He said "in the US", not "in my eyes". He said exactly what he meant and said it well.
I think he's still wrong though. The Kashmir issue has been a fairly regular news item, and something any reasonably educated American would know about, since at least the mid-80s (before then, I didn't really follow the news, so I can't say).
Re:I know this is an oft repeated point but
on
Upbeat on E-books
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· Score: 1
I've played with this particular sony ebook, and while the screen detail and contrast seem pretty good, it sucks in many ways -- particularly the insanely slow update time for the screen (like 1-2 seconds for an update), and a confusing user-interface which makes no attempt to accomodate the slow update speed.
For what it's worth, today I happened to run into a Sony advertisement of sorts, where they had essentially nailed a bunch of real PSPs to a wall (in a busy train station), each showing a movie or something; of course you couldn't play them. [I guess this allows them to hide the giant power cords:-]
It's much smaller than I thought, and the screen is giant, taking up pretty much the entire face of the unit. However what surprised me was the apparently low quality of the display: it seemed very dark and kind of "grainy" (i.e. the individual pixels, while pretty small, were unusually noticeable, not blending into each other as much as they do on a typical LCD display). That kinda turned me off...
Now this requires a little more elaboration. I'm relatively suspicious of such statements because many of them turn into anti-suburban screeds about how people should live in high-density housing in the city like rats.
Wow, you managed to fit your anti-urban screed into one sentence!
Er, the PSP has a pretty big screen for a portable game player, but I think watching movies on that tiny little thing is not going to be a very big draw -- nor, to be honest, will music, as there are far better alternatives like the ipod.
The PSP will succeed only if it has good enough games (and the battery life doesn't suck too much etc).
Seriously; my main computer is a 450 MHz PIII, and I have zero problems with firefox, it's not even a little pokey or anything. I got this machine for free from someone who was upgrading, I think in late 2001 or early 2002 (so it was obviously not state-of-the-art then!).
My previous machine was a 150 MHz Pentium with 80 MB of RAM -- the Mozilla of the time was a little slow on it, but still pretty usable. Since Mozilla and firefox have had a fair amount of speed tuning since then, I don't think they'd be too bad either.
I'm curious to know on exactly what hardware it is "deathly slow"...
[I'm imagining a 25 MHz 68030 here -- my previous previous computer:-o]
Drives me nuts... but some people seem to love the ability to lump everything together like that.
I got interviewed by a newspaper reporter for one of these "man on the street" stories. When she asked "What do you do?" I said "I'm a computer programmer." Upon hearing that, her face lit up, and she said "Ah, IT!"
Sure enough, the caption under my picture in the paper said "<name>, IT worker".
I suppose if I hunted her down and killed her, the resulting story would be "Reporter Murdered by Enraged IT Worker"...
I've got a synthetic sapphire crystal on my watch, and the rest of it is made of a hardened titanium, and 4 years so far without a single scratch. It's obvious that I've never whacked the crystal hard against a rock.
I've noticed that some very nice watches in the I-can't-afford-it category, surprisingly, come with plain acrylic crystals. I had thought that artificial sapphire crystals were far more desirable because of their scratch resistance.
I asked a salesman in the local I-can't-afford-it-emporium about it, and he said that the acrylic scratches easily, but is more resistant to mechanical abuse, and when it does break, does so in a much less catastrophic manner (acrylic cracks, sapphire shatters into tiny dangerous shards). Such crystals are intentionally made fairly thick, and come with a polishing kit that makes it easy to remove scratches.
All in all he thought the acrylic crystal was a better bet for long term use -- especially when used roughly (sports, military, etc) -- but apparently people buying an expensive watch often balk at such plebian materials and want something "perfect" and maintenance-free, so even watches aimed at such markets still tend to come with sapphire crystals.
I strongly agree -- the flag is boring and un-memorable. It feels generic.
Your (Anthony Boyd) suggested logos are much better; they have the requisite simplicity (they're even simpler than the flag), but are far more striking, and for a logo "striking" is a very good thing. The first two retain the daemon image people like and associate with *BSD, without being too overt about it (keep the fundies at bay). They also simply have a panache that is completely lacking from the flag logo.
I don't know WTF happened with the official selection process, but in these situations it often comes down to picking the choice everybody hates the least -- and nobody actually likes -- followed by a round of rah-rahing among supporters with everybody trying to convince themselves how much they like the new choice, while hiding their disappointment.
Not very inspiring guys. Whatever happened to the image of NetBSD as the branch of *BSD that doesn't compromise its ideals?
What the hell more do you want? The individual unmixed tracks ready to load up in Pro Tools (or should they use a more OSS-friendly file format)? The instruments they were played on and sheet music to go with it?
Yes?
Throw Bill Gates' head in too and I'll even say thank you!
Corporate Japan would love this. People take company vacations there, sing company songs, and so on.
It's also almost mandatory to drink really heavily at company events. That's safe enough if you're sitting around a table or taking the train home, but... hmmm, could be amusing...
[OTOH, I'll bet a fixed arcade version of this would be a huge hit!]
BBC must have its crap too, it just doesn't get imported here
I'm american, and I lived in britain for 3 years. My observation during that time was that even the "crap" on british broacast TV channels was vastly, insanely, better than the average program on U.S. network TV. It was really nice having a large proportion of the schedule be watchable.
I really felt quite sick when I moved back, and realized how well and truly U.S. network TV sucks. It really, really, really sucks.
[For about a year after I returned, the only two programs I watched were The Simpsons (I had missed 4 years of them, and they were getting re-run twice a day!) and the McNeil-Lehrer Newshour, which is (er, was) pretty good.]
Sorry to throw cold water on your rationalizations...
No No NO! Some of us actually like musty old libraries. I dont know why but I have always felt a aura of knowledge when I walk into a good library and despite being a tech-head in every sense of the word I would be the last one standing to ensure they keep books in paper format - AND AS MANY AS POSSIBLE.
Yeah. Me too. Also real bookstores; keep amazon as a "source of last resort".
It's a bit like all the people who blather on about how DVDs and home-theatres have made real movie theatres obsolete. That seems madness to me, I like going to the movies, I like the vibe of the crowd[*], and I don't want to do everything from the comfort of my la-z-boy!!!
I don't know, maybe everybody who posts here lives in rural north dakota or something...
[*] Note, I live in a place where movie goers are quite considerate of others (there are rare exceptions -- and about 99% of time it's in the form of a group of American teenagers...).
Because they are tired of the other stuff they've been using.
No matter how many times I write that statement, someone will fire back that I just don't understand why people write open source software.
I said "write" because you, in your original post, said "why would you take the time to write alternative software?".
Anyway, as for why people use free software? Many reasons -- some because it's better software (the "open source" reason), but some because they like using software that they can contribute to themselves, and again feel part of the community.
In other words, you can't easily separate these two faces of free softare, "write", and "use". This is a fundamental attribute, and a significant factor in its popularity.
As far as I can tell you seem to be trying to understand this popularity using the same limited analysis one might use to judge proprietary software, and that Just Doesn't Work. It's a bit like trying to describe peoples' behavior using only economic measures -- people are more complex than that, so such an analysis inevitably proves insufficient.
I know it's frustrating when people answer your questions with "You just don't get it," but frankly, that appears to be the case.
If you could do everything you wanted with Microsoft products and were perfectly happy with everything they produced, why would you take the time to write alternative software? Because of a personal interest? Perhaps.
Wow.
Have you ever even talked to a free software developer?
The vast majority of people involved in free software do it because they like doing cool stuff, they like writing software, and they like doing as part of a community which appreciates what they do and gives them free reign to play and contribute.
Microsoft or their ilk has bugger-all to do with it, really.
Imagine a story popping up on the US feed about say a Ford Explorer flipping over, with nice big Ford ads next to it: a waste of money and space.
Heh; I once saw a story on yahoo news about some sort of baby-food poisoning incident, nasty, and it had a bunch of big ads on the page, all for -- you guessed it -- baby-food. Made the usual over-the-top smiling baby pictures those types of ads use take on a whole new creepy tone... "Bobby was happy baby... until the brain-damage. Gerber Baby Food."
I'll join the chorus of people saying "no". Either it's a problem somewhere else in your system, or a really crappy LCD.
I used to not like LCD monitors, especially the kind that use the analogue video out, but at work I got an NEC MultiSync LCD 1760v (17", 1280x1024 -- I know, yesterday's news, but a great step up for me:-), which has made a complete convert out of me.
Not only does it have far better contrast and brightness than other LCD monitors I've used, but it has no ghosting of any kind, and tracks the analogue video output of my computer flawlessly. Even the industrial design is great, much better than typical "we've got a really expensive CAD system and no design sense whatsoever" designs, and I'd say on par with Apple's wonderful creations (without Apple's tendency to be a bit poncy... "we're stylish and we're not going to let you forget it!").
The display gamma seems to be much different than my old CRT, so it did take a bunch of adjustment to get pictures looking the same.
Anyway, 3 thumbs up for the 1760V from me (this model is a few years old I think).
They cannot admit that they are addicted to it. Quitting television is *very* difficult, and takes effort and sacrifice.
Oh, it does not.
I've no doubt a few people are "really addicted", but most just watch a lot because it's really easy and comforting.
I tend to go through periods with and without a TV (e.g., flatmate owns TV, moves out). While I veg out a lot in front of the TV just like everybody else during the "have TV" periods, there's only a brief moment of consternation when it dissapears -- a few twinges of "oh, blahblah is on now, that was amusing..." and then I just go do something else.
People can cope; TV is a nice bit of artificial companionship and an easy way to waste time, but it's not addictive like cigarettes or even coffee or gambling can be.
Indeed I suspect most people these days would probably just spend more time trolling slashdot...:-)
The serious question is: how good is the quality of information in the typical wikipedia article?
That's an extremely vague question, but as a humble sometime user, I'd say: quite excellent (judging from those entries I've seen about which I already know quite a bit).
Indeed, in my experience I'd say it's better on average than a traditional paper encyclopedia -- entries in the latter are typically pretty spartan for anything except most important (say) 1% (the sort to which they devote multiple pages). The wikipedia seems to have many more in-depth articles, and those on fast-moving technical subjects and the like are naturally a great deal more up-to-date than a traditional encyclopedia.
It's like comparing apples and oranges - two completely different ways a written language is interpreted.
I think they're not quite as different as many people seem to think though.
Most kanji are composed of more primitive components. From observing myself reading Japanese, I've noticed that I make many of the same mistakes in recognition, and use similar tricks in recognizing unknown kanji, as I do when reading english. For instance, I frequently confuse two kanji because they have mostly the same primitive components, but differ in one (often the radical -- even though it's arguably the most important part of a kanji, I find I tend to ignore it when reading!).
In my opinion it's not unreasonable to think of the parts of a kanji as being like letters and the whole thing as being like a word.
Not to mention the stupidity of using a touch pad on something this small!
Touch pads require space to work well.... and the tiny little touchpad they ended up with looks like it's either going to be horribly hard to use (requiring great precision of movement by the user) or horribly annoying (constantly having to reposition your finger for even small mouse movements).
Most manufs. seem to end up using an eraser-head interface on their smallest models for exactly this reason, but I guess sharp was too damn to cheap to do it.
Since the whole design looks just sort of "blah", I'm guessing this thing wasn't designed by their most talented team...
I work for a big japanese company in japan, and while windows certainly has an overwhelming majority, it seems to me that there's less of the sort of "microsoft worship" that there is in the U.S. -- when I mention that I'm having problems with XXX because I don't use windows/IE, people don't react in horror (something that did happen in the U.S...), it's a more practical "how much effort will it cost" response. There are definitely a fair number of free-software fans around too.
So while getting people/companies to use F.S. is obviously still hard, I do have a perception that people would quite happily switch if the product were good.
Slashdot Mirror
He said "in the US", not "in my eyes". He said exactly what he meant and said it well.
I think he's still wrong though. The Kashmir issue has been a fairly regular news item, and something any reasonably educated American would know about, since at least the mid-80s (before then, I didn't really follow the news, so I can't say).
I've played with this particular sony ebook, and while the screen detail and contrast seem pretty good, it sucks in many ways -- particularly the insanely slow update time for the screen (like 1-2 seconds for an update), and a confusing user-interface which makes no attempt to accomodate the slow update speed.
For what it's worth, today I happened to run into a Sony advertisement of sorts, where they had essentially nailed a bunch of real PSPs to a wall (in a busy train station), each showing a movie or something; of course you couldn't play them. [I guess this allows them to hide the giant power cords :-]
It's much smaller than I thought, and the screen is giant, taking up pretty much the entire face of the unit. However what surprised me was the apparently low quality of the display: it seemed very dark and kind of "grainy" (i.e. the individual pixels, while pretty small, were unusually noticeable, not blending into each other as much as they do on a typical LCD display). That kinda turned me off...
Now this requires a little more elaboration. I'm relatively suspicious of such statements because many of them turn into anti-suburban screeds about how people should live in high-density housing in the city like rats.
Wow, you managed to fit your anti-urban screed into one sentence!
Er, the PSP has a pretty big screen for a portable game player, but I think watching movies on that tiny little thing is not going to be a very big draw -- nor, to be honest, will music, as there are far better alternatives like the ipod.
The PSP will succeed only if it has good enough games (and the battery life doesn't suck too much etc).
For access to reasonably priced, unmetered high-speed internet access, minivan swallowing sinkholes is an evil that I am perfectly willing to face.
Hell, I'd pay extra if they could guarantee a minimum number of minivans swallowed...
Seriously; my main computer is a 450 MHz PIII, and I have zero problems with firefox, it's not even a little pokey or anything. I got this machine for free from someone who was upgrading, I think in late 2001 or early 2002 (so it was obviously not state-of-the-art then!).
:-o]
My previous machine was a 150 MHz Pentium with 80 MB of RAM -- the Mozilla of the time was a little slow on it, but still pretty usable. Since Mozilla and firefox have had a fair amount of speed tuning since then, I don't think they'd be too bad either.
I'm curious to know on exactly what hardware it is "deathly slow"...
[I'm imagining a 25 MHz 68030 here -- my previous previous computer
Drives me nuts... but some people seem to love the ability to lump everything together like that.
I got interviewed by a newspaper reporter for one of these "man on the street" stories. When she asked "What do you do?" I said "I'm a computer programmer." Upon hearing that, her face lit up, and she said "Ah, IT!"
Sure enough, the caption under my picture in the paper said "<name>, IT worker".
I suppose if I hunted her down and killed her, the resulting story would be "Reporter Murdered by Enraged IT Worker"...
I've got a synthetic sapphire crystal on my watch, and the rest of it is made of a hardened titanium, and 4 years so far without a single scratch. It's obvious that I've never whacked the crystal hard against a rock.
I've noticed that some very nice watches in the I-can't-afford-it category, surprisingly, come with plain acrylic crystals. I had thought that artificial sapphire crystals were far more desirable because of their scratch resistance.
I asked a salesman in the local I-can't-afford-it-emporium about it, and he said that the acrylic scratches easily, but is more resistant to mechanical abuse, and when it does break, does so in a much less catastrophic manner (acrylic cracks, sapphire shatters into tiny dangerous shards). Such crystals are intentionally made fairly thick, and come with a polishing kit that makes it easy to remove scratches.
All in all he thought the acrylic crystal was a better bet for long term use -- especially when used roughly (sports, military, etc) -- but apparently people buying an expensive watch often balk at such plebian materials and want something "perfect" and maintenance-free, so even watches aimed at such markets still tend to come with sapphire crystals.
[Disclaimer: I ain't no watch expert...]
I strongly agree -- the flag is boring and un-memorable. It feels generic.
Your (Anthony Boyd) suggested logos are much better; they have the requisite simplicity (they're even simpler than the flag), but are far more striking, and for a logo "striking" is a very good thing. The first two retain the daemon image people like and associate with *BSD, without being too overt about it (keep the fundies at bay). They also simply have a panache that is completely lacking from the flag logo.
I don't know WTF happened with the official selection process, but in these situations it often comes down to picking the choice everybody hates the least -- and nobody actually likes -- followed by a round of rah-rahing among supporters with everybody trying to convince themselves how much they like the new choice, while hiding their disappointment.
Not very inspiring guys. Whatever happened to the image of NetBSD as the branch of *BSD that doesn't compromise its ideals?
What the hell more do you want? The individual unmixed tracks ready to load up in Pro Tools (or should they use a more OSS-friendly file format)? The instruments they were played on and sheet music to go with it?
Yes?
Throw Bill Gates' head in too and I'll even say thank you!
Corporate Japan would love this. People take company vacations there, sing company songs, and so on.
... hmmm, could be amusing...
It's also almost mandatory to drink really heavily at company events. That's safe enough if you're sitting around a table or taking the train home, but
[OTOH, I'll bet a fixed arcade version of this would be a huge hit!]
BBC must have its crap too, it just doesn't get imported here
I'm american, and I lived in britain for 3 years. My observation during that time was that even the "crap" on british broacast TV channels was vastly, insanely, better than the average program on U.S. network TV. It was really nice having a large proportion of the schedule be watchable.
I really felt quite sick when I moved back, and realized how well and truly U.S. network TV sucks. It really, really, really sucks.
[For about a year after I returned, the only two programs I watched were The Simpsons (I had missed 4 years of them, and they were getting re-run twice a day!) and the McNeil-Lehrer Newshour, which is (er, was) pretty good.]
Sorry to throw cold water on your rationalizations...
No No NO! Some of us actually like musty old libraries. I dont know why but I have always felt a aura of knowledge when I walk into a good library and despite being a tech-head in every sense of the word I would be the last one standing to ensure they keep books in paper format - AND AS MANY AS POSSIBLE.
Yeah. Me too. Also real bookstores; keep amazon as a "source of last resort".
It's a bit like all the people who blather on about how DVDs and home-theatres have made real movie theatres obsolete. That seems madness to me, I like going to the movies, I like the vibe of the crowd[*], and I don't want to do everything from the comfort of my la-z-boy!!!
I don't know, maybe everybody who posts here lives in rural north dakota or something...
[*] Note, I live in a place where movie goers are quite considerate of others (there are rare exceptions -- and about 99% of time it's in the form of a group of American teenagers...).
Why do people use open source software?
Because they are tired of the other stuff they've been using.
No matter how many times I write that statement, someone will fire back that I just don't understand why people write open source software.
I said "write" because you, in your original post, said "why would you take the time to write alternative software?".
Anyway, as for why people use free software? Many reasons -- some because it's better software (the "open source" reason), but some because they like using software that they can contribute to themselves, and again feel part of the community.
In other words, you can't easily separate these two faces of free softare, "write", and "use". This is a fundamental attribute, and a significant factor in its popularity.
As far as I can tell you seem to be trying to understand this popularity using the same limited analysis one might use to judge proprietary software, and that Just Doesn't Work. It's a bit like trying to describe peoples' behavior using only economic measures -- people are more complex than that, so such an analysis inevitably proves insufficient.
I know it's frustrating when people answer your questions with "You just don't get it," but frankly, that appears to be the case.
If you could do everything you wanted with Microsoft products and were perfectly happy with everything they produced, why would you take the time to write alternative software? Because of a personal interest? Perhaps.
Wow.
Have you ever even talked to a free software developer?
The vast majority of people involved in free software do it because they like doing cool stuff, they like writing software, and they like doing as part of a community which appreciates what they do and gives them free reign to play and contribute.
Microsoft or their ilk has bugger-all to do with it, really.
Imagine a story popping up on the US feed about say a Ford Explorer flipping over, with nice big Ford ads next to it: a waste of money and space.
... until the brain-damage. Gerber Baby Food."
Heh; I once saw a story on yahoo news about some sort of baby-food poisoning incident, nasty, and it had a bunch of big ads on the page, all for -- you guessed it -- baby-food. Made the usual over-the-top smiling baby pictures those types of ads use take on a whole new creepy tone... "Bobby was happy baby
Would it really be so harmful to state the real reason?
"Caffeine is added to Coke because our customers enjoy its effect as a mild and safe stimulate."
[Or is anti-drug hysteria so great that even stating something like the above, that everybody already knows, would get them skewered?]
I'll join the chorus of people saying "no". Either it's a problem somewhere else in your system, or a really crappy LCD.
:-), which has made a complete convert out of me.
... "we're stylish and we're not going to let you forget it!").
I used to not like LCD monitors, especially the kind that use the analogue video out, but at work I got an NEC MultiSync LCD 1760v (17", 1280x1024 -- I know, yesterday's news, but a great step up for me
Not only does it have far better contrast and brightness than other LCD monitors I've used, but it has no ghosting of any kind, and tracks the analogue video output of my computer flawlessly. Even the industrial design is great, much better than typical "we've got a really expensive CAD system and no design sense whatsoever" designs, and I'd say on par with Apple's wonderful creations (without Apple's tendency to be a bit poncy
The display gamma seems to be much different than my old CRT, so it did take a bunch of adjustment to get pictures looking the same.
Anyway, 3 thumbs up for the 1760V from me (this model is a few years old I think).
They cannot admit that they are addicted to it. Quitting television is *very* difficult, and takes effort and sacrifice.
:-)
Oh, it does not.
I've no doubt a few people are "really addicted", but most just watch a lot because it's really easy and comforting.
I tend to go through periods with and without a TV (e.g., flatmate owns TV, moves out). While I veg out a lot in front of the TV just like everybody else during the "have TV" periods, there's only a brief moment of consternation when it dissapears -- a few twinges of "oh, blahblah is on now, that was amusing..." and then I just go do something else.
People can cope; TV is a nice bit of artificial companionship and an easy way to waste time, but it's not addictive like cigarettes or even coffee or gambling can be.
Indeed I suspect most people these days would probably just spend more time trolling slashdot...
The serious question is: how good is the quality of information in the typical wikipedia article?
That's an extremely vague question, but as a humble sometime user, I'd say: quite excellent (judging from those entries I've seen about which I already know quite a bit).
Indeed, in my experience I'd say it's better on average than a traditional paper encyclopedia -- entries in the latter are typically pretty spartan for anything except most important (say) 1% (the sort to which they devote multiple pages). The wikipedia seems to have many more in-depth articles, and those on fast-moving technical subjects and the like are naturally a great deal more up-to-date than a traditional encyclopedia.
Kanji = picture-based
English = character-based
It's like comparing apples and oranges - two completely different ways a written language is interpreted.
I think they're not quite as different as many people seem to think though.
Most kanji are composed of more primitive components. From observing myself reading Japanese, I've noticed that I make many of the same mistakes in recognition, and use similar tricks in recognizing unknown kanji, as I do when reading english. For instance, I frequently confuse two kanji because they have mostly the same primitive components, but differ in one (often the radical -- even though it's arguably the most important part of a kanji, I find I tend to ignore it when reading!).
In my opinion it's not unreasonable to think of the parts of a kanji as being like letters and the whole thing as being like a word.
Not to mention the stupidity of using a touch pad on something this small!
Touch pads require space to work well.... and the tiny little touchpad they ended up with looks like it's either going to be horribly hard to use (requiring great precision of movement by the user) or horribly annoying (constantly having to reposition your finger for even small mouse movements).
Most manufs. seem to end up using an eraser-head interface on their smallest models for exactly this reason, but I guess sharp was too damn to cheap to do it.
Since the whole design looks just sort of "blah", I'm guessing this thing wasn't designed by their most talented team...
I work for a big japanese company in japan, and while windows certainly has an overwhelming majority, it seems to me that there's less of the sort of "microsoft worship" that there is in the U.S. -- when I mention that I'm having problems with XXX because I don't use windows/IE, people don't react in horror (something that did happen in the U.S...), it's a more practical "how much effort will it cost" response. There are definitely a fair number of free-software fans around too.
So while getting people/companies to use F.S. is obviously still hard, I do have a perception that people would quite happily switch if the product were good.