I develop shareware applications. Getting people to register their software is how I make my living.
I tried using a complicated scheme where the registration codes would expire after a period of time and the license key was written to the user's hard drive (along with a MAC address to prevent that file from being copied.) It took the pirates about 2 months longer to crack the scheme, but other than that, it had no effect other than to piss off customers.
Of course I dumped that scheme and went back to a simpler name/code written to a preference file.
But, at the same time, I've introduced a few "anomalies" that pop up only when a pirated serial number is used. This, in turn, causes the casual pirate to send me an e-mail saying "feature x isn't working". And then I politely explain why. I've actually gotten a few new customers because of this technique -- a twist on the "support" theme of the parent post.
And it's fun to watch the confusion caused by the "anomalies" on the cracker discussion forums:-)
Yes, welcome to the wonderful world of finding new music or remembering old music.
I'm old school and like to get my music on CD (I've have a large collection.)
What I find myself doing is finding a new song that I like and adding it to my Amazon wish list. It would not surprise me if a future partnership between Apple & Amazon would do this for me...
I've been playing around with the Windows version for the past half hour or so. It's very well done -- and feature complete:
1) The Rendezvous stuff for sharing the tunes works well. I can now share 80GB of music with my wife's IBM Thinkpad.
2) My CD drive was recognized without any problems. I can rip and burn without any problems at all. Goodbye CDex, et. al.
3) The response time on the store seems to be pretty good. The uptake on the new Windows version will probably be a lot slower than it was for the Mac version (hundreds of thousands of the Windows faithful are NOT waiting anxiously for Steve to say "it's available today".)
4) It's kinda weird seeing the Aqua UI controls and metal skins in a Windows app, but it supports my theory that iTunes is a lead in for both iPods & regular hardware. Get them used to the way things are in the Mac world, and then get them to switch.
iTunes on the Mac uses the WebCore and some higher level classes to display the music that's available.
One thing that has always made me go "HMMMM...." is that they've probably taken this code and made it compile for Windows. And they've probably taken some of the old NeXT technologies to get parts of Cocoa running on Windows (prior to being acquired by Apple, all of NeXTSTEP worked fine on Win NT.) In particular, the networking & UI classes would be very attractive to an engineering team working on a tight schedule (high level of code re-use.)
So, you have a situation where Apple has a lot of the pieces necessary to build a browser.
One that renders CSS much more reliably, has tabs, blocks pop-ups, and tons of other "user centric" features. Something that can't be said of IE these days...
Apple's in a good position to leverage it's situation. They're going to sell a lot of iPods with iTMS for Windows. They're also going to sell hardware when Windows users see how much easier it is to use Apple software.
Apple could give away a Windows version of Safari and end up selling a lot of Mac hardware. Microsoft wouldn't like it, but that doesn't seem to bother them these days...
This is lame, for the many reasons pointed out in this thread (too short expiration, buy vs. rent for kids, etc.) The interesting thing, at least in my mind, is that Disney is opening their intellectual property up a bit (granted, it's got DRM up the wazoo.)
What would happen if Apple/Jobs did a movie service like they've done with the iTunes Music Store?
They've got the inside connections in Hollywood (Pixar, editing suites, etc.)
They've got the technology (QuickTime, delivery mechanisms & bandwidth)
And they could make it easy enough for my Mom to use...
-ch
Re:I need a G5 to keep track of all the claims
on
G5 Benchmark Roundup
·
· Score: 1
The SPEC & compiler argument has nothing to do with what I said.
The point is that you can move large amounts of data around very quickly -- that has nothing to do with the processor or the compiler.
Re:I need a G5 to keep track of all the claims
on
G5 Benchmark Roundup
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I got a chance to talk to the project leader for Photohshop during WWDC, and the memory bandwidth is exactly where they're seeing the major performance wins. This is also probably true with the music applications: both need to move large chunks of memory around.
It's also interesting to note that Apple is aware of the new & cool things that having all of this bandwidth -- I asked at one of the graphics sessions if they had looked into using High Dynamic Range images as a standard part of Core Graphics (Quartz) -- they said "we're looking into it..."
BTW: HDR images use a 32-bit floating point value for each component of a pixel (so you're no longer limited to values in the range of 0-255 to represent red, green, blue and alpha.) Using floating point values for each pixel gives you a lot more "headroom" when manipulating the image. A G5 with a fat & fast bus coupled with a kick-ass floating point vector unit will allow applications that Wintel can only dream of...
I'm at WWDC right now and posting this comment from Safari running on a G5. I don't care what any of the benchmarks say -- this machine screams from a user's point-of-view.
No matter what I throw at it, I can't get either one of the CPUs above 50%.
Subscribers will see that the eMac scores higher than the low-end machines by Dell, HP, Sony, Gateway and eMachines. Even with a higher price it gets a better overall score.
They say nothing about it having a one button mouse, though:-)
Also: the Consumer Reports website is an excellent source of information. Well worth the monthly or yearly subscription.
Although Apple won't talk about it, IBM is developing a new set of chips that Apple will likely use to replace theaging Motorola processors used in its G4 line.
Not to mention all of the people who record concerts (either with or without the band's consent.)
There's a huge number of people who currently use DAT technology for capturing shows. Using an iPod would be very attractive for two reasons: 1) You don't have a tape to flip half way through the show and 2) it doesn't look like a recording device to the security folks.
He's right on target about developer training & documentation. It sucks big-time: poorly categorized and there is lots of missing information.
When I'm looking for an answer to a technical problem, I typically find answers at sites like Mamasam or CocoaDev. The Cocoa Dev Central site is a good source of sample code, too.
Many more resources are listed here
Historically, Mac developer's have been very picky about this: Inside Macintosh is wonderful. It's an excellent technical reference presented in a consistent and easily readible format.
Slashdot Mirror
I develop shareware applications. Getting people to register their software is how I make my living.
:-)
I tried using a complicated scheme where the registration codes would expire after a period of time and the license key was written to the user's hard drive (along with a MAC address to prevent that file from being copied.) It took the pirates about 2 months longer to crack the scheme, but other than that, it had no effect other than to piss off customers.
Of course I dumped that scheme and went back to a simpler name/code written to a preference file.
But, at the same time, I've introduced a few "anomalies" that pop up only when a pirated serial number is used. This, in turn, causes the casual pirate to send me an e-mail saying "feature x isn't working". And then I politely explain why. I've actually gotten a few new customers because of this technique -- a twist on the "support" theme of the parent post.
And it's fun to watch the confusion caused by the "anomalies" on the cracker discussion forums
Paul Thurrott has some pretty good coverage of PDC going here
My thoughts, exactly...
Yes, welcome to the wonderful world of finding new music or remembering old music.
I'm old school and like to get my music on CD (I've have a large collection.)
What I find myself doing is finding a new song that I like and adding it to my Amazon wish list. It would not surprise me if a future partnership between Apple & Amazon would do this for me...
I've been playing around with the Windows version for the past half hour or so. It's very well done -- and feature complete:
1) The Rendezvous stuff for sharing the tunes works well. I can now share 80GB of music with my wife's IBM Thinkpad.
2) My CD drive was recognized without any problems. I can rip and burn without any problems at all. Goodbye CDex, et. al.
3) The response time on the store seems to be pretty good. The uptake on the new Windows version will probably be a lot slower than it was for the Mac version (hundreds of thousands of the Windows faithful are NOT waiting anxiously for Steve to say "it's available today".)
4) It's kinda weird seeing the Aqua UI controls and metal skins in a Windows app, but it supports my theory that iTunes is a lead in for both iPods & regular hardware. Get them used to the way things are in the Mac world, and then get them to switch.
Well done Apple. I'm impressed!
iTunes on the Mac uses the WebCore and some higher level classes to display the music that's available.
One thing that has always made me go "HMMMM...." is that they've probably taken this code and made it compile for Windows. And they've probably taken some of the old NeXT technologies to get parts of Cocoa running on Windows (prior to being acquired by Apple, all of NeXTSTEP worked fine on Win NT.) In particular, the networking & UI classes would be very attractive to an engineering team working on a tight schedule (high level of code re-use.)
So, you have a situation where Apple has a lot of the pieces necessary to build a browser.
One that renders CSS much more reliably, has tabs, blocks pop-ups, and tons of other "user centric" features. Something that can't be said of IE these days...
Apple's in a good position to leverage it's situation. They're going to sell a lot of iPods with iTMS for Windows. They're also going to sell hardware when Windows users see how much easier it is to use Apple software.
Apple could give away a Windows version of Safari and end up selling a lot of Mac hardware. Microsoft wouldn't like it, but that doesn't seem to bother them these days...
-ch
If surfing is outlawed, only outlaws will surf.
I've got about 18 months left on a 2 year lease -- thanks for reminding me!
(Yes, I knew they were coming, but I needed an upgrade for an important project 6 months ago...)
-ch
Finally, a reason to port Rogue to Mac OS X!
This is lame, for the many reasons pointed out in this thread (too short expiration, buy vs. rent for kids, etc.) The interesting thing, at least in my mind, is that Disney is opening their intellectual property up a bit (granted, it's got DRM up the wazoo.)
What would happen if Apple/Jobs did a movie service like they've done with the iTunes Music Store?
They've got the inside connections in Hollywood (Pixar, editing suites, etc.)
They've got the technology (QuickTime, delivery mechanisms & bandwidth)
And they could make it easy enough for my Mom to use...
-ch
The SPEC & compiler argument has nothing to do with what I said.
The point is that you can move large amounts of data around very quickly -- that has nothing to do with the processor or the compiler.
I got a chance to talk to the project leader for Photohshop during WWDC, and the memory bandwidth is exactly where they're seeing the major performance wins. This is also probably true with the music applications: both need to move large chunks of memory around.
It's also interesting to note that Apple is aware of the new & cool things that having all of this bandwidth -- I asked at one of the graphics sessions if they had looked into using High Dynamic Range images as a standard part of Core Graphics (Quartz) -- they said "we're looking into it..."
BTW: HDR images use a 32-bit floating point value for each component of a pixel (so you're no longer limited to values in the range of 0-255 to represent red, green, blue and alpha.) Using floating point values for each pixel gives you a lot more "headroom" when manipulating the image. A G5 with a fat & fast bus coupled with a kick-ass floating point vector unit will allow applications that Wintel can only dream of...
I'm at WWDC right now and posting this comment from Safari running on a G5. I don't care what any of the benchmarks say -- this machine screams from a user's point-of-view.
No matter what I throw at it, I can't get either one of the CPUs above 50%.
Ever hear of irony? Look it up!
Subscribers will see that the eMac scores higher than the low-end machines by Dell, HP, Sony, Gateway and eMachines. Even with a higher price it gets a better overall score.
:-)
They say nothing about it having a one button mouse, though
Also: the Consumer Reports website is an excellent source of information. Well worth the monthly or yearly subscription.
This common "misinterpretation" of the numbers works in Apple's favor -- much like the 2 Ghz CISC is better than 1 Ghz RISC.
The average person is going to think: "Hmmm.. 64-bits is twice as good as 32-bits."
This, in my opinion, is one of the best things about the 970 -- it levels the playing field as far as marketing performance.
From the article:
Although Apple won't talk about it, IBM is developing a new set of chips that Apple will likely use to replace theaging Motorola processors used in its G4 line.
How is this "official confirmation"?
Not to mention all of the people who record concerts (either with or without the band's consent.)
There's a huge number of people who currently use DAT technology for capturing shows. Using an iPod would be very attractive for two reasons: 1) You don't have a tape to flip half way through the show and 2) it doesn't look like a recording device to the security folks.
I"m a MAC OS X USER I am outraged! Why cant' we BE ALLOWED to BE MERGING!?!?!?!?!
WE need too have some posts abou the EVIL BIT on apple.slashtdot.org to!!!!!!!!!!
WAIT UNTIL STEVEE JOBS HERES ABOUT THIS!!!! HE"S GOT A CAN OF BSD WHOOP ASS FOR QWHOEVER CAME UP WITH THIS PALN!!!
I"M SERIOUS MAD HEAR! GGGGRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!! can"T FOOL ME!
and that damn lameness filter tells ME NOT TO YELL
Any system that relies on the receiver paying is doomed to failure.
Cringley has been thinking about the problem for the past few weeks and has come to the conclusion that the sender must pay.
I'm not sure that I agree with his implementation, but the general idea is a sound one. The barrier to entry must be raised...
I wonder how many people besides me are cursing right now because they have non-refundable airfares for the week of May 18th.
We'll probably get nailed for changing the hotel, too.
This sucks.
See what happens when you try to sell a computer with only one mouse button!
He's right on target about developer training & documentation. It sucks big-time: poorly categorized and there is lots of missing information.
When I'm looking for an answer to a technical problem, I typically find answers at sites like Mamasam or CocoaDev. The Cocoa Dev Central site is a good source of sample code, too. Many more resources are listed here
Historically, Mac developer's have been very picky about this: Inside Macintosh is wonderful. It's an excellent technical reference presented in a consistent and easily readible format.
Considering a huge amount of traffic will appears to come from Virginia (AOL's big ass proxy) it's funny that there's no local team to block.
And what are the chances of actually being able to see the end of that HDTV movie before the battery runs down?
Not good, I'd say...