I don't think you're making a genuine comparison. You're not keen on a metal notebook - fine. But I am, my MacBook Pro is the first notebook I've been happy to carry to and from work in my rucksack, every day without fail. The only notebook available at the time I bought my MacBook last year with a similar weight, construction quality, processor speed etc., was a Sony Vaio model - and it was about fifty pounds cheaper, and didn't look as nice (in my subjective opinion). Fifty pounds on a thousand pound laptop really isn't worth arguing about.
You're sort-of right, but I think you're missing the point really. I can buy a designer shirt for silly money, but find just as good a shirt for cheaper else where. Same quality fabric, same quality stitching, nice designs etc. etc.. Most Apple hardware can't be found for the same quality elsewhere - really. Most of the time, if you pick a popular Apple product and try to find a match with equal design desirability, equal software features, equal durability etc., you might come up with something marginally cheaper, but not a difference worth worrying about.
So, essentially, moving to the model that Windows and OSX has had for years - a very limited set of 'system' apps that get updates with each OS release, and application software that gets updated whenever. I think that has big advantages.
I'm not sure ships do go in straight lines from source to destination, isn't that the point of 'shipping lanes'? Also I'm guessing ocean currents mean that the most efficient crossing isn't always the straightest. I don't really know anything about this so happy to be corrected!
No, that's not true, although you're right that the loophole is gradually being closed. The registered keeper is obliged to provide information about who was driving the vehicle at the time. If they genuinely don't know (e.g. a company car shared between several employees) then they can't be prosecuted for a crime they didn't committ. They can be prosecuted for failing to give information - so you're not responsible for crimes commited by/in your vehicle, but you are responsible for providing information about your vehicle. No law in the UK makes a person guilty of a crime "unless he can prove otherwise".
I don't think that's true. I think negligence would only be an issue for something that someone could reasonably be expected to control, e.g. if you owned a gun and left it lying around you might have some culpability if a murder was committed using it (though you probably wouldn't be guilty of murder). I don't think you could be expected to control something that has both legal and illegal uses where it's difficult to tell what use is being made of it.
Yup. A different, but similar vein, is that a lot of debt collection agencies have been buying up old [alleged] debts and trying to collect on them. I've had a couple of letters over the past few years demanding payment + interest for a phone bill I allegedly didn't pay years ago. Both times I've written a polite letter back asking for copies of the bill and stating that I would happily pay on sight of those copies - both times the company backed down. If I ever had a Davenport Lyons letter I think I would do the same thing - politely write, asking for IP addresses, times, and the exact details of the alleged infringements and state that I would look into all the users of my internet connection.
One interesting thing is that, AFAIK, under British law you have to prove the person not just the address for an alleged crime. For instance, more than a few people have defended a speeding ticket by stating something along the lines of "I own the vehicle, four of my family members are insured to drive it, I wasn't driving it that day and wasn't at home, and I cannot tell who was the driver". Unless the photos clearly show the driver's face or other distinguishing feature, you can't prosecute. In my grandparents' town there were notorious twin brothers about 50 years ago who dressed identically and wore the same hair style etc.. One of them would go out and commit robberies, the other would sit in plain view in the village pub drinking beer. Both would deny the crime, and neither could be prosecuted despite a positive ID. There's still photos of them on the wall of that pub. Anyway, I digress...
Yup, and in fact the integer 1 is the infinitesimally small sliver between the infinity 0..1 and 1..2, so logically 1 does not exist. Therefore, logically, nothing exists.
Blame Sophos. Sparse bundles are a key feature of the Apple filing system and really, really useful. Sophos should know all about them. This would be akin to a Linux AV that could look inside.tar.gz files but would nuke the whole archive if one file inside was questionable, without making that absoluely clear to the user.
Actually, we might be both right - I've seen another post that suggests that TM uses folders on a directly connected drive, although I'm pretty sure that before I moved to a DIY Time Capsule (USB external connected to Airport Extreme) I still had sparse bundles. YMMV.
Really, really - no. Time Machine backups are sparse bundles, which looks like a file unless you mount it as a volume. Just like those 'dmg' files you download to install an application. It's possible that you're using a really old version or have some options set to use a folder, but sparse bundles are the default on a new Snow Leopard backup schedule.
I had an STE and an Amiga 500 in the early 90's, one on my dad's desk and one in my bedroom. The STE acheived that number of colours by palate switching which consumed the whole processor so all you could do was look at a (fairly flickery) picture. I know, I did it. You could do the same thing on the Amiga, although the Amiga actually had a screen mode built in (HAM) that could do the same thing in a more limited form without the software hack. I think the Atari did just beat the Amiga when you compare those modes, but they were pretty pointless modes and rarely used in a genuine application. In terms of graphics and sound, in real world normal use - and most importantly in games and multimedia - the Amiga wiped the floor with the ST. The ST was the clear winner in high-res (monochrome) graphics and in MIDI where it's built in MIDI ports had a musicality and stability that some musicians still swear by 20 years later. Gen-locking worked great on the Amiga and not so well on the Atari, which is why there's still a few Amigas in low-budget TV studios.
You seem to be under the illusion that alternatives to universal healthcare don't exist in those countries. In the UK, your brother would have had three choices: 1. private surgery within a couple of weeks, funded either from his pocket or from his private health insurance; 2. NHS surgery which would involve a waiting list of 3-6 months with after-care provided on a private ward again funded either from his pocket or insurance; 3. total NHS 'free at the point of delivery' option, same waiting time but after-care on a public hospital ward. Bear in mind that the the %age of GDP figures that are published _include_ the tens of thousands of people in the UK who top-up their healthcare with private insurance to get quicker elective surgery or a nicer recovery room.
You need to look at the history properly rather than repeat a myth. The Xerox system used tiled windows, had modal text 'buttons' at the bottom of each window (so no visual memory of where commands are) and a whole lot of things that are different to a modern GUI. During the development of the Macintosh and Lisa, Apple invented pull-down menus and dialog boxes, to name two things that are totally central to modern GUIs. You're right that Xerox got the ball rolling (although really they were derivative, see Douglas Engelbart's video for what he was doing in the 60's), but claiming that Apple simply ripped Xerox off is utter rubbish.
I think you'll find the majority of cold viruses are caught by airborne droplets from sneezing and coughing, so I don't think washing your hands will help that much. It will work well with infections that are caught by the faeco-oral route, e.g. many vomiting and diarrhoea bugs.
Yup! Actually, there already is a great cure for the common cold, it's called Prednisolone. Unfortunately there's far too many side-effects to long-term steroid use to advocate it for relatively minor symptoms. Once when I was working in A&E (ER) I was sneezing all day with a cold; a colleague gave me a low dose Prednisolone tablet and I felt on top of the world. Many children who are labelled with 'asthma' actually only wheeze when they have a cold, and giving a short course of steroids usually totally relieved the symptoms.
There's nothing to defend. This whole story implies some sort of vendetta by Apple against Free software. I'm not a fanboi, I used Linux as my primary desktop for nearly a decade before switching to OS X. The more FOSS people act like jerks the less Apple will be interested in fixing the situations. If enough of Apple's actual customers write them well-reasoned complaints that they can't get the software they want, Apple may well write GPL-oriented exceptions into their licensing terms.
You could just as easlily say that the GPL is incompatible with the App store as the other way round. The claim is that because the App store has some restrictions (e.g. you can only install on 5 devices per download) and the GPL doesn't allow any extra restictions, that this is Apple's fault. If the owners of VLC want it on the app store, they could easily re-license it under a more permissive license that would be compatible. There's loads of situations outside of the app store where a piece of software might be subject to 'extra' restrictions. I don't think this is a deliberate decision on Apple's part to remove GPL apps, it's more a clash of cultures that either side could fix, and when Apple are told by someone that a certain app is incompatible in license with the App Store, it's perfectly natural for them to remove it as the first action.
Yup, flash on the Mac sucks. Ironically, when I loaded this page, I had to wait for 5 seconds for the massive flash ad at the top-right to load. I'll be glad when the web is totally free of Flash. I don't see this as an anti-Adobe vendetta, anymore that I saw Apple's shunning of the floppy drive a decade ago as an anti-Matsushita vendetta. Steve Jobs is doing his social engineering again - some people may hate him for it - but personally I support his move to rid the web of Flash. Funny enough, less than 2 years ago it seemed to be the Slashdot consensus that that would be a good thing, now when Flash is (well, should be) more irrelevant that ever, so many people seem to have a problem with this.
Care to name one? I've _never_ seen a third party app updated from Windows Update. There may be apps there created by a third party but distributed as a matter of choice by Microsoft (e.g. drivers and support software for certain hardware) but I've never seen third-party, non-Microsoft application software updated that way. And saying it's trivial to point Windows Update to a different server - well, we have no clue at this point whether the same will be true of the new Apple software update system.
Steve is given preferential treatment and access to core system services to developers that choose to accept his restrictions.
Uh, what, you mean - like Windows Update - I mean, Microsoft lets anyone use that, right? This article is total FUD. There's no indication that Launchpad will be restriced to App Store apps, I may eat my words, but I would consider moving off the platform if that does become a reality. But, right now, there's nothing from Apple that shows that would be the case. The only 'core' service is the ability to automatically update software, which is something that costs Apple money for hosting, therefore they require you to buy in to their service. Seems like pretty normal business practice to me.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think you're making a genuine comparison. You're not keen on a metal notebook - fine. But I am, my MacBook Pro is the first notebook I've been happy to carry to and from work in my rucksack, every day without fail. The only notebook available at the time I bought my MacBook last year with a similar weight, construction quality, processor speed etc., was a Sony Vaio model - and it was about fifty pounds cheaper, and didn't look as nice (in my subjective opinion). Fifty pounds on a thousand pound laptop really isn't worth arguing about.
You're sort-of right, but I think you're missing the point really. I can buy a designer shirt for silly money, but find just as good a shirt for cheaper else where. Same quality fabric, same quality stitching, nice designs etc. etc.. Most Apple hardware can't be found for the same quality elsewhere - really. Most of the time, if you pick a popular Apple product and try to find a match with equal design desirability, equal software features, equal durability etc., you might come up with something marginally cheaper, but not a difference worth worrying about.
So, essentially, moving to the model that Windows and OSX has had for years - a very limited set of 'system' apps that get updates with each OS release, and application software that gets updated whenever. I think that has big advantages.
I'm not sure ships do go in straight lines from source to destination, isn't that the point of 'shipping lanes'? Also I'm guessing ocean currents mean that the most efficient crossing isn't always the straightest. I don't really know anything about this so happy to be corrected!
No, that's not true, although you're right that the loophole is gradually being closed. The registered keeper is obliged to provide information about who was driving the vehicle at the time. If they genuinely don't know (e.g. a company car shared between several employees) then they can't be prosecuted for a crime they didn't committ. They can be prosecuted for failing to give information - so you're not responsible for crimes commited by/in your vehicle, but you are responsible for providing information about your vehicle. No law in the UK makes a person guilty of a crime "unless he can prove otherwise".
I don't think that's true. I think negligence would only be an issue for something that someone could reasonably be expected to control, e.g. if you owned a gun and left it lying around you might have some culpability if a murder was committed using it (though you probably wouldn't be guilty of murder). I don't think you could be expected to control something that has both legal and illegal uses where it's difficult to tell what use is being made of it.
Yup. A different, but similar vein, is that a lot of debt collection agencies have been buying up old [alleged] debts and trying to collect on them. I've had a couple of letters over the past few years demanding payment + interest for a phone bill I allegedly didn't pay years ago. Both times I've written a polite letter back asking for copies of the bill and stating that I would happily pay on sight of those copies - both times the company backed down. If I ever had a Davenport Lyons letter I think I would do the same thing - politely write, asking for IP addresses, times, and the exact details of the alleged infringements and state that I would look into all the users of my internet connection.
One interesting thing is that, AFAIK, under British law you have to prove the person not just the address for an alleged crime. For instance, more than a few people have defended a speeding ticket by stating something along the lines of "I own the vehicle, four of my family members are insured to drive it, I wasn't driving it that day and wasn't at home, and I cannot tell who was the driver". Unless the photos clearly show the driver's face or other distinguishing feature, you can't prosecute. In my grandparents' town there were notorious twin brothers about 50 years ago who dressed identically and wore the same hair style etc.. One of them would go out and commit robberies, the other would sit in plain view in the village pub drinking beer. Both would deny the crime, and neither could be prosecuted despite a positive ID. There's still photos of them on the wall of that pub. Anyway, I digress...
Ahhh! So you spotted that massive plot hole in the Harry Potter films too ;).
Yup, and in fact the integer 1 is the infinitesimally small sliver between the infinity 0..1 and 1..2, so logically 1 does not exist. Therefore, logically, nothing exists.
Blame Sophos. Sparse bundles are a key feature of the Apple filing system and really, really useful. Sophos should know all about them. This would be akin to a Linux AV that could look inside .tar.gz files but would nuke the whole archive if one file inside was questionable, without making that absoluely clear to the user.
Actually, we might be both right - I've seen another post that suggests that TM uses folders on a directly connected drive, although I'm pretty sure that before I moved to a DIY Time Capsule (USB external connected to Airport Extreme) I still had sparse bundles. YMMV.
Really, really - no. Time Machine backups are sparse bundles, which looks like a file unless you mount it as a volume. Just like those 'dmg' files you download to install an application. It's possible that you're using a really old version or have some options set to use a folder, but sparse bundles are the default on a new Snow Leopard backup schedule.
I had an STE and an Amiga 500 in the early 90's, one on my dad's desk and one in my bedroom. The STE acheived that number of colours by palate switching which consumed the whole processor so all you could do was look at a (fairly flickery) picture. I know, I did it. You could do the same thing on the Amiga, although the Amiga actually had a screen mode built in (HAM) that could do the same thing in a more limited form without the software hack. I think the Atari did just beat the Amiga when you compare those modes, but they were pretty pointless modes and rarely used in a genuine application. In terms of graphics and sound, in real world normal use - and most importantly in games and multimedia - the Amiga wiped the floor with the ST. The ST was the clear winner in high-res (monochrome) graphics and in MIDI where it's built in MIDI ports had a musicality and stability that some musicians still swear by 20 years later. Gen-locking worked great on the Amiga and not so well on the Atari, which is why there's still a few Amigas in low-budget TV studios.
You seem to be under the illusion that alternatives to universal healthcare don't exist in those countries. In the UK, your brother would have had three choices: 1. private surgery within a couple of weeks, funded either from his pocket or from his private health insurance; 2. NHS surgery which would involve a waiting list of 3-6 months with after-care provided on a private ward again funded either from his pocket or insurance; 3. total NHS 'free at the point of delivery' option, same waiting time but after-care on a public hospital ward. Bear in mind that the the %age of GDP figures that are published _include_ the tens of thousands of people in the UK who top-up their healthcare with private insurance to get quicker elective surgery or a nicer recovery room.
The Atari supported 16 colours out of a palate of 512 (see here).
You need to look at the history properly rather than repeat a myth. The Xerox system used tiled windows, had modal text 'buttons' at the bottom of each window (so no visual memory of where commands are) and a whole lot of things that are different to a modern GUI. During the development of the Macintosh and Lisa, Apple invented pull-down menus and dialog boxes, to name two things that are totally central to modern GUIs. You're right that Xerox got the ball rolling (although really they were derivative, see Douglas Engelbart's video for what he was doing in the 60's), but claiming that Apple simply ripped Xerox off is utter rubbish.
I think you'll find the majority of cold viruses are caught by airborne droplets from sneezing and coughing, so I don't think washing your hands will help that much. It will work well with infections that are caught by the faeco-oral route, e.g. many vomiting and diarrhoea bugs.
Yup! Actually, there already is a great cure for the common cold, it's called Prednisolone. Unfortunately there's far too many side-effects to long-term steroid use to advocate it for relatively minor symptoms. Once when I was working in A&E (ER) I was sneezing all day with a cold; a colleague gave me a low dose Prednisolone tablet and I felt on top of the world. Many children who are labelled with 'asthma' actually only wheeze when they have a cold, and giving a short course of steroids usually totally relieved the symptoms.
There's nothing to defend. This whole story implies some sort of vendetta by Apple against Free software. I'm not a fanboi, I used Linux as my primary desktop for nearly a decade before switching to OS X. The more FOSS people act like jerks the less Apple will be interested in fixing the situations. If enough of Apple's actual customers write them well-reasoned complaints that they can't get the software they want, Apple may well write GPL-oriented exceptions into their licensing terms.
You could just as easlily say that the GPL is incompatible with the App store as the other way round. The claim is that because the App store has some restrictions (e.g. you can only install on 5 devices per download) and the GPL doesn't allow any extra restictions, that this is Apple's fault. If the owners of VLC want it on the app store, they could easily re-license it under a more permissive license that would be compatible. There's loads of situations outside of the app store where a piece of software might be subject to 'extra' restrictions. I don't think this is a deliberate decision on Apple's part to remove GPL apps, it's more a clash of cultures that either side could fix, and when Apple are told by someone that a certain app is incompatible in license with the App Store, it's perfectly natural for them to remove it as the first action.
I hate to break this to you, but XBox isn't a tablet. Sorry to pull the rug from under you like that.
Yup, flash on the Mac sucks. Ironically, when I loaded this page, I had to wait for 5 seconds for the massive flash ad at the top-right to load. I'll be glad when the web is totally free of Flash. I don't see this as an anti-Adobe vendetta, anymore that I saw Apple's shunning of the floppy drive a decade ago as an anti-Matsushita vendetta. Steve Jobs is doing his social engineering again - some people may hate him for it - but personally I support his move to rid the web of Flash. Funny enough, less than 2 years ago it seemed to be the Slashdot consensus that that would be a good thing, now when Flash is (well, should be) more irrelevant that ever, so many people seem to have a problem with this.
Care to name one? I've _never_ seen a third party app updated from Windows Update. There may be apps there created by a third party but distributed as a matter of choice by Microsoft (e.g. drivers and support software for certain hardware) but I've never seen third-party, non-Microsoft application software updated that way. And saying it's trivial to point Windows Update to a different server - well, we have no clue at this point whether the same will be true of the new Apple software update system.
What you're saying is totally contradicted by the press release (which I watched live). They had MS Office in there, for example.
Steve is given preferential treatment and access to core system services to developers that choose to accept his restrictions.
Uh, what, you mean - like Windows Update - I mean, Microsoft lets anyone use that, right? This article is total FUD. There's no indication that Launchpad will be restriced to App Store apps, I may eat my words, but I would consider moving off the platform if that does become a reality. But, right now, there's nothing from Apple that shows that would be the case. The only 'core' service is the ability to automatically update software, which is something that costs Apple money for hosting, therefore they require you to buy in to their service. Seems like pretty normal business practice to me.