The reasons behind protests have changed, too. According to Michael Albert of Z Magazine, they are to scare elites out of their wits, so their policies will be changed.
Through the escalation of the WTO protest response, you can see the elites are indeed scared, and with good reason. The above article is a coded incitement to violent protest, because only violence (in the view of the author) will frighten elites and effect change.
Read the last line again. The protesters need to give this a human face, or it is in no way effective. Robots battling against robots has no public relations meaning beyond spectacle. Risking your life and limb for the cause is the only thing that's effective.
"Kid sacrifices life to protest WTO" is an effective headline indeed.
"Police and protest robots battle; street filled with used robot parts" is going to make people laugh, but won't create any kind of public relations victory.
I think you can see the real reason non-leathal weapons scare these protesters; if you can't say you were injured by a savage police force, but were instead temporarily immobilized to prevent you from looting, all sympathy for you vanishes.
This doesn't have anything to do with VA. VA just about stopped making workstations fairly early in the game, concentrating on servers. When I last looked at their site before they went out of hardware altogether, VA had only one desktop product remaining.
So this didn't do anything to VA. Even they didn't think of desktops as much of a market.
I think Intel lost big-time because of the RAMBUS stuff. I know I lost a lot of respect for them after that, and explicitly asked for an Athelon system for my desk. I wanted 512MB RAM, and I couldn't stomach the RAMBUS price difference for it.
I'm upgrading my Power Macintosh G4/450 dual processor home system to 1.5GB RAM today. I paid less for 1GB RAM than the RAMBUS folks have to pay for 256mb. I'll bet I'll get better performance on this machine than I would have on the P4, not because Intel is slower than the G4, but since I have so much more RAM.
I have 512MB RAM in the one I have for work, and it crashes once every couple of days. I thought this was due to instability in my video driver (a ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon), but that could be a different reason for my problems.
I have a SGI flat panel monitor and still haven't been able to get maximum resolution on it because the driver doesn't support DVI out yet. I heard a while ago that this was fixed in Xfree 4.1 - anyone know about this?
D
----
Re:Is better TV definition needed ?
on
The Joys of HDTV
·
· Score: 2
Aw shoot... whatever it is, it's a great TV:-).
The logo on the box with the two Vs forming a W made me confused.
D
----
Re:Is better TV definition needed ?
on
The Joys of HDTV
·
· Score: 2
I know of someone who has a TV that's about 20 years old. Why change it?
Of course the picture is so bad as to be unwatchable, but she doesn't care.
For this reason, I can't say I like the government's proposal; why force people to upgrade when there's no reason in the world for them to do it? And I say this as the owner of an (expensive and newish) Sony VEGA.
I researched it, and the only HDTV camera I know of runs $100,000 for the body, $30,000 extra for the lens.
If anyone knows a cheaper way, I'd love to hear it. HTDV strikes me as a pretty cool format for lower-cost filmmaking when it matures, but at those prices, well, it's not going to be lower cost anything:-(.
D
----
Re:Would a HDTV set show my own productions better
on
The Joys of HDTV
·
· Score: 2
Thanks for the links!
All the converter boxes do, of course, is what my camera does when I hook it up to the G4. I should probably get one, or maybe a MiniDV VCR, just to minimize wear and tear on my camera. I was pretty surprised at how expensive most of them were; the VCR wouldn't cost that much more, I don't think, and I'd be able to record my productions without using my camera.
Sony's web site is pathetic. It didn't view at all on my Linux machine running Netscape. Ironically enough, it only works on Netscape on my Macintosh. I don't understand why developers produce such user-hostile content.
Where does one get a Cinewave card? That sounds cool. Pity the only HDTV camera I know of is a $130k Sony. Do you know of any less outrageously expensive ways to shoot in HDTV?
Thanks again.
D
----
Would a HDTV set show my own productions better?
on
The Joys of HDTV
·
· Score: 2
I have a Canon XL1 MiniDV camcorder, and a semi-professional editing system (Macintosh G4 450 dual processor, Final Cut Pro, etc).
When I view my productions on an external NTSC set, the quality problems break my heart.
Would the better quality of a HDTV set help me? Is there any way to go digitally from FireWire to whatever inputs HDTV sets require? The folks at Best Buy say no, but I'm betting Slashdotters have a better idea.
Not quite. The first time they sold dual CPU models, they introduced the dual 450 and dual 500 at the usual $2,500 and $3,500 price points. What you were probably seeing is the previous model 500 going up against the current 450 (which is the machine I own).
Before today, they sold the dual 533 at a price point below the single 733, most likely because MacOS 9 made the 733 work more consistently for all Mac software, while the dual 533 was better for MacOS X users and Photoshop/Final Cut Pro addicts. It was still ironic then to see the fastest machine in many applications $1,000 cheaper than the top-line system.
Today, because of the gathering acceptance of MacOS X, we see more logical pricing. You're probably right about the dual 800s versus the single 866 - but in that case, I sure wish the dual 800s weren't $1,000 more expensive than the 866. True, you get 128mb more RAM, but that's something like $20 on the open market nowadays.
I'm afraid Apple milks the pocketbooks of the people with giant egos who want the latest, greatest and fastest, with products like the Titanium PowerBook 500 ($1,000 more expensive than the only slightly slower 400) and the G4 dual 800 ($1,000 more expensive than the 866). Unfortunately, people like me with big egos are all too likely to succumb:-(. A little corner of me resents it; another corner of me says it's how Apple survives and thrives in tough times, get over it, etc.
I thought MacGimp was an X-Windows application, not cocoa.
However, you must recognize that the learning curve for most graphics software is a vertical cliff, so when totally different graphics apps come up, they are not as rapidly taken in by the biz as one might hope.
Also, remember that once you've bought Photoshop, you can get $200 updates, and that's not too significant a sum for people making major bucks with it. Heck, these are the people who buy the 500mhz Titanium G4 notebooks ($3,500) and the dual 800mhz G4 towers ($3,500).
I've found that as I grow older and richer, I find myself more and more ready to pay money to the nice folks at Apple and Adobe for their stuff. It's not free, true, but it's been refined over a long period of time by professionals who really know what they're doing.
Please bear with me; I don't mean that as insulting to the Gimp team, who have done a fantastic job. But Photoshop encompass decades (literally!) of graphic arts experience, and has been refined through decades of use. It's difficult for someone without similar advantages to create a product that will be accepted by the graphic arts community.
There are also a lot of issues surrounding the Gimp's use of RGB colour, although they don't affect me specifically. Few people who do professional prepress work could do anything with the Gimp.
I would think the dual 800mhz system would fix the performance deficit you're struggling with quite nicely, albiet expensively.
I really love being able to use my MacOS X system to do geeky Unix stuff and mainstream graphics stuff, so that keeps me a pretty much committed Mac user; where else is there to go that has so much potential?
Despite being a rabid Mac fan (see my other posts), I have to concede this one. The lack of DVD playback is especially odd considering how much time Steve devoted to iDVD (which indeed looks like a very cool application).
They did bump up the memory, but considering how cheap RAM is nowadays, that's hardly even a consideration.
Apple isn't going away even if this one move doesn't work out. Apple's making their real money on notebooks and G4 desktops anyway. They have enough cash so they should be able to survive this round of product updates, but I think in September they'll really need to make some good announcements.
Like I said in a prevous message, it's not like Mac users have any particularly appealing options in the other camp, unless it's a SGI Octane on eBay. Pity I couldn't afford the software licenses.
It's really too bad today's business world is so much about "rush, rush, rush". The Steve Jobs ethic is very much "futz with it until you finally get it right". It may be annoying now, but September is only about a month and a half away. If you consider how long we've been waiting for this, I'd say we can hang on a couple more months.
And Puma certainly looks awesome from what I could see. So chill out. I know it would have been nice to see 300ghz G7s unexpectedly introduced, but think how lousy that would make you feel about your current Mac:-).
I just hope September brings with it cool new hardware. But I suppose since there's no new hardware of significance this month, it's time to buy the Cinema Display I've always wanted:-).
I attended the keynote by proxy - I was at the Glendale Apple Store at 6:00am for the keynote broadcast. (Well, I was ten minutes late, actually, but got most of it).
The good news is that the Puma upgrade to MacOS X looks like it will be awesome, with the speed gremlins totally vanquished.
More good news is that it looks like most of the vital vendors are fully on target to release OSX applications. We had demos from Adobe, Quark, a few game people Microsoft, and so on. (I must confess that the Microsoft Office demo was surprisingly cool). There will be no lack of software for OSX.
Except Photoshop, which was conspicuous by its absence in the Adobe demo. Looks like Adobe is coming out with the first upgrades for software in markets with genuine competition (Illustrator has Freehand, InDesign has Quark, and GoLive has a few million competitors). Photoshop, well, is Photoshop. Nuff said:-(.
The iMacs were all but unchanged. The adventures in plastic moulding are all gone; Indigo, Snow and Graphite return. There was a decent speed bump and CD R/W throughout the line, but nothing that would really thrill as far as I could see.
The new PowerMacs were significant improvements over the old ones, but nothing to make me run over to the store and replace my dual G4/450 straight away. The 733 is now at the bottom of the line, which is a nice bump from the older 466-odd models. The 867 is also nice but less than one would hope. But what's with dual 800s? Why not dual 867s? Surely availability can't be a major problem with the 867s in the mainstream of the line.
All in all, it looked like most of the great stuff was in the future. It's time to go back to bed, snore and dream of September and MacOS 10.1. Then, we Mac fans should have something to rave about.
"The sun comes out, tomorrow..." it's always tomorrow.
Come September, we'd better see some changes or... or... um... or... cough. And that's the problem, isn't it? It's not like we're going to switch to Windows or Linux, is it? (Well, I have a Linux machine or two as well - but you get the idea):-(
I seem to remember there were a couple of entities trying to lay claim to being the "official" government of Sealand. If my memory serves, Sealand passports blessed by the actual owners were never for sale and are not at present.
I suspect they did, since the product has absolutely no resemblence whatsoever to emacs the editor.
In any event, you can see that the owners of emacs.com are in no way trying to pretend they are RMS and solicit support. That's the key difference; in trademark law, you normally own a trademark over a certain domain (i.e. computer software). If someone created a mysql drink, then the use of the mysql domain name would be perfectly legal under most circumstances, since the makers of the drink were not trying to pretend they were mysql.
The mysql.org site was undeniably designed in such a way that the uninitiated would think it was the official mySQL site. It was using the mySQL name to (from what I can see) hawk a product that's essentially an optional mySQL component.
An individual wise in the ways of the world would have registered mysql.com, net, org, etc to protect their trademark. It would have cost very little and would have prevented this problem. Sadly, then, Network Solutions is right in advertising that you should do this, even if their advice would seem a shade self-serving.
I am, however, quite curious to hear what Monty et al were paid $341,000-odd for. That's a pretty penny, and it seems like Nusphere should have gotten something in return.
Nonetheless, I think a thoughtful individual willing to delve deeper into the issues would most likely take Monty's side. He did develop mySQL, and the nature of the mysql.org site would appear to be highly deceptive and a misuse of mySQL's trademark.
I'll go after this by analogy: If someone created an emacs.com web site, claiming to represent the markers of that text editor, would RMS not be a tad upset at them taking his good name? This is the situation Monty is in. Remember, the main reward people get for pursuing a successful open source project is good publicity and ego satisfaction. If you take that away, you're bound to come up with problems.
That isn't a true Aqua-native version, though, is it? I thought that was still running using Xfree86 as it runs on MacOS X (which is a bit clunky from what I understand).
shows that it's designed to make people think it's run by the official developers. Yes, it does have the link on the bottom to mysql's real page, but most people will just start by reading the first paragraph and clicking on the links. If I hadn't already known what the real developers' site looked like, I would have been fooled.
I didn't like the tone of the press release, and I think the upshot is that it will substantially increase traffic to the other site as people look to see what the fuss is about. But since the org site appears to have roughly the same information as the official site, with little in the way of contributions to the community, I'm inclined to say it's not likely to work too well.
Curiously enough, I don't see anything at all on this site about Gemini; it appears to be dedicated to fooling people into thinking it's an official site, even to the point of soliciting contributions from developers (see the Developers link).
Slashdot Mirror
Through the escalation of the WTO protest response, you can see the elites are indeed scared, and with good reason. The above article is a coded incitement to violent protest, because only violence (in the view of the author) will frighten elites and effect change.
Is it any wonder the cops react as they do?
D
What percentage of the population engages in some kind of home taping?
That percentage should be alarmed by the facts of this case.
D
Read the last line again. The protesters need to give this a human face, or it is in no way effective. Robots battling against robots has no public relations meaning beyond spectacle. Risking your life and limb for the cause is the only thing that's effective.
"Kid sacrifices life to protest WTO" is an effective headline indeed.
"Police and protest robots battle; street filled with used robot parts" is going to make people laugh, but won't create any kind of public relations victory.
I think you can see the real reason non-leathal weapons scare these protesters; if you can't say you were injured by a savage police force, but were instead temporarily immobilized to prevent you from looting, all sympathy for you vanishes.
D
This doesn't have anything to do with VA. VA just about stopped making workstations fairly early in the game, concentrating on servers. When I last looked at their site before they went out of hardware altogether, VA had only one desktop product remaining.
So this didn't do anything to VA. Even they didn't think of desktops as much of a market.
D
----
The original version was in fact hard-coded with a specific sequence of IPs, so you are in fact correct.
It was modified by parties unknown to be more flexible and go anywhere. So in theory the threat is now much greater.
Hope that helps.
D
Yes, but you can bet it would be a horrible public relations disaster for Honda.
This deserves to be the same for Microsoft, for exactly the same reason.
D
I think Intel lost big-time because of the RAMBUS stuff. I know I lost a lot of respect for them after that, and explicitly asked for an Athelon system for my desk. I wanted 512MB RAM, and I couldn't stomach the RAMBUS price difference for it.
I'm upgrading my Power Macintosh G4/450 dual processor home system to 1.5GB RAM today. I paid less for 1GB RAM than the RAMBUS folks have to pay for 256mb. I'll bet I'll get better performance on this machine than I would have on the P4, not because Intel is slower than the G4, but since I have so much more RAM.
D
----
I have 512MB RAM in the one I have for work, and it crashes once every couple of days. I thought this was due to instability in my video driver (a ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon), but that could be a different reason for my problems.
I have a SGI flat panel monitor and still haven't been able to get maximum resolution on it because the driver doesn't support DVI out yet. I heard a while ago that this was fixed in Xfree 4.1 - anyone know about this?
D
----
Aw shoot ... whatever it is, it's a great TV :-).
The logo on the box with the two Vs forming a W made me confused.
D
----
I know of someone who has a TV that's about 20 years old. Why change it?
Of course the picture is so bad as to be unwatchable, but she doesn't care.
For this reason, I can't say I like the government's proposal; why force people to upgrade when there's no reason in the world for them to do it? And I say this as the owner of an (expensive and newish) Sony VEGA.
D
----
I researched it, and the only HDTV camera I know of runs $100,000 for the body, $30,000 extra for the lens.
:-(.
If anyone knows a cheaper way, I'd love to hear it. HTDV strikes me as a pretty cool format for lower-cost filmmaking when it matures, but at those prices, well, it's not going to be lower cost anything
D
----
Thanks for the links!
All the converter boxes do, of course, is what my camera does when I hook it up to the G4. I should probably get one, or maybe a MiniDV VCR, just to minimize wear and tear on my camera. I was pretty surprised at how expensive most of them were; the VCR wouldn't cost that much more, I don't think, and I'd be able to record my productions without using my camera.
Sony's web site is pathetic. It didn't view at all on my Linux machine running Netscape. Ironically enough, it only works on Netscape on my Macintosh. I don't understand why developers produce such user-hostile content.
Where does one get a Cinewave card? That sounds cool. Pity the only HDTV camera I know of is a $130k Sony. Do you know of any less outrageously expensive ways to shoot in HDTV?
Thanks again.
D
----
I have a Canon XL1 MiniDV camcorder, and a semi-professional editing system (Macintosh G4 450 dual processor, Final Cut Pro, etc).
When I view my productions on an external NTSC set, the quality problems break my heart.
Would the better quality of a HDTV set help me? Is there any way to go digitally from FireWire to whatever inputs HDTV sets require? The folks at Best Buy say no, but I'm betting Slashdotters have a better idea.
Thoughts?
D
----
Not quite. The first time they sold dual CPU models, they introduced the dual 450 and dual 500 at the usual $2,500 and $3,500 price points. What you were probably seeing is the previous model 500 going up against the current 450 (which is the machine I own).
:-(. A little corner of me resents it; another corner of me says it's how Apple survives and thrives in tough times, get over it, etc.
Before today, they sold the dual 533 at a price point below the single 733, most likely because MacOS 9 made the 733 work more consistently for all Mac software, while the dual 533 was better for MacOS X users and Photoshop/Final Cut Pro addicts. It was still ironic then to see the fastest machine in many applications $1,000 cheaper than the top-line system.
Today, because of the gathering acceptance of MacOS X, we see more logical pricing. You're probably right about the dual 800s versus the single 866 - but in that case, I sure wish the dual 800s weren't $1,000 more expensive than the 866. True, you get 128mb more RAM, but that's something like $20 on the open market nowadays.
I'm afraid Apple milks the pocketbooks of the people with giant egos who want the latest, greatest and fastest, with products like the Titanium PowerBook 500 ($1,000 more expensive than the only slightly slower 400) and the G4 dual 800 ($1,000 more expensive than the 866). Unfortunately, people like me with big egos are all too likely to succumb
D
----
I thought MacGimp was an X-Windows application, not cocoa.
However, you must recognize that the learning curve for most graphics software is a vertical cliff, so when totally different graphics apps come up, they are not as rapidly taken in by the biz as one might hope.
Also, remember that once you've bought Photoshop, you can get $200 updates, and that's not too significant a sum for people making major bucks with it. Heck, these are the people who buy the 500mhz Titanium G4 notebooks ($3,500) and the dual 800mhz G4 towers ($3,500).
I've found that as I grow older and richer, I find myself more and more ready to pay money to the nice folks at Apple and Adobe for their stuff. It's not free, true, but it's been refined over a long period of time by professionals who really know what they're doing.
Please bear with me; I don't mean that as insulting to the Gimp team, who have done a fantastic job. But Photoshop encompass decades (literally!) of graphic arts experience, and has been refined through decades of use. It's difficult for someone without similar advantages to create a product that will be accepted by the graphic arts community.
There are also a lot of issues surrounding the Gimp's use of RGB colour, although they don't affect me specifically. Few people who do professional prepress work could do anything with the Gimp.
Hope that aids in understanding.
D
----
I would think the dual 800mhz system would fix the performance deficit you're struggling with quite nicely, albiet expensively.
I really love being able to use my MacOS X system to do geeky Unix stuff and mainstream graphics stuff, so that keeps me a pretty much committed Mac user; where else is there to go that has so much potential?
D
----
Despite being a rabid Mac fan (see my other posts), I have to concede this one. The lack of DVD playback is especially odd considering how much time Steve devoted to iDVD (which indeed looks like a very cool application).
They did bump up the memory, but considering how cheap RAM is nowadays, that's hardly even a consideration.
Apple isn't going away even if this one move doesn't work out. Apple's making their real money on notebooks and G4 desktops anyway. They have enough cash so they should be able to survive this round of product updates, but I think in September they'll really need to make some good announcements.
Like I said in a prevous message, it's not like Mac users have any particularly appealing options in the other camp, unless it's a SGI Octane on eBay. Pity I couldn't afford the software licenses.
D
----
It's really too bad today's business world is so much about "rush, rush, rush". The Steve Jobs ethic is very much "futz with it until you finally get it right". It may be annoying now, but September is only about a month and a half away. If you consider how long we've been waiting for this, I'd say we can hang on a couple more months.
:-).
:-).
And Puma certainly looks awesome from what I could see. So chill out. I know it would have been nice to see 300ghz G7s unexpectedly introduced, but think how lousy that would make you feel about your current Mac
I just hope September brings with it cool new hardware. But I suppose since there's no new hardware of significance this month, it's time to buy the Cinema Display I've always wanted
D
----
I attended the keynote by proxy - I was at the Glendale Apple Store at 6:00am for the keynote broadcast. (Well, I was ten minutes late, actually, but got most of it).
:-(.
..." it's always tomorrow.
... or ... um ... or ... cough. And that's the problem, isn't it? It's not like we're going to switch to Windows or Linux, is it? (Well, I have a Linux machine or two as well - but you get the idea) :-(
The good news is that the Puma upgrade to MacOS X looks like it will be awesome, with the speed gremlins totally vanquished.
More good news is that it looks like most of the vital vendors are fully on target to release OSX applications. We had demos from Adobe, Quark, a few game people Microsoft, and so on. (I must confess that the Microsoft Office demo was surprisingly cool). There will be no lack of software for OSX.
Except Photoshop, which was conspicuous by its absence in the Adobe demo. Looks like Adobe is coming out with the first upgrades for software in markets with genuine competition (Illustrator has Freehand, InDesign has Quark, and GoLive has a few million competitors). Photoshop, well, is Photoshop. Nuff said
The iMacs were all but unchanged. The adventures in plastic moulding are all gone; Indigo, Snow and Graphite return. There was a decent speed bump and CD R/W throughout the line, but nothing that would really thrill as far as I could see.
The new PowerMacs were significant improvements over the old ones, but nothing to make me run over to the store and replace my dual G4/450 straight away. The 733 is now at the bottom of the line, which is a nice bump from the older 466-odd models. The 867 is also nice but less than one would hope. But what's with dual 800s? Why not dual 867s? Surely availability can't be a major problem with the 867s in the mainstream of the line.
All in all, it looked like most of the great stuff was in the future. It's time to go back to bed, snore and dream of September and MacOS 10.1. Then, we Mac fans should have something to rave about.
"The sun comes out, tomorrow
Come September, we'd better see some changes or
D
----
I seem to remember there were a couple of entities trying to lay claim to being the "official" government of Sealand. If my memory serves, Sealand passports blessed by the actual owners were never for sale and are not at present.
Can anyone correct me or clarify the situation?
D
----
That's absolutely wrong.
The original emacs was developed at MIT in the late 1970s by RMS. It was originally written in Teco, a more primitive programmable text editor.
I know because I was there at the time.
D
----
I suspect they did, since the product has absolutely no resemblence whatsoever to emacs the editor.
In any event, you can see that the owners of emacs.com are in no way trying to pretend they are RMS and solicit support. That's the key difference; in trademark law, you normally own a trademark over a certain domain (i.e. computer software). If someone created a mysql drink, then the use of the mysql domain name would be perfectly legal under most circumstances, since the makers of the drink were not trying to pretend they were mysql.
D
----
The mysql.org site was undeniably designed in such a way that the uninitiated would think it was the official mySQL site. It was using the mySQL name to (from what I can see) hawk a product that's essentially an optional mySQL component.
An individual wise in the ways of the world would have registered mysql.com, net, org, etc to protect their trademark. It would have cost very little and would have prevented this problem. Sadly, then, Network Solutions is right in advertising that you should do this, even if their advice would seem a shade self-serving.
I am, however, quite curious to hear what Monty et al were paid $341,000-odd for. That's a pretty penny, and it seems like Nusphere should have gotten something in return.
Nonetheless, I think a thoughtful individual willing to delve deeper into the issues would most likely take Monty's side. He did develop mySQL, and the nature of the mysql.org site would appear to be highly deceptive and a misuse of mySQL's trademark.
I'll go after this by analogy: If someone created an emacs.com web site, claiming to represent the markers of that text editor, would RMS not be a tad upset at them taking his good name? This is the situation Monty is in. Remember, the main reward people get for pursuing a successful open source project is good publicity and ego satisfaction. If you take that away, you're bound to come up with problems.
Hope that helps give some perspective here.
D
----
That isn't a true Aqua-native version, though, is it? I thought that was still running using Xfree86 as it runs on MacOS X (which is a bit clunky from what I understand).
D
----
shows that it's designed to make people think it's run by the official developers. Yes, it does have the link on the bottom to mysql's real page, but most people will just start by reading the first paragraph and clicking on the links. If I hadn't already known what the real developers' site looked like, I would have been fooled.
I didn't like the tone of the press release, and I think the upshot is that it will substantially increase traffic to the other site as people look to see what the fuss is about. But since the org site appears to have roughly the same information as the official site, with little in the way of contributions to the community, I'm inclined to say it's not likely to work too well.
Curiously enough, I don't see anything at all on this site about Gemini; it appears to be dedicated to fooling people into thinking it's an official site, even to the point of soliciting contributions from developers (see the Developers link).
D
----