Apple's business model is basically to be Sony (Expensive component systems that only talk to their own kind) but they get away with it because the stuff works in a way Sony only dreams, they have this ironclad against-the mainstream, shinyfunhappy thing...
OK. I confess, I'm an Apple fanboy, but its because they earned it, and they are subject to lose my fanboy attitude in a heartbeat.
Sony is psychotic. Aside from the Playstation stuff, they time and time again screw themselves and their customers with their closed, impossible to use or license proprietary crap. Sony kills me because they come out with great stuff, but it fails time and time again because they won't let people use it. Enough about the bad, lets look at the good.
First, apple is not that expensive, especially when you consider the usable lifetime of their products and the fewer headaches and addons that are required vs say, a Windows based box. I've heard about sales drones like at CompUSA that prefer to sell Windows vs Macs because they know the Windows guys will keep coming back for this gizmo, or that software, or this extra widget, or for basic maintenance like spyware removal, you know the game. I've heard that Mac people come in, but the computer and then they never see them again.
Macs are like Sun's used to be or something like HP-UX systems. Its called vertical integration, and personally, I like that. Having the software and hardware come from the same company with little need for additional crap, driver installs, anti-virus updates, whatever. I got my first Mac I guess 2 years ago or so and I'm typing this on that computer now. I brought it home, walked though a couple of basic setup questions, and was on the internet via my wireless connection (that I never used before, it was awaiting my new mac:), and "it just worked". I bought another Mac a while back for home use, and the same experience.
I can hook my laptop up to any video source available today. VGA, DVI, S-Video. Well, just looked and no component output -- the worst available, but oh well. It has firewire, USB, bluetooth, 802.11g. I can boot it off of another Mac if necessary. A nice display. Dual display support that works. I've put my laptop on a 100" HDTV projector at 1920x1080 and it looked beautiful, and just worked. I did splurge and bought $30 worth of extra software for it, but I've been a happy user since I first plugged the thing in.
So, I guess this has gone on too long, but please, never, ever put Sony and Apple in the same comparison. Not the same league, not even the same game.
Is there a single example of someone hacking the kernal in a "production" system?
Btw, its kernel, not kernal.
Sure. Kazushige Goto hacked the memory management system on OS X to get it to perform better for high performance computing.
People hack Linux kernels all the time for specific needs or tweaks.
This is why we like open source so much. It empowers us to make things work instead of passively putting up with closed source's inefficiencies or bugs.
Why do you welcome something that will turn you into a criminal if its passed?
Where have you been? We are all criminals now. Hell, even a new service like XM is being treated as if they are a criminal for simply providing a new method for listening to legally licensed music.
In a system where everybody is a criminal, the only crime is stupidity for getting caught.
In my original post, I was advocating "being criminal". Its OK. Its expected.
Keep in mind that there are no constitutional rights to profit. And the RIAA based companies will not make a profit off of me until they provide goods and services that appeal to me. These people collectively suck.
But it won't, because it'll come preinstalled on every new PC beginning with the first that's produced on Armageddon.
Huh? Macs are going to come with Vista installed on them? Hell has frozen over.
The thing I've noticed in myself and people around me as we get older and more mature is that we don't care for the drama anymore.
Compare this to bf/gf relationships in high school/college to older people.
When we were younger, it was fun to have the drama of your gf running off with your best friend, and the whole sitting on the edge of your seat thing. But when people get older, they either just don't play the drama game anymore and just "settle down" with someone, or basically give up on the whole game.
The same is true for computing. I used to (sorta) like the drama of having the computer lock up, and reboot, and get this, get that, but guess what? I'm older now, and if my computer is less stable than the power and hardware (which should be stable as well) then its not good enough for me.
Look at the reduction in drama in Office over the years. MS used to bank on people's willingness to play the drama game by changing their document formats after every release. Well, that changed, and its even changed more with ODF and whatnot.
Look at the reduction in drama with webbrowsers. Netscape used to always put out betas, buggy crashy browsers, now we have Safari that just works. I click on the links and it displays the page. Safari has crashed less than 5 times on me over the years. It just works.
Look at the desire for the lack of drama with adware/spyware/worms/viruses, etc. People are getting tired of it, and many people are buying Macs to get away from that crap. Windows users come over to my house and like the elegance and simplicity and it "just works" attitude of my Macs.
Look at the success of the iPod. No muss no fuss. Just sync up your iTunes collection, and you can go for a jog or play it in your car, you're ready to go.
Look at the success of [PD]VRs. They are simple to use, single purpose computers that you can easily view and record your programs while you sleep or are at work. No entering those fancy codes, no setting a start and record time, no switching of tapes. They just work.
Look at the success of Micros and other touchscreen POS devices. Servers/bartenders can quickly and easily punch the info in them, and its done. Much simpler and easier than pencil and paper.
In other industries, look at the reliability in cars today. It used to be that everybody had to be a mechanic and tinker with their cars all the time, but now you just change the oil and put gas in them, and they pretty much just work. Once they get to the age when they are unreliable, people buy a new one.
What about cable/broadcast TV? When I was a kid, with standard OTA broadcasts, the stuff would break from time to time. It was so common, that they had funny little cartoons on the screen where a guy had his head inside of a TV camera with a caption something like "We are having technical difficulties, please stand by". Cable TV used to go out all the time, now it just works.
Look at a newer technology that is still in the drama age. Cellphones. "Can you hear me now????" "Oh, your breaking up..." "Can you call me back on a land line?" Even this crap is about to end.
Oh, wait, I just got a notification from my work telling me to change my password because its been 30 minutes since I changed it last. Gotta care about security, now don't we? That crap is going to end soon too.
Honestly, I welcome the broadcast flag. Odds are it will be cracked in less than one week and it will give us an easier way to record content _without_ commercials.
Odds are the broadcast flag will only be present on content and not advertisements, so all we have to do is look for the broadcast flag, then record, and when the broadcast flag is not present, stop recording:)
A while ago, I was against "stealing" music and whatnot. It doesn't too much affect me because I don't listen to the latest pop hit wonder, so I can quickly and easily buy quality music at the used record store or download mostly legal recordings of live concerts as allowed by the musicians.
But, honestly, I've changed my mind, and I actively encourage people to "steal" music at their will. I'm not going to get into the stealing vs infringement thing. In fact, why not go to your local brick and mortar store like say, Walmart, and fill up a shopping cart and just leave with it full of CDs. If you like MP3s, I suggest USENET. There are excellent binary downloaders for USENET postings for all platforms (Linux, OS X, Winders), and with a broadband connection that you can steal from your neighbors unsecured WAP, you can download about 1-2 gigs of MP3s in 24 hours. I have personally downloaded 1.8 gigs worth overnight. Its much better than torrent or other p2p sites. You may have to pay for a USENET access, but I believe that those are only about $10/mo. Much less than the cost of one CD.
The thing that sucks is that everybody knows that XM will not lose this case, but it will cost them unnecessary funds for probably 2+ years worth of legal bills. I wish our legal system had a similar gotcha that others do where in a civil suit if the plaintiff loses, they have to pay the defendant's legal bills, or some similar punishment for abusing the system. Being that the lawyers always win in such cases regardless of the outcome, as the system is set up now, its in their best interest to sue anybody and everybody. I mean, on their CVs they only talk about their wins, right?
Just think of the day when you talk to a younger person at a quiet public place, and talk about the "good old days" where it was allowed for people to listen to music. Just imagine the look on their face.
6. Why was Bush allowed to finish reading his goat book and not immediately picked up by Secret Service people and stuffed into the limo like Reagan was when he was shot? If I were president I would have had all of them fired and have the protocols of Secret Service reexamined.
Since the second tower to be hit was hit at a lower level (more strain because of the weight), it collapsed first (Ok, sorta simplistic).
OK, now explain why WTC7 fell.
Before and after 9/11/01, no fire has caused a steel structure to collapse, even those burning for 24+ hours. WTC1&2 are undefined, and I cannot, nor can anyone else make judgement on those. But WTC7 falling at 5:20 in the afternoon at about freefall speeds directly onto its foundation does not make sense to me in any way shape or form.
Also, I would like to see the pentagon crash, but my guess is that its going to be poor quality just like all of the other "evidence".
Like the FBI tape of a fat non-Osama bin Laden looking dude. I simply do not understand how such poor audio and video quality is even possible today. Your average video camera from the early 90s that you see on the funniest home video show is of better quality.
From looking at the size of a 757, I simply do not know how one with two 6 ton motors made of titanium and tempered steel could fit into the hole with no external debris remaining.
The WTC7, the pentagon hit, and the downing of the other aircraft in Pennsylvania make little sense to me. Regarding the Pentagon, I simply do not understand why it did not get more press. To me, it should have gotten as much or more than the WTC hits, simply because the symbolism of an attack on the center of US's military command.
By all accounts, this was a conspiracy, the only thing in question is who was in on the conspiracy.
I have often wondered if much of the difficulty which arises in written communcation (email, IM, etc.) is due to a general degredation in the vocabulary of the populous.
Average number of words in the written vocabulary of a six- to 14-year-old American child in 1945: 25,000
Average number of words in the written vocabulary of a six- to 14-year-old American child today: 10,000
However, the number of words in the context of technobable and ideas that your average 6-14 year old knows is clearly higher than it was in 1945.
I don't know the data offhand, but some kids around 14 or so know what TCP/IP is at some level, but I would bet zero knew in 1945, especially since it did not exist then:)
What about words that are new now like email, webpage, blog, etc? spam has a new meaning but existed in 1945.
I would bet that your average 14 year old is more 'street smart' than a kid from 1945.
We're seeing increasingly sophisticated phishing stuff -- right down to building a look-alike site of the bank which they are pretending to be.
Many times, they let the bank serve the images for them. Saves the bandwidth on their stolen or owned box, and looks more legit.
A universal precaution I tell people.
1) don't use HTML email. This was a mistake from day one. Text is fine. HTML belongs on the web.
2) Never, ever, ever, click on an url in a mail, even if its text.
If your bank is saying that your account is blocked or whatever. Just type the bank name into google, and click on the top link and log in.
Its also not safe to type a URL because of typosquaters, but I would guess they would be shut down fairly quickly, but I don't trust my typing, and neither should you.
With spamgourmet, you can create a new valid email on the fly in the format of:
newAccountName.X.myUserID@spamgourmet.com
At any time, newAccountName can be used. So travelocity can be use, or travel. or t, or tv, or whatever.
X is the number of mails you want to receive to that email. You can increase or decrease X if need be. 5 is usually sufficient for an online purchase.
myUserID is, well my userID that I use to login to the system.
Everything after @ should be self explanatory.
So, no Amazon, I will not see your deal of the week, nor will I get bothered by all of the people you sell my address to.
Also, spamgourmet lets you see how many emails have been eaten by each of your aliases. The leaders for eaten email are 1) a mortgage scam site I gave false info to. Just curious how much of a scam it was. 2) NyTimes registration. I now use the anonymous logins that you can find on the net. 3) http://www.mercola.com/ This is a health site, and boy they love to spam you.
I highly recommend the service. It really works well, and will keep your email much more uncluttered.
I've done virtual desktops, but personally, I found them less productive than productive. It always annoyed me that when I wanted to do a DND on something or that window was "all the way over there", and I had to either go and make it "omni-present" or scoot it over to where the other app is or whatnot. I find multiple real screens better than virtual desktops. Also, there are 3rd party things you can get for OS X to add virtual desktops to the system. http://www.codetek.com/ has one, and there are many others. For most users, they are a source of confusion and loss of productivity, but they have been around for many years, so get one if you want one.
window shading
I like window shading as well. Its more handy and intuitive than minimizing a window, so I bought Window Shade X, and it works like a charm.
a dock that doesn't try to be everything else too, or failing that, will at least go away
The dock is OK, but I'm happier when I can't see it or just don't use it. I only have a couple of icons in it and only use it to launch a handful of apps when I reboot or login or something. I much prefer Quicksilver for launching apps. To start up X11, I hit Apple-space, type x, hit return. I don't know of a faster or easier way to launch an app than that.
a theme that doesn't include stupid glowing gumdrops everywhere
Yeah, the gumdrops are silly. I'll admit. That is why I paid for ShapeShifter. Personally, I use a brushed metal theme so that all apps look the same, and no gumdrops required. I find it very aesthetically pleasing.
file manager that doesn't INSIST on blocking up with a spinning beach ball while it calls the server EVERY SINGLE TIME the cursor rests on a video file quicktime doesn't have a codec for
Yes, the Finder sucks at times. It is essentially unusable in Tiger when viewing files in list view, which is almost exclusively how I view files because I have so many in each folder. Fortunately, I don't use it that much, and would like for a better alternative. Suggestions?? Quicktime is bullshit, and I wish it would die a silent death and never come back to life. I'm going to get flamed for this, but I have never worked with such a resource hog, nagware by default player, non-codec supporting, unable to stream worth a shit... I could go on. I've tried to ignore Quicktime for years but it keeps coming back.
It's a step up from Windows, but then again, anything is. It's an obvious step backwards from either OS9 or a decently configured X11 system.
Yes, its about 10 years ahead of Windows. I could not use OS 7, 8, or 9 because the underlying OS was too unstable, so I never got to appreciate the GUI. I used X exclusively for years, and it was OK for the time. I used OpenLook, TWM, FVWM, AfterStep (how I found chips-n-dips -> slashdot:), and then settled with WindowMaker. I hacked WindowMaker (or is it two words now), to add functionality that I missed from either AfterStep or FVWM. KDE and Gnome simply do not cut it. If I wanted a less than functional Windows knockoff, I would just settle for Windows. I'm a UNIX/Linux admin, and support both Solaris and Linux systems with CDE, KDE, and Gnome. KDE seems to be the better of the mix, but Gnome has its perks, but neither are something I would want to spend more than 1/2 an hour in front of, if that. Even though X support on Macs is not the best, its still better for me than any exclusive X desktop.
As a guy who is doing the same thing he is, trying to drop Windows from my everyday computing, I feel his pain. While editing config files itself isn't too hard, knowing what config file to edit and when, and how to edit it is very difficult for a newbie.
I've been using Linux for about 12 years now, and I would NEVER give it to someone as an alternative to Windows.
Issues include. Difficulty installing software and hardware. Having to RTFM to do anything. Difficulty in viewing common formats like PDF (No, block characters and unreadable text is not sufficient even if the file does open). The GUI is still early 90s feel at best.
The past week, I've been using Gnome again on Linux via CentOS 4.3, and I can't recommend it to anyone. The person I am working with on this box is in his mid 50s and is a PhD in CS (although he knows nothing about computers:) But he is not anal retentive enough to get the mouse "just right" to manipulate the GUI. We had a bunch of text files that did not end in.txt, and it was too much of a pain to look at these files via "Open with..." or similar, so dropping to the commandline was easiest (and my preference anyway).
Lord forbid if you want to do something like watch a DVD or video clip. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm unsure if flash works (I hate flash, but people seem to like it, and expect it to work).
My bias for GUI is OS X (pre-10.4). It is reliable and intuitive and it "just works". Then I would tell someone else that if OS X was not an option, then use Windows (no support from me then:), then Linux "if they know what they are doing".
It took Apple about 15 years to get a decent OS underneath their GUI. It will probably take 10+ years for Linux to get a decent GUI on top of their excellent OS.
The driver could be the exact same as the Windows driver that is compiled with a proprietary C compiler that cross-compiles the Windows code as a relocatable ELF file that the Linux kernel can load as a module.
Honestly, I don't know. Maybe the GPL should be written so that NVidia and ATI must provide open source drivers.
I believe they should and just be done with this nonsense. Most Linux boxes are servers and don't need a special video card for any purpose. NVidia and ATI are simply hindering the "Linux on the desktop" progress.
Nope, because anti-lock breaks help improve friction in the direction of the car. It does little if anything to the friction sideways - if you would flip sideways, it'll almost certainly happen no matter what kind of braking system you have.
Thought experiment.
Try flipping a car on dry pavement.
Try flipping a car on a sheet of ice.
Try flipping a car on dry pavement when you're wheels are slipping due to being locked up (no antilock brakes).
Try flipping a car on dry pavement when you're wheels are not slipping due to having antilock brakes.
Oftentimes, safety programs backfire, and make things less safe.
Examples:
1) Pickpocketing was an issue in some large urban subway. So to do the public a favor, they put up signs telling people to look out for pickpockets. Guess what? Right behind those signs was where the pickpockets would hang out. People would look at the sign, and pat their pocket where there wallet was, which in turn told the pickpockets exactly where their wallet was. Easy target! Pickpocketing became much easier as a result, and the signs were taken down.
2) Near where I live there is a highway that goes over a mountain that is occasionally covered in thick fog. They did a big study and spent something like $20mil on these fancy lights on the sides of the road. Well guess what? Being that the drivers were more comfortable and felt "safe" because the could see the side of the road, they would drive faster than they should, and its more dangerous to drive on that road now after they made it more safe.
3) Anti-lock brakes. I won't get into this because people here do not agree that increased friction between the road and tires with centrifugal force increases the likelihood of a rollover and fatal accident.
Because the US is attacking Iran in the next one to five months - before the fall elections.
I guess I've been a little behind on current events, so thanks for the info.
Yes people, it looks like we have another Iraq war on our hands. I'm very much in the minority here with my beliefs, but I'm 99.9% confident that both of these wars are economic ones because Iraq wanted to trade oil in Euros and not US dollars, Iran wants to do the same now (see http://www.energybulletin.net/7707.html), and Venezuela might be next.
The American economy is bullshit. Its based on "the new math". Its all about counterfeit money (not gold backed since 1972), planned inflation, manipulation of credit markets, especially housing. And I just don't know how many wars we can rage to keep our bullshit economic voodoo working.
If you all tell them you are not going to put up with this kind of BS, then maybe they will stand up for you.
But I do vote for people I want to win that represent my views. They just don't win elections. Bush was not initially elected to office in 2000. He was appointed. His reelection was at least controversial. Bush would change the color of the "Terror Threat Alert" whenever he was down in the polls, and other nasty stuff.
All in all, I like the way our government was founded and its principles and whatnot. The only thing I don't care for is the two party system. I would prefer one where the non-dominant parties get proportional representation. I don't see a "3rd" party ever gaining much power in this country.
So long as the wifey gets her SUV and her big home and gets the kids to the soccer games on time (or the illusion that this can happen), nothing is going to change. The US is heading towards 3rd word status where the wealthy few rule the roost, and the rest are impotent to do anything about it.
If it's a condition of his probation to which he agreed in order to stay out of prison, then he has no standing on which to object now. End of discussion.
Don't go there. The US government does plenty of illegal, unethical, and violates the rights of people under the guise of "they volunteered" to such a thing so they will not get raped any more in prison.
Drug tests are another simple example. Tons of people do "illegal" drugs simply because human beings like to do them and they have been doing them for thousands of years.
Also, people volunteer for "therapy" and other crap so they can leave or get out of prison time. I know someone who when at 15 she had a button pushed, and albeit irrational, she just gets mega-pissed off when she is called a bitch, and a friend of hers did, and she blacked out and beat up a friend of hers very badly.
She "volunteered" to anger management and is not allowed to get into any other physical fight the rest of her life. At anger management, when she is around 15 the counselors would get into her face and repeatedly call her a bitch, and believe it or not, she never got too used to it. She also now has a concealed weapons permit and carries a gun as insurance so she will not get into a fist fight because she can't. Yes, the girl is a bit of a nutjob, but the government has inadvertently suggested that she now carry a gun instead so that she can assure herself not to get into a fist fight.
I "volunteered" for alcohol therapy and random drug tests simply because I had a little bit of alcohol in my system while driving, and I had to pay for such treatment. The government could never do this stuff directly, but under the guise of being a "volunteer" they can do these things.
I mean, even sweepstakes offered by companies under the law have to offer a "no-purchase" necessary option to participate in the sweepstakes so that it does not become unethical. Participants in things like medical and psychological testing are allowed to be given "nominal compensation" for their time, but they cannot be offered millions of dollars to participate in something like a torture study.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Emphasis added by me, but the original language is left in tact from the 1st amendment.
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Apple's business model is basically to be Sony (Expensive component systems that only talk to their own kind) but they get away with it because the stuff works in a way Sony only dreams, they have this ironclad against-the mainstream, shinyfunhappy thing...
:), and "it just worked". I bought another Mac a while back for home use, and the same experience.
OK. I confess, I'm an Apple fanboy, but its because they earned it, and they are subject to lose my fanboy attitude in a heartbeat.
Sony is psychotic. Aside from the Playstation stuff, they time and time again screw themselves and their customers with their closed, impossible to use or license proprietary crap. Sony kills me because they come out with great stuff, but it fails time and time again because they won't let people use it. Enough about the bad, lets look at the good.
First, apple is not that expensive, especially when you consider the usable lifetime of their products and the fewer headaches and addons that are required vs say, a Windows based box. I've heard about sales drones like at CompUSA that prefer to sell Windows vs Macs because they know the Windows guys will keep coming back for this gizmo, or that software, or this extra widget, or for basic maintenance like spyware removal, you know the game. I've heard that Mac people come in, but the computer and then they never see them again.
Macs are like Sun's used to be or something like HP-UX systems. Its called vertical integration, and personally, I like that. Having the software and hardware come from the same company with little need for additional crap, driver installs, anti-virus updates, whatever. I got my first Mac I guess 2 years ago or so and I'm typing this on that computer now. I brought it home, walked though a couple of basic setup questions, and was on the internet via my wireless connection (that I never used before, it was awaiting my new mac
I can hook my laptop up to any video source available today. VGA, DVI, S-Video. Well, just looked and no component output -- the worst available, but oh well. It has firewire, USB, bluetooth, 802.11g. I can boot it off of another Mac if necessary. A nice display. Dual display support that works. I've put my laptop on a 100" HDTV projector at 1920x1080 and it looked beautiful, and just worked. I did splurge and bought $30 worth of extra software for it, but I've been a happy user since I first plugged the thing in.
So, I guess this has gone on too long, but please, never, ever put Sony and Apple in the same comparison. Not the same league, not even the same game.
Is there a single example of someone hacking the kernal in a "production" system?
Btw, its kernel, not kernal.
Sure. Kazushige Goto hacked the memory management system on OS X to get it to perform better for high performance computing.
People hack Linux kernels all the time for specific needs or tweaks.
This is why we like open source so much. It empowers us to make things work instead of passively putting up with closed source's inefficiencies or bugs.
Why do you welcome something that will turn you into a criminal if its passed?
Where have you been? We are all criminals now. Hell, even a new service like XM is being treated as if they are a criminal for simply providing a new method for listening to legally licensed music.
In a system where everybody is a criminal, the only crime is stupidity for getting caught.
In my original post, I was advocating "being criminal". Its OK. Its expected.
Keep in mind that there are no constitutional rights to profit. And the RIAA based companies will not make a profit off of me until they provide goods and services that appeal to me. These people collectively suck.
But it won't, because it'll come preinstalled on every new PC beginning with the first that's produced on Armageddon.
Huh? Macs are going to come with Vista installed on them? Hell has frozen over.
The thing I've noticed in myself and people around me as we get older and more mature is that we don't care for the drama anymore.
Compare this to bf/gf relationships in high school/college to older people.
When we were younger, it was fun to have the drama of your gf running off with your best friend, and the whole sitting on the edge of your seat thing. But when people get older, they either just don't play the drama game anymore and just "settle down" with someone, or basically give up on the whole game.
The same is true for computing. I used to (sorta) like the drama of having the computer lock up, and reboot, and get this, get that, but guess what? I'm older now, and if my computer is less stable than the power and hardware (which should be stable as well) then its not good enough for me.
Look at the reduction in drama in Office over the years. MS used to bank on people's willingness to play the drama game by changing their document formats after every release. Well, that changed, and its even changed more with ODF and whatnot.
Look at the reduction in drama with webbrowsers. Netscape used to always put out betas, buggy crashy browsers, now we have Safari that just works. I click on the links and it displays the page. Safari has crashed less than 5 times on me over the years. It just works.
Look at the desire for the lack of drama with adware/spyware/worms/viruses, etc. People are getting tired of it, and many people are buying Macs to get away from that crap. Windows users come over to my house and like the elegance and simplicity and it "just works" attitude of my Macs.
Look at the success of the iPod. No muss no fuss. Just sync up your iTunes collection, and you can go for a jog or play it in your car, you're ready to go.
Look at the success of [PD]VRs. They are simple to use, single purpose computers that you can easily view and record your programs while you sleep or are at work. No entering those fancy codes, no setting a start and record time, no switching of tapes. They just work.
Look at the success of Micros and other touchscreen POS devices. Servers/bartenders can quickly and easily punch the info in them, and its done. Much simpler and easier than pencil and paper.
In other industries, look at the reliability in cars today. It used to be that everybody had to be a mechanic and tinker with their cars all the time, but now you just change the oil and put gas in them, and they pretty much just work. Once they get to the age when they are unreliable, people buy a new one.
What about cable/broadcast TV? When I was a kid, with standard OTA broadcasts, the stuff would break from time to time. It was so common, that they had funny little cartoons on the screen where a guy had his head inside of a TV camera with a caption something like "We are having technical difficulties, please stand by". Cable TV used to go out all the time, now it just works.
Look at a newer technology that is still in the drama age. Cellphones. "Can you hear me now????" "Oh, your breaking up..." "Can you call me back on a land line?" Even this crap is about to end.
Oh, wait, I just got a notification from my work telling me to change my password because its been 30 minutes since I changed it last. Gotta care about security, now don't we? That crap is going to end soon too.
Wah! It isn't fair that we don't get to make more money, so it must be illegal.
You're a little off here. If it were illegal, then a criminal case lead by the feds, FCC, DOJ, etc would go after XM.
This is a civil matter where the defendant, XM, is being questioned on liable and a degree of said liability.
IANAL, but from what I know, if XM loses the case, they are free to keep doing the same thing with the only recourse would be another lawsuit.
It's called broadcast flag.
:)
Honestly, I welcome the broadcast flag. Odds are it will be cracked in less than one week and it will give us an easier way to record content _without_ commercials.
Odds are the broadcast flag will only be present on content and not advertisements, so all we have to do is look for the broadcast flag, then record, and when the broadcast flag is not present, stop recording
A while ago, I was against "stealing" music and whatnot. It doesn't too much affect me because I don't listen to the latest pop hit wonder, so I can quickly and easily buy quality music at the used record store or download mostly legal recordings of live concerts as allowed by the musicians.
But, honestly, I've changed my mind, and I actively encourage people to "steal" music at their will. I'm not going to get into the stealing vs infringement thing. In fact, why not go to your local brick and mortar store like say, Walmart, and fill up a shopping cart and just leave with it full of CDs. If you like MP3s, I suggest USENET. There are excellent binary downloaders for USENET postings for all platforms (Linux, OS X, Winders), and with a broadband connection that you can steal from your neighbors unsecured WAP, you can download about 1-2 gigs of MP3s in 24 hours. I have personally downloaded 1.8 gigs worth overnight. Its much better than torrent or other p2p sites. You may have to pay for a USENET access, but I believe that those are only about $10/mo. Much less than the cost of one CD.
The thing that sucks is that everybody knows that XM will not lose this case, but it will cost them unnecessary funds for probably 2+ years worth of legal bills. I wish our legal system had a similar gotcha that others do where in a civil suit if the plaintiff loses, they have to pay the defendant's legal bills, or some similar punishment for abusing the system. Being that the lawyers always win in such cases regardless of the outcome, as the system is set up now, its in their best interest to sue anybody and everybody. I mean, on their CVs they only talk about their wins, right?
Just think of the day when you talk to a younger person at a quiet public place, and talk about the "good old days" where it was allowed for people to listen to music. Just imagine the look on their face.
6. Why was Bush allowed to finish reading his goat book and not immediately picked up by Secret Service people and stuffed into the limo like Reagan was when he was shot? If I were president I would have had all of them fired and have the protocols of Secret Service reexamined.
Since the second tower to be hit was hit at a lower level (more strain because of the weight), it collapsed first (Ok, sorta simplistic).
OK, now explain why WTC7 fell.
Before and after 9/11/01, no fire has caused a steel structure to collapse, even those burning for 24+ hours. WTC1&2 are undefined, and I cannot, nor can anyone else make judgement on those. But WTC7 falling at 5:20 in the afternoon at about freefall speeds directly onto its foundation does not make sense to me in any way shape or form.
Also, I would like to see the pentagon crash, but my guess is that its going to be poor quality just like all of the other "evidence".
Like the FBI tape of a fat non-Osama bin Laden looking dude. I simply do not understand how such poor audio and video quality is even possible today. Your average video camera from the early 90s that you see on the funniest home video show is of better quality.
From looking at the size of a 757, I simply do not know how one with two 6 ton motors made of titanium and tempered steel could fit into the hole with no external debris remaining.
The WTC7, the pentagon hit, and the downing of the other aircraft in Pennsylvania make little sense to me. Regarding the Pentagon, I simply do not understand why it did not get more press. To me, it should have gotten as much or more than the WTC hits, simply because the symbolism of an attack on the center of US's military command.
By all accounts, this was a conspiracy, the only thing in question is who was in on the conspiracy.
I have often wondered if much of the difficulty which arises in written communcation (email, IM, etc.) is due to a general degredation in the vocabulary of the populous.
:)
Hard to say. However, I did find here, http://nomuzak.co.uk/evidence_2.html , the data that I was trying to find for quite some time:
Average number of words in the written vocabulary of a six- to 14-year-old American child in 1945: 25,000
Average number of words in the written vocabulary of a six- to 14-year-old American child today: 10,000
However, the number of words in the context of technobable and ideas that your average 6-14 year old knows is clearly higher than it was in 1945.
I don't know the data offhand, but some kids around 14 or so know what TCP/IP is at some level, but I would bet zero knew in 1945, especially since it did not exist then
What about words that are new now like email, webpage, blog, etc? spam has a new meaning but existed in 1945.
I would bet that your average 14 year old is more 'street smart' than a kid from 1945.
Maybe email clients should have a 'Preview' button too, eh?
Mine does, doesn't yours?
We're seeing increasingly sophisticated phishing stuff -- right down to building a look-alike site of the bank which they are pretending to be.
Many times, they let the bank serve the images for them. Saves the bandwidth on their stolen or owned box, and looks more legit.
A universal precaution I tell people.
1) don't use HTML email. This was a mistake from day one. Text is fine. HTML belongs on the web.
2) Never, ever, ever, click on an url in a mail, even if its text.
If your bank is saying that your account is blocked or whatever. Just type the bank name into google, and click on the top link and log in.
Its also not safe to type a URL because of typosquaters, but I would guess they would be shut down fairly quickly, but I don't trust my typing, and neither should you.
I don't want to hear from Travelocity every week
Use SpamGourmet, url in my url field above.
With spamgourmet, you can create a new valid email on the fly in the format of:
newAccountName.X.myUserID@spamgourmet.com
At any time, newAccountName can be used. So travelocity can be use, or travel. or t, or tv, or whatever.
X is the number of mails you want to receive to that email. You can increase or decrease X if need be. 5 is usually sufficient for an online purchase.
myUserID is, well my userID that I use to login to the system.
Everything after @ should be self explanatory.
So, no Amazon, I will not see your deal of the week, nor will I get bothered by all of the people you sell my address to.
Also, spamgourmet lets you see how many emails have been eaten by each of your aliases. The leaders for eaten email are 1) a mortgage scam site I gave false info to. Just curious how much of a scam it was. 2) NyTimes registration. I now use the anonymous logins that you can find on the net. 3) http://www.mercola.com/ This is a health site, and boy they love to spam you.
I highly recommend the service. It really works well, and will keep your email much more uncluttered.
GUI functions like virtual desktops
:), and then settled with WindowMaker. I hacked WindowMaker (or is it two words now), to add functionality that I missed from either AfterStep or FVWM. KDE and Gnome simply do not cut it. If I wanted a less than functional Windows knockoff, I would just settle for Windows. I'm a UNIX/Linux admin, and support both Solaris and Linux systems with CDE, KDE, and Gnome. KDE seems to be the better of the mix, but Gnome has its perks, but neither are something I would want to spend more than 1/2 an hour in front of, if that. Even though X support on Macs is not the best, its still better for me than any exclusive X desktop.
I've done virtual desktops, but personally, I found them less productive than productive. It always annoyed me that when I wanted to do a DND on something or that window was "all the way over there", and I had to either go and make it "omni-present" or scoot it over to where the other app is or whatnot. I find multiple real screens better than virtual desktops. Also, there are 3rd party things you can get for OS X to add virtual desktops to the system. http://www.codetek.com/ has one, and there are many others. For most users, they are a source of confusion and loss of productivity, but they have been around for many years, so get one if you want one.
window shading
I like window shading as well. Its more handy and intuitive than minimizing a window, so I bought Window Shade X, and it works like a charm.
a dock that doesn't try to be everything else too, or failing that, will at least go away
The dock is OK, but I'm happier when I can't see it or just don't use it. I only have a couple of icons in it and only use it to launch a handful of apps when I reboot or login or something. I much prefer Quicksilver for launching apps. To start up X11, I hit Apple-space, type x, hit return. I don't know of a faster or easier way to launch an app than that.
a theme that doesn't include stupid glowing gumdrops everywhere
Yeah, the gumdrops are silly. I'll admit. That is why I paid for ShapeShifter. Personally, I use a brushed metal theme so that all apps look the same, and no gumdrops required. I find it very aesthetically pleasing.
file manager that doesn't INSIST on blocking up with a spinning beach ball while it calls the server EVERY SINGLE TIME the cursor rests on a video file quicktime doesn't have a codec for
Yes, the Finder sucks at times. It is essentially unusable in Tiger when viewing files in list view, which is almost exclusively how I view files because I have so many in each folder. Fortunately, I don't use it that much, and would like for a better alternative. Suggestions?? Quicktime is bullshit, and I wish it would die a silent death and never come back to life. I'm going to get flamed for this, but I have never worked with such a resource hog, nagware by default player, non-codec supporting, unable to stream worth a shit... I could go on. I've tried to ignore Quicktime for years but it keeps coming back.
It's a step up from Windows, but then again, anything is. It's an obvious step backwards from either OS9 or a decently configured X11 system.
Yes, its about 10 years ahead of Windows. I could not use OS 7, 8, or 9 because the underlying OS was too unstable, so I never got to appreciate the GUI. I used X exclusively for years, and it was OK for the time. I used OpenLook, TWM, FVWM, AfterStep (how I found chips-n-dips -> slashdot
As a guy who is doing the same thing he is, trying to drop Windows from my everyday computing, I feel his pain. While editing config files itself isn't too hard, knowing what config file to edit and when, and how to edit it is very difficult for a newbie.
:) But he is not anal retentive enough to get the mouse "just right" to manipulate the GUI. We had a bunch of text files that did not end in .txt, and it was too much of a pain to look at these files via "Open with..." or similar, so dropping to the commandline was easiest (and my preference anyway).
:), then Linux "if they know what they are doing".
I've been using Linux for about 12 years now, and I would NEVER give it to someone as an alternative to Windows.
Issues include. Difficulty installing software and hardware. Having to RTFM to do anything. Difficulty in viewing common formats like PDF (No, block characters and unreadable text is not sufficient even if the file does open). The GUI is still early 90s feel at best.
The past week, I've been using Gnome again on Linux via CentOS 4.3, and I can't recommend it to anyone. The person I am working with on this box is in his mid 50s and is a PhD in CS (although he knows nothing about computers
Lord forbid if you want to do something like watch a DVD or video clip. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm unsure if flash works (I hate flash, but people seem to like it, and expect it to work).
My bias for GUI is OS X (pre-10.4). It is reliable and intuitive and it "just works". Then I would tell someone else that if OS X was not an option, then use Windows (no support from me then
It took Apple about 15 years to get a decent OS underneath their GUI. It will probably take 10+ years for Linux to get a decent GUI on top of their excellent OS.
What a long strange trip its been...
That driver requires GPL'd code to be compiled.
How do you know that?
The driver could be the exact same as the Windows driver that is compiled with a proprietary C compiler that cross-compiles the Windows code as a relocatable ELF file that the Linux kernel can load as a module.
Honestly, I don't know. Maybe the GPL should be written so that NVidia and ATI must provide open source drivers.
I believe they should and just be done with this nonsense. Most Linux boxes are servers and don't need a special video card for any purpose. NVidia and ATI are simply hindering the "Linux on the desktop" progress.
ABS reduces the risks of non-serious accidents and increases the risks of serious ones.
Take your pick.
Nope, because anti-lock breaks help improve friction in the direction of the car. It does little if anything to the friction sideways - if you would flip sideways, it'll almost certainly happen no matter what kind of braking system you have.
Thought experiment.
Try flipping a car on dry pavement.
Try flipping a car on a sheet of ice.
Try flipping a car on dry pavement when you're wheels are slipping due to being locked up (no antilock brakes).
Try flipping a car on dry pavement when you're wheels are not slipping due to having antilock brakes.
Oftentimes, safety programs backfire, and make things less safe.
Examples:
1) Pickpocketing was an issue in some large urban subway. So to do the public a favor, they put up signs telling people to look out for pickpockets. Guess what? Right behind those signs was where the pickpockets would hang out. People would look at the sign, and pat their pocket where there wallet was, which in turn told the pickpockets exactly where their wallet was. Easy target! Pickpocketing became much easier as a result, and the signs were taken down.
2) Near where I live there is a highway that goes over a mountain that is occasionally covered in thick fog. They did a big study and spent something like $20mil on these fancy lights on the sides of the road. Well guess what? Being that the drivers were more comfortable and felt "safe" because the could see the side of the road, they would drive faster than they should, and its more dangerous to drive on that road now after they made it more safe.
3) Anti-lock brakes. I won't get into this because people here do not agree that increased friction between the road and tires with centrifugal force increases the likelihood of a rollover and fatal accident.
Because the US is attacking Iran in the next one to five months - before the fall elections.
I guess I've been a little behind on current events, so thanks for the info.
Yes people, it looks like we have another Iraq war on our hands. I'm very much in the minority here with my beliefs, but I'm 99.9% confident that both of these wars are economic ones because Iraq wanted to trade oil in Euros and not US dollars, Iran wants to do the same now (see http://www.energybulletin.net/7707.html), and Venezuela might be next.
The American economy is bullshit. Its based on "the new math". Its all about counterfeit money (not gold backed since 1972), planned inflation, manipulation of credit markets, especially housing. And I just don't know how many wars we can rage to keep our bullshit economic voodoo working.
If you all tell them you are not going to put up with this kind of BS, then maybe they will stand up for you.
But I do vote for people I want to win that represent my views. They just don't win elections. Bush was not initially elected to office in 2000. He was appointed. His reelection was at least controversial. Bush would change the color of the "Terror Threat Alert" whenever he was down in the polls, and other nasty stuff.
All in all, I like the way our government was founded and its principles and whatnot. The only thing I don't care for is the two party system. I would prefer one where the non-dominant parties get proportional representation. I don't see a "3rd" party ever gaining much power in this country.
So long as the wifey gets her SUV and her big home and gets the kids to the soccer games on time (or the illusion that this can happen), nothing is going to change. The US is heading towards 3rd word status where the wealthy few rule the roost, and the rest are impotent to do anything about it.
If it's a condition of his probation to which he agreed in order to stay out of prison, then he has no standing on which to object now. End of discussion.
Don't go there. The US government does plenty of illegal, unethical, and violates the rights of people under the guise of "they volunteered" to such a thing so they will not get raped any more in prison.
Drug tests are another simple example. Tons of people do "illegal" drugs simply because human beings like to do them and they have been doing them for thousands of years.
Also, people volunteer for "therapy" and other crap so they can leave or get out of prison time. I know someone who when at 15 she had a button pushed, and albeit irrational, she just gets mega-pissed off when she is called a bitch, and a friend of hers did, and she blacked out and beat up a friend of hers very badly.
She "volunteered" to anger management and is not allowed to get into any other physical fight the rest of her life. At anger management, when she is around 15 the counselors would get into her face and repeatedly call her a bitch, and believe it or not, she never got too used to it. She also now has a concealed weapons permit and carries a gun as insurance so she will not get into a fist fight because she can't. Yes, the girl is a bit of a nutjob, but the government has inadvertently suggested that she now carry a gun instead so that she can assure herself not to get into a fist fight.
I "volunteered" for alcohol therapy and random drug tests simply because I had a little bit of alcohol in my system while driving, and I had to pay for such treatment. The government could never do this stuff directly, but under the guise of being a "volunteer" they can do these things.
I mean, even sweepstakes offered by companies under the law have to offer a "no-purchase" necessary option to participate in the sweepstakes so that it does not become unethical. Participants in things like medical and psychological testing are allowed to be given "nominal compensation" for their time, but they cannot be offered millions of dollars to participate in something like a torture study.
This is wrong, yet becoming more common.
Sadly, most of us aren't. And won't.
What part of Anonymous Coward don't you understand?
keeping you from doing the stuff you got in trouble for .
This is the beginning of the end of mediocrity ruling.
We need a constitutional ammendment to fix this.
What is wrong with this one?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Emphasis added by me, but the original language is left in tact from the 1st amendment.
oh rihgt, cause those that follow the rules are much easier to controll, and if they cant vote, all the better
Being a criminal, I personally take it on myself to know the rules, and "follow" them so that I can continue being a criminal.
I forget how the quote/saying goes, but its something like, "In a system where everybody is criminal, the only crime is stupidity."