Every time I hear someone extolling Apple for dropping DRM from iTunes, I remember that scene in that movie that said:
- "I'm the guy who saved your brother's life."
- "Really? How?"
- "I stopped kicking him."
Heh. You remind me of this quote from a movie. I don't remember the exact movie, but the quote went something like this:
- I saved a man's life once!
- Yeah? What did you do?
- I stopped kicking him.
In related news, our news agency predicts news of incoming news on this topic sometime in the future! We're not sure exactly when, but now that we've started the rumour about news, you can expect to hear more news about this news in the near future, while this rumour spreads enough to start becoming news.
I have submitted this news item on firehose at least twice now and it got rejected each time! And now some anonymous dude pitches up and gets it in first time! *rants and mumbles*
Seriously, Editors. It's either newsworthy or it isn't.
On the day of his death, something like 80% of my (non tech-savvy) friends changed their profiles to something apple related and updated their statuses in praise of Steve Jobs. Very few of these friends own apple products, may I add, so this wasn't even remotely related to an 'apple fan' thing.
So what I meant by the facebook comment, is that I observed exactly the opposite than what you think, in practice. The media and the world in general reacted very vividly to Steve-Jobs' death, apple-fans or not. The man was clearly very charismatic and media-imposing. So the parent poster's comment about the influence Steve Jobs had on the success of apple products in terms of his charismatic presence isn't far-fetched and trollsome in any way. I don't think anyone outside tech circles would bat an eyelid when Steve Balmer dies, for instance. And certainly only a handful of geeks reacted to the death of Dennis Ritchie, a true titan of modern computing, only a few days later.
I'm just saying; you *may* be a bit biased about this. That's all.
I find this comment interesting. Rosegarden was the first time I compiled something from source in years and thought "This is how compiling from source should be like!"
In particular, it was the first program that offered me a concise but inclusive list of all the commands that I would need on my system, and the packages that provide them, before going on to compile at all. No crappy 'configure, oops you're missing this, retry' business. If only this requirement had been made a gnu standard ages ago!
Re:Will the reality distortion field last?
on
Apple Names New Chairman
·
· Score: 2, Informative
[...] but they're a tiny, tiny majority of Apple buyers in real life
You clearly don't have a facebook or twitter account
That somehow one party legitimately won a debate of factual, unemotive series of arguments, over his opponent, is a pretty big assumption here. There's many other reasons why the poor fool may have decided to censor it - blatant ad hominem attacks that would get the guy in trouble with friends / family / job being the first that comes to my mind. (And no, you don't have to be 'guilty' for such attacks to work)
Seriously, when was the last time you watched a debate, and it was a civil exchange of factual, unemotive, sincere argumentation? Richard Dawkins, for instance, who is by now a champion of atheism, and has absolutely no need to do so, *still* resorts almost continuously to ad hominem attacks in his debates; the man does his homework (and rather seems to enjoy it, in fact). And I'd expect most people in debates with a known opponent would too, since the point of a debate is usually 'to *win' the debate, and not to obtain a mutually improved selection of arguments, (where no winner exists as such).
In fact, I'd say the fact that the slashdot response to this has been so stereotypical -- a witchhunt, and very quick to label this guy as a religious nut with dangerous delusions and now a sore loser --, rather justifies his decision, even at the risk of a Streisand Effect (which his opponent was very quick to pursue).
My experience with Linux Mint Debian Edition has been very positive. I too migrated from ubuntu to linux mint (because it was better), and had been wanting to migrate to the debian edition for a while, but it wasn't until the latest release a few weeks ago that I felt it was mature enough to do so.
It *is* slightly different to ubuntu, but only in a good way, and for the most part so far it has been a smooth and very refreshing experience.
As for games, the whole "Linux does not have games" mantra has been outdated for at least 2-3 years now. Linux is gaining steam (pun intended).
The humble bundle alone has put linux on the games map, and most indie games run on linux these days. Many more commercial games do too, mostly through wine; the easiest solution for 'average' users at the moment being the commercial version by codeweavers. (I recently bought Limbo on steam with the intention of playing it on linux, and it was completely straightforward and ran perfectly). Desura is coming out with a linux client anyday now, and Steam is strongly rumoured to follow (and they would be crazy not to, given the lessons learnt from the humble bundle: Their usual cash distribution on the bundle was 60% Windows buyers, 20% Mac and 20% Linux). Not to mention already established things like http://lin-app.com/ and http://www.penguspy.com/ (it's beyond me why these two websites aren't more well-known among linux users...).
The days where the "Linux Gaming" scene consisted predominantly of a bunch of developers making (well-intended but ultimately crappy) open-source games for the sake of open-source, are long-gone, but, yes, even *that* option still exists as well. Linux is close. Very close.
As for the comment that Linux Mint Debian Edition is going Gnome 3, I didn't get that impression from the announcements. In fact, the impression I got was that they'd try to go on their own look based on the classic desktop. Which is good in my opinion. So far, Linux Mint has demonstrated incredible maturity in its approach in terms of aesthetics and usability. And if somehow they mess it up (unlikely), you can always install the other big players if you want to.
Dumben-down something so that even 'simple' users can use it, and watch the product get used almost exclusively by 'simple' users. Simple.
What it boils down to, is who you'd rather have as your target audience. (and $5 says it's not your average slashdot poster).
The downside to this "nintendo wii" approach, of course, is that apple products in general are considered much less 'mysterious' and 'awe-worthy' nowadays than they used to be, as they're starting to be more associated with your average i-go-to-a-special-school joe, as opposed to a windswept, enigmatic and creative personality. But maybe apple likes it that way. 'Simple' masses probably eventually end up paying much more than a handful of rich elitist 'artists'.
</cynicism>
Tyrell: Is this to be an empathy test? Capillary dilation of the so-called blush response? Fluctuation of the pupil. Involuntary dilation of the iris...
Deckard: We call it Voight-Kampff for short.
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
~ Benjamin Franklin
Re:Google is evil. RMS was right.
on
OK Go Goes HTML5
·
· Score: 1
I should have clarified I was talking about Chromium Linux vs Google Chrome Linux.
Though the possibility that it's my struggling laptop that's to blame isn't entirely unimaginable either.
Either way, come to think of it, I should be bending over in gratitude just for the fact that at least their 'branded' version is linux-functional.
Slashdot Mirror
Every time I hear someone extolling Apple for dropping DRM from iTunes, I remember that scene in that movie that said:
- "I'm the guy who saved your brother's life."
- "Really? How?"
- "I stopped kicking him."
Heh. You remind me of this quote from a movie. I don't remember the exact movie, but the quote went something like this:
- I saved a man's life once!
- Yeah? What did you do?
- I stopped kicking him.
In related news, our news agency predicts news of incoming news on this topic sometime in the future! We're not sure exactly when, but now that we've started the rumour about news, you can expect to hear more news about this news in the near future, while this rumour spreads enough to start becoming news.
I have submitted this news item on firehose at least twice now and it got rejected each time! And now some anonymous dude pitches up and gets it in first time!
*rants and mumbles*
Seriously, Editors. It's either newsworthy or it isn't.
Because you now also own the game on windows and mac.
On the day of his death, something like 80% of my (non tech-savvy) friends changed their profiles to something apple related and updated their statuses in praise of Steve Jobs. Very few of these friends own apple products, may I add, so this wasn't even remotely related to an 'apple fan' thing.
So what I meant by the facebook comment, is that I observed exactly the opposite than what you think, in practice. The media and the world in general reacted very vividly to Steve-Jobs' death, apple-fans or not. The man was clearly very charismatic and media-imposing. So the parent poster's comment about the influence Steve Jobs had on the success of apple products in terms of his charismatic presence isn't far-fetched and trollsome in any way. I don't think anyone outside tech circles would bat an eyelid when Steve Balmer dies, for instance. And certainly only a handful of geeks reacted to the death of Dennis Ritchie, a true titan of modern computing, only a few days later.
I'm just saying; you *may* be a bit biased about this. That's all.
I find this comment interesting. Rosegarden was the first time I compiled something from source in years and thought "This is how compiling from source should be like!"
In particular, it was the first program that offered me a concise but inclusive list of all the commands that I would need on my system, and the packages that provide them, before going on to compile at all. No crappy 'configure, oops you're missing this, retry' business. If only this requirement had been made a gnu standard ages ago!
[...] but they're a tiny, tiny majority of Apple buyers in real life
You clearly don't have a facebook or twitter account
I for one welcome our African American and Latino Tech Overlords.
That somehow one party legitimately won a debate of factual, unemotive series of arguments, over his opponent, is a pretty big assumption here. There's many other reasons why the poor fool may have decided to censor it - blatant ad hominem attacks that would get the guy in trouble with friends / family / job being the first that comes to my mind. (And no, you don't have to be 'guilty' for such attacks to work)
Seriously, when was the last time you watched a debate, and it was a civil exchange of factual, unemotive, sincere argumentation? Richard Dawkins, for instance, who is by now a champion of atheism, and has absolutely no need to do so, *still* resorts almost continuously to ad hominem attacks in his debates; the man does his homework (and rather seems to enjoy it, in fact). And I'd expect most people in debates with a known opponent would too, since the point of a debate is usually 'to *win' the debate, and not to obtain a mutually improved selection of arguments, (where no winner exists as such).
In fact, I'd say the fact that the slashdot response to this has been so stereotypical -- a witchhunt, and very quick to label this guy as a religious nut with dangerous delusions and now a sore loser --, rather justifies his decision, even at the risk of a Streisand Effect (which his opponent was very quick to pursue).
This looks awesome! I can't wait until Apple re-invents this, infuses magic in it, innovates, and gets it right. It will change everything. Again.
Don't seem to realise that Top Gear is a comedy show.
Yes, but you don't seem to realise that the Brits take their humour *very* seriously.
Shouldn't they just team up with ubuntu and build a proper shop, as opposed to just adding to the confusion out there? http://xkcd.com/927/
My experience with Linux Mint Debian Edition has been very positive. I too migrated from ubuntu to linux mint (because it was better), and had been wanting to migrate to the debian edition for a while, but it wasn't until the latest release a few weeks ago that I felt it was mature enough to do so.
It *is* slightly different to ubuntu, but only in a good way, and for the most part so far it has been a smooth and very refreshing experience.
As for games, the whole "Linux does not have games" mantra has been outdated for at least 2-3 years now. Linux is gaining steam (pun intended). The humble bundle alone has put linux on the games map, and most indie games run on linux these days. Many more commercial games do too, mostly through wine; the easiest solution for 'average' users at the moment being the commercial version by codeweavers. (I recently bought Limbo on steam with the intention of playing it on linux, and it was completely straightforward and ran perfectly). Desura is coming out with a linux client anyday now, and Steam is strongly rumoured to follow (and they would be crazy not to, given the lessons learnt from the humble bundle: Their usual cash distribution on the bundle was 60% Windows buyers, 20% Mac and 20% Linux). Not to mention already established things like http://lin-app.com/ and http://www.penguspy.com/ (it's beyond me why these two websites aren't more well-known among linux users ...).
The days where the "Linux Gaming" scene consisted predominantly of a bunch of developers making (well-intended but ultimately crappy) open-source games for the sake of open-source, are long-gone, but, yes, even *that* option still exists as well. Linux is close. Very close.
As for the comment that Linux Mint Debian Edition is going Gnome 3, I didn't get that impression from the announcements. In fact, the impression I got was that they'd try to go on their own look based on the classic desktop. Which is good in my opinion. So far, Linux Mint has demonstrated incredible maturity in its approach in terms of aesthetics and usability. And if somehow they mess it up (unlikely), you can always install the other big players if you want to.
Thankfully http://www.gog.com/ is filling some of that gap (legally and with reasonable prices).
that's true about twitter ... I read about it on facebook (via email).
what, avoiding a lynch mob?
Dumben-down something so that even 'simple' users can use it, and watch the product get used almost exclusively by 'simple' users. Simple.
What it boils down to, is who you'd rather have as your target audience. (and $5 says it's not your average slashdot poster).
The downside to this "nintendo wii" approach, of course, is that apple products in general are considered much less 'mysterious' and 'awe-worthy' nowadays than they used to be, as they're starting to be more associated with your average i-go-to-a-special-school joe, as opposed to a windswept, enigmatic and creative personality. But maybe apple likes it that way. 'Simple' masses probably eventually end up paying much more than a handful of rich elitist 'artists'.
</cynicism>
Then again: http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=multitouch&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=0&smoothing=0
Be forewarned that the BBC article takes a few statements by the developers about boot time and compatibility out of context.
No WAY!!! The BBC subtly miswording news items to promote a particular agenda? Impossible! </sarcasm>
Tyrell: Is this to be an empathy test? Capillary dilation of the so-called blush response? Fluctuation of the pupil. Involuntary dilation of the iris...
Deckard: We call it Voight-Kampff for short.
Holy crap! Someone mentioned the word "Bitcoins" on slashdot again! It's only a matter of time before its value hits the roof again! Quick! BUY! BUY!
Just imagine how much better gaming will be w-- oop, nevermind, just got headshotted by a chinese / russian sniper again.
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." ~ Benjamin Franklin
I should have clarified I was talking about Chromium Linux vs Google Chrome Linux.
Though the possibility that it's my struggling laptop that's to blame isn't entirely unimaginable either.
Either way, come to think of it, I should be bending over in gratitude just for the fact that at least their 'branded' version is linux-functional.