I can't think of a single algorithm that Dijkstra ever came up with.
I can. what was it now? Oh, damn, you know when you have it on the tip of your tongue... what was Dijkstra's Algorithm called? oh, you'll just have to Google it yourself.
no, really, the awesomebar is a good thing. We just took a while to get used to it - but once you did, it works wonderfully.
Ok, I'd like to be able to tell it to only store 'root' links, not every damn link of a shopping site, one entry per item I've viewed; and to ignore some entries, but otherwise its replaced my bookmark menu for some sites! Oh, and you can turn it off, ok, which should please even you!
actually, this is closer to the "truth" than you think. ArsTechnica had a review of the new Messenger and found that they had removed the ability to view webcams - you can now only do a 2-person "video call". Which in a healthy, moms-apple-pie society would be fine... but in the world we live in, its probably not the thing most users want, either the people with MSN or the girls offering to go to a private chat with you. Poor girls - now they get to watch too:)
Oh yeah, its also pants with the Windows 7 taskbar, why did they get rid of the ability to hide the damn thing to the notification area when there's nothing going on in the main window?
"Youtube, now with VP8 technology inside enabling superior playback and user experience with reduced download requirements making it fast, better and nicer to the planet". Then auto-install a Firefox plugin that you can't remove and job's done!
Alternatively, just encode some stuff in it on YT and wait for everyone to upgrade anyway.
We get all that crap from the BBC because it has a mandate to produce TV to appeal to the mass market - ie, if it suddenly dropped Eastenders, viewing figures would drop too and people (like you perhaps) would say that the BBC was pointless as nobody watched it.
They can balance the crap that the sheeple want to watch with the ability to fill programming with other good stuff. The commercial TV stations do not bother - they just want viewers eyeballs for their adverts.
sure, but if you could embed paid-for content in there too, the BBC Worldwide (or BBS America) could then legitimately sell the content to you. Currently, the standards don't allow for that which means they have to block you entirely.
Yeah, 'cos we all need a channel stuffed full of soap operas, reality TV shows and sensationalist documentaries all pandering to the lowest common demoninator.
Fortunately, the BBC can have BBC 2, 3 and 4 all of which serve a more 'niche' marketplace of cultural, artistic, youth and intellectual programming. I don't think forcing the good stuff you find on there and replacing it with ad-driven crap would be beneficial to society.
Same goes for Radio - Radio 4 is the ultimate (check it out, fellow nerds). If we had 1 radio station, it'd be the mass-market pop and talk that is radio 1. That wouldn't be good at all.
That part was most surprising for me - whilst I think.rpm is more of the standard for server based business apps, it appears debia (ie ubuntu) is the predominant platform for clients.
Ok, it doesn't surprise me at all now I've thought it through:)
Once their money comes back into balance with the dollar, they will collapse
Once their money comes back into balance with the dollar, you'll find the US economy will collapse as a major amount of the US national debt is held by the Chinese. It started off as a cheap way to fund American consumerism without having to worry - after all, China buys your bonds and you spend the cash they just gave you on Chinese goods - wins all round!
But.. that means they hold an enormous amount on US debt. If they decided to sell it on, both Yuan and the dollar would take an almighty hit - enough to pretty much collapse the US economy. Fortunately the Yuan is pegged to the dollar and doesn't float about - which could cause a bit of a collapse in either currency depending on which way it moved,
See, if the Yuan devalued against the dollar, they'd stop buying US debt. And so the cost of selling that debt would increase - the US needs to keep selling debt partly to fund the previous debt repayments - if the interest payments went up... you can see that wouldn't be good for the US. Considering how huge the debt is, that wouldn't be good at all.
Also, if the dollar didn't buy as much yuan as before, that would mean inflation for the US - no more cheap goods to buy.
So really, the US needs China to keep the dollar high. If they stop, you, them, and almost everybody is screwed. (Ok, maybe the Eurozone would come out of it better - assuming it doesn't collapse itself)
And yet Apple is still using closed source software
I thought all their stuff was based on FreeBSD? In which case, its the great and good OSS but Apple slapped a fence around it once they took it on - which you can do with BSD licenced software if you want to. (lets not get into a debate over BSD v GPL, this is about using the software for your advantage, not the originators).
Anyway, Apple has done very well with OSS, a lot better than Microsoft with their closed source. There's something to be said for it after all.
If Microsoft can't own this space, they're going to be in trouble. Not, "OMG they're going out of business" trouble, but growth will become mostly a thing of the past in the next decade.
Not necessarily... companies are strange beasts, they need good cashflow to stay relevant, and if the mobile platform see MS losing money and marketshare, and therefore shareprice... they'll start to decline. And that means they'll sell less stuff. And once people have got rid of the 'it must be MS' mindset, then things are really going to be tricky for them. (and we now have examples like Google refusing to run Windows internally, that sends a bit of a signal to others)
This isn't just about mobile marketplace; see how many companies still run XP and don't feel the need to upgrade. How many don't care to upgrade to the latest Office - all that costs money, and companies don't spend it just to be on the latest version, all that software is just a tool.
If that starts to happen, MS will still be spending a fortune on people and other costs, without the revenue to maintain them. Look to Sun as an example of what happens next. Look to IBM as a more realistic example of what I think will happen to them; look to DEC if they can't alter their business!
perhaps they should. Things aren't the same as when the web was invented - where mostly text and a couple of inline images have been replaced with "content-rich" skillfully-designed layout. Ok, maybe you need to be a graphic design person to feel their pain here, but perhaps that web page *should* render the same on your smartphone as it does on your TV. Naturally, you'll be able to zoom in and out to make it readable (unless they offer 2 versions of the page, like high/low bandwidth versions, or single-column versions with fewer sidebars).
Ask yourself why a webpage should render differently on your phone (using exactly the same source). I could understand the same content being displayed differently using an alternative stylesheet (aka zengarden, which is remendously cool) but not that the same page be displayed completely differently yet still having the same wide sidebars on your phone.
I know when that was - it was when the big Unix vendors decided that you had to buy the very expensive kit and software then allowed you to have, if you bought a large support contract and training to manage their overly-expensive bloated stuff. Then this little upstart company was selling PCs that did most of what the big guys were doing but at a significantly lower price and with a lot more flexibility over what you could or could not do with your IT system.
How times have changed!
(Ok, there was a time in the middle when their stuff wasn't that good, but you still wanted it - ad every time an upgrade came out, you knew you had to have it because it would fix a load of problems with the software. Today that time is pretty much gone, unless you've bought sharepoint, so no-one really feels the need to grab the upgrade immediately)
As I understand it, the SAS use.22s for their assassination duties, so if its good enough for them, it will surely work for you.
I've heard stories about people who tried to commit suicide using a shotgun and..well, succeeded only in blowing half their face off. If you can fuck it up with a shotgun, a.44 isn't going to help you become competent.
I do believe you forgot the 'skydive without pulling your parachute' option. Plenty of time to enjoy the experience without the hassle of buying guns or pills.
That said, it doesn't have the same satisfaction of building a bomb and visiting your local politician:)
Hint to NSA, that's a joke guys - you know you want to do the same.
and besides, how many developers does it take to improve an open source codebase? I think the answer is smaller than you think.
I know the urge to follow an oss codebase that has a lot of commits, forums and feedback is strong - that shows the code is still being maintained and improved even if that is just bugfixes. A codebase that is stagnant, even if it is perfectly workable, is something that doesn't inspire confidence in it. That's just the way things are.
According to my wireless electricity meter manufacturer, its 2.5p per week; as I get charged 12p per kWh, that's 1.2W. That includes the transmitter+sensor and the LCD display unit.
Here in the UK we're seeing a lot of devices that you place around the incoming electricity feed (via a loop you put around the cable) that has a wireless transmitter to a LCD display of current overall power usage (and some historical stats). They're quite cool, some can be connected to your PC, like the CurrentCost Envi. The idea is you can see how much power those hungry devices use as you see the meter spike up when you turn them on.
The government has set a policy for monitoring meters, and the electricity companies (and Sky TV for some reason) are offering subsidised units (I got mine cheap off ebay from someone who had one of these).
So, adding a wireless usage transmitter to every plug sounds expensive (but cool) but it wouldn't provide that much more information than you can get currently. However, the CurrentCost devices talk to each other (and you can set up multiple meters) so if their comms protocol was a standard (it might be, they advertise it as C2), then additional transmitters could fit into an existing power-usage network without fuss.
As you say, big deal. If you want users to do it, you need an user interface that provides them with a way to do it (like the one you have, but with fewer options). A big button on a web page with "wake my computer up" would do after they've logged in.
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I can't think of a single algorithm that Dijkstra ever came up with.
I can. what was it now? Oh, damn, you know when you have it on the tip of your tongue... what was Dijkstra's Algorithm called? oh, you'll just have to Google it yourself.
no, really, the awesomebar is a good thing. We just took a while to get used to it - but once you did, it works wonderfully.
Ok, I'd like to be able to tell it to only store 'root' links, not every damn link of a shopping site, one entry per item I've viewed; and to ignore some entries, but otherwise its replaced my bookmark menu for some sites! Oh, and you can turn it off, ok, which should please even you!
actually, this is closer to the "truth" than you think. ArsTechnica had a review of the new Messenger and found that they had removed the ability to view webcams - you can now only do a 2-person "video call". Which in a healthy, moms-apple-pie society would be fine... but in the world we live in, its probably not the thing most users want, either the people with MSN or the girls offering to go to a private chat with you. Poor girls - now they get to watch too :)
Oh yeah, its also pants with the Windows 7 taskbar, why did they get rid of the ability to hide the damn thing to the notification area when there's nothing going on in the main window?
Take a trick from other companies:
"Youtube, now with VP8 technology inside enabling superior playback and user experience with reduced download requirements making it fast, better and nicer to the planet". Then auto-install a Firefox plugin that you can't remove and job's done!
Alternatively, just encode some stuff in it on YT and wait for everyone to upgrade anyway.
We get all that crap from the BBC because it has a mandate to produce TV to appeal to the mass market - ie, if it suddenly dropped Eastenders, viewing figures would drop too and people (like you perhaps) would say that the BBC was pointless as nobody watched it.
They can balance the crap that the sheeple want to watch with the ability to fill programming with other good stuff. The commercial TV stations do not bother - they just want viewers eyeballs for their adverts.
be glad it wasn't "You and Yours" :)
sure, but if you could embed paid-for content in there too, the BBC Worldwide (or BBS America) could then legitimately sell the content to you. Currently, the standards don't allow for that which means they have to block you entirely.
Yeah, 'cos we all need a channel stuffed full of soap operas, reality TV shows and sensationalist documentaries all pandering to the lowest common demoninator.
Fortunately, the BBC can have BBC 2, 3 and 4 all of which serve a more 'niche' marketplace of cultural, artistic, youth and intellectual programming. I don't think forcing the good stuff you find on there and replacing it with ad-driven crap would be beneficial to society.
Same goes for Radio - Radio 4 is the ultimate (check it out, fellow nerds). If we had 1 radio station, it'd be the mass-market pop and talk that is radio 1. That wouldn't be good at all.
That part was most surprising for me - whilst I think .rpm is more of the standard for server based business apps, it appears debia (ie ubuntu) is the predominant platform for clients.
Ok, it doesn't surprise me at all now I've thought it through :)
Once their money comes back into balance with the dollar, they will collapse
Once their money comes back into balance with the dollar, you'll find the US economy will collapse as a major amount of the US national debt is held by the Chinese. It started off as a cheap way to fund American consumerism without having to worry - after all, China buys your bonds and you spend the cash they just gave you on Chinese goods - wins all round!
But.. that means they hold an enormous amount on US debt. If they decided to sell it on, both Yuan and the dollar would take an almighty hit - enough to pretty much collapse the US economy. Fortunately the Yuan is pegged to the dollar and doesn't float about - which could cause a bit of a collapse in either currency depending on which way it moved,
See, if the Yuan devalued against the dollar, they'd stop buying US debt. And so the cost of selling that debt would increase - the US needs to keep selling debt partly to fund the previous debt repayments - if the interest payments went up... you can see that wouldn't be good for the US. Considering how huge the debt is, that wouldn't be good at all.
Also, if the dollar didn't buy as much yuan as before, that would mean inflation for the US - no more cheap goods to buy.
So really, the US needs China to keep the dollar high. If they stop, you, them, and almost everybody is screwed. (Ok, maybe the Eurozone would come out of it better - assuming it doesn't collapse itself)
And yet Apple is still using closed source software
I thought all their stuff was based on FreeBSD? In which case, its the great and good OSS but Apple slapped a fence around it once they took it on - which you can do with BSD licenced software if you want to. (lets not get into a debate over BSD v GPL, this is about using the software for your advantage, not the originators).
Anyway, Apple has done very well with OSS, a lot better than Microsoft with their closed source. There's something to be said for it after all.
If Microsoft can't own this space, they're going to be in trouble. Not, "OMG they're going out of business" trouble, but growth will become mostly a thing of the past in the next decade.
Not necessarily... companies are strange beasts, they need good cashflow to stay relevant, and if the mobile platform see MS losing money and marketshare, and therefore shareprice... they'll start to decline. And that means they'll sell less stuff. And once people have got rid of the 'it must be MS' mindset, then things are really going to be tricky for them. (and we now have examples like Google refusing to run Windows internally, that sends a bit of a signal to others)
This isn't just about mobile marketplace; see how many companies still run XP and don't feel the need to upgrade. How many don't care to upgrade to the latest Office - all that costs money, and companies don't spend it just to be on the latest version, all that software is just a tool.
If that starts to happen, MS will still be spending a fortune on people and other costs, without the revenue to maintain them. Look to Sun as an example of what happens next. Look to IBM as a more realistic example of what I think will happen to them; look to DEC if they can't alter their business!
ah, but think how much they get from you.
iPhone : $$$ plus monthly voice, text and data tariffs and then you go and buy another one in 1-2 years time.
Dell: $300 for a desktop PC. One off payment.
There's money to be made in the mobile marketplace, whereas the desktop one is saturated with lowest-possible-price units.
perhaps they should. Things aren't the same as when the web was invented - where mostly text and a couple of inline images have been replaced with "content-rich" skillfully-designed layout. Ok, maybe you need to be a graphic design person to feel their pain here, but perhaps that web page *should* render the same on your smartphone as it does on your TV. Naturally, you'll be able to zoom in and out to make it readable (unless they offer 2 versions of the page, like high/low bandwidth versions, or single-column versions with fewer sidebars).
Ask yourself why a webpage should render differently on your phone (using exactly the same source). I could understand the same content being displayed differently using an alternative stylesheet (aka zengarden, which is remendously cool) but not that the same page be displayed completely differently yet still having the same wide sidebars on your phone.
I can't say that PDF is the answer however!
I know when that was - it was when the big Unix vendors decided that you had to buy the very expensive kit and software then allowed you to have, if you bought a large support contract and training to manage their overly-expensive bloated stuff. Then this little upstart company was selling PCs that did most of what the big guys were doing but at a significantly lower price and with a lot more flexibility over what you could or could not do with your IT system.
How times have changed!
(Ok, there was a time in the middle when their stuff wasn't that good, but you still wanted it - ad every time an upgrade came out, you knew you had to have it because it would fix a load of problems with the software. Today that time is pretty much gone, unless you've bought sharepoint, so no-one really feels the need to grab the upgrade immediately)
maybe because they're all complicit in the uselessness? But the staff are questioning the leadership (well, whinging)
As I understand it, the SAS use .22s for their assassination duties, so if its good enough for them, it will surely work for you.
I've heard stories about people who tried to commit suicide using a shotgun and ..well, succeeded only in blowing half their face off. If you can fuck it up with a shotgun, a .44 isn't going to help you become competent.
I do believe you forgot the 'skydive without pulling your parachute' option. Plenty of time to enjoy the experience without the hassle of buying guns or pills.
That said, it doesn't have the same satisfaction of building a bomb and visiting your local politician :)
Hint to NSA, that's a joke guys - you know you want to do the same.
and besides, how many developers does it take to improve an open source codebase?
I think the answer is smaller than you think.
I know the urge to follow an oss codebase that has a lot of commits, forums and feedback is strong - that shows the code is still being maintained and improved even if that is just bugfixes. A codebase that is stagnant, even if it is perfectly workable, is something that doesn't inspire confidence in it. That's just the way things are.
According to my wireless electricity meter manufacturer, its 2.5p per week; as I get charged 12p per kWh, that's 1.2W. That includes the transmitter+sensor and the LCD display unit.
Here in the UK we're seeing a lot of devices that you place around the incoming electricity feed (via a loop you put around the cable) that has a wireless transmitter to a LCD display of current overall power usage (and some historical stats). They're quite cool, some can be connected to your PC, like the CurrentCost Envi. The idea is you can see how much power those hungry devices use as you see the meter spike up when you turn them on.
The government has set a policy for monitoring meters, and the electricity companies (and Sky TV for some reason) are offering subsidised units (I got mine cheap off ebay from someone who had one of these).
You can get these things in the US and Australia/NZ too, and even Google is getting involved as these things will upload to Google Powermeter.
So, adding a wireless usage transmitter to every plug sounds expensive (but cool) but it wouldn't provide that much more information than you can get currently. However, the CurrentCost devices talk to each other (and you can set up multiple meters) so if their comms protocol was a standard (it might be, they advertise it as C2), then additional transmitters could fit into an existing power-usage network without fuss.
Each of those has to be regression tested and the fix needs to be guaranteed to not break anything for all of those customers with support contracts.
Exactly. I mean what can you expect from a company with a measly 88,180 employees
F-Spot was a pathetic attempt to justify the existence of Mono
I thought that was Tomboy - or at least the /. story about it told how Mono was added to the default Ubuntu setup because Tomboy depended on it.
Still, 2 mono apps that have significantly better native implementations. I'm sure there'll be more.
In fact, the entire Apple implementation is open source and part of mDNSResponder, the source is here.
Now if only someone would port it to avahi so we could get it on Ubuntu and Debian...
now if only someone would port it to Windo... oh wait!
As you say, big deal. If you want users to do it, you need an user interface that provides them with a way to do it (like the one you have, but with fewer options). A big button on a web page with "wake my computer up" would do after they've logged in.