock signals to synchronise.
There's a popular 'circuit bending' scene for modifying electronic musical instruments (usually crude ones) and other noise making games like Speak 'n' Spell to make unusual sounds. I could imagine using the core memory for storing sample data (you would have to stream it through I guess as it's only a few bytes) and allowing the user to manipulate it to produce unexpected results, for instance by waving inductive or magnetic devices near the core. It could also be used to store modulation data or other values for a digital synth. I know it sounds crazy, but the electronic music scene is always looking for ways to alter sounds in unpredictable ways, and this could certainly be a novel and retro way to do it.
That's right, even after looking at figures for years, doctors just don't learn what's high and low without help. That's why I need an "H" next to 70 on my speedometer.
It won't have been played-in through the cassette port, searches would have taken hours. The BBC had numerous higher-speed interfaces as standard, which is what made it the best project micro of its day, and ideal for this sort of thing.
He doesn't know what he's talking about. He thinks a CD and case will cost a pound (more like 20p in bulk I would think), and a photo frame £5 (again, I would guess about 1/10 to 1/5 of that in bulk). He also appears to be totally ignorant of the concept of the loss leader. All photography studios run apparently very cheap offers in the hope that customers will order very expensive prints, recommend them to their friends, book them for their wedding reception, commercial shoot, bah mitzvah etc. How much do you think a Groupon voucher sale will cost compared to a nationwide advertising campaign? Even if the company makes a loss, it's probably better value than a newspaper ad.
You mean, the Xerox Star that had: no pull down menus (Apple invented these) and a modal UI (Apple came up with the idea that the UI for each application should be essentially static to aid exploration and recall), and was in any case developed from research by Douglas Engelbart? The idea that "Apple copied Xerox" is ridiculous, and easily refuted by half an hour looking over screenshots and descriptions of Xerox Star and the development history of the Apple Lisa/Mac GUI. Apple clearly developed ideas from Xerox, as Xerox did from Engelbart and others, but it wasn't a straight clone by any means.
I don't know if you're being deliberately silly, but Samsung (among others) have designed a phone that appears to be deliberately an iPhone clone, down to quite small details. If you're aware of a phone that existed before the iPhone that most non-techincal users would easily confuse with the iPhone, I'd concede the point. Without debating the rights and wrongs of it, it's disingenuous to try to claim that there aren't a number of manufacturers copying the iPhone hardware and software design to cash in on the market.
I second that. The ScanSnap is absolutely awesome, really quick, and the software is really smart (detects folds/creases as you scan and get you back on track). I've shredded hundreds of documents over the past year after scanning and OCRing. I use DevonThink on the Mac.
A lot of the differences have decreased since the release of Windows 7, but until then, if you put a non-expert Mac, Windows and Linux user in a conference room with their laptops, and asked them to perform a set of common tasks as quickly as possible, the Mac user would win hands-down every time. E.g.: connect a newly purchased printer and print a colour document, connect to a new wireless network and download a file, connect to a video projector and display a presentation with a presenter view on the laptop screen and the slides on the big screen. That's why the Mac became popular again - Apple optimised the things that drive regular users nuts on a daily basis, and they were willing to pay the premium (which, actually, isn't a huge difference compared to the high-end offerings from Sony, Dell, HP etc.)
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It is an amazing device, but I think the reason it's omitted is that it didn't have a conditional branch, so although theoretically Turing-complete, it was in practice impossible to program and use in the same way as a modern computing device; i.e. it was effectively a very clever calculator. Later machines, e.g. ENIAC, were programable in the modern sense, even though initially using plugboards. I had always thought that Colossus wasn't a true programable computer, but having browsed around a few descriptions, it seems that it was, so it is fair to give it credit as the first modern computer.
Fair point, I was thinking of trojan-style malware that presented the user with a realistic-looking window and invited them to click something. Back in the day, I was the local "computer expert" who could kill the process with Task Manager and remove the executables. These days it's much harder to remove Windows malware of that type, although with a little persistence it's usually possible. My point was, this "epidemic" of Mac OS X malware is where Windows was 16 years ago, i.e. anyone who has ever killed a rouge process and uninstalled an application could deal with it (although, admittedly, it could move on quite rapidly).
I don't think they're contradictory, you've just spotted the obvious version of the story that would "accommodate the unambiguous computer record", and make the NY Times article a load of hot air. The maid will claim he shut the door to imprison her, he will claim they shut the door after mutually agreeing to sex. So these records prove nothing, other than that the encounter most likely started with the usual practice of the maid propping the door open to valet the room.
You do know that the iPhone 4 has screws to allow you to remove the back? Or are you just trolling? Checkout the fourth picture in this teardown article. The battery is on a proper connector, so can be easily replaced by a reasonable competent end user.
It's also worth noting that the 'malware' of which there is an 'explosion' of discussion about on the forums according to the article (about 200 threads) is about as sophisticated as that seen for Windows circa-1995. Checkout these removal instructions. The Mac equivalent of CTRL+ALT+DEL, opening the task manager and killing the process, then trashing the executables. I could knock up something with the same level of sophistication on Mac, Windows or Linux in an afternoon. Even the first Internet worm used two executables that would each relaunch the other when the user killed the process. This 'malware' even politely closes when the standard close button is clicked.
I'm not sure this can even be properly classed as malware - I'm not sure what you'd call it - it's more like a phishing scam as it doesn't do any harm (other than the embarrassment of porn popping up) - it's really fraudware, designed to extract money from the user.
That's right, I can't think of any situations in everyday life, then or now, when people had to remember >= 7 digit numbers. At least, not since telephones switched in the late 80's to using easily memorable names rather than numbers.
No. ICQ was the first messenger that was used by a significant number of "normal" people, globally speaking. AIM was an almost exclusively US phenomenon. ICQ predates AIM by over a year, and on a global scale was more popular than AIM until bought by, and integrated into, AOL.
I'm inclined to speculate that there might, just might, be a difference between the terms of a contract of employment, and a license provided with a hardware/software combination. I'm not even sure that the catch-all clauses in employment contracts are enforceable for inventions or creations that don't directly relate to the business of the employer, but I'm too lazy/busy to look up case law on that one.
I understand all that, and hey - it's your site, so it's up to you. My point was, the first couple of paragraphs of the site just tell people to upgrade to a 'real browser' which isn't really the answer at all. Without Javascript you'll probably have problems, but I'd say on the scale of technical cludgery, using some JS is more elegant than telling people to change their browser. A hack that might work is: <link rel="stylesheet" media="screen and min-device-pixel-ratio: 0" href="safari3.css"/>.
The trick is to use stylesheets properly so that it downgrades gracefully on older / less standards-compliant browsers. I use Safari on my Mac because it's fast and doesn't get in the way. At the moment your site is an empty page with a few graphical decorations. That's not a problem with my browser, it's a problem with your coding.
Yes... but lots of people don't. They enjoy the unpredictability and hands-on visceral feeling of messing with circuitry. Often it produced garbage, but occasionally you stumble upon an amazing sound that turns into something musical (if arguably atonal).
These sorts of ideas come from a 1980s understanding of digital technology in CD players, where a bitstream is being converted in a DAC. The audio on HDMI is transmitted in packets, so the idea of jitter is a nonsense as there aren't clock signals to synchronise.
There's a popular 'circuit bending' scene for modifying electronic musical instruments (usually crude ones) and other noise making games like Speak 'n' Spell to make unusual sounds. I could imagine using the core memory for storing sample data (you would have to stream it through I guess as it's only a few bytes) and allowing the user to manipulate it to produce unexpected results, for instance by waving inductive or magnetic devices near the core. It could also be used to store modulation data or other values for a digital synth. I know it sounds crazy, but the electronic music scene is always looking for ways to alter sounds in unpredictable ways, and this could certainly be a novel and retro way to do it.
That's right, even after looking at figures for years, doctors just don't learn what's high and low without help. That's why I need an "H" next to 70 on my speedometer.
It won't have been played-in through the cassette port, searches would have taken hours. The BBC had numerous higher-speed interfaces as standard, which is what made it the best project micro of its day, and ideal for this sort of thing.
He doesn't know what he's talking about. He thinks a CD and case will cost a pound (more like 20p in bulk I would think), and a photo frame £5 (again, I would guess about 1/10 to 1/5 of that in bulk). He also appears to be totally ignorant of the concept of the loss leader. All photography studios run apparently very cheap offers in the hope that customers will order very expensive prints, recommend them to their friends, book them for their wedding reception, commercial shoot, bah mitzvah etc. How much do you think a Groupon voucher sale will cost compared to a nationwide advertising campaign? Even if the company makes a loss, it's probably better value than a newspaper ad.
That's right, that's the only possibly reasonable response. That must mean that the designers are unreasonable. So don't buy it.
You mean, the Xerox Star that had: no pull down menus (Apple invented these) and a modal UI (Apple came up with the idea that the UI for each application should be essentially static to aid exploration and recall), and was in any case developed from research by Douglas Engelbart? The idea that "Apple copied Xerox" is ridiculous, and easily refuted by half an hour looking over screenshots and descriptions of Xerox Star and the development history of the Apple Lisa/Mac GUI. Apple clearly developed ideas from Xerox, as Xerox did from Engelbart and others, but it wasn't a straight clone by any means.
Which GUI do you think Apple copied, when?
I don't know if you're being deliberately silly, but Samsung (among others) have designed a phone that appears to be deliberately an iPhone clone, down to quite small details. If you're aware of a phone that existed before the iPhone that most non-techincal users would easily confuse with the iPhone, I'd concede the point. Without debating the rights and wrongs of it, it's disingenuous to try to claim that there aren't a number of manufacturers copying the iPhone hardware and software design to cash in on the market.
Sorry, what is it that you think Apple blatantly copied?
I second that. The ScanSnap is absolutely awesome, really quick, and the software is really smart (detects folds/creases as you scan and get you back on track). I've shredded hundreds of documents over the past year after scanning and OCRing. I use DevonThink on the Mac.
A lot of the differences have decreased since the release of Windows 7, but until then, if you put a non-expert Mac, Windows and Linux user in a conference room with their laptops, and asked them to perform a set of common tasks as quickly as possible, the Mac user would win hands-down every time. E.g.: connect a newly purchased printer and print a colour document, connect to a new wireless network and download a file, connect to a video projector and display a presentation with a presenter view on the laptop screen and the slides on the big screen. That's why the Mac became popular again - Apple optimised the things that drive regular users nuts on a daily basis, and they were willing to pay the premium (which, actually, isn't a huge difference compared to the high-end offerings from Sony, Dell, HP etc.)
Isn't it "if you're gonna have a hit..."
My blu-ray player is, and so is my Wii (I missed that off the list) and most people don't see either of those as a problem.