Um... Widgets are all launched by the Dock controller process, but if you open Activity Monitor or run Top you'll see that each open Widget has its own process. You can kill them individually.
Excellent RAID reference
on
Basics of RAID
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Stopping a discussion halfway through and saying, "now, let's define our terms" is annoying as all hell. Still, I'm sure everyone has different ideas of what "innovation" is. If you just mean that it's something new, it seems like there's a lot of innovation. But a lot of it is relatively arbitrary, and certainly not "life-altering" or "revolutionary". The article uses the phrase "important technological developments"; what the hell does that mean, and who decides?!
My feeling is that much of what now passes for "innovation" in the developed world is really refinement. Faster ways of searching for information, endless new ways of distributing capital, methods of communication. Humans face two major hurdles to existence: scarce resources and disease. A true major innovation -- vaccines, mechanized agriculture -- will make one of those problems less of a burden. While it does seem like we're making good progress with modern medicine, I don't think we've made much progress with our energy, food and water supplies in recent years.
I don't want to make a straight comparison between someone who fixes technology and someone who heals people, but I think medical professionals and IT/computer professionals can be evaluated by some of the same basic questions:
1. Is the problem resolved? 2. Was the resolution as efficient as possible? 3. Will the fix make it harder to help the person/fix the device in the future? (You want a 'no' on that one:-)) 4. Did the fix put the person/users of the technology through any unnecessary hardship? (Another 'no', hopefully.)
Good support is like pornography; you know it when you see it, but it's hard to define.
In all the years of renting movies on VHS, I almost never had a playback quality problem. When I rent DVDs, I'd say about 50% have areas that my players (I have 3, none of which was a $30 special at Walmart) can't read. This ranges from losing just a few blips in a 10-second space to having to skip entire chapters.
Sometimes I can fix this by rinsing the DVD, but why the hell should I have to do that? Also, I've had several DVDs I purchased new with similar problems -- defects from the production process. I don't remember ever having to exchange a new movie I purchased on VHS.
The upshot is, there are problems with DVDs that I never had with VHS.
Re:Apple is a 2.0 or 3.0 company most of the time.
on
Apple's First Flops
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I've now seen several comments that the Lisa led to the Macintosh. That is a mischaracterization. The two machines were being developed at the same time! Check out Revolution In The Valley by Andy Hertzfeld, one of the members of the original Mac development team. It's a fun book, but it also will show you that the Lisa and Mac teams were in fact competing with each other and hardly communicated. Steve Jobs had a great deal to do with this.
It's certain that some of the same basic ideas were inspiration for both groups, but it's not like the Lisa was developed, then Apple decided to develop the Mac based on it.
It might cost only $10,000 to make an Internet-based or software-based startup. But most of the businesses in this world aren't purely Internet- or software-based. I might be an incredibly smart and creative and productive 25-year-old, but if my talents have something to do with physical engineering/manufacturing/design or [gasp] people/business management, it's not just a matter of raising a few thousand dollars and going to work.
"...the emerging movement known as intelligent design, which posits that life's complexity cannot be explained without a supernatural creator."
I was quite pleased that the article used the word "supernatural" when describing the beliefs of intelligent design advocates. We all know that their theories are really just proxies for religious faith, so it's important to specify they think a deity is involved. There are major differences between "intelligent design" and a more generic willingness to acknowledge the possibility that some other life form was involved with the beginning of life on Earth. Such an acknowledgement is merely rational science. If you don't know exactly how something happened, you must admit to a variety of possibilities. ID-ers go much further, filling in gaps with speculation and poorly-formed "logical" reasoning.
We must not let "intelligent design" advocates masquerade as anything other than the proselytizers they are. Insist on strict separation between rational scientific acknowledgement of the unknown and absurdist theories.
Activity Monitor says that's wrong. I decided not to use at least one 3rd-party widget because it was using a few % of CPU in the background. Several of the widgets showed above 0%, actually.
I never owned a video game console, so maybe it's just not enough practice. But I could never get used to the multidirectional thumb thingies on Playstation controllers. I think it has to do with something about how the thumb physically moves; when I thought "straight left", my thumb ended up pushing mostly left and somewhat forward.
The same kinda goes with my TiVo remote, though I think they designed it a little better. It's got a 4-direction button, and even if you push forward a little bit you usually get left or right as you intended.
Anyway, as long as they realize that the physical input device is just as important as the software, it's a worthy attempt.
People who won't use GarageBand much may not have noticed that by default, new tracks are created with both Echo and Reverb plugins turned on and their values set to 0. If you get errors during playback saying "too many plugins or effects" for your system, go through track by track and turn off Echo and Reverb. Even though their values are set to 0, they seem to still occupy CPU cycles.
Made the track playable on my 1 Ghz G4 iMac with 512 MB RAM.
I don't get this guy; he obviously owns current Macs, but he must not spend a lot of time using them. It is the long list of detailed little feature upgrades that make new versions of Mac OS X so great, not just the new new thing like Spotlight. It's the little things that make getting through the day and getting your work done easier. As I look down the new features list I see feature after feature that I will get real use out of. It also shows that Apple, as always, pays attention to the details. Contrast that with Windows, where after 10 years (!) the various folders in the Start menu still don't stay automatically alphabetized, so when you install something new you have to remember to scroll to the bottom of the list.
Ok, obviously not. But even though all his public statements make it seem like Lucas really takes Star Wars seriously, I wonder if really he's laughing his @$$ off as he purposely makes fans get crazy upset. It's just the sort of emotional manipulation Andy Kaufman thought was hilarious. It's not like Lucas has to worry about commercial success. People are going to see this movie no matter how awful it is, and even if it's a total flop Lucas is, shall we say, "independently wealthy".
Anyone else get the feeling he's just having a good time screwing with people?
Um, perhaps the submitter is a Scientific American "digital" subscriber, but the rest of us aren't. You think maybe Slashdot should link to full-text articles?
This is one of those situations where Apple is parting with custom. Unlike every other Mac model that's been produced Airport or Bluetooth "ready", the antennas are NOT built into the box for the standard price. The wireless upgrade kit, available only to authorized service providers, includes both the actual wireless boards and the antennas to be installed. It's a fairly obvious cost-saving measure.
I think it's fair for Apple to be on the list with the 3 Ghz claim, though they should have shared the honor with IBM. After all, Apple was just going off whatever they were told by IBM's R&D folks.
TiVos by default do not have any "quick jump" feature. You have to literally fast-forward through commercials. However, there's a widely-known code you type into the remote to turn on a 30-second instant skip feature. So when I skip commercials, I'm never fast-forwarding; I press the jump button 6 or 8 times and that's it. The whole thing takes like 3 seconds. As long as they don't remove that feature, super-anti-commercial people like me will still be happy.
You can also ask that your potential correspondents resend emails if they do not receive answers in a certain timeframe.
If the Junk Mail filter snagged a message the first time, it'll probably get it on subsequent tries too. If the message is legitimate, it probably can't be changed enough to make it through. It's a much better idea to check Junk Mail for legit messages and only empty it manually (or automatically for messages that are at least a week old).
Many in the environmental community have made this argument as a general principle: products should be designed with a local focus. For a fabulous example, think about soap/detergent. Given how much the content of available water changes around the world -- different minerals in different proportions -- wouldn't it make sense to have cleaning products that are specifically made to work best for your situation? Instead, everyone washes their clothes with Tide, and most of us have to use more of it than should be necessary because it isn't very effective in our water. This leads to a higher chemical content in the waste water, which flows back out into our environment. Ta da... pollution!
I'm pretty sure your comment was meant sarcastically, but haven't you ever heard of generic versions? Go to a supermarket, any supermarket, but especially one that's not in the wealthiest part of town. Find a brand-name product like Oreos or Fruit Loops or Tylenol or anything else lots of people know about and purchase. How many alternative versions are on the shelf, for a little bit cheaper? You probably don't recognize the names of any of those other manufacturers. Yet the stuff sells fine.
I went to the sort of school the author refers to, and I can tell you that in a lot of ways this is an excellent description of some academics. It's almost like they're caught in this trap, doing the same old things they used to do though they aren't useful anymore outside of mere mental exercise. Deconstructing ideas was phenomenally important during the last century. Forward thinkers were trying to move past rotten old ideas about race, gender, religion, etc etc etc. Figuring out the underlying fundamentals of those ideas was crucial to destroying them. Now, of course, the academy is concentrating on other things, but they go about it the same way. The kindest thing I could say about it is that it's boring.
There was an old episode of Murphy Brown where Murphy, scoffing at silly art critics, has a painting done by her toddler child entered in an art exhibit. One critic naturally finds it profound, wonderful, etc, while the other calls it amateurish garbage. The point was well made -- you can't dump everyone into a category.
Finally, regarding the author's attempt at deconstruction:
It is not generally claimed that John F. Kennedy was a homosexual. Since it is not an issue, why would anyone choose to explicitly declare that he was not a homosexual unless they wanted to make it an issue? Clearly, the reader is left with a question, a lingering doubt which had not previously been there. If the text had instead simply asked, "Was John F. Kennedy a homosexual?", the reader would simply answer, "No." and forget the matter. If it had simply declared, "John F. Kennedy was a homosexual.", it would have left the reader begging for further justification or argument to support the proposition. Phrasing it as a negative declaration, however, introduces the question in the reader's mind, exploiting society's homophobia to attack the reputation of the fallen President. What's more, the form makes it appear as if there is ongoing debate, further legitimizing the reader's entertainment of the question. Thus the text can be read as questioning the very assertion that it is making.
If you, an intelligent person who uses language carefully, heard the original statement ("John F. Kennedy was not a homosexual.") from another intelligent person who uses language carefully, wouldn't you wonder why they said it?
Those who would like an extended treatise on this subject should try reading "Fixing Elections" by Steven Hill. The writing is seriously in need of a good editor, but his points are good. It's an analysis of how well the results of American elections actually reflect the will of the voters.
Most Americans have never imagined running elections any other way, but the book will introduce you to alternative methods of balloting, multi-round elections, and the idea that voting districts as we know them might be totally superfluous.
There is an implicit agreement between publishers and readers.
I disagree. I think putting a non-paid-membership website out for all to see is more like a musician playing on a downtown sidewalk with a box at his feet for donations. Yes, it's definitely polite -- even civil -- to return his favor of entertainment with some sort of payment or reimbursement. But to call it an issue of a contract of some kind is really taking it too far.
You're absolutely right that professionally-produced sites won't survive without this source of revenue. But other posters have done a fine job of pointing out the market issues there (free riders, etc).
Slashdot Mirror
Um... Widgets are all launched by the Dock controller process, but if you open Activity Monitor or run Top you'll see that each open Widget has its own process. You can kill them individually.
There's an excellent guide to RAID levels (with pretty diagrams and such) at http://www.acnc.com/raid.html
Stopping a discussion halfway through and saying, "now, let's define our terms" is annoying as all hell. Still, I'm sure everyone has different ideas of what "innovation" is. If you just mean that it's something new, it seems like there's a lot of innovation. But a lot of it is relatively arbitrary, and certainly not "life-altering" or "revolutionary". The article uses the phrase "important technological developments"; what the hell does that mean, and who decides?!
My feeling is that much of what now passes for "innovation" in the developed world is really refinement. Faster ways of searching for information, endless new ways of distributing capital, methods of communication. Humans face two major hurdles to existence: scarce resources and disease. A true major innovation -- vaccines, mechanized agriculture -- will make one of those problems less of a burden. While it does seem like we're making good progress with modern medicine, I don't think we've made much progress with our energy, food and water supplies in recent years.
I don't want to make a straight comparison between someone who fixes technology and someone who heals people, but I think medical professionals and IT/computer professionals can be evaluated by some of the same basic questions:
:-))
1. Is the problem resolved?
2. Was the resolution as efficient as possible?
3. Will the fix make it harder to help the person/fix the device in the future? (You want a 'no' on that one
4. Did the fix put the person/users of the technology through any unnecessary hardship? (Another 'no', hopefully.)
Good support is like pornography; you know it when you see it, but it's hard to define.
In all the years of renting movies on VHS, I almost never had a playback quality problem. When I rent DVDs, I'd say about 50% have areas that my players (I have 3, none of which was a $30 special at Walmart) can't read. This ranges from losing just a few blips in a 10-second space to having to skip entire chapters. Sometimes I can fix this by rinsing the DVD, but why the hell should I have to do that? Also, I've had several DVDs I purchased new with similar problems -- defects from the production process. I don't remember ever having to exchange a new movie I purchased on VHS. The upshot is, there are problems with DVDs that I never had with VHS.
AT&T Wireless did this a year ago. See http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/340/C2723/ for a typical summary
I've now seen several comments that the Lisa led to the Macintosh. That is a mischaracterization. The two machines were being developed at the same time! Check out Revolution In The Valley by Andy Hertzfeld, one of the members of the original Mac development team. It's a fun book, but it also will show you that the Lisa and Mac teams were in fact competing with each other and hardly communicated. Steve Jobs had a great deal to do with this. It's certain that some of the same basic ideas were inspiration for both groups, but it's not like the Lisa was developed, then Apple decided to develop the Mac based on it.
It might cost only $10,000 to make an Internet-based or software-based startup. But most of the businesses in this world aren't purely Internet- or software-based. I might be an incredibly smart and creative and productive 25-year-old, but if my talents have something to do with physical engineering/manufacturing/design or [gasp] people/business management, it's not just a matter of raising a few thousand dollars and going to work.
I was quite pleased that the article used the word "supernatural" when describing the beliefs of intelligent design advocates. We all know that their theories are really just proxies for religious faith, so it's important to specify they think a deity is involved. There are major differences between "intelligent design" and a more generic willingness to acknowledge the possibility that some other life form was involved with the beginning of life on Earth. Such an acknowledgement is merely rational science. If you don't know exactly how something happened, you must admit to a variety of possibilities. ID-ers go much further, filling in gaps with speculation and poorly-formed "logical" reasoning.
We must not let "intelligent design" advocates masquerade as anything other than the proselytizers they are. Insist on strict separation between rational scientific acknowledgement of the unknown and absurdist theories.
Activity Monitor says that's wrong. I decided not to use at least one 3rd-party widget because it was using a few % of CPU in the background. Several of the widgets showed above 0%, actually.
I never owned a video game console, so maybe it's just not enough practice. But I could never get used to the multidirectional thumb thingies on Playstation controllers. I think it has to do with something about how the thumb physically moves; when I thought "straight left", my thumb ended up pushing mostly left and somewhat forward. The same kinda goes with my TiVo remote, though I think they designed it a little better. It's got a 4-direction button, and even if you push forward a little bit you usually get left or right as you intended. Anyway, as long as they realize that the physical input device is just as important as the software, it's a worthy attempt.
People who won't use GarageBand much may not have noticed that by default, new tracks are created with both Echo and Reverb plugins turned on and their values set to 0. If you get errors during playback saying "too many plugins or effects" for your system, go through track by track and turn off Echo and Reverb. Even though their values are set to 0, they seem to still occupy CPU cycles. Made the track playable on my 1 Ghz G4 iMac with 512 MB RAM.
I don't get this guy; he obviously owns current Macs, but he must not spend a lot of time using them. It is the long list of detailed little feature upgrades that make new versions of Mac OS X so great, not just the new new thing like Spotlight. It's the little things that make getting through the day and getting your work done easier. As I look down the new features list I see feature after feature that I will get real use out of. It also shows that Apple, as always, pays attention to the details. Contrast that with Windows, where after 10 years (!) the various folders in the Start menu still don't stay automatically alphabetized, so when you install something new you have to remember to scroll to the bottom of the list.
Ok, obviously not. But even though all his public statements make it seem like Lucas really takes Star Wars seriously, I wonder if really he's laughing his @$$ off as he purposely makes fans get crazy upset. It's just the sort of emotional manipulation Andy Kaufman thought was hilarious. It's not like Lucas has to worry about commercial success. People are going to see this movie no matter how awful it is, and even if it's a total flop Lucas is, shall we say, "independently wealthy". Anyone else get the feeling he's just having a good time screwing with people?
Um, perhaps the submitter is a Scientific American "digital" subscriber, but the rest of us aren't. You think maybe Slashdot should link to full-text articles?
This is one of those situations where Apple is parting with custom. Unlike every other Mac model that's been produced Airport or Bluetooth "ready", the antennas are NOT built into the box for the standard price. The wireless upgrade kit, available only to authorized service providers, includes both the actual wireless boards and the antennas to be installed. It's a fairly obvious cost-saving measure.
I think it's fair for Apple to be on the list with the 3 Ghz claim, though they should have shared the honor with IBM. After all, Apple was just going off whatever they were told by IBM's R&D folks.
TiVos by default do not have any "quick jump" feature. You have to literally fast-forward through commercials. However, there's a widely-known code you type into the remote to turn on a 30-second instant skip feature. So when I skip commercials, I'm never fast-forwarding; I press the jump button 6 or 8 times and that's it. The whole thing takes like 3 seconds. As long as they don't remove that feature, super-anti-commercial people like me will still be happy.
Fact is stranger than fiction: Amazon Presidential Candidates page
If the Junk Mail filter snagged a message the first time, it'll probably get it on subsequent tries too. If the message is legitimate, it probably can't be changed enough to make it through. It's a much better idea to check Junk Mail for legit messages and only empty it manually (or automatically for messages that are at least a week old).
Many in the environmental community have made this argument as a general principle: products should be designed with a local focus. For a fabulous example, think about soap/detergent. Given how much the content of available water changes around the world -- different minerals in different proportions -- wouldn't it make sense to have cleaning products that are specifically made to work best for your situation? Instead, everyone washes their clothes with Tide, and most of us have to use more of it than should be necessary because it isn't very effective in our water. This leads to a higher chemical content in the waste water, which flows back out into our environment. Ta da... pollution!
I'm pretty sure your comment was meant sarcastically, but haven't you ever heard of generic versions? Go to a supermarket, any supermarket, but especially one that's not in the wealthiest part of town. Find a brand-name product like Oreos or Fruit Loops or Tylenol or anything else lots of people know about and purchase. How many alternative versions are on the shelf, for a little bit cheaper? You probably don't recognize the names of any of those other manufacturers. Yet the stuff sells fine.
There was an old episode of Murphy Brown where Murphy, scoffing at silly art critics, has a painting done by her toddler child entered in an art exhibit. One critic naturally finds it profound, wonderful, etc, while the other calls it amateurish garbage. The point was well made -- you can't dump everyone into a category.
Finally, regarding the author's attempt at deconstruction:
If you, an intelligent person who uses language carefully, heard the original statement ("John F. Kennedy was not a homosexual.") from another intelligent person who uses language carefully, wouldn't you wonder why they said it?Most Americans have never imagined running elections any other way, but the book will introduce you to alternative methods of balloting, multi-round elections, and the idea that voting districts as we know them might be totally superfluous.
Link to the book on Amazon
I disagree. I think putting a non-paid-membership website out for all to see is more like a musician playing on a downtown sidewalk with a box at his feet for donations. Yes, it's definitely polite -- even civil -- to return his favor of entertainment with some sort of payment or reimbursement. But to call it an issue of a contract of some kind is really taking it too far.
You're absolutely right that professionally-produced sites won't survive without this source of revenue. But other posters have done a fine job of pointing out the market issues there (free riders, etc).