This probably isn't an "effort to boost... sales". The BBC exists for public service, and has been experimenting with various ways of making its current and archive material available for free to the public. The main thing which prevents this is concerns about the impact on commercial producers of similar content, and whether that would be damaging. Just recently the BBC Trust http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/ have approved plans to make more stuff available. (I'd search for a link to the news story but it's hard to search for "BBC" on the BBC!)
representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities
bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK
in promoting its other purposes, helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services and, in addition, taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television.
I just hope that Apple make Spotlight actually work. Ever since it replaced Mail's built-in search I haven't been able to find anything. Admittedly I'm probably a special case, as my mail archive stretches back over 14 years. Still, when I type something into the search field I have to wait minutes for anything to happen, and then the results are both numerous and irrelevant. I get better and faster results with "grep".
I'm a big fan of the underlying technology in Spotlight -- observing writes and incrementally maintaining a database is a great idea -- but the usability is terrible.
I'm not interested in any of these new "features". I just want old-style Mac usability.
You're doing it for someone else. I "grew up" as a programmer when I stopped simply creating beautiful and elegant things and started caring about the real value of my work to other people.
Or, longer term, you're doing it because it will achieve your goals. If you only do what pushes your buttons right now you won't get very much done in the long run. It's like saying that you'll climb to the highest point on earth by only ever walking uphill, starting from wherever you are.
I've been puzzling about what Zope is for ages. This thread just confirms what I suspected: that nobody can explain what it is. Sure, they can tell you what it's got in it, how it's "great", how it's "the future" etc. but that's no help if I'm trying to decide whether to use it for anything.
I build web applications frequently. But I've never been able to find any information which I can use to decide whether Zope would be any good for them.
Let's try a different approach. What organizational requirements are met by Zope? What kinds of sites does it make easier? In what ways easier? Development? Maintenance? How much easier?
If I have a 500 person-hour project building a site from scratch with Apache, CGI, and Python how much can I expect to save using Zope?
I've had three PowerBooks (a Wallstreet, a Lombard, and now a 12" G4) and AppleCare has been worthwhile so far.
Both the Wallstreet and the Lombard had failures towards the end of their lives (i.e. two or three years in) which were fixed promptly and efficiently under the AppleCare programme, both in the USA and the UK. I've bought AppleCare for my 12", but haven't had cause to use it yet, but I expect I will need it if I'm still using the machine in a few years' time.
I use my PowerBook for all my work (I'm a travelling consultant), and so it is critical to me to get prompt repairs. If it's not your main machine you may be willing to wait longer for service or take the risk of having to pay for it somewhere.
... the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important. Structured procrastination means shaping the structure of the tasks one has to do in a way that exploits this fact.
Just yesterday I was reading an article on eye defects and correction from "The Oxford Companion to the Mind" (Edds. Gregory, Zangwill). The article explained that feedback must be important to eye development in order to get such close tolerances and accuracy, and that keeping the eyes focussed at a close fixed distance during late childhood and early adulthood might therefore cause short sight. The eye develops with the assumption that the fixed distance is "infinity" and loses its ability to focus further away. FWIW, I spent a lot of my teens staring at a screen at about arm length from my face. I lost the ability to focus further away. My focus is almost exactly at screen distance. If this is the case, children should be encouraged to spend time outdoors looking at distant objects.
Slashdot Mirror
This probably isn't an "effort to boost ... sales". The BBC exists for public service, and has been experimenting with various ways of making its current and archive material available for free to the public. The main thing which prevents this is concerns about the impact on commercial producers of similar content, and whether that would be damaging. Just recently the BBC Trust http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/ have approved plans to make more stuff available. (I'd search for a link to the news story but it's hard to search for "BBC" on the BBC!)
The BBC's public purposes are http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/framework/purpose_re mits.html
DVD sales exist to support these goals.
I just hope that Apple make Spotlight actually work. Ever since it replaced Mail's built-in search I haven't been able to find anything. Admittedly I'm probably a special case, as my mail archive stretches back over 14 years. Still, when I type something into the search field I have to wait minutes for anything to happen, and then the results are both numerous and irrelevant. I get better and faster results with "grep".
I'm a big fan of the underlying technology in Spotlight -- observing writes and incrementally maintaining a database is a great idea -- but the usability is terrible.
I'm not interested in any of these new "features". I just want old-style Mac usability.
So the main purpose of a system is to "excite" this guy with "new" stuff? What about being useful?
You're doing it for someone else. I "grew up" as a programmer when I stopped simply creating beautiful and elegant things and started caring about the real value of my work to other people.
Or, longer term, you're doing it because it will achieve your goals. If you only do what pushes your buttons right now you won't get very much done in the long run. It's like saying that you'll climb to the highest point on earth by only ever walking uphill, starting from wherever you are.
I've been puzzling about what Zope is for ages. This thread just confirms what I suspected: that nobody can explain what it is. Sure, they can tell you what it's got in it, how it's "great", how it's "the future" etc. but that's no help if I'm trying to decide whether to use it for anything.
I build web applications frequently. But I've never been able to find any information which I can use to decide whether Zope would be any good for them.
Let's try a different approach. What organizational requirements are met by Zope? What kinds of sites does it make easier? In what ways easier? Development? Maintenance? How much easier?
If I have a 500 person-hour project building a site from scratch with Apache, CGI, and Python how much can I expect to save using Zope?
You should be paid a proportion of the value of the software to the customer.
You need to understand what it's worth to them, and charge appropriately.
I've had three PowerBooks (a Wallstreet, a Lombard, and now a 12" G4) and AppleCare has been worthwhile so far.
Both the Wallstreet and the Lombard had failures towards the end of their lives (i.e. two or three years in) which were fixed promptly and efficiently under the AppleCare programme, both in the USA and the UK. I've bought AppleCare for my 12", but haven't had cause to use it yet, but I expect I will need it if I'm still using the machine in a few years' time.
I use my PowerBook for all my work (I'm a travelling consultant), and so it is critical to me to get prompt repairs. If it's not your main machine you may be willing to wait longer for service or take the risk of having to pay for it somewhere.
Or use "lynx -dump".
Just yesterday I was reading an article on eye defects and correction from "The Oxford Companion to the Mind" (Edds. Gregory, Zangwill). The article explained that feedback must be important to eye development in order to get such close tolerances and accuracy, and that keeping the eyes focussed at a close fixed distance during late childhood and early adulthood might therefore cause short sight. The eye develops with the assumption that the fixed distance is "infinity" and loses its ability to focus further away. FWIW, I spent a lot of my teens staring at a screen at about arm length from my face. I lost the ability to focus further away. My focus is almost exactly at screen distance. If this is the case, children should be encouraged to spend time outdoors looking at distant objects.