Oodles of third-party software? I run McAfee, Auto Update and Firefox and haven't had any problems since I switched to that trio. No Spybot or Adaware, etc.
Yeah, so when I had a desktop XP box at work, it ran for months and months w/o a reboot...and I don't think Linux folks are missing out, as I've run Linux boxes for *years* w/o rebooting.
Now that iMac at work that crashed *hard* after a system update (had to reinstall the OS), that thing was jinky.
Services Doesn't Mean Crappy Software
on
McVoy Strikes Back
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· Score: 1
"One problem with the services model is that it is based on the idea that you are giving customers crap--because if you give them software that works, what is the point of service?" McVoy says.
Or...it could mean you're working with a nontrivial problem. Yes, sometimes people sell software that is garbage and rely on revenue from services to stay afloat.
However, sometimes it makes a lot of sense to talk to somebody with experience in a problem space. Dismissing the service model as crappy software is completely ignorant.
The iPod/Palm have been good uses of low horsepower tech. Portable Windows OSes have traditionally required more power.
As more power is available in a smaller/more efficience form factor, the convergence devices will take over. There's no real question about that; there are already cameras and MP3 players in phones.
I can't wait until I can carry one device. I'm not there yet, I don't have the $$$ and the current crop of devices is not what I'm looking for. But they will be soon.
> (Do we even have "faults" on the line in the > U.S.?)
Yes...it took two or three visits to get my line noise cleaned up. Nevermind the amazingly poor performance of the Verizon DSL once I got it going...like 28k speed or less. And it took about eight calls to Verizon to get them to change the name and address in all their computers.
Yes, and there's a good book out there that analyzed the majority of the incidents...if you read it, takeoff/landing is hard but the majority of the accidents were *preventable* and caused by human error. Deciding not to get deiced, responding the wrong way to a situation, etc.
I used to be scared of modernization of commercial airliners. The new jets from Airbus are all glass cockpits. They even have computerized takeoff and landing procedures. Then my buddy (who worked for the DOT/FAA at the time) pointed out that the majority of airline crashes were caused by human error during takeoff and landing (the only point where computers aren't flying the plane prior to the newer jets).
My point is...after slamming on the brakes to avoid people, having people attempt to merge into me and having tailgaters leave 2ft. of room, I'm all for computer-controlled cars.
> I can't comment on how good Rhapsody is since > I've never met anyone who used it. That probably > says enough right there.
Well, no. It's actually a good service if, like me, you sit in front of a computer all day. For $9.95/mo (Unlimited Subscription) I can listen to 1mil songs. The quality is quite good over DSL, cable modem or office LAN. I've even run it over a modem, but that was about as good as could be expected.
If you have a fully supported player (read: supports WMA DRM), I believe you can download an unlimited number of tracks to your player. And you can download an unlimited number of tracks with WMA DRM to your PC. To download to my iPod, I pay $0.89/song, like iTunes...but I never really use the iPod, mostly just use the Rhapsody client...because there's all that music there that I can listen to whenever I want. I find even when I have 10-20G of music, I get tired of it and want to try something new.
> I said share nothing environments scale because > you can just put up 100 web servers to take part > in serving the application.... > Its the technology employed by google
Wait, do you think Google's implementation is not technically complex?! Cause...that's kinda what you just said. Find the 30min. Google video that's out there that covers the technical bits of what they're doing.
Scaling is not trivial in any dynamic application...especially when they have 2500+ boxes, like Google does.
not real software engineers who have been trained to really think through the consequences of certain design decisions.
Sweeeeet jebus, this has to be a troll...or you've never encountered any software written by "real" software engineers that had made poor design decisions, in which case you should go spend $100 on lottery tickets because you are, obviously, the luckiest person alive.
> So I really don't think that it's the design > driving the price of the units.
The cost of the design doesn't stop at the designers' fee...it's decisions made by the designers that influence the cost of the product.
Apple probably spent a good amount of time finding the cheapest way to produce the thumbwheel on the first-gen iPod, but it had to be more expensive than just using simple buttons.
Jobs' talent is being able to spot a design that the market will like but he can still make a profit off.
Slashdot Mirror
Raindance has a new product that just works...you can download and try it for free.
> There are as many Mac users now as there were
> windows users not that long ago.
? When, like 1985?
Oodles of third-party software? I run McAfee, Auto Update and Firefox and haven't had any problems since I switched to that trio. No Spybot or Adaware, etc.
Yeah, so when I had a desktop XP box at work, it ran for months and months w/o a reboot...and I don't think Linux folks are missing out, as I've run Linux boxes for *years* w/o rebooting.
Now that iMac at work that crashed *hard* after a system update (had to reinstall the OS), that thing was jinky.
Or...it could mean you're working with a nontrivial problem. Yes, sometimes people sell software that is garbage and rely on revenue from services to stay afloat.
However, sometimes it makes a lot of sense to talk to somebody with experience in a problem space. Dismissing the service model as crappy software is completely ignorant.
> I've never had that problem in linux. My network
> cards has always been supported, and I've never
> had to reboot into windows.
DON'T FEED THE TROLLS!!!
> And there's no software out there that can replace
> a PA.
Not right at this moment, give it one to five years. It's the next killer app.
At a former job, we were moving to an internal RPM server that updated itself via a trusted external source...you could also run a local YUM server.
If the power is coming from the sun and the arrays are providing enough juice, who cares if it's lossy?
> The iMac is a good example; where exactly do you
> go from an all in one LCD?
? There are *so* many ways for Apple to go with this...
* iTablet...for some reason, I find this way more appealing than a tablet PC.
* iWizard...iPod/phone/PDA.
There's a lot more there, and Jobs is the guy to do it...or surround himself with people who can.
The iPod/Palm have been good uses of low horsepower tech. Portable Windows OSes have traditionally required more power.
As more power is available in a smaller/more efficience form factor, the convergence devices will take over. There's no real question about that; there are already cameras and MP3 players in phones.
I can't wait until I can carry one device. I'm not there yet, I don't have the $$$ and the current crop of devices is not what I'm looking for. But they will be soon.
> (Do we even have "faults" on the line in the
> U.S.?)
Yes...it took two or three visits to get my line noise cleaned up. Nevermind the amazingly poor performance of the Verizon DSL once I got it going...like 28k speed or less. And it took about eight calls to Verizon to get them to change the name and address in all their computers.
Yes, and there's a good book out there that analyzed the majority of the incidents...if you read it, takeoff/landing is hard but the majority of the accidents were *preventable* and caused by human error. Deciding not to get deiced, responding the wrong way to a situation, etc.
I used to be scared of modernization of commercial airliners. The new jets from Airbus are all glass cockpits. They even have computerized takeoff and landing procedures. Then my buddy (who worked for the DOT/FAA at the time) pointed out that the majority of airline crashes were caused by human error during takeoff and landing (the only point where computers aren't flying the plane prior to the newer jets).
My point is...after slamming on the brakes to avoid people, having people attempt to merge into me and having tailgaters leave 2ft. of room, I'm all for computer-controlled cars.
> I can't comment on how good Rhapsody is since
> I've never met anyone who used it. That probably
> says enough right there.
Well, no. It's actually a good service if, like me, you sit in front of a computer all day. For $9.95/mo (Unlimited Subscription) I can listen to 1mil songs. The quality is quite good over DSL, cable modem or office LAN. I've even run it over a modem, but that was about as good as could be expected.
If you have a fully supported player (read: supports WMA DRM), I believe you can download an unlimited number of tracks to your player. And you can download an unlimited number of tracks with WMA DRM to your PC. To download to my iPod, I pay $0.89/song, like iTunes...but I never really use the iPod, mostly just use the Rhapsody client...because there's all that music there that I can listen to whenever I want. I find even when I have 10-20G of music, I get tired of it and want to try something new.
To me, it's worth the $9.95/mo.
Running FC3 on my laptop and was able to install a network printer and print to it from Firefox within minutes...I was impressed.
That's why we have OpenSSH.
> I said share nothing environments scale because ...
> you can just put up 100 web servers to take part
> in serving the application.
> Its the technology employed by google
Wait, do you think Google's implementation is not technically complex?! Cause...that's kinda what you just said. Find the 30min. Google video that's out there that covers the technical bits of what they're doing.
Scaling is not trivial in any dynamic application...especially when they have 2500+ boxes, like Google does.
Sweeeeet jebus, this has to be a troll...or you've never encountered any software written by "real" software engineers that had made poor design decisions, in which case you should go spend $100 on lottery tickets because you are, obviously, the luckiest person alive.
Try a metasearch and let the server figure it out.
Jeez, I thought my school was alright...guess not, we were using Dec Alphas and those are (almost) gone...
I was using Xinerama and Blackbox years ago...they seemed to work fine...
Come on now...once a band acquires a decent size fanbase, there are going to be a lot of people buying the album regardless of advertising.
Not to mention they already have a bunch of $$$, so they can look hip by saying P2P is ok and still add the new wing onto the mansion.
Let's see a band start from *nothing* and release the first album on P2P and make money.
Also, quoting Wikipedia on P2P is like quoting Slashdot on DRM...
> Why is it that after all this time and all these
> budget overruns that the people of Mass. haven't
> just said "This is a bad idea. Lets kill it!"?
Because eventually the elevated highway the tunnel replaced would have fallen into the streets. This needed to be done at some point.
> Eventually, they'll just call the project done
> and we'll have another Bradley Fighting Vehicle
> on our hands.
Actually, the tunnel is just about done. Thousands of people drive through it every day. See the Big Dig site for more info.
> So I really don't think that it's the design
> driving the price of the units.
The cost of the design doesn't stop at the designers' fee...it's decisions made by the designers that influence the cost of the product.
Apple probably spent a good amount of time finding the cheapest way to produce the thumbwheel on the first-gen iPod, but it had to be more expensive than just using simple buttons.
Jobs' talent is being able to spot a design that the market will like but he can still make a profit off.