This does, to any logical person, not matter a wit. Either the act is legal or it is not, why try and confuse the subject with this muddy it-changes-the-feeling-of-the-act-and-result.
I'm not saying that copying a book and CD are any less different. What I am saying is that using them both as an analogy is slightly incorrect because of their relative complexity in going about it. Using something which is just as easy to make a near perfect copy which is currently available in the streets for people to use would be a better analogy.
From the article, you can now go into a shop cough up $9 (plus $2 for the CD) and in less than 10 minutes have a near perfect copy of your CD minus a cover case.
Now, you try and do the same with a book at, say, your local copier shop and you'll find the results are substantially different. Granted, if you have access to a profesional copying system then the results are better, but at the end of the day the result is much more inferior and time consuming.
This is why, at the time of writing, software piracy is more prevelant than, say, DVD piracy.
What I am pointing out is that one of the most important factors in piracy is ease of copying. If it takes a long time to do and produces an inferior copy then people are less likely to do it. If, however, it costs very little and produces a very high quality result, then there is greater advantage.
Do you work for the RIAA? I cant see any-other reason to foist these non-sequitur arguments... outside of irrelevant FUD/propaganda to "change the subject" in a public debate.
Had you read my posting you would have realised that I'm in the UK where we don't have the RIAA. But of course you were too busy screaming the typical "FUD" to someones comment that you didn't quite understand.
Can someone come up with a better analogy than copying CD's with this and copying books with a photo copier?
I don't like it because:
If you photocopy a whole book it takes a lot longer than the 9 minutes it takes for a cd.
If you photocopy a book, you don't get a near perfect copy, whereas if you copy a cd you do.
What does worry me is that the people in the article might just be right, this could harm the music industry. If anyone on the street can make a near perfect exact copy of any cd then what is the incentive for most people to buy it in the first place? People don't go out a photocopy books because the methods that you use to copy it are so tedious and time consuming that it rapidly becomes a waste of time and money. This is different, you stick the cd in and wait 9 minutes, this is substantially easier than copying a book.
Many people who buy a copy of something they have on pirate do it either to support the artist or because their copy quality is rubbish. I'm willing to bet that the majority of people would even both to cough up would because of the latter and with this, there is no need to do that since the quality is already perfect.
Of course the industry shouldn't charge such exhorbitant prices for stuff. You think you're hard done by in the US? Take the price in USD and that is what it is in UKP, in other words, our CD's are 1.5 times more that yours!
Take a look at the Amiga. Ignoring Commodores own inabilities, the software market was utterly obliterated by the ease it was to pick up copies of anything released. It just because totally un-economical to write and sell anything for it.
Sorry, there are no Smart Tags in StarOffice. If your company decides to use StarOffice instead of Microsoft Office, this is a feature you'll have to learn to live without.
If I had the ability to mark parts of the article as redundant, I would.
The link given talks about how smart tags in Internet Explorer and how links will be decided by Microsoft.
However, Smart Tags in Office, have (for my mother anyway) proved to be very useful and far from intrusive.
For example, she does some bulleted comments, then a paragraph and then some more bulleted comments. By hovering over the bullet list, a box appears after a few seconds (that doesn't seem intrusive to me) which you can click on to get options such as "continue numbering scheme from last list", "change format style" and so on.
In other words, EXACTLY the sort of things she'd ask me how to do if it wasn't there.
Yes, they are on by default. But if you're IT savvy enough to find out how to turn them off, then you probably don't need them on. You have to also remember that for the majority of people, a feature they don't see, is something they don't consider to exist.
I get this feeling a large majority of Slashdot readers bitch about Smart Tags, and yet haven't actually used them.
Access is a joke and should be replaced by somthing, anything, of your choosing.
If you're doing complex stuff, then of course. But for simple databases, with a nice front end and easy to use query tools then I think that Access is more than adequate, if not, the best tool for the job.
Trying to get those sort of users migrated over to SQL Server, MySQL, Postgres or whatever "heavyweight" database of choice is rather pointless.
Not everyone requires the power and complexity of those solutions. Now, is there an equivilant of Access for Linux? Giving the marketing people or HR MySQL for their small databases would, IMO, seem a tad overkill.
Of course, I could just be cynical too, but if the situation had been reversed (ie. Microsoft letting people play on the XBOX and Sony just doing presentations) then I'm pretty sure that Sony would have done just the same and complained to the organisors.
Or they can start complaining to the individual sites that their pages are non-standard - and the sites will adjust. They have before, and they will continue to do so.
I think you're crediting too many people with some intelligence. The site works for their mate using one browser and doesn't for them using another.
Tell me, what are they going to assume? That it's the site at fault or their browser? I'm reckoning that people will say to themselves "well, it works on my mates browser, therefore it can't be the site, must be my browser".
Yes its wrong. But remember to these people HTML is four letters than doesn't mean very much.
I have no doubt that eBay, Amazon and Yahoo will adjust. Actually, I don't think they will need to adjust because they're already compliant.
I'm talking about the 80% of stuff out there that isn't mainstream, run by people because they have a passion about something, not because they are a paid up day-job web designer.
I'm well aware that the site there is shit. It has got godaweful mistakes and I really can't be arsed updating it because no-one visits it anyway.
There are far too many mistakes on other people pages which make the content totally unreadable and this is my point. If you specifically want some information and you can't then you're stuffed.
Maybe I should think about updating the ewtoo.org code though:o)
(Note: I'm not trolling, I'm being serious and I'd love people to comment and prove me wrong)
I'm a little worried that this could all end in a bit of a mistake. Don't get me wrong, I think that standards are a good thing. They're good for developers because they know what they send out, will be viewable in all clients. They're good for end-users because they can use any client and still get the content. However, there is a problem.
I'm just moved from IE to Opera. For the sole reason that I hate having 15 IE windows open. Thats it. Nothing else and I admit it. However whilst surfing the net doing research I find a good many sites are broken and Opera doesn't show them too well. Hell even my own site doesn't work very well.
In fact, i'm to the point of going back to IE. Why?
Because I want that content and I can't get it. Sure, its not my fault that I can't get the content, after all, they've written bad HTML but from an end-users perspective that isn't the issue. They want that information and their browser won't give it to them. Period.
To the end-user, it doesn't matter if the HTML is badly formed, if people see it not working on browser y and it does on browser x then they will automatically assume that y is broken. ("but x lets me see my page, why can't i on y?", "because the pages are badly written", "well if they're badly written, why can i see them on x?" and so on)
Now of course the standard geek response is "well its their fault they haven't followed standards". Well yes, it is. But it also sucks for the individual who wants the information on that page.
"well then, they should go elsewhere". People don't just go elsewhere. They find a few retailers they consider trustworthy and stick with them. Or what happens if that content isn't available elsewhere? Then you're stuck. It also doesn't help when they see their friends using browser x and having no such problems.
Which means that I've come to the depressing conclusion that AOL might even be forced to return to IE. Or they'll put pressure on Mozilla developers to try and cope with dodgy HTML.
This certainly doesn't help standards, but when there is a large mob of people phoning up the tech support lines complaining that their favourite websites no longer work, AOL may start changing their mind.
Am I the only one that is worried that Nokia's designers have appear to have been hit by a bus and replaced by performing monkeys?
Its either that or they were high on something when they came up with those designs. They look horrific!
I've got a Ericsson T68 here and its so badly thought out (horrible menu system, slow, unintuiative) that it makes me realise why I like Nokia's so much. Oh and the joystick feels wonky and you can accidently select when you want to go up.
All the crapness of Ericsson with none of the hardware quality of Sony. Good partnership there SonyEricsson!
Hmmm, interesting to note that when I submitted this story when it broke (Thursday 21st Feb) it wasn't considered news-worthy enough. (see my comment about it here).
This means that things like Slashdots own palm friendly version and my AvantSlash (along with thousands of other non-profit making sites who provide an ability to view their content for free) are going to be left a little out in the cold.
As already mentioned, Plucker is one alternative. For PPC users you could try Mazingo
The biggest downside to Avantgo alternatives is that they don't have some of the custom channels that Avantgo has and you can't get the URL for. Some however you can, and Plinkit is a useful list of those.
Come on guys, if you expect us to pay and help you out here, the least you could do it take breaking news that we submit and actually post it. Rather than waiting a fortnight and then sticking it up.
"Stuff that matters" is all very fine and well, but "Stuff that matters, once everyone knows about it" would seem closer to the point, although less catchy.
DocSnyder asks: Would it be an idea to offer a subscribers-only webcache for/.ed sites, with links in stories and comments pointing to the cache instead of the hosed target? CmdrTaco Please read the FAQ. hemos Copyright issues.
Quick question, have you actually checked up on the copyright issues of this? Or is google, Alexia and the other companies out there violating copyright left, right and centre?
On another note 12 people to run one site??? Christ, what the hell do you do all day? Fire Jon Katz (he writes the most unmittigated twaddle I've ever seen) and immediately reduce your team by half that amount. I totally fail to see, how, with only a dozen or so submissions a day how you really need all those people.
For fucks sake, my company delivers gigabytes of content to a large number of customers with a team of 8 techies, 4 editors and various freelancers. Seems like to me the work per person here is substantially higher that slashdot.
Of course, it means you can poke around and see how they do things, but since no-one else builds a platform in quite the way Windows is, I don't really see the point. Plus, Microsoft are going to fight long and hard not to open up their code.
So, let them keep it closed.
However I would have thought that forcing Microsoft to open up, document and distribute for free the file formats they use (doc, xls, ppt and so on and so on) for then next, say 25 years, would be far more advantagious to others. In other words, they cannot lock users into their own formats ever again.
After all, once other applications can load and save Microsoft formats as well as Office can then surely then it would allow them to break onto the desktop and so foster proper competition?
Mobile spam is going to take off in a massive way because its more direct than email since the majority of people carry their phone everywhere and respond as soon as it bleeps.
In fact its such a big thing that even respected global players such as Logica (their software runs over 50% of the SMS gateways in the world) are getting involved according to this article in the Financial Times.
In short getting people responding to SMS spam is unreliable because due to difficiencies in the GSM protocol you can only catch about one SMS reply to an advert every 5 seconds.
Because of this, take up of bulk SMS advertisements (where people respond) is slow. But thanks to the boffins at Logica, they now have software which can harvest 1,000 replies a second.
Which suddenly makes pumping out SMS spam look a lot more worthwhile.
I actually posted it as an article to Slashdot, but it wasn't considered news-worthy enough. However, now is probably a good time to mention it.
AvantGo is weeding out what they call "Custom channel abuse". Basically its 8 or more people creating a custom channel to a site that doesn't pay up for a licence. See the Register article here and the AvantGo announcement here.
This means that things like Slashdots own palm friendly version and my AvantSlash (along with thousands of other non-profit making sites who provide an ability to view their content for free) are going to be left a little out in the cold.
I've been recommended Plucker for the Palm and Mazingo for the PPC - not tried either though.
Another use for it is the neat feature that it has for when you aren't on a perminant dial-up connection.
It basically stacks up cd details until you get on-line and then downloads the track listings for all the CD's in one go.
Whilst this doesn't sound much to your average connected American, here in the UK where broadband is stupidly expensive and the majority of us are on pay by the minute 56k modems its an absolute godsend because we don't have to keep dialing up every single time we put a new CD in.
... is the Odeon Film Line. You get this message that says:
"Welcome to the Odeon Film Line! To pick the cinema you want just say the name!"
To which you do and, in my experience, its got it right every single time. Including stuff like "Odeon Leicester Square", "Mezzanine", "Wimbledon" and "Manchester".
From what I understand they use software by Vocalis.
There is another way to connect the iPod to a Windows machine. Its called EphPod and you can get it from here.
You need MacDrive or MacOpener to be installed too but if it allows me to copy MP3's from an iPod to the PC (which neither XPlay or iTunes allow you to do) then its going to be a winner.
ps. Yes I know why they've done it but its something I (and probably others) would find useful whatever your moral standing.
A small but good example of personalisation
on
Making It Personal
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I fly with British Airways. When I go alone, I like to take a window seat. When I go with the girlfriend, she prefers the window seat and because I'm nice like that, I let her have it.
BA's computer system understands this and whenever I book with them they always try and get me a window seat. And when I book for two people then they get two next to each other with one being a window seat.
Yes its a small example. But its a good one. Personalisation and its bigger brother CRM (Customer Relationship Management) means that people feel that they have a personal relationship with a company and are not just some number in a database.
... then it wouldn't surprise me if Apple makes this Mac only like their iPod. Which would strike me as being the second dumbest thing they've done (the first being making the iPod Apple only).
Why? Well yes, I can sort of understand why they are doing it, after all, the iPod is very sexy and no doubt the iWalk would be too. But if you consider the target audience for iPods/Walks you suddenly realise that they are the sort of people who already have a personal computer or laptop for which they use to listen to MP3's or syncronise with their favourite PIM.
Making them Apple only in an attempt to say "hey, if you want these cool things you have to have a Mac" is all very fine and well, but since the target audience is going to be happy with their PC and Windows or Linux, they're not going to ditch it quite yet and spend a couple of hundred pounds on a spanky new iMac just for the sake of one thing.
Or are they?
ps. Thankfully a company called MediaFour is creating an application called xplay (the new name for XPod) which will allow iPods to communicate with Windows.
The great Outlook patch that nobody uses
on
Clever New Windows Worm
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· Score: 5, Informative
Since this submission was rejected by the editors, I think that here is going to be as good a place as any for it.
Have a read of this article at Wired entitled "The Great MS Patch Nobody Uses". (brief extract below).
A free, downloadable update that transforms Microsoft's Outlook into a significantly more secure e-mail application has languished virtually ignored on Microsoft's website for more than a year.
Although the majority of recent viral attacks have come compliments of worms that don't rely only on e-mail to spread, the Outlook E-mail Security Update (OESU) can stop or greatly lessen the impact of most malicious code, such as BadTrans and SirCam, if only people would download and install it.
OESU blocks the receipt and transmission of most of the e-mail attachments that typically can contain virus or worm code. The update also stops malicious code from spreading by blocking unauthorized access to Outlook and its address book. Many viruses and worms spread by surreptitiously e-mailing themselves to e-mail addresses culled from an infected computer's system files.
Funny how if the other 99% of people had this patch then virus spreading would drop drastically.
Now Outlook can start facing some serious competition, although there's still a long way to go. (Evolution does not yet emulate all the Outlook viruses, of course, nor does it integrate with Exchange Server.)
Until it fully supports Exchange Server, it'll never be a serious competitor to Outlook.
Sorry, but face reality. In the corporate world it either has to be 100% compatible otherwise they just won't use it. Price is generally immaterial.
Plus any company who can afford Exchange Server will no doubt be able to afford licences for Outlook so the whole "but its free" doesn't really offset the fact that its not fully compatible.
However, in spite of all this, lets not knock them for a fine product. Always some work to do, but its definately on the right roads...
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not saying that copying a book and CD are any less different. What I am saying is that using them both as an analogy is slightly incorrect because of their relative complexity in going about it. Using something which is just as easy to make a near perfect copy which is currently available in the streets for people to use would be a better analogy.
From the article, you can now go into a shop cough up $9 (plus $2 for the CD) and in less than 10 minutes have a near perfect copy of your CD minus a cover case.
Now, you try and do the same with a book at, say, your local copier shop and you'll find the results are substantially different. Granted, if you have access to a profesional copying system then the results are better, but at the end of the day the result is much more inferior and time consuming.
This is why, at the time of writing, software piracy is more prevelant than, say, DVD piracy.
What I am pointing out is that one of the most important factors in piracy is ease of copying. If it takes a long time to do and produces an inferior copy then people are less likely to do it. If, however, it costs very little and produces a very high quality result, then there is greater advantage.
Do you work for the RIAA? I cant see any-other reason to foist these non-sequitur arguments... outside of irrelevant FUD/propaganda to "change the subject" in a public debate.
Had you read my posting you would have realised that I'm in the UK where we don't have the RIAA. But of course you were too busy screaming the typical "FUD" to someones comment that you didn't quite understand.
I don't like it because:
- If you photocopy a whole book it takes a lot longer than the 9 minutes it takes for a cd.
- If you photocopy a book, you don't get a near perfect copy, whereas if you copy a cd you do.
What does worry me is that the people in the article might just be right, this could harm the music industry. If anyone on the street can make a near perfect exact copy of any cd then what is the incentive for most people to buy it in the first place? People don't go out a photocopy books because the methods that you use to copy it are so tedious and time consuming that it rapidly becomes a waste of time and money. This is different, you stick the cd in and wait 9 minutes, this is substantially easier than copying a book.Many people who buy a copy of something they have on pirate do it either to support the artist or because their copy quality is rubbish. I'm willing to bet that the majority of people would even both to cough up would because of the latter and with this, there is no need to do that since the quality is already perfect.
Of course the industry shouldn't charge such exhorbitant prices for stuff. You think you're hard done by in the US? Take the price in USD and that is what it is in UKP, in other words, our CD's are 1.5 times more that yours!
Take a look at the Amiga. Ignoring Commodores own inabilities, the software market was utterly obliterated by the ease it was to pick up copies of anything released. It just because totally un-economical to write and sell anything for it.
If I had the ability to mark parts of the article as redundant, I would.
The link given talks about how smart tags in Internet Explorer and how links will be decided by Microsoft.
However, Smart Tags in Office, have (for my mother anyway) proved to be very useful and far from intrusive.
For example, she does some bulleted comments, then a paragraph and then some more bulleted comments. By hovering over the bullet list, a box appears after a few seconds (that doesn't seem intrusive to me) which you can click on to get options such as "continue numbering scheme from last list", "change format style" and so on.
In other words, EXACTLY the sort of things she'd ask me how to do if it wasn't there.
Yes, they are on by default. But if you're IT savvy enough to find out how to turn them off, then you probably don't need them on. You have to also remember that for the majority of people, a feature they don't see, is something they don't consider to exist.
I get this feeling a large majority of Slashdot readers bitch about Smart Tags, and yet haven't actually used them.
If you're doing complex stuff, then of course. But for simple databases, with a nice front end and easy to use query tools then I think that Access is more than adequate, if not, the best tool for the job.
Trying to get those sort of users migrated over to SQL Server, MySQL, Postgres or whatever "heavyweight" database of choice is rather pointless.
Not everyone requires the power and complexity of those solutions. Now, is there an equivilant of Access for Linux? Giving the marketing people or HR MySQL for their small databases would, IMO, seem a tad overkill.
This is really no different from other commercial companies. The more versions you do support for, the more expensive it becomes.
Supporting everything you've done since 1990 for the benifit of a small minority of companies does not make sound financial sense.
Thats a fantastic idea if you don't want revenue from a very large number of your current and potential customers.
I would appreciate it if you let me know which organisation you work for. I feel an entry in F*ckedCompany coming on ...
Of course, I could just be cynical too, but if the situation had been reversed (ie. Microsoft letting people play on the XBOX and Sony just doing presentations) then I'm pretty sure that Sony would have done just the same and complained to the organisors.
Both Opera and Mozilla are stricter when it comes to the HTML over IE which will try and guess what you're doing if you haven't done it quite right.
You could have put any standards enforcing browser in there. I have all three installed, I just chose Opera for the comment.
I think you're crediting too many people with some intelligence. The site works for their mate using one browser and doesn't for them using another.
Tell me, what are they going to assume? That it's the site at fault or their browser? I'm reckoning that people will say to themselves "well, it works on my mates browser, therefore it can't be the site, must be my browser".
Yes its wrong. But remember to these people HTML is four letters than doesn't mean very much.
I have no doubt that eBay, Amazon and Yahoo will adjust. Actually, I don't think they will need to adjust because they're already compliant.
I'm talking about the 80% of stuff out there that isn't mainstream, run by people because they have a passion about something, not because they are a paid up day-job web designer.
I'm well aware that the site there is shit. It has got godaweful mistakes and I really can't be arsed updating it because no-one visits it anyway.
There are far too many mistakes on other people pages which make the content totally unreadable and this is my point. If you specifically want some information and you can't then you're stuffed.
Maybe I should think about updating the ewtoo.org code though :o)
I'm a little worried that this could all end in a bit of a mistake. Don't get me wrong, I think that standards are a good thing. They're good for developers because they know what they send out, will be viewable in all clients. They're good for end-users because they can use any client and still get the content. However, there is a problem.
I'm just moved from IE to Opera. For the sole reason that I hate having 15 IE windows open. Thats it. Nothing else and I admit it. However whilst surfing the net doing research I find a good many sites are broken and Opera doesn't show them too well. Hell even my own site doesn't work very well.
In fact, i'm to the point of going back to IE. Why?
Because I want that content and I can't get it. Sure, its not my fault that I can't get the content, after all, they've written bad HTML but from an end-users perspective that isn't the issue. They want that information and their browser won't give it to them. Period.
To the end-user, it doesn't matter if the HTML is badly formed, if people see it not working on browser y and it does on browser x then they will automatically assume that y is broken. ("but x lets me see my page, why can't i on y?", "because the pages are badly written", "well if they're badly written, why can i see them on x?" and so on)
Now of course the standard geek response is "well its their fault they haven't followed standards". Well yes, it is. But it also sucks for the individual who wants the information on that page.
"well then, they should go elsewhere". People don't just go elsewhere. They find a few retailers they consider trustworthy and stick with them. Or what happens if that content isn't available elsewhere? Then you're stuck. It also doesn't help when they see their friends using browser x and having no such problems.
Which means that I've come to the depressing conclusion that AOL might even be forced to return to IE. Or they'll put pressure on Mozilla developers to try and cope with dodgy HTML.
This certainly doesn't help standards, but when there is a large mob of people phoning up the tech support lines complaining that their favourite websites no longer work, AOL may start changing their mind.
In fact, the only thing dated today is the Register article which just hacks details from the other sites.
Hardly recent "News for Nerds" ...
Its either that or they were high on something when they came up with those designs. They look horrific!
I've got a Ericsson T68 here and its so badly thought out (horrible menu system, slow, unintuiative) that it makes me realise why I like Nokia's so much. Oh and the joystick feels wonky and you can accidently select when you want to go up.
All the crapness of Ericsson with none of the hardware quality of Sony. Good partnership there SonyEricsson!
This means that things like Slashdots own palm friendly version and my AvantSlash (along with thousands of other non-profit making sites who provide an ability to view their content for free) are going to be left a little out in the cold.
As already mentioned, Plucker is one alternative. For PPC users you could try Mazingo
The biggest downside to Avantgo alternatives is that they don't have some of the custom channels that Avantgo has and you can't get the URL for. Some however you can, and Plinkit is a useful list of those.
Come on guys, if you expect us to pay and help you out here, the least you could do it take breaking news that we submit and actually post it. Rather than waiting a fortnight and then sticking it up.
"Stuff that matters" is all very fine and well, but "Stuff that matters, once everyone knows about it" would seem closer to the point, although less catchy.
DocSnyder asks: Would it be an idea to offer a subscribers-only webcache for /.ed sites, with links in stories and comments pointing to the cache instead of the hosed target?
CmdrTaco Please read the FAQ.
hemos Copyright issues.
Quick question, have you actually checked up on the copyright issues of this? Or is google, Alexia and the other companies out there violating copyright left, right and centre?
On another note 12 people to run one site??? Christ, what the hell do you do all day? Fire Jon Katz (he writes the most unmittigated twaddle I've ever seen) and immediately reduce your team by half that amount. I totally fail to see, how, with only a dozen or so submissions a day how you really need all those people.
For fucks sake, my company delivers gigabytes of content to a large number of customers with a team of 8 techies, 4 editors and various freelancers. Seems like to me the work per person here is substantially higher that slashdot.
Why do people want the source code to Windows?
Of course, it means you can poke around and see how they do things, but since no-one else builds a platform in quite the way Windows is, I don't really see the point. Plus, Microsoft are going to fight long and hard not to open up their code.
So, let them keep it closed.
However I would have thought that forcing Microsoft to open up, document and distribute for free the file formats they use (doc, xls, ppt and so on and so on) for then next, say 25 years, would be far more advantagious to others. In other words, they cannot lock users into their own formats ever again.
After all, once other applications can load and save Microsoft formats as well as Office can then surely then it would allow them to break onto the desktop and so foster proper competition?
In fact its such a big thing that even respected global players such as Logica (their software runs over 50% of the SMS gateways in the world) are getting involved according to this article in the Financial Times.
In short getting people responding to SMS spam is unreliable because due to difficiencies in the GSM protocol you can only catch about one SMS reply to an advert every 5 seconds.
Because of this, take up of bulk SMS advertisements (where people respond) is slow. But thanks to the boffins at Logica, they now have software which can harvest 1,000 replies a second.
Which suddenly makes pumping out SMS spam look a lot more worthwhile.
Coming soon to a phone near you ...?
AvantGo is weeding out what they call "Custom channel abuse". Basically its 8 or more people creating a custom channel to a site that doesn't pay up for a licence. See the Register article here and the AvantGo announcement here.
This means that things like Slashdots own palm friendly version and my AvantSlash (along with thousands of other non-profit making sites who provide an ability to view their content for free) are going to be left a little out in the cold.
I've been recommended Plucker for the Palm and Mazingo for the PPC - not tried either though.
It basically stacks up cd details until you get on-line and then downloads the track listings for all the CD's in one go.
Whilst this doesn't sound much to your average connected American, here in the UK where broadband is stupidly expensive and the majority of us are on pay by the minute 56k modems its an absolute godsend because we don't have to keep dialing up every single time we put a new CD in.
"Welcome to the Odeon Film Line! To pick the cinema you want just say the name!"
To which you do and, in my experience, its got it right every single time. Including stuff like "Odeon Leicester Square", "Mezzanine", "Wimbledon" and "Manchester".
From what I understand they use software by Vocalis.
You need MacDrive or MacOpener to be installed too but if it allows me to copy MP3's from an iPod to the PC (which neither XPlay or iTunes allow you to do) then its going to be a winner.
ps. Yes I know why they've done it but its something I (and probably others) would find useful whatever your moral standing.
BA's computer system understands this and whenever I book with them they always try and get me a window seat. And when I book for two people then they get two next to each other with one being a window seat.
Yes its a small example. But its a good one. Personalisation and its bigger brother CRM (Customer Relationship Management) means that people feel that they have a personal relationship with a company and are not just some number in a database.
Why? Well yes, I can sort of understand why they are doing it, after all, the iPod is very sexy and no doubt the iWalk would be too. But if you consider the target audience for iPods/Walks you suddenly realise that they are the sort of people who already have a personal computer or laptop for which they use to listen to MP3's or syncronise with their favourite PIM.
Making them Apple only in an attempt to say "hey, if you want these cool things you have to have a Mac" is all very fine and well, but since the target audience is going to be happy with their PC and Windows or Linux, they're not going to ditch it quite yet and spend a couple of hundred pounds on a spanky new iMac just for the sake of one thing.
Or are they?
ps. Thankfully a company called MediaFour is creating an application called xplay (the new name for XPod) which will allow iPods to communicate with Windows.
Have a read of this article at Wired entitled "The Great MS Patch Nobody Uses". (brief extract below).
A free, downloadable update that transforms Microsoft's Outlook into a significantly more secure e-mail application has languished virtually ignored on Microsoft's website for more than a year.
Although the majority of recent viral attacks have come compliments of worms that don't rely only on e-mail to spread, the Outlook E-mail Security Update (OESU) can stop or greatly lessen the impact of most malicious code, such as BadTrans and SirCam, if only people would download and install it.
OESU blocks the receipt and transmission of most of the e-mail attachments that typically can contain virus or worm code. The update also stops malicious code from spreading by blocking unauthorized access to Outlook and its address book. Many viruses and worms spread by surreptitiously e-mailing themselves to e-mail addresses culled from an infected computer's system files.
Funny how if the other 99% of people had this patch then virus spreading would drop drastically.
Until it fully supports Exchange Server, it'll never be a serious competitor to Outlook.
Sorry, but face reality. In the corporate world it either has to be 100% compatible otherwise they just won't use it. Price is generally immaterial.
Plus any company who can afford Exchange Server will no doubt be able to afford licences for Outlook so the whole "but its free" doesn't really offset the fact that its not fully compatible.
However, in spite of all this, lets not knock them for a fine product. Always some work to do, but its definately on the right roads ...