But now that every game console has the ability to support patches, the developers/publishers have begun to rely on this as a crutch so that they can save time and release on some pre-determined schedule and/or save money by not bothering with full q/a attention.
You do know that all console manufacturers impose a certification process on all games released, right? You cannot ship a broken console game and "patch it later" like you can do on PC.
There are exceptions of course; sometimes bugs just sneak past any amount of testing, especially multiplayer issues...
There's a tiny little bug in Quake3 that can make an invalid GL call at times: it "worked" for 7 years because the drivers gracefully ignored it, then suddenly started to cause *massive* slowdowns on nvidia cards (from 400+ fps to 100). Technically, it's id's "fault", but it's pretty hard to blame them for it - or to blame nvidia for the drivers going into Sulk Mode, since it IS an invalid call.
I totally agree with your post, but I have to play devil's advocate for a bit here: if they detect Quake3 and work around the bug this way, someone will post a story about how NVIDIA cheating in Q3 benchmarks, because if you rename quake.exe to quack.exe the FPS drops from 400 to 100. So either way, they can't win - someone will always complain. I used to write D3D and OGL drivers for a living (not for ATI or NVIDIA, no threats please!), so I'm all too familiar with these issues...
In this case, Q3 is fairly old (wow, 10 years!), and it is likely some other (more mainstream) game required a fix to be applied that happened to slow down Q3. If you *had* to pick a side, as a company, which one would you choose?
I think NVIDIA did the right thing, even if it "broke" Q3. If there is still a market for Q3, id will release a patch. Hell, anyone could fix it, id released the source for the entire game...
When you go into the BIOS, go to Performance, SpeedStep, and disable it.
My brother's E6400 fixes the speed at 1GHz when SpeedStep is disabled in the BIOS (i.e. NOT at 100% - CPU is rated for 2.0GHz), so that's not always a solution. Is the thermal design so bad that they can't actually keep the CPU at full speed all the time?
whoever opens a credit card in your name enjoys many more months of detection-free shopping on your dime, since you are out of the habit of monitoring your credit
Quoted for truth.
This exact thing happened to me a few years ago, and even though it wasn't my responsibility (I didn't have to pay for the fraudulent charges), I was the one who had to clean up the mess in my credit file. Everyone assumes you're trying to swindle them out of paying your balance when you call them about these things, it wasn't fun. I never found out how it happened, all I know is that someone managed to get enough personal information on me to convince a credit card service rep to send them a new card (in my name).
Here in Canada, there is a voluntary lock you can put on your credit file; any credit request requires a callback to the home phone number on file, and any change to the account information requires an password (which is not your birthdate or social security number).
I can't believe that the one post that gets it is an AC. Someone please mod him up!
This whole situation is a complete non-issue. Some amateur coder had a bug and made a blog post about it, big deal.
One of the earlier things I learned in this profession (yes I write code for a living): as a normal developer, it is very very rare that you will stumble on a bug or design flaw in your OS or compiler of choice. Now I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but the correct gut reaction is to suspect your stuff, not blame your OS/compiler/tools/vendor.
For the rare instances where you care about permissions or UIDs (or whatever it is your portable filesystem doesn't support), use an archive format that supports it (e.g. tgz) and copy that.
If the file size limitation is a problem, use an archive format that supports splitting to parts (e.g. rar).
Combine those as needed.
Personally I use FAT32 because it is readable practically everywhere. Yes, it's a crappy filesystem, but it doesn't matter.
My biggest problem with iTunes is how laggy it's UI is on Windows. Click on it, does nothing, click again and it responds. Did it do nothing because i was selecting the iTunes window from another one, then clicking again on the actual iTunes UI button? Or, if it does work first time, i've double clicked and it's launched another window! Argh!
Yeah, this is weird, but that's how all applications work on OSX. There is no click-through; if an app doesn't have the focus, clicking anywhere in it's window(s) brings the app into focus and the OS eats the click. You have to click again to really do what you just clicked on.
I don't know why Apple ported this behavior over, because the default in Windows is to click-through (which has different pros and cons). I don't particularly care for one or the other, I just want it to be consistent:)
Perhaps so, but this fact doesn't address RCourtney's concern about upload of contact lists to untrustworthy parties.
My point was that uploading the contact list to 3rd parties is no longer a requirement to get voice dialing if you have the 3GS. I wouldn't trust a 3rd party with my contact list, that's for sure;)
One copy for the desktop. One copy for the home theater PC. One copy for the laptop.
Yep, that's exactly what I've had to do. I already run the RC version on all my machines, and loved it enough to buy three copies. Now that the 50% rebate on upgrades is over, I won't be buying any more though;)
But for your own personal phone, 100 bucks a year should cut it. I wouldn't do it, but it's an option.
Oh absolutely. My point was that you'd need to compile everything yourself. Pre-made binaries (i.e. the current system for both the AppStore and Installer/Cydia/iCy) won't work because you're missing the matching signed profile for those binaries...
I don't think this will work. By paying Apple, you get a unique signing key for stuff that you compile, and a matching profile that you can install on (max) 100 phones/ipods. Without a matching profile, an app won't work on the device (which is the whole point of jailbreaking).
Of course if you can compile everything you use, then you're fine for a year. The profile automatically expires, along with your permission to run your apps...
I'm not exactly up to speed on the jailbroken iPhone scene, but last time I checked some people had the balls to sell you stuff through the Installer, so surely the source code isn't available for everything:)
Cooptel/CAM covers only a part of the island since they're primarily a Monteregian ISP IIRC, but they offer comparatively better prices, bandwidth caps and rates than Bell does.
The question is, do they use Bell's infrastructure, or their own? If they lease Bell's equipment, then it's all the same, really...
As far as I know, every provider here leases their service from Bell or Videotron.
Hopefully this won't come to pass just yet, but so far I'm fairly happy with Videotron. Like the GP poster, I get great download speeds (1200Mbit/s actual) and no interference from them, apart from a blocked port 80 (meh).
The downside is the monthly cap (100GB combined up/down for $79 CDN, so watch your torrents). As long as you don't go over the monthly limit, it's an awesome provider. If you do, they rape your wallet pretty hard; each extra Gig costs $7.50, with no maximum!
Note that I'm only talking about the network; customer service is a joke (naturally) and prices keep increasing every year for no apparent reason.
What is scary about this story is that they are talking about mere allegations of copyright violations to suspend service. Surely this will be abused... It's an easy three step program to permanently cut off internet service for anyone you don't like!
My understanding is that its already in there; in order to run OSX you must neuter the "Don't Steal MacOS X" kernel extension, which checks that the OS is only booted on Apple-approved machines.
This is the part Psystar stole from the existing Hackintosh community, so I kinda have mixed feelings here. Having another company fill the hole in the product lineup (i.e. upgradeable desktop machine) is cool, but when said company got there by stealing the work of others, it's not so cool anymore...:-/
What really needs to happen is these 100+ companies that have enough apps that they think they need to install a background "update" service need to come together to define an open protocol for apps to register with one 'services/daemon/app' so instead of 100 programs all attempting to check for their own programs, you have one service that is covering them all.
No need to develop anything, there is already one integrated in each major OS: Windows Update, Apple Software Update, and yum/apt/emerge/etc (one per Linux distro). I don't know what barriers Apple (or MS) pose to prevent software companies from distributing software updates via those mechanisms like Linux does, but it sure would beat having every app decide when and how it should update itself.
Maybe the OS vendor doesn't want to be liable when an update breaks a working app? (it's an honest question, I really don't know why nobody does this on Windows or OSX)
It's worth being vaguely familiar with vi (being able to edit a config file, save, and quit; no need to be proficient), because the one time your Linux box craps out at boot, that's all you're gonna get to fix it -- nano/pico/joe won't work.
Of course you could always use a LiveCD, and mount your existing partition... Back then this wasn't an option, so I have developed basic vi survival skills, it's not that hard:)
Have a look at the InsanelyMac forums, all the info is there. Unfortunately the signal to noise ratio is quite low, but you can generally find what you're looking for. I have to say though, if you're not willing to invest a good chunk of time setting up your Hackintosh, don't bother. If you thought running Linux was hard, you ain't seen nothing yet;)
Another hint (assuming you really want to do it), consider dedicating a whole drive to OSX instead of a single partition; you avoid many problems and it's safer too.
I'm out of iTunes installs, and can't deauthorize anything since all those computers are dead/recycled.
When you're in that position, there should be an option in iTunes to deauthorize all computers. Have a look here and here for more details on the exact procedure. Once you're done, just re-authorize your current computer(s).
I haven't had to do this yet but I may have to soon, since even an OS reinstall on the same machine is counted against you.
[...] I have to wade through 90 clones all which have GUI bugs and or just look like crap in general. (Some gung-ho developer tried to reinvent Windows widgets). [Emphasis mine]
I get what you're saying, but a big pet peeve of mine on OSX is that I see the exact opposite. Sure, almost all of Mac software looks great, but many don't follow consistent usability guidelines and many program options are hidden away. The fact that most dialog boxes cannot be controlled by the keyboard on OSX (by default anyway) is another big issue for me.
For example, it took me months to find the "Play Song Preview" in iTMS/iTunes because it's not in any app menu or even the right-click context menu; you just have to know to doubleclick the song. In every other Windows app that's not a problem, the bold menu entry is what will happen when you doubleclick; I don't know why this "standard" doesn't apply to OSX.
Another example, I needed a tool to just crop an image on OSX (splitting a desktop wallpaper in two for spaning multiple monitors). I found ImageWell, which worked fine but has a weird workflow and a non-resizeable interface that forces you to work in a very small preview version of your image!
Now don't get me wrong, I totally accept that I'm not used to OSX so any difference from W32 annoys me, but I think the point stands anyway.
Anyway, getting back on topic, developers target the platforms they use. Less marketshare means less developers means less variety. I only use OSX occasionally, so I don't bother developing much for it (I only use the Mac for iPhone development now).
Aspect ratio is another thing that many people don't understand (or don't care about, I don't know), and HD just exacerbates that by giving more wrong options. You would think TV broadcasters, of all people, to understand these things:)
In my case one of the most annoying thing I see is local relay stations overlaying their logos *in SD* over an HD broadcast. I'll be watching (say) NBCHD, then all of a sudden the show becomes this letterboxed 4:3 SD image with the WPTZ logo on it for about a minute (while also destroying the sound quality). When the logo leaves, the HD image is restored. Grrr, upgrade your f'n equipment already:)
For your DVD player, surely there is a (possibly hidden) setup menu where you can fix the aspect ratio? What's confusing is that sometimes you must set options to what you want (4:3) instead of what you have (16:9)...
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I wonder how good the multitouch would work when it gets water droplets on it.
It doesn't work very well. Try to use your iPhone outside the next time there is a light rain... (it's not to bad but it's enough to be annoying!)
But now that every game console has the ability to support patches, the developers/publishers have begun to rely on this as a crutch so that they can save time and release on some pre-determined schedule and/or save money by not bothering with full q/a attention.
You do know that all console manufacturers impose a certification process on all games released, right? You cannot ship a broken console game and "patch it later" like you can do on PC.
There are exceptions of course; sometimes bugs just sneak past any amount of testing, especially multiplayer issues...
There's a tiny little bug in Quake3 that can make an invalid GL call at times: it "worked" for 7 years because the drivers gracefully ignored it, then suddenly started to cause *massive* slowdowns on nvidia cards (from 400+ fps to 100). Technically, it's id's "fault", but it's pretty hard to blame them for it - or to blame nvidia for the drivers going into Sulk Mode, since it IS an invalid call.
I totally agree with your post, but I have to play devil's advocate for a bit here: if they detect Quake3 and work around the bug this way, someone will post a story about how NVIDIA cheating in Q3 benchmarks, because if you rename quake.exe to quack.exe the FPS drops from 400 to 100. So either way, they can't win - someone will always complain. I used to write D3D and OGL drivers for a living (not for ATI or NVIDIA, no threats please!), so I'm all too familiar with these issues...
In this case, Q3 is fairly old (wow, 10 years!), and it is likely some other (more mainstream) game required a fix to be applied that happened to slow down Q3. If you *had* to pick a side, as a company, which one would you choose?
I think NVIDIA did the right thing, even if it "broke" Q3. If there is still a market for Q3, id will release a patch. Hell, anyone could fix it, id released the source for the entire game...
When you go into the BIOS, go to Performance, SpeedStep, and disable it.
My brother's E6400 fixes the speed at 1GHz when SpeedStep is disabled in the BIOS (i.e. NOT at 100% - CPU is rated for 2.0GHz), so that's not always a solution. Is the thermal design so bad that they can't actually keep the CPU at full speed all the time?
whoever opens a credit card in your name enjoys many more months of detection-free shopping on your dime, since you are out of the habit of monitoring your credit
Quoted for truth.
This exact thing happened to me a few years ago, and even though it wasn't my responsibility (I didn't have to pay for the fraudulent charges), I was the one who had to clean up the mess in my credit file. Everyone assumes you're trying to swindle them out of paying your balance when you call them about these things, it wasn't fun. I never found out how it happened, all I know is that someone managed to get enough personal information on me to convince a credit card service rep to send them a new card (in my name).
Here in Canada, there is a voluntary lock you can put on your credit file; any credit request requires a callback to the home phone number on file, and any change to the account information requires an password (which is not your birthdate or social security number).
This video springs to mind...
I can't believe that the one post that gets it is an AC. Someone please mod him up!
This whole situation is a complete non-issue. Some amateur coder had a bug and made a blog post about it, big deal.
One of the earlier things I learned in this profession (yes I write code for a living): as a normal developer, it is very very rare that you will stumble on a bug or design flaw in your OS or compiler of choice. Now I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but the correct gut reaction is to suspect your stuff, not blame your OS/compiler/tools/vendor.
To the AC: you should really register!
Bingo.
For the rare instances where you care about permissions or UIDs (or whatever it is your portable filesystem doesn't support), use an archive format that supports it (e.g. tgz) and copy that.
If the file size limitation is a problem, use an archive format that supports splitting to parts (e.g. rar).
Combine those as needed.
Personally I use FAT32 because it is readable practically everywhere. Yes, it's a crappy filesystem, but it doesn't matter.
My biggest problem with iTunes is how laggy it's UI is on Windows. Click on it, does nothing, click again and it responds. Did it do nothing because i was selecting the iTunes window from another one, then clicking again on the actual iTunes UI button? Or, if it does work first time, i've double clicked and it's launched another window! Argh!
Yeah, this is weird, but that's how all applications work on OSX. There is no click-through; if an app doesn't have the focus, clicking anywhere in it's window(s) brings the app into focus and the OS eats the click. You have to click again to really do what you just clicked on.
I don't know why Apple ported this behavior over, because the default in Windows is to click-through (which has different pros and cons). I don't particularly care for one or the other, I just want it to be consistent :)
Perhaps so, but this fact doesn't address RCourtney's concern about upload of contact lists to untrustworthy parties.
My point was that uploading the contact list to 3rd parties is no longer a requirement to get voice dialing if you have the 3GS. I wouldn't trust a 3rd party with my contact list, that's for sure ;)
[...] if this is still how voice activated dialing works on the iPhone [...]
FYI, the iPhone 3GS has voice commands built-in now. Too bad it wasn't there from the start...
One copy for the desktop.
One copy for the home theater PC.
One copy for the laptop.
Yep, that's exactly what I've had to do. I already run the RC version on all my machines, and loved it enough to buy three copies. Now that the 50% rebate on upgrades is over, I won't be buying any more though ;)
But for your own personal phone, 100 bucks a year should cut it. I wouldn't do it, but it's an option.
Oh absolutely. My point was that you'd need to compile everything yourself. Pre-made binaries (i.e. the current system for both the AppStore and Installer/Cydia/iCy) won't work because you're missing the matching signed profile for those binaries...
I don't think this will work. By paying Apple, you get a unique signing key for stuff that you compile, and a matching profile that you can install on (max) 100 phones/ipods. Without a matching profile, an app won't work on the device (which is the whole point of jailbreaking).
Of course if you can compile everything you use, then you're fine for a year. The profile automatically expires, along with your permission to run your apps...
I'm not exactly up to speed on the jailbroken iPhone scene, but last time I checked some people had the balls to sell you stuff through the Installer, so surely the source code isn't available for everything :)
Cooptel/CAM covers only a part of the island since they're primarily a Monteregian ISP IIRC, but they offer comparatively better prices, bandwidth caps and rates than Bell does.
The question is, do they use Bell's infrastructure, or their own? If they lease Bell's equipment, then it's all the same, really...
You get 1.2 gigabits/second?
Yeah, brain fart, sorry. I meant 12MBit/s :)
So that cap is reached in about 12 minutes.
You laugh, but they actually offer a 50Mbit package with a 30GB monthly limit. Better not leave that torrent running overnight :)
No other options, sorry. (I'm in Montreal)
As far as I know, every provider here leases their service from Bell or Videotron.
Hopefully this won't come to pass just yet, but so far I'm fairly happy with Videotron. Like the GP poster, I get great download speeds (1200Mbit/s actual) and no interference from them, apart from a blocked port 80 (meh).
The downside is the monthly cap (100GB combined up/down for $79 CDN, so watch your torrents). As long as you don't go over the monthly limit, it's an awesome provider. If you do, they rape your wallet pretty hard; each extra Gig costs $7.50, with no maximum!
Note that I'm only talking about the network; customer service is a joke (naturally) and prices keep increasing every year for no apparent reason.
What is scary about this story is that they are talking about mere allegations of copyright violations to suspend service. Surely this will be abused... It's an easy three step program to permanently cut off internet service for anyone you don't like!
Put hardware DRM in the machines or something?
My understanding is that its already in there; in order to run OSX you must neuter the "Don't Steal MacOS X" kernel extension, which checks that the OS is only booted on Apple-approved machines.
This is the part Psystar stole from the existing Hackintosh community, so I kinda have mixed feelings here. Having another company fill the hole in the product lineup (i.e. upgradeable desktop machine) is cool, but when said company got there by stealing the work of others, it's not so cool anymore... :-/
What really needs to happen is these 100+ companies that have enough apps that they think they need to install a background "update" service need to come together to define an open protocol for apps to register with one 'services/daemon/app' so instead of 100 programs all attempting to check for their own programs, you have one service that is covering them all.
No need to develop anything, there is already one integrated in each major OS: Windows Update, Apple Software Update, and yum/apt/emerge/etc (one per Linux distro). I don't know what barriers Apple (or MS) pose to prevent software companies from distributing software updates via those mechanisms like Linux does, but it sure would beat having every app decide when and how it should update itself.
Maybe the OS vendor doesn't want to be liable when an update breaks a working app? (it's an honest question, I really don't know why nobody does this on Windows or OSX)
Is it worth it?
It's worth being vaguely familiar with vi (being able to edit a config file, save, and quit; no need to be proficient), because the one time your Linux box craps out at boot, that's all you're gonna get to fix it -- nano/pico/joe won't work.
Of course you could always use a LiveCD, and mount your existing partition... Back then this wasn't an option, so I have developed basic vi survival skills, it's not that hard :)
Have a look at the InsanelyMac forums, all the info is there. Unfortunately the signal to noise ratio is quite low, but you can generally find what you're looking for. I have to say though, if you're not willing to invest a good chunk of time setting up your Hackintosh, don't bother. If you thought running Linux was hard, you ain't seen nothing yet ;)
Another hint (assuming you really want to do it), consider dedicating a whole drive to OSX instead of a single partition; you avoid many problems and it's safer too.
When you're in that position, there should be an option in iTunes to deauthorize all computers. Have a look here and here for more details on the exact procedure. Once you're done, just re-authorize your current computer(s).
I haven't had to do this yet but I may have to soon, since even an OS reinstall on the same machine is counted against you.
[...] I have to wade through 90 clones all which have GUI bugs and or just look like crap in general. (Some gung-ho developer tried to reinvent Windows widgets). [Emphasis mine]
I get what you're saying, but a big pet peeve of mine on OSX is that I see the exact opposite. Sure, almost all of Mac software looks great, but many don't follow consistent usability guidelines and many program options are hidden away. The fact that most dialog boxes cannot be controlled by the keyboard on OSX (by default anyway) is another big issue for me.
For example, it took me months to find the "Play Song Preview" in iTMS/iTunes because it's not in any app menu or even the right-click context menu; you just have to know to doubleclick the song. In every other Windows app that's not a problem, the bold menu entry is what will happen when you doubleclick; I don't know why this "standard" doesn't apply to OSX.
Another example, I needed a tool to just crop an image on OSX (splitting a desktop wallpaper in two for spaning multiple monitors). I found ImageWell, which worked fine but has a weird workflow and a non-resizeable interface that forces you to work in a very small preview version of your image!
Now don't get me wrong, I totally accept that I'm not used to OSX so any difference from W32 annoys me, but I think the point stands anyway.
Anyway, getting back on topic, developers target the platforms they use. Less marketshare means less developers means less variety. I only use OSX occasionally, so I don't bother developing much for it (I only use the Mac for iPhone development now).
Aspect ratio is another thing that many people don't understand (or don't care about, I don't know), and HD just exacerbates that by giving more wrong options. You would think TV broadcasters, of all people, to understand these things :)
In my case one of the most annoying thing I see is local relay stations overlaying their logos *in SD* over an HD broadcast. I'll be watching (say) NBCHD, then all of a sudden the show becomes this letterboxed 4:3 SD image with the WPTZ logo on it for about a minute (while also destroying the sound quality). When the logo leaves, the HD image is restored. Grrr, upgrade your f'n equipment already :)
For your DVD player, surely there is a (possibly hidden) setup menu where you can fix the aspect ratio? What's confusing is that sometimes you must set options to what you want (4:3) instead of what you have (16:9)...
Further proof that this is possible: it's already ported. Jailbroken iPhone/iPod required though.
It's impressive to see it run that fast (30+ fps) on a phone, but quite honestly I find it unplayable due to the controls. Still, it's very cool :)