"I realize there are those who loathe Windows ("Linux rools d00d!") and point to the chapter on Windows annoyances as an example of an OS gone terribly wrong. However, until the day comes that everyone uses Linux (or finds a way around Billy Boy's "evil empire"), we're stuck with it."
Indroctrination can be insideous... even well meaning people become, unintentionally, part of the problem.
The quoted statement above is just FUD.
Question: Why are you stuck with Windows if so many other people using it? I'm not. I know a lot of people who aren't.
Now I'll click on the "Submit" button in my Mozilla web browser which is running in Mac OS X so that I can submit this post across the non-Microsoft owned Internet so that it can be viewed by patrons who are viewing Slashdot, which is powered by Perl, via Apache server.
The term "de facto" is used by people who don't know dick about standards. Managers like to use the term "de facto" a lot (which figures).
Something is either a standard or it is not a standard. What's so fucking hard to understand about that?
A lot of people confuse "commonly used" with "standard", too. And here's a funny thought... ask a Microsoft marketing droid what "standard" means and then ask a Microsoft lawyer. Compare the results.
"JFFS addresses the flash write frequency concern."
Bad web site. It's almost like they don't want anyone to try out their work. Another example of why developers should stick with developing and get their little nephews to put up their web sites for them.
I know that this article was written for people who aren't technical types, maybe folks who first heard of "MP3's" just last year, but the difference between the iPod and the MP3 players that proceeded it are more numerous than suggested.
Here's a story that makes a point...
Some Apple employees loaded Mac OS X Server onto one of the early iPods and connected it to a desktop Mac. Then, they booted to it. It ran.
I hope that all the folks who always seem troll on Apple product, saying that all they do is slap on some pretty exterior, jack up the prices, and market, market, market, will think for a moment and appreciate the depth of this product.
Given enough time, I guess everything gets invented. I mean, while it might not have ocurred to me, someone else seems to have come up with a novel idea... an array to tiny colored wicker images.
The fun here is trying to figure out what each picture is depicting. Is that a man with a Sears washing machine on his head, a computer part, or a backhoe. Oh, the hours of joy this bring me.
"PowerPC really offers no tangible advantage for the average desktop system over x86's descendants."
Well, they consume less electricity for a given level of functionality. Since most companies are interested in saving money (ie: not donating it to the local municiple power company) a PPC-based system could very well offer a desirable benefit.
They way most companies' budgets work, however, long term savings are less important than short term savings, even when the long term savings is larger than the short term savings.
"In general, I feel graphical installers for operating systems are a bad idea, since you really should not be installing an OS unless you know what you're doing."
Yes, only purified males wearing white robes and possessing the knowledge of secret words and incantations should ever install operating systems.
Just kidding... You make a good point but don't go far enough. For instance, no one should be allowed to drive a car unless they can also tear down and rebuild an engine.
--Richard
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
"Interesting how science and philosophy intersects at times."...but not completely surprising, giving how recently science became a separate and distinct discipline from philosophy.
As recently has 150-200 years ago, the practitioner of one was almost always a practitioner of the other.
"It's a disarmingly simple concept: sell songs in digital format for less than a buck and let buyers play them whenever and wherever they like--as long as it's on an Apple iPod."
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Again, wrong.
You can tell the author of this article never actally used iTunes or the iTunes music store. The iPod is completely optional.
I don't have an iPod and I've been using iTunes for years. I will probably never get an iPod. Still, I'm a daily user of iTunes.
It was my fault for reading this silly article. I mean, this is Time magazine. What do they know about technology? Just enough to write some copy. The harm here is that it really short-sells iTunes AND the iTunes Music Store by harping on an optional component.
"For a music player with a good GUI and lots of functionality XMMS is the Linux king."
Oh, lord, you must be kidding. XMMS is one of the projects that I always point to as an example of how badly an open source development project can go.
There's probably not a mistake they haven't made. And they revel in it. It's almost a juvenile, masturbatory event.
In April of 2001, some authority or other stated that "Bluetooth To Work In Nearly 1Bil Devices By 2005."
At the time, there were approximately 0Bil Bluetooth devices in existance. Frankly, that number was pulled straight out of someone's ass and is just another reason I consider such forcasts to be irresponsibly bogus.
"1. USB2 for sync - basically just as quick as firewire."
Funny, all the people who've used both strongly disagree with you. All the formal benchmarks I've seen show not just a narrow performance gap, but a WIDE performance gap.
Makes me wonder how you came to this conclusion. The nominal b.p.s. ratings? Please, tell me you didn't do that!
" I can do all that with iTunes, and any computer with a CD drive and 802.11. In point of fact, I *do* do all of that except the wireless part, and that's just because I live in a well wired building."
Well, I *do* do all that, too, and wireless, to boot.
I remember reading, back in the mid-90's, an article which argued that Microsoft indirectly fostered the growth of poor quality hardware.
He maintained that Windows crashed so often that it concealed defects in the quality of the hardware it ran on. Everyone assumed that every crash was an OS crashed, rebooted, and went on with life.
His term for this phenomena was "Microsoft-quality hardware".
Unix systems, he continued, were more expensive than typical Windows hardware because they'd run indefinitely if the hardware was likewise up to the task and that sort of thing costs more money.
Years later this played itself out in my own livingroom. A series of rapid power fluctuations hit my house. My cheap-ass 486 Linux server went down, as did my very expensive HP Kayak; both were running Redhat. My Mac blinked but stayed up.
Now, I know that this was really a demonstration of the quality of their power supplies, but it made big impression on me and I thought about that article as I drove to CompUSA to buy some UPS's.
Since then, I only nod dully when a friend explains how he put together a "bad-ass" system for $250. I don't tell him what I really think -- why would I want to ruin his day?
Slashdot Mirror
"I realize there are those who loathe Windows ("Linux rools d00d!") and point to the chapter on Windows annoyances as an example of an OS gone terribly wrong. However, until the day comes that everyone uses Linux (or finds a way around Billy Boy's "evil empire"), we're stuck with it."
Indroctrination can be insideous... even well meaning people become, unintentionally, part of the problem.
The quoted statement above is just FUD.
Question: Why are you stuck with Windows if so many other people using it? I'm not. I know a lot of people who aren't.
Now I'll click on the "Submit" button in my Mozilla web browser which is running in Mac OS X so that I can submit this post across the non-Microsoft owned Internet so that it can be viewed by patrons who are viewing Slashdot, which is powered by Perl, via Apache server.
Yeah, now we all have to use Microsoft.
The term "de facto" is used by people who don't know dick about standards. Managers like to use the term "de facto" a lot (which figures).
Something is either a standard or it is not a standard. What's so fucking hard to understand about that?
A lot of people confuse "commonly used" with "standard", too. And here's a funny thought... ask a Microsoft marketing droid what "standard" means and then ask a Microsoft lawyer. Compare the results.
"JFFS addresses the flash write frequency concern."
Bad web site. It's almost like they don't want anyone to try out their work. Another example of why developers should stick with developing and get their little nephews to put up their web sites for them.
> Apple Newton - nice idea, bad implementation.
> Palm Pilot - same idea (copied), nice implementation.
I laughed my ass off when I read this. Funniest thing on Slashdot in a long, long time.
Thanks.
With GUI-based query builders, any executive can dig into his company's database and produce his own reports.
As if a command-line prompt was all that ever stood in the way. Pity is, this is still a belief held my some.
--Richard
My policy: Never read anything titled with a question.
I mean, why waste my time? What if? What if? Don't tease me.
Remove the question mark and I'll freak'n read it.
--Richard
I know that this article was written for people who aren't technical types, maybe folks who first heard of "MP3's" just last year, but the difference between the iPod and the MP3 players that proceeded it are more numerous than suggested.
Here's a story that makes a point...
Some Apple employees loaded Mac OS X Server onto one of the early iPods and connected it to a desktop Mac. Then, they booted to it. It ran.
I hope that all the folks who always seem troll on Apple product, saying that all they do is slap on some pretty exterior, jack up the prices, and market, market, market, will think for a moment and appreciate the depth of this product.
And I don't even own one.
--Richard
"The design is really, really cool. But other than that, I don't really see the advantage of this."
The primary advantage is a fat profit margin.
--Richard
I just talked to DirecTV's customer support. I could hardly understand the lady. She had a thick Indian accent. She was nice but it was stressful.
I got tired of repeating, "What? Could you repeat that?"
This DirecTV gave me the warm fuzzies for sure.
As if anyone give s a damn what I think on this matter, I did NOT like it.
You obviously don't read slashdot enough and have made a mistake...
All those bad things you wrote about? They refer to America, you fool.
Given enough time, I guess everything gets invented. I mean, while it might not have ocurred to me, someone else seems to have come up with a novel idea... an array to tiny colored wicker images.
The fun here is trying to figure out what each picture is depicting. Is that a man with a Sears washing machine on his head, a computer part, or a backhoe. Oh, the hours of joy this bring me.
Use a Postscript printer (ie: not a disposable toy inkjet) and you will.
--Richard
"PowerPC really offers no tangible advantage for the average desktop system over x86's descendants."
Well, they consume less electricity for a given level of functionality. Since most companies are interested in saving money (ie: not donating it to the local municiple power company) a PPC-based system could very well offer a desirable benefit.
They way most companies' budgets work, however, long term savings are less important than short term savings, even when the long term savings is larger than the short term savings.
"Just use NetBSD, all you need is two floppy disks to install it from network."
Which begs the question... what is a floppy disk?
--Richard
"In general, I feel graphical installers for operating systems are a bad idea, since you really should not be installing an OS unless you know what you're doing."
Yes, only purified males wearing white robes and possessing the knowledge of secret words and incantations should ever install operating systems.
Just kidding... You make a good point but don't go far enough. For instance, no one should be allowed to drive a car unless they can also tear down and rebuild an engine.
--Richard
"Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic."
--Arthur C. Clarke
"Interesting how science and philosophy intersects at times." ...but not completely surprising, giving how recently science became a separate and distinct discipline from philosophy.
As recently has 150-200 years ago, the practitioner of one was almost always a practitioner of the other.
--Richard
"It's a disarmingly simple concept: sell songs in digital format for less than a buck and let buyers play them whenever and wherever they like--as long as it's on an Apple iPod."
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Again, wrong.
You can tell the author of this article never actally used iTunes or the iTunes music store. The iPod is completely optional.
I don't have an iPod and I've been using iTunes for years. I will probably never get an iPod. Still, I'm a daily user of iTunes.
It was my fault for reading this silly article. I mean, this is Time magazine. What do they know about technology? Just enough to write some copy. The harm here is that it really short-sells iTunes AND the iTunes Music Store by harping on an optional component.
--Richard
Have you quit beating your wife?
"For a music player with a good GUI and lots of functionality XMMS is the Linux king."
Oh, lord, you must be kidding. XMMS is one of the projects that I always point to as an example of how badly an open source development project can go.
There's probably not a mistake they haven't made. And they revel in it. It's almost a juvenile, masturbatory event.
In April of 2001, some authority or other stated that "Bluetooth To Work In Nearly 1Bil Devices By 2005."
At the time, there were approximately 0Bil Bluetooth devices in existance. Frankly, that number was pulled straight out of someone's ass and is just another reason I consider such forcasts to be irresponsibly bogus.
--Richard
What makes you think Jaguar isn't optimized?
Anyway, if they were doing GUI stuff then you might have a point, but since they aren't, you don't.
Me three. I keep trying other editors (Jedit, most recently) but I always keep coming back to BBEdit. Even old versions of BBEdit are great.
--Richard
"1. USB2 for sync - basically just as quick as firewire."
Funny, all the people who've used both strongly disagree with you. All the formal benchmarks I've seen show not just a narrow performance gap, but a WIDE performance gap.
Makes me wonder how you came to this conclusion. The nominal b.p.s. ratings? Please, tell me you didn't do that!
" I can do all that with iTunes, and any computer with a CD drive and 802.11. In point of fact, I *do* do all of that except the wireless part, and that's just because I live in a well wired building."
Well, I *do* do all that, too, and wireless, to boot.
Word to your mother.
I remember reading, back in the mid-90's, an article which argued that Microsoft indirectly fostered the growth of poor quality hardware.
He maintained that Windows crashed so often that it concealed defects in the quality of the hardware it ran on. Everyone assumed that every crash was an OS crashed, rebooted, and went on with life.
His term for this phenomena was "Microsoft-quality hardware".
Unix systems, he continued, were more expensive than typical Windows hardware because they'd run indefinitely if the hardware was likewise up to the task and that sort of thing costs more money.
Years later this played itself out in my own livingroom. A series of rapid power fluctuations hit my house. My cheap-ass 486 Linux server went down, as did my very expensive HP Kayak; both were running Redhat. My Mac blinked but stayed up.
Now, I know that this was really a demonstration of the quality of their power supplies, but it made big impression on me and I thought about that article as I drove to CompUSA to buy some UPS's.
Since then, I only nod dully when a friend explains how he put together a "bad-ass" system for $250. I don't tell him what I really think -- why would I want to ruin his day?