Yes, they were a major Firewire developer - and then they made it a standard for everyone to use.
Doing so increased the number of Firewire devices, which made their including it on all Macs by default appealing to those who needed video editing/etc.
You'll notice how they're open sourcing things like parts of Xcode and other parts - making them popular so it's easy to add them into their products. Like IBM, Apple has figured out that instead of forcing the world to be compatible with you, if you give it to the world and becoming compatible with it, you enjoy greater use.
Remember Watson? Remember how Sherlock 3 basically became Watson?
Remember Konfabulator with all of its widgets? Well, now Tiger's going to have Dashboard. I wonder if it will accept Konfabulator widgets (which I've been using) or if there will be an "import" program? And Konfabulator 1.7 just added Expose-like features (press F8 to get your Widgets in front - useful).
Granted, Apple had something like this back in the older Mac days (or so I've read here and there), so it's kind of like they're "bringing back" something old into the new - but if you're an Apple developer, it seems as though there's always the fear that your favorite app will get assimilated into the next version of OS X.
Granted, I like OS X (my work is buying me a new Powerbook in about a week - yay me), but it does kind of make you go "Hm".
Apple tends to succeed better when they adopt the standards (USB, Firewire, etc) rather than go it their own (ADC over DVI, for example).
I've been contemplating one of these screens, but never wanted to commit because I couldn't just slap in a KVM for my other machines (mainly the Windows 98 Box fo' Games and my wife's Windows 98 Box fo' Work Crap). Now, I don't have any excuse!
According to the FAQ, the calculations are that even with the number of "zombie" machines out there, there still isn't enough processing power to generate all of the necessary "stamps" - or at least it's enough to reduce the time.
Should be interesting to see how this works for Apple in their iPod sales. I was in recently to pick up my wife's iBook, and a gentleman from Europe was in there slightly distraught that he couldn't buy an iPod Mini as they were out of stock.
Apple makes money not from the iTunes store, but from iPod sales. That they've sold this many songs this quickly is good potential for future hardware sales.
Have we ever used the backwards compatibility on the PS2? Does a bear crap in the woods? (For the sarcasm impaired, that's "yes".)
I've got a collection of about 60 PSOne disks, from "Resident Evil" through "Final Fantasy" looping into "Dance Dance Revolution" and plenty of others I haven't even gotten to yet. And I've got quite a few PS2 games as well (and to be fair, naturally I have a Gamecube and Xbox).
I'll be honest: I think the Xbox 2 has shot themselves in the foot, because now it's not a 3 way battle, it's a 4 way battle between the Gamecube, PS2, Xbox, and Xbox2.
Sony made a brilliant move when they made the PS2 backwards compatible, and have stated they plan to have PSOne games all they way until 2008 (as I seem to recall). People who are cheap can still get a PSOne for about $79-$100, and games for around $20-$30 (infrequently, but it still happens even today). Sony gets a cut off of those games.
Now, you look at the PS2. If you want just one PS2 game, the choice is pretty damned easy: no additional space needed in your room, same connectors even! Just junk that old PSOne and go PS2, and you can play all your old games and those "few" PS2 games you're thinking about. And once you're in, over the years it gets harder to go back to the old stuff.
With the Xbox, that choice is no longer there. I have Xbox games I like (though to be honest, I've never gotten into Halo. Go figure.). Now when the Xbox2 comes out, I'm going to be looking at it and say "Well, I could buy it now for that 1 game I must have, but eh - I'll wait until they build up a library that I care about."
Yes, there will be "must have" games upon launch, but if comes down to space (already at a premium with 3 consoles), or cost (another $299 for one or two games), people will look at the backwards compatible PS3 (and, if the rumors of the Gamecube 2 or whatever are correct) with a lot more favor.
Granted, in the past there was no backwards compatibility (NES -> SNES -> N64), but the game market has learned a valuable lesson.
There will be Xbox 2 games that I'll want eventually that will make it worth the purchase price, but I'm willing to bet that initial sales will be "electronics enthusiasts only" until a larger library gets built up.
As the article mentions, it will certainly eat into the "First Mover" advantage the Xbox Next is hoping to gain. Even when the PS2 came out, there were still good upcoming PSOne games to look forward to. So unless Microsoft does what they usually do and remove all Xbox One games from the shelves (example: when Office XP comes to stores, Office 2000 becomes impossible to find, etc), or keeping Live out of the hands of anyone but Xbox Next owners, they'll find the current base slow to pick up.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
This might not be every place, but it's what we tended to do at my old job.
We'd get in a giant stack of resumes. First we'd separate the ones that had the Certs (MCSE, CNE, MS degrees, etc).
Then we'd look at those and laugh at the ones that had no experience but an MCSE or the like.
Then we'd separate the ones who had experience AND the cert, and talk to them. For entry level positions, we'd at least go for the cert and talk to them - but otherwise, experience was king. The cert was just to "prove" that at least they knew something about Novell/Windows stuff (this was about 3 years ago. By the time the company shut down, they were looking at Linux people typically.)
So a cert just tells a potential employer "I know about X". Not that you're any good - we look at experience for that. But it's a benchmark.
First, let me state that I have the greatest respect for the scientists looking for the secrets of the cosmos, and I eat this shit up like crazy whenever I get the chance. I think it's the greatest stuff ever, and hope that every politician who voted against the Superconducting Supercollider burns in hell forever.
That said: can you imagine 500 years from now when teachers are in class, getting past Newton and saying "Oh, and then the 20th century when Einstein and Heisenburg had their theories. Remember how we talked about Gallileo dropping objects and measuring the speed? Well, those 20th century guys did that with quantum mechanics. Get this: they smashed subatomic particles together to figure out what they were made of! Here's a picture. Now, stop laughing - and Jimmy, I see your eyes glazed over, stop downloading porn through your bainjack and pay attention."
Only conjecture, really. We're "pretty sure" the Xbox2 dev kits are Apple G5 computers (savor the irony), and "pretty sure" that there won't be a hard drive - but nothing is set in stone yet, and MS themselves might not really know.
So it just comes down to what they really decide to do. For all we know, they could hard code a Virtual PC chip into the machine that emulates an Xbox1, so it might be a moot point. Time will tell.
*IF* the Xbox2 will be backwards compatible (and considering the architecture of a proposed PPC chip and all, that will be very surprising), then this will be a good move. New games that the article talks about that are multi-platform will still work with the Xbox 2, and new games will look "neato!" on the Xbox2's new hardware.
BUT!
If the Xbox2 is *not* backwards compatible, then yes, this could be a problem. If I have a choice between Xbox 1 with a library of games, or the Xbox2 with a few new games, or the PS2 with a ton of new and old games (with the promise that the upcoming PS3 will play all of my current games), then it's going to be a no-brainer for the majority of people out there. And all it will do is change the Xbox divivion from losing over $500 million to one losing more.
Even Microsoft's investors can't stand a division losing money forever, no matter how much Windows and Office brings in.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I could be wrong.
I think the problem that SCO will have for many years boils down to:
Do I want to risk doing business with them?
If SCO had just gone out after IBM for copyright infringement, fine - I don't think that the average manager would care.
The problem is that they turned around and sued former customers (not that they had a choice - to sue people they hadn't had relations with might have opened them up to fraud lawsuits. Then again, they could have chosen not to sue at all.)
As a recent article pointed out, people now thinking about going to SCO must be thinking "If I ever leave them, will they sue me after? Can I afford that?"
Current Unixware customers will probably stay on, since it's easier and cheaper to do that than not to. But I will find it surprising if they drum up more then a dribble of new business with their karma approaching sub-basement levels.
In reality, as most people here probably obverve, they've shot themselves in the foot. If they had stuck with IBM, then resolved that, then (assuming they win, which I find rather remote) tried to go after regular Linux users, they might have done very well. And if they lost, well, they'd still have Unixware to sell.
Now, people are going to look at them like a rabid dog with a broken leg. Even if you want to help it, you're worried about how much damage you'll recieve in the process.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
At my previous job, I was working in a server environment. 99% of the time, the solution we needed was on a Unix platform, or was least expensive and move robust there.
So I did a lot of programming on Linux, and it became easier to install a Linux partition on my laptop so I could develop on there, give it a test, then upload it to the servers for major testing before rolling it out to "the masses".
I actually found it easier to develop in the Unix environment. Programs could be killed when they went awry without freaking out the entire OS. It was faster because there wasn't so much "stuff" running in the background - I knew what was running, and nothing could get by it.
I eventually went to OS X, which I think is the best of both worlds: easy to use OS that lets me use MS Office, movie/DVD viewing, games and the like - but lets me develop all of my Unix tools without having to dual boot or use something like VM Ware (which is fine, but can feel pretty slow emulated depending on what you're doing).
Most interesting are the guys who work in the Penetration Testing area. Most of them dual boot between Windows XP and OpenBSD all the time. The latter for actual penetration testing/hacking, the former for writing up their reports and getting into Exchange (without using the web interface). Several of them have moved to OS X for the same reason I did: same Unix, and enough support for the other programs (MS Office, etc) for their other needs. Oh, and Warcraft III/Fallout/Jedi Academy/etc. The important stuff.
So far, most of our cracking and penetration is done via OpenBSD (some Virtual PC is needed at times for programs that haven't been ported to OS X yet), but some folks have been pushing to move entirely to OS X for the whole team. And since more of those tools are being released with OS X support (such as Hydra, John, etc), it might just be the route we wind up going in the long run.
I don't run Windows because I already have what I need: stability, performance, works with almost all of the tools I need - and the ones that don't are coming my way almost daily.
What I like about this article is not that is blasts Linux, but Roku's implementation of it. I had considered getting one of these instead of modifying an Xbox to play media files (and yes, I've heard of the "Windows Media Center" machines, and I'm too damned cheap for that - I've decided to modify an Xbox myself and save the $).
Anyway, the reviewer takes pains to note that the Tivo, which is also Linux based, is fast, responsive, and doesn't crash all of the time. Maybe this was a beta unit the reviewer recieved, but it seems as though the company hasn't tightened down the Roku's implementation and gone through a good QA session.
Too bad, really. I wouldn't mind finding a box that I could plug into the TV and stream my (personally, using Handbrake for OS X) XviD videos to my TV (to save wear and tear on my DVD's and keep my kids from getting thier fingerprints all over them) over my 802.11 connection.
Looks like I might as well get ready to order that Xbox and mod chip to "do it myself", since nobody in the industry seems to have a solution that does what I want yet. (Note: I know the Tivo can evidently tie into iTunes and iPhoto, but I haven't of it being able to read through a AFP or SMB share of movies and just play them. I'm willing to bet I'll see 10 responses regarding Myth or some such, so advise away - I'm holding off on the soldiering kit as long as I can;) ).
Actually, just the opposite - you get a trademark by filing it.
You can actually lose a trademark if it's used inappropriately and you don't defend it. Take "Xerox" - you're suppose to say "copy", but most people say "I'll just xerox this paper".
Xerox has had to go after people for saying "Hey, xerox this paper for me" in advertisements/tv shows/commercial areas, because if people use that word without Xerox's permission often enough that it becomes a "common" word, Xerox could lose their trademark.
Just because Microsoft uses a word a lot doesn't make it theirs - they have to legally file it and protect it, and make sure the word is not already in common use. Go back to the car example. For a time, a "car" meant "Ford Model T" - but that didn't mean that all use of the word "car" belonged to Ford. The word car had already been in prior popular use before hand, just as "windows" was already a programming term.
Just ask yourself this: should the word "browser" be trademarkes? Why not? After all, "everybody" associates Internet Explorer with "browser". Same principle.
I don't think I've listened to any radio but NPR (for news) for about a year now. Otherwise, I ask some of my friends what they like and give it a listen, then buy it from one of the online stores (like the iTunes store).
Otherwise, radio for me died when I turned it on, heard the same songs I had heard 12 months before played every 2 hours, turned it off for 2 months, turned it on (same songs from 2 months ago every few hours), turned it off for 4 months, and repeat.
I figure another 8 months and I'll see if anything new is playing. Till then, forget it.
"Windows" was also a computer term describing the interfaces containing a program within a GUI interface.
Because of this, trademark could be lost. It would be like somebody in 1940's calling their product "The Ford Car", and forbidding anyone else from calling their product a "car".
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Intel went through something like this when AMD and Cyrix had "486 compatible" on their labels, and Intel went to court. Judge ruled: 486 too generic, which moved Intel to start naming their processors to Pentium and the like and trade mark it so somebody couldn't claim "Pentium compatible!" without getting into trouble.
Microsoft might be facing this themselves now. Let's face it - before 1984, the computer term "windows" existed. Everybody with a GUI called their interface a "window" and a collection of them was a set of "windows". MS might very well lose the case.
Short run: they call future OS's by their names and actually release "MS Longhorn 2003", much like Apple has "OS 10.3 Panther". Lindows will be able to sell their product (in the US at least) under the Lindows name.
Long run: More lawsuits between MS at Lindows anyway. Like I'm so surprised.
I'm looking forward to fusion for a number of reasons. Yes, I'm sure there will be unforseen problems - odds are, some radioactivity will be a problem, and then you're going to want failsafe's out the ass so you don't get a "Chernobl on steriods" effect.
But this is the kind of thing that governments should be pouring tons of research into. For every politician that bitches about the Middle East and oil funding some nasty stuff ( from Iran putting a $25 million bounty on Rushdie to the US government feeling that it has to support dictatorships to get oil), fusion could fix a lot of that.
Naturally, it's no Eden idea - everything in science has a good and a bad side - but the sooner we can get this working, the better off the world will be.
Take a look at a game made by, say, the Gamecube, the Xbox, and a PC. Quick, which one looks the best?
Now, odds are you'll say "The PC". Which, at $1000 - $2000 for the hardware, that's certainly true.
For the Gamecube and the Xbox, the systems are pretty well matched. From what I've seen, the Xbox can do lighting better thanks to the shaders, while the Gamecube seems to have better anti-aliasing (take a look at Super Monkey Ball 2).
Fast forward 18 months when the Xbox 2, PS3, and Gamecube 2 come out, all with chips made by IBM, 2 of which have chips made by ATI. Now which look better?
Once we reach a point of technical ability, all of the consoles will start to look the same in graphical and processing power. So then it's going to come down to one thing:
Who has the better games?
PS2 still has the most, though I imagine most PC developers will continue the trend of "PC/Xbox" hybrids (though with the Xbox 2 it will be curious to see how possible this will still be, though XNA should help with the tranferral).
Nintendo at least is trying some new things. Using a stylus to "draw" Pac-Man on a screen, or to "shoot" in Metroid. Or using Congo drums for a Donkey Kong platform game (and, of course, the upcoming Donkey Konga itself).
Will most of these works? Probably not. There's a good chance that most people will think that playing a platform game with drums will suck donkey balls (pun intended), or that drawing on a screen won't be fun. But in an a realm where Final Fantasy XII seems to play like Final Fantasy XI only with a blond in a hoochie skirt (for Pete's sake, woman, put on some tights and have some dignity instead of letting it all hang out like you're going to walk down Prostitute Avenue), and every first person shooter looks the same, it's going to the ones that are different that will pull it out.
Personally, I'm betting that the Xbox will continue to be big on the FPS and Sports games, PS2 will rock the RPG and "everything else", while Nintendo will grab those "Games you must have or die" kind of things (Nintendo, new Mario, and of course GBA games).
I'll withhold judgement on Nintendo's innovation until I see sales rise (remember the lesson from SEGA: different doesn't always mean $$$), but if nothing else, you've got to give them credit for at least doing something different than the other guys.
You are the first Anonymous Coward I've ever seen with a good idea.
(Sniff.)
That's brilliant - print out the interviews and responses to Mr. Brown's book, wander into bookstores, insert the pages, and leave. Now if anybody picks up the book, they'll have the true story and counterarguments right there for their reading pleasure - heck, they won't even have to buy the book at that point;).
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I wasn't aware that Konfabulator used KDE, unless we're discussing two different things. The Konfabulator I use is for OS X.
Yes, they were a major Firewire developer - and then they made it a standard for everyone to use.
Doing so increased the number of Firewire devices, which made their including it on all Macs by default appealing to those who needed video editing/etc.
You'll notice how they're open sourcing things like parts of Xcode and other parts - making them popular so it's easy to add them into their products. Like IBM, Apple has figured out that instead of forcing the world to be compatible with you, if you give it to the world and becoming compatible with it, you enjoy greater use.
Remember Watson? Remember how Sherlock 3 basically became Watson?
Remember Konfabulator with all of its widgets? Well, now Tiger's going to have Dashboard. I wonder if it will accept Konfabulator widgets (which I've been using) or if there will be an "import" program? And Konfabulator 1.7 just added Expose-like features (press F8 to get your Widgets in front - useful).
Granted, Apple had something like this back in the older Mac days (or so I've read here and there), so it's kind of like they're "bringing back" something old into the new - but if you're an Apple developer, it seems as though there's always the fear that your favorite app will get assimilated into the next version of OS X.
Granted, I like OS X (my work is buying me a new Powerbook in about a week - yay me), but it does kind of make you go "Hm".
Apple tends to succeed better when they adopt the standards (USB, Firewire, etc) rather than go it their own (ADC over DVI, for example).
I've been contemplating one of these screens, but never wanted to commit because I couldn't just slap in a KVM for my other machines (mainly the Windows 98 Box fo' Games and my wife's Windows 98 Box fo' Work Crap). Now, I don't have any excuse!
(Looks at price tag.)
Well, I guess I still have one....
According to the FAQ, the calculations are that even with the number of "zombie" machines out there, there still isn't enough processing power to generate all of the necessary "stamps" - or at least it's enough to reduce the time.
If nothing else, at least it's something, right?
Should be interesting to see how this works for Apple in their iPod sales. I was in recently to pick up my wife's iBook, and a gentleman from Europe was in there slightly distraught that he couldn't buy an iPod Mini as they were out of stock.
Apple makes money not from the iTunes store, but from iPod sales. That they've sold this many songs this quickly is good potential for future hardware sales.
Backwards Compatibility?
Have we ever used the backwards compatibility on the PS2? Does a bear crap in the woods? (For the sarcasm impaired, that's "yes".)
I've got a collection of about 60 PSOne disks, from "Resident Evil" through "Final Fantasy" looping into "Dance Dance Revolution" and plenty of others I haven't even gotten to yet. And I've got quite a few PS2 games as well (and to be fair, naturally I have a Gamecube and Xbox).
I'll be honest: I think the Xbox 2 has shot themselves in the foot, because now it's not a 3 way battle, it's a 4 way battle between the Gamecube, PS2, Xbox, and Xbox2.
Sony made a brilliant move when they made the PS2 backwards compatible, and have stated they plan to have PSOne games all they way until 2008 (as I seem to recall). People who are cheap can still get a PSOne for about $79-$100, and games for around $20-$30 (infrequently, but it still happens even today). Sony gets a cut off of those games.
Now, you look at the PS2. If you want just one PS2 game, the choice is pretty damned easy: no additional space needed in your room, same connectors even! Just junk that old PSOne and go PS2, and you can play all your old games and those "few" PS2 games you're thinking about. And once you're in, over the years it gets harder to go back to the old stuff.
With the Xbox, that choice is no longer there. I have Xbox games I like (though to be honest, I've never gotten into Halo. Go figure.). Now when the Xbox2 comes out, I'm going to be looking at it and say "Well, I could buy it now for that 1 game I must have, but eh - I'll wait until they build up a library that I care about."
Yes, there will be "must have" games upon launch, but if comes down to space (already at a premium with 3 consoles), or cost (another $299 for one or two games), people will look at the backwards compatible PS3 (and, if the rumors of the Gamecube 2 or whatever are correct) with a lot more favor.
Granted, in the past there was no backwards compatibility (NES -> SNES -> N64), but the game market has learned a valuable lesson.
There will be Xbox 2 games that I'll want eventually that will make it worth the purchase price, but I'm willing to bet that initial sales will be "electronics enthusiasts only" until a larger library gets built up.
As the article mentions, it will certainly eat into the "First Mover" advantage the Xbox Next is hoping to gain. Even when the PS2 came out, there were still good upcoming PSOne games to look forward to. So unless Microsoft does what they usually do and remove all Xbox One games from the shelves (example: when Office XP comes to stores, Office 2000 becomes impossible to find, etc), or keeping Live out of the hands of anyone but Xbox Next owners, they'll find the current base slow to pick up.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
This might not be every place, but it's what we tended to do at my old job.
We'd get in a giant stack of resumes. First we'd separate the ones that had the Certs (MCSE, CNE, MS degrees, etc).
Then we'd look at those and laugh at the ones that had no experience but an MCSE or the like.
Then we'd separate the ones who had experience AND the cert, and talk to them. For entry level positions, we'd at least go for the cert and talk to them - but otherwise, experience was king. The cert was just to "prove" that at least they knew something about Novell/Windows stuff (this was about 3 years ago. By the time the company shut down, they were looking at Linux people typically.)
So a cert just tells a potential employer "I know about X". Not that you're any good - we look at experience for that. But it's a benchmark.
First, let me state that I have the greatest respect for the scientists looking for the secrets of the cosmos, and I eat this shit up like crazy whenever I get the chance. I think it's the greatest stuff ever, and hope that every politician who voted against the Superconducting Supercollider burns in hell forever.
That said: can you imagine 500 years from now when teachers are in class, getting past Newton and saying "Oh, and then the 20th century when Einstein and Heisenburg had their theories. Remember how we talked about Gallileo dropping objects and measuring the speed? Well, those 20th century guys did that with quantum mechanics. Get this: they smashed subatomic particles together to figure out what they were made of! Here's a picture. Now, stop laughing - and Jimmy, I see your eyes glazed over, stop downloading porn through your bainjack and pay attention."
Only conjecture, really. We're "pretty sure" the Xbox2 dev kits are Apple G5 computers (savor the irony), and "pretty sure" that there won't be a hard drive - but nothing is set in stone yet, and MS themselves might not really know.
So it just comes down to what they really decide to do. For all we know, they could hard code a Virtual PC chip into the machine that emulates an Xbox1, so it might be a moot point. Time will tell.
*IF* the Xbox2 will be backwards compatible (and considering the architecture of a proposed PPC chip and all, that will be very surprising), then this will be a good move. New games that the article talks about that are multi-platform will still work with the Xbox 2, and new games will look "neato!" on the Xbox2's new hardware.
BUT!
If the Xbox2 is *not* backwards compatible, then yes, this could be a problem. If I have a choice between Xbox 1 with a library of games, or the Xbox2 with a few new games, or the PS2 with a ton of new and old games (with the promise that the upcoming PS3 will play all of my current games), then it's going to be a no-brainer for the majority of people out there. And all it will do is change the Xbox divivion from losing over $500 million to one losing more.
Even Microsoft's investors can't stand a division losing money forever, no matter how much Windows and Office brings in.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I could be wrong.
I think the problem that SCO will have for many years boils down to:
Do I want to risk doing business with them?
If SCO had just gone out after IBM for copyright infringement, fine - I don't think that the average manager would care.
The problem is that they turned around and sued former customers (not that they had a choice - to sue people they hadn't had relations with might have opened them up to fraud lawsuits. Then again, they could have chosen not to sue at all.)
As a recent article pointed out, people now thinking about going to SCO must be thinking "If I ever leave them, will they sue me after? Can I afford that?"
Current Unixware customers will probably stay on, since it's easier and cheaper to do that than not to. But I will find it surprising if they drum up more then a dribble of new business with their karma approaching sub-basement levels.
In reality, as most people here probably obverve, they've shot themselves in the foot. If they had stuck with IBM, then resolved that, then (assuming they win, which I find rather remote) tried to go after regular Linux users, they might have done very well. And if they lost, well, they'd still have Unixware to sell.
Now, people are going to look at them like a rabid dog with a broken leg. Even if you want to help it, you're worried about how much damage you'll recieve in the process.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Me: Hm - looks like they're about to take pictures of Phoebe. Should be pretty cool.
...
My Lovely Wife: Well, out of all the cast of "Friends" I thought she had the best career options.
Me:
(Really, she's only like this on astronomy.)
At my previous job, I was working in a server environment. 99% of the time, the solution we needed was on a Unix platform, or was least expensive and move robust there.
So I did a lot of programming on Linux, and it became easier to install a Linux partition on my laptop so I could develop on there, give it a test, then upload it to the servers for major testing before rolling it out to "the masses".
I actually found it easier to develop in the Unix environment. Programs could be killed when they went awry without freaking out the entire OS. It was faster because there wasn't so much "stuff" running in the background - I knew what was running, and nothing could get by it.
I eventually went to OS X, which I think is the best of both worlds: easy to use OS that lets me use MS Office, movie/DVD viewing, games and the like - but lets me develop all of my Unix tools without having to dual boot or use something like VM Ware (which is fine, but can feel pretty slow emulated depending on what you're doing).
Most interesting are the guys who work in the Penetration Testing area. Most of them dual boot between Windows XP and OpenBSD all the time. The latter for actual penetration testing/hacking, the former for writing up their reports and getting into Exchange (without using the web interface). Several of them have moved to OS X for the same reason I did: same Unix, and enough support for the other programs (MS Office, etc) for their other needs. Oh, and Warcraft III/Fallout/Jedi Academy/etc. The important stuff.
So far, most of our cracking and penetration is done via OpenBSD (some Virtual PC is needed at times for programs that haven't been ported to OS X yet), but some folks have been pushing to move entirely to OS X for the whole team. And since more of those tools are being released with OS X support (such as Hydra, John, etc), it might just be the route we wind up going in the long run.
I don't run Windows because I already have what I need: stability, performance, works with almost all of the tools I need - and the ones that don't are coming my way almost daily.
What I like about this article is not that is blasts Linux, but Roku's implementation of it. I had considered getting one of these instead of modifying an Xbox to play media files (and yes, I've heard of the "Windows Media Center" machines, and I'm too damned cheap for that - I've decided to modify an Xbox myself and save the $).
;) ).
Anyway, the reviewer takes pains to note that the Tivo, which is also Linux based, is fast, responsive, and doesn't crash all of the time. Maybe this was a beta unit the reviewer recieved, but it seems as though the company hasn't tightened down the Roku's implementation and gone through a good QA session.
Too bad, really. I wouldn't mind finding a box that I could plug into the TV and stream my (personally, using Handbrake for OS X) XviD videos to my TV (to save wear and tear on my DVD's and keep my kids from getting thier fingerprints all over them) over my 802.11 connection.
Looks like I might as well get ready to order that Xbox and mod chip to "do it myself", since nobody in the industry seems to have a solution that does what I want yet. (Note: I know the Tivo can evidently tie into iTunes and iPhoto, but I haven't of it being able to read through a AFP or SMB share of movies and just play them. I'm willing to bet I'll see 10 responses regarding Myth or some such, so advise away - I'm holding off on the soldiering kit as long as I can
Oh, the humanity!
Actually, just the opposite - you get a trademark by filing it.
You can actually lose a trademark if it's used inappropriately and you don't defend it. Take "Xerox" - you're suppose to say "copy", but most people say "I'll just xerox this paper".
Xerox has had to go after people for saying "Hey, xerox this paper for me" in advertisements/tv shows/commercial areas, because if people use that word without Xerox's permission often enough that it becomes a "common" word, Xerox could lose their trademark.
Just because Microsoft uses a word a lot doesn't make it theirs - they have to legally file it and protect it, and make sure the word is not already in common use. Go back to the car example. For a time, a "car" meant "Ford Model T" - but that didn't mean that all use of the word "car" belonged to Ford. The word car had already been in prior popular use before hand, just as "windows" was already a programming term.
Just ask yourself this: should the word "browser" be trademarkes? Why not? After all, "everybody" associates Internet Explorer with "browser". Same principle.
I don't think I've listened to any radio but NPR (for news) for about a year now. Otherwise, I ask some of my friends what they like and give it a listen, then buy it from one of the online stores (like the iTunes store).
Otherwise, radio for me died when I turned it on, heard the same songs I had heard 12 months before played every 2 hours, turned it off for 2 months, turned it on (same songs from 2 months ago every few hours), turned it off for 4 months, and repeat.
I figure another 8 months and I'll see if anything new is playing. Till then, forget it.
Actually, that's not generic. SQL Server would be - Microsoft SQL Server would not.
The inclusion of the "Microsoft" sets it apart, and prevents, say, Oracle from publishing "Oracle Micoroft SQL Server".
"Windows" was also a computer term describing the interfaces containing a program within a GUI interface.
Because of this, trademark could be lost. It would be like somebody in 1940's calling their product "The Ford Car", and forbidding anyone else from calling their product a "car".
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Intel went through something like this when AMD and Cyrix had "486 compatible" on their labels, and Intel went to court. Judge ruled: 486 too generic, which moved Intel to start naming their processors to Pentium and the like and trade mark it so somebody couldn't claim "Pentium compatible!" without getting into trouble.
Microsoft might be facing this themselves now. Let's face it - before 1984, the computer term "windows" existed. Everybody with a GUI called their interface a "window" and a collection of them was a set of "windows". MS might very well lose the case.
Short run: they call future OS's by their names and actually release "MS Longhorn 2003", much like Apple has "OS 10.3 Panther". Lindows will be able to sell their product (in the US at least) under the Lindows name.
Long run: More lawsuits between MS at Lindows anyway. Like I'm so surprised.
I'm looking forward to fusion for a number of reasons. Yes, I'm sure there will be unforseen problems - odds are, some radioactivity will be a problem, and then you're going to want failsafe's out the ass so you don't get a "Chernobl on steriods" effect.
But this is the kind of thing that governments should be pouring tons of research into. For every politician that bitches about the Middle East and oil funding some nasty stuff ( from Iran putting a $25 million bounty on Rushdie to the US government feeling that it has to support dictatorships to get oil), fusion could fix a lot of that.
Naturally, it's no Eden idea - everything in science has a good and a bad side - but the sooner we can get this working, the better off the world will be.
Take a look at a game made by, say, the Gamecube, the Xbox, and a PC. Quick, which one looks the best?
Now, odds are you'll say "The PC". Which, at $1000 - $2000 for the hardware, that's certainly true.
For the Gamecube and the Xbox, the systems are pretty well matched. From what I've seen, the Xbox can do lighting better thanks to the shaders, while the Gamecube seems to have better anti-aliasing (take a look at Super Monkey Ball 2).
Fast forward 18 months when the Xbox 2, PS3, and Gamecube 2 come out, all with chips made by IBM, 2 of which have chips made by ATI. Now which look better?
Once we reach a point of technical ability, all of the consoles will start to look the same in graphical and processing power. So then it's going to come down to one thing:
Who has the better games?
PS2 still has the most, though I imagine most PC developers will continue the trend of "PC/Xbox" hybrids (though with the Xbox 2 it will be curious to see how possible this will still be, though XNA should help with the tranferral).
Nintendo at least is trying some new things. Using a stylus to "draw" Pac-Man on a screen, or to "shoot" in Metroid. Or using Congo drums for a Donkey Kong platform game (and, of course, the upcoming Donkey Konga itself).
Will most of these works? Probably not. There's a good chance that most people will think that playing a platform game with drums will suck donkey balls (pun intended), or that drawing on a screen won't be fun. But in an a realm where Final Fantasy XII seems to play like Final Fantasy XI only with a blond in a hoochie skirt (for Pete's sake, woman, put on some tights and have some dignity instead of letting it all hang out like you're going to walk down Prostitute Avenue), and every first person shooter looks the same, it's going to the ones that are different that will pull it out.
Personally, I'm betting that the Xbox will continue to be big on the FPS and Sports games, PS2 will rock the RPG and "everything else", while Nintendo will grab those "Games you must have or die" kind of things (Nintendo, new Mario, and of course GBA games).
I'll withhold judgement on Nintendo's innovation until I see sales rise (remember the lesson from SEGA: different doesn't always mean $$$), but if nothing else, you've got to give them credit for at least doing something different than the other guys.
You are the first Anonymous Coward I've ever seen with a good idea.
;).
(Sniff.)
That's brilliant - print out the interviews and responses to Mr. Brown's book, wander into bookstores, insert the pages, and leave. Now if anybody picks up the book, they'll have the true story and counterarguments right there for their reading pleasure - heck, they won't even have to buy the book at that point