The only time I've used cookies has been to support authentication, and to allow preferences to be stored so that the web site can appear the way the user wants.
As a user, my policy is that I allow cookies only if they provide me with some compelling benefit. If I browse a shopping site and decide to buy something, and put it in the cart, then at that point I'll enable cookies. If I turn up at a random web page and immediately the site tries to shove half a dozen cookies at me without telling me why, I'm going to block them all.
So my question is: does your web site explain to users why you're using cookies, and outline how they will benefit? Do you have a clear and simple privacy policy? If not, then why the hell do you think anyone is going to accept your cookies?
Kay is the kind of people that have too much ideas and not enough time to research or implement all of them (in a good sense of course).
Well, with all due respect to Alan Kay, my personal view is that having the ideas is the easy bit. I mean, I have project files with notes for three novels, a couple of major open source projects, a couple of non-fiction books, an album of experimental music, and a handful of computer games. I don't think I'm unusual in that respect.
No, the difficult bit is either managing to pay the mortgage while working on the ideas, or managing to drag the ideas through the layers of corporate bureaucracy. If I were independently wealthy, I'd sit and write free software; but as it is, I write software for internal use at a major corporation, and once I'm done with that I simply don't have the time or energy to pursue all the other ideas I've got.
I have a $50 digital answering machine. It'll divert calls with no caller ID info, or calls on a "block" list, straight to voicemail without going through the usual "ring the phone 5 times" period.
In Windows you don't NEED source. Either your InstallShield package, or your zipped program, will work fine in almost any version of Windows - that is, 1 package for 90% of the computer using population, versus what, 20 packages for 3%?. This isn't the fault of any particular developer, but a problem with the general state of GNU/Linux.
It's also a problem that can't really be fixed, because the nature of Linux is that anyone can fork it and introduce a slightly different base layout and packaging system.
Then again, whether that's a bad thing depends on your perspective. If the corporations who attempted a unified Linux and the people responsible for LSB had won, we'd be stuck with RPM-based package management. I'm glad we didn't end up with that.
I've never had a problem using./configure --prefix=/usr/local for anything not available packaged for Debian.
Another theory of mine (and it is strictly a theory, absolutely *zero* research has been applied to proving or disproving this theory) is that as we develop more and more enclosed space, we are heating the planet more and more.
I read a great SF short story about this, decades ago. However, in the story it was the reverse problem--a new highly efficient heat pump had been developed, and everyone was sucking heat from the environment to heat their homes in winter. They had reached the tipping point, and the world had been sucked into a new ice age.
...or even better...how to shoot a person in the head, put the gun in the wrong hand, drag the body through a forest, dump it, and then have the law enforcement professionals deem it a suicide.
For a moment there I thought you were talking about Clifford Baxter.
Ironic that he says the Mac needs more context sensitive help. Mac OS 7 thru 9 had context sensitive help everywhere--hit the Help key, then hover the mouse over something to get a help balloon. The system was universally derided in the press, as I recall. Users really didn't use it, and eventually a lot of developers stopped bothering to implement it.
The difficulty is that uuencode comes in various different varieties, was historically mangled by some news transport software, and isn't actually a standard. People should be using MIME base64, which is standardized and doesn't have those problems.
So tell the idiots still using uuencode to switch. The 1980s called, they want their software back.
Most of the problems with RSS 2.0 that the article points out, are fixed in RSS 1.0.
For those who don't know, RSS 0.9x was basically Dave Winer's personal plaything. When the standards community put together an RSS 1.0 standard, he took his most recent 0.9x 'standard' and renamed it RSS 2.0 to make it look more up-to-date.
Why not take RSS 1.0 and fix the few problems it has?
That's actually a potential serious problem--I imagine most Americans would opt to give up their vote if they could argue that it meant they couldn't be taxed. Hell, New Hampshire would never have to run another election...
Personally, I think the best solution would be to make voting mandatory. And if you don't want to vote for any of the candidates, write in a name.
Personally I've never really had a compelling need for an application, for which the Mac didn't have a good option. The Mac may not run Package X, but chances are there's something just as good from a Mac software vendor.
(One counterexample is small business software, but I get the impression all the Windows small business software sucks too.)
As for games, I have a couple of consoles. Way cheaper than upgrading a PC every year, and much less hassle. Add in the adventure and strategy games that are available for the Mac, and I don't find lack of games a problem. In fact, lack of time to play games is more of an issue...
In principle, yes. Note that you can often get refunds of sales tax when purchasing items while visiting a country. However, it's generally not worth getting the refund unless you spend a lot. I think if your hotel taxes were of the order of $30,000, like income taxes, you'd see why it was bad that you had to pay them but had no say in how they were spent.
They should have replaced the Game Boy Advance when they released the Nintendo DS. The DS is superior in feel and functionality with the one exception being that you can't use it as a controller connected to a GameCube.
Not quite. The DS has a significantly smaller main screen, and the second touch screen doesn't really make up for that.
I own a GBA:SP, and feel no desire to "upgrade" to a DS.
Actually, OS X does have DRM buried deep inside it. I discovered this when writing some utility software.
Specifically, OS X will refuse to give you access to the files on DVD media, if the DVDs are protected with CSS. You can't even read the raw device file; you just get zeros and read errors.
However, if you run the Apple DVD Player application, it does something undocumented, and the/dev/ files are then unlocked, and you can read the DVD normally.
It looks as if the VLC folks have reverse-engineered around this DRM--but nevertheless, it does exist, as can trivially be verified with a 10 line C program.
So if BluRay demands DRM, I for one believe Apple will comply 100%.
There's a lot more to Apple design than painting it white.
For instance, I have a G4 tower. It's a fantastic piece of design work, from a technical standpoint. If you want to service the hardware, you just power the machine off, pull the ring-pull, and the side drops open. All the cards are laid out there for you to tinker with. You don't even have to unplug anything. When you're done, lift the side back up and it clicks into place. Push the power button and you're ready to go.
I build PCs, and even though I'm picky about components I've not managed to find anything remotely as good in the PC world. (In fact, if anyone knows of a PC case that's as good, that'll take 3 hard drives, please let me know.) As for consumer PCs--forget it. I had to service a friend's HP Compaq machine, and it was a piece of crap. Cheap plastic, awkward to get to the RAM and drives.
No, none of them are good reasons. The whole point about "no taxation without representation" is it's a general principle--you should not be required to pay for a government unless you get some say in how the money is spent.
If you want to take away people's right to vote, you should stop stealing taxes from them.
I tried to get OS/2 running on three separate systems.
On one, the hard disk driver didn't work.
On the second, the video driver didn't work, so you were stuck at 640x480.
On the third, it wouldn't boot.
So the company I was working for gave up on OS/2. And now I work for IBM...
OS/2's problem wasn't marketing. The problem was that it wouldn't run on the diverse array of hardware around. It was probably great if you had IBM PCs, but who did?
Microsoft spends a lot of money getting Windows to run on all the hardware out there. Even if Apple wanted to make OS X run on any PC, they probably couldn't afford to.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh, you poor naive fool...
Well, I'm also a web developer.
The only time I've used cookies has been to support authentication, and to allow preferences to be stored so that the web site can appear the way the user wants.
As a user, my policy is that I allow cookies only if they provide me with some compelling benefit. If I browse a shopping site and decide to buy something, and put it in the cart, then at that point I'll enable cookies. If I turn up at a random web page and immediately the site tries to shove half a dozen cookies at me without telling me why, I'm going to block them all.
So my question is: does your web site explain to users why you're using cookies, and outline how they will benefit? Do you have a clear and simple privacy policy? If not, then why the hell do you think anyone is going to accept your cookies?
Well, with all due respect to Alan Kay, my personal view is that having the ideas is the easy bit. I mean, I have project files with notes for three novels, a couple of major open source projects, a couple of non-fiction books, an album of experimental music, and a handful of computer games. I don't think I'm unusual in that respect.
No, the difficult bit is either managing to pay the mortgage while working on the ideas, or managing to drag the ideas through the layers of corporate bureaucracy. If I were independently wealthy, I'd sit and write free software; but as it is, I write software for internal use at a major corporation, and once I'm done with that I simply don't have the time or energy to pursue all the other ideas I've got.
I have a $50 digital answering machine. It'll divert calls with no caller ID info, or calls on a "block" list, straight to voicemail without going through the usual "ring the phone 5 times" period.
Unfortunately "Asian Amputee Lesbians Shaving Each Other Monthly" doesn't try to get subcribers via telemarketing.
It's also a problem that can't really be fixed, because the nature of Linux is that anyone can fork it and introduce a slightly different base layout and packaging system.
Then again, whether that's a bad thing depends on your perspective. If the corporations who attempted a unified Linux and the people responsible for LSB had won, we'd be stuck with RPM-based package management. I'm glad we didn't end up with that.
I've never had a problem using ./configure --prefix=/usr/local for anything not available packaged for Debian.
I read a great SF short story about this, decades ago. However, in the story it was the reverse problem--a new highly efficient heat pump had been developed, and everyone was sucking heat from the environment to heat their homes in winter. They had reached the tipping point, and the world had been sucked into a new ice age.
Can't remember the author. Wish I could.
For a moment there I thought you were talking about Clifford Baxter.
Ironic that he says the Mac needs more context sensitive help. Mac OS 7 thru 9 had context sensitive help everywhere--hit the Help key, then hover the mouse over something to get a help balloon. The system was universally derided in the press, as I recall. Users really didn't use it, and eventually a lot of developers stopped bothering to implement it.
The difficulty is that uuencode comes in various different varieties, was historically mangled by some news transport software, and isn't actually a standard. People should be using MIME base64, which is standardized and doesn't have those problems.
So tell the idiots still using uuencode to switch. The 1980s called, they want their software back.
A clean conscience?
Yeah, but at least Steve Jobs wasn't a millionaire before he dropped out of college...
Most of the problems with RSS 2.0 that the article points out, are fixed in RSS 1.0.
For those who don't know, RSS 0.9x was basically Dave Winer's personal plaything. When the standards community put together an RSS 1.0 standard, he took his most recent 0.9x 'standard' and renamed it RSS 2.0 to make it look more up-to-date.
Why not take RSS 1.0 and fix the few problems it has?
GTA is the biggest selling game series on the PS2. If anyone can take on Wal-Mart, it's Rockstar.
I don't care whether it's "the way things work", I don't care whether it's enforced by the hardware, I don't care whether other OSs are similar.
The point is that it's DRM, and it's part of OS X. So OS X does have some built-in DRM support.
I don't see any decent upgrade for the GBA:SP on the market right now.
That's actually a potential serious problem--I imagine most Americans would opt to give up their vote if they could argue that it meant they couldn't be taxed. Hell, New Hampshire would never have to run another election...
Personally, I think the best solution would be to make voting mandatory. And if you don't want to vote for any of the candidates, write in a name.
Personally I've never really had a compelling need for an application, for which the Mac didn't have a good option. The Mac may not run Package X, but chances are there's something just as good from a Mac software vendor.
(One counterexample is small business software, but I get the impression all the Windows small business software sucks too.)
As for games, I have a couple of consoles. Way cheaper than upgrading a PC every year, and much less hassle. Add in the adventure and strategy games that are available for the Mac, and I don't find lack of games a problem. In fact, lack of time to play games is more of an issue...
In principle, yes. Note that you can often get refunds of sales tax when purchasing items while visiting a country. However, it's generally not worth getting the refund unless you spend a lot. I think if your hotel taxes were of the order of $30,000, like income taxes, you'd see why it was bad that you had to pay them but had no say in how they were spent.
Yet another PHP web content management application that only works on a foundation of MySQL brokenness. Great, like we need more of those...
Anyone have a list of CMS *not* written using PHP and capable of running on an ACID SQL database?
Not quite. The DS has a significantly smaller main screen, and the second touch screen doesn't really make up for that.
I own a GBA:SP, and feel no desire to "upgrade" to a DS.
Actually, OS X does have DRM buried deep inside it. I discovered this when writing some utility software.
/dev/ files are then unlocked, and you can read the DVD normally.
Specifically, OS X will refuse to give you access to the files on DVD media, if the DVDs are protected with CSS. You can't even read the raw device file; you just get zeros and read errors.
However, if you run the Apple DVD Player application, it does something undocumented, and the
It looks as if the VLC folks have reverse-engineered around this DRM--but nevertheless, it does exist, as can trivially be verified with a 10 line C program.
So if BluRay demands DRM, I for one believe Apple will comply 100%.
There's a lot more to Apple design than painting it white.
For instance, I have a G4 tower. It's a fantastic piece of design work, from a technical standpoint. If you want to service the hardware, you just power the machine off, pull the ring-pull, and the side drops open. All the cards are laid out there for you to tinker with. You don't even have to unplug anything. When you're done, lift the side back up and it clicks into place. Push the power button and you're ready to go.
I build PCs, and even though I'm picky about components I've not managed to find anything remotely as good in the PC world. (In fact, if anyone knows of a PC case that's as good, that'll take 3 hard drives, please let me know.) As for consumer PCs--forget it. I had to service a friend's HP Compaq machine, and it was a piece of crap. Cheap plastic, awkward to get to the RAM and drives.
No, none of them are good reasons. The whole point about "no taxation without representation" is it's a general principle--you should not be required to pay for a government unless you get some say in how the money is spent.
If you want to take away people's right to vote, you should stop stealing taxes from them.
I tried to get OS/2 running on three separate systems.
On one, the hard disk driver didn't work.
On the second, the video driver didn't work, so you were stuck at 640x480.
On the third, it wouldn't boot.
So the company I was working for gave up on OS/2. And now I work for IBM...
OS/2's problem wasn't marketing. The problem was that it wouldn't run on the diverse array of hardware around. It was probably great if you had IBM PCs, but who did?
Microsoft spends a lot of money getting Windows to run on all the hardware out there. Even if Apple wanted to make OS X run on any PC, they probably couldn't afford to.