Well, I'd make the argument that the problem exists between the keyboard and chair of the software developer--not the user.
I agree this is (often) the case. A lot of really crappy buggy software exists that users will (and arguably should) trust - like, say, the software drivers for your new scanner/printer combo. The fact that it may hog your resources for no good reason is not something the user would expect. Perhaps this example is not a security threat, but if that software had bugs or some other way put your system at risk, then you would never know, even though you thought you were being cautious.
The biggest threat to OS X users are the 'virii' an AV will not protect you against - poorly written software and drivers.
People trust the CDs that come with their latest printer/scanner/multi-function, but in my experience they are the biggest memory-hogging, system crashing, bloatware you could find.
Examples: Brother multifunction drivers install a 'ControlCenter' that loads (in the background) and prompts EVERY user to set up the printer, even if it is already configured. It is hidden away in the printer driver directory (/Library/Printers - not obivous given it is an application - though one you can't launch or control or quit yourself). It loads about 3 or 4 'agents' that run in the background and use over 100 MB of memory footprint each! WTF!
I found the HP scanner programs are just as bad - the acutal program to scan is great, but the bloatware you have no choice but installing (in random places) alongside makes me feel dirty inside.
It was mainly because Pepsi was sweeter than Coke. But it certainly worked really well for Pepsi. Interestingly, apparently one time Pepsi's marketing manager who devices the whole challenge (Sculley IIRC) took the challenge and picked Coke! But it wasn't on air so he got away with it. After the high of the campaign, he then went on to become CEO of Apple...
7 days is a bit of a joke.. what this means in reality is that ISP's will now have to store your account name, IP address and logon-logoff times in a db. Sounds to me like law enforcement want more evidence available for either prosecution or spying.
well, I can log into my ISP's web-based account manager and get my login/logout times and IP details for the last month.
how can you assume they aren't keeping track already?? the implementation seems trivial.
Even if that weren't the case, judging a computer system by whether or not you can perform a task that one needs to perform roughly one hour per year is just silly.... Most importantly? In what bizarro-universe is a home pc's most important feature tax prep software?
actually home tax software is the one thing stopping my father from moving to OS X. You see, some people actually have multiple companies each with their own business accounts, and each quarter you are required to enter a BAS (business activity statement). Now, most of this is easy enough to do yourself *if you have the right software*, and I'm not talking GNUCash - you need country-specific (ie Australia) tax laws written into the code and updated yearly. Perhaps in the US you can get what you need for other platforms, but here the only small business tax software is for XP. End of story.
in Australia I'm pretty sure you don't have to pay tax on winnings (though I remember something about games of luck vs games of skill having different rules), but the competition itself has to be registered with the relevant authority in each state
erm last time I loaded up the GIMP I couldn't even use any of the OS X fonts. Maybe you can (can you?) but that's a pretty big reason to use it for home-graphics use (ie when you can't afford/need photoshop). I'm pretty techie but I just couldn't be assed after 10 mins of googling and turning up no answers.
I've even started using iTunes as my default media player for all my video files, including the Doctor Who bootlegs I scored off the newsgroups. It works great, keeps my stuff organized, and is relatively remote-control friendly.
At first I did this as well, but I found that I couldn't keep track of what was ipod-friendly, and I'd always get error messages when syncing my pod for the movies/shows that were in DivX or whatever. Also I ran out of HDD space.
Even with a reasonably large movie/TV collection I find iTunes just isn't the best way to organise, esp since you need to change the "ID3" (are they still called that for movies?) tags in order to get some logical Finder storage and readable file names.
Many people (myself included) now use search engines instead of bookmarks.
Its quicker to search google (cmd-L, tab, type, enter) than it is to search bookmarks _on my own computer_. In fact, I often only bookmark a site so that the address will complete in the URL bar (if I can sort of remember it). Otherwise, I just type something close to the name in google and its there. Instant.
At the end of the day, people want to use what they buy. Say you are making a home movie - and you want to use some music from the soundtrack of your favourite movie (which you have bought, on CD, online or however) to make it interesting/funny/epic, it shouldn't be a hassle to drop in an mp3 and edit it to your heart's content. If you can't, people just get frustrated and the whole era of 'easy multimedia' becomes a big joke.
I don't even get the concept of 'plays for sure' - if (eventually) all devices can play the damn song, whats the point of restricting it in the first place?
hard drives are far more resistant and better sheilded than most people think. a tiny magnet in clasp is really not going to affect them - i use a desktop and laptop near a 12 Tesla magnet and they are fine
agreed - on the ibook the security port is at the back of the left hand side, and neatly runs the cable out of the way. I dont understand why the powerbook, sorry macbook pro, should be any different
Konfabulator - much better designed widgets in that the shape of the widget conveys information (the weather widget has a big cloud when raining, moon at night etc.
The Apple weather widget does exactly this (alt+command click on it to cycle through all the weather pictures). If only it was animated like in an early Tiger demo
Dashboard - so far much poorer widget design, the vast majority are just squares with some kind of pretty information in them,
surely this comes down to whoever designs the widget?
Unless you hack a little the widgets onl;y sit on the Dashboard and as far as I can tell there is no way to make them seemlessly go back and forth between the dashboard and the desktop.
Its a one-liner in the terminal to enable widgets on the desktop. To change between desktop/dashboard simply click and hold the widget while invoking the Dashboard
err here in australia we have chewing gum with bits in it ('microgranules') thats supposed to be a substitute for brushing your teeth to give u that 'just brushed fresh feeling' or some bullshit. cant say ive ever tried it
Releasing code before you've written it. I wish I could do that. Surely you mean released not written?
ob spaceballs quote (c/o wikiquote):
DARK HELMET: Colonel Sandurz, may I speak with you please? (throws facemask up) How can there be a videotape of the movie? We're still in the middle of making it! SANDURZ: Yes, but there's been a new breakthrough in home video technology. DARK HELMET: There has? SANDURZ: Yes. Instant cassettes. They're out in stores before the movie is finished.
No, its a continent. 'Oceania' is a made up name for the region, which is largely chains of small islands, plus the continent of Australia. Are you even really trying to suggest in the same paragraph that a collection of islands is a continent, whereas North and South America are somehow indistinct and have to be considered as one giant America?
You really don't have any idea what you are talking about. The definition of the continents is not up for interpreation, it's an accepted set of facts. Look up continent in any dictionary or text book. Or even, god forbid, search on the internet!
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Well, I'd make the argument that the problem exists between the keyboard and chair of the software developer--not the user.
I agree this is (often) the case. A lot of really crappy buggy software exists that users will (and arguably should) trust - like, say, the software drivers for your new scanner/printer combo. The fact that it may hog your resources for no good reason is not something the user would expect. Perhaps this example is not a security threat, but if that software had bugs or some other way put your system at risk, then you would never know, even though you thought you were being cautious.
The biggest threat to OS X users are the 'virii' an AV will not protect you against - poorly written software and drivers.
People trust the CDs that come with their latest printer/scanner/multi-function, but in my experience they are the biggest memory-hogging, system crashing, bloatware you could find.
Examples: Brother multifunction drivers install a 'ControlCenter' that loads (in the background) and prompts EVERY user to set up the printer, even if it is already configured. It is hidden away in the printer driver directory (/Library/Printers - not obivous given it is an application - though one you can't launch or control or quit yourself). It loads about 3 or 4 'agents' that run in the background and use over 100 MB of memory footprint each! WTF!
I found the HP scanner programs are just as bad - the acutal program to scan is great, but the bloatware you have no choice but installing (in random places) alongside makes me feel dirty inside.
It was mainly because Pepsi was sweeter than Coke. But it certainly worked really well for Pepsi. Interestingly, apparently one time Pepsi's marketing manager who devices the whole challenge (Sculley IIRC) took the challenge and picked Coke! But it wasn't on air so he got away with it. After the high of the campaign, he then went on to become CEO of Apple...
no-one is going to learn ANYTHING on those other PC's.
yeah, right, because a 386 can't compile C code, and Microsoft word 1986 (you get what I mean) won't be able to print out letters.
Is the point of this computer to teach software skills? No, it's to aid efficiency and productivity, something any Pentium I can help you achieve.
why aren't old computers being donated to developing countries instead?
if DOS/win 3.11/95/linux/Mac os pre-X were good enough for 20 years why the hell aren't they good enough for people who don't know the difference?
7 days is a bit of a joke.. what this means in reality is that ISP's will now have to store your account name, IP address and logon-logoff times in a db. Sounds to me like law enforcement want more evidence available for either prosecution or spying.
well, I can log into my ISP's web-based account manager and get my login/logout times and IP details for the last month.
how can you assume they aren't keeping track already?? the implementation seems trivial.
Even if that weren't the case, judging a computer system by whether or not you can perform a task that one needs to perform roughly one hour per year is just silly. ... Most importantly? In what bizarro-universe is a home pc's most important feature tax prep software?
actually home tax software is the one thing stopping my father from moving to OS X. You see, some people actually have multiple companies each with their own business accounts, and each quarter you are required to enter a BAS (business activity statement). Now, most of this is easy enough to do yourself *if you have the right software*, and I'm not talking GNUCash - you need country-specific (ie Australia) tax laws written into the code and updated yearly. Perhaps in the US you can get what you need for other platforms, but here the only small business tax software is for XP. End of story.
prepaid virgin phones are locked to virgin/(optus). you have to spend $80 on the account of the sim it came with and then ring up to get it unlocked
prepaid phones are obviously subsidied to an extent, so its understandable (if not applaudable)
in Australia I'm pretty sure you don't have to pay tax on winnings (though I remember something about games of luck vs games of skill having different rules), but the competition itself has to be registered with the relevant authority in each state
erm last time I loaded up the GIMP I couldn't even use any of the OS X fonts. Maybe you can (can you?) but that's a pretty big reason to use it for home-graphics use (ie when you can't afford/need photoshop). I'm pretty techie but I just couldn't be assed after 10 mins of googling and turning up no answers.
I've even started using iTunes as my default media player for all my video files, including the Doctor Who bootlegs I scored off the newsgroups. It works great, keeps my stuff organized, and is relatively remote-control friendly.
At first I did this as well, but I found that I couldn't keep track of what was ipod-friendly, and I'd always get error messages when syncing my pod for the movies/shows that were in DivX or whatever. Also I ran out of HDD space.
Even with a reasonably large movie/TV collection I find iTunes just isn't the best way to organise, esp since you need to change the "ID3" (are they still called that for movies?) tags in order to get some logical Finder storage and readable file names.
Or click on the video playing in the bottom left corner, then press Cmd-F for full screen
Many people (myself included) now use search engines instead of bookmarks.
Its quicker to search google (cmd-L, tab, type, enter) than it is to search bookmarks _on my own computer_. In fact, I often only bookmark a site so that the address will complete in the URL bar (if I can sort of remember it). Otherwise, I just type something close to the name in google and its there. Instant.
At the end of the day, people want to use what they buy. Say you are making a home movie - and you want to use some music from the soundtrack of your favourite movie (which you have bought, on CD, online or however) to make it interesting/funny/epic, it shouldn't be a hassle to drop in an mp3 and edit it to your heart's content. If you can't, people just get frustrated and the whole era of 'easy multimedia' becomes a big joke.
I don't even get the concept of 'plays for sure' - if (eventually) all devices can play the damn song, whats the point of restricting it in the first place?
hard drives are far more resistant and better sheilded than most people think. a tiny magnet in clasp is really not going to affect them - i use a desktop and laptop near a 12 Tesla magnet and they are fine
agreed - on the ibook the security port is at the back of the left hand side, and neatly runs the cable out of the way. I dont understand why the powerbook, sorry macbook pro, should be any different
so you go to the Yahoo portal page and there is no mention of widgets or Konfab or Dashboard
in fact, if you search for "yahoo dashboard" via the Yahoo search engine the first hit is the Apple website!
Konfabulator - much better designed widgets in that the shape of the widget conveys information (the weather widget has a big cloud when raining, moon at night etc.
The Apple weather widget does exactly this (alt+command click on it to cycle through all the weather pictures). If only it was animated like in an early Tiger demo
Dashboard - so far much poorer widget design, the vast majority are just squares with some kind of pretty information in them,
surely this comes down to whoever designs the widget?
Unless you hack a little the widgets onl;y sit on the Dashboard and as far as I can tell there is no way to make them seemlessly go back and forth between the dashboard and the desktop.
Its a one-liner in the terminal to enable widgets on the desktop. To change between desktop/dashboard simply click and hold the widget while invoking the Dashboard
I don't happen to like white-box, generic stuff, so I'm going to stick with Steve's products, thank you very much.
:)
white-box generic no way... but pretty shiny industrial design white mac box, yes please
best... site... ever.
err here in australia we have chewing gum with bits in it ('microgranules') thats supposed to be a substitute for brushing your teeth to give u that 'just brushed fresh feeling' or some bullshit. cant say ive ever tried it
oh its called extra professional - anyone used it?
Releasing code before you've written it. I wish I could do that. Surely you mean released not written?
ob spaceballs quote (c/o wikiquote):
DARK HELMET: Colonel Sandurz, may I speak with you please? (throws facemask up) How can there be a videotape of the movie? We're still in the middle of making it!
SANDURZ: Yes, but there's been a new breakthrough in home video technology.
DARK HELMET: There has?
SANDURZ: Yes. Instant cassettes. They're out in stores before the movie is finished.
you never download applications?? seriously??
i dont know if u run OS X but there are heaps of cool apps out there to do both useful and random stuff
4. Real geeks have all black keyboards because the white characters have all worn off from excesive use.
or all white... the g4 ibooks (first revision at least) wear off pretty fast! even for my non-geeky friends
Australia is a country, not a continent.
No, its a continent. 'Oceania' is a made up name for the region, which is largely chains of small islands, plus the continent of Australia. Are you even really trying to suggest in the same paragraph that a collection of islands is a continent, whereas North and South America are somehow indistinct and have to be considered as one giant America?
You really don't have any idea what you are talking about. The definition of the continents is not up for interpreation, it's an accepted set of facts. Look up continent in any dictionary or text book. Or even, god forbid, search on the internet!