I'm not siding with Microsoft per se, but what is the point of including the Sun JVM with Windows?
I don't think the masses are buying Windows to write their own Java programs, are they? The main benefit to the average user to have the Sun JVM would be what? To run some ugly Java applet? Don't even get me started on Swing applications.
Regarding Netscape, I would argue that this was Netscape's downfall as well. (Everyone knows how big a piece of crap IE3 was, and everyone knows how big a piece of crap Netscape 4 was. Netscape 4 was Netscape's downfall. Coming out with a competent browser now isn't enough to break the multiyear stranglehold given to Microsoft by Netscape 4.) In the earlier days of the browser wars, people were smart enough to pick the browser that did a better job. Today? I don't know.
Let's be realistic - most users don't need or care about Sun's JVM at this point in time.
In the grand scheme of things, I think most end users have more need for the Macromedia Flash plugin than the Sun JVM. Of course, The Register has a story talking about Microsoft making a hostile bid for Macromedia.
Ultimately, forcing Microsoft to add Java to Windows accomplishes little, since Joe Average won't be impacted in any meaningful way. This is as empty a moral victory as Sun can possibly have. And for the users who actually use Java, it will probably end up being more of an inconvenience, as they'll be upgrading to a more recent version of the VM anyways.
The one benefit of a home-made PVR is that you can program the start time and end time very specifically.
I don't know if TIVO has time offset features, since they're not available in Canada, but I do know that no two stations synchronize their clocks nor start and end on time as per electronic schedules. For that matter, it's quite possible that the clock on my PVR could be off by as much as minute.
I've always found that I've had to give my VCR 2 extra minutes on the start time and end time just so I don't miss anything important at the beginning or end of the show (especially the clip for "next week's episode"). This can especially be a pain the behind if you are trying to tape two shows one after the other on two different channels.
Maybe someone with a TIVO can let us know if you can override the electronic tv programming schedule?
It's an interesting commentary on society when someone can get banned from an online service for using foul language, while all the rule abiders get to stay online and frag their enemies and see all the blood and body parts bounce all over their respective screens.
If I buy a ticket to a movie, that doesn't give the right to act as a please in the theater - the management could quite reasonably throw me out if I distrupted the experience of other paying customers.
If only that were true. I have yet to see someone get the boot from a cinema for yapping on a cell phone, using a laser pointer or heckling the movie. Buying that ticket may not give some idiot the right to be disruptive, but there's nothing stopping them either.
That's why I don't have too many issues with the XBox live policy. I just wish cinemas had idiot-detectors.
As all slashdotters know, computer geeks can be atheists and religious zealots at the same time.
Xtreme Programming is one of the hot buttons (as is Unix, Java, Linux, OSX, etc. - the only common religion here seems to be the hatred for MicroSatan).
Xtreme Programming has a lot of interesting elements (the only one I'm not keen on is the Pair Programming). But, as with anything, if it doesn't work for you, there's probably something similar else you can try - SCRUM, et al.
The title is provocative enough (at least it isn't inflammatory) that XP fanatics will probably find ways to evangelize their methodology and sell it to anybody who will listen. The book does sound like a good read, because everyone needs a strong dose of perspective now and then.
I'm not sure that a UIForge type of forum is what OSS needs in the short term. In the long term, yes, I would agree.
Taking time to sift through thousands of complaints may not be the most efficient path towards GUI improvement.
The problem is that the longer it takes for OSS GUIs to evolve to where they should be, the faster the commercial alternatives get ahead.
Perhaps what OSS needs is a place with top-ten lists outlining the best-of-breed GUIs in different applications. The devs can check out the apps and seek "inspiration" from those GUIs for their applications.
For example, if you want to write an audio/mp3 app, take a look at iTunes, MusicMatch and WinAmp. If you want to write a digital video editor for beginners, look at iMovie, Pinnacle Studio and Windows Movie Maker.
If you imitate something with a good GUI based on the best-of-breed apps out there, you're a lot farther ahead without having to do a lot of usability research and focus groups, which can be a time burden on a non-funded OSS project.
Actually, Aldus Pagemaker and Apple's Laserwriter put the Mac on the map as a legitimate "business" tool. In those days, the Mac was still considered a bit of a "toy".
Indirectly, Adobe benefited from this in two ways: The Laserwriter was the first PostScript printer "for the masses". Secondly, Adobe was a publisher for a lot of the best font foundries at the time. So in a way, PageMaker and Apple put Adobe on the DTP map... but not in the way suggested by the original post.
Actually, there are no assumptions. Market saturation rules apply whether or not there is a "corporate" entity behind the standard or not. The fact that Ogg is free is laudable, but not relevant to its widespread adoption.
But the debate throughout the thread about Ogg becoming more widespread than MP3 because it is technologically better applies just as much to the OSS Ogg effort as it does to the arguably superior (to MP3) corporate backed WMA format.
DVD is overcoming tape rapidly because of _vast_ quality differences (240 lines vs 500, stereo vs. 5.1). Ogg, WMA, and MP3Pro don't offer that kind of difference, IMHO. Not yet, at least. The barrier to entry has always been that everyone and his brother are already using MP3 and that the perceptual switching cost (not necessarily a financial cost) is too high.
Just because my examples seem to use businesses doesn't mean that they don't apply. Marketing is not just about dollars. It's about social psychology too. Like it or not, Ogg's users are its market.
I don't know where the state of bootable USB keys is at, but if you could boot it off a USB key (with 256MB or 512MB) that would be cool. Yeah, the older machines don't allow you to do that, but can you imagine how cool it would be? And you'd be able to write data as well.
From what I've read, CrossOffice runs well in Xandros. VMWare runs well in Linux. I think CodeWeavers and VMWare have done an admirable job (try running Virtual PC on the PPC platform, and you'll know how viable emulating x86 is on a current Mac) in satisfying the market for people who want to run Microsoft software without Windows.
Those utilities aren't running nicely in *nix/*bsd or even BeOS now, but they can. You gotta remember that most of the devs on alternative OS's would rather not run Microsoft software, so there's no major impetus to get WINE high up on the dev priority list.
Apple, on the other hand, would have a vested interest in having something like WINE around. And if they spent a few bucks, neat things could happen.
Apple has nothing to fear from Microsoft. If Apple drops the bombshell that they are moving to commodity x86 hardware, dropping Office for OS-X will be moot.
I would say that there would be a version of VMWare or Virtual PC in the blink of an eye, and products based on WINE (i.e., CrossOffice) that run the Win32 binary of Office in OSX would be imminent as well.
Microsoft has no bargaining chips in this situation. Dropping Office will not eliminate the availability of running Office or IE for that matter on an x86 based OS-X.
That is of course, assuming Apple doesn't release OS-X on a proprietary x86 platform.
Higher wages do not necessarily lead to higher quality. Look at Ford, GM and Chrysler. Their employees are all relatively well paid yet the quality of American made cars is not awe inspiring. Of course, this can be reasoned away by the fact that North Americans are a bit higher on the Maslow scale than people in third world countries and are no longer motivated by money alone.
If the division of labour in a sweatshop is structured well, you can get quite good quality out of 50 cent an hour labour. Freddie Taylor's ideas on scientific management are still quite valid today.
In any case, if the worker considers 50 cents an hour to be "higher" wages than he/she would otherwise have, that would lead to higher motivation anyway. The local worker in the PRC is more likely evaluates "better" wages to his cousin in a neighboring province than someone in a western country.
The SACD catalog selection is pretty small (relative to CD title selection). I imagine if you've already got 1000 cds it's conceivable that few of them are available on SACD, which would require you to look for them and buy them. No small feat (but either is ripping 1000 cds). You'd also be hard pressed to find a high capacity SACD changer that makes you happy.
And while even 320K Mp3s may not be acoustically "perfect", having them indexed on a hard drive is sure a heck of a lot faster than running a playlist through a network of CD changers (and cheaper too).
They conveniently forgot Asia Carrera
on
Geek-Chic Power Houses
·
· Score: 5, Informative
This film just shows how effective Apple's branding campaign is. It used to be that people wanted to be identified by the car they drove, the clothes they wore and the material possessions they had. Apple effectively extended it to the computer (and OS, I guess) they use. Apple has one of the strongest brands around, independent of product sector.
What I can't figure out is why anyone cares what computer/OS another person is using. I don't care if someone's using Windows, Linux or OSX. It doesn't make them smarter, it doesn't make them cooler. If you like what you use, it's right for you. Simple.
If you think the OS/Computer you use makes you a better person, you've got something to learn about life. Tell me that you did a good deed today, or volunteered/donated time or money to charity, and then maybe I'll be impressed. It's what you do, not what you have or use that matters.
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I'm not siding with Microsoft per se, but what is the point of including the Sun JVM with Windows?
I don't think the masses are buying Windows to write their own Java programs, are they? The main benefit to the average user to have the Sun JVM would be what? To run some ugly Java applet? Don't even get me started on Swing applications.
Regarding Netscape, I would argue that this was Netscape's downfall as well. (Everyone knows how big a piece of crap IE3 was, and everyone knows how big a piece of crap Netscape 4 was. Netscape 4 was Netscape's downfall. Coming out with a competent browser now isn't enough to break the multiyear stranglehold given to Microsoft by Netscape 4.) In the earlier days of the browser wars, people were smart enough to pick the browser that did a better job. Today? I don't know.
Let's be realistic - most users don't need or care about Sun's JVM at this point in time.
In the grand scheme of things, I think most end users have more need for the Macromedia Flash plugin than the Sun JVM. Of course, The Register has a story talking about Microsoft making a hostile bid for Macromedia.
Ultimately, forcing Microsoft to add Java to Windows accomplishes little, since Joe Average won't be impacted in any meaningful way. This is as empty a moral victory as Sun can possibly have. And for the users who actually use Java, it will probably end up being more of an inconvenience, as they'll be upgrading to a more recent version of the VM anyways.
The one benefit of a home-made PVR is that you can program the start time and end time very specifically.
I don't know if TIVO has time offset features, since they're not available in Canada, but I do know that no two stations synchronize their clocks nor start and end on time as per electronic schedules. For that matter, it's quite possible that the clock on my PVR could be off by as much as minute.
I've always found that I've had to give my VCR 2 extra minutes on the start time and end time just so I don't miss anything important at the beginning or end of the show (especially the clip for "next week's episode"). This can especially be a pain the behind if you are trying to tape two shows one after the other on two different channels.
Maybe someone with a TIVO can let us know if you can override the electronic tv programming schedule?
Relatively speaking, the theme song can't be that dreadful.
You must have forgotten that there have been Bond songs by the likes of A-Ha, Garbage, and ahem, Sheena Easton.
It's not as if we've had a taste of any song in Shirley Bassey's class for quite a while.
In any case, I'd rather have a Madonna song in a Bond movie than have to watch Timothy Dalton play Bond.
It's an interesting commentary on society when someone can get banned from an online service for using foul language, while all the rule abiders get to stay online and frag their enemies and see all the blood and body parts bounce all over their respective screens.
What's wrong with this picture?
If I buy a ticket to a movie, that doesn't give the right to act as a please in the theater - the management could quite reasonably throw me out if I distrupted the experience of other paying customers.
If only that were true. I have yet to see someone get the boot from a cinema for yapping on a cell phone, using a laser pointer or heckling the movie. Buying that ticket may not give some idiot the right to be disruptive, but there's nothing stopping them either.
That's why I don't have too many issues with the XBox live policy. I just wish cinemas had idiot-detectors.
Ants know better. The 1985 Apple Lemmings ad is genetically implanted into their insect DNA.
They'd get fried by the heat of the x86 chips. PPC chips run cooler.
OS X is full of bugs.
As all slashdotters know, computer geeks can be atheists and religious zealots at the same time.
Xtreme Programming is one of the hot buttons (as is Unix, Java, Linux, OSX, etc. - the only common religion here seems to be the hatred for MicroSatan).
Xtreme Programming has a lot of interesting elements (the only one I'm not keen on is the Pair Programming). But, as with anything, if it doesn't work for you, there's probably something similar else you can try - SCRUM, et al.
The title is provocative enough (at least it isn't inflammatory) that XP fanatics will probably find ways to evangelize their methodology and sell it to anybody who will listen. The book does sound like a good read, because everyone needs a strong dose of perspective now and then.
I'm not sure that a UIForge type of forum is what OSS needs in the short term. In the long term, yes, I would agree.
Taking time to sift through thousands of complaints may not be the most efficient path towards GUI improvement.
The problem is that the longer it takes for OSS GUIs to evolve to where they should be, the faster the commercial alternatives get ahead.
Perhaps what OSS needs is a place with top-ten lists outlining the best-of-breed GUIs in different applications. The devs can check out the apps and seek "inspiration" from those GUIs for their applications.
For example, if you want to write an audio/mp3 app, take a look at iTunes, MusicMatch and WinAmp. If you want to write a digital video editor for beginners, look at iMovie, Pinnacle Studio and Windows Movie Maker.
If you imitate something with a good GUI based on the best-of-breed apps out there, you're a lot farther ahead without having to do a lot of usability research and focus groups, which can be a time burden on a non-funded OSS project.
Well, if you can't reach downstairs, at least you've eliminated the risk of being warchalked.
[sarcasm]I'm confused. How can troll be sexy?[/sarcasm]
Actually, Aldus Pagemaker and Apple's Laserwriter put the Mac on the map as a legitimate "business" tool. In those days, the Mac was still considered a bit of a "toy".
Indirectly, Adobe benefited from this in two ways: The Laserwriter was the first PostScript printer "for the masses". Secondly, Adobe was a publisher for a lot of the best font foundries at the time. So in a way, PageMaker and Apple put Adobe on the DTP map... but not in the way suggested by the original post.
Actually, there are no assumptions. Market saturation rules apply whether or not there is a "corporate" entity behind the standard or not. The fact that Ogg is free is laudable, but not relevant to its widespread adoption.
But the debate throughout the thread about Ogg becoming more widespread than MP3 because it is technologically better applies just as much to the OSS Ogg effort as it does to the arguably superior (to MP3) corporate backed WMA format.
DVD is overcoming tape rapidly because of _vast_ quality differences (240 lines vs 500, stereo vs. 5.1). Ogg, WMA, and MP3Pro don't offer that kind of difference, IMHO. Not yet, at least. The barrier to entry has always been that everyone and his brother are already using MP3 and that the perceptual switching cost (not necessarily a financial cost) is too high.
Just because my examples seem to use businesses doesn't mean that they don't apply. Marketing is not just about dollars. It's about social psychology too. Like it or not, Ogg's users are its market.
Tape still is the best format for you. You're better off sending a copy on DV tape than a lower quality compressed MPEG2-based DVD.
Remember, if an hour of DV takes up 12 GB of space, you're obviously losing something shipping it on a 4.7GB DVD.
Having said that, however, it doesn't matter if something is obsolete if you get your money's worth.
Ideological dogma aside, success in marketplace adoption has never been about survival of the fittest. It's about being first to saturate the market.
I don't think I need to give examples, but Beta vs VHS, Windows vs. everything else, MP3 vs Ogg, blah, blah.
If Ebola were to kill everyone on the planet, would it matter if a newer, deadlier (and arguably better) virus appeared on earth?
I don't know where the state of bootable USB keys is at, but if you could boot it off a USB key (with 256MB or 512MB) that would be cool. Yeah, the older machines don't allow you to do that, but can you imagine how cool it would be? And you'd be able to write data as well.
I'm still waiting for the low-riders and fuzzy dice to be available as PC-mod add-ons.
From what I've read, CrossOffice runs well in Xandros. VMWare runs well in Linux. I think CodeWeavers and VMWare have done an admirable job (try running Virtual PC on the PPC platform, and you'll know how viable emulating x86 is on a current Mac) in satisfying the market for people who want to run Microsoft software without Windows.
Those utilities aren't running nicely in *nix/*bsd or even BeOS now, but they can. You gotta remember that most of the devs on alternative OS's would rather not run Microsoft software, so there's no major impetus to get WINE high up on the dev priority list.
Apple, on the other hand, would have a vested interest in having something like WINE around. And if they spent a few bucks, neat things could happen.
Apple has nothing to fear from Microsoft. If Apple drops the bombshell that they are moving to commodity x86 hardware, dropping Office for OS-X will be moot.
I would say that there would be a version of VMWare or Virtual PC in the blink of an eye, and products based on WINE (i.e., CrossOffice) that run the Win32 binary of Office in OSX would be imminent as well.
Microsoft has no bargaining chips in this situation. Dropping Office will not eliminate the availability of running Office or IE for that matter on an x86 based OS-X.
That is of course, assuming Apple doesn't release OS-X on a proprietary x86 platform.
... when all you need to convert Office files from one application to another with a simple XSL transformation.
I won't hold my breath.
Higher wages do not necessarily lead to higher quality. Look at Ford, GM and Chrysler. Their employees are all relatively well paid yet the quality of American made cars is not awe inspiring. Of course, this can be reasoned away by the fact that North Americans are a bit higher on the Maslow scale than people in third world countries and are no longer motivated by money alone.
If the division of labour in a sweatshop is structured well, you can get quite good quality out of 50 cent an hour labour. Freddie Taylor's ideas on scientific management are still quite valid today.
In any case, if the worker considers 50 cents an hour to be "higher" wages than he/she would otherwise have, that would lead to higher motivation anyway. The local worker in the PRC is more likely evaluates "better" wages to his cousin in a neighboring province than someone in a western country.
The SACD catalog selection is pretty small (relative to CD title selection). I imagine if you've already got 1000 cds it's conceivable that few of them are available on SACD, which would require you to look for them and buy them. No small feat (but either is ripping 1000 cds). You'd also be hard pressed to find a high capacity SACD changer that makes you happy.
And while even 320K Mp3s may not be acoustically "perfect", having them indexed on a hard drive is sure a heck of a lot faster than running a playlist through a network of CD changers (and cheaper too).
Yes, the famous porn star is probably just as "hardcore" a geek as anyone in the Wired article, if not more. I bet none of those profiled builds their own systems, did their own web sites, kicks butt in UTK, has a 150 IQ and has starred in hundreds of high quality porn flicks. Oh yeah, Wired is a "family" magazine.
Which brings up the age old question:
If a PC screams in a room and nobody hears it, does it still make a noise?
This film just shows how effective Apple's branding campaign is. It used to be that people wanted to be identified by the car they drove, the clothes they wore and the material possessions they had. Apple effectively extended it to the computer (and OS, I guess) they use. Apple has one of the strongest brands around, independent of product sector.
What I can't figure out is why anyone cares what computer/OS another person is using. I don't care if someone's using Windows, Linux or OSX. It doesn't make them smarter, it doesn't make them cooler. If you like what you use, it's right for you. Simple.
If you think the OS/Computer you use makes you a better person, you've got something to learn about life. Tell me that you did a good deed today, or volunteered/donated time or money to charity, and then maybe I'll be impressed. It's what you do, not what you have or use that matters.