I agree that imperial US Customary Units have certain useful aspects which SI lacks.
What we really need to do is switch our numbering system to base 12.
Then we'll have the best of both worlds!
I seriously doubt that NASA is using Imperial Gallons for capacity in place of U.S. Gallons. (Capacity, I believe, is the main area where the two systems diverge.)
That said, they should be using SI.
4 computers per student in the 80's?
20 computers per student in the 00's?
What in the world for? Much as I like computers 360,000 computers at a medium sized university sounds "a bit excessive."
Is this a typo? or some obscure slash dot joke?
Kind of makes you wonder what percentage of the prestigious Windows market share is special purpose devices like this (or mundane devices like cash registers.) I know Case equipment (CNH) uses WinCE on almost everything. At least that is pared down to the essentials.
In any case this seems like lazy engineering if the item is vulnerable to viruses.
I thought you had a problem with Apple, but it appears your gripe is with the W3C process and even more so with the whole system of software patents, the patent office, and anyone who files for a software patent.
For me that conflicts with the whole "create things," "run a business," "make money from your work" thing. I'm all for open source, standards, and direct competition, but I think IP and software patents have a place in that milieu.
If you want patent laws changed to be more fair, I'm all for that too. But that cannot be done piecemeal, it needs to be done from across the board and from a principled, and logical stance. (Not likely to happen though.)
Its a preexisting patent, not a "blocking" patent.
It appears you have a preexisting conflict of some kind with Apple.
Contrary to what you imply, Apple has released literally hundreds of thousands of man hours of their work to open standards, open source, etc. (Darwin QuickTime components, driver code, etc. others could list this better than I can.)
There is always someone screaming about what a meanie Apple is etc. but in the end we don't hear much about it. Why? Because Apple makes a genuine effort to do good things in this area and has made significant contributions to open standards and computing in general.
Bingo!'
Sandbags has summarized the issue nicely.
Upshot for those with a short attentions span, the W3C is a cooperative relationship, not a shotgun wedding.
Talk about a straw man!
The point is that members get to decide what IP they want to release to the consortium. Horse trading is done! Maybe Apple has plans for this patent and does not care to release it. Membership is not an obligation by a company to release ANY of their IP. There are many ways the consortium could circumvent this without the Apple patent, a few of which have been outlined by others in this forum. All they have to do is decide to do it. Get yer head out of your high horse's arse! (or some similar mixed metaphor.)
I think its obvious to anyone (any "true" anyone.)
The Conficker Worm is infecting people's brains. Apparently its using Fox News as a vector to turn the viewers into netbots. This represents a significant escalation in virus technology.
Oh wait, I guess this has bee around for a while.
AFAIK this has always been Apple's policy. All they did was update the posting slightly to show the latest leading commercial AV software. Here's the previous update from a year and a half ago. I assume it was just an update of the one previous to it. (I think you will find that it looks very familiar!) http://web.archive.org/web/20080113164722/http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html%3Fartnum%3D4454
"Mac OS: Antivirus Utilities
Last Modified on: June 08, 2007
Article: 4454
This article describes the antivirus utilities that are available for the Mac OS.
Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one program to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult. Here are some of the available antivirus utilities:
Norton Anti-Virus for Macintosh (formerly SAM)
Publisher: Symantec
License: commercial
Virex
Publisher: McAfee
License: commercial
This article provides information about a non-Apple product. Apple, Inc. is not responsible for its content. Please contact the vendor for additional information.
Mmm, I don't think so. AFAIK this has always been Apple's policy. All they did was update the posting slightly to show the latest leading commercial AV software. Here's the previous update from a year and a half ago. I assume it was just an update of the one previous to it. (I think you will find that it looks very familiar!) http://web.archive.org/web/20080113164722/http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html%3Fartnum%3D4454
"Mac OS: Antivirus Utilities
Last Modified on: June 08, 2007
Article: 4454
This article describes the antivirus utilities that are available for the Mac OS.
Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one program to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult. Here are some of the available antivirus utilities:
Norton Anti-Virus for Macintosh (formerly SAM)
Publisher: Symantec
License: commercial
Virex
Publisher: McAfee
License: commercial
This article provides information about a non-Apple product. Apple, Inc. is not responsible for its content. Please contact the vendor for additional information.
Article 17159: "Locating Vendor Information" can help you search for a particular vendor's address and phone number.
Keywords: ktech kmosx"
Just yesterday, on TV, I saw the figure of (roughly) 10,000 olympic athletes competing in Beijing at this olympic (a surprisingly large number I thought.)
So that would be roughly 0.4% of competing olympic athletes.
Of course you would need to consider that Chinese athletes are unlikely to participate, even if they wanted to.
Most athletes from all countries would prefer not to make any waves or stir up controversy.
Most people have no idea of where Tibet is or what has happened there since 1950.
Most people just don't care.
etc.
". . . especially if Apple insists on preventing other companies from writing OSes for their devices."
Wow. Apple must be powerful to do that. Do they force people to take some kind of mind control drug?
Or do you mean that that they insist on *not helping* other companies write OSes for their devices.
Or do you mean they insist on not letting other companies put OS X on those companies' devices?
I had an interview with Mr. Lund a few years back (for a design position). A very strange experience. It was on a weekend and they treated me very oddly. Among other things they let me sit alone in his office for almost 40 minutes before I was interviewed (and this was as 9:00 in the morning.) Then I was not allowed to see any part of the operation other than his office for "security reasons." At that time they were just doing toys (silly stuff mostly) but they were all worked up about "a new and groundbreaking battery technology." I've not heard about how that worked out, but presumably it was no big deal. There was little talk of design, my design credentials, what they would expect in the position, who I might work with, etc.
Anyway, he seemed like a megalomaniac to me (hence the company name, I guess.) And I have to say that anytime I have an interview where I am treated oddly or impolitely, as a dishonest person, and as an "applicant" who does not need any information on the position rather than as a professional, I'm a *bit* turned off.
Anyway, I have since seen several of his postings seeking designers or engineers for "secret" projects. When his company comes up in conversation among my peers, I often hear stories similar to mine of odd behavior, weird interviews, weird work experiences, etc.
True
Craigslist is quick and easy to navigate, but have you tried it on your iPhone?
When your pointing device is big (your finger) the controller (that tiny piece of highlighted text) has to be big too.
I meant to say:
much larger than the dense field of possible targets (each pixel.)
not
much larger than the sense field of possible targets (each pixel.)
Sorry
Nice comments ContractualObligatio,
Particularly drawing the distinction between data visualization and Interface Design. It was my first thought as well. I greatly admire Tufte and have learned a hell of a lot from his books.
He is so good at static data visualization and graphic design in general (although he tends to have the print designer disease of adoring text that is too damn small.) But it doesn't always translate well to electronic devices.
On seeing his stock and weather pages I was immediately annoyed by their poor readability (small text and icons, tiny trend lines that give equal value to historical data rather than what is happening . . . Now! (and slightly before.)) He seems captured by the idea of all information in one view (no matter how unimportant it might be.) Much of the reason for the easily readable cartoon like look of the iPhone is readability on the go. Another is the large size of the pointing device (the finger.) A highly dense and visually precious view, as he would like, offers little in the way of direct interaction when the pointing device is so much larger than the sense field of possible targets (each pixel.)
This is a mobile device not a desktop workstation and the parameters for relevant data and how it is used are totally different.
-Also: the macro weather now icon (ie snow) is meant to be ubiquitous--draped over the top of the weather display. Unobtrusive but obvious (and readable) shrinking it down and putting it in a corner is a crime.
" . . . working with AT&T for 5 years, but only 2 of them will AT&T be the exclusive dealer."
Exactly!
"For $3 a month Apple does a lot of things for iPhone customers . .."
More sanity in this sea of disinformation.
Besides Applecare service Apple also has their servers on the ATT network caching data (various, including youTube content, etc.) for speed and utility as well as to provide visual voicemail and other services. Call it a kickback if you want. Looks more like (profitable) fee for services to me. I'd say Apple is doing what they have always done, and well--taking responsibility for providing an excellent and reliable user experience. The only people pissed off are folks who don't want that--so why are they whining? They should buy something else, but apparently they are victims of their own techno-envy. They sound like the guys at the prom who badmouth the pretty girl at the prom because they couldn't take her. (Steve Jobs might say they are girlfriends that didn't work out?)
Many of the other posters appear to have been smoking crack or something (no reflection on "isaac")
"You are dead wrong. Sprint's unlimited Power Vision (3G) service is $15/mo for regular joes. . . . etc. "
"isaac"'s claims about cheaper plans from other carriers are rather overly shiny. He's not looking at the whole plans, the total costs, and he's comparing non-comparable services. The Apple plans look quite reasonable. More flexibility would be better, but what they offer is reasonable none the less.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree that imperial US Customary Units have certain useful aspects which SI lacks.
What we really need to do is switch our numbering system to base 12.
Then we'll have the best of both worlds!
I seriously doubt that NASA is using Imperial Gallons for capacity in place of U.S. Gallons. (Capacity, I believe, is the main area where the two systems diverge.)
That said, they should be using SI.
4 computers per student in the 80's?
20 computers per student in the 00's?
What in the world for? Much as I like computers 360,000 computers at a medium sized university sounds "a bit excessive."
Is this a typo? or some obscure slash dot joke?
Kind of makes you wonder what percentage of the prestigious Windows market share is special purpose devices like this (or mundane devices like cash registers.) I know Case equipment (CNH) uses WinCE on almost everything. At least that is pared down to the essentials.
In any case this seems like lazy engineering if the item is vulnerable to viruses.
And of course, he had no agenda in saying that either . . .
as, of course, neither do you . . .
I thought you had a problem with Apple, but it appears your gripe is with the W3C process and even more so with the whole system of software patents, the patent office, and anyone who files for a software patent.
For me that conflicts with the whole "create things," "run a business," "make money from your work" thing. I'm all for open source, standards, and direct competition, but I think IP and software patents have a place in that milieu.
If you want patent laws changed to be more fair, I'm all for that too. But that cannot be done piecemeal, it needs to be done from across the board and from a principled, and logical stance. (Not likely to happen though.)
Its a preexisting patent, not a "blocking" patent.
It appears you have a preexisting conflict of some kind with Apple.
Contrary to what you imply, Apple has released literally hundreds of thousands of man hours of their work to open standards, open source, etc. (Darwin QuickTime components, driver code, etc. others could list this better than I can.)
There is always someone screaming about what a meanie Apple is etc. but in the end we don't hear much about it. Why? Because Apple makes a genuine effort to do good things in this area and has made significant contributions to open standards and computing in general.
Bingo!'
Sandbags has summarized the issue nicely.
Upshot for those with a short attentions span, the W3C is a cooperative relationship, not a shotgun wedding.
Talk about a straw man!
The point is that members get to decide what IP they want to release to the consortium. Horse trading is done! Maybe Apple has plans for this patent and does not care to release it. Membership is not an obligation by a company to release ANY of their IP.
There are many ways the consortium could circumvent this without the Apple patent, a few of which have been outlined by others in this forum. All they have to do is decide to do it.
Get yer head out of your high horse's arse! (or some similar mixed metaphor.)
Exactly. Being a W3C member is about creating open standards and does not imply or require signing away all one's IP.
I think its obvious to anyone
(any "true" anyone.)
The Conficker Worm is infecting people's brains. Apparently its using Fox News as a vector to turn the viewers into netbots. This represents a significant escalation in virus technology.
Oh wait, I guess this has bee around for a while.
What did Nobuyuki Hayashi really say before he was so badly misquoted by Brian Chen?
Read his blog: (hint his real cellphone of choice is . . . an iPhone!?!!):
http://blog.nobi.cc/2009/02/my-view-of-how-iphone-is-doing-in-japan-by-nobi-nobuyuki-hayashi.html
AFAIK this has always been Apple's policy. All they did was update the posting slightly to show the latest leading commercial AV software. Here's the previous update from a year and a half ago. I assume it was just an update of the one previous to it. (I think you will find that it looks very familiar!)
http://web.archive.org/web/20080113164722/http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html%3Fartnum%3D4454
"Mac OS: Antivirus Utilities
Last Modified on: June 08, 2007
Article: 4454
This article describes the antivirus utilities that are available for the Mac OS.
Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one program to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult. Here are some of the available antivirus utilities:
Intego VirusBarrier X4
Publisher: Intego
License: commercial
Norton Anti-Virus for Macintosh (formerly SAM)
Publisher: Symantec
License: commercial
Virex
Publisher: McAfee
License: commercial
This article provides information about a non-Apple product. Apple, Inc. is not responsible for its content. Please contact the vendor for additional information.
Mmm, I don't think so.
AFAIK this has always been Apple's policy. All they did was update the posting slightly to show the latest leading commercial AV software. Here's the previous update from a year and a half ago. I assume it was just an update of the one previous to it. (I think you will find that it looks very familiar!)
http://web.archive.org/web/20080113164722/http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html%3Fartnum%3D4454
"Mac OS: Antivirus Utilities
Last Modified on: June 08, 2007
Article: 4454
This article describes the antivirus utilities that are available for the Mac OS.
Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one program to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult. Here are some of the available antivirus utilities:
Intego VirusBarrier X4
Publisher: Intego
License: commercial
Norton Anti-Virus for Macintosh (formerly SAM)
Publisher: Symantec
License: commercial
Virex
Publisher: McAfee
License: commercial
This article provides information about a non-Apple product. Apple, Inc. is not responsible for its content. Please contact the vendor for additional information.
Article 17159: "Locating Vendor Information" can help you search for a particular vendor's address and phone number. Keywords: ktech kmosx"
Really?? that's incredible!!!
http://www.shazam.com/music/web/pages/iphone.html
BTW 2d and URL BC scanning apps are also available for the iPhone.
Just yesterday, on TV, I saw the figure of (roughly) 10,000 olympic athletes competing in Beijing at this olympic (a surprisingly large number I thought.)
So that would be roughly 0.4% of competing olympic athletes.
Of course you would need to consider that Chinese athletes are unlikely to participate, even if they wanted to.
Most athletes from all countries would prefer not to make any waves or stir up controversy.
Most people have no idea of where Tibet is or what has happened there since 1950.
Most people just don't care.
etc.
". . . especially if Apple insists on preventing other companies from writing OSes for their devices."
Wow. Apple must be powerful to do that. Do they force people to take some kind of mind control drug?
Or do you mean that that they insist on *not helping* other companies write OSes for their devices.
Or do you mean they insist on not letting other companies put OS X on those companies' devices?
Oh, you and your stupid ideas! FUCK OFF!
I had an interview with Mr. Lund a few years back (for a design position). A very strange experience. It was on a weekend and they treated me very oddly. Among other things they let me sit alone in his office for almost 40 minutes before I was interviewed (and this was as 9:00 in the morning.) Then I was not allowed to see any part of the operation other than his office for "security reasons." At that time they were just doing toys (silly stuff mostly) but they were all worked up about "a new and groundbreaking battery technology." I've not heard about how that worked out, but presumably it was no big deal. There was little talk of design, my design credentials, what they would expect in the position, who I might work with, etc.
Anyway, he seemed like a megalomaniac to me (hence the company name, I guess.) And I have to say that anytime I have an interview where I am treated oddly or impolitely, as a dishonest person, and as an "applicant" who does not need any information on the position rather than as a professional, I'm a *bit* turned off.
Anyway, I have since seen several of his postings seeking designers or engineers for "secret" projects. When his company comes up in conversation among my peers, I often hear stories similar to mine of odd behavior, weird interviews, weird work experiences, etc.
I guess Bruce has a new secret plan!
Why hasn't this article been tagged "Ha Ha" yet? Apple haters are getting lazy. ;-)
True
Craigslist is quick and easy to navigate, but have you tried it on your iPhone?
When your pointing device is big (your finger) the controller (that tiny piece of highlighted text) has to be big too.
I meant to say:
much larger than the dense field of possible targets (each pixel.)
not
much larger than the sense field of possible targets (each pixel.)
Sorry
Nice comments ContractualObligatio,
Particularly drawing the distinction between data visualization and Interface Design. It was my first thought as well.
I greatly admire Tufte and have learned a hell of a lot from his books.
He is so good at static data visualization and graphic design in general (although he tends to have the print designer disease of adoring text that is too damn small.) But it doesn't always translate well to electronic devices.
On seeing his stock and weather pages I was immediately annoyed by their poor readability (small text and icons, tiny trend lines that give equal value to historical data rather than what is happening . . . Now! (and slightly before.)) He seems captured by the idea of all information in one view (no matter how unimportant it might be.)
Much of the reason for the easily readable cartoon like look of the iPhone is readability on the go.
Another is the large size of the pointing device (the finger.) A highly dense and visually precious view, as he would like, offers little in the way of direct interaction when the pointing device is so much larger than the sense field of possible targets (each pixel.)
This is a mobile device not a desktop workstation and the parameters for relevant data and how it is used are totally different.
-Also: the macro weather now icon (ie snow) is meant to be ubiquitous--draped over the top of the weather display. Unobtrusive but obvious (and readable) shrinking it down and putting it in a corner is a crime.
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=320127&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=20883715
Exactly!
"For $3 a month Apple does a lot of things for iPhone customers . . ."
More sanity in this sea of disinformation.
Besides Applecare service Apple also has their servers on the ATT network caching data (various, including youTube content, etc.) for speed and utility as well as to provide visual voicemail and other services. Call it a kickback if you want. Looks more like (profitable) fee for services to me. I'd say Apple is doing what they have always done, and well--taking responsibility for providing an excellent and reliable user experience. The only people pissed off are folks who don't want that--so why are they whining? They should buy something else, but apparently they are victims of their own techno-envy. They sound like the guys at the prom who badmouth the pretty girl at the prom because they couldn't take her. (Steve Jobs might say they are girlfriends that didn't work out?)
Many of the other posters appear to have been smoking crack or something (no reflection on "isaac")
"You are dead wrong. Sprint's unlimited Power Vision (3G) service is $15/mo for regular joes. . . . etc. " "isaac"'s claims about cheaper plans from other carriers are rather overly shiny. He's not looking at the whole plans, the total costs, and he's comparing non-comparable services. The Apple plans look quite reasonable. More flexibility would be better, but what they offer is reasonable none the less.