I'm a born-and-raised-still-living-there Silicon Valley native. My father's worked for IBM for 30+years, and I was 4 when we got our first PC. My parents bought their home for a bit over $100K - it's now worth ~$480K.
What's worse than all the malls now being filled with wannabee dotcommers, is that San Jose, and it's burbs, have grown past the charming cherry orchard towns they were. Now the corner stores, where I remember getting ice cream with my family, are now dumps, with vacant store fronts and gang graffiti.
SJ has always been envious of San Francisco, but now it's larger, just as powerful, and gaining recgonition. However, with all that comes the drawbacks of being a larger city.
I'm looking forward to getting out of school, hopefully finding a job I can telecommute to, and, sadly, moving away from the only home I know. Even if housing prices weren't what they are, I would still move.
While this article points out that you can't really emulate the arcade experience, I believe that MAME does an excellent job.
I found http://www.classicgaming.com about a year ago and, suddenly, I was 8 years old again, watching some teenager play starwars, except now I was big enough to reach the controls.
Then end result, and this is blatantly apparent in today's video games, is that technology (better sound, graphics, etc.) does not mean better game play. These games were/are great because they were built with game play in mind - not the technology. So, when something like Daikatana comes out it's easy to see why we keep playing Battle Zone, Dig-Dug, etc.
IMHO, video game corps want to keep you from playing the old games so you don't knw what you're missing.
Off the record - I really think it's great that people agree to answer users questions.
I spent some time before choosing a Linux distro that was right for me. I'm not a huge techie, but I enjoy technology and was looking to expand my horizons. How do you market your wares to people such as I?
Do you rely on word of mouth for advertising - which is what I went by - or do you wish to attract users who are more likely to test different distros before choosing? Basically, how do you get your name out into the market place?
Following the DMCA - the informaiton does not have to be false, or even proved harmful. For instance, Adobe had a review of Photoshop 6.0 pulled from macnn not because it was false or harmful, but becaues they didn't like macnn making $$ off their not-yet-released product. They spewed some rhetoric about it giving their competition time to catch up, but really, that wouldn't stand in court.
The problem with the DMCA is that you're guilty until proven innocent. It would never stand in court, but your ISP is not going to go to bat for you, and unless you're rich, I wouldn't advise a personal legal crusade.
The objective? "To stop the spread of incorrect information and to ensure that what has already spread is eliminated," eWatch states.
Wrong! I'd venture a guess that eWatch cares not of the validity of the information, but just that trademarks are being used. One of the greatest successes of the www._______sucks.com was a woman who took on a pest control company. Everything she said was true, but they still went after her for trademark infringement.
eWatch will simply automate the process of serving a DMCA order to the ISP of sites which do not agree with their customers.
If I were to shake hands with a guy in the chem support dept, and then walk through one of these portals, would I be arrested for fabricating explosives? Let's say I just took change from a coffee-house employee who deals dope on the side - am I guilty be association?
How will they tell if the tiny skin sample is from me or the person in front of me? It would seem a rather easy error to commit.
We've all had a significant other find a hair, not of their color, on our jacket at one point or another. This is the same sort of thing. It doesn't matter what we were doing, we're still in trouble.
Use window.location.replace('newlocal.html');
on
Web Site "Lock-In"
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· Score: 5
What urks me is that there are a lot of newer web designers who don't know how to correctly use javascript to forward the user to a new location. If they just say: window.location = 'newpage.html'; then when the user hits 'back' it will rerun the script and transfer them again.
The correct way is: window.location.replace('newpage.html');. This replace the old page with the new in the browsers history.
Usually, "Not of Individual Resale" declares a product which does not contain the required-by-law information (such as nutritional info) on the individual package, but on the box. That has little to do with bundling software.
Selling a computer is one thing, selling an OS is another. However, M$ says that if you buy a PC from, let's say, Dell, and it comes with their (Microsoft's) OS, then you cannot take that license and resell it to someone else - even if you have no intention of using it.
Also, let's say I prefer Corel or Lotus Suites to Office. If it came with my 'bundle' M$ says I can't sell it to a friend. If I buy a 4X4 and I don't like the rims, I can buy new ones and then sell the old ones to someone who likes them. Why can't I do this with software?
I used to love rock climbing, but then it became popular. I still love hitting the crags, but with all the Johnny-come-latelies, who endanger others - including the hard core climbers, it's beginning to suck.
I used to love the NHL. Until they got a comissioner from the NBA and Disney got involved. Now a 2-1 game is seen as a waste of time.
My point is that when you try to make something mainstream, you lose the qualities which made it so appealing to its core audience. Eventually, you might pick up some fair weather fans, but then you lose your faithful followers. I hope this doesn't happen to Linux.
For Lunix truely to gain household acceptance, it must become easier, without losing power. Most importantly, it cannot be locked down like Apple's Mac OS is. Fortunately, the idea of root/superuser lends itself to a powerful operating system that can be easily used, and still protect the OS from inexperienced users.
Court spokesman Wolfgang Kruger said the decision rejected Microsoft's claim of intellectual property rights. "The right of authorship can only be exercised once," he said. "Once the product has entered the marketplace, with the author's agreement, he can no longer engage rights of authorship" to interfere with secondary sales. He noted that Microsoft had no binding contractual relationship with the dealer in question. In German cases, the name of the defendant is kept private.
Well, at least one country upholds the Right of First Sale.
Transmeta Unveils Copper Processor Manufactured by IBM Crusoe(TM) Chip Poised to Revolutionize Mobile Internet Computing
January 19, 2000
Transmeta Corporation today ended four-and-a-half years of secrecy with the introduction of Crusoe(TM), the world's first family of smart microprocessors. In a foundry relationship with Transmeta, IBM is manufacturing the new Crusoe chip in copper at MD's Burlington, Vt., site.
Transmeta's Crusoe processor family is based on a breakthrough software approach that will deliver on the market's need for "all day computing" with a PC-compatible, high-performance solution with low power.
*****
So, IBM is wary of a product they produce? I don't think so.
I know of two people, who I would call very well versed in computing, who are HUGE M$ fans - and would belong to said culture of loyalists.
One is beta tester for M$ and never stops talking about how great this new innovations is. He seems to have minions who follow his beliefs, as if he is a prophet from Redmond, but they usually don't know any better.
The other person I know is a lauded professor at a private university. I don't know why, but he follows M$ stock like a soap opera and gets peeved anytime anybody mentions "Antitrust".
Still, I don't know what could push these people to such loyalty of such an unethical company. I used to think that all M$-fans were driven by ignorance, but I can't say this about these two.
Apple did a bag o' research that showed that mis-hits were common amongst users learning new tasks. The solution? The double click. So, does this mean I can eliminate half the keys on my keyboard to avoid typos? Just image, to type an "N", click the "M" twice. To type an uppercase, hold shift and double click the "M". Double click was/is for those who don't have the brain power to remember that one button does one thing and another does another - or that don't have the coordination to click with one finger instead of another. Also, the fact that Apple looked at "users learning new tasks" pretty much describes their market share.
The great thing about the internet is the way a user is allowed to navigate wherever he or she wishes at any given moment. However, 'wherever' only includes the sites which are currently posted somewhere that the user can get to. For instance, I may want to go to a site dedicated to the atomic structure of split pea soup, or to Apple's payroll office's site. I can do neither because the former page has not been created, and the latter is blocked.
Once we begin to reach the saturation point, on land and in the air, the big players will begin dividing it all up (not just what's left - all of it) for themselves. It will be the same - I can only get to information which is posted, and to which I have access, but it's the corps who will choose that data for me.
Basically, the information will be like a television with 100,000 channels, which is not that different from the internet now, only it will be much more controled by big businesses who have bought out the government.
Even the two (prototype) Crusoe-powered IBM laptops on display are running Windows.
Yes, there are very few people, and rightly so, in the industry who won't turn the other cheek for $. IBM knows that this convention was not for the Techie, but for the average user. Thus, Linux takes a back seat.
However, the fact that the "future" of computers (internet appliances) are running open source should be a telling point as to how these conventions will look in the next five years.
Don't you guys remember this story from a few weeks ago? It seems that the RIAA is pirating someone else's technology on their website and then using it to protect their own interests.
BT should be up in arms. After all, they own the patent on hyperlinking to begin with.
Hmmm.... I submitted this story two days ago, after I found out about it on IBM's internal site. The release to IBM employees was very positive about open source, and made a point that IBM Global Services, running IBM software (Websphere) on Sun machines, should ruffle a few feathers.
IBM's "new" direction has a lot to do with the CEO, like _Swank said above. When Gerstner got here, he was surprised that none of the employees took agressive, even offensive advertising by competitors seriously. Since then, he's tried to instill in the people at IBM a bit of pride.
He also is very fond of the quote by Wayne Gretzky that the way to play great hockey is while everyone's skating to where the puck is, you should skate to where the puck WILL BE. However, IMHO, IBM could not do this as much before they got out from under M$'s thumb.
Now if only IBM would start using Linux for their own networks.
I understand that they will be selling these to service providers, so the consumer can probably expect to see them offered in the $99-$199 range. The providers will probably take a loss, à la Netpliance, and then try to recoop it via service contracts.
Speaking of NPLI, the article stated that US West was one of the potential customers for these things... Odd, US West has a service agreement with NPLI already. Do they sense the demise of NPLI (after the PR disaster of slamming customers and losing their biggest retailer), or does US West want a bigger slice of the pie?
I wandered into two national computer stores last week and was amazed at the huge selection of Linux distros. Not just that, but they were placed in top-billing racks. And suddenly all these corps are shipping units with Linux.
Hmm. Do you think this would have happened before Judge Jackson? Do you think the consumer was hurt by M$? The difficulty is quantifying the damages because the harm was the with holding of choice.
There's a simple principle in marketing that says that retailers only have a limited amount of space on their shelves. Sure, the shinest box will get attention, but the consumers today are more informed than ever and are just as likely to say, "This box is 50% less, why?" and figure it out themselves. The real reason for such gaudy packaging is to literally force the competition of the shelves.
The oversize boxes of CDs in the late 80's, early 90's were to allow retailers not to have to change their bins to display the new products. The boxes were 12" tall, and 6" wide, one half the size of the 12" by 12" LP albums. This is entirely different.
There is a similar problem with bloated code. No matter how many Gigs you have on your drive, you can only hold a certain amount of informaiton. The more room the proprietary code (a) takes, the less likely you are to be able to install their competition (b). And if you can install another from company (a) and it will share some files of the first installation, then they can intice users to stick with them over (b).
This movie would suck, except for the return of Liv Tyler who plays her old character turned British Scientist. She discovers a Winnamucca-size asteroid heading straight for Holland (Michigan).
In a desparate attempt to save open source news, a team of international astronauts launches a million snap nanosatellites which then latch onto the rock and steer it off course.
But then, the last unit has malfunctioned and one of the astronaunts, Tyler's boyfriend, who is not played by Ben Aflack, space walks and pushes the asteroid out of harms way.
Whew!
Coming next week: John Romero produces the video game for Battlefield Earth
Other people have pointed out that as good as GIMP gets, it's not Photoshop. The good thing about Photoshop is that you don't have to be a comp.sci major to use it, but the great thing about photoshop is that if you understand how it works, you can do some amazing things. GIMP just isn't there yet.
CMYK support would be a big thing. Asides from it's print advantages (most printing is not done RGB), CMYK allows for some effective touch up. Took the pictures in a photosensitive area of a clean room (you know, the yellow light)? Convert the image to CMYK, chuck the yellow, adjust the cyan and, poof! No more yellow. The image looks normal.
However many features you give and/or take with GIMP, the reason I still will use Photoshop is just how it feels. It's sad, but GIMP may never get to that point due to the platform it's being developed on. I started using Photoshop seven years ago, and I use GIMP to play around on my Linux box, but I just don't see the two converging. Maybe that's a good thing.
I remember an AT&T commercial a few years back that showed a lady in a high speed train with a palm device (this was long before Palm), and with a few touches of the stylus, the lights in her home lit up.
It is important that technology like this be incorporated into the design and building of the house of today (not tomorrow). Did you forget to trun the stove off? Check it and if so, turn it off, from the other side of the world.
Sure, it poses a threat that someone could crack your toaster to burn your bread every morning, but I would rather have open source software, where such a hole would be noticed quickly, than a proprietary/bianary bundle which will release their security patches quarterly.
Slashdot Mirror
I drive a '71 SIIA Land Rover - I don't need no stinkin' Wind Mill to charge my battery. I got a hand crank.
What's worse than all the malls now being filled with wannabee dotcommers, is that San Jose, and it's burbs, have grown past the charming cherry orchard towns they were. Now the corner stores, where I remember getting ice cream with my family, are now dumps, with vacant store fronts and gang graffiti.
SJ has always been envious of San Francisco, but now it's larger, just as powerful, and gaining recgonition. However, with all that comes the drawbacks of being a larger city.
I'm looking forward to getting out of school, hopefully finding a job I can telecommute to, and, sadly, moving away from the only home I know. Even if housing prices weren't what they are, I would still move.
I found http://www.classicgaming.com about a year ago and, suddenly, I was 8 years old again, watching some teenager play starwars, except now I was big enough to reach the controls.
Then end result, and this is blatantly apparent in today's video games, is that technology (better sound, graphics, etc.) does not mean better game play. These games were/are great because they were built with game play in mind - not the technology. So, when something like Daikatana comes out it's easy to see why we keep playing Battle Zone, Dig-Dug, etc.
IMHO, video game corps want to keep you from playing the old games so you don't knw what you're missing.
I spent some time before choosing a Linux distro that was right for me. I'm not a huge techie, but I enjoy technology and was looking to expand my horizons. How do you market your wares to people such as I?
Do you rely on word of mouth for advertising - which is what I went by - or do you wish to attract users who are more likely to test different distros before choosing? Basically, how do you get your name out into the market place?
The problem with the DMCA is that you're guilty until proven innocent. It would never stand in court, but your ISP is not going to go to bat for you, and unless you're rich, I wouldn't advise a personal legal crusade.
Write your senator!
Wrong! I'd venture a guess that eWatch cares not of the validity of the information, but just that trademarks are being used. One of the greatest successes of the www._______sucks.com was a woman who took on a pest control company. Everything she said was true, but they still went after her for trademark infringement.
eWatch will simply automate the process of serving a DMCA order to the ISP of sites which do not agree with their customers.
How will they tell if the tiny skin sample is from me or the person in front of me? It would seem a rather easy error to commit.
We've all had a significant other find a hair, not of their color, on our jacket at one point or another. This is the same sort of thing. It doesn't matter what we were doing, we're still in trouble.
The correct way is: window.location.replace('newpage.html');. This replace the old page with the new in the browsers history.
Selling a computer is one thing, selling an OS is another. However, M$ says that if you buy a PC from, let's say, Dell, and it comes with their (Microsoft's) OS, then you cannot take that license and resell it to someone else - even if you have no intention of using it.
Also, let's say I prefer Corel or Lotus Suites to Office. If it came with my 'bundle' M$ says I can't sell it to a friend. If I buy a 4X4 and I don't like the rims, I can buy new ones and then sell the old ones to someone who likes them. Why can't I do this with software?
I used to love rock climbing, but then it became popular. I still love hitting the crags, but with all the Johnny-come-latelies, who endanger others - including the hard core climbers, it's beginning to suck.
I used to love the NHL. Until they got a comissioner from the NBA and Disney got involved. Now a 2-1 game is seen as a waste of time.
My point is that when you try to make something mainstream, you lose the qualities which made it so appealing to its core audience. Eventually, you might pick up some fair weather fans, but then you lose your faithful followers. I hope this doesn't happen to Linux.
For Lunix truely to gain household acceptance, it must become easier, without losing power. Most importantly, it cannot be locked down like Apple's Mac OS is. Fortunately, the idea of root/superuser lends itself to a powerful operating system that can be easily used, and still protect the OS from inexperienced users.
Well, at least one country upholds the Right of First Sale.
*****
Transmeta Unveils Copper Processor Manufactured by IBMCrusoe(TM) Chip Poised to Revolutionize Mobile Internet Computing
January 19, 2000
Transmeta Corporation today ended four-and-a-half years of secrecy with the introduction of Crusoe(TM), the world's first family of smart microprocessors. In a foundry relationship with Transmeta, IBM is manufacturing the new Crusoe chip in copper at MD's Burlington, Vt., site.
Transmeta's Crusoe processor family is based on a breakthrough software approach that will deliver on the market's need for "all day computing" with a PC-compatible, high-performance solution with low power.
*****
So, IBM is wary of a product they produce? I don't think so.
One is beta tester for M$ and never stops talking about how great this new innovations is. He seems to have minions who follow his beliefs, as if he is a prophet from Redmond, but they usually don't know any better.
The other person I know is a lauded professor at a private university. I don't know why, but he follows M$ stock like a soap opera and gets peeved anytime anybody mentions "Antitrust".
Still, I don't know what could push these people to such loyalty of such an unethical company. I used to think that all M$-fans were driven by ignorance, but I can't say this about these two.
Apple did a bag o' research that showed that mis-hits were common amongst users learning new tasks. The solution? The double click. So, does this mean I can eliminate half the keys on my keyboard to avoid typos? Just image, to type an "N", click the "M" twice. To type an uppercase, hold shift and double click the "M". Double click was/is for those who don't have the brain power to remember that one button does one thing and another does another - or that don't have the coordination to click with one finger instead of another. Also, the fact that Apple looked at "users learning new tasks" pretty much describes their market share.
Once we begin to reach the saturation point, on land and in the air, the big players will begin dividing it all up (not just what's left - all of it) for themselves. It will be the same - I can only get to information which is posted, and to which I have access, but it's the corps who will choose that data for me.
Basically, the information will be like a television with 100,000 channels, which is not that different from the internet now, only it will be much more controled by big businesses who have bought out the government.
Yes, there are very few people, and rightly so, in the industry who won't turn the other cheek for $. IBM knows that this convention was not for the Techie, but for the average user. Thus, Linux takes a back seat.
However, the fact that the "future" of computers (internet appliances) are running open source should be a telling point as to how these conventions will look in the next five years.
BT should be up in arms. After all, they own the patent on hyperlinking to begin with.
IBM's "new" direction has a lot to do with the CEO, like _Swank said above. When Gerstner got here, he was surprised that none of the employees took agressive, even offensive advertising by competitors seriously. Since then, he's tried to instill in the people at IBM a bit of pride.
He also is very fond of the quote by Wayne Gretzky that the way to play great hockey is while everyone's skating to where the puck is, you should skate to where the puck WILL BE. However, IMHO, IBM could not do this as much before they got out from under M$'s thumb.
Now if only IBM would start using Linux for their own networks.
Speaking of NPLI, the article stated that US West was one of the potential customers for these things... Odd, US West has a service agreement with NPLI already. Do they sense the demise of NPLI (after the PR disaster of slamming customers and losing their biggest retailer), or does US West want a bigger slice of the pie?
If I use a smart mouse, will I be better at Quake II Arena?
Hmm. Do you think this would have happened before Judge Jackson? Do you think the consumer was hurt by M$? The difficulty is quantifying the damages because the harm was the with holding of choice.
The oversize boxes of CDs in the late 80's, early 90's were to allow retailers not to have to change their bins to display the new products. The boxes were 12" tall, and 6" wide, one half the size of the 12" by 12" LP albums. This is entirely different.
There is a similar problem with bloated code. No matter how many Gigs you have on your drive, you can only hold a certain amount of informaiton. The more room the proprietary code (a) takes, the less likely you are to be able to install their competition (b). And if you can install another from company (a) and it will share some files of the first installation, then they can intice users to stick with them over (b).
In a desparate attempt to save open source news, a team of international astronauts launches a million snap nanosatellites which then latch onto the rock and steer it off course.
But then, the last unit has malfunctioned and one of the astronaunts, Tyler's boyfriend, who is not played by Ben Aflack, space walks and pushes the asteroid out of harms way.
Whew!
Coming next week: John Romero produces the video game for Battlefield Earth
CMYK support would be a big thing. Asides from it's print advantages (most printing is not done RGB), CMYK allows for some effective touch up. Took the pictures in a photosensitive area of a clean room (you know, the yellow light)? Convert the image to CMYK, chuck the yellow, adjust the cyan and, poof! No more yellow. The image looks normal.
However many features you give and/or take with GIMP, the reason I still will use Photoshop is just how it feels. It's sad, but GIMP may never get to that point due to the platform it's being developed on. I started using Photoshop seven years ago, and I use GIMP to play around on my Linux box, but I just don't see the two converging. Maybe that's a good thing.
It is important that technology like this be incorporated into the design and building of the house of today (not tomorrow). Did you forget to trun the stove off? Check it and if so, turn it off, from the other side of the world.
Sure, it poses a threat that someone could crack your toaster to burn your bread every morning, but I would rather have open source software, where such a hole would be noticed quickly, than a proprietary/bianary bundle which will release their security patches quarterly.