Yes, it's really about gas pedals, specifically adjustable-height gas pedals with electrical interfaces (no throttle cable). Go figure!
One sort of interesting tangent is that the gas pedal itself wasn't always an obvious idea. Put a hapless n00b into a Model T and watch the poor victim try to figure out how to make it move.
Yes, Bose still assemble some products in the US, also in Ireland and Mexico. (note that's assemble -- there are lots of electronics components that simply are no longer made in North America.
"Aspirin" is a really bad example. The German government handed over the Aspirin trademark at the end of World War I as part of the Treaty of Versailles. It's a weird way to lose a trademark, but it have nothing to do with sloppy popular usage.
...specific to whatever industry you're using it in?
Yes. Sometimes. No.
When a trademark is well enough known to be considered "famous", the rules change. If a mark is famous, a holder can successfully argue that dilution from unrelated uses is harmful and blockable.
Yep, and the same could be said of the Apple III. As design studies or prototypes, both these machines turned out to have some value. They're only flops in the sense that the company released them to the public.
Yes, it's currently behind. The site is up read-only while the logs play back and fill in the missing edits. THe devs don't have an ETA for "back to normal" but a least it's there again!
Dynabook was an Alan Kay thing, Raskin is the leap guy. Kay gets into rants like this too, but usually about C++ and Java and their inferiority to Smalltalk.
Yep, it's hard to appreciate how the program seems to magically fall into place once you've laid things out with the interface builder until you've tried it.
Both Cocoa and GNUstep have Java bindings these days, so fear of ObjC is no longer a reason to avoid them.
Yes, hydrogen still has serious problems that need to be solved. Aside from the safety challenges, there really aren't any hydrogen production methods in place that honestly reduce dependence on the same old problematic energy sources that hydrogen would allegedly supersede. that doesn't mean it can't be done, but no one is gearing up to make the stuff in a way that is both economically and environmentally beneficial,
As for the "it was the cloth, not the gas" hypothesis regarding the Hindenburg accident, it doesn't hold up very well under scrutiny. Look here for a detailed explanation of why Addison Bain's paper doesn't make sense.
You know those mice that come with Wacom tablets that nobody uses because they already have mice and they bought the tablet for the pen, dammit, so forget the stupid mouse? Well, those mice are really nice to work with. Since the sensing is done by the tablet, you get to hold the mouse at any angle you like but up is still up. It's wonderful not to have to keep the fingers locked in a certain direction, much less tiring.
Shadow masks are superior for text legibiity (sharpness). Aperature grilles provide better color. You want what Apple is using if eye strain is your concern, shadow masks are for graphics.
The PPC != POWER architecture. This is about IBM's big iron, not Apple's overpriced brushed aluminum jokes.
Of course, AIX runs on both POWER and PowerPC, and can use the same binaries. That is because there is little difference between the instructoin sets, and especially because IBM use PowerPC in their own server products.
Yes, private use and research often qualify for royalty-free use of a patent, but beware that these exemptions are very narrow. More information here.
Also, the international treaties covering patents are still evolving (there's a bunch of 'em -- not just WIPO but PLT, PCT, TRIPS and more I'm sure I'm forgetting), so it's still necessary to check out the local laws.
So if your argument has merit, one could say that what Apple should have done was to develop MacWrite and make it available for Windows as well, much like their modern iTunes strategy.
Apple did eventually do just that with ClarisWorks/AppleWorks, and that suite did have a measure of popularity in its day. It's still popular in some pockets of education (the only market where the Windows version, now somewhat long in the tooth, is still sold).
Are these really independent updates? I notice that the libpng security update is listed for 10.3.4. I happened to install 10.3.5 on one machine just before the libpng update appeared, and the Software Update on that machine doesn't see it as a needed update.
Can anyone confirm if the libpng update included with 10.3.5 already has the security update? I'm wondering if the separate patch is there for people who aren't quite ready to do the entire upgrade.
Bad idea, especially in the current environment. Collective bargaining might delay the inevitable through the sheer bulk of bureaucracy, but it also tends to turn that group of workers into more of a burden that a company would love to jettison. It's a good way to get the group replaced as a group instead of individually, I suppose.
or better still, start their own companies and operate as contractors.
Free agency has a lot going for it. It's an excellent choice for people who can (and want to) handle it. Not everyone has the drive and creativity it requires to succeed in that environment, but it's always an option worth considering.
Once the software is written, why do you need a production line to keep writing it?
For certain types of applications (accounting, ERP, that sort of thing), every business wants something a little bit different but fundamentally the same.
We already have (relatively) off-the-shelf packages like SAP that companies take in and customize. If all those SAP customers are making simliar modifications and reports and whatever in parallel, there is (theoretically, theoretically!) a lot of efficiency to be gained by handing that work off to specialized houses that wouldn't have to figure out all the problems from scratch, having seen it all before.
For lots of business and political reasons, if probably won't really happen that way, even if it is possible. Within one huge corporation with lots of semi-autonomous divisions, an approach like that might make some sense, though.
This article is merely reiterating the idealized world that was supposed to result from using structured programming, then objects, and all the other names that have been tossed in for variations on those themes. Code re-use, clicky visual development environments, automagical code generation thingies, scripting... it's always been about concentrating the "hard work" into prepackaged elements and lowering the barriers to producing a finished application.
The jigsaw pieces in the article's illustrations made me smile. I had always assumed they would be LEGO bricks, but it's all the same idea, isn't it?
I don't know how useful dock is, since I've never used an iPod, but it does seem like a kick in the pants not to include it. Carry cases get used all the time I'm sure, it's a shame those are excluded.
You're wouldn't be missing much. The dock is convenient to have as a place to store the iPod, but the only real feature it brings is a line out. In real life, it's not wildly useful since the dock is generally used next to the computer which is going to have its own line out and iTunes, and the iPod can't play while it's syncing or being used in disk mode anyway. The line out is a bit more useful if you use it with a dedicated charger instead of a computer-to-firewire connection, but then you have to move it to sync or use disk mode.
Apple's iPod case is fugly, and it's not even very useful unless you plan on using the wired remote, because it covers up the controls.
I don't think I've used the wired remote, ever. It only brings out partial functionality, you still need to use the front panel for some things.
As others already mentioned, you can replace the battery yourself if you take reasonable care.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, it's really about gas pedals, specifically adjustable-height gas pedals with electrical interfaces (no throttle cable). Go figure!
One sort of interesting tangent is that the gas pedal itself wasn't always an obvious idea. Put a hapless n00b into a Model T and watch the poor victim try to figure out how to make it move.... I like Slashdot better this way.
Yes, Bose still assemble some products in the US, also in Ireland and Mexico. (note that's assemble -- there are lots of electronics components that simply are no longer made in North America.
"Aspirin" is a really bad example. The German government handed over the Aspirin trademark at the end of World War I as part of the Treaty of Versailles. It's a weird way to lose a trademark, but it have nothing to do with sloppy popular usage.
Yes. Sometimes. No.
When a trademark is well enough known to be considered "famous", the rules change. If a mark is famous, a holder can successfully argue that dilution from unrelated uses is harmful and blockable.
Yep, and the same could be said of the Apple III. As design studies or prototypes, both these machines turned out to have some value. They're only flops in the sense that the company released them to the public.
Not necessarily the money part, but large and visible protests are kind of traditional. It's been happening since 1968.
Yes, it's currently behind. The site is up read-only while the logs play back and fill in the missing edits. THe devs don't have an ETA for "back to normal" but a least it's there again!
Dynabook was an Alan Kay thing, Raskin is the leap guy. Kay gets into rants like this too, but usually about C++ and Java and their inferiority to Smalltalk.
Yep, it's hard to appreciate how the program seems to magically fall into place once you've laid things out with the interface builder until you've tried it. Both Cocoa and GNUstep have Java bindings these days, so fear of ObjC is no longer a reason to avoid them.
As for the "it was the cloth, not the gas" hypothesis regarding the Hindenburg accident, it doesn't hold up very well under scrutiny. Look here for a detailed explanation of why Addison Bain's paper doesn't make sense.
Yeah, it is kind of a dup. This is pretty much the same technique covered in the recent story on Kensington locks.
It's also been linked to gout, stick to the wine.
You know those mice that come with Wacom tablets that nobody uses because they already have mice and they bought the tablet for the pen, dammit, so forget the stupid mouse? Well, those mice are really nice to work with. Since the sensing is done by the tablet, you get to hold the mouse at any angle you like but up is still up. It's wonderful not to have to keep the fingers locked in a certain direction, much less tiring.
Shadow masks are superior for text legibiity (sharpness). Aperature grilles provide better color. You want what Apple is using if eye strain is your concern, shadow masks are for graphics.
Also, the international treaties covering patents are still evolving (there's a bunch of 'em -- not just WIPO but PLT, PCT, TRIPS and more I'm sure I'm forgetting), so it's still necessary to check out the local laws.
Are these really independent updates? I notice that the libpng security update is listed for 10.3.4. I happened to install 10.3.5 on one machine just before the libpng update appeared, and the Software Update on that machine doesn't see it as a needed update.
Can anyone confirm if the libpng update included with 10.3.5 already has the security update? I'm wondering if the separate patch is there for people who aren't quite ready to do the entire upgrade.
Actually, 10.3.5 is mostly bug fixes too.
We already have (relatively) off-the-shelf packages like SAP that companies take in and customize. If all those SAP customers are making simliar modifications and reports and whatever in parallel, there is (theoretically, theoretically!) a lot of efficiency to be gained by handing that work off to specialized houses that wouldn't have to figure out all the problems from scratch, having seen it all before.
For lots of business and political reasons, if probably won't really happen that way, even if it is possible. Within one huge corporation with lots of semi-autonomous divisions, an approach like that might make some sense, though.
This article is merely reiterating the idealized world that was supposed to result from using structured programming, then objects, and all the other names that have been tossed in for variations on those themes. Code re-use, clicky visual development environments, automagical code generation thingies, scripting... it's always been about concentrating the "hard work" into prepackaged elements and lowering the barriers to producing a finished application. The jigsaw pieces in the article's illustrations made me smile. I had always assumed they would be LEGO bricks, but it's all the same idea, isn't it?
Apple's iPod case is fugly, and it's not even very useful unless you plan on using the wired remote, because it covers up the controls.
I don't think I've used the wired remote, ever. It only brings out partial functionality, you still need to use the front panel for some things.
As others already mentioned, you can replace the battery yourself if you take reasonable care.
Ah, okay. Well enjoy your Betamax then.