This is why I never liked Skype, proprietary. I find Gizmo and other 'real' Voip apps using open standards much more flexible. The irony here is that corporate America continualy cites it's of licensing when talking about open source. Though I'm sure this will go down as a bone-headed move by a stupid lawyer who failed to get the contract right.
To characterize Google's OS as a 'direct attack on MS' is way off the mark. Tabloid sensationalism at it's finest. Google saw a mobile future years ago, and like so many companies these day, took control of their destiny rather than to rely on partners to keep you relevant. No one is saying the same thing about Intel's OS? Or Nokia's or any. The future dominant hardware platform's will be 'mobile', phones to sub-notebooks, a space MS isn't even addressing.
The saying, 'We are an overly litigous society' comes to mind. I mean really, what damages? Suddenly consumers are confused and ordering Tiger OS on accident when they meant to call Tiger Direct. And why wait until the day before release? Had they contacted Apple Legal months ago when the name was released? This is BS and will guarantee that I never buy from them, ever.
That's a typo. I meant...they are slowly killing their 'Third Party businesses'...
I'm familiar with the history of Konfabulator but that story still got a lot of milage in the press. I mean, afterall, here was the alternative to the evil empire stepping all over some poor little independant developer.
Similarly, the reseller can't get stock because the Apple retail stores snap it up and they have a price matching policy now to boot making it very hard for those guys to eek out a business.
I see it all as lose-lose. If they buy up Omni, lets say, then they lose an oppertunity to expand the product offerings for their platform and if they write there own, well... then they are competing unfairly (not my opinion but how I think it gets played out in the public opinion forum)
Apple has been a bit of a nusiance to third party resellers and developers of late. They are slowly killing their business by duplicating it themselves. The Konfabulator story comes to mind plus some resellers have filed lawsuits.
Still, I don't think it is in their best interest to buy up an app and re-package it. In the long run it is better to have more diversity and let consumer eco-system sort it out.
I guess it has been a long time since I last read PC Magazine but I find it interesting that they are reviewing iWork. I suppose Apple is an advertiser and lord knows these rags have to keep the people paying the bills happy.
No, but it will lead the charge to the holy grail of the PC industry. A place right next to the TV set in the living room and bedrooms. After numerous failed attempts by MS and Gateway, Apple will put the pieces together in away that will drive yet another new industry just as iTunes created the online music store.
If you are dead set on a laptop then you should wait. Buying a G4 just doesn't make a ton of sense to me right now. But for a little perspective lets look at the big picture and take it from there.
By the end of '05 we will see the extension of Apple into the movie distribution business. Think NetFlix without the mailers. All you will really need for this is a Mac Mini next to your HDTV either on a ethernet wire or connected wirelessly. Buying a Mac Mini now and learning the ropes of OS X and the iLife apps wouldn't be a bad thing or a waste of money.
Then when the rest of the Apple product line is upgraded to G5's (portables and eMacs) you can get a desktop or portable to anchor this system (personally I'd get an iMac or PowerMac). Hang a big firewire based HD off of it and you've got an entertainment hub. Throw an Airport Express or two by your stereos (not the one next to the TV since the Mini will hadle that) and you can now beam music and video around your house. Or show your photo on your TV set.
Don't forget to load the free Xgrid on the Mini and any other Mac you might have to create your own cluster. Once you get hooked into editing your home movies and making DVD's you'll appreciate the distributed computing.
I think with the big picture in mind, rigfht now is a fine tine to buy. Get a mini and learn the ropes or an iMac (or PowerMac if you just have to have dual processor and a FSB that won't slow it down) and start on that end and slowly build out your digital home entertainment system where music and video can be accessed and viewed when and where you want it.
Zope, the killer Python app, when combined with a weblog app like Squishdot can create a solid fondation for a home grown CMS. Even more robust is the new CMF (Content Management Framework) for Zope 2.5, which I haven't used yet. There are additional 'bolt on' apps that will let you index PDF's, Word docs and Excel spreadsheets right into the sites main search catalog.
As an open source project and a framework it is very flexible and can be tailored into whatever you need.
You touch on the fact that it isn't just docs, a key concept. I like to set up a Zope server and run Squishdot on it. I create 'topics' for each project. Evertime we do something of note, I make an entry, maybe put links in it, whole release notes and build reports. Now everything is indexed and searchable!
Underneath the Squishdot app I have a projects folder. Under it, 2 more, software and firmware. Under those, a folder for each project. In them I use a plugin called LocalFS which exposes a system forlder to the Zope environment. We put all our docs, spread sheets, gantt charts and any other project artifact. Another page does an SQL query against our bug database and displays that kind of stuff.
I can also pull in headlines via RSS to make the site more interesting and usefull. I even use Radio Userland at home to create a custom RSS feed tailored to our specifics needs.
The last thing is to instill the culture, this takes time and patience.
Slashdot Mirror
This is why I never liked Skype, proprietary. I find Gizmo and other 'real' Voip apps using open standards much more flexible. The irony here is that corporate America continualy cites it's of licensing when talking about open source. Though I'm sure this will go down as a bone-headed move by a stupid lawyer who failed to get the contract right.
To characterize Google's OS as a 'direct attack on MS' is way off the mark. Tabloid sensationalism at it's finest. Google saw a mobile future years ago, and like so many companies these day, took control of their destiny rather than to rely on partners to keep you relevant. No one is saying the same thing about Intel's OS? Or Nokia's or any. The future dominant hardware platform's will be 'mobile', phones to sub-notebooks, a space MS isn't even addressing.
Drobo!
The saying, 'We are an overly litigous society' comes to mind. I mean really, what damages? Suddenly consumers are confused and ordering Tiger OS on accident when they meant to call Tiger Direct. And why wait until the day before release? Had they contacted Apple Legal months ago when the name was released? This is BS and will guarantee that I never buy from them, ever.
That's a typo. I meant ...they are slowly killing their 'Third Party businesses'...
I'm familiar with the history of Konfabulator but that story still got a lot of milage in the press. I mean, afterall, here was the alternative to the evil empire stepping all over some poor little independant developer.
Similarly, the reseller can't get stock because the Apple retail stores snap it up and they have a price matching policy now to boot making it very hard for those guys to eek out a business.
I see it all as lose-lose. If they buy up Omni, lets say, then they lose an oppertunity to expand the product offerings for their platform and if they write there own, well... then they are competing unfairly (not my opinion but how I think it gets played out in the public opinion forum)
Apple has been a bit of a nusiance to third party resellers and developers of late. They are slowly killing their business by duplicating it themselves. The Konfabulator story comes to mind plus some resellers have filed lawsuits.
Still, I don't think it is in their best interest to buy up an app and re-package it. In the long run it is better to have more diversity and let consumer eco-system sort it out.
I guess it has been a long time since I last read PC Magazine but I find it interesting that they are reviewing iWork. I suppose Apple is an advertiser and lord knows these rags have to keep the people paying the bills happy.
No, but it will lead the charge to the holy grail of the PC industry. A place right next to the TV set in the living room and bedrooms. After numerous failed attempts by MS and Gateway, Apple will put the pieces together in away that will drive yet another new industry just as iTunes created the online music store.
If you are dead set on a laptop then you should wait. Buying a G4 just doesn't make a ton of sense to me right now. But for a little perspective lets look at the big picture and take it from there.
By the end of '05 we will see the extension of Apple into the movie distribution business. Think NetFlix without the mailers. All you will really need for this is a Mac Mini next to your HDTV either on a ethernet wire or connected wirelessly. Buying a Mac Mini now and learning the ropes of OS X and the iLife apps wouldn't be a bad thing or a waste of money.
Then when the rest of the Apple product line is upgraded to G5's (portables and eMacs) you can get a desktop or portable to anchor this system (personally I'd get an iMac or PowerMac). Hang a big firewire based HD off of it and you've got an entertainment hub. Throw an Airport Express or two by your stereos (not the one next to the TV since the Mini will hadle that) and you can now beam music and video around your house. Or show your photo on your TV set.
Don't forget to load the free Xgrid on the Mini and any other Mac you might have to create your own cluster. Once you get hooked into editing your home movies and making DVD's you'll appreciate the distributed computing.
I think with the big picture in mind, rigfht now is a fine tine to buy. Get a mini and learn the ropes or an iMac (or PowerMac if you just have to have dual processor and a FSB that won't slow it down) and start on that end and slowly build out your digital home entertainment system where music and video can be accessed and viewed when and where you want it.
Windows just isn't worth it.
I switched a year ago and couldn't be happier. No more pop ups, virus and guess what, it just works!
I am now getting everyone who's computer I support to switch as well since it means I will have little to do in supporting them.
Zope, the killer Python app, when combined with a weblog app like Squishdot can create a solid fondation for a home grown CMS. Even more robust is the new CMF (Content Management Framework) for Zope 2.5, which I haven't used yet. There are additional 'bolt on' apps that will let you index PDF's, Word docs and Excel spreadsheets right into the sites main search catalog.
As an open source project and a framework it is very flexible and can be tailored into whatever you need.
You touch on the fact that it isn't just docs, a key concept. I like to set up a Zope server and run Squishdot on it. I create 'topics' for each project. Evertime we do something of note, I make an entry, maybe put links in it, whole release notes and build reports. Now everything is indexed and searchable!
Underneath the Squishdot app I have a projects folder. Under it, 2 more, software and firmware. Under those, a folder for each project. In them I use a plugin called LocalFS which exposes a system forlder to the Zope environment. We put all our docs, spread sheets, gantt charts and any other project artifact. Another page does an SQL query against our bug database and displays that kind of stuff.
I can also pull in headlines via RSS to make the site more interesting and usefull. I even use Radio Userland at home to create a custom RSS feed tailored to our specifics needs.
The last thing is to instill the culture, this takes time and patience.