I am a true-blue, hardcore hardware geek. I've been building my own PCs for over a decade, and love "getting my hands dirty" in the hardware. It's both my work and my pleasure. My house is practically a monument to computer hardware, with cards and cases all over the place, and enough cabling strung around to give the hovercraft in The Matrix a run for its money. (Okay, slight exaggeration there.) I have over a dozen functioning computers, (if you count the Amiga), and enough parts to build at least 3-4 more complete machines. I use various flavors of Windows on a daily basis, am comfortable in the registry, have a Linux box that I built, installed, and configured on my own, and even play with BeOS from time to time just for the hell of it.
That said, when I actually need to get work done on a computer I use one of my Macs. My PowerBook is as integral to my day-to-day existence as one of my hands. I've opened up every machine in the house (with the exception of my wife's iBook) to do upgrades myself, including the PowerBook and a first generation iMac (living room net access machine). Yes, the Macs are less open to hardware tinkering than PCs, but for raw functionality OS X and the apps which run on it are so far ahead of Windows (and to a somewhat lesser extent Linux) that I find that it's absurd to use my PCs for anything other than games, file storage, and hobby work.
Yes I'm the exception, but I'm not unique. Your statement that "mac has always been about people who dont care enough about computers to want to swap around parts, or learn how they work" is incorrect. The user friendliness of Macs may be one of their most well-known selling points, but the people you're talking about are just as much a part of Microsoft's target market as they are Apple's.
I do agree with you that hardware lock-in is a Bad Thing from a political and economic standpoint, but from a usability and reliability perspective Apple's control over the hardware upon which their OS runs gives them an enormous edge, and I'm happy to be the beneficiary of that advantage. If Apple had the monopoly that Microsoft does then we'd have cause for concern, but they don't.
Yes, Macs are "trendy", but there's solid quality and functionality behind the shine and sparkle.
If truer words have ever been written, it wasn't on Slashdot.
I actually started playing Populous again. Despite the modest graphics, it's just as entertaining now as it was 10 years ago when I first played it.
And Syndicate? Damn. Back in the day I played that game so much I had dreams about it. I haven't gotten back into playing it, but I did fire it up just to watch the intro. Truly groundbreaking stuff. I put it right behind Deus Ex on the list of best cyberpunk games ever. BTW, as amazing as the PC version was, the Amiga version was even better!
As I said "Mod Me Down" and yes it happened. Please realize that the fact that you successfully predicted that your original post would be modded down does not in any way add to the value or credibility of that post. I can post a goatse link and make the same prediction.
Further, you state "Not all "Nerds" want to hear about Manga or Serenity every other day for the last month", and then accuse the rest of us of group-think? You're right, we aren'tall interested in the same things, hence the variety of stories. There have been a lot of Serenity-related stories lately because there have been a lot of things happening lately with respect to this one particular facet of geekdom. Don't like it? Cool. You're probably not alone, but based on the activity of the threads I'd say that there's enough interest to warrant it's inclusion. For those who aren't interested, there are 14 other sections of Slashdot and who knows how many other stories. Take your pick.
For my senior project in college (Sociology major), I used a program called SPSS to do a regression analysis using data from the General Social Survey (an enormous and comprehensive survey regularly conducted by the government on the US population) to determine if there was a statistical correlation between wealth, income, & economic status and happiness (using several variables which generally indicate happiness and life satisfaction).
As it turns out, there is a strong positive correlation between the two. Obviously other factors play a role as well, and it doesn't conclusively determine causality, but wealthy people are much more likely to be happy than poor and middle-income people.
I'm right there with you all the way. I caught the movie at 10:30 last night, and of the 30 or so people in the theater, the group of friends I went with accounted for more than half of that. The showing that let out before ours didn't look much better.
And yeah, I got more than a little teary also, and I'd had the movie spoiled for me beforehand (Grrr! Argh!). There were two people sitting behind me who were completely beside themselves with during "certain events", and I don't blame 'em a bit.
I'll be seeing the movie at least once more, and hopefully twice if it stays in theaters long enough.
I can only hope (pray!) that this is just the first act in a much larger story, and that we'll have another couple of movies to see where Joss is going with it. As it stands now most of the death seems pointless. Hopefully it's necessary to drive the story when seen from a broader perspective. Joss has been known to kill beloved characters before (I'm thinking largely of Tara on Buffy here), but it's generally an essential element in retrospect (allowing Willow to fully develop).
I just got back from the theater, and I'm completely emotionally drained. Yeah, I'll see it again too after some downtime.
I completely agree with you on all counts! Max certainly deserves to be on the list, and probably in the top 25.
I can accept their rationale at putting the original Star Trek at the #1 spot by virtue of its impact on everything that came after it, but in my book Firefly and the new Battlestar Galactica would be pretty much evenly matched for the #2 spot.
After the premier that "stunt" loses all meaning. Have you seen the new BSG? As a kid I was a huge fan of the original series, and as one of maybe 5 people on the planet that thought that the Sci-Fi Channel version of Dune was an utter abomination I had serious concerns that they were going to turn a beloved part of my childhood into a polished turd.
I've never been so happy to be wrong. The changes made from the original series were clearly not a gimmick, but were done both to open up new avenues and plot possibilities. To claim otherwise is to unfairly marginalize the new series as a simple copy of the original.
It's an absolute masterpiece, and as much as I adored the original I seldom give it a thought when watching the new version. The two shows have the same basic premise, but tone of the show and the plot lines and character development that are explored are so different that it's impossible to have a meaningful comparison between the two. The creators, IMHO, are respectful of the genesis of their show, but don't generally have the original in mind when writing it. Their focus is on making their show the best they can, and I think that what they're turning out is a jaw-dropping success.
Frankly Stargate SG:1 is good science fiction, perhaps the best adaptation of any movie to the small screen. You may be right, but I think that Buffy the Vampire Slayer would be a strong contender for that title.
Also missing, but borderline, is Project Bluebook. Thanks for the flashback! I'd completely forgotten about that show! It was possibly the first sci-fi I'd ever been exposed to.
they are looking at building a space elevator in a more northern/southern position which has nice cool water on a island. Um, actually they aren't. The plan is to have the base on a ship at sea, near the equator, a couple hundred miles from the nearest land.
When was the last time a ship at sea was attacked by a car bomb?
I encourage everyone to check out Liftport's web site, as these concerns have already been addressed, as well as most of the others that have been brought up in this thread.
The base of the elevator will be a couple hundred miles offshore. The ribbon will be nowhere near any normal air traffic routes. Further, the area around it will be protected by a heavy military presence (they've already worked this out with the US government).
Weather is potentially an issue, but not a deal-breaker, and they're working out the fine details there. As far as space debris goes, the entire thing is mobile to a limited extent. They expect to make regular small changes to its location to avoid colliding with junk.
That's absolutely correct and proper MLA (Modern Language Association) style. In this instance, that's exactly what was done in the original/. summary, but with an incorrect acronym. The original poster in this thread was correcting that.
My first PC was a Packard Bell, and it took every penny I had to afford it. When it began having problems almost right away I didn't have any money left to get it fixed. The only way I could keep it running was to learn how to work on the damn thing myself.
That turned out to be the start of my computer geekdom (C-64 and Amiga aside). That little piece of crap forced me to begin building the valuable skills that have since become the foundation of my lousy IT career!
Transhumanism isn't a universal mandate. When the technologies arrives, there will be those who dive in, those who want nothing to do with it, and those who will embrace certain aspects and shun others. While I can't begin to wrap my brain around your response, I fully support your right to opt out of whatever technology you or any other intelligent being finds unacceptable. (I'm reminded of the Amish.) Further, I think that it should be a mandate for all transhumans and posthumans to take an active role in protecting those rights. I don't think it's unreasonable to hold beings which are inherently superior to a higher ethical standard. It's important that this idea becomes culturally engrained before it becomes needed.
On the other hand, I think it's equally important that those who choose not to take advantage of life-extending, life-enhancing technologies not be permitted to hold the rest of us back, as they so often seem to want to do. We can see a clear example of this mindset with the current debate over stem cell research, but the struggle has been going on for as long as we've had medical science.
the ability to have post-coital conversations about kernel optimisations is somewhat overrated. I married a chemistry geek rather than a code geek, but I think the basic point carries over into all forms of geekdom.
Trust me on this: there's nothing hotter than spooning with a naked blonde while she discusses inductively coupled plasma. Schwing!!!:-)
You obviously can't emulate two buttons with the button bar on current PowerBooks, but Sidetrack will let you emulate it using the track pad. In fact, if you are so inclined you could fully emulate a 6 button mouse with both horizontal and vertical scrolling areas using just your existing trackpad and single button!
So Apple are meant to disrupt the muscle memory of practically every Apple user, by dropping a scheme that they have stuck to for decades, to make it slightly easier for a minority of people who use two different systems on a regular basis?
I think even you are giving the author too much slack.
I spend approximately 12 hours a day using computers, and it's almost 50/50 Windows/Mac. Often I'll have them running side-by-side, and switch back and forth every couple of minutes or so. Furthermore, I regularly use Apple USB keyboards with PCs, 2-button Logitech scroll mice on Macs, trakpads on PowerBooks and Windows laptops, and just about every other possible configuration except Apple 1-button mice on PCs.
I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts, so how much trouble do I have remembering whether I'm supposed to be using Ctrl-C or Cmd-C, etc.? None whatsoever. If I'm using a Windows interface I use Windows conventions, and if I'm using an OS X interface I use Macintosh conventions. I don't consider myself to be particularly talented in this regard, and yet almost never need to give it any thought. My fingers just do it. It's as second nature as touch-typing.
As an added bonus, when from time to time I find myself in front of a Linux or non-Apple UNIX CLI, I'm already familiar with the keyboard shortcuts because they're the same as an OS X terminal window.
You'll notice that they're all displaying Sony products- a cell phone, CD player, TV, and video camera. Chris Kavanagh is holding a laptop, but in the image you linked to the bottom is cut off.
Also of note is that "CSM-101" is visible in Tony James' shades.
I haven't yet heard any of the Carbon Silicon music, but Tony James is a hero of mine, and his former/other group, Sigue Sigue Sputnik (with Martin Degville and Neil X), stands as my absolute favorite band of all time. (I've got an autographed album and a personalized, autographed poster among other Sputnik memorabilia on display in my house.)
I'm amazed that they aren't more popular, particularly among the Slashdot crowd. Sputnik was/is always about more than just the music- it's like a cultural snapshot of an alternate future- Bladerunner meets The Road Warrior in the nighttime neon-city wastelands of the 80's music scene. Tony James gets it with respect to the way the future should have been, and this is reflected in Sputnik's music.
Whether Carbon Silicon pans out or not, anyone with an interest in upbeat, energetic, high-tech music with a heavy emphasis on bass guitar and cheap porn owes it to themself to at least check out their first (and IMHO, best) album, Flaunt It. Their subsequent albums are somewhat more of a mixed bag, but they all have some real gems. Additionally, there's an active fan community which has been producing independent remixes and redubs for years, generally with the blessings of James.
I can only hope. Personally, I used to be a Republican back when "Republican" meant "small-government, fiscal conservative". Somewhere during the Clinton administration I realized that the Republican party no longer really stood for the ideals that I'd grown up with and became a Libertarian. I'm surprised that more people haven't done the same.
Slashdot Mirror
I am a true-blue, hardcore hardware geek. I've been building my own PCs for over a decade, and love "getting my hands dirty" in the hardware. It's both my work and my pleasure. My house is practically a monument to computer hardware, with cards and cases all over the place, and enough cabling strung around to give the hovercraft in The Matrix a run for its money. (Okay, slight exaggeration there.) I have over a dozen functioning computers, (if you count the Amiga), and enough parts to build at least 3-4 more complete machines. I use various flavors of Windows on a daily basis, am comfortable in the registry, have a Linux box that I built, installed, and configured on my own, and even play with BeOS from time to time just for the hell of it.
That said, when I actually need to get work done on a computer I use one of my Macs. My PowerBook is as integral to my day-to-day existence as one of my hands. I've opened up every machine in the house (with the exception of my wife's iBook) to do upgrades myself, including the PowerBook and a first generation iMac (living room net access machine). Yes, the Macs are less open to hardware tinkering than PCs, but for raw functionality OS X and the apps which run on it are so far ahead of Windows (and to a somewhat lesser extent Linux) that I find that it's absurd to use my PCs for anything other than games, file storage, and hobby work.
Yes I'm the exception, but I'm not unique. Your statement that "mac has always been about people who dont care enough about computers to want to swap around parts, or learn how they work" is incorrect. The user friendliness of Macs may be one of their most well-known selling points, but the people you're talking about are just as much a part of Microsoft's target market as they are Apple's.
I do agree with you that hardware lock-in is a Bad Thing from a political and economic standpoint, but from a usability and reliability perspective Apple's control over the hardware upon which their OS runs gives them an enormous edge, and I'm happy to be the beneficiary of that advantage. If Apple had the monopoly that Microsoft does then we'd have cause for concern, but they don't.
Yes, Macs are "trendy", but there's solid quality and functionality behind the shine and sparkle.
If truer words have ever been written, it wasn't on Slashdot.
I actually started playing Populous again. Despite the modest graphics, it's just as entertaining now as it was 10 years ago when I first played it.
And Syndicate? Damn. Back in the day I played that game so much I had dreams about it. I haven't gotten back into playing it, but I did fire it up just to watch the intro. Truly groundbreaking stuff. I put it right behind Deus Ex on the list of best cyberpunk games ever. BTW, as amazing as the PC version was, the Amiga version was even better!
As I said "Mod Me Down" and yes it happened.
Please realize that the fact that you successfully predicted that your original post would be modded down does not in any way add to the value or credibility of that post. I can post a goatse link and make the same prediction.
Further, you state "Not all "Nerds" want to hear about Manga or Serenity every other day for the last month", and then accuse the rest of us of group-think? You're right, we aren't all interested in the same things, hence the variety of stories. There have been a lot of Serenity-related stories lately because there have been a lot of things happening lately with respect to this one particular facet of geekdom. Don't like it? Cool. You're probably not alone, but based on the activity of the threads I'd say that there's enough interest to warrant it's inclusion. For those who aren't interested, there are 14 other sections of Slashdot and who knows how many other stories. Take your pick.
I think you believe too many stories from a friend of a friend of a friend.
And I think that you don't know the true meaning of REAL ULTIMATE POWER!!!
For my senior project in college (Sociology major), I used a program called SPSS to do a regression analysis using data from the General Social Survey (an enormous and comprehensive survey regularly conducted by the government on the US population) to determine if there was a statistical correlation between wealth, income, & economic status and happiness (using several variables which generally indicate happiness and life satisfaction).
As it turns out, there is a strong positive correlation between the two. Obviously other factors play a role as well, and it doesn't conclusively determine causality, but wealthy people are much more likely to be happy than poor and middle-income people.
I'm right there with you all the way. I caught the movie at 10:30 last night, and of the 30 or so people in the theater, the group of friends I went with accounted for more than half of that. The showing that let out before ours didn't look much better.
And yeah, I got more than a little teary also, and I'd had the movie spoiled for me beforehand (Grrr! Argh!). There were two people sitting behind me who were completely beside themselves with during "certain events", and I don't blame 'em a bit.
I'll be seeing the movie at least once more, and hopefully twice if it stays in theaters long enough.
I can only hope (pray!) that this is just the first act in a much larger story, and that we'll have another couple of movies to see where Joss is going with it. As it stands now most of the death seems pointless. Hopefully it's necessary to drive the story when seen from a broader perspective. Joss has been known to kill beloved characters before (I'm thinking largely of Tara on Buffy here), but it's generally an essential element in retrospect (allowing Willow to fully develop).
I just got back from the theater, and I'm completely emotionally drained. Yeah, I'll see it again too after some downtime.
I completely agree with you on all counts! Max certainly deserves to be on the list, and probably in the top 25.
I can accept their rationale at putting the original Star Trek at the #1 spot by virtue of its impact on everything that came after it, but in my book Firefly and the new Battlestar Galactica would be pretty much evenly matched for the #2 spot.
After the premier that "stunt" loses all meaning.
Have you seen the new BSG? As a kid I was a huge fan of the original series, and as one of maybe 5 people on the planet that thought that the Sci-Fi Channel version of Dune was an utter abomination I had serious concerns that they were going to turn a beloved part of my childhood into a polished turd.
I've never been so happy to be wrong. The changes made from the original series were clearly not a gimmick, but were done both to open up new avenues and plot possibilities. To claim otherwise is to unfairly marginalize the new series as a simple copy of the original.
It's an absolute masterpiece, and as much as I adored the original I seldom give it a thought when watching the new version. The two shows have the same basic premise, but tone of the show and the plot lines and character development that are explored are so different that it's impossible to have a meaningful comparison between the two. The creators, IMHO, are respectful of the genesis of their show, but don't generally have the original in mind when writing it. Their focus is on making their show the best they can, and I think that what they're turning out is a jaw-dropping success.
Frankly Stargate SG:1 is good science fiction, perhaps the best adaptation of any movie to the small screen.
You may be right, but I think that Buffy the Vampire Slayer would be a strong contender for that title.
Also missing, but borderline, is Project Bluebook.
Thanks for the flashback! I'd completely forgotten about that show! It was possibly the first sci-fi I'd ever been exposed to.
they are looking at building a space elevator in a more northern/southern position which has nice cool water on a island.
Um, actually they aren't. The plan is to have the base on a ship at sea, near the equator, a couple hundred miles from the nearest land.
http://www.liftport.com/about.php
When was the last time a ship at sea was attacked by a car bomb?
I encourage everyone to check out Liftport's web site, as these concerns have already been addressed, as well as most of the others that have been brought up in this thread.
The base of the elevator will be a couple hundred miles offshore. The ribbon will be nowhere near any normal air traffic routes. Further, the area around it will be protected by a heavy military presence (they've already worked this out with the US government).
Weather is potentially an issue, but not a deal-breaker, and they're working out the fine details there. As far as space debris goes, the entire thing is mobile to a limited extent. They expect to make regular small changes to its location to avoid colliding with junk.
Hee hee. I've got that on a t-shirt.
That's absolutely correct and proper MLA (Modern Language Association) style. In this instance, that's exactly what was done in the original /. summary, but with an incorrect acronym. The original poster in this thread was correcting that.
-Cybrex
My first PC was a Packard Bell, and it took every penny I had to afford it. When it began having problems almost right away I didn't have any money left to get it fixed. The only way I could keep it running was to learn how to work on the damn thing myself.
That turned out to be the start of my computer geekdom (C-64 and Amiga aside). That little piece of crap forced me to begin building the valuable skills that have since become the foundation of my lousy IT career!
-Cybrex
Transhumanism isn't a universal mandate. When the technologies arrives, there will be those who dive in, those who want nothing to do with it, and those who will embrace certain aspects and shun others. While I can't begin to wrap my brain around your response, I fully support your right to opt out of whatever technology you or any other intelligent being finds unacceptable. (I'm reminded of the Amish.) Further, I think that it should be a mandate for all transhumans and posthumans to take an active role in protecting those rights. I don't think it's unreasonable to hold beings which are inherently superior to a higher ethical standard. It's important that this idea becomes culturally engrained before it becomes needed.
On the other hand, I think it's equally important that those who choose not to take advantage of life-extending, life-enhancing technologies not be permitted to hold the rest of us back, as they so often seem to want to do. We can see a clear example of this mindset with the current debate over stem cell research, but the struggle has been going on for as long as we've had medical science.
-Cybrex
Forget that! My question is "When do I get my wife back?!?"
(Actually, it's okay. I use the time to play Matrix Online.)
the ability to have post-coital conversations about kernel optimisations is somewhat overrated.
:-)
I married a chemistry geek rather than a code geek, but I think the basic point carries over into all forms of geekdom.
Trust me on this: there's nothing hotter than spooning with a naked blonde while she discusses inductively coupled plasma. Schwing!!!
-Cybrex
For reasons already covered to death in other comments, the article is clearly written by either an idiot, a Microsoft shill, or both.
One of my pet peeves is people referring to Apple as "MAC". This is wrong for two reasons.
1) Apple is the company. Macs are the computers they make.
2) "Mac" is the short form of "Macintosh". "MAC" is an acronym for "Media Access Control", and refers to the unique identifier on NICs.
[/soapbox]
-Cybrex
Your statement is more correct if you simply omit the last word.
The fact that IE is the dominant browser doesn't indicate that it's any better- only that it's the default.
You obviously can't emulate two buttons with the button bar on current PowerBooks, but Sidetrack will let you emulate it using the track pad. In fact, if you are so inclined you could fully emulate a 6 button mouse with both horizontal and vertical scrolling areas using just your existing trackpad and single button!
d ex.html
http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/sidetrack/in
So Apple are meant to disrupt the muscle memory of practically every Apple user, by dropping a scheme that they have stuck to for decades, to make it slightly easier for a minority of people who use two different systems on a regular basis?
I think even you are giving the author too much slack.
I spend approximately 12 hours a day using computers, and it's almost 50/50 Windows/Mac. Often I'll have them running side-by-side, and switch back and forth every couple of minutes or so. Furthermore, I regularly use Apple USB keyboards with PCs, 2-button Logitech scroll mice on Macs, trakpads on PowerBooks and Windows laptops, and just about every other possible configuration except Apple 1-button mice on PCs.
I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts, so how much trouble do I have remembering whether I'm supposed to be using Ctrl-C or Cmd-C, etc.? None whatsoever. If I'm using a Windows interface I use Windows conventions, and if I'm using an OS X interface I use Macintosh conventions. I don't consider myself to be particularly talented in this regard, and yet almost never need to give it any thought. My fingers just do it. It's as second nature as touch-typing.
As an added bonus, when from time to time I find myself in front of a Linux or non-Apple UNIX CLI, I'm already familiar with the keyboard shortcuts because they're the same as an OS X terminal window.
That's one of my wallpaper patterns! :-)
You'll notice that they're all displaying Sony products- a cell phone, CD player, TV, and video camera. Chris Kavanagh is holding a laptop, but in the image you linked to the bottom is cut off.
Also of note is that "CSM-101" is visible in Tony James' shades.
LOL! That is most assuredly *NOT* the same Sputnik!
*shudder*
-Cybrex
I haven't yet heard any of the Carbon Silicon music, but Tony James is a hero of mine, and his former/other group, Sigue Sigue Sputnik (with Martin Degville and Neil X), stands as my absolute favorite band of all time. (I've got an autographed album and a personalized, autographed poster among other Sputnik memorabilia on display in my house.)
I'm amazed that they aren't more popular, particularly among the Slashdot crowd. Sputnik was/is always about more than just the music- it's like a cultural snapshot of an alternate future- Bladerunner meets The Road Warrior in the nighttime neon-city wastelands of the 80's music scene. Tony James gets it with respect to the way the future should have been, and this is reflected in Sputnik's music.
Whether Carbon Silicon pans out or not, anyone with an interest in upbeat, energetic, high-tech music with a heavy emphasis on bass guitar and cheap porn owes it to themself to at least check out their first (and IMHO, best) album, Flaunt It. Their subsequent albums are somewhat more of a mixed bag, but they all have some real gems. Additionally, there's an active fan community which has been producing independent remixes and redubs for years, generally with the blessings of James.
-Cybrex
I can only hope. Personally, I used to be a Republican back when "Republican" meant "small-government, fiscal conservative". Somewhere during the Clinton administration I realized that the Republican party no longer really stood for the ideals that I'd grown up with and became a Libertarian. I'm surprised that more people haven't done the same.
Cybrex