> Boy gets bit by radioactive spider and develops super powers.
Hate to nit-pick, but in this case, the spider wasn't radioactive, it was genetically enhanced. It was clear from what Peter went through after getting bit that the intent was that his genectic makeup was being altered.
I read it as well. If you include the original install/restore disks, then you're including the original operating system software, *regardless* of what OS is installed on the PC.
So, no, the PC doesn't have to still be running the originally installed OS.
While couched in terms chosen to scare institutions in only accepting PCs with Windows on them, the *legal* requirement is that all software received with the PC is transfered with the PC. (Well, maybe not *all*, anymore -- wasn't there a court case saying the user could unbundle software and sell it?)
I disagree. If it were simply a craft, then anyone with a reasonable amount of intellegence could learn to code well and quickly.
Programmers -- *good* programmers -- know the craft of programming, but are also able to do more then someone who is simply a craftsman. The best programmers do create art of a form.
It's the same as in many things that are considered 'art'. Anyone can go to school to learn how to write music, and will learn how to write well formed and competent pieces. The people who are good, go further and begin to create art within the music.
Most people can learn the craft -- the *language* of a vocation, whether it be music, painting, sculpting, or programming. But art comes to only the truly talented.
With programming, it's often difficult to recognise the art that went into the application. So often the true artistry is in the internal design and can't be seen externally unless you truly know where to look. But it can be there. As programmers, we talk of 'elegant' solutions to problems -- obviously there are those solutions which are not so elegant. If a solution is truly elegant, why can't it also be art?
There's a store just down from my house that sells PCs they build. They make it quite clear that you can buy a PC for $300 (yes, $300). Oh, and you can buy XP for $100 (or whatever it's going for).
They do a good business and are moving into a bigger store, but I'd guess there aren't a lot of first time buyers there -- still it's really nice to see a store break out the cost of Windows and show people just how much it costs them.
I can't tell you what the cost of pressing CDs when the run is in the thousands or tens of thousands, but a few years back I produced a CD for my brass quintet.
A run of 500 CDs from Sony would cost us $680, a run of 1000 CDs from Sony cost us $750. We took the run of a thousand, knowing we had *no* chance of selling that many, but also realising that the additional cost was worth the chance we might sell over 500.
Total cost of producing the CD was in the range of $2000, which included digital recording and digital mastering.
Duplication costs are cheap -- I'd bet by now you could get them down to $0.50 or less for a really large run.
I can't see why CDs can't sell for about $7. Even $10. But at the prices they go for now, I buy *very* few artists that I don't already enjoy.
First, release it for Solaris and Linux as binary only. Don't charge for it, don't call it an officially supported project -- maybe a bit of email support, but no phone support. Heck they could even report back usage statistics to the main server.
Second, don't do the authentication locally -- force a network validation to an official server. Key crackers don't get any extra info from the server that way. There's still the problem of crackers hitting the main server with keys just to see which work and which don't, but that's less of an issue.
This method *helps* them -- it doesn't hurt them. They could still serve the same ads, still get the same statistics, and still ensure that people use real keys and still crack down on everyone else. And they get the added bonus of having a whole host of "official" servers out there they don't have to pay for, administer, or support.
It's not like I think this will happen. Blizzard is showing they care more for deposing a few pirates than for their paying customers. But I do think it's viable.
I'm glad it works for you. My experience is that it produces slower games. It also is harder to play games with only a certain set of friends. BnetD has always worked *better* for me.
The issue for me certainly wasn't pirating software. I puchased two copies of Broodwar so that my son and I could play.. and I have originals of all other games I play.
The issue was ease of access to cheat-free games. The bnetd server I use allows me to chat with friends and games without a bunch of people around with whom I don't want to talk, allows me to create games more easily without fear of someone else that I don't want in the game jumping in -- in general simply allows for a nicer experience. Further, it used to be that games created on Battlenet had *much* slower response times than those on a private server. Don't know if that's still true. (Creators of BnetD did have a *reason* for all that work.)
(Yes, you can create private rooms, but people still use them whether or not you want them to. You can't password a room.)
I paid the money -- all I'm looking for is a better experience. I get that on the private servers.
> If they gave you a good idea which you
> implemented, why not share some of the wealth it
> will generate?
There are a number of problems I see with this. While good in theory, it's difficult to implement. I have a user that gave me a very good idea. The code it'll take me to implement that idea, while not trivial, isn't a lot -- say under 100 lines. Now, if I hadn't planned for things like this, that hundred lines could easily be 500 or 1000.
There's no way to put a monetary value on a suggestion like this -- it's just too indefinate. In my own way, I do share the wealth. People who make suggestions often see them implemented, often get advance copies of the software. When I beta tested, all beta testers got the software when it went into release. (Including all updates.)
In general, I don't think beta testers are owed anything beyond a copy of the software. I've been on both sides -- I beta tested a PC game, submitted a *bunch* of bug reports, and got a copy of the finished game out of it. I certainly don't think I *own* any of the user interface changes they made because of my complaints.
Doesn't happen on mine. I hit stop, go away. The DVD player turns itself off. When I come back, I press power on the remote and not only don't I see the disclaimer, etc you talk about, the player automatically starts the disk where I stopped earlier.
On my last player, I had to turn it on then hit play, but still no disclaimers.
Last summer I bought the Archos MP3 player -- this month I upgraded it from 6G to 30G, and had to add a disk to my Windows system to store the additional MP3s.
I found it amusing, though. My other system, the one I actually do work on, is a Linux system with a 2G and a 4G disk -- if I put the drive from the mp3 player into my Linux box, I double it's space.
Not that I really need it, though -- I've got probably 3G free on that system.
If it works for you, that's fine. I build and upgrade my own computers as well. But there have been times in my life when I had to figure tradeoffs of money and time. With a family and a child, I've definately had to figure which was more important to me -- saving $200 or spending two or three hours with my son.
Besides, I've built something around ten systems. Doing another isn't something that I consider either very interesting or very edifying.
You enjoy doing stuff like this, and that's great. But don't forget the other sides, as well. Some people may enjoy doing it, but feel their time is better spent elsewhere, untill the actual monetary savings reaches some amount.
But what you don't seem to understand is that most of that is just fluff to most people. Surf the net? Heck, most people don't need to get on the web at *home* let alone carry it with them. And when they do, they do it for pleasure, not as any real need. Watch videos? Again, for most people that's complete fluff. Sure, you *can* do it, but how often do you actually watch a video?
MP3s? Sure. How many can you store? The microdrive in currently available in 1G models, and will likely get bigger. (But then, the Handera line of Palm devices accepts CF and microdrives.) I upgraded my MP3 player from 6G to 30G because 6G wasn't big enough.
If you want to read/edit Word and Excel files, you can buy add-on software to do it, and you can get the whole package for a lot less than a WinCE system.
SSH? Just how big do you think the market is for people to be able to connect to systems using SSH? Okay, I might use it, the other sysadmins I know might use it, but that's a *very* small number of people compared to the number who'll actually use a Palm or IPAQ.
In all honesty, I doubt Palm will win this one. At best, it'll be another Apple -- some market share, but not much. But the reason won't be because WinCE is better for most people. It'll be because people don't know any better.
A user level app shouldn't crash from anything a user does to it. Period. If it does, than either there's a fault in the app or a fault in the OS, and it's usually in the app.
Correct and complete error checking is difficult, and I've messed it up more times than I'd like to admit. But darn it, I do try. I once had a professor who showed us two versions of the same program, one with error checking, and one without. The one with was easily four or five times as large as the one without. On the other hand, it didn't crash. (As far as I know.)
It's not the same as driving a car. Within an application you can anticipate all possible ways of use and limit the user to those things which make sense. An auto manufacturer can't keep a stupid person from driving into a brick wall without causing the car to be useless in the process.
The fact that it doesn't default to normal vi behavior.
I use vi all over the place -- home, work, Sun, HPUX, Linux, etc, and when I type 'vi' I want it
to work correctly, not be some supposedly improved version that causes me to lose data because ^U doesn't work correctly by default.
First, if you are listening to music with headphones, you may well be essentially shutting out sounds other than the music. So you aren't *adding* noise, you're replacing it with other noise.
In the office in which I work, I'm in a cubical, and I'm just across a "hall" from a group of *extremely* loud people. At certain times of the day they are literally yelling. At other times they are simply loud. Trust me, music would do a lot to ease the annoyance of their noise.
As for professionalism, in every group of programmers I've worked with, there's always been a percentage that listened to music on headphones. Some did it all the time, some only occasionally. No manager has ever -- in close to 20 years -- told me that listening to music was unprofesional. I don't really believe you know what you're talking about.
For me, it depends upon two things: the extranious noise level and the intensity of the problem I've trying to solve. I'd much rather have Bach going in the background than the yelling that I hear across the hall, but if I've come upon a really nasty problem, I'd rather have silence.
Is okay with you if I bring in my ear protection devices? They look just like headphones, but without a cord. But, I guess not. Trying to have a silent environment by wearing something that looks like headphones would destroy my professionalism.
Nope. Fact is, I don't care whether the CD is copy protected or not.
However, it must be playable in every CD player I try it in, and I must have access to MP3s of the music, and I must have access to any new portable format that I desire.
So, if Universal wants to provide me with MP3s that will work on any MP3 player I'll ever own, and also agree to provide me with the next great format when I want it, they can copy protect the CDs all they want.
As soon as they refuse to let me create MP3s for my Archos, they lose my business.
No. They need to be bought. And returned. Reshelving has nothing to do with it. Go buy the CD and if you can't create MP3s from it, return it. Only opened and returned merchandise is going to make an impression.
I'd say the a Unix shell has *already* withstood the test of time.:-)
I mean how many years does it have to last in essentially the same configuration before we can say that about something? The person I was in 1983 could sit down at a modern Unix system and still know how to work most of the system. Things really haven't changed that much.
Help. Well, the biggest grip I have with Linux is that the GNU people (it was the GNU, people right?) that decided that 'man' wasn't good enough and they wanted to reinvent it.
*Big* mistake.
Still, 'man' works. How hard is it to type 'man command' to get help on a command?
The unix command line isn't going to die anytime soon. It's still standard on all commercial Unix boxes, and it's *necessary* on those boxes because too many scripts depend on it being there. I spend 99.9% of my time in a Unix shell when I'm working. (The other.01% is probably looking up stuff using netscape.)
But, DOS had this ability a few versions ago -- I used it a lot, because I hated worrying about which disk things were on. If I remember correctly, you mounted a filesystem using the "join" command.
It got removed in later versions of DOS, but it was there for at least Win 3.1.
Sean.
Re:Sure if you want a "crap with useless crap" PVR
on
Comparing the DVRs?
·
· Score: 1
Trolling?
Don't know what a "to-do list" is, but my ReplayTV unit has conflict checking, and, it seems, utterly reliable keyword recording. Can't prove it because I don't go searching for things else where, but it records things I don't know are on, based upon keyword.
And it has never failed to record shows I want it to record.
Never owned a Tivo, but I've had a ReplayTV for just less than a year.
Mine has performed as well as any other consumer device I've had. Better, in fact, than either of the two DVD players I own. In nine months I've had four times when I had to power cycle the thing. My older DVD player locked up at almost anything, it seemed. Two of those times were in the last month -- I think they downloaded a patch that went wrong.
My only real complaint is that about a month ago they started showing commercials for the new systems when I hit pause. Pissed me off, and I called them. Within a few days the commercials started getting fewer, and I have seen one for a while now. (Commercial, in this case, means a single, non-moving advertisement.)
The real problem is that they are still too expensive. When they hit $150 for a standalone unit with no monthly fees, they'll take off.
Slashdot Mirror
> Boy gets bit by radioactive spider and develops super powers.
Hate to nit-pick, but in this case, the spider wasn't radioactive, it was genetically enhanced. It was clear from what Peter went through after getting bit that the intent was that his genectic makeup was being altered.
I read it as well. If you include the original install/restore disks, then you're including the original operating system software, *regardless* of what OS is installed on the PC.
So, no, the PC doesn't have to still be running the originally installed OS.
While couched in terms chosen to scare institutions in only accepting PCs with Windows on them, the *legal* requirement is that all software received with the PC is transfered with the PC. (Well, maybe not *all*, anymore -- wasn't there a court case saying the user could unbundle software and sell it?)
Sean.
I disagree. If it were simply a craft, then anyone with a reasonable amount of intellegence could learn to code well and quickly.
Programmers -- *good* programmers -- know the craft of programming, but are also able to do more then someone who is simply a craftsman. The best programmers do create art of a form.
It's the same as in many things that are considered 'art'. Anyone can go to school to learn how to write music, and will learn how to write well formed and competent pieces. The people who are good, go further and begin to create art within the music.
Most people can learn the craft -- the *language* of a vocation, whether it be music, painting, sculpting, or programming. But art comes to only the truly talented.
With programming, it's often difficult to recognise the art that went into the application. So often the true artistry is in the internal design and can't be seen externally unless you truly know where to look. But it can be there. As programmers, we talk of 'elegant' solutions to problems -- obviously there are those solutions which are not so elegant. If a solution is truly elegant, why can't it also be art?
Sean.
There's a store just down from my house that sells PCs they build. They make it quite clear that you can buy a PC for $300 (yes, $300). Oh, and you can buy XP for $100 (or whatever it's going for).
They do a good business and are moving into a bigger store, but I'd guess there aren't a lot of first time buyers there -- still it's really nice to see a store break out the cost of Windows and show people just how much it costs them.
Sean.
I can't tell you what the cost of pressing CDs when the run is in the thousands or tens of thousands, but a few years back I produced a CD for my brass quintet.
A run of 500 CDs from Sony would cost us $680, a run of 1000 CDs from Sony cost us $750. We took the run of a thousand, knowing we had *no* chance of selling that many, but also realising that the additional cost was worth the chance we might sell over 500.
Total cost of producing the CD was in the range of $2000, which included digital recording and digital mastering.
Duplication costs are cheap -- I'd bet by now you could get them down to $0.50 or less for a really large run.
I can't see why CDs can't sell for about $7. Even $10. But at the prices they go for now, I buy *very* few artists that I don't already enjoy.
Sean.
I still think it can be done.
First, release it for Solaris and Linux as binary only. Don't charge for it, don't call it an officially supported project -- maybe a bit of email support, but no phone support. Heck they could even report back usage statistics to the main server.
Second, don't do the authentication locally -- force a network validation to an official server. Key crackers don't get any extra info from the server that way. There's still the problem of crackers hitting the main server with keys just to see which work and which don't, but that's less of an issue.
This method *helps* them -- it doesn't hurt them. They could still serve the same ads, still get the same statistics, and still ensure that people use real keys and still crack down on everyone else. And they get the added bonus of having a whole host of "official" servers out there they don't have to pay for, administer, or support.
It's not like I think this will happen. Blizzard is showing they care more for deposing a few pirates than for their paying customers. But I do think it's viable.
Sean.
> Battle.net has always been smooth for me
I'm glad it works for you. My experience is that it produces slower games. It also is harder to play games with only a certain set of friends. BnetD has always worked *better* for me.
Sean.
The issue for me certainly wasn't pirating software. I puchased two copies of Broodwar so that my son and I could play.. and I have originals of all other games I play.
The issue was ease of access to cheat-free games. The bnetd server I use allows me to chat with friends and games without a bunch of people around with whom I don't want to talk, allows me to create games more easily without fear of someone else that I don't want in the game jumping in -- in general simply allows for a nicer experience. Further, it used to be that games created on Battlenet had *much* slower response times than those on a private server. Don't know if that's still true. (Creators of BnetD did have a *reason* for all that work.)
(Yes, you can create private rooms, but people still use them whether or not you want them to. You can't password a room.)
I paid the money -- all I'm looking for is a better experience. I get that on the private servers.
Sean.
> If they gave you a good idea which you
> implemented, why not share some of the wealth it
> will generate?
There are a number of problems I see with this. While good in theory, it's difficult to implement. I have a user that gave me a very good idea. The code it'll take me to implement that idea, while not trivial, isn't a lot -- say under 100 lines. Now, if I hadn't planned for things like this, that hundred lines could easily be 500 or 1000.
There's no way to put a monetary value on a suggestion like this -- it's just too indefinate. In my own way, I do share the wealth. People who make suggestions often see them implemented, often get advance copies of the software. When I beta tested, all beta testers got the software when it went into release. (Including all updates.)
In general, I don't think beta testers are owed anything beyond a copy of the software. I've been on both sides -- I beta tested a PC game, submitted a *bunch* of bug reports, and got a copy of the finished game out of it. I certainly don't think I *own* any of the user interface changes they made because of my complaints.
Sean.
It's a linux box that calls up tivo every night to get the program schedule, and reports some statistics as well.
Sean.
On my last player, I had to turn it on then hit play, but still no disclaimers.
Sounds like you need a new player.
Sean.
I found it amusing, though. My other system, the one I actually do work on, is a Linux system with a 2G and a 4G disk -- if I put the drive from the mp3 player into my Linux box, I double it's space.
Not that I really need it, though -- I've got probably 3G free on that system.
Sean.
Imagine if we could use DNA strands -- or something the same size -- to store data. Your terrabyte would fit on the head of pin...
Sean.
Besides, I've built something around ten systems. Doing another isn't something that I consider either very interesting or very edifying.
You enjoy doing stuff like this, and that's great. But don't forget the other sides, as well. Some people may enjoy doing it, but feel their time is better spent elsewhere, untill the actual monetary savings reaches some amount.
Sean.
MP3s? Sure. How many can you store? The microdrive in currently available in 1G models, and will likely get bigger. (But then, the Handera line of Palm devices accepts CF and microdrives.) I upgraded my MP3 player from 6G to 30G because 6G wasn't big enough.
If you want to read/edit Word and Excel files, you can buy add-on software to do it, and you can get the whole package for a lot less than a WinCE system.
SSH? Just how big do you think the market is for people to be able to connect to systems using SSH? Okay, I might use it, the other sysadmins I know might use it, but that's a *very* small number of people compared to the number who'll actually use a Palm or IPAQ.
In all honesty, I doubt Palm will win this one. At best, it'll be another Apple -- some market share, but not much. But the reason won't be because WinCE is better for most people. It'll be because people don't know any better.
Sean.
> um... how many of your Windows programs run under Linux?
> does that make your favorite distro any less useful?
Actually, yes it does make it less useful. I bought a second computer simply because some things I do can't be done as easily or as well under Linux.
Finale, music notation software, simply has nothing equal. You can play some Windows games, but they are often buggy and without sound.
If there were actual equals, then I wouldn't have two computers on my desk. If I could do everything I want to do under Linux, I would. I can't.
Sean.
A user level app shouldn't crash from anything a user does to it. Period. If it does, than either there's a fault in the app or a fault in the OS, and it's usually in the app.
Correct and complete error checking is difficult, and I've messed it up more times than I'd like to admit. But darn it, I do try. I once had a professor who showed us two versions of the same program, one with error checking, and one without. The one with was easily four or five times as large as the one without. On the other hand, it didn't crash. (As far as I know.)
It's not the same as driving a car. Within an application you can anticipate all possible ways of use and limit the user to those things which make sense. An auto manufacturer can't keep a stupid person from driving into a brick wall without causing the car to be useless in the process.
Sean.
The fact that it doesn't default to normal vi behavior.
I use vi all over the place -- home, work, Sun, HPUX, Linux, etc, and when I type 'vi' I want it
to work correctly, not be some supposedly improved version that causes me to lose data because ^U doesn't work correctly by default.
Sean.
This is ridiculous.
First, if you are listening to music with headphones, you may well be essentially shutting out sounds other than the music. So you aren't *adding* noise, you're replacing it with other noise.
In the office in which I work, I'm in a cubical, and I'm just across a "hall" from a group of *extremely* loud people. At certain times of the day they are literally yelling. At other times they are simply loud. Trust me, music would do a lot to ease the annoyance of their noise.
As for professionalism, in every group of programmers I've worked with, there's always been a percentage that listened to music on headphones. Some did it all the time, some only occasionally. No manager has ever -- in close to 20 years -- told me that listening to music was unprofesional. I don't really believe you know what you're talking about.
For me, it depends upon two things: the extranious noise level and the intensity of the problem I've trying to solve. I'd much rather have Bach going in the background than the yelling that I hear across the hall, but if I've come upon a really nasty problem, I'd rather have silence.
Is okay with you if I bring in my ear protection devices? They look just like headphones, but without a cord. But, I guess not. Trying to have a silent environment by wearing something that looks like headphones would destroy my professionalism.
Sheesh.
Sean.
Nope. Fact is, I don't care whether the CD is copy protected or not.
However, it must be playable in every CD player I try it in, and I must have access to MP3s of the music, and I must have access to any new portable format that I desire.
So, if Universal wants to provide me with MP3s that will work on any MP3 player I'll ever own, and also agree to provide me with the next great format when I want it, they can copy protect the CDs all they want.
As soon as they refuse to let me create MP3s for my Archos, they lose my business.
Sean.
No. They need to be bought. And returned. Reshelving has nothing to do with it. Go buy the CD and if you can't create MP3s from it, return it. Only opened and returned merchandise is going to make an impression.
Sean.
I'd say the a Unix shell has *already* withstood the test of time. :-)
.01% is probably looking up stuff using netscape.)
I mean how many years does it have to last in essentially the same configuration before we can say that about something? The person I was in 1983 could sit down at a modern Unix system and still know how to work most of the system. Things really haven't changed that much.
Help. Well, the biggest grip I have with Linux is that the GNU people (it was the GNU, people right?) that decided that 'man' wasn't good enough and they wanted to reinvent it.
*Big* mistake.
Still, 'man' works. How hard is it to type 'man command' to get help on a command?
The unix command line isn't going to die anytime soon. It's still standard on all commercial Unix boxes, and it's *necessary* on those boxes because too many scripts depend on it being there. I spend 99.9% of my time in a Unix shell when I'm working. (The other
Sean.
But, DOS had this ability a few versions ago -- I used it a lot, because I hated worrying about which disk things were on. If I remember correctly, you mounted a filesystem using the "join" command.
It got removed in later versions of DOS, but it was there for at least Win 3.1.
Sean.
Don't know what a "to-do list" is, but my ReplayTV unit has conflict checking, and, it seems, utterly reliable keyword recording. Can't prove it because I don't go searching for things else where, but it records things I don't know are on, based upon keyword.
And it has never failed to record shows I want it to record.
What basis do you have for these allegations?
Sean.
Mine has performed as well as any other consumer device I've had. Better, in fact, than either of the two DVD players I own. In nine months I've had four times when I had to power cycle the thing. My older DVD player locked up at almost anything, it seemed. Two of those times were in the last month -- I think they downloaded a patch that went wrong.
My only real complaint is that about a month ago they started showing commercials for the new systems when I hit pause. Pissed me off, and I called them. Within a few days the commercials started getting fewer, and I have seen one for a while now. (Commercial, in this case, means a single, non-moving advertisement.)
The real problem is that they are still too expensive. When they hit $150 for a standalone unit with no monthly fees, they'll take off.
Sean.