"Without Microsoft, you would probably still be using MacOS Classic on a PowerPC, dreaming of the day you could smoothly run multiple tasks and not have one crashing program bring down the whole OS with it."
Actually, we have NeXT Software, Inc. to thank for the change. Microsoft's in our Office today, taking away our VB support, which is symptomatic of how little we've ever received from Redmond.
"It's faster, cheaper and runs more software. Oh, and it's not a "knockoff"."
'Faster' than what? $300 per seat, enforced through the most obnoxious WGA, for a version of Vista roughly comparable to Mac OS X, isn't my idea of 'cheap.' And I rather believe that Microsoft took Apple's WWDC tweak, "Redmond, start your photocopiers" to heart.
"Are you Mac Zealots still talking about that TCO study that compared Windows 3.1 and System 7 ?"
System 7 isn't mentioned often in these days of Mac OS X, but in spite of Vista's novelty, I'm certain you're still nostalgic for those days of Windows 3.1, when you finally showed us Mac Zealots (snerk) what's what.
I wonder if the Slashdotters who modded you 'Funny' did so because 'Silly' wasn't available?
...was a complaint about shutdown error trapping (as they put it...huh?).
If one doesn't want to be pestered by that dialog, just choose the Shut Down command while holding down the Option key. Easy squeezy.
Come to think of it, that's a good bit of advice to follow whenever you find yourself wishing something behaved differently: Try the Option key. It won't always make a difference, but often, it does.
* I hate the fact that I can never find *anything* I'm looking for. I spend entirely too long searching around for applications, their support files, and system configuration options. I realize that Apple designs these things for people who aren't familiar with computers, but fuck, it makes it hard for someone that is quite comfy with Linux and Windows configurations.
Drag the Applications folder to the Dock. When it's there, you can click it and hold, and voilà! you have a hierarchical menu worthy of that Start button thingy. (Note to self: avoid 'worthy' and 'start menu' in the same sentence.) Of course, you can drag your favorites there as well, and even lay them out on the Desktop if you want.
Support files? That's not quite so easily explained, but I'll try. For every user account, there exists a Library folder. And inside that folder is one called Application Support. And inside that one should be a folder with a name that suggests it belongs to a given application. Inside you'll find things like auxiliary applications and information that doesn't change (if the developer has followed the guidelines).
When it comes to information that does change, there is the Preferences folder, which is also located in your Library folder. Inside, you'll find files that have.plist extensions. Their names are strange; they're like the reverse Internet notation that's used in Java. (An example: "com.microsoft.Word.plist") Double-clicking these will put you in the Property List Editor, and you can go crazy (at your risk, of course).
There are exceptions to all these things, but you'll find the vast majority of applications follow these conventions.
* I hate the fact that I have no idea what the fuck is going on behind the scenes with the Mac. Yeah, XP has gotten to this point but I guess because I have a basic idea built up over the years from other versions of Windows, I don't mind as much. Being built on Unix, I would expect to understand more about what OS X is doing -- but I don't.
and
I have a friend that is amazed as how often mine "pinwheels". I have a 1.42 with a GB of RAM and it still pinwheels constantly. "That's just not right," he says. I agree.
I'm surprised to read you saying this, since you're an old Linux hand. Everything gets cached in OS X (as it does in every kind of Unix-like operating system, so I'm told), both in memory and on one's hard disk. Especially memory. 1GB isn't really enough, but at work we've found upgrading to 2 GB works wonders. When things are cached to your HD, well, remember that HDs are infinitely slower than RAM. Your "rainbow pizza of death" is really just the system's way of telling you it's busy (though on occasion it means something went terribly wrong), and in this case, it's probably going mad swapping things in and out of storage, be it RAM or HD space.
While I don't think Apple should be like Windows or Linux or OS/2, I really do think that they should reconsider their design choices or make some easy to find options that would change their design to fit the needs of everyone if they so choose (like putting the minimize and close options on the "correct" side of the window;))
I don't. I've been using Mac OS as far back as when it was only 2.2. What you're describing might as well be the feeling I get when using Windows, which only goes to show that it's a matter of perspective, a very subjective thing indeed.
"I bought a lot of music using SharpMusique but now... I guess Apple doesn't want my money anymore."
Sniff, sniff. Boo hoo hoo. Cry me a fucking river. You're not entitled to behave like a victim.
I'm certain you think you're a paragon of virtue because you bought your music. So what? Windows users of iTMS buy their music. Mac users of iTMS buy their music. But when they bought it, unlike you, they didn't violate Apple's terms to do it. Just because you don't get to negotiate the terms of the contract doesn't mean you get to violate them.
Like as not, those terms include the DRM. If you dislike it only half as much as I do, DON'T BUY IT.
As to your speculation about that 65% decrease in sales (the veracity of which I doubt in any case): I'm dying to see any proof whatsoever that the all the users of SharpMusique and PyMusique combined were responsible for as much as a fraction of one percentage point of Apple's sales.
It wouldn't matter if I had moderator points today or not; the 'Deluded' tag I'd want to apply doesn't exist.
"To relieve the pressure, the company took the drastic step of blocking all messages from several countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa, where much of the spam was originating."
That's what I do, except that I block the entirety of AFRINIC, APNIC, LACNIC, and RIPE.
No, I'm not trolling. No, I'm not a xenophobe (I have entirely satisfying memories of every country I visited during my military days). And I realize such a drastic strategy isn't suited for everyone (especially if you're running a business, or if you're otherwise not a middle-class American with no family abroad, as I am). But, I don't know anyone in any country which falls under any of those registries, don't do business with anyone in those countries, and if I ever do need to reach anyone there, it can be through mailing lists to which I subscribe.
Despite that, I'll still receive 3-10 spam messages a day from North American sources. But my procmail.log file typically contains entries for as many as 200 spam messages a day. When I do clear it out, I find that there's not a single message listed there that I would have wanted.
The spammers have won, as far as I can tell. The article did an excellent job of explaining why. Despite what I said a couple of paragraphs ago, my on-line world became much, much smaller, and that's sad.
...to do away with the concept of "contributory infringement," taking away any legal weight it may carry.
Everybody saw this coming. We've already seen it happen to various services and software applications. As a software developer, I find it ridiculous that an application I write with the best intentions could be used as a metaphorical crowbar, and subsequently finding myself accused of providing metaphorical burglar tools.
I think it's a lazy, opportunistic strategy that's being deployed here. Why can't they go after the individual infringers? Never mind that the RIAA does, but then again, the RIAA is getting more than it bargained for lately, and it may be demonstrating how poor the return is on such a strategy.
Lately, I've been coming home to find my answering machine's memory completely filled with pre-recorded campaign messages. Yes, it's annoying.
That notwithstanding, a $500 small claims award (assuming that's how much I'd have for my trouble) is a little more than what I earn in a day, and I'd rather spend my day at work than go through all that described in the article.
So no, I don't have what it takes. I don't have the time.
...but when I read this story, it was all I could do to stifle a yawn.
The garage of Mssrs. Hewlett and Packard was designated a California Historic Landmark because it symbolized the birth of Silicon Valley.
Here I only see two pretentious punks "giving themselves a birthday present." What's their garage supposed to represent, I'm wondering? Today's Silicon Valley hubris?
Even Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, whose company's genesis also took place in a garage, didn't engage in this kind of masturbatory pursuit.
When I first encounted the term 'PlaysForSure,' the sophomoric 'PlaysForShit' sprang to mind. As if to suggest that iPods wouldn't play "for sure."
Speaking of shit, I'm reminded me of a note of excretion my father once gave me with regards to the coprony I kept: "Play with shit, and sooner or later, you're bound to get it on you." That rather splatteringly sums up my scatitude toward Microsoft.
(Go ahead. I can afford the points, you humorless shithead, you.)
Besides moaning on Slashdot about this topic, I gave $100 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 2000. They're a lobby, of a sort. Our lobby. I suppose not "every person who was pissed off about this gave $100," as another poster put it, because by now, we're still wallowing in the fallout from the DCMA.
Last year, I wrote to Senator Dianne Feinstein (apparently the best California lawmaker money can buy, given that she's the progenitor, all or in part, of so much of the anti-consumer legislation we're seeing) and voiced my concerns. I got a boilerplate reply implying my concerns were without merit, and that the preservation of movies and television and recordings were of utmost importance.
So, I'm taking matters into my own hands, inasmuch as I cannot form them into more than tiny fists against the RI- and MPAA hegemonies. I am canceling my digital and premium cable services, reverting back to basic. When a commercial comes on, I already turn down the volume and go to the can. Or go for a snack. I'll be sure to buy my CDs second-hand, and I'm not buying from the iTMS any longer. (For the love of Pete, people, don't rent your music!) I have no plans to buy new video equipment; my 1989 Sony 21" Trinitron will be my last video monitor when it breaks down, because what will I be able to buy other than a DRM-hobbled flatscreen? If I buy HD-DVD or Blu-Ray equipment, it'll only be for computer storage, that is, if the rights I currently enjoy with my computer still exist. If I go to the movies, it'll be at a Century or Camera cinema instead of one belonging to AMC, because AMC sees nothing wrong with foisting commercials on my girlfriend and I after I've paid twenty bucks for us to see a film. And when the fall quarter comes along at my local community college this year, I'm digging my saxophones out of the closet and signing up for concert band. Or perhaps the local non-profit production company's pit orchestra. I probably didn't touch on everything one could do, but, you get the idea.
If enough people did all that, perhaps those such as Jamie Kellner (he of the infamous not-watching-commercials-is-stealing quote) or Thomas Hesse ("Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?") would have no alternative but to rent themselves out as urinals.
Slashdot Mirror
...well, let's just hope they never drop them into the pool.
"Without Microsoft, you would probably still be using MacOS Classic on a PowerPC, dreaming of the day you could smoothly run multiple tasks and not have one crashing program bring down the whole OS with it."
Actually, we have NeXT Software, Inc. to thank for the change. Microsoft's in our Office today, taking away our VB support, which is symptomatic of how little we've ever received from Redmond.
"It's faster, cheaper and runs more software. Oh, and it's not a "knockoff"."
'Faster' than what? $300 per seat, enforced through the most obnoxious WGA, for a version of Vista roughly comparable to Mac OS X, isn't my idea of 'cheap.' And I rather believe that Microsoft took Apple's WWDC tweak, "Redmond, start your photocopiers" to heart.
"Are you Mac Zealots still talking about that TCO study that compared Windows 3.1 and System 7 ?"
System 7 isn't mentioned often in these days of Mac OS X, but in spite of Vista's novelty, I'm certain you're still nostalgic for those days of Windows 3.1, when you finally showed us Mac Zealots (snerk) what's what.
I wonder if the Slashdotters who modded you 'Funny' did so because 'Silly' wasn't available?
...was a complaint about shutdown error trapping (as they put it...huh?).
If one doesn't want to be pestered by that dialog, just choose the Shut Down command while holding down the Option key. Easy squeezy.
Come to think of it, that's a good bit of advice to follow whenever you find yourself wishing something behaved differently: Try the Option key. It won't always make a difference, but often, it does.
If Enter renames files, how do you open a file without the mouse?
Command-O. (i.e., the key with the cloverleaf and Apple symbol)
Support files? That's not quite so easily explained, but I'll try. For every user account, there exists a Library folder. And inside that folder is one called Application Support. And inside that one should be a folder with a name that suggests it belongs to a given application. Inside you'll find things like auxiliary applications and information that doesn't change (if the developer has followed the guidelines).
When it comes to information that does change, there is the Preferences folder, which is also located in your Library folder. Inside, you'll find files that have
There are exceptions to all these things, but you'll find the vast majority of applications follow these conventions.
andI'm surprised to read you saying this, since you're an old Linux hand. Everything gets cached in OS X (as it does in every kind of Unix-like operating system, so I'm told), both in memory and on one's hard disk. Especially memory. 1GB isn't really enough, but at work we've found upgrading to 2 GB works wonders. When things are cached to your HD, well, remember that HDs are infinitely slower than RAM. Your "rainbow pizza of death" is really just the system's way of telling you it's busy (though on occasion it means something went terribly wrong), and in this case, it's probably going mad swapping things in and out of storage, be it RAM or HD space.
I don't. I've been using Mac OS as far back as when it was only 2.2. What you're describing might as well be the feeling I get when using Windows, which only goes to show that it's a matter of perspective, a very subjective thing indeed.
"I bought a lot of music using SharpMusique but now... I guess Apple doesn't want my money anymore."
Sniff, sniff. Boo hoo hoo. Cry me a fucking river. You're not entitled to behave like a victim.
I'm certain you think you're a paragon of virtue because you bought your music. So what? Windows users of iTMS buy their music. Mac users of iTMS buy their music. But when they bought it, unlike you, they didn't violate Apple's terms to do it. Just because you don't get to negotiate the terms of the contract doesn't mean you get to violate them.
Like as not, those terms include the DRM. If you dislike it only half as much as I do, DON'T BUY IT.
As to your speculation about that 65% decrease in sales (the veracity of which I doubt in any case): I'm dying to see any proof whatsoever that the all the users of SharpMusique and PyMusique combined were responsible for as much as a fraction of one percentage point of Apple's sales.
It wouldn't matter if I had moderator points today or not; the 'Deluded' tag I'd want to apply doesn't exist.
From the article:
"To relieve the pressure, the company took the drastic step of blocking all messages from several countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa, where much of the spam was originating."
That's what I do, except that I block the entirety of AFRINIC, APNIC, LACNIC, and RIPE.
No, I'm not trolling. No, I'm not a xenophobe (I have entirely satisfying memories of every country I visited during my military days). And I realize such a drastic strategy isn't suited for everyone (especially if you're running a business, or if you're otherwise not a middle-class American with no family abroad, as I am). But, I don't know anyone in any country which falls under any of those registries, don't do business with anyone in those countries, and if I ever do need to reach anyone there, it can be through mailing lists to which I subscribe.
Despite that, I'll still receive 3-10 spam messages a day from North American sources. But my procmail.log file typically contains entries for as many as 200 spam messages a day. When I do clear it out, I find that there's not a single message listed there that I would have wanted.
The spammers have won, as far as I can tell. The article did an excellent job of explaining why. Despite what I said a couple of paragraphs ago, my on-line world became much, much smaller, and that's sad.
...to do away with the concept of "contributory infringement," taking away any legal weight it may carry.
Everybody saw this coming. We've already seen it happen to various services and software applications. As a software developer, I find it ridiculous that an application I write with the best intentions could be used as a metaphorical crowbar, and subsequently finding myself accused of providing metaphorical burglar tools.
I think it's a lazy, opportunistic strategy that's being deployed here. Why can't they go after the individual infringers? Never mind that the RIAA does, but then again, the RIAA is getting more than it bargained for lately, and it may be demonstrating how poor the return is on such a strategy.
"...[the industry is] now a lot smarter when it comes to using the government as a cudgel against their own customers.
In short, the industry is smarter now..."
How does using "a cudgel against their own customers" make them smarter? It sounds mind-bogglingly stupid to me.
They can buy all the laws they want, but it still remains up to each of us to vote with our locale's currency units.
I'm really certain he'd agree with that. If he were still alive, that is.
I'm never going to forget whence the money came. I don't believe washing one's hands in a basin of money is the way to get rid of the stains.
The girl in the error screen could be experiencing...oh, let's call it Zune proon.
"What's with Microsoft and huge hardware?"
They're obviously compensating for something.
Lately, I've been coming home to find my answering machine's memory completely filled with pre-recorded campaign messages. Yes, it's annoying.
That notwithstanding, a $500 small claims award (assuming that's how much I'd have for my trouble) is a little more than what I earn in a day, and I'd rather spend my day at work than go through all that described in the article.
So no, I don't have what it takes. I don't have the time.
"OS X is for the practical inside of me. OS X is for the artist inside of me. OS X is for the lazy inside of me."
Never mind that you have three fewer orifices available; what is for you?
(Seriously, I do agree with everything you've said, but you really should have framed that last statement a bit better!)
I thought they would have lost their raison d'etre by now after their GIF patent-thingy expired.
Douglas Adams, is that you?
If this means we don't have to watch Ballmer dance, it can be no bad thing.
...but when I read this story, it was all I could do to stifle a yawn.
The garage of Mssrs. Hewlett and Packard was designated a California Historic Landmark because it symbolized the birth of Silicon Valley.
Here I only see two pretentious punks "giving themselves a birthday present." What's their garage supposed to represent, I'm wondering? Today's Silicon Valley hubris?
Even Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, whose company's genesis also took place in a garage, didn't engage in this kind of masturbatory pursuit.
When I first encounted the term 'PlaysForSure,' the sophomoric 'PlaysForShit' sprang to mind. As if to suggest that iPods wouldn't play "for sure."
Speaking of shit, I'm reminded me of a note of excretion my father once gave me with regards to the coprony I kept: "Play with shit, and sooner or later, you're bound to get it on you." That rather splatteringly sums up my scatitude toward Microsoft.
(Go ahead. I can afford the points, you humorless shithead, you.)
"Did you know perpendicular recording for hard disks was developed in 1976 but is only now being implemented?"
1976, eh? That's explains a lot about this thing, then.
In violating the NDA to which you agreed, you're an idiot.
In admitting your wrongdoing, you're honest.
You're an honest idiot. You're idiotically honest.
Either way, you're an idiot, and the consequences of your idiocy is termination.
(I'd say 'QED' at this point, but I'm sure someone here will rip this up...)
Besides moaning on Slashdot about this topic, I gave $100 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 2000. They're a lobby, of a sort. Our lobby. I suppose not "every person who was pissed off about this gave $100," as another poster put it, because by now, we're still wallowing in the fallout from the DCMA.
Last year, I wrote to Senator Dianne Feinstein (apparently the best California lawmaker money can buy, given that she's the progenitor, all or in part, of so much of the anti-consumer legislation we're seeing) and voiced my concerns. I got a boilerplate reply implying my concerns were without merit, and that the preservation of movies and television and recordings were of utmost importance.
So, I'm taking matters into my own hands, inasmuch as I cannot form them into more than tiny fists against the RI- and MPAA hegemonies. I am canceling my digital and premium cable services, reverting back to basic. When a commercial comes on, I already turn down the volume and go to the can. Or go for a snack. I'll be sure to buy my CDs second-hand, and I'm not buying from the iTMS any longer. (For the love of Pete, people, don't rent your music!) I have no plans to buy new video equipment; my 1989 Sony 21" Trinitron will be my last video monitor when it breaks down, because what will I be able to buy other than a DRM-hobbled flatscreen? If I buy HD-DVD or Blu-Ray equipment, it'll only be for computer storage, that is, if the rights I currently enjoy with my computer still exist. If I go to the movies, it'll be at a Century or Camera cinema instead of one belonging to AMC, because AMC sees nothing wrong with foisting commercials on my girlfriend and I after I've paid twenty bucks for us to see a film. And when the fall quarter comes along at my local community college this year, I'm digging my saxophones out of the closet and signing up for concert band. Or perhaps the local non-profit production company's pit orchestra. I probably didn't touch on everything one could do, but, you get the idea.
If enough people did all that, perhaps those such as Jamie Kellner (he of the infamous not-watching-commercials-is-stealing quote) or Thomas Hesse ("Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?") would have no alternative but to rent themselves out as urinals.
"Interesting. When I hear "Urge", I think of someone badly needing to use the toilet.
Or throw a chair.
...I'm now certain that Microsoft must have a new contractor.