The Soundbug is very very cool indeed. My flatmate is doing some work for Newlands Scientific (the people who developed this stuff) and I've seen the Soundbug in action. I want one!
Even better, IMHO, is the 'conference call' product they alluded to in the article. I think they're referring to the Soundbubble, which will create a 'bubble' within which you can *only* hear the sound source you want (e.g. the phone call). If you're outside the bubble, you won't be able to hear the phone conversation.
It's absolutely amazing, and the possibilities are endless. Imagine being able to walk into a crowded, noisy bar and be able to have a whispered conversation with the person standing next to you. Neither of you would be able to hear the rest of the bar, and the rest of the bar would be unable to hear you.
It really is like something out of a sci-fi novel. Those of you who have read any Iain M Banks novels will know this works much the same way as his sound fields.
You MUST be kidding if you think any win 2k user is going to swap over to KDE.
Well, I used to be a Win2K user, and I switched to KDE. So why's it unreasonable to suggest that any of my co-workers might do the same? In my experience the opposite is true: KDE is maturing enough to the point where it's become a viable alternative to Windows. I've used KDE for about 6 months now, and I'd never go back.
There is absolutely no reason for the change. Besides, all KDE is doing is trying to emulate the windows desktop
That's the whole point! It's just another reason why it's easy to change! If you've used Windows, you'll be able to use KDE. Simple as that. Sure, you need to know a little bit of voodoo to get things set up, but my co-workers are all technically capable Java developers, and I don't think this is really beyond them.
This isn't blind Linux zealotry, it's been my experience that KDE kicks Windows' ass.
kio-smb: don't leave smbclients using 100% cpu hanging around.
This has been really annoying me. I'm the sole Linux user in an office full of Windows 2000 boxes, and it's been pretty tough to evangelise Linux's interoperability with Windows while I have to keep killing zombie smbclient processes any time I use SMB.
I haven't had a chance to download it yet (deadline tomorrow, y'see) but this, along with the other speedups and so on, could finally mean it's feasible to start winning people over to KDE.
Good work KDE fellas. You are all very lovely indeed.
So Microsoft is going to get there on their own. You will soon see them exploiting the client libs shipped to 90% of the desktop users out there to radically enhance the browsing experience.
This is another example of Microsoft leveraging their desktop monopoly to their advantage. It's precisely the kind of thing that got them into hot water with the DoJ over the bundling of IE into Windows.
The difference between then and now is that, by bundling IE into Windows, they were able to cut Netscape's supply lines and thereby (very nearly) kill the company.
This time, there is no company to kill. There are only a series of OSS projects that aren't making money at the moment. So Microsoft can't starve them of money, no matter how hard they try.
The DoJ, if it has the slightest bit of sense, wil l have to come down on Microsoft like a ton of bricks over this (if it happens) and when the outcome of that trial is decided, OSS will be waiting in the wings.
What is the most disgusting thing about Apple suing some guys who make an OSX looking WM?
1. That at the same time Apple execs are fellating Adobe and MS execs while looking for Aqua-ized versions of their apps.
This is perfectly logical. Apple don't want Aqua-like stuff to appear on non-Apple platforms, but at the same time they want everything on their platform to look like Aqua.
This is a simple branding issue. Apples sell partly on their look and feel (compare G4 cases to your average grey PC tower) so keeping Aqua unique to themselves is a must if they're to avoid diluting one of their selling points.
Similarly, if there are apps on OS X that don't look like Aqua, this also detracts from the Aqua look and feel, so it's in Apple's interests to promote Aqua development on OS X.
Comparing speed between mozilla and ie6 isnt even close. IE6 will win most rendering contests almost every time. IE6 is also substantially more stable than ie5.x (I think I recall only one crash in the 4 months I've been running it : Netscape 4.76 used to crash four to five times a day in debian...)
Comparing speed between Mozilla and Netscape 4.76 isn't even close either. Mozilla will win most rendering contests almost every time. Mozilla is also substantially more stable than Netscape 4.76.
For example, out of the thousands of people in the subway in tokyo where a bunch of wacko's sprayed sarin gas only 12 people were killed. 12 out of thousands. A success? I say no.
I say yes. The objective of terrorists is not to murder, but to inflict terror: that is, to terrorise. You said yourself that 5500 people went to hospital afterwards because they were panicking.
I'm no expert on the effectiveness of anthrax, but the threat of anthrax is certainly having the desired effect on the American public.
I *only* use WAP for sports scores
on
WAP Bashing
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I have a Nokia 6210 and I've hardly used WAP at all. Except for one thing.
I go to football matches (that's soccer to you Americans) with my Dad every weekend, and it's great to be able to stand in the middle of the stadium and find out the scores from all the other matches in the league at half-time and full-time. Everyone around me always listens in while I read the scores out.
Previously we used to have to find someone with a radio while we were leaving the stadium, and strain to hear what was going on, and make sure we didn't lose them in the crowd. This is a big improvement on that, and it's a really killer feature of WAP. The only problem I can see is that because everyone wants to know the scores at the same time, the one decent WAP scores service gets slashdotted at 4.45 every Saturday afternoon!:)
I'm a web developer at a new media agency, and I've just recently moved away from doing client work into being responsible for our intranet.
There are many, many jobs going on in the studio at any given time, and obviously never enough people to cover it all. And clients being clients, they're prone to changing their mind very often.
The number of times a project manager would come up to me and say, "Can you just do [foo] for me?" is staggering. I think programmers have to maintain a reasonably high level of concentration to work, and when you get interrupted all the time that's just not possible.
The analogy's good: loading different things into memory, et al. That's exactly what it's like. I'd have to figure out which project they were talking about, remember where I'd put everything, how it worked, etc etc. Nightmare.
Now I've changed jobs and I'm in a department of my own, I can set my own targets, I can prioritise my work for myself, and I have no project manager standing over me. The increase in my productivity levels is incredible.
IANAL, but it would seem to me that software authors can release their work under any license they choose. So I'm free to release my work under the GPL, and MS are free to release theirs under their EULA.
One of Microsoft's tactics in attacking Free Software is to include all OSS under the Open Source moniker, and count on the ignorance of the public (and the press) about the differences between Free Software and Open Source.
Dumbing things down in this way has been a potent weapon for them, because so far the Linux advocates have been bogged down in trying to explain the differences between the various licenses.
Hopefully this 'revelation' (which we've all known about for years anyway) will force Microsoft to distinguish more between the different kinds of OSS in future, in order to avoid charges of hypocrisy by attacking BSD.
Hopefully.
Unfortunately I fear the Microsoft marketroids are better at spin than that.:-/
Very true indeed. My Hampshire accent is very different to that of most people in London, and that's barely 50 miles away.
And not everyone in London speaks with a Cockney accent either. Now I live in the East End of London and I've still yet to hear anyone who sounds remotely like Dick Van Dyke.:)
I think you're a little harsh on Ms Zellweger though. She was aiming for a plummy Home Counties accent and I think she got it pretty accurately.
I think the time I've been most impressed by an American doing an English accent was Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors - it was the first time I'd seen her act, and I actually thought she was English. When I went to see her in another film I was then really impressed by her American accent...:)
I'm from England but I've spent a bit of time in Australia, and as far as I can tell this is just fairly normal behaviour. Almost every ISP I've seen out there charges per download.
Australia is in a pretty unique geographical position - it's a very big island, a very long way away from most other land masses. So telcos have to invest lots of money in laying under-sea cable, etc. So why shouldn't they charge per download? Won't market forces just determine what customers find acceptable?
The only problem is that Telstra, being a former government monopoly (much like the beloved BT we have over here) is in a pretty dominant position in the market, but I don't see why that won't change.
If you don't like Telstra's AUP, can't you just use a different ISP? This isn't flamebait, I'm genuinely interested to hear from Aussies who can tell me what other options there are.
Actually I read all that the other way around. The next paragraph goes on to say how this isn't a crippled system and you can put your own peripherals on it.
That also means Nokia can put their own peripherals on it in future, just like Sony are bringing out hard disks and modems for the PS2.
Seems like a pretty clever move by Nokia. It gets them into the set-top box market, which is hotting up now digital TV is starting to get up and running, and it gives them a foot in the door when convergence between PCs and TVs really gets going.
Slashdot Mirror
The official Soundbug site is here. You can enter yourself into a prize draw to win one...
The Soundbug is very very cool indeed. My flatmate is doing some work for Newlands Scientific (the people who developed this stuff) and I've seen the Soundbug in action. I want one!
Even better, IMHO, is the 'conference call' product they alluded to in the article. I think they're referring to the Soundbubble, which will create a 'bubble' within which you can *only* hear the sound source you want (e.g. the phone call). If you're outside the bubble, you won't be able to hear the phone conversation.
It's absolutely amazing, and the possibilities are endless. Imagine being able to walk into a crowded, noisy bar and be able to have a whispered conversation with the person standing next to you. Neither of you would be able to hear the rest of the bar, and the rest of the bar would be unable to hear you.
It really is like something out of a sci-fi novel. Those of you who have read any Iain M Banks novels will know this works much the same way as his sound fields.
Folks, there is room for both free software and commercial software in this world
I agree with you there. But I don't think Microsoft would share that view.
I personally believe that Hugo Weaving was a wrong choice for Elrond, as he can't quite shake the image of Agent Smith.
:)
Damn right. When he said his first line, I could barely stop myself finishing his sentence for him.
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr Anderson."
You MUST be kidding if you think any win 2k user is going to swap over to KDE.
Well, I used to be a Win2K user, and I switched to KDE. So why's it unreasonable to suggest that any of my co-workers might do the same? In my experience the opposite is true: KDE is maturing enough to the point where it's become a viable alternative to Windows. I've used KDE for about 6 months now, and I'd never go back.
There is absolutely no reason for the change. Besides, all KDE is doing is trying to emulate the windows desktop
That's the whole point! It's just another reason why it's easy to change! If you've used Windows, you'll be able to use KDE. Simple as that. Sure, you need to know a little bit of voodoo to get things set up, but my co-workers are all technically capable Java developers, and I don't think this is really beyond them.
This isn't blind Linux zealotry, it's been my experience that KDE kicks Windows' ass.
kio-smb: don't leave smbclients using 100% cpu hanging around.
This has been really annoying me. I'm the sole Linux user in an office full of Windows 2000 boxes, and it's been pretty tough to evangelise Linux's interoperability with Windows while I have to keep killing zombie smbclient processes any time I use SMB.
I haven't had a chance to download it yet (deadline tomorrow, y'see) but this, along with the other speedups and so on, could finally mean it's feasible to start winning people over to KDE.
Good work KDE fellas. You are all very lovely indeed.
The trailer is also available on starwars.com, in case Apple's too Slashdotted for your liking. :)
So Microsoft is going to get there on their own. You will soon see them exploiting the client libs shipped to 90% of the desktop users out there to radically enhance the browsing experience.
This is another example of Microsoft leveraging their desktop monopoly to their advantage. It's precisely the kind of thing that got them into hot water with the DoJ over the bundling of IE into Windows.
The difference between then and now is that, by bundling IE into Windows, they were able to cut Netscape's supply lines and thereby (very nearly) kill the company.
This time, there is no company to kill. There are only a series of OSS projects that aren't making money at the moment. So Microsoft can't starve them of money, no matter how hard they try.
The DoJ, if it has the slightest bit of sense, wil l have to come down on Microsoft like a ton of bricks over this (if it happens) and when the outcome of that trial is decided, OSS will be waiting in the wings.
What is the most disgusting thing about Apple suing some guys who make an OSX looking WM?
1. That at the same time Apple execs are fellating Adobe and MS execs while looking for Aqua-ized versions of their apps.
This is perfectly logical. Apple don't want Aqua-like stuff to appear on non-Apple platforms, but at the same time they want everything on their platform to look like Aqua.
This is a simple branding issue. Apples sell partly on their look and feel (compare G4 cases to your average grey PC tower) so keeping Aqua unique to themselves is a must if they're to avoid diluting one of their selling points.
Similarly, if there are apps on OS X that don't look like Aqua, this also detracts from the Aqua look and feel, so it's in Apple's interests to promote Aqua development on OS X.
Comparing speed between mozilla and ie6 isnt even close. IE6 will win most rendering contests almost every time. IE6 is also substantially more stable than ie5.x (I think I recall only one crash in the 4 months I've been running it : Netscape 4.76 used to crash four to five times a day in debian...)
Comparing speed between Mozilla and Netscape 4.76 isn't even close either. Mozilla will win most rendering contests almost every time. Mozilla is also substantially more stable than Netscape 4.76.
Etc, etc...
For example, out of the thousands of people in the subway in tokyo where a bunch of wacko's sprayed sarin gas only 12 people were killed. 12 out of thousands. A success? I say no.
I say yes. The objective of terrorists is not to murder, but to inflict terror: that is, to terrorise. You said yourself that 5500 people went to hospital afterwards because they were panicking.
I'm no expert on the effectiveness of anthrax, but the threat of anthrax is certainly having the desired effect on the American public.
I have a Nokia 6210 and I've hardly used WAP at all. Except for one thing.
:)
I go to football matches (that's soccer to you Americans) with my Dad every weekend, and it's great to be able to stand in the middle of the stadium and find out the scores from all the other matches in the league at half-time and full-time. Everyone around me always listens in while I read the scores out.
Previously we used to have to find someone with a radio while we were leaving the stadium, and strain to hear what was going on, and make sure we didn't lose them in the crowd. This is a big improvement on that, and it's a really killer feature of WAP. The only problem I can see is that because everyone wants to know the scores at the same time, the one decent WAP scores service gets slashdotted at 4.45 every Saturday afternoon!
I'm a web developer at a new media agency, and I've just recently moved away from doing client work into being responsible for our intranet.
There are many, many jobs going on in the studio at any given time, and obviously never enough people to cover it all. And clients being clients, they're prone to changing their mind very often.
The number of times a project manager would come up to me and say, "Can you just do [foo] for me?" is staggering. I think programmers have to maintain a reasonably high level of concentration to work, and when you get interrupted all the time that's just not possible.
The analogy's good: loading different things into memory, et al. That's exactly what it's like. I'd have to figure out which project they were talking about, remember where I'd put everything, how it worked, etc etc. Nightmare.
Now I've changed jobs and I'm in a department of my own, I can set my own targets, I can prioritise my work for myself, and I have no project manager standing over me. The increase in my productivity levels is incredible.
IANAL, but it would seem to me that software authors can release their work under any license they choose. So I'm free to release my work under the GPL, and MS are free to release theirs under their EULA.
Remember kids, when you download Linux distros, you're downloading communism!
Or is that MP3s? Or DeCSS? I forget.
One of Microsoft's tactics in attacking Free Software is to include all OSS under the Open Source moniker, and count on the ignorance of the public (and the press) about the differences between Free Software and Open Source.
:-/
Dumbing things down in this way has been a potent weapon for them, because so far the Linux advocates have been bogged down in trying to explain the differences between the various licenses.
Hopefully this 'revelation' (which we've all known about for years anyway) will force Microsoft to distinguish more between the different kinds of OSS in future, in order to avoid charges of hypocrisy by attacking BSD.
Hopefully.
Unfortunately I fear the Microsoft marketroids are better at spin than that.
Very true indeed. My Hampshire accent is very different to that of most people in London, and that's barely 50 miles away.
:)
:)
And not everyone in London speaks with a Cockney accent either. Now I live in the East End of London and I've still yet to hear anyone who sounds remotely like Dick Van Dyke.
I think you're a little harsh on Ms Zellweger though. She was aiming for a plummy Home Counties accent and I think she got it pretty accurately.
I think the time I've been most impressed by an American doing an English accent was Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors - it was the first time I'd seen her act, and I actually thought she was English. When I went to see her in another film I was then really impressed by her American accent...
I'm from England but I've spent a bit of time in Australia, and as far as I can tell this is just fairly normal behaviour. Almost every ISP I've seen out there charges per download.
Australia is in a pretty unique geographical position - it's a very big island, a very long way away from most other land masses. So telcos have to invest lots of money in laying under-sea cable, etc. So why shouldn't they charge per download? Won't market forces just determine what customers find acceptable?
The only problem is that Telstra, being a former government monopoly (much like the beloved BT we have over here) is in a pretty dominant position in the market, but I don't see why that won't change.
If you don't like Telstra's AUP, can't you just use a different ISP? This isn't flamebait, I'm genuinely interested to hear from Aussies who can tell me what other options there are.
it's gotta be.
Actually I read all that the other way around. The next paragraph goes on to say how this isn't a crippled system and you can put your own peripherals on it. That also means Nokia can put their own peripherals on it in future, just like Sony are bringing out hard disks and modems for the PS2. Seems like a pretty clever move by Nokia. It gets them into the set-top box market, which is hotting up now digital TV is starting to get up and running, and it gives them a foot in the door when convergence between PCs and TVs really gets going.