The $300 "XBox 360" is crippled. The lack of a hard drive is pathetic, especially for the console that launched with a hard drive and was the reason Sony put one in the PS3. The lack of the drive also kills backwards compatibility.
The $500 PS3 is crippled. You want to play your games in 1080p like they've been promising? They promised me DUAL 1080p which is now dropped. But if I want to play in 1080p I need a HDMI out and guess what is missing from the $500 version. You want to save your data on memory cards? The PS3 has a 612-in-one memory card reader... unless you don't pay $600.
I was iffy on buying a PS3 when I expected it at $400. There is no way I'm paying $500 for a crippled console.
The console that does (most) of what they promised me a PS3 would do costs $600.
I'm happy with the 'Cube. I've asked before and I don't remember getting any responses. Did the graphics of Super Smash Brothers Melee hurt the experience at all? Did you think Resident Evil 4 didn't look like about the best game on the market? Was Metroid Prime 2: Echos ugly?
The 'Cube had great graphics. It had all I need.
But if they are going to improve it, that's fine by me. Add full-screen anti-aliasing for every game you've fixed the only graphical complaint that I've had in the last generation (this especially applies to you PS2). If on top of that you have the ability to double poly counts or draw distance or something like that then good.
Even if your graphics are "bad" they can be hidden by making them stylized. I've heard the main reason Katamari Damacy (great game, awful controls) looks the way it does is because even if they wanted to make it look less blocky the PS2 wouldn't be able to handle it. Yet no one really cared. The only possible complaint would be the aliasing issue.
The cube's graphics were great. If the changes they made will make it easier for other developers to make RE4 quality games than I'm VERY happy. I don't need anything else, at least not this generation. Other than the AA, I'm not sure how much more would be noticeable on my TV (27" SD).
I'd rather have people focus on other issues that bug me like foot-planting. It's 2006, why can't more games foot-plant? How annoying is it to have all these ultra-high poly models in beautiful surroundings and their feet slide around when they walk or get pushed? Same with air that cuts through shoulders when someone turns their head.
The rumored on-board physics co-processor on the Wii (said to have 32MB of RAM) would help with this.
Yeah, but what was the difference between the two? The PS2 and XBox both launched at $300. The 'Cube launched at $200. So you had a $100 price difference. I can see why people would be able to justify spending that extra cash (especially with the backwards compatibly in the PS2 and the DVD player in the PS2 and XBox). $200 and $300 are rather similar.
But now we are talking about $200, $400, and $600. The first two (Wii and 360) are already pretty different. But when you put a Wii ($200) up against a PS3 ($600) you have to ask yourself: is that PS3 REALLY going to be 3x as fun? Do you need it now or can you wait until it hits $400 or buy it used?
That $400 is a BIG difference.
As others have pointed out, launching $300-$400 above you competition has historically not been a very smart move.
It's great that Core 2 Duo (dumb name) will be as fast as/faster than AMD (grains of salt and all) but it's really about time Intel did this.
The Core 2 Duo chips are all x86-64 (or ia32e as Intel calls it). I can't believe that it has taken them so long to do this for (what will be) their main consumer line.
One of the things I did't like about the MacBook Pro (and that helped me decide to stick with my 1.67 GHz PB G4) was the Core Duo. I know was much faster than what I had, but I don't want to buy a new laptop just to have it be 32 bit and obsolete (as far as I'm concerned). I wanted a laptop that would last me years. I wanted something with a 64 Bit processor.
There are other little things, like the reports of how noisy they are (relative to my PowerBook) worry me some. I think Intel still has a massive heat issue.
But really. It's about time Intel started shipping 64-bit processors to everyone. I think that is the important thing here. After all, if they could find a way to clock a P4 to 6 GHz it may cream AMD but it could still be 32 bit (depeding).
You have to PAY to get a LWN subscription. I'm not talking about a general login, I'm talking about a PAYING account. Unless someone PAID and then put the login up on BugMeNot, that won't work.
SECOND, how kind of you to encourage people to steal from such a great website. LWN is the only one I subscribe to because I like them so much. They aren't a "pay us or you won't see anything" site (like most science journals). They aren't a "pay us and we won't put large flash ads between each page" site (their only ad is a Google ad on the left side). They simply let subscribers see content a week before the general public.
They are nice guys and do excellent work. I've been supporting them because I don't want to see them die.
Maybe you should spend more than $300 on your next computer, you don't seem to be able to type straight.
If you were to follow the project (or just think about it for a few minutes) then you would realize the point of this thing. There is no Windows requirement. It doesn't have tons of moving parts (like a hard drive) or generate tons of heat (which requires a fan to cool) or have a 1 1/2 hour battery life. It is designed to be RUGGED, last a LONG TIME, and be VERY energy efficient.
A $300 laptop you buy at Best Buy won't fit those criteria. It will break down easy. It will suck energy. You won't be able to run it by powering it with a foot pedal, it will need too much energy. It won't run well in sub-Saharan Africa due to the heat and the dust and sand and whatever. It doesn't weight just a little bit, it weighs 6-8 pounds. It doesn't have a easy cary handle.
Yep, that $300 laptop you talk about would easily work.
But it's still important to test those kind of things. A user MAY do that. Apple used to have a way of testing things that was rather ingenious. They used it to get rid of the bugs in the original Mac OS. Check out the story at Folklore.org.
LWN just did a piece on a lock validator that just went into the kernel. The article is currently subscriber only and won't be visible to non-subscribers until next Tuesday, IIRC.
It was a very interesting piece. It talked about the problems of locking (more locks makes deadlocks easier, but they get harder to track down) and the way the code went about finding problems. Basically it remember when any lock was taken or released, which locks were open before that, etc. Through this it can produce warnings. For example if lock B needs lock A, but there is a situation where lock B is taken without A being taken it will flag that.
The article has MUCH better descriptions. But through the use of this the software can find locking bugs that may not be triggered on a normal system under normal loads. Here is summary bit:
"So, even though a particular deadlock might only happen as the result of unfortunate timing caused by a specific combination of strange hardware, a rare set of configuration options, 220V power, a slightly flaky video controller, Mars transiting through Leo, an old version of gcc, an application which severely stresses the system (yum, say), and an especially bad Darl McBride hair day, the validator has a good chance of catching it. So this code should result in a whole class of bugs being eliminated from the kernel code base; that can only be a good thing."
It was a piece of code from Ingo Molnar, you should be able to find it on the kernel mailing-list and read about it.
It did occur to me that Fox was trying not to get into a discussion about the Mexican government because of political problems for his part (he can't be re-elected due to a 6 year term limit, right?).
I agree the US needs the work force. As much as I like the idea of kicking out every illegal immigrant (because they broke the law) I also know it is not at all workable.
As for the issue of what illegal immigrants to Mexico do I'd never heard that before. I'd only heard a short mention about what happens to them though.
Too bad that from what I hear the Senate proposal (backed taxes, English, etc) is in deep trouble. From what I hear that would be considered passing a tax which the Senate can't do, only the house. So unless they can find a way around it (like getting the house to draw up and pass the tax part) this may go another round longer that it was already looking like.
was switch to Intel. The G5s were nice processors, but the 1.67 GHz G4 in my PowerBook just can't compete with the 3 GHz processors you could get in Wintel laptops at the same time. A 2.5 GHz G5 doesn't compete well against a 3.2 GHz dual core Index or AMD.
Apple's CPUs just weren't up to snuff. Now they are. Next up, graphics cards. I've heard the Mac versions are often terribly slow (mostly from arriving 1+ year after the PC part) for the desktops. The chip in my PowerBook was nice, but it was no screamer either. They also need to fix the integrated graphics issue (which is partially Intel's fault. Who makes a non-T&L chip in 2006?).
I don't think it would help you learn to touch type, I think it would hurt. The only part I think it would help is after you have learned the key locations and to touch type but you look at your fingers because you don't "trust" yourself yet. Back in school I remember seeing many kids get to this stage in typing class. Many don't get past it. They just don't type enough to get over that hurdle. Something like this would help them.
That said, it's easier to just cheat. Why is IM so full of "LOLs" and "U R so cool. C U l8r."? Mostly it's because people either can't type at all or are not very vast so they take those kind of shortcuts.
That's true. But when you go poking around in there you have a MUCH higher chance of hitting an artery, a very important organ, etc. When you just put it under the surface of the skin on the arm, there isn't that much to watch out for that's important.
Interesting take. I think you point about people removing the chips is an excellent one. If having a chip identifies you as a previous sneak-in, then why not just remove it? If you are willing to run through a border and a desert to get into the US, you may be willing to do that too. About the only solution would be to put it where it can't be easily removed (like in someone's pelvis) but that would be a major operation compared to the quick prick putting it in their arm would be.
About the only Mexican side of this debate you hear on US TV is from the illegal immigrants already hear and people on the other side of the border (the Mexican side) who are worried it will become harder to cross.
That said, you have presented an opportunity that I can't pass up to ask you a question. What do you think about the Mexican government's role in this immigration debate? Specifically it seems to me they are the problem. We don't have Canadians flooding into the country because Canada is very good shape.
From everything I've heard Mexico has some serious problems in this area. My understanding is that 10% of Mexican citizens are living in the US (either legally or not). 12% of the Mexican work force is working in the US (again, legally or not). I have heard estimations that if flow of money from workers and families in the US to their relatives back home in Mexico were to be stopped, the Mexican economy would collapse. According to the figures I can find the underemployment/unemployment rate in Mexico is as high as 25%.
Do Mexicans blame their government for all this? Is there anything of a movement to get it fixed, or is it just easier to try to get the US government to help by taking on people?
Of course, Bush can't say any of this because we have to try to keep relations with Mexico good. Why the media doesn't mention this more would surprise me if I didn't think them all so crooked.
What do you think of the "Pay backed taxes, a fine, and prove you know English and you can become a citizen" proposal? Obviously that is somewhat simplified.
My last question is, does the issue of illegal immigration strike you as ironic at all? There are so many people (and groups, which I don't understand) that are pushing for (illegal) immigrant rights in the US and saying they should be treated like citizens. But illegal immigrants into Mexico from South and Central America face robbing, beatings, rapes, and other terrible fates from Mexican officials if they are caught. Mexico is not kind to those who sneak in, yet the President of the country is asking the US to be kind to those who sneak in. Is that issue raised at all in the Mexican media?
I don't mean to offend you, I've never heard answers to these questions and I am genuinely curious. I'll be glad to answer anything I can for you with my opinions.
I saw this yesterday and laughed it off. I don't think it will end up happening. After all, this is proposed by a company that stands to gain HUGE amounts of money from it.
That said, I don't think this should be enacted for immigrants. This is a REALLY stupid idea and the slope is very slippery.
That said, I take offense at this: "If this type of tracking is enacted, how long before the government decides to start tracking others for various purposes (for example, pedophiles who are released from prison)?" If you are going to make a "who's next" argument then do it again a group that is more reasonable like parolees. That would harm (relatively) innocent people who just made one mistake and might be turning their lives around. Or maybe dead-beat dads. Or people with too many unpaid parking tickets.
Then there are pedophiles. They lose their rights. I would support a mandatory death penalty upon conviction. There are already at least 4 or 5 states that have a death penalty option for repeat sex offenders. I don't care if we chip 'em, it'd be a good idea. Public hangings would be a good idea. Pedophiles deserve no remorse, they tore that card up when they harmed a child.
I think this idea is stupid, I'd vote against it in a heartbeat. But don't minimize the horror of pedophiles. If there was a group that we could legally test this kind of stuff on, they would be good candidates.
Chernobyl was caused by running a stupid experiment on a live reactor with all the safety systems turned off. I don't know how safe the reactor was in general operation, but it didn't just "blow up" one day.
I know exactly what I was doing. It was a Dell Inspiron 8000. I knew I would have to adjust the font size (in fact, it came pre adjusted).
But that's beside the point. I should be able to use a 14" display with a 2000x1500 resolution. Components should not be sized based on pixels. They need to be done in some device independent way.
That really bugged me when I was on Windows. I don't know how well Apple handles it. If I was still on Windows and that was truly fixed, I would upgrade in a heartbeat just for that.
I agree about the other things. They are mainly eye-candy and hand-holding security that I don't need personally. The widgets are just like OS X. They are interesting, but I have no real use for them on my laptop. In fact, they tend to such up RAM and CPU so I don't use them at all. I hope they fix that in Leopard. I could see them being much more useful if I had a desktop or a second monitor. On my laptop, it's just not worth it.
I agree with your point about decent bits being overlooked. This would be a MAJOR feature. There are so many gaming sites that talk about running games in 1600x1200 on their 17" monitors. If those people do that with the Windows desktop either they are going to go blind or they have their font sizes adjusted and run into the same problems. But I've yet to see it mentioned. It's always "Vista will have this new alt-tab thing that looks different but functions exactly the same" or "Vista will have these fun little Widgets that OS X has had for a year and were available for at least one year longer with 3rd party software" or "Vista will be secure".
Most of these "Vista is the second coming" articles I've seen don't even mention the search or other real things. If it isn't a GUI change that looks neat, it doesn't get covered.
I swear. MS could port their GUI over to Linux and ship it and no one would talk about it as long as they made sure to make every Window slightly 3D (using DirectX) and use vertex shaders to make the window borders have ripples that moved or some other major but distracting and pointless show of eye candy.
Nothing like getting to a desktop, then double clicking on an application or IE or something and waiting another minute and a half while Windows finishes loading before the app shows up and starts working.
When I see my Mac desktop, it's ready to go. It still loads a few things, but the apps come up.
I know they did that to fix the "Windows takes to long to boot" problem by loading "unnecessary" things after the interface is displayed. Want to know how well that works? My parrents, the very users who were annoyed by how long it took to load Windows, are now more annoyed. When the computer turns on and they click an icon, it doesn't open. So they do it again. And again. And again. When the application (IE for example) comes up, they have 6 windows.
It's like having the computer lock-up for 30 to 90 seconds every time I boot it up.
I've learned the secret. Turn the computer on and wait until the hard drive stops doing stuff. When that happens, Windows is ready to do actual work.
I bought a laptop with a high-resolution screen which I paid extra for because I wanted a high-resolution screen, and you're solution to "Windows doesn't work right" is to forget about that extra I paid and run my laptop at a ugly and sub-optimal resolution?
Ahh, the Windows attitude. If it doesn't work right, it's because the user is an idiot.
Thanks for the post. I'm still waiting for a good reason why Windows Vista needs 12 GB of disk space to install (not including the maybe 1 or 2 gigs for a swap and suspend file).
In all I've read I still haven't learned about many things that would have interested me more. Have they fixed it so programs are automatically categorized on the Start Menu (applications/games/utilities/etc?). I heard something about a games area, but what about the rest? Can program still install shortcuts on my desktop, quick-launch bar, and put an icon in my system tray so easily? Is there some way of managing the stuff that ends up in my system tray (like those little utilities that aren't in the start menu and are a pain to get rid of)?
Many of his complaints are stupid though. It takes too long to install. So? What else is new? Windows is like that now. It doesn't matter that much. There aren't enough Widgets? It's a beta. How many Widgets were there for OS X when it launched? About the same number, that is those supplied by the OS vender.
Vista may be better in many ways than XP/2000 for end users. But the OS they are delivering would have been good a few years ago. Now it just seems dated and bloated. The requirements are through the roof. If OS X can do it with lower requirements last year, then MS should be able to do the same thing.
It's strange. Even reading the articles about how great Vista will be (and we've all seen tons of those) just make me feel better about jumping ship to OS X. Vista has shown me just how bad journalism is in most of the PC industry. There is nothing like a terribly delayed OS that had some of it's best features cut (WinFS) being called the best thing in years and an end to all PC user's problems to prove how much of a shill magazines are.
But then again comparing Tiger when it was released to MS's feature list of what Vista was supposed to have when it was released 2 years later and using that to draw the conclusion "Tiger is nice but just wait for Vista" was an obvious sign too.
I wonder if it will fix one of my biggest complaints. I had a laptop with a 14" screen and a 1400x1050 resolution. To be able to read anything I had to up the font sizes. The text looked great, but many programs/websites/parts of Windows just looked odd or didn't render right because they expected font sizes to be a specific way.
Does Vista do anything to remedy this?
It doesn't matter. I went Mac last year and I'm quite happy. I can't wait for Leopard, although I have to issues with Tiger. First is the little pop-ups for when I press the volume keys on my laptop went from instant in 10.3.x to a "long" 1/2 second delay under Tiger. That and the little live dock preview (like when you minimize a movie and it keeps playing) seems to have stopped for some reason too. I wish I could fix that.
Very minor issues though. I do want to play with Vista some and I imagine I will one day when I help someone fix their computer, but I don't see how they'd get me back. Even if they had the full Unix shell (my FAVORITE feature of OS X) I am just so happy with my Mac.
Now if I could only read the article. I got to see 3 things slowly, then the server died.
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The XBox 360 costs $400.
Those are facts.
The $300 "XBox 360" is crippled. The lack of a hard drive is pathetic, especially for the console that launched with a hard drive and was the reason Sony put one in the PS3. The lack of the drive also kills backwards compatibility.
The $500 PS3 is crippled. You want to play your games in 1080p like they've been promising? They promised me DUAL 1080p which is now dropped. But if I want to play in 1080p I need a HDMI out and guess what is missing from the $500 version. You want to save your data on memory cards? The PS3 has a 612-in-one memory card reader... unless you don't pay $600.
I was iffy on buying a PS3 when I expected it at $400. There is no way I'm paying $500 for a crippled console.
The console that does (most) of what they promised me a PS3 would do costs $600.
I'm happy with the 'Cube. I've asked before and I don't remember getting any responses. Did the graphics of Super Smash Brothers Melee hurt the experience at all? Did you think Resident Evil 4 didn't look like about the best game on the market? Was Metroid Prime 2: Echos ugly?
The 'Cube had great graphics. It had all I need.
But if they are going to improve it, that's fine by me. Add full-screen anti-aliasing for every game you've fixed the only graphical complaint that I've had in the last generation (this especially applies to you PS2). If on top of that you have the ability to double poly counts or draw distance or something like that then good.
Even if your graphics are "bad" they can be hidden by making them stylized. I've heard the main reason Katamari Damacy (great game, awful controls) looks the way it does is because even if they wanted to make it look less blocky the PS2 wouldn't be able to handle it. Yet no one really cared. The only possible complaint would be the aliasing issue.
The cube's graphics were great. If the changes they made will make it easier for other developers to make RE4 quality games than I'm VERY happy. I don't need anything else, at least not this generation. Other than the AA, I'm not sure how much more would be noticeable on my TV (27" SD).
I'd rather have people focus on other issues that bug me like foot-planting. It's 2006, why can't more games foot-plant? How annoying is it to have all these ultra-high poly models in beautiful surroundings and their feet slide around when they walk or get pushed? Same with air that cuts through shoulders when someone turns their head.
The rumored on-board physics co-processor on the Wii (said to have 32MB of RAM) would help with this.
But now we are talking about $200, $400, and $600. The first two (Wii and 360) are already pretty different. But when you put a Wii ($200) up against a PS3 ($600) you have to ask yourself: is that PS3 REALLY going to be 3x as fun? Do you need it now or can you wait until it hits $400 or buy it used?
That $400 is a BIG difference.
As others have pointed out, launching $300-$400 above you competition has historically not been a very smart move.
The Core 2 Duo chips are all x86-64 (or ia32e as Intel calls it). I can't believe that it has taken them so long to do this for (what will be) their main consumer line.
One of the things I did't like about the MacBook Pro (and that helped me decide to stick with my 1.67 GHz PB G4) was the Core Duo. I know was much faster than what I had, but I don't want to buy a new laptop just to have it be 32 bit and obsolete (as far as I'm concerned). I wanted a laptop that would last me years. I wanted something with a 64 Bit processor.
There are other little things, like the reports of how noisy they are (relative to my PowerBook) worry me some. I think Intel still has a massive heat issue.
But really. It's about time Intel started shipping 64-bit processors to everyone. I think that is the important thing here. After all, if they could find a way to clock a P4 to 6 GHz it may cream AMD but it could still be 32 bit (depeding).
It's a real subscriber account. It's the HP group account.
Please, DON'T use that login. Support LWN.
I've reported the link to both BugMeNot and LWN.
SECOND, how kind of you to encourage people to steal from such a great website. LWN is the only one I subscribe to because I like them so much. They aren't a "pay us or you won't see anything" site (like most science journals). They aren't a "pay us and we won't put large flash ads between each page" site (their only ad is a Google ad on the left side). They simply let subscribers see content a week before the general public.
They are nice guys and do excellent work. I've been supporting them because I don't want to see them die.
Thanks for spitting on that.
If you were to follow the project (or just think about it for a few minutes) then you would realize the point of this thing. There is no Windows requirement. It doesn't have tons of moving parts (like a hard drive) or generate tons of heat (which requires a fan to cool) or have a 1 1/2 hour battery life. It is designed to be RUGGED, last a LONG TIME, and be VERY energy efficient.
A $300 laptop you buy at Best Buy won't fit those criteria. It will break down easy. It will suck energy. You won't be able to run it by powering it with a foot pedal, it will need too much energy. It won't run well in sub-Saharan Africa due to the heat and the dust and sand and whatever. It doesn't weight just a little bit, it weighs 6-8 pounds. It doesn't have a easy cary handle.
Yep, that $300 laptop you talk about would easily work.
But it's still important to test those kind of things. A user MAY do that. Apple used to have a way of testing things that was rather ingenious. They used it to get rid of the bugs in the original Mac OS. Check out the story at Folklore.org.
It was a very interesting piece. It talked about the problems of locking (more locks makes deadlocks easier, but they get harder to track down) and the way the code went about finding problems. Basically it remember when any lock was taken or released, which locks were open before that, etc. Through this it can produce warnings. For example if lock B needs lock A, but there is a situation where lock B is taken without A being taken it will flag that.
The article has MUCH better descriptions. But through the use of this the software can find locking bugs that may not be triggered on a normal system under normal loads. Here is summary bit:
"So, even though a particular deadlock might only happen as the result of unfortunate timing caused by a specific combination of strange hardware, a rare set of configuration options, 220V power, a slightly flaky video controller, Mars transiting through Leo, an old version of gcc, an application which severely stresses the system (yum, say), and an especially bad Darl McBride hair day, the validator has a good chance of catching it. So this code should result in a whole class of bugs being eliminated from the kernel code base; that can only be a good thing."
It was a piece of code from Ingo Molnar, you should be able to find it on the kernel mailing-list and read about it.
Kudos, by the way, to LWN for the great article.
I agree the US needs the work force. As much as I like the idea of kicking out every illegal immigrant (because they broke the law) I also know it is not at all workable.
As for the issue of what illegal immigrants to Mexico do I'd never heard that before. I'd only heard a short mention about what happens to them though.
Too bad that from what I hear the Senate proposal (backed taxes, English, etc) is in deep trouble. From what I hear that would be considered passing a tax which the Senate can't do, only the house. So unless they can find a way around it (like getting the house to draw up and pass the tax part) this may go another round longer that it was already looking like.
Apple's CPUs just weren't up to snuff. Now they are. Next up, graphics cards. I've heard the Mac versions are often terribly slow (mostly from arriving 1+ year after the PC part) for the desktops. The chip in my PowerBook was nice, but it was no screamer either. They also need to fix the integrated graphics issue (which is partially Intel's fault. Who makes a non-T&L chip in 2006?).
That said, it's easier to just cheat. Why is IM so full of "LOLs" and "U R so cool. C U l8r."? Mostly it's because people either can't type at all or are not very vast so they take those kind of shortcuts.
That's true. But when you go poking around in there you have a MUCH higher chance of hitting an artery, a very important organ, etc. When you just put it under the surface of the skin on the arm, there isn't that much to watch out for that's important.
About the only Mexican side of this debate you hear on US TV is from the illegal immigrants already hear and people on the other side of the border (the Mexican side) who are worried it will become harder to cross.
That said, you have presented an opportunity that I can't pass up to ask you a question. What do you think about the Mexican government's role in this immigration debate? Specifically it seems to me they are the problem. We don't have Canadians flooding into the country because Canada is very good shape.
From everything I've heard Mexico has some serious problems in this area. My understanding is that 10% of Mexican citizens are living in the US (either legally or not). 12% of the Mexican work force is working in the US (again, legally or not). I have heard estimations that if flow of money from workers and families in the US to their relatives back home in Mexico were to be stopped, the Mexican economy would collapse. According to the figures I can find the underemployment/unemployment rate in Mexico is as high as 25%.
Do Mexicans blame their government for all this? Is there anything of a movement to get it fixed, or is it just easier to try to get the US government to help by taking on people?
Of course, Bush can't say any of this because we have to try to keep relations with Mexico good. Why the media doesn't mention this more would surprise me if I didn't think them all so crooked.
What do you think of the "Pay backed taxes, a fine, and prove you know English and you can become a citizen" proposal? Obviously that is somewhat simplified.
My last question is, does the issue of illegal immigration strike you as ironic at all? There are so many people (and groups, which I don't understand) that are pushing for (illegal) immigrant rights in the US and saying they should be treated like citizens. But illegal immigrants into Mexico from South and Central America face robbing, beatings, rapes, and other terrible fates from Mexican officials if they are caught. Mexico is not kind to those who sneak in, yet the President of the country is asking the US to be kind to those who sneak in. Is that issue raised at all in the Mexican media?
I don't mean to offend you, I've never heard answers to these questions and I am genuinely curious. I'll be glad to answer anything I can for you with my opinions.
That said, I don't think this should be enacted for immigrants. This is a REALLY stupid idea and the slope is very slippery.
That said, I take offense at this: "If this type of tracking is enacted, how long before the government decides to start tracking others for various purposes (for example, pedophiles who are released from prison)?" If you are going to make a "who's next" argument then do it again a group that is more reasonable like parolees. That would harm (relatively) innocent people who just made one mistake and might be turning their lives around. Or maybe dead-beat dads. Or people with too many unpaid parking tickets.
Then there are pedophiles. They lose their rights. I would support a mandatory death penalty upon conviction. There are already at least 4 or 5 states that have a death penalty option for repeat sex offenders. I don't care if we chip 'em, it'd be a good idea. Public hangings would be a good idea. Pedophiles deserve no remorse, they tore that card up when they harmed a child.
I think this idea is stupid, I'd vote against it in a heartbeat. But don't minimize the horror of pedophiles. If there was a group that we could legally test this kind of stuff on, they would be good candidates.
And really, the humor section? I know being killed by a flood of molasses is novel, how is having a walkway full of people falling on your head funny?
Chernobyl was caused by running a stupid experiment on a live reactor with all the safety systems turned off. I don't know how safe the reactor was in general operation, but it didn't just "blow up" one day.
And for the record, that's not wide screen, it's 4:3 standard aspect ratio.
But that's beside the point. I should be able to use a 14" display with a 2000x1500 resolution. Components should not be sized based on pixels. They need to be done in some device independent way.
I agree about the other things. They are mainly eye-candy and hand-holding security that I don't need personally. The widgets are just like OS X. They are interesting, but I have no real use for them on my laptop. In fact, they tend to such up RAM and CPU so I don't use them at all. I hope they fix that in Leopard. I could see them being much more useful if I had a desktop or a second monitor. On my laptop, it's just not worth it.
I agree with your point about decent bits being overlooked. This would be a MAJOR feature. There are so many gaming sites that talk about running games in 1600x1200 on their 17" monitors. If those people do that with the Windows desktop either they are going to go blind or they have their font sizes adjusted and run into the same problems. But I've yet to see it mentioned. It's always "Vista will have this new alt-tab thing that looks different but functions exactly the same" or "Vista will have these fun little Widgets that OS X has had for a year and were available for at least one year longer with 3rd party software" or "Vista will be secure".
Most of these "Vista is the second coming" articles I've seen don't even mention the search or other real things. If it isn't a GUI change that looks neat, it doesn't get covered.
I swear. MS could port their GUI over to Linux and ship it and no one would talk about it as long as they made sure to make every Window slightly 3D (using DirectX) and use vertex shaders to make the window borders have ripples that moved or some other major but distracting and pointless show of eye candy.
Nothing like getting to a desktop, then double clicking on an application or IE or something and waiting another minute and a half while Windows finishes loading before the app shows up and starts working.
When I see my Mac desktop, it's ready to go. It still loads a few things, but the apps come up.
I know they did that to fix the "Windows takes to long to boot" problem by loading "unnecessary" things after the interface is displayed. Want to know how well that works? My parrents, the very users who were annoyed by how long it took to load Windows, are now more annoyed. When the computer turns on and they click an icon, it doesn't open. So they do it again. And again. And again. When the application (IE for example) comes up, they have 6 windows.
It's like having the computer lock-up for 30 to 90 seconds every time I boot it up.
I've learned the secret. Turn the computer on and wait until the hard drive stops doing stuff. When that happens, Windows is ready to do actual work.
I bought a laptop with a high-resolution screen which I paid extra for because I wanted a high-resolution screen, and you're solution to "Windows doesn't work right" is to forget about that extra I paid and run my laptop at a ugly and sub-optimal resolution?
Ahh, the Windows attitude. If it doesn't work right, it's because the user is an idiot.
In all I've read I still haven't learned about many things that would have interested me more. Have they fixed it so programs are automatically categorized on the Start Menu (applications/games/utilities/etc?). I heard something about a games area, but what about the rest? Can program still install shortcuts on my desktop, quick-launch bar, and put an icon in my system tray so easily? Is there some way of managing the stuff that ends up in my system tray (like those little utilities that aren't in the start menu and are a pain to get rid of)?
Many of his complaints are stupid though. It takes too long to install. So? What else is new? Windows is like that now. It doesn't matter that much. There aren't enough Widgets? It's a beta. How many Widgets were there for OS X when it launched? About the same number, that is those supplied by the OS vender.
Vista may be better in many ways than XP/2000 for end users. But the OS they are delivering would have been good a few years ago. Now it just seems dated and bloated. The requirements are through the roof. If OS X can do it with lower requirements last year, then MS should be able to do the same thing.
It's strange. Even reading the articles about how great Vista will be (and we've all seen tons of those) just make me feel better about jumping ship to OS X. Vista has shown me just how bad journalism is in most of the PC industry. There is nothing like a terribly delayed OS that had some of it's best features cut (WinFS) being called the best thing in years and an end to all PC user's problems to prove how much of a shill magazines are.
But then again comparing Tiger when it was released to MS's feature list of what Vista was supposed to have when it was released 2 years later and using that to draw the conclusion "Tiger is nice but just wait for Vista" was an obvious sign too.
-- "Happy in Mac land"
Does Vista do anything to remedy this?
It doesn't matter. I went Mac last year and I'm quite happy. I can't wait for Leopard, although I have to issues with Tiger. First is the little pop-ups for when I press the volume keys on my laptop went from instant in 10.3.x to a "long" 1/2 second delay under Tiger. That and the little live dock preview (like when you minimize a movie and it keeps playing) seems to have stopped for some reason too. I wish I could fix that.
Very minor issues though. I do want to play with Vista some and I imagine I will one day when I help someone fix their computer, but I don't see how they'd get me back. Even if they had the full Unix shell (my FAVORITE feature of OS X) I am just so happy with my Mac.
Now if I could only read the article. I got to see 3 things slowly, then the server died.