Also, which pictures do you think her friends posted--the ones where she looks down, or the few where she actually looked happy for a moment when laughing at a joke? If I go to an event and take 50 pics with the so-so camera in my phone I'm lucky to have 5 worth sharing. Which is why I take 50.:-)
See? This is why I still come to Slashdot. Not only do we have a joke about Latin getting a +5 but there are currently THREE +5 replies to it--another joke and (deus help us) TWO Latin grammar Nazis. (Nazii? Nazae?) LOVE IT! Keep it up Slashdotters! You're what make this place great.
Good point. That's why God made disposable accounts. Looking at the left column of my main GMail screen, I see I've still got 94 invitations to give out. Unless you've already used your 99, you've probably got some available too.
Copilot is free on weekends. http://www.copilot.com/ I've used it and it works pretty well, and it's about as easy to set up as possible. The hardest part is talking a clueless relative through the process of downloading something AND THEN FINDING IT and then launching it.
>> For likely 90% of home users, this will be perfect.
> I'd say this is perfect for no more than 50% of home users.
And I'd say you're off by about 49.8%. Do you know anyone who uses a WebTV? Remember the i-Opener, 3Com Audrey, EarthLink Mivo, or any of the other failed Internet appliances of the past dozen years? Remember the hue and cry when the iPhone wasn't going to offer developers a native SDK? (And how well they've done with the App Store since?) I'm sorry, I just don't see this being any kind of success. There's just always something you need to do locally.
Yeah, I damn near stopped reading at that point too. Only sheer morbid curiosity kept me ging. FFS, less than THREE YEARS AGO Steve Jobs tried to pull that same crap with the iPhone. He said "Web apps only!" and "No SDK needed!" and developers around the world screamed, Apple relented, and now they make eleventy-billion dollars per second from the App Store. I am really REALLY surprised that Google is doing something this stupid. The fact that many people do MOST of their work on the web doesn't mean they can get by with doing ALL their work on the web. The non-web part is really important. It's like saying "Most people breathe 24 hours a day, so we think this new room which has air for 23 hours per day should be fine." Who the hell does Google think will buy this? There is NO teenager who lives ONLY on Facebook and MySpace. EVERYONE needs local apps. Seniors are always mentioned but evidently there aren't enough to keep a product afloat. Think there's a big market for a computer that is WORTHLESS without a Web connection? Ask the makers of WebTV,, the i-Opener, the Audrey, or the Mivo.
Yes! I intend to use this documentation as a starting point for my own product line. I hope to learn quickly and make more advanced designs, which will also be smaller, and I will compete directly with Intel. I will call my company Advanced Micro Designs.
Yes, we will hear that... BECAUSE IT'S TRUE. Not ONE serious widespread virus in the wild IN THE EIGHT+ YEAR HISTORY of the operating system. The only reason I have to qualify that statement AT ALL is because yes, there are a couple trojans. But NOTHING like Windows. There are NOT a million drive-by downloads, self-spreading worms, or a bunch of malware-infested crappy freeware apps like Windows has.
Is it because it's a better OS? Smaller market share? Lazy virus writers that's can't be bothered to learn to use XCode? WHO CARES!!! The fact is it's NOT a problem right now. Maybe it will be someday. I'll worry about it then. In the meantime, I'm enjoying my near-DECADE of peaceful, pleasant, safe computing.* If you can afford it, it's a great way to go.
Note: Linux is also very good in this regard. But the parent was talking about Macs.
* I, along with plenty of other readers here, can, and have, used Windows boxes without viruses for years. But this thread isn't about what's POSSIBLE for someone who is smart and cares--it's about what DOES HAPPEN to users who AREN'T and DON'T.
... I think I can't hate the **AA any more than I already do, they pull crap like this. "The MPAA is arguing that if they could directly turn those plugs on and off, they could offer more goods to consumers." Really? REALLY?!?!?
Wow, no shit. Somehow Latitude was on (which I *swear* I never enabled) and while it only had a (wrong?) location from a few months ago, it's not something I want on at all. EVERYONE should check out their dashboard.
Random tip: if you just want to run a single app from the remove machine, ssh -XC The X tells ssh to forward X and the C means compress. One particular app I used to run (connecting from anywhere to my Linux box at home, which was behind a 256k up DSL) launched in 30 seconds with -X and 10 seconds with -XC. Of course, different people's definitions of "usable" differ.:-)
And for those who have never heard of or seen a Beagleboard, it's worth noting that it doesn't have a built-in display. So the headline should be "New XBMC Port Promises ARM-Powered HD Source in the Palm of Your Hand." Which is still pretty cool but I thought they were talking about something that I could hold in my hand and watch. Note to headline writers: small is great, but "fits in your hand" isn't too special unless the device is intended to be used while in your hand.
Agreed. Better question: will Google and Android (and BlackBerry and Pre and, oh yeah, iPhone) kill 95% of the current demand for standalone GPSs, reducing it to a niche market (with possibly just one supplier) for hikers, bikers, boaters, pilots, and people who drive for a living? Yes.
I'm in general agreement with the "that's WAY to old to be worthwhile" crowd here but I will give you the benefit of the doubt and ask "resurrect for what purpose?" There are very few thing that can truly be done with a 486 in 2009:
Music player? Probably not. A fast 486 is absolutely at the bottom end of what can decode MP3, and I've only seen DOS (not Linux) players that claim to work on a 486
Make it a console-only system: easy enough to do, plenty of distros will give you a CLI and network drivers. Then you can use it to... SSH places.
But you mentioned X, so you probably want a GUI. OK, to do what? Games? Tetris would be fine, but nothing newer than DOOM will run on a 486.
Browsing station? Well, you can either run an old browser, which won't render any modern pages worth a damn, or you can run a more modern browser, which will be slow as death on that hardware.
So really, yeah, I can see there are things you can do, and I can appreciate not wanting to waste something, but I just can't see anything really worthwhile that could be done with this hardware outside of single-purpose stuff like a dumb terminal, recipe database, weather station, etc. Only worth pursuing if you have lots of spare time or just really love to tinker of the sake of tinkering.
Also: even though it's a laptop, I can't imagine the battery is any good, and replacements are probably hard to find by now, so it'll either be stationary, or portable to the extent that you can go anywhere as long as you're within 10 feet of a power outlet. So I can't see you taking this thing to coffeeshops or conferences or anything. If you have a particular goal you want to reach--say you love taking notes in vi and want something you can take to conferences--then you'd be better off getting a newer unit with wireless and a decent battery.
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Also, which pictures do you think her friends posted--the ones where she looks down, or the few where she actually looked happy for a moment when laughing at a joke? If I go to an event and take 50 pics with the so-so camera in my phone I'm lucky to have 5 worth sharing. Which is why I take 50. :-)
See? This is why I still come to Slashdot. Not only do we have a joke about Latin getting a +5 but there are currently THREE +5 replies to it--another joke and (deus help us) TWO Latin grammar Nazis. (Nazii? Nazae?) LOVE IT! Keep it up Slashdotters! You're what make this place great.
Good point. That's why God made disposable accounts. Looking at the left column of my main GMail screen, I see I've still got 94 invitations to give out. Unless you've already used your 99, you've probably got some available too.
Copilot is free on weekends. http://www.copilot.com/ I've used it and it works pretty well, and it's about as easy to set up as possible. The hardest part is talking a clueless relative through the process of downloading something AND THEN FINDING IT and then launching it.
>> For likely 90% of home users, this will be perfect.
> I'd say this is perfect for no more than 50% of home users.
And I'd say you're off by about 49.8%. Do you know anyone who uses a WebTV? Remember the i-Opener, 3Com Audrey, EarthLink Mivo, or any of the other failed Internet appliances of the past dozen years? Remember the hue and cry when the iPhone wasn't going to offer developers a native SDK? (And how well they've done with the App Store since?) I'm sorry, I just don't see this being any kind of success. There's just always something you need to do locally.
Yeah, I damn near stopped reading at that point too. Only sheer morbid curiosity kept me ging. FFS, less than THREE YEARS AGO Steve Jobs tried to pull that same crap with the iPhone. He said "Web apps only!" and "No SDK needed!" and developers around the world screamed, Apple relented, and now they make eleventy-billion dollars per second from the App Store. I am really REALLY surprised that Google is doing something this stupid. The fact that many people do MOST of their work on the web doesn't mean they can get by with doing ALL their work on the web. The non-web part is really important. It's like saying "Most people breathe 24 hours a day, so we think this new room which has air for 23 hours per day should be fine." Who the hell does Google think will buy this? There is NO teenager who lives ONLY on Facebook and MySpace. EVERYONE needs local apps. Seniors are always mentioned but evidently there aren't enough to keep a product afloat. Think there's a big market for a computer that is WORTHLESS without a Web connection? Ask the makers of WebTV,, the i-Opener, the Audrey, or the Mivo.
It's just too bad that they couldn't clean up all the slugs and garbage mattes in all the reissues since.
I was just about to post, asking "Why does the autofocus need to know what time it is?" Thanks for the info.
And did they subtract out all the searches for "google.com"?
Yes! I intend to use this documentation as a starting point for my own product line. I hope to learn quickly and make more advanced designs, which will also be smaller, and I will compete directly with Intel. I will call my company Advanced Micro Designs.
"Apple must control everything. Yes, they regard even a BASIC interpreter as a threat."
No, it's not that. They consider GOTO to be harmful.
Yes, we will hear that... BECAUSE IT'S TRUE. Not ONE serious widespread virus in the wild IN THE EIGHT+ YEAR HISTORY of the operating system. The only reason I have to qualify that statement AT ALL is because yes, there are a couple trojans. But NOTHING like Windows. There are NOT a million drive-by downloads, self-spreading worms, or a bunch of malware-infested crappy freeware apps like Windows has.
Is it because it's a better OS? Smaller market share? Lazy virus writers that's can't be bothered to learn to use XCode? WHO CARES!!! The fact is it's NOT a problem right now. Maybe it will be someday. I'll worry about it then. In the meantime, I'm enjoying my near-DECADE of peaceful, pleasant, safe computing.* If you can afford it, it's a great way to go.
Note: Linux is also very good in this regard. But the parent was talking about Macs.
* I, along with plenty of other readers here, can, and have, used Windows boxes without viruses for years. But this thread isn't about what's POSSIBLE for someone who is smart and cares--it's about what DOES HAPPEN to users who AREN'T and DON'T.
... I think I can't hate the **AA any more than I already do, they pull crap like this. "The MPAA is arguing that if they could directly turn those plugs on and off, they could offer more goods to consumers." Really? REALLY?!?!?
3ComHPaq?
Wow, no shit. Somehow Latitude was on (which I *swear* I never enabled) and while it only had a (wrong?) location from a few months ago, it's not something I want on at all. EVERYONE should check out their dashboard.
"OSX86 hackers can breathe easy ... for now."
Am I the only one who imagined hearing "dun dun DUNNNNN" when reading that?
I think the problem you are thinking of was an iTunes update that would erase hard drives due to an error in the install script.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/OSX/itunes2_erased_drives.html
I would have been more impressed if they had cracked a password using Mechanical Turk.
Random tip: if you just want to run a single app from the remove machine, ssh -XC :-)
The X tells ssh to forward X and the C means compress. One particular app I used to run (connecting from anywhere to my Linux box at home, which was behind a 256k up DSL) launched in 30 seconds with -X and 10 seconds with -XC.
Of course, different people's definitions of "usable" differ.
Otherwise, I hear good things about http://freenx.berlios.de/ .
Can you imagine if this had been around in the days of Geocities.
Rats. If only this technology would have been released just a few weeks earlier... Now we'll never know.
And for those who have never heard of or seen a Beagleboard, it's worth noting that it doesn't have a built-in display. So the headline should be "New XBMC Port Promises ARM-Powered HD Source in the Palm of Your Hand." Which is still pretty cool but I thought they were talking about something that I could hold in my hand and watch. Note to headline writers: small is great, but "fits in your hand" isn't too special unless the device is intended to be used while in your hand.
One of my favorite things Wired ever published. I liked it so much I made a map to go along with it since Neal was kind enough to supply GPS coordinates in the article. http://visualcompanion.org/Map_-_Mother_Earth_Mother_Board.php
Particularly neat (to me) was to see the cove of the Museum of Submarine Telegraphy, Porthcurno, Cornwall exactly as he described it.
Book 1 will be about a proposed 4th law: Stop fingering my wife!
Agreed. Better question: will Google and Android (and BlackBerry and Pre and, oh yeah, iPhone) kill 95% of the current demand for standalone GPSs, reducing it to a niche market (with possibly just one supplier) for hikers, bikers, boaters, pilots, and people who drive for a living? Yes.
I'm in general agreement with the "that's WAY to old to be worthwhile" crowd here but I will give you the benefit of the doubt and ask "resurrect for what purpose?" There are very few thing that can truly be done with a 486 in 2009:
So really, yeah, I can see there are things you can do, and I can appreciate not wanting to waste something, but I just can't see anything really worthwhile that could be done with this hardware outside of single-purpose stuff like a dumb terminal, recipe database, weather station, etc. Only worth pursuing if you have lots of spare time or just really love to tinker of the sake of tinkering.
Also: even though it's a laptop, I can't imagine the battery is any good, and replacements are probably hard to find by now, so it'll either be stationary, or portable to the extent that you can go anywhere as long as you're within 10 feet of a power outlet. So I can't see you taking this thing to coffeeshops or conferences or anything. If you have a particular goal you want to reach--say you love taking notes in vi and want something you can take to conferences--then you'd be better off getting a newer unit with wireless and a decent battery.