The new features that Ballmer showed off during his speech seemed useful. He showed how, using Microsoft's integrated applications, people can draw capabilities from a number of applications without even paying attention to which one they're using at any given time. That means you could, for example, get a PowerPoint attachment in an e-mail and edit it right in Outlook.
Oooh, they implemented OLE in Outlook! How 1995 of them.
Having right mouse as an alternative is fine. Kensington software offers that. But I assume you also know why it's not good as the only way to access menus.
Well, do you have an alternative that would work better?
It probably depends a lot on how often you switch applications. I expect that most people spend most of their time in two or three apps, and switch rarely.
People say the UN shouldn't do this because the UN is corrupt and inefficient. However, Verisign is verifiably corrupt and inefficient as well, perhaps even more so.
More to the point, the US government is clearly corrupt and inefficient.
"Verisign have my complete confidence. They do a heck of a job!"
Actually, Kerry voted for the war in Iraq. His position was "I support the war in Iraq, but I would have done it better than Bush". So the situation's even worse than you made out.
Well, congratulations. It's not often I see a right-wing opinion that's well reasoned and honestly presented. And no, I'm not being sarcastic.
I happen to think that if a bit of socialism is what it takes to not have poor people dying of tuberculosis on the streets, then sign me up for some socialism. You apparently differ, but I'm pleased to see that you acknowledge it honestly.
Well, "other countries suck even worse" doesn't seem to me to be a very good argument against the existence of poverty in the USA.
There are plenty of Americans who find it difficult or impossible to afford sufficient healthy food for their families. That, to me, is poverty, even if the result is obesity and diabetes rather than visible ribcages. If poor people in Africa could go to a local McDonalds, they'd be fat too.
Or more likely, they would force companies to pay better wages. Just like free software forces companies to attain a certain level of quality and feature-richness if they're going to be able to sell their software.
Would you be happy living in a box subsisting on a minimal diet? I wouldn't, and I suspect most people would choose to work so that they could afford better food, a TV, a car, and so on.
The previews for "Fight Club" made me completely write it off. The only reason I watched it was that an online rating system said it was certain I would love it, and I found that so unlikely I had to test it out.
Actually, as a game developer I'd be strongly tempted to keep developing for PS2.
Think about it. You know the toolset, you know the tricks. It has 62% of the total market, an enormous installed base. The graphics capabilities are impressive enough--think Ico, Burnout Revenge, Jak & Daxter, and remember that cutting edge next generation graphics are likely too expensive for you to develop anyway. There are existing libraries and engines you can license. And when the PS3 starts to sell, all the games will continue to run on that too.
I know that I continued buying and playing PS1 games after I got my PS2, and that was a much bigger jump in capability than from PS2 to PS3.
I used to get annoyed by the OS reinstalls. Then I switched from GNOME to KDE.
Seriously, I had similar problems--a GNOME library broke and all my text disappeared. I decided that was it, and switched. No problems since, in spite of going through two major KDE point releases.
I've been buying a lot fewer CDs, mostly because it's taking me longer and longer to find them at a reasonable price.
A few years ago I could go to the local store and get new releases for $10.99. Now I go in and new releases are $18. Well, I'm not paying that, my limit is $12. So I just wait until something I'm interested in drops in price to under $12.
Basically, I cruise Amazon marketplace and half.com a lot, wait for sales, check clearance bins, and so on.
Maybe I'm atypical, but I know the record industry could quadruple their profits from me by dropping their prices a little. Mute records had a sale one time where they put big chunks of the back catalog on sale at mid price, and I immediately sent in a $150 order.
I've been tempted to buy a couple of albums from the iTMS recently, but only because they're $9.99 there, but $20+ on CD (import only releases). Otherwise, I'd prefer the CD every time. And in fact, I've not bought from the iTMS recently, because I'm waiting for someone to get Hymn working again first. Stupid Apple.
PS2 users basically can't go online, even if they wanted to.
What the hell are you talking about? Every new PS2 ships with ethernet built in, and for old PS2s there's a plug-in adaptor available.
I've used my PS2 online, but only to download Action Replay codes. I haven't played any games online, because I've yet to see any that interest me. Include me in the 96%.
Yes, god forbid investigative reporters start looking at documents they're not supposed to. The last thing we want is newspapers able to publish information gained from leaked documents.
It depends whether the purpose of the exercise is (a) to prevent authorities from gaining unauthorized access to your data, or (b) to prevent authorities from denying you access to your data.
A backup given to a friend is OK for (b), but useless for (a). You need encryption for that.
The point of encryption is you don't have to think that anything's about to happen, you don't have to find a friend and hand over a disk.
I already checked on the encryption when I saw the product mentioned further up the page.
The encryption is AES. Assuming they've implemented it correctly, it should be adequately secure even against governments, as long as you follow the usual password security precautions.
It does, because, unlike hard-drives, the media and the reading mechanism separate components. If your read head drives on your hard-drive, it is difficult and expensive (but not impossible) to retrieve your data.
Speaking as someone who worked in data recovery for a number of years...
If your write head on your tape drive goes out of alignment, it's difficult and expensive (and sometimes almost impossible) to retrieve your data. Been there, done that.
If your heads on your tape drive get magnetized, it's difficult and expensive (and sometimes almost impossible) to retrieve your data. Been there, done that.
If your tape stretches, wears thin, breaks, or develops dropouts, it is difficult and expensive (and sometimes almost impossible) to retrieve your data. Been there, done that.
The usual solution tape proponents push to improve reliability of tapes is to never re-use a backup tape, or to use it only 10 times then throw it away. Of course, that makes tape astronomically expensive.
I'd take redundant Seagate hard drives over a tape drive any day.
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Oooh, they implemented OLE in Outlook! How 1995 of them.
I'm surprised nobody's made a clone of "Space Paranoids".
In my tests, LAME-encoded MP3s sound better than AACs at the same bitrates. Check it out for yourself.
Of course, you may be too lazy or CPU-starved to LAME-encode everything...
"PHP: The language of choice for script kiddies."
Trackpads kinda suck, is the problem.
I much preferred the trackball on my first Mac laptop. Unfortunately, the market apparently disagreed.
Having right mouse as an alternative is fine. Kensington software offers that. But I assume you also know why it's not good as the only way to access menus.
Well, do you have an alternative that would work better?
It probably depends a lot on how often you switch applications. I expect that most people spend most of their time in two or three apps, and switch rarely.
I had an external plug-in keyboard for my T68i, but it turned out not to be all that useful.
More to the point, the US government is clearly corrupt and inefficient.
"Verisign have my complete confidence. They do a heck of a job!"
Actually, Kerry voted for the war in Iraq. His position was "I support the war in Iraq, but I would have done it better than Bush". So the situation's even worse than you made out.
Well, congratulations. It's not often I see a right-wing opinion that's well reasoned and honestly presented. And no, I'm not being sarcastic.
I happen to think that if a bit of socialism is what it takes to not have poor people dying of tuberculosis on the streets, then sign me up for some socialism. You apparently differ, but I'm pleased to see that you acknowledge it honestly.
Well, "other countries suck even worse" doesn't seem to me to be a very good argument against the existence of poverty in the USA.
There are plenty of Americans who find it difficult or impossible to afford sufficient healthy food for their families. That, to me, is poverty, even if the result is obesity and diabetes rather than visible ribcages. If poor people in Africa could go to a local McDonalds, they'd be fat too.
Or more likely, they would force companies to pay better wages. Just like free software forces companies to attain a certain level of quality and feature-richness if they're going to be able to sell their software.
Would you be happy living in a box subsisting on a minimal diet? I wouldn't, and I suspect most people would choose to work so that they could afford better food, a TV, a car, and so on.
The previews for "Fight Club" made me completely write it off. The only reason I watched it was that an online rating system said it was certain I would love it, and I found that so unlikely I had to test it out.
Actually, as a game developer I'd be strongly tempted to keep developing for PS2.
Think about it. You know the toolset, you know the tricks. It has 62% of the total market, an enormous installed base. The graphics capabilities are impressive enough--think Ico, Burnout Revenge, Jak & Daxter, and remember that cutting edge next generation graphics are likely too expensive for you to develop anyway. There are existing libraries and engines you can license. And when the PS3 starts to sell, all the games will continue to run on that too.
I know that I continued buying and playing PS1 games after I got my PS2, and that was a much bigger jump in capability than from PS2 to PS3.
I used to get annoyed by the OS reinstalls. Then I switched from GNOME to KDE.
Seriously, I had similar problems--a GNOME library broke and all my text disappeared. I decided that was it, and switched. No problems since, in spite of going through two major KDE point releases.
Read up on "Fitt's Law" and basic HCI design.
The menu bar is very important, so it deserves an edge of the screen, so that it's as fast as possible to use. Apple got it right back in 1984.
I've been buying a lot fewer CDs, mostly because it's taking me longer and longer to find them at a reasonable price.
A few years ago I could go to the local store and get new releases for $10.99. Now I go in and new releases are $18. Well, I'm not paying that, my limit is $12. So I just wait until something I'm interested in drops in price to under $12.
Basically, I cruise Amazon marketplace and half.com a lot, wait for sales, check clearance bins, and so on.
Maybe I'm atypical, but I know the record industry could quadruple their profits from me by dropping their prices a little. Mute records had a sale one time where they put big chunks of the back catalog on sale at mid price, and I immediately sent in a $150 order.
I've been tempted to buy a couple of albums from the iTMS recently, but only because they're $9.99 there, but $20+ on CD (import only releases). Otherwise, I'd prefer the CD every time. And in fact, I've not bought from the iTMS recently, because I'm waiting for someone to get Hymn working again first. Stupid Apple.
What the hell are you talking about? Every new PS2 ships with ethernet built in, and for old PS2s there's a plug-in adaptor available.
I've used my PS2 online, but only to download Action Replay codes. I haven't played any games online, because I've yet to see any that interest me. Include me in the 96%.
Yes, god forbid investigative reporters start looking at documents they're not supposed to. The last thing we want is newspapers able to publish information gained from leaked documents.
It depends whether the purpose of the exercise is (a) to prevent authorities from gaining unauthorized access to your data, or (b) to prevent authorities from denying you access to your data.
A backup given to a friend is OK for (b), but useless for (a). You need encryption for that.
The point of encryption is you don't have to think that anything's about to happen, you don't have to find a friend and hand over a disk.
I already checked on the encryption when I saw the product mentioned further up the page.
The encryption is AES. Assuming they've implemented it correctly, it should be adequately secure even against governments, as long as you follow the usual password security precautions.
Actually, the original poster said "any platform". Go back and look.
If he'd meant "either platform" he should have said so.
Speaking as someone who worked in data recovery for a number of years...
If your write head on your tape drive goes out of alignment, it's difficult and expensive (and sometimes almost impossible) to retrieve your data. Been there, done that.
If your heads on your tape drive get magnetized, it's difficult and expensive (and sometimes almost impossible) to retrieve your data. Been there, done that.
If your tape stretches, wears thin, breaks, or develops dropouts, it is difficult and expensive (and sometimes almost impossible) to retrieve your data. Been there, done that.
The usual solution tape proponents push to improve reliability of tapes is to never re-use a backup tape, or to use it only 10 times then throw it away. Of course, that makes tape astronomically expensive.
I'd take redundant Seagate hard drives over a tape drive any day.
Yes, date/time handling that actually works and records all the necessary information in a sensible format is the reason I use PostgreSQL.