For all the Mac paranoid out there, here's another conspiracy theory that will undoubtedly turn up on the rumor sites.
Microsoft really wants to revive, sell, and support an improved version of Connectix RamDoubler for the latest revision of Mac OS 9. Heck, they might even make it into Microsoft RamTripler (MS Ram*er for short)
Connectix stopped selling RamDoubler and promised to do away with support for it in September 2003. But an killer utility like MS Ram*er will cement the last Mac holdouts to Mac OS 9 and their old hardware.
The name doesn't matter. Did the names Puma or Jaguar stir people up about Mac OS X? "It sounds like a sneaker" "Oh, like the elitist automobile!". Perhaps someone made these snide comments, but the performance and feature set quickly set what to expect of those products rather than the name.
Camino has three popular connotations: the Chevrolet car/truck hybrid, the planet from Star Wars Epsiode 2, and the Spanish word for path. They first two may not be the most relevent, but at least it's distinctive. And if it's also determined to pass legal, that's all that's required in a name.
Even if the name isn't relevent, the features are. There are only a few code bases of HTML engines being distributed. Mozilla, Explorer, and the now extinct Netscape codebase are the only ones in wide distribution. The KHTML engine Apple is integrating into Webcore and Safari may be elegant but it's not widely used. I can see why Apple wanted the elegance for it's rendering framework, but letting either the Mozilla or Explorer engine stagnate on the Mac platform is a very bad thing.
Tabbed browsing is okay and all, but if there is one differentiating feature I'd like to see in Chimera it would be a preference option to choose which HTML engine to use to render pages (Webcore or Mozilla). Since neither engine is near a 1.0 bug free release on the mac platform yet, this is a pie in the sky desire.
Frankly, the best feature of Chimera/Camino is the fact that it is being developed for the Mac. Period.
This "Do Not Call" list applies to cold contact calls, but it exempts certain charitable organizations, merchants you've done business with in the past, and (probably most important) political campaigning.
What better way to get a solid list of valid telephone numbers for use by your reelection campagin than going to the national do-not-call list? They can be assured that these are real people and not faxes or modems. They have some assurance that if the person isn't getting swamped with telemarketing calls from merchants that they'll be more receptive to their calls.
I think it's better than nothing, but don't think it's motivated by concern for constituents. It's just another case of enlightened self-interest.
When iMovie 2 was released, the upgrade was not free for those who had the original iMovie (around $30 I think).
iMovie 2 came with new hardware, was easily pirated, and was later released as part of the major ($99) OS upgrades so most likely many people probably never heard of this policy.
I got iMovie 2 when I bought my TiBook and it. It's an easy to use linear editing system. If I wanted better titling, snazzy effects, or non-linear abilities I'd be looking at something in the $1K range. This works fine for me and I haven't really had any desire for more features for my home videos.
If Apple comes out with a new version, my current version doesn't stop working. It very well may have difficulties if I were to buy a new Mac, but then I'd be given the new iMovie 3.0 with that purchase. So there isn't a strong pressure to pay for an upgrade based on stability and compatability problems. This is the most refreshing thing. If I find that the features Apple offers in the iMovie 3.0 version compelling then I may choose to buy an upgrade, but that's based on what I find important features.
My cell phone, PDA, and MP3 player meet my current needs, but they aren't compelling. However, if a Sprint compatible version of the Kyocera 7135 SmartPhone is released in the US, I'd jump on the chance to upgrade for the features that it offers. Similarly iCal, iSync, iTunes, and the AddressBook aren't compelling apps but if they offered integration with a Kyocera 7135 feature set I'd easily pay a good chunk of change for the upgrades needed (they may work now, I have to get my 7135 to find out though). As another example, I won't use iPhoto at all. I find its abilities aren't what I'm looking for in a digitial photo album. Even though it's free, I prefer my own system of folders in the file system. If Apple adds enough features to iPhoto that I changed my mind about using it, I think I'd also be okay with tossing in some bucks for the upgrade.
Has it revolutionized the world? I've never used a cell phone in my life and have no intention of ever buying one. There are pay-phones on almost every corner everywhere in the world.
A odd realization of the way cell phones have impacted our lives came to me when I was watching the "futuristic" movie A Clockwork Orange. Alex and his droogs go to people's doors at night pleading to be let in to use the phone because there had been a terrible accident. Most people's sympathy would force them to open the doors and they would then be robbed, raped, and sometimes murdered by the gang. Today though, with the wide proliferation would eliminate that as a way in. You'd either not let them in at all ("Surely one of you must have a cell phone!") or you'd go upstairs and toss your cell phone out a window so they could use it if it were a real emergency.
Of course, I think that people have also gotten more sour and nasty than portrayed in Mr. Kubrick's movie, but that has little to do with cell phones.
I was digging in a landfill in New Mexico and came across what I think was a prototype for a game called ELECTION TIME for the Atari 2600.
You play a hobbling little politician (who seems remarkably similar to Strom Thurmond). You wander around an unnamed town (though since everything is Green, I call it Greenville) and you collect money and "political favors".
Of course as time goes by, people become disenchanted with you. You can increase your popularity by spending the money you collect.
To help you in your quest is a young boy named Chad. He helps you in a few ways. If you collect nine donations you can give these to Chad and he will arrange a political favor for you. If your popularity ever falls to zero, Chad will come to your help and "merge" with you. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a sexual merging or something like a photo-op. Chad will come and help you out three times before you have to retire. Chad is apparently an opium addict though, and if you find a flower and "revive" it Chad will come to your aid an extra time.
Working against you is an election official in a trenchcoat. If he touches you, he'll take one of your "political favors" that you've collected. Another fellow is apparently a doctor or judge of some sort. He's wearing a white robe and tries to take you back to do your real work in the capitol. You want to avoid him at all costs so you can keep collecting money and favors.
When you get three political favors you want to "call them in" which will ensure you get re-elected. What isn't obvious though is that the real point of the game is to collect money. Due to Chad's help you will ALWAYS win re-election if you get to the end of the round. Notice that Chad keeps going into the schoolhouse (and probably rigging the vote!)
Of course I'm only assumig that the name of the cartridge is "ELECTION TIME". The cartridge itself just has the initials E.T. on it. But the picture on the opening screen of the main character is a splitting image of Strom Thurmond.:-)
Jaguar is actually less secure than prior versions of Mac OS X.
In the past, there weren't any network services turned on by default. These days Mac OS X v 10.2 comes with Samba and Rendevous turned on with a default install.
I've played with Apple's Inkwell handwriting recognition (derived from the Newton's Rosetta recognition software) and was both impressed and annoyed.
First, I tried it on a Wacom tablet hooked up to a flat screen iMac at an Apple Store. Horrible. Don't bother. My accuracy was quite poor. It was really quite a struggle to use. I know that Inkwell "learns" your handwriting but I think my poor accuracy was the disconnect between watching the screen rather than my hand as I wrote.
A few weeks later I tried the Wacom manufactured Cintaq LCD pressure sensitive display when I was at the OS X O'Reilly conference. It was fantasticly better in terms of handwriting recognition. The difference was amazing. One other very cool thing about the Cintaq display was that it could be put at different angles. Though the demonstrator had it in a vertical screen like orientation, most people seemed to find it more natural to have it in a much flatter orientation... say 10 degrees from horizontal. (kind of like the angle of those old school chairs with built in desk arms). I even tried the Doonesbury test "Egg Freckles?" test which it passed with flying colors.
It wasn't perfect though. What was odd though was switching between the different modes. I'm not sure if this was simply the way the demonstrator had the display set up, but there were definitely three different modes. One was as a mouse replacement (clicking, dragging, etc). One was with the handwriting recognition (I've already described). And one was as a pressure sensitive drawing mode (very cool in Photoshop and Painter). I'm not sure what caused it to switch modes (a button on the pen? something in the interface?) but it certainly wasn't obvious. All of the modes operated wonderfully well individually, but it was the thing that needed the most work.
After the Newton fiasco, I think Apple marketing deliberately doesn't want to appear to be "first" with handwriting technology. My suspicion is that they are refining the hardware and software (by taking feedback from those using it in the wild) but that they want Microsoft to take the first attempt at marketing the technology far and wide to the public and perhaps even fall on their face with a sloppy first implementation.
If Microsoft makes handwriting recognition a technology the general public wants, that's great. Apple will already have it on their checklist as well. But if Microsoft makes huge promises and fails to deliver a good implementation, Apple's marketing can come along saying "This is what they were trying to do. We got it right."
My bet is that the next big release of Mac OS X (ten dot free) aka Panther will have lots of bug fixes and enhancements to make consumers long for new Apple hardware. Things like autoconf-enabled 802.11g base stations, Firewire 2 ports, faster graphics cards, and possibly writable LCD displays.
I think Apple wants to be cautious about overpromising its abilities (Lest it gets the same rep as version 1.0 of the Newton did).
Slashdot Mirror
For all the Mac paranoid out there, here's another conspiracy theory that will undoubtedly turn up on the rumor sites.
;-)
Microsoft really wants to revive, sell, and support an improved version of Connectix RamDoubler for the latest revision of Mac OS 9. Heck, they might even make it into Microsoft RamTripler (MS Ram*er for short)
Connectix stopped selling RamDoubler and promised to do away with support for it in September 2003. But an killer utility like MS Ram*er will cement the last Mac holdouts to Mac OS 9 and their old hardware.
The conspiracy has widened!
The name doesn't matter. Did the names Puma or Jaguar stir people up about Mac OS X? "It sounds like a sneaker" "Oh, like the elitist automobile!". Perhaps someone made these snide comments, but the performance and feature set quickly set what to expect of those products rather than the name.
Camino has three popular connotations: the Chevrolet car/truck hybrid, the planet from Star Wars Epsiode 2, and the Spanish word for path. They first two may not be the most relevent, but at least it's distinctive. And if it's also determined to pass legal, that's all that's required in a name.
Even if the name isn't relevent, the features are. There are only a few code bases of HTML engines being distributed. Mozilla, Explorer, and the now extinct Netscape codebase are the only ones in wide distribution. The KHTML engine Apple is integrating into Webcore and Safari may be elegant but it's not widely used. I can see why Apple wanted the elegance for it's rendering framework, but letting either the Mozilla or Explorer engine stagnate on the Mac platform is a very bad thing.
Tabbed browsing is okay and all, but if there is one differentiating feature I'd like to see in Chimera it would be a preference option to choose which HTML engine to use to render pages (Webcore or Mozilla). Since neither engine is near a 1.0 bug free release on the mac platform yet, this is a pie in the sky desire.
Frankly, the best feature of Chimera/Camino is the fact that it is being developed for the Mac. Period.
This "Do Not Call" list applies to cold contact calls, but it exempts certain charitable organizations, merchants you've done business with in the past, and (probably most important) political campaigning.
What better way to get a solid list of valid telephone numbers for use by your reelection campagin than going to the national do-not-call list? They can be assured that these are real people and not faxes or modems. They have some assurance that if the person isn't getting swamped with telemarketing calls from merchants that they'll be more receptive to their calls.
I think it's better than nothing, but don't think it's motivated by concern for constituents. It's just another case of enlightened self-interest.
When iMovie 2 was released, the upgrade was not free for those who had the original iMovie (around $30 I think).
iMovie 2 came with new hardware, was easily pirated, and was later released as part of the major ($99) OS upgrades so most likely many people probably never heard of this policy.
I got iMovie 2 when I bought my TiBook and it. It's an easy to use linear editing system. If I wanted better titling, snazzy effects, or non-linear abilities I'd be looking at something in the $1K range. This works fine for me and I haven't really had any desire for more features for my home videos.
If Apple comes out with a new version, my current version doesn't stop working. It very well may have difficulties if I were to buy a new Mac, but then I'd be given the new iMovie 3.0 with that purchase. So there isn't a strong pressure to pay for an upgrade based on stability and compatability problems. This is the most refreshing thing. If I find that the features Apple offers in the iMovie 3.0 version compelling then I may choose to buy an upgrade, but that's based on what I find important features.
My cell phone, PDA, and MP3 player meet my current needs, but they aren't compelling. However, if a Sprint compatible version of the Kyocera 7135 SmartPhone is released in the US, I'd jump on the chance to upgrade for the features that it offers. Similarly iCal, iSync, iTunes, and the AddressBook aren't compelling apps but if they offered integration with a Kyocera 7135 feature set I'd easily pay a good chunk of change for the upgrades needed (they may work now, I have to get my 7135 to find out though).
As another example, I won't use iPhoto at all. I find its abilities aren't what I'm looking for in a digitial photo album. Even though it's free, I prefer my own system of folders in the file system. If Apple adds enough features to iPhoto that I changed my mind about using it, I think I'd also be okay with tossing in some bucks for the upgrade.
My co-worker sitting across from me is a vector for some horrible communicable nastiness.
As I've started to succumb to this unease, I've found a Vicks Menthol Inhaler to be the best vaporware around.
Has it revolutionized the world? I've never used a cell phone in my life and have no intention of ever buying one. There are pay-phones on almost every corner everywhere in the world.
A odd realization of the way cell phones have impacted our lives came to me when I was watching the "futuristic" movie A Clockwork Orange. Alex and his droogs go to people's doors at night pleading to be let in to use the phone because there had been a terrible accident. Most people's sympathy would force them to open the doors and they would then be robbed, raped, and sometimes murdered by the gang. Today though, with the wide proliferation would eliminate that as a way in. You'd either not let them in at all ("Surely one of you must have a cell phone!") or you'd go upstairs and toss your cell phone out a window so they could use it if it were a real emergency.
Of course, I think that people have also gotten more sour and nasty than portrayed in Mr. Kubrick's movie, but that has little to do with cell phones.
I was digging in a landfill in New Mexico and came across what I think was a prototype for a game called ELECTION TIME for the Atari 2600.
:-)
You play a hobbling little politician (who seems remarkably similar to Strom Thurmond). You wander around an unnamed town (though since everything is Green, I call it Greenville) and you collect money and "political favors".
Of course as time goes by, people become disenchanted with you. You can increase your popularity by spending the money you collect.
To help you in your quest is a young boy named Chad. He helps you in a few ways. If you collect nine donations you can give these to Chad and he will arrange a political favor for you. If your popularity ever falls to zero, Chad will come to your help and "merge" with you. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a sexual merging or something like a photo-op. Chad will come and help you out three times before you have to retire. Chad is apparently an opium addict though, and if you find a flower and "revive" it Chad will come to your aid an extra time.
Working against you is an election official in a trenchcoat. If he touches you, he'll take one of your "political favors" that you've collected. Another fellow is apparently a doctor or judge of some sort. He's wearing a white robe and tries to take you back to do your real work in the capitol. You want to avoid him at all costs so you can keep collecting money and favors.
When you get three political favors you want to "call them in" which will ensure you get re-elected. What isn't obvious though is that the real point of the game is to collect money. Due to Chad's help you will ALWAYS win re-election if you get to the end of the round. Notice that Chad keeps going into the schoolhouse (and probably rigging the vote!)
Of course I'm only assumig that the name of the cartridge is "ELECTION TIME". The cartridge itself just has the initials E.T. on it. But the picture on the opening screen of the main character is a splitting image of Strom Thurmond.
Jaguar is actually less secure than prior versions of Mac OS X.
In the past, there weren't any network services turned on by default. These days Mac OS X v 10.2 comes with Samba and Rendevous turned on with a default install.
I've played with Apple's Inkwell handwriting recognition (derived from the Newton's Rosetta recognition software) and was both impressed and annoyed.
... say 10 degrees from horizontal. (kind of like the angle of those old school chairs with built in desk arms). I even tried the Doonesbury test "Egg Freckles?" test which it passed with flying colors.
First, I tried it on a Wacom tablet hooked up to a flat screen iMac at an Apple Store. Horrible. Don't bother. My accuracy was quite poor. It was really quite a struggle to use. I know that Inkwell "learns" your handwriting but I think my poor accuracy was the disconnect between watching the screen rather than my hand as I wrote.
A few weeks later I tried the Wacom manufactured Cintaq LCD pressure sensitive display when I was at the OS X O'Reilly conference. It was fantasticly better in terms of handwriting recognition. The difference was amazing. One other very cool thing about the Cintaq display was that it could be put at different angles. Though the demonstrator had it in a vertical screen like orientation, most people seemed to find it more natural to have it in a much flatter orientation
It wasn't perfect though. What was odd though was switching between the different modes. I'm not sure if this was simply the way the demonstrator had the display set up, but there were definitely three different modes. One was as a mouse replacement (clicking, dragging, etc). One was with the handwriting recognition (I've already described). And one was as a pressure sensitive drawing mode (very cool in Photoshop and Painter). I'm not sure what caused it to switch modes (a button on the pen? something in the interface?) but it certainly wasn't obvious. All of the modes operated wonderfully well individually, but it was the thing that needed the most work.
After the Newton fiasco, I think Apple marketing deliberately doesn't want to appear to be "first" with handwriting technology. My suspicion is that they are refining the hardware and software (by taking feedback from those using it in the wild) but that they want Microsoft to take the first attempt at marketing the technology far and wide to the public and perhaps even fall on their face with a sloppy first implementation.
If Microsoft makes handwriting recognition a technology the general public wants, that's great. Apple will already have it on their checklist as well. But if Microsoft makes huge promises and fails to deliver a good implementation, Apple's marketing can come along saying "This is what they were trying to do. We got it right."
My bet is that the next big release of Mac OS X (ten dot free) aka Panther will have lots of bug fixes and enhancements to make consumers long for new Apple hardware. Things like autoconf-enabled 802.11g base stations, Firewire 2 ports, faster graphics cards, and possibly writable LCD displays.
I think Apple wants to be cautious about overpromising its abilities (Lest it gets the same rep as version 1.0 of the Newton did).