One more argument in defense of airline pilots. (We should really be able to edit our posts...) The article claims that flight is nearly completely automated, and that's true, just as long as nothing goes wrong. What if an engine comes apart in flight? What if the landing gear doesn't extend? That fancy category II ILS coupled autopilot might get you safely to the runway, but you still won't have any wheels. Flying a plane is relatively easy, until something goes wrong.
Another thing to consider with airline pilots is the huge investment they have to make for initial training. And if you look at salaries for any pilot who isn't working for a major airline, you will begin to understand the sacrifices that have to be made to make it to the majors.
I just wanted to throw in some agreement in the midst of all the fanboys. For some time I've been trying to put my finger on what it is about the various window managers and desktop environments that drives me insane. I thought maybe I just needed to get used to it, but you're right, everything just looks crappy. Stuff basically works but nothing is polished. The open source community has some great programmers but they wouldn't know style if it mugged them.
You can talk shit about OnStar if you want, but here's a true story.
My aunt had her car stolen at gunpoint a few weeks ago in a major US city. Two men (boys, really -- I think one of them was 16) walked up to her in a parking lot and put a gun to her chest. She gave them her keys. They asked for money. She gave them everything she had, which maybe amounted to twenty bucks. The thieves got pissed and told her to get on her hands and knees. They put the gun to the back of her head.
At this point she just lost it. She started bawling and telling these guys about her son, who is mentally retarded and not doing well at his new school, and how hard their lives have been because of it. The thieves put the gun away and took off with her car.
When my aunt called the police, they told her that they were investigating a ring of car thieves in the area. What happened to my aunt, was happening to a lot of other people. The police used OnStar to find the car, they arranged a sting, and they brought the entire operation down.
You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but let's be realistic: Nobody is tracking your trips to the grocery store. Nobody cares where you go. And at least in this case, OnStar was instrumental in stopping a violent gang of car thieves.
Nice try, but multi-button mice are handled transparently by the standard class libraries. Developers aren't forced to assume anything because it's all been taken care of by Apple.
That's true, it moves around quite a bit. Aeronautical charts have "isogonic lines" plotted on them, which indicate the amount by which magnetic north differs from true north. These lines are updated every few years.
Another interesting aviation-related tidbit about magnetic variation: Runways are numbered according to their approximate magnetic direction. Sometimes magnetic north moves so much that runways have to be renumbered!
The guy above you was already corrected, but I thought I'd point this out to you as well. Apple's voice recognition was released when a PowerMac 7100 with an 80MHz first-gen PowerPC and 16 megs was top notch. It worked pretty well back then too.
Although getting a new head unit with an auxiliary input was already mentioned, a cheaper way to go is to add one to the existing head unit. If it has a CD changer interface (but no CD changer), you can get an adapter for less than fifty bucks. One end plugs into the changer port, the other is a 1/8" stereo mini-jack. It's far better than an FM transmitter.
I bought a new PowerBook back in March and it came with some extra software (mostly shareware, but all paid for). Check the Applications folder before you blow anything away. Mine came with licensed copies of GraphicConverter, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, and a couple random graphics utilities.
If you get a PowerBook and it comes with any Omni Group stuff, make sure you save the license files. They're in/Library/Application Support/Omni Group.
I just did a little experiment with Mail on 10.3, and it looks like the answer is "no".
I shelled into our mail server and moved an unread message from my inbox to a folder. Then in Mail, I clicked the "Get Mail" button in the toolbar. No unread messages appeared in the folder.
Depends on the hardware. I'm a municipal government employee, so I qualify. The discount on my PowerBook was a few bucks better than the academic discount. Ditto for my iPod.
What do you need serial and parallel ports for? And the footprint is no larger than a 17" monitor. Which means it saves space because you don't have a box under the desk.
I don't know that it's market-speak really. Market-speak usually consists of euphemisms to cover up something embarrassing or controversial. In this case I think they're referring to New World Macs as those with built-in USB because most Mac users don't have a clue what "New World" means. But they should all know what USB is (God knows Apple made a big enough fuss about it when they started using it).
Then again, I could be reading more into your use of the term "market-speak" than you intended.
I'll be very surprised if Scaled doesn't win. Burt Rutan has tremendous experience with experimental aeronautical engineering. Their carrier aircraft is flying and they've done several successful gliding tests of the spacecraft, including a test of the "feathered" re-entry system. They have a safe, working rocket motor. I agree that it would be cool to see Carmack win, but I just don't think he's a match for Rutan.
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It's true. And every single person who learns how to fly a helicopter is required to demonstrate this type of emergency landing (called autorotation).
One more argument in defense of airline pilots. (We should really be able to edit our posts...) The article claims that flight is nearly completely automated, and that's true, just as long as nothing goes wrong. What if an engine comes apart in flight? What if the landing gear doesn't extend? That fancy category II ILS coupled autopilot might get you safely to the runway, but you still won't have any wheels. Flying a plane is relatively easy, until something goes wrong.
Another thing to consider with airline pilots is the huge investment they have to make for initial training. And if you look at salaries for any pilot who isn't working for a major airline, you will begin to understand the sacrifices that have to be made to make it to the majors.
The same alternate universe where I said anything about the default XP desktop.
I just wanted to throw in some agreement in the midst of all the fanboys. For some time I've been trying to put my finger on what it is about the various window managers and desktop environments that drives me insane. I thought maybe I just needed to get used to it, but you're right, everything just looks crappy. Stuff basically works but nothing is polished. The open source community has some great programmers but they wouldn't know style if it mugged them.
"A witty saying proves nothing." -Voltaire
My aunt had her car stolen at gunpoint a few weeks ago in a major US city. Two men (boys, really -- I think one of them was 16) walked up to her in a parking lot and put a gun to her chest. She gave them her keys. They asked for money. She gave them everything she had, which maybe amounted to twenty bucks. The thieves got pissed and told her to get on her hands and knees. They put the gun to the back of her head.
At this point she just lost it. She started bawling and telling these guys about her son, who is mentally retarded and not doing well at his new school, and how hard their lives have been because of it. The thieves put the gun away and took off with her car.
When my aunt called the police, they told her that they were investigating a ring of car thieves in the area. What happened to my aunt, was happening to a lot of other people. The police used OnStar to find the car, they arranged a sting, and they brought the entire operation down.
You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but let's be realistic: Nobody is tracking your trips to the grocery store. Nobody cares where you go. And at least in this case, OnStar was instrumental in stopping a violent gang of car thieves.
Nice try, but multi-button mice are handled transparently by the standard class libraries. Developers aren't forced to assume anything because it's all been taken care of by Apple.
I dunno about that -- I have two NeXTstations and a PowerBook, and I think the laptop wins. NeXTs are damn sexy though.
Another interesting aviation-related tidbit about magnetic variation: Runways are numbered according to their approximate magnetic direction. Sometimes magnetic north moves so much that runways have to be renumbered!
No they didn't. You must be thinking of the Quadra 840av.
The guy above you was already corrected, but I thought I'd point this out to you as well. Apple's voice recognition was released when a PowerMac 7100 with an 80MHz first-gen PowerPC and 16 megs was top notch. It worked pretty well back then too.
Although getting a new head unit with an auxiliary input was already mentioned, a cheaper way to go is to add one to the existing head unit. If it has a CD changer interface (but no CD changer), you can get an adapter for less than fifty bucks. One end plugs into the changer port, the other is a 1/8" stereo mini-jack. It's far better than an FM transmitter.
If you get a PowerBook and it comes with any Omni Group stuff, make sure you save the license files. They're in /Library/Application Support/Omni Group.
I always thought booble.com was a good name for a pr0n search engine.
I shelled into our mail server and moved an unread message from my inbox to a folder. Then in Mail, I clicked the "Get Mail" button in the toolbar. No unread messages appeared in the folder.
Depends on the hardware. I'm a municipal government employee, so I qualify. The discount on my PowerBook was a few bucks better than the academic discount. Ditto for my iPod.
What do you need serial and parallel ports for? And the footprint is no larger than a 17" monitor. Which means it saves space because you don't have a box under the desk.
Then again, I could be reading more into your use of the term "market-speak" than you intended.
Holy shit -- I don't believe you were able to convincingly mention those three things in the same sentence.
I applaud you, sir.
Maybe just underpants.
I especially like this bit: "Without so much as a hearing, ICANN today formally asked us to shut down the Site Finder service."
No hearing? Yeah that's really unfair. Just like making changes to fundamental pieces of the Internet without so much as asking anyone.
Stupid bastards.
I'll be very surprised if Scaled doesn't win. Burt Rutan has tremendous experience with experimental aeronautical engineering. Their carrier aircraft is flying and they've done several successful gliding tests of the spacecraft, including a test of the "feathered" re-entry system. They have a safe, working rocket motor. I agree that it would be cool to see Carmack win, but I just don't think he's a match for Rutan.
Don't forget MUCKs. Speaking of which, any former Qwesters around?