Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way as someone who doesn't even own a TV but wouldn't it be more future-proof to use something a little bit more modern rather than assume that standard broadcast TV will be a major priority in years to come?
Personally I just use HDMI from the machine that plays video (and sits in my computer room rather than the living room) to my projector and then I control playback with either a wireless keyboard + mouse or my smartphone. Obviously if your wiring closet/rack is far from the room you want to watch media in then you'll be limited to using a wifi-connected tablet or smartphone but this works really well (not quite as much utility as keyboard + mouse but miles ahead of a TV with a remote).
Wow, MPlayerX seems to have really improved from when I first saw it. "Inspired by QuickTime X, MPlayerX has the simply, black interface, and in-frame minimal controls...". Sounds pretty good. Thanks for the tip.
Thing is, no sane person uses the Quicktime codec anymore so talking about it makes no sense. It's like saying you want Real to die, it's already dead, stop beating that damn horse already.
Apple themselves use MPEG-4 almost exclusively, it's pretty much their standard format for video and has been for years.
Quicktime X does have a few advantages over previous versions. The main one being the UI when playing a movie, as long as you don't mouse over the window there are absolutely no window decorations, just the video, which is really useful for those of us with large screens (both in physical size and resolution) who like to tile our windows and keep TV shows or movies running while doing other stuff.
I kind of wish VLC or MPlayer OSX Extended would implement this.
I'd say that a major problem with Microsoft is exactly what keeps them relevant, inertia. A different kind of inertia though.
From what I've seen they do have some interesting research projects going on, stuff that has a lot of promise and which could relatively easily be turned into products. Yet somehow a lot of that never really seems to reach customers, at least not in a way that's comparable to the promises of the original research. More and more I get the feeling that Microsoft's strategy of playing it safe is hurting them badly.
That btw, is IMHO exactly why Apple is doing so well with consumers, they're willing to change things up, they're willing to take an idea and commit to it. This means they'll have failures every now and then but it also means that customers feel confident that if Apple comes up with something new (or at least their own take on some idea which someone else has failed at marketing in the past) it's probably good. Microsoft on the other hand seem to do what many companies do, they figure something new they've got might possibly be a good idea so they market it a little bit, to see if it floats. Of course, a lot of times a good idea implemented poorly/lazily will not be perform nearly as well in the market as the same idea implemented properly...
The thing with Adobe is that it's by no means all Apple's fault.
One of the core issues was Adobe's creative suite, when they ported it to OS X they used Carbon rather than Cocoa. They knew Carbon wouldn't live forever yet they threw a temper tantrum when Apple started dropping Carbon in favor of the all-Cocoa future. Then they seemed to realize that if they dropped OS X as a platform they'd most likely end up losing customers as others (possibly including Apple themselves) filled the void, apparently they figure out that users of Adobe software on Apple platforms are generally more loyal to Apple than Adobe...
Did you copy and paste this reply? I already used the description "tax-funded" not "government-funded" so your little explanation of that part was completely pointless.
Also, it's only a net drain on the economy if you assume that no good will come from an educated population.
Some of us live in countries where you don't pay tuition to attend tax-funded universities. Of course, it's still wise to at least consider the usefulness of your education once you have a degree (or feel sufficiently educated for those who don't care about the piece of paper).
I have to say that most Mensa members I've met have been people I would consider intelligent, interesting and fun to be around while most of the anti-Mensa folks I've been around (you know, the ones who hate on Mensa and Mensa members) have been boorish, dumber than the average Mensa member and quite frankly not a lot of fun to be around.
Of course, I haven't met every Mensa member (and definitely not every non-member).
Apple's iOS-like sandboxing and signed-app requirements would likely help OS X considerably in this regard, but of course every decision that increases security by removing control from the user also infuriates free/open software proponents and hackers.
Changes in 10.8 won't remove control from the user, any admin user (which for home users is the same as "the user" unless they asked a cousin or someone to set things up for them) can change the settings, it just defaults to "block unsigned". It's a setting, you can turn it up and only allow app store downloads and you can turn it off completely.
Our computer club in HS had a PDP-11/04 with a couple of 8" floppy drives. Wasn't very useful though, the most that thing seemed to be able to do was boot up and make clunking sounds with the floppy drives. We also occasionally used it to test how sturdy other hardware was (it was mounted in a full-height 19" rack on wheels). IBM workstation hardware was no match for the mighty PDP (although we did almost topple it over a friend of mine when crushing what I think was a DAT unit for an RS/6000).
We considered throwing it from the 4th floor but it wouldn't fit through the window that led out to the fire escape...
Leopard (10.5) was released in 2007, Snow Leopard (10.6) was released in 2009. Lion (10.7) which is the current version of OS X was released in 2011.
Now, compared to Microsoft's support this isn't very good (after all, 2007 is only five years ago) but at the same time I've noticed that compared to the Windows users I interact with most Mac users are a lot more willing to keep software up-to-date, I don't know anyone still running Leopard (IRL, not ACs on/.) but I can name a few people who insist that Windows 98 is "good enough" and plenty who stubbornly refuse to upgrade from Windows XP.
By comparison, how many Linux desktop users do you know who still run Red Hat Linux 7.1 or Debian 3.0? How about FreeBSD 4.4? Maybe the problem is more with the users than the manufacturer...
There are still plenty of companies running Windows XP.
Hell, I know one company with 100+ employees in the telecommunications industry that didn't replace Windows 2000 on desktops until 2010, and only because some software they were using was no longer supported on win2k (this "no longer supported" being the kind where it simply won't run right anymore). And yes, they upgraded to XP. AFAIK they're not planning on moving to 7 or 8 for until they absolutely have to...
While neat for those who are currently in areas with spotty wireless coverage it is a neat idea but for most users I don't think it's that much of an issue, even at the moment.
Fast forward five years and I just don't see this software being all that useful. Sure, there's always gonna be that handful of people who will scream that this is extremely useful because they're always hopping between wifi hotspots but most users are using 3G/4G when they're on the move and coverage for those is already "good enough" in most civilized places and steadily improving. I've taken 5+ hour train trips several times and only had ssh connections drop once or twice on those trips (due to spotty coverage in what would quality as the middle of nowhere in northern Sweden).
This is like "solving" the IPv4 address exhaustion problem with NAT, it's a neat workaround but doesn't actually solve the problem.
Except nothing is preventing you from installing software from anywhere on the net on your Mac that's running OS X (we're not talking iOS here, we're talking OS X vs Windows since this affects desktop computers as well).
What's funny is that I've barely heard a word about this Win8 app store lock-in, especially not from the foaming-at-the-mouth MS fanboys who love to scream about how OS X is a walled garden (because they can't be bothered to understand that iOS and OS X aren't the exact same operating system).
Re:what bothered me about that article
on
Parlez-vous Python?
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I haven't read the comments but in my experience random folks learning just enough HTML and PHP to be dangerous is not a good thing.
It's a great example of the Dunning-Kruger effect, they know a little and are ignorant of what they don't know. Then real developers have to come in and clean up their mess (which is often more work than just building it from scratch).
I was hoping SGI would at least somewhat gracefully fade away, instead someone decided to do a cash grab before the remnants of a once-great company finally disappear...
Interesting, I've noticed that quite a few of my geekier friends have Skype accounts (as do I) but most people I know still seem to cling to MSN or have transitioned to just using Facebook.
I think you're the one who should take a course in marketing or economics.
You're missing out on the fact that by "spending" money on tickets priced less than their perceived value a company may very well be trying to increase profits down the road rather than NOW NOW NOW THIS QUARTER! PROFITS! NOW! PROFITS! FIRE EVERYONE TO MAXIMIZE THIS WEEKS PROFITS! NOW! MONEY! NOW! YOU CAN BUY MY MOTHER FOR $10! OK! EIGHT BUCKS BUT I WANT IT IN CASH!
In Sweden it is, AFAIK, the most popular IM client (although a lot of people have recently taken to using Facebook's built-in XMPP-based chat).
You see, ICQ used to be king of the hill. Then in the very late 1990s and early 2000s lots of kids with no knowledge of computers or how horrible MSN Messenger was compared to the competition were going online and using the, at the time, IM client included with Windows. The ICQ users mostly switched to MSN or used a multi-protocol client to stay in touch with everyone. Eventually everyone stopped using ICQ and what was left was a country of MSN users.
So why wasn't it AIM or one of the other services popular in the US that became popular? Well, AIM came from AOL which never really operated anywhere but in the US. ICQ was popular but was beaten by MSN since MSN came pre-installed with Windows. This btw, explains why MSN is "popular" outside the US, early adopters used other services but when the "regular people" came online the one IM client they saw was MSN. ICQ was "for geeks" and AIM and YIM had pretty much no chance since neither AOL nor Yahoo! had much market presence.
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Coax? Who still uses coax for anything?
Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way as someone who doesn't even own a TV but wouldn't it be more future-proof to use something a little bit more modern rather than assume that standard broadcast TV will be a major priority in years to come?
Personally I just use HDMI from the machine that plays video (and sits in my computer room rather than the living room) to my projector and then I control playback with either a wireless keyboard + mouse or my smartphone. Obviously if your wiring closet/rack is far from the room you want to watch media in then you'll be limited to using a wifi-connected tablet or smartphone but this works really well (not quite as much utility as keyboard + mouse but miles ahead of a TV with a remote).
Wow, MPlayerX seems to have really improved from when I first saw it. "Inspired by QuickTime X, MPlayerX has the simply, black interface, and in-frame minimal controls...". Sounds pretty good. Thanks for the tip.
Thing is, no sane person uses the Quicktime codec anymore so talking about it makes no sense. It's like saying you want Real to die, it's already dead, stop beating that damn horse already.
Apple themselves use MPEG-4 almost exclusively, it's pretty much their standard format for video and has been for years.
Quicktime X does have a few advantages over previous versions. The main one being the UI when playing a movie, as long as you don't mouse over the window there are absolutely no window decorations, just the video, which is really useful for those of us with large screens (both in physical size and resolution) who like to tile our windows and keep TV shows or movies running while doing other stuff.
I kind of wish VLC or MPlayer OSX Extended would implement this.
I'd say that a major problem with Microsoft is exactly what keeps them relevant, inertia. A different kind of inertia though.
From what I've seen they do have some interesting research projects going on, stuff that has a lot of promise and which could relatively easily be turned into products. Yet somehow a lot of that never really seems to reach customers, at least not in a way that's comparable to the promises of the original research. More and more I get the feeling that Microsoft's strategy of playing it safe is hurting them badly.
That btw, is IMHO exactly why Apple is doing so well with consumers, they're willing to change things up, they're willing to take an idea and commit to it. This means they'll have failures every now and then but it also means that customers feel confident that if Apple comes up with something new (or at least their own take on some idea which someone else has failed at marketing in the past) it's probably good. Microsoft on the other hand seem to do what many companies do, they figure something new they've got might possibly be a good idea so they market it a little bit, to see if it floats. Of course, a lot of times a good idea implemented poorly/lazily will not be perform nearly as well in the market as the same idea implemented properly...
The thing with Adobe is that it's by no means all Apple's fault.
One of the core issues was Adobe's creative suite, when they ported it to OS X they used Carbon rather than Cocoa. They knew Carbon wouldn't live forever yet they threw a temper tantrum when Apple started dropping Carbon in favor of the all-Cocoa future. Then they seemed to realize that if they dropped OS X as a platform they'd most likely end up losing customers as others (possibly including Apple themselves) filled the void, apparently they figure out that users of Adobe software on Apple platforms are generally more loyal to Apple than Adobe...
Did you copy and paste this reply? I already used the description "tax-funded" not "government-funded" so your little explanation of that part was completely pointless.
Also, it's only a net drain on the economy if you assume that no good will come from an educated population.
Some of us live in countries where you don't pay tuition to attend tax-funded universities. Of course, it's still wise to at least consider the usefulness of your education once you have a degree (or feel sufficiently educated for those who don't care about the piece of paper).
I have to say that most Mensa members I've met have been people I would consider intelligent, interesting and fun to be around while most of the anti-Mensa folks I've been around (you know, the ones who hate on Mensa and Mensa members) have been boorish, dumber than the average Mensa member and quite frankly not a lot of fun to be around.
Of course, I haven't met every Mensa member (and definitely not every non-member).
There is a Debian Live CD you can use.
Apple's iOS-like sandboxing and signed-app requirements would likely help OS X considerably in this regard, but of course every decision that increases security by removing control from the user also infuriates free/open software proponents and hackers.
Changes in 10.8 won't remove control from the user, any admin user (which for home users is the same as "the user" unless they asked a cousin or someone to set things up for them) can change the settings, it just defaults to "block unsigned". It's a setting, you can turn it up and only allow app store downloads and you can turn it off completely.
Our computer club in HS had a PDP-11/04 with a couple of 8" floppy drives. Wasn't very useful though, the most that thing seemed to be able to do was boot up and make clunking sounds with the floppy drives. We also occasionally used it to test how sturdy other hardware was (it was mounted in a full-height 19" rack on wheels). IBM workstation hardware was no match for the mighty PDP (although we did almost topple it over a friend of mine when crushing what I think was a DAT unit for an RS/6000).
We considered throwing it from the 4th floor but it wouldn't fit through the window that led out to the fire escape...
And if that person is clinically depressed?
Leopard (10.5) was released in 2007, Snow Leopard (10.6) was released in 2009. Lion (10.7) which is the current version of OS X was released in 2011.
Now, compared to Microsoft's support this isn't very good (after all, 2007 is only five years ago) but at the same time I've noticed that compared to the Windows users I interact with most Mac users are a lot more willing to keep software up-to-date, I don't know anyone still running Leopard (IRL, not ACs on /.) but I can name a few people who insist that Windows 98 is "good enough" and plenty who stubbornly refuse to upgrade from Windows XP.
By comparison, how many Linux desktop users do you know who still run Red Hat Linux 7.1 or Debian 3.0? How about FreeBSD 4.4? Maybe the problem is more with the users than the manufacturer...
There are still plenty of companies running Windows XP.
Hell, I know one company with 100+ employees in the telecommunications industry that didn't replace Windows 2000 on desktops until 2010, and only because some software they were using was no longer supported on win2k (this "no longer supported" being the kind where it simply won't run right anymore). And yes, they upgraded to XP. AFAIK they're not planning on moving to 7 or 8 for until they absolutely have to...
While neat for those who are currently in areas with spotty wireless coverage it is a neat idea but for most users I don't think it's that much of an issue, even at the moment.
Fast forward five years and I just don't see this software being all that useful. Sure, there's always gonna be that handful of people who will scream that this is extremely useful because they're always hopping between wifi hotspots but most users are using 3G/4G when they're on the move and coverage for those is already "good enough" in most civilized places and steadily improving. I've taken 5+ hour train trips several times and only had ssh connections drop once or twice on those trips (due to spotty coverage in what would quality as the middle of nowhere in northern Sweden).
This is like "solving" the IPv4 address exhaustion problem with NAT, it's a neat workaround but doesn't actually solve the problem.
It's from Pi and it crashed Euclid.
How does Apple block other browsers? Yes, for iOS they do but on OS X (Win8 is, after all, also their new desktop OS) they sure as hell don't.
Except nothing is preventing you from installing software from anywhere on the net on your Mac that's running OS X (we're not talking iOS here, we're talking OS X vs Windows since this affects desktop computers as well).
What's funny is that I've barely heard a word about this Win8 app store lock-in, especially not from the foaming-at-the-mouth MS fanboys who love to scream about how OS X is a walled garden (because they can't be bothered to understand that iOS and OS X aren't the exact same operating system).
I haven't read the comments but in my experience random folks learning just enough HTML and PHP to be dangerous is not a good thing.
It's a great example of the Dunning-Kruger effect, they know a little and are ignorant of what they don't know. Then real developers have to come in and clean up their mess (which is often more work than just building it from scratch).
I was hoping SGI would at least somewhat gracefully fade away, instead someone decided to do a cash grab before the remnants of a once-great company finally disappear...
Interesting, I've noticed that quite a few of my geekier friends have Skype accounts (as do I) but most people I know still seem to cling to MSN or have transitioned to just using Facebook.
I think you're the one who should take a course in marketing or economics.
You're missing out on the fact that by "spending" money on tickets priced less than their perceived value a company may very well be trying to increase profits down the road rather than NOW NOW NOW THIS QUARTER! PROFITS! NOW! PROFITS! FIRE EVERYONE TO MAXIMIZE THIS WEEKS PROFITS! NOW! MONEY! NOW! YOU CAN BUY MY MOTHER FOR $10! OK! EIGHT BUCKS BUT I WANT IT IN CASH!
True, but they could both connect to the same network.
In Sweden it is, AFAIK, the most popular IM client (although a lot of people have recently taken to using Facebook's built-in XMPP-based chat).
You see, ICQ used to be king of the hill. Then in the very late 1990s and early 2000s lots of kids with no knowledge of computers or how horrible MSN Messenger was compared to the competition were going online and using the, at the time, IM client included with Windows. The ICQ users mostly switched to MSN or used a multi-protocol client to stay in touch with everyone. Eventually everyone stopped using ICQ and what was left was a country of MSN users.
So why wasn't it AIM or one of the other services popular in the US that became popular? Well, AIM came from AOL which never really operated anywhere but in the US. ICQ was popular but was beaten by MSN since MSN came pre-installed with Windows. This btw, explains why MSN is "popular" outside the US, early adopters used other services but when the "regular people" came online the one IM client they saw was MSN. ICQ was "for geeks" and AIM and YIM had pretty much no chance since neither AOL nor Yahoo! had much market presence.