Perhaps it's because I have been spoiled by the responsiveness of the BeOS, but I don't think there should be a framerate for resizing a window, or scrolling through the contents of an open window! I shouldn't need an 800MHz+ computer to smoothly drop a menu down for me! -sigh- But instead Apple went with Form being more important that Function. With the BeOS, I got both - a beautiful OS that was lightning-quick. And yes, MacOSX v. 10.2 is fairly speedy, but only on the latest hardware! But the BeOS on my 200MHz 604e Power Mac can easily run circles around MacOS X on even the latest hardware.
On the page that shows the specs of the hardware (http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/oct252002a.php) , it says that the computer also runs Linux PPC. The high-end box costs about 800 Euros (about $800 US). So, it might turn out to be a cheap solution for PPC Linux farms. Plus, the CPU is upgradable, so you're not locked in, like you are with Apple hardware. Just a thought...
The Mac is really a niche market - graphic design. If there are no apps to support the designer, Apple goes kaput. Most (meaning over 90%) publishing houses use Macs and Quark, exclusively, keeping InDesign around just for experimentation and compatability. If someone sumbits a job in Page Maker, they will get the job returned. Apple knows this, and since Quark really has made little public indication of an X-native XPress in the future (let alone before January 2003 -- when all new Macs will only boot in to X), Apple's main consumer base is at risk. As for right now, migrating all users to InDesign (which can read XPress documents, sort-of) is the best solution for Apple. At least until Apple decides to make that market its own and release iPublish or some other such rubbish.
I have used Macs for most of my experience with computers (since the early 90's in System 7.1). I have always stuck by Apple, even during the "dark times" of the Mid-90's. I appreciated their perspective and computing philosophy of "it just works." I appreciated the time and care they took to make application UIs clean understandable. I heartily recommended Macs to anyone who was interested in getting a new computer. Macs used to "just work" with practically whatever you hooked up to them. No muss, no fuss.
All of that is no more.
Apple has burned the final bridge between the company and myself. It started with Apple-branded software requiring MacOS 9 for no particular reason other than Steve wanted it so (example: iTunes v. 1). It continued with Apple completely destroying the elegant Mac UI in MacOS X. Apple has now developed an aura of "My way or the Highway". I tolerated it and stuck by the platform because of the way things "just worked" in the classic MacOS (anything before X). But this is too much. This is the end.
Apple is now in the business of shipping crippled software, and using insane laws to back them up. Apple wrote iDVD to only interface with Apple-branded, internal, originally-came-with-the-machine DVD-ROMs. Fine. They have a right to do that. They can write whatever kind of software they want. But the fact that they used an insane law such as the DMCA to prevent another person from developing a fix for their crippled software...that just blows me away. If I were Steve, I would be happy that someone decided to use valuable resources to allow my software to work in a way I didn't envision, and therefore sell more copies of that software.
But no. "My way or the highway."
The Apple camp used to be a rebellious, we-help-each-other-out kind of group. Now it is headed by a man who wants to be the "Gap" of computers - exclusive, over-priced, stuck-up. Trendy instead of functional. Apple wants to sell the "whole widget". The tower - Apple. The monitor - Apple. Keyboard, mouse, portable MP3 player, speakers, office suite, just damn near everything - Apple.
The fun is over. Apple just lost one of their die-hards. My next computer will be a build-your-own-box PC with BeOS and Linux.
I work at an independant ISP in northern California. We offer broadband DSL, using SBC's DSLAMS. DSL is distance sensitive. If a customer is too far out from the DSLAM, a repeater (RTCLLI) is necessary to keep the signal clean. Part of our agreement with SBC that allows us to use their DSLAMS and sell DSL is that we can't use the repeaters. If we do, all traffic becomes property of SBC. So, if a potential customer is too far out for a direct connection, but is in the range of the repeater, we can't service the customer. They must go with SBC. Can't tell you how much that sucks.
DVDs already give you the opportunity to select different audio tracks, and switch between them at will. Some DVDs also let you play deleted scenes during the playback of the "official cut" of the movie. Why not give the viewer the ability to select a "ratings" option, where the video and audio playback is modified according to the rating system of the region the disc is in? That way, people who are sensitive to language, but aren't bothered much by violence, can modify the film to their personal tastes. For example, instead of hearing "Yippie Kai-yay, mother fscker" in Die Hard, you'll hear "Yippie Kai-yay mellon farmer"? Or, if it's vice-versa, have the disc skip any sections of the film that, say, is R-level violence, such as head shots, but leave the PG-13 violence, such as the rest of the gun-play. Also, it would be great for parents - the DVD player can lock certain discs into a certain rating unless the correct password is entered. How many times have you heard "It was a great movie, except for too much language" or "too much blood/gore", etc. Give the consumer a choice!
Movie studios already release "for-TV" and "for-airlines" edits of their movies, so keeping "artistic integrity" is a moot point. My fear is that the argument of "artistic integrity" and "censorship" is just a smoke screen, and that the underlying issue is control and concern for loss of box office revenue. If that is the case, nothing will ever change with the technology.
"...selling unauthorized computer equipment." So now computer equipment must be authorized? What about cars? When something breaks down in my Civic, must I only go to a Honda-Authorized dealer to get a part for $100, when I could grab the same part from Napa for $30?
//quote Maybe once all common email programs include a common encryption utility that's cross compatible with all the other email clients, i'll do it. //end quote
Then the envelope become tissue paper: see-thru and fragile.
Look at the popularity of such shops as B&N, Amazon, and, for all of you in the Portland Oregon area, Powells (geek book paradise!)
speaking as an ISP tech....
on
Disconnecting
·
· Score: 1
I work at a small-ish ISP in Northern California. I handle general dialup support, as well as broadband (DSL, wireless). To be fair, we don't have the phone maze that AOL/Earthlink/etc. have, but the main reason why disconnects are made difficult is because we need to make sure that the person who is calling is who they say they are. That way, it won't come back to bite us later, when the account holder calls asking why his account was terminated. It's not about squeezing out an extra month of service from the customer. It's just a CYA move.
Not a day goes by where I don't think we're selling some sort of crack to people. "WHERE IS MY E-MAIL?!?! I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT MY E-MAIL!!!!" People get rather pissy when they can't connect, even when the cause is something between the keyboard and the chair....then multiply that fine attitude by a thousand or so when they find out their account was terminated (for whatever reason).
just my 2 yen.
I don't see why this is any different from preventing minors from watching "R" rated movies in the US. Certain retail outlets, such as Wal Mart, will not sell rated "R" movies to people who appear to be underage, without proof of age (such as a driver's licence). Video games now have a rating system, just like movies. Why should they be treated any differently than movies? If a video game carries an "M" (mature) rating on it, why shouldn't the purchaser be asked to show ID if he/she looks to be younger than the appropriate age (as prescribed by the video game ratings assoc--can't remember name right now).
"No distractions, no distractions, no distractions, no distractions"
I can't harp on that point enough. It takes upwards of 30 minutes or so of munging code around to get in the groove and spit out decent code, whether that code be C, C++, Java, HTML, you name it. If I get interrupted, that's another 30 minutes or so to trace back a few pages of code, sometimes going back a few files as well, to pick up my train of thought again.
The point of this whole thing is that legally the bnetd project has the right to reverse engineer Battle.net. It says so in the DMCA. The fact their code does not check CD keys is trivial to this matter because bnetd itself was not created to bypass copy protection. Its a piece of standalone software. Its not a crack/hack file that patches anything in the client and allows it to bypass Battle.net key checking.
True, bnetd is not intended to defeat copy protection. But this is the most frightening thing of the DMCA: if a device has the CAPABILITY of circumventing ANY copy prevention or encryption system, it is in violation of the DMCA. The actual use or intended use of the product is not the issue.
Look at it this way: A hammer is a tool. A hammer can also be a deadly weapon. Instead of punishing those who use the hammer to kill, the hammer itself would be outlawed.
This article is right above another SlashDot article about Internet censorship. I think it is safe to assume that we all hate spam here. However, if we force these people to be silenced, are we not censoring them as well?
If the recovery partition is WRITE PROTECTED. My mother in law's computer got hit with SirCam, and by the time she realised there was a problem (she's new to PCs) all of the system files on D: (the restore partition) were infected. She had to order the restore CD from the manufacturer (for the record, it was Compaq) for $10US.
BYOB (buld your own box).
What's wrong with the traditional heirarchical file system (nested files and folders)? What's wrong with a desktop metaphor?
"It's old, blah, blah, blah".
Just because something is old, you don't have to throw it away.
People all over this globe understand the concept of a "conatiner" for storing a "thing", whether it be a box for papers, a book shelf for books, or plastic sleeves for shitajiki. Why force people to learn a new method for storage/navigation?
That being said, there is one thing I would like to improve with current interfaces/navigation schemes. Documents now sometimes have a hard time being categorized as one type or another. One file can be put in to several different categories, unless your directory structure is very general.
The BeOS (may it rest in peace) had an interesting idea with it's file system, which could be used to combat the above problem. The BFS was/almost/ a database. The user could assign attributes to individual files, or system-wide for that particlar file type. I could assign an attribute to, say, MP3s, that has the genre or artist or "suck factor" value. Then I could perform a search in the BFS for all MP3s that were by Ayumi Hamasaki with a suck factor less than 2. This way I didn't have to search for a specific file, but a file that matched the general "feel" I was looking for. Kinda like rummaging through a junk drawer.
With this attribute system, the user could describe the different contents of the file, or what it could be used for, and store that in the file attributes, to be searched upon later. Then, the user wouldn't have to decide "Does it go in 'research' or 'interests' or the 'junk pile' folder"?
Now here's a question: how did they identify him in the first place to be able to track him down? Well, Florida has also been using digital photos for their newer driver's licenses. So they already have a handy-dandy database to work with.
Nowhere in the newspaper article is a database of digital photos mentioned. Nowhere. Pure FUD. C'mon, we can do better than that....
What is very interesting is that if you look at the CD, there are visible gaps about 1mm wide between the tracks, as on LP.
Though unusual, this has been done before. I had a CD from 1990 that exhibited the same thing. This was waaay before the concept of digital copies came to the RIAA.
For those who are interested, the CD was "Nu Thang" (remember, 1990;-) by DC Talk.
If you read the submission carefully, note that it says that copied CDs can cause distortion, and it is this distortion that can damage audio equipment - evidently, the original CD will not do this. I have no idea whether any of this is true, but all the hysteria here about suing Sony for 'defective' CDs seems misplaced : what is going to ruin any equipment are the copied CDs, so if anything is defective it is these copied CDs - not the originals.
So what good would making a legitimate backup copy of your original CD do?
If the original is damaged, stolen, whatever, the backup is worthless. The backup is unplayable - it can damage equipment, and I doubt anyone would want to even risk that. It's instantly a coaster.
Apparently the recording industry is trying to remove any and all possibility of CD-to-CD duplication, damn the concept of fair use/legally entitled backup. ___
Slashdot Mirror
I love this line (emphasis mine):
"Norwegian prosecutors claim the program *can contribute* to illegal copying of DVDs."
Car makers better watch out - cars can contrubite to bank robberies and drive-by shootings.
When did the ability to do something start to mean that you actually committed the crime itself?
"Revenge is a dish best served cold".
Can I get a 'HELL YEAH!!!!!"?
What the *FSCK* does a VCR have to do with broadband theft? Evidence? Evidence of what?
maybe
Perhaps it's because I have been spoiled by the responsiveness of the BeOS, but I don't think there should be a framerate for resizing a window, or scrolling through the contents of an open window! I shouldn't need an 800MHz+ computer to smoothly drop a menu down for me!
-sigh- But instead Apple went with Form being more important that Function. With the BeOS, I got both - a beautiful OS that was lightning-quick.
And yes, MacOSX v. 10.2 is fairly speedy, but only on the latest hardware! But the BeOS on my 200MHz 604e Power Mac can easily run circles around MacOS X on even the latest hardware.
On the page that shows the specs of the hardware (http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/oct252002a.php) , it says that the computer also runs Linux PPC. The high-end box costs about 800 Euros (about $800 US). So, it might turn out to be a cheap solution for PPC Linux farms. Plus, the CPU is upgradable, so you're not locked in, like you are with Apple hardware.
Just a thought...
The Mac is really a niche market - graphic design. If there are no apps to support the designer, Apple goes kaput.
Most (meaning over 90%) publishing houses use Macs and Quark, exclusively, keeping InDesign around just for experimentation and compatability. If someone sumbits a job in Page Maker, they will get the job returned. Apple knows this, and since Quark really has made little public indication of an X-native XPress in the future (let alone before January 2003 -- when all new Macs will only boot in to X), Apple's main consumer base is at risk. As for right now, migrating all users to InDesign (which can read XPress documents, sort-of) is the best solution for Apple. At least until Apple decides to make that market its own and release iPublish or some other such rubbish.
but at least try it. Netscape 7 is DAMN FAST!
I have used Macs for most of my experience with computers (since the early 90's in System 7.1). I have always stuck by Apple, even during the "dark times" of the Mid-90's. I appreciated their perspective and computing philosophy of "it just works." I appreciated the time and care they took to make application UIs clean understandable. I heartily recommended Macs to anyone who was interested in getting a new computer. Macs used to "just work" with practically whatever you hooked up to them. No muss, no fuss.
All of that is no more.
Apple has burned the final bridge between the company and myself. It started with Apple-branded software requiring MacOS 9 for no particular reason other than Steve wanted it so (example: iTunes v. 1). It continued with Apple completely destroying the elegant Mac UI in MacOS X. Apple has now developed an aura of "My way or the Highway". I tolerated it and stuck by the platform because of the way things "just worked" in the classic MacOS (anything before X). But this is too much. This is the end.
Apple is now in the business of shipping crippled software, and using insane laws to back them up. Apple wrote iDVD to only interface with Apple-branded, internal, originally-came-with-the-machine DVD-ROMs. Fine. They have a right to do that. They can write whatever kind of software they want. But the fact that they used an insane law such as the DMCA to prevent another person from developing a fix for their crippled software...that just blows me away. If I were Steve, I would be happy that someone decided to use valuable resources to allow my software to work in a way I didn't envision, and therefore sell more copies of that software.
But no. "My way or the highway."
The Apple camp used to be a rebellious, we-help-each-other-out kind of group. Now it is headed by a man who wants to be the "Gap" of computers - exclusive, over-priced, stuck-up. Trendy instead of functional. Apple wants to sell the "whole widget". The tower - Apple. The monitor - Apple. Keyboard, mouse, portable MP3 player, speakers, office suite, just damn near everything - Apple.
The fun is over. Apple just lost one of their die-hards. My next computer will be a build-your-own-box PC with BeOS and Linux.
I work at an independant ISP in northern California. We offer broadband DSL, using SBC's DSLAMS. DSL is distance sensitive. If a customer is too far out from the DSLAM, a repeater (RTCLLI) is necessary to keep the signal clean. Part of our agreement with SBC that allows us to use their DSLAMS and sell DSL is that we can't use the repeaters. If we do, all traffic becomes property of SBC. So, if a potential customer is too far out for a direct connection, but is in the range of the repeater, we can't service the customer. They must go with SBC. Can't tell you how much that sucks.
DVDs already give you the opportunity to select different audio tracks, and switch between them at will. Some DVDs also let you play deleted scenes during the playback of the "official cut" of the movie. Why not give the viewer the ability to select a "ratings" option, where the video and audio playback is modified according to the rating system of the region the disc is in? That way, people who are sensitive to language, but aren't bothered much by violence, can modify the film to their personal tastes. For example, instead of hearing "Yippie Kai-yay, mother fscker" in Die Hard, you'll hear "Yippie Kai-yay mellon farmer"? Or, if it's vice-versa, have the disc skip any sections of the film that, say, is R-level violence, such as head shots, but leave the PG-13 violence, such as the rest of the gun-play. Also, it would be great for parents - the DVD player can lock certain discs into a certain rating unless the correct password is entered. How many times have you heard "It was a great movie, except for too much language" or "too much blood/gore", etc. Give the consumer a choice!
Movie studios already release "for-TV" and "for-airlines" edits of their movies, so keeping "artistic integrity" is a moot point. My fear is that the argument of "artistic integrity" and "censorship" is just a smoke screen, and that the underlying issue is control and concern for loss of box office revenue. If that is the case, nothing will ever change with the technology.
"...selling unauthorized computer equipment."
So now computer equipment must be authorized? What about cars? When something breaks down in my Civic, must I only go to a Honda-Authorized dealer to get a part for $100, when I could grab the same part from Napa for $30?
//quote
Maybe once all common email programs include a common encryption utility that's cross compatible with all the other email clients, i'll do it.
//end quote
Then the envelope become tissue paper: see-thru and fragile.
Look at the popularity of such shops as B&N, Amazon, and, for all of you in the Portland Oregon area, Powells (geek book paradise!)
I work at a small-ish ISP in Northern California. I handle general dialup support, as well as broadband (DSL, wireless). To be fair, we don't have the phone maze that AOL/Earthlink/etc. have, but the main reason why disconnects are made difficult is because we need to make sure that the person who is calling is who they say they are. That way, it won't come back to bite us later, when the account holder calls asking why his account was terminated. It's not about squeezing out an extra month of service from the customer. It's just a CYA move.
Not a day goes by where I don't think we're selling some sort of crack to people. "WHERE IS MY E-MAIL?!?! I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT MY E-MAIL!!!!" People get rather pissy when they can't connect, even when the cause is something between the keyboard and the chair....then multiply that fine attitude by a thousand or so when they find out their account was terminated (for whatever reason).
just my 2 yen.
I don't see why this is any different from preventing minors from watching "R" rated movies in the US. Certain retail outlets, such as Wal Mart, will not sell rated "R" movies to people who appear to be underage, without proof of age (such as a driver's licence). Video games now have a rating system, just like movies. Why should they be treated any differently than movies? If a video game carries an "M" (mature) rating on it, why shouldn't the purchaser be asked to show ID if he/she looks to be younger than the appropriate age (as prescribed by the video game ratings assoc--can't remember name right now).
"No distractions, no distractions, no distractions, no distractions"
I can't harp on that point enough. It takes upwards of 30 minutes or so of munging code around to get in the groove and spit out decent code, whether that code be C, C++, Java, HTML, you name it. If I get interrupted, that's another 30 minutes or so to trace back a few pages of code, sometimes going back a few files as well, to pick up my train of thought again.
This article is right above another SlashDot article about Internet censorship. I think it is safe to assume that we all hate spam here. However, if we force these people to be silenced, are we not censoring them as well?
If the recovery partition is WRITE PROTECTED. My mother in law's computer got hit with SirCam, and by the time she realised there was a problem (she's new to PCs) all of the system files on D: (the restore partition) were infected. She had to order the restore CD from the manufacturer (for the record, it was Compaq) for $10US.
BYOB (buld your own box).
What's wrong with the traditional heirarchical file system (nested files and folders)? What's wrong with a desktop metaphor?
/almost/ a database. The user could assign attributes to individual files, or system-wide for that particlar file type. I could assign an attribute to, say, MP3s, that has the genre or artist or "suck factor" value. Then I could perform a search in the BFS for all MP3s that were by Ayumi Hamasaki with a suck factor less than 2. This way I didn't have to search for a specific file, but a file that matched the general "feel" I was looking for. Kinda like rummaging through a junk drawer.
"It's old, blah, blah, blah".
Just because something is old, you don't have to throw it away.
People all over this globe understand the concept of a "conatiner" for storing a "thing", whether it be a box for papers, a book shelf for books, or plastic sleeves for shitajiki. Why force people to learn a new method for storage/navigation?
That being said, there is one thing I would like to improve with current interfaces/navigation schemes. Documents now sometimes have a hard time being categorized as one type or another. One file can be put in to several different categories, unless your directory structure is very general.
The BeOS (may it rest in peace) had an interesting idea with it's file system, which could be used to combat the above problem. The BFS was
With this attribute system, the user could describe the different contents of the file, or what it could be used for, and store that in the file attributes, to be searched upon later. Then, the user wouldn't have to decide "Does it go in 'research' or 'interests' or the 'junk pile' folder"?
I'm reminded of a line from Spaceballs:
"What's that coming out of it's nose?"
"Spaceballs!?!?!"
"Oh shit, there goes the planet..."
-er
Nowhere in the newspaper article is a database of digital photos mentioned. Nowhere. Pure FUD. C'mon, we can do better than that....
Though unusual, this has been done before. I had a CD from 1990 that exhibited the same thing. This was waaay before the concept of digital copies came to the RIAA.
For those who are interested, the CD was "Nu Thang" (remember, 1990
___
So what good would making a legitimate backup copy of your original CD do?
If the original is damaged, stolen, whatever, the backup is worthless. The backup is unplayable - it can damage equipment, and I doubt anyone would want to even risk that. It's instantly a coaster.
Apparently the recording industry is trying to remove any and all possibility of CD-to-CD duplication, damn the concept of fair use/legally entitled backup.
___