Let's not forget, though, the touch wheel is based off of jog wheels from video editing bays
Absolutely right - and yet I understand that somehow Apple was allowed to patent it. So now no other company can incrementally improve on the interface in the way Apple originally did. It's a damn shame - my Zen Sleek, for example, was obviously designed by someone who understood the problem of navigating long lists, because it gives you the ability to jump to a particular letter in a list of tracks/artists/whatever, or to filter lists with a substring search. If this were coupled with the speed and precision of a jog-wheel, I'd say the problem was solved there and then. But of course it doesn't have a wheel - it can't - and so, even though it has this sort of versatility, it's still fiddly to find what you want.
Apple, meanwhile, seem entirely uninterested in addressing the 'long list' problem. They've got a monopoly on the jog-wheel, which is very simple and intuitive, and that's enough to make the iPod the most accessible mp3 player available. And I guess they think that's good enough.
Sorry, but it just annoys me. Apple did very well to identify the jog-wheel as the ideal interface for this type of device, and they deserved the lead it initially gave them in the market. But it was hardly a technological breakthrough, and I really don't see why their 'discovery' of it should give them a monopoly on usability.
The EU has no authority over what MIcrosoft does in the US; but Microsoft also does business in the EU, and that business is required to comply with EU law. It's like if I went to the US and started selling beer to 18 year olds - it's legal where I'm from, but if I tried it in Manhattan I'd be in trouble with the local authorities. Bad analogy, but hopefully you see what I mean.
That's a little harsh. They can overshoot a real-world market projection based on how many copies they really expect to sell, and at the same time be massively undershooting a demonstrative market projection of how many copies they would expect to sell if they could tweak some variables.
But the previous version of Expression (which became Acrylic) worked on Windows 98. There's nothing new in XP that suddenly made Acrylic possible. I mean, it's a drawing program! There's no reason on earth why it couldn't have been written in a way that was compatible with Windows 2000.
Besides W2K is 5 years old I can see them using technology that's available in XP and not in 2K.
Yes, but XP is four years old! What technology can you see them using that isn't in Windows 2000? Remote Desktop? Fast user switching? CD writing? Windows Firewall? Windows Movie Maker? Zip folders? I can't see a graphics package needing any of those things..
I still haven't upgraded from Quark 3.3. Yes, I'm on an old-world Mac. But for text and normal graphics, it's the best thing out there.
I don't know where to begin to say what's wrong with this.
You might as well say that Windows 98 is the most versatile desktop OS. It may have been true once, but that wasn't saying much, and it's since been far, far surpassed. It may still be a useful option for old hardware, but best? Hardly.
I mean, if you haven't upgraded from Quark 3.3 then that probably is the best thing you've had a chance to get used to. But if you can get yourself a copy of InDesign CS2, and a fast computer that will do it justice, and put in just a few hours to get the hang of it... well, I'm not going to tell you what you should think, but I know what everyone else who's tried this has concluded.
So Apple has decided that in a year or three, I am going to begin a painful and extremely nasty transition.
Yeah, but let's face it, you were going to buy a new Mac in that timescale anyway. And maybe - thanks to increasingly commoditised hardware - your next one will be faster and cheaper than it otherwise would have been. And it will run all your apps.
I hate Apple as much as the next guy (probably more) but this seems to me like a smart move and a very positive step for the platform, even if it does hammer the resale value of your old G4.
The Amiga could format high-density disks to 1,760 Kb, given a high-density disk drive (which only came as standard in the high-end machines). However, if I remember rightly, to do this it had to slow the drive down. Very flexible machines, Amigas...
It's got to be good for Apple's marketing that their MHz ratings are properly competing with modern PCs nowadays. The whole "MHz myth" argument always sounded a bit weak, even though I knew intellectually that it was a fair point.
On the contrary, many countries have a state broadcaster that exists to disseminate news and culture for the public good. And you only have to look at this thread to see more than one UK citizen arguing that the licence fee represents such good value for money that they'd happily pay it to receive BBC programming in their own country. I'd say the licence fee is eminently defensible on both ideological and pragmatic grounds.
Re:How are opinions informative?
on
Ask mc chris
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· Score: 1
WTF?? Is there some clever double entendre I have missed?
What you've missed (and destroyed by paraphrasing) is the word-play - I suspect deliberately. After all, your English is clearly better than 99% of posters' here, you use uncommon words like "schlock" and you slip Douglas Adams allusions into your posts. Seems hard to imagine that you didn't spot the playful rhyming.
Having said that, I don't think mc chris' word-play is the best in the world by a long chalk. But his lyrics work very well in performance because the snappy rhymes and surprising and amusing images are complemented by a delivery which is rhythmically very varied and tight.
Yeah, this saying seems to have got a bit twisted over time, and the meaning of "have" has moved on a bit... a modern rendering of this saying should be "you can't eat your cake and still have it."
Well, now an OEM can approach (e.g.) Real Inc. and say "we'll install Real Player on every Windows machine we sell, and put a link to the commercial version right on the desktop, if you pay us a cent for every hundred machines we ship." Just a thought.
Re:Grammar Nazi taking control ... can't resist.
on
Sony Admits MP3 Error
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· Score: 1
Actually, "if I would have known" is very rarely correct. In most contexts it should be "if I had known".
Slashdot Mirror
Alas, probably not patent you, as the Creative Zen already does precisely this, right down to the 'two click-units' bit. Sorry!
Let's not forget, though, the touch wheel is based off of jog wheels from video editing bays
Absolutely right - and yet I understand that somehow Apple was allowed to patent it. So now no other company can incrementally improve on the interface in the way Apple originally did. It's a damn shame - my Zen Sleek, for example, was obviously designed by someone who understood the problem of navigating long lists, because it gives you the ability to jump to a particular letter in a list of tracks/artists/whatever, or to filter lists with a substring search. If this were coupled with the speed and precision of a jog-wheel, I'd say the problem was solved there and then. But of course it doesn't have a wheel - it can't - and so, even though it has this sort of versatility, it's still fiddly to find what you want.
Apple, meanwhile, seem entirely uninterested in addressing the 'long list' problem. They've got a monopoly on the jog-wheel, which is very simple and intuitive, and that's enough to make the iPod the most accessible mp3 player available. And I guess they think that's good enough.
Sorry, but it just annoys me. Apple did very well to identify the jog-wheel as the ideal interface for this type of device, and they deserved the lead it initially gave them in the market. But it was hardly a technological breakthrough, and I really don't see why their 'discovery' of it should give them a monopoly on usability.
The decapod had to see its chiropodist for podiatric surgery. On its feet.
The EU has no authority over what MIcrosoft does in the US; but Microsoft also does business in the EU, and that business is required to comply with EU law. It's like if I went to the US and started selling beer to 18 year olds - it's legal where I'm from, but if I tried it in Manhattan I'd be in trouble with the local authorities. Bad analogy, but hopefully you see what I mean.
Er... "thyself" is to "thee" as "yourself" is to "you."
:-/
The poster above you was correct: "thou" is nominative and "thee" is accusative. I give advice to thee; thou givest advice to me.
I don't normally get into these debates, but dude, if you're going to "be technical", be right.
That's a little harsh. They can overshoot a real-world market projection based on how many copies they really expect to sell, and at the same time be massively undershooting a demonstrative market projection of how many copies they would expect to sell if they could tweak some variables.
everyone I know who has a copy of Photoshop got it illegally, except the CS teacher at the highschool I attended
Well, if it's your job to teach CS, you probably ought to buy a copy of it. Aha. Aha-ha. Ha.
I guess you're talking about GDI+. Fair point.
But the previous version of Expression (which became Acrylic) worked on Windows 98. There's nothing new in XP that suddenly made Acrylic possible. I mean, it's a drawing program! There's no reason on earth why it couldn't have been written in a way that was compatible with Windows 2000.
Besides W2K is 5 years old I can see them using technology that's available in XP and not in 2K.
Yes, but XP is four years old! What technology can you see them using that isn't in Windows 2000? Remote Desktop? Fast user switching? CD writing? Windows Firewall? Windows Movie Maker? Zip folders? I can't see a graphics package needing any of those things..
I still haven't upgraded from Quark 3.3. Yes, I'm on an old-world Mac. But for text and normal graphics, it's the best thing out there.
I don't know where to begin to say what's wrong with this.
You might as well say that Windows 98 is the most versatile desktop OS. It may have been true once, but that wasn't saying much, and it's since been far, far surpassed. It may still be a useful option for old hardware, but best? Hardly.
I mean, if you haven't upgraded from Quark 3.3 then that probably is the best thing you've had a chance to get used to. But if you can get yourself a copy of InDesign CS2, and a fast computer that will do it justice, and put in just a few hours to get the hang of it... well, I'm not going to tell you what you should think, but I know what everyone else who's tried this has concluded.
So Apple has decided that in a year or three, I am going to begin a painful and extremely nasty transition.
Yeah, but let's face it, you were going to buy a new Mac in that timescale anyway. And maybe - thanks to increasingly commoditised hardware - your next one will be faster and cheaper than it otherwise would have been. And it will run all your apps.
I hate Apple as much as the next guy (probably more) but this seems to me like a smart move and a very positive step for the platform, even if it does hammer the resale value of your old G4.
Ah, I remember that party.
No need to get all holier-than-thou.
The Amiga could format high-density disks to 1,760 Kb, given a high-density disk drive (which only came as standard in the high-end machines). However, if I remember rightly, to do this it had to slow the drive down. Very flexible machines, Amigas...
It's got to be good for Apple's marketing that their MHz ratings are properly competing with modern PCs nowadays. The whole "MHz myth" argument always sounded a bit weak, even though I knew intellectually that it was a fair point.
That's a bit harsh. It looks like BeOS circa 1999, and I thought that was jolly pretty.
(Hello Oncee!)
It is a good marketing decision! It discourages people from buying Microsoft products! ;)
the BBC can't rationally defend the licence fee
On the contrary, many countries have a state broadcaster that exists to disseminate news and culture for the public good. And you only have to look at this thread to see more than one UK citizen arguing that the licence fee represents such good value for money that they'd happily pay it to receive BBC programming in their own country. I'd say the licence fee is eminently defensible on both ideological and pragmatic grounds.
WTF?? Is there some clever double entendre I have missed?
What you've missed (and destroyed by paraphrasing) is the word-play - I suspect deliberately. After all, your English is clearly better than 99% of posters' here, you use uncommon words like "schlock" and you slip Douglas Adams allusions into your posts. Seems hard to imagine that you didn't spot the playful rhyming.
Having said that, I don't think mc chris' word-play is the best in the world by a long chalk. But his lyrics work very well in performance because the snappy rhymes and surprising and amusing images are complemented by a delivery which is rhythmically very varied and tight.
Yeah, this saying seems to have got a bit twisted over time, and the meaning of "have" has moved on a bit... a modern rendering of this saying should be "you can't eat your cake and still have it."
Tinfoil millinery, surely?
And hey, the environment can always take one more for the team...
2. You cannot dictate what any internet user puts on their own website
Try putting the text of the latest John Grisham novel on your site and see what happens.
Well, now an OEM can approach (e.g.) Real Inc. and say "we'll install Real Player on every Windows machine we sell, and put a link to the commercial version right on the desktop, if you pay us a cent for every hundred machines we ship." Just a thought.
Actually, "if I would have known" is very rarely correct. In most contexts it should be "if I had known".
(Well, if you can be a nazi then so can I...)