I agree. He certainly seems off to an auspicious start. Here's hoping it keeps going well!
BTW, Love the Heinlein reference but personally I'd like to think that he'll be remembered as the man who gave us "...the plans for our first hyperdrive, allowing mankind to open the doors to the stars."
This is the one thing I always try and impress upon people.
The snow effects you currently see on a big screen tv when watching 80$/month cable will turn into large blocks or black rectangles. The world isn't going to magically quadrouple thier bandwidth overnight, and most stations don't broadcast anything near a proper signal as it is.
Absolutely true. I've got basic cable, my in-laws have digital cable.
Every now and then I get some static on my reception... no big deal really. Sure, it degrades the quality of the picture, but the mind works great and can pick up on enough thats going on, that it has never turned out to be an issue.
I was over at my in-laws. They started getting static. First it started with some mild pixelation on screen, followed by the sound getting spotty (like a bad cell phone conversation), and then they kept having the screen freeze and strobe slightly (kept getting packets of data but not enough to redraw the screen).
Yes, this is just "traditional TV" broadcast in a Digital format but the idea is the same. Signal Quality is important. Without good signal quality, I'll take analog over digital ANY day of the week.
One of our final projects was to impliment our own shell. This would of course necessitate a fork() command... he hadn't checked conditions quite right and managed to use up all the resources for his account. Fortunately someone had set the Ultrix (Unix on VAX) system up with a little intelligence. He only bombed his own account and had to get the Prof. to go in and kill the out of control Shell:)
I on the other hand merely got half-baked tokenizing. Great teacher (pity the disbanded the Comp-Sci department around us).
Actually, Farscape is the only reason I have Sci-Fi. If they continue with the cancelation, I'll likely be dropping it. If HBO or whomever picks it up, I suppose I'll be putting my money there instead.
I agree with you 100%.
My wife has been after me to cut back, for instance revert to "basic cable". As soon as I found out about the cancellation I told her and then said that I didn't need "extended services" (the package that has Sci-Fi channel). I will likely subscribe in January for the end of the season, and then unsubscribe when the series ends.
My wife was in shock (she claims I'm a TV junkie but thats the only show I watch on Cable that I'd really miss). She also asked if there was anything she could do (email/fax/letter). She isn't a sci-fi fan but liked the show (she would watch it with me).
And they claim their not targetting outside their core audience. I wonder what spouces and others are getting drawn in.
BTW don't forget to let the cable company know why you are dropping the package (ie. because Sci-Fi channel canceled Farscape. This will get back to them and will put pressure on Sci-fi Channel).
The entire Space Shuttle is old. I'll bet a lot of slashdotters don't even remember the Columbia's maiden voyage.
Oh I remember the Columbia's maiden voyage.
Came down with chicken-pox that week... considered it a case of serendipity and spent the week home from school and glued to the TV watching mission reports while making a lego model of the space shuttle.
I've got a press pass from that shuttle launch on my wall (long story how I ended up with it). Still makes me smile to look at it.
I'd be surprised if I was the only one who remembered.
How about they make a phone that just vibrates like a pager? I better go patent this idea quickly before someone snaps it up! I'm a genius! Vibrating silent cell phones!
Amazing isn't it? I used to have the same problem when I was first given a pager (working for a consultanting company this was one of our normal 'kit'). Most everyone else set theirs to make one of the noises. I figured that since it was on my person, the "Silent and Vibrate" option made more sense.
1) It wouldn't bother anyone else when it went off
and... in case you need a more selfish reason...
2) I would know when it was my device instead of the guy next to me (a pager would go off and four people would check to see if it was for them). The thing I missed the most when I got my cell-phone was that the 'silent' mode did not vibrate (it was an older Nokia and they included it as an add-on with a special battery). I'm looking forward to replacing the phone when it finally dies (wife won't let me before then:) ) JUST so I can get the same sort of functionality back. I still turn it to 'Silent' when I go into movies or other places where I don't want to b disturbed since it keeps a caller_ID record of calls I can check to see if I need to call someone back.
I have to admit that while I agree with you 100% that we should use more mature responses, however you've given me my smile for the day with the "mob rule" line.
I could easily picture it being very effective to see a mob of people crowding the streets outside RIAA headquarters with Torches and Pitchforks (with similar outcome to a certain castle located in the old country).
Not advocating people go inflict bodily harm on anyone else over this nonsense, or burn down property... just saying its worthy of a Far Side cartoon with Hillary Rosen playing the part of Dr. Frankenstein, and perhaps the mob would be carrying an effigy made out of CDs with a wig on it::smile::
Perhaps if they took the BT-F (Buttered Toast - Feline amalgam) and suspended it over the linoleum piece and then attached a harness to the BT-F (since they will need some way to connect the amalgam to a turbine anyway). Then, all they need to do is apply a force to the BT-F that drives it into the linoleum catalyst, such as a say a rubber band. This could actually be utilized as a throttle mechanism if the BT-F's speed rotates faster as it aproaches the linoleum catalyst. By increasing/decreasing the tension the BT-F is under (and therby the force propelling it into the linoleum, you could theoretically increase or decrease the spin of the BT-F and the resultant power generated through the harness to the turbine.
Facinating idea! More research is called for immediately!
When I was with my wife in WDW in November for our Honeymoon (I'm noticing a trend...) we walked through the "Animation" exhibit in MGM Studios. You also get to peak into the animation floor and while most people were "Ooohing" and "Ahhhing" over the backgrounds and what-not on display, I noticed that almost every desktop that had a PC, had a *nix console (they had the clasic "Life" Screensaver running and a few had the "swarm" one running), not a Windows machin. I THINK they were HPs (which would make sense), but I can't swear to that.
On a lighter note, a propose a new poll:
On my honeymoon I will/did go to:
1) Asia 2) Europe 3) Africa 4) North America 5) South America 6) Antarctica 7) Australia 8) Cruise 9) Disney World 10) The Moon 11) Honeymoon? 12) Cowboy Neal's Pants!
Of course if Jackie Chan were to kick their asses, Bruce Lee's heirs' lawyers would likely show up waving Bruce's patent on "Kung-Fu Infliction of Blunt Force Trauma as a Method of Smiting Evildoers".
No bother... Jackie Chan would definately fight it (in court?) and point to Chang San-Feng as prior art:)
An SSN card was never considered proof of citizenship (don't ask me why).
Now, the really FUN things that are?
1) Passport (duh), although the neat thing to remember is that expired passports are STILL considered valid documents for proving citizenship/identity... just not valid for travel (or so I've been told).
2) State Issued ID AND Voter registration card (but BOY do the Canadian passport control officers look pissed when I pull out a unlaminated cardboard square that was computer printed and is dog-eared).
This from people who put up a page taking orders for "Ginger" back when it was first leaked to the press, close to two or three years before an actual product was unveiled.
In most municipalities Jay Walking laws also cover crossing with/against the light, and yet in most cases the driver is still culpable if you hit the pedestrian in the crosswalk (take a look at how Cali law says motorists have to stop as soon as the pedestrian enters the crosswalk).
Yet in New York for instance, Jay Walking laws aren't enforced (even though there are definate times when they should be), simply because its impractical. Heck I know several friends who ended up getting Jay Walking tickets in other cities specifically because they were from New York where Jay Walking is viewed as rediculous (ie. a person should be brighter than to run between cars, and if you do it and no one gets hurt/no accident or traffic hicup, then all is good).
Any chance the case would drag out long enough for a new election and the chance to put someone else in the White House. I'm not saying that a different A.General would make a difference *cough*Microsoft*cough*, but its possible. Of course we may have to elect a Libertarian to the presidency... I wonder if we can get Butterfly ballots declared a federal mandated form;)
Me, I'll keep my Windows 98 partition until I can't buy any games that work on it. Then, if the only Microsoft choice drags one into the maelstrom, I'll stick with Linux games. They'll suck less by then.
If it comes down to it, I don't HAVE to play games.
I agree 100%.
Of course the advantages to this are that if there aren't any decent games, I get back lots more of my free time then I ever couted on (and quite a bit of disposible income). I may also finally break down and get one of those neat console systems for games (Playstation V, N256, DreamCatcher or whathaveyou).
Not having lots of games on my PC to distract me could be a good thing... besides... there are enough good games out there right now that I haven't played to hold me for the next 5-10 years of casual gaming.
I think what he's saying is that as AbiWord evolves (gains more features and more people start to know about/use it), its user base grows. A lot of the new users are people coming from a Windows9x/ME/NT/2k/etc system and are expecting to find everything like it was on Windows.
To put it bluntly, most Open Source projects have not invested anywhere near 1/10th as much time in Documentation and GUI design as their Closed Source counterparts. AbiWord may be gaining in features on MS Word, for instance, but you can also go out to the store and buy "How to use MSWord in 30 Seconds every 10 minutes for total Idiot!". (As well as MS Word's own on-line help, which does work... sort of).
Until Open Source catches up in terms of GUI Design (ie. making things look preaty to the sheeple) and deals with the "Documentation Divide" then Commercial products will usually (and I'll stress the usually since there are always some exceptions), have Open Source products beat in terms of functionality.
Open Source will catch up (take a look at the first linux installation routines vs. the current Mandrake or Redhat), but it will take a little bit of time.
Re:My opinion: no one do any changing
on
The LDP and Debian
·
· Score: 2
Amen!!! If I had any mod points, you would have them.
The single most important thing for documentation is to be accurate. If people don't keep in touch about changes made, then all it means is that everything will get out of sync.
I'll agree that it sounds that way (the last MMORPG played was "The Island of Kesmai" and if anyone out there was a TAG feel free to say "HI!"). I wonder if the fact that it was designed to be addictive (and seems to be), might open it up to a potential lawsuit that games have so far avoided.
Obviously games aren't designed to cause people to shoot others (ie. the "connection" so many pop psychs try to claim between violent games and violent people), however if a game is designed to be addictive and is, you'd think it should at least come with a warning label:) (not that I really believe that)
A quick note on this BTW, Master of Orion III is in development, and one of the screenshots that was leaked (not on the official site), had a screen where you can set a timer to go off and remind you to quit after X minutes/hours/days. Very cute design feature:)
But, this really doesn't give us any leap in abilities. What about massive parallel processing? What is holding the human race back from creating a chip that is basically 16 or 32 seperate but equal processors?
The same thing that is keeping us from using massive Beowulf type clusters (or other parallel processing systems) more...
... better compilers able to take advantage of the technology... and who know WHEN AND HOW to take advantage of the technology.
It's clear to almost everyone that your lawsuit was nothing but an attempt to set up the RIAA. The RIAA has been nothing if not exceptionally clear about the fact that they never intended nor attempted to suppress anyone's research.
With all due respect, if someone received a "Cease and Desist" letter demanding they stop doing something, such as preset a paper at a conference, or else face litigation from an exceptionally large and well funded organization with a possible (ie. unproven in court) leg to stand on, most people (and I'll grant you may be the exception) would not present the paper. This could have (most would argue would have) a chilling effect on research. I think it is unethical to say the least to demand this sort of thing and then back-peddle once their objectives have been completed (he didn't present the paper as they demanded). To notice that it might not have been in their best interest and claim "Oh we were just kidding", is a tad insulting.
If they had wanted to be exceptionally clear that they wouldn't sue, then they should never have threatened to.
I just created this file while my browser was running, shut down Mozilla and tried to restart it. It complained (and bombed out) the first time, and then restarted fine (and has been running well since). You can verify the UserAgent String you are using by looking at the "Help/About" window (the string appears below the build number). Using this string also has another advantage. Up until now I've been running Mozilla on Win2K (requirement for work), now I can proudly proclaim that I'm running it on Linux (which I would rather be).
Nice!:)
Oh... and does anyone else find it Ironic that the theme of WindowsXP, displayed in a big GIF on the MSN homepage is... "YES YOU CAN!"
I'm not talking about the "Open With..." option where you can choose what application should open and run the file, I'm talking about taking what has traditionally been a one dimentional relationship (File Type->Application), and defining the system so that instead of the traditional "Windows" way of application grabing the TYPE and removing the entries previously registered, they would just add additional entries for that TYPE.
Right clicking could bring up a menu entry that lists all the applications that registered to open that file type,with the "Default" set to handle Double Clicking on the icon. This would also be a way fo dealing with the removal of an application that was previously registered to be the Default handling application for a given type, since other applications could be "promoted" to fill in the blank default (or at the least a list could be presented to the user of which app should become the default, instead of the traditional "Open With..." treasure hunt).
I didn't realize that Windows XP came with this feature (Win9x/Win2k/WinME certainly don't). Sorry if WinXP has this feature already, I wasn't aware of it. I don't usually Beta test MicroSoft software until the Public Beta when they release it to the public as a finished product.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree. He certainly seems off to an auspicious start. Here's hoping it keeps going well!
BTW, Love the Heinlein reference but personally I'd like to think that he'll be remembered as the man who gave us "...the plans for our first hyperdrive, allowing mankind to open the doors to the stars."
This is the one thing I always try and impress upon people.
The snow effects you currently see on a big screen tv when watching 80$/month cable will turn into large blocks or black rectangles. The world isn't going to magically quadrouple thier bandwidth overnight, and most stations don't broadcast anything near a proper signal as it is.
Absolutely true. I've got basic cable, my in-laws have digital cable.
Every now and then I get some static on my reception... no big deal really. Sure, it degrades the quality of the picture, but the mind works great and can pick up on enough thats going on, that it has never turned out to be an issue.
I was over at my in-laws. They started getting static. First it started with some mild pixelation on screen, followed by the sound getting spotty (like a bad cell phone conversation), and then they kept having the screen freeze and strobe slightly (kept getting packets of data but not enough to redraw the screen).
Yes, this is just "traditional TV" broadcast in a Digital format but the idea is the same. Signal Quality is important. Without good signal quality, I'll take analog over digital ANY day of the week.
Hehehe I had a classmate do that accidentally.
:)
One of our final projects was to impliment our own shell. This would of course necessitate a fork() command... he hadn't checked conditions quite right and managed to use up all the resources for his account. Fortunately someone had set the Ultrix (Unix on VAX) system up with a little intelligence. He only bombed his own account and had to get the Prof. to go in and kill the out of control Shell
I on the other hand merely got half-baked tokenizing. Great teacher (pity the disbanded the Comp-Sci department around us).
Actually, Farscape is the only reason I have Sci-Fi. If they continue with the cancelation, I'll likely be dropping it. If HBO or whomever picks it up, I suppose I'll be putting my money there instead.
I agree with you 100%.
My wife has been after me to cut back, for instance revert to "basic cable". As soon as I found out about the cancellation I told her and then said that I didn't need "extended services" (the package that has Sci-Fi channel). I will likely subscribe in January for the end of the season, and then unsubscribe when the series ends.
My wife was in shock (she claims I'm a TV junkie but thats the only show I watch on Cable that I'd really miss). She also asked if there was anything she could do (email/fax/letter). She isn't a sci-fi fan but liked the show (she would watch it with me).
And they claim their not targetting outside their core audience. I wonder what spouces and others are getting drawn in.
BTW don't forget to let the cable company know why you are dropping the package (ie. because Sci-Fi channel canceled Farscape. This will get back to them and will put pressure on Sci-fi Channel).
The entire Space Shuttle is old. I'll bet a lot of slashdotters don't even remember the Columbia's maiden voyage.
Oh I remember the Columbia's maiden voyage.
Came down with chicken-pox that week... considered it a case of serendipity and spent the week home from school and glued to the TV watching mission reports while making a lego model of the space shuttle.
I've got a press pass from that shuttle launch on my wall (long story how I ended up with it). Still makes me smile to look at it.
I'd be surprised if I was the only one who remembered.
How about they make a phone that just vibrates like a pager? I better go patent this idea quickly before someone snaps it up! I'm a genius! Vibrating silent cell phones!
... in case you need a more selfish reason...
:) )
Amazing isn't it? I used to have the same problem when I was first given a pager (working for a consultanting company this was one of our normal 'kit'). Most everyone else set theirs to make one of the noises. I figured that since it was on my person, the "Silent and Vibrate" option made more sense.
1) It wouldn't bother anyone else when it went off
and
2) I would know when it was my device instead of the guy next to me (a pager would go off and four people would check to see if it was for them). The thing I missed the most when I got my cell-phone was that the 'silent' mode did not vibrate (it was an older Nokia and they included it as an add-on with a special battery). I'm looking forward to replacing the phone when it finally dies (wife won't let me before then
JUST so I can get the same sort of functionality back. I still turn it to 'Silent' when I go into movies or other places where I don't want to b disturbed since it keeps a caller_ID record of calls I can check to see if I need to call someone back.
I have to admit that while I agree with you 100% that we should use more mature responses, however you've given me my smile for the day with the "mob rule" line.
::smile::
I could easily picture it being very effective to see a mob of people crowding the streets outside RIAA headquarters with Torches and Pitchforks (with similar outcome to a certain castle located in the old country).
Not advocating people go inflict bodily harm on anyone else over this nonsense, or burn down property... just saying its worthy of a Far Side cartoon with Hillary Rosen playing the part of Dr. Frankenstein, and perhaps the mob would be carrying an effigy made out of CDs with a wig on it
Perhaps if they took the BT-F (Buttered Toast - Feline amalgam) and suspended it over the linoleum piece and then attached a harness to the BT-F (since they will need some way to connect the amalgam to a turbine anyway). Then, all they need to do is apply a force to the BT-F that drives it into the linoleum catalyst, such as a say a rubber band. This could actually be utilized as a throttle mechanism if the BT-F's speed rotates faster as it aproaches the linoleum catalyst. By increasing/decreasing the tension the BT-F is under (and therby the force propelling it into the linoleum, you could theoretically increase or decrease the spin of the BT-F and the resultant power generated through the harness to the turbine.
Facinating idea! More research is called for immediately!
Makes sense.
When I was with my wife in WDW in November for our Honeymoon (I'm noticing a trend...) we walked through the "Animation" exhibit in MGM Studios. You also get to peak into the animation floor and while most people were "Ooohing" and "Ahhhing" over the backgrounds and what-not on display, I noticed that almost every desktop that had a PC, had a *nix console (they had the clasic "Life" Screensaver running and a few had the "swarm" one running), not a Windows machin. I THINK they were HPs (which would make sense), but I can't swear to that.
On a lighter note, a propose a new poll:
On my honeymoon I will/did go to:
1) Asia
2) Europe
3) Africa
4) North America
5) South America
6) Antarctica
7) Australia
8) Cruise
9) Disney World
10) The Moon
11) Honeymoon?
12) Cowboy Neal's Pants!
Of course if Jackie Chan were to kick their asses, Bruce Lee's heirs' lawyers would likely show up waving Bruce's patent on "Kung-Fu Infliction of Blunt Force Trauma as a Method of Smiting Evildoers".
:)
No bother... Jackie Chan would definately fight it (in court?) and point to Chang San-Feng as prior art
An SSN card was never considered proof of citizenship (don't ask me why).
Now, the really FUN things that are?
1) Passport (duh), although the neat thing to remember is that expired passports are STILL considered valid documents for proving citizenship/identity... just not valid for travel (or so I've been told).
2) State Issued ID AND Voter registration card (but BOY do the Canadian passport control officers look pissed when I pull out a unlaminated cardboard square that was computer printed and is dog-eared).
This from people who put up a page taking orders for "Ginger" back when it was first leaked to the press, close to two or three years before an actual product was unveiled.
Call me skeptical.
... we have another two years and two films to look forward to.
In most municipalities Jay Walking laws also cover crossing with/against the light, and yet in most cases the driver is still culpable if you hit the pedestrian in the crosswalk (take a look at how Cali law says motorists have to stop as soon as the pedestrian enters the crosswalk).
Yet in New York for instance, Jay Walking laws aren't enforced (even though there are definate times when they should be), simply because its impractical. Heck I know several friends who ended up getting Jay Walking tickets in other cities specifically because they were from New York where Jay Walking is viewed as rediculous (ie. a person should be brighter than to run between cars, and if you do it and no one gets hurt/no accident or traffic hicup, then all is good).
Any chance the case would drag out long enough for a new election and the chance to put someone else in the White House. I'm not saying that a different A.General would make a difference *cough*Microsoft*cough*, but its possible. Of course we may have to elect a Libertarian to the presidency... I wonder if we can get Butterfly ballots declared a federal mandated form ;)
Me, I'll keep my Windows 98 partition until I can't buy any games that work on it. Then, if the only Microsoft choice drags one into the maelstrom, I'll stick with Linux games. They'll suck less by then.
If it comes down to it, I don't HAVE to play games.
I agree 100%.
Of course the advantages to this are that if there aren't any decent games, I get back lots more of my free time then I ever couted on (and quite a bit of disposible income). I may also finally break down and get one of those neat console systems for games (Playstation V, N256, DreamCatcher or whathaveyou).
Not having lots of games on my PC to distract me could be a good thing... besides... there are enough good games out there right now that I haven't played to hold me for the next 5-10 years of casual gaming.
I think what he's saying is that as AbiWord evolves (gains more features and more people start to know about/use it), its user base grows. A lot of the new users are people coming from a Windows9x/ME/NT/2k/etc system and are expecting to find everything like it was on Windows.
To put it bluntly, most Open Source projects have not invested anywhere near 1/10th as much time in Documentation and GUI design as their Closed Source counterparts. AbiWord may be gaining in features on MS Word, for instance, but you can also go out to the store and buy "How to use MSWord in 30 Seconds every 10 minutes for total Idiot!". (As well as MS Word's own on-line help, which does work... sort of).
Until Open Source catches up in terms of GUI Design (ie. making things look preaty to the sheeple) and deals with the "Documentation Divide" then Commercial products will usually (and I'll stress the usually since there are always some exceptions), have Open Source products beat in terms of functionality.
Open Source will catch up (take a look at the first linux installation routines vs. the current Mandrake or Redhat), but it will take a little bit of time.
Amen!!! If I had any mod points, you would have them.
The single most important thing for documentation is to be accurate. If people don't keep in touch about changes made, then all it means is that everything will get out of sync.
it's *designed* to generate obsessive behavior.
:) (not that I really believe that)
:)
I'll agree that it sounds that way (the last MMORPG played was "The Island of Kesmai" and if anyone out there was a TAG feel free to say "HI!"). I wonder if the fact that it was designed to be addictive (and seems to be), might open it up to a potential lawsuit that games have so far avoided.
Obviously games aren't designed to cause people to shoot others (ie. the "connection" so many pop psychs try to claim between violent games and violent people), however if a game is designed to be addictive and is, you'd think it should at least come with a warning label
A quick note on this BTW, Master of Orion III is in development, and one of the screenshots that was leaked (not on the official site), had a screen where you can set a timer to go off and remind you to quit after X minutes/hours/days. Very cute design feature
But, this really doesn't give us any leap in abilities. What about massive parallel processing? What is holding the human race back from creating a chip that is basically 16 or 32 seperate but equal processors?
The same thing that is keeping us from using massive Beowulf type clusters (or other parallel processing systems) more...
... better compilers able to take advantage of the technology... and who know WHEN AND HOW to take advantage of the technology.
I have the feeling I'm feeding a troll but,
It's clear to almost everyone that your lawsuit was nothing but an attempt to set up the RIAA. The RIAA has been nothing if not exceptionally clear about the fact that they never intended nor attempted to suppress anyone's research.
With all due respect, if someone received a "Cease and Desist" letter demanding they stop doing something, such as preset a paper at a conference, or else face litigation from an exceptionally large and well funded organization with a possible (ie. unproven in court) leg to stand on, most people (and I'll grant you may be the exception) would not present the paper. This could have (most would argue would have) a chilling effect on research. I think it is unethical to say the least to demand this sort of thing and then back-peddle once their objectives have been completed (he didn't present the paper as they demanded). To notice that it might not have been in their best interest and claim "Oh we were just kidding", is a tad insulting.
If they had wanted to be exceptionally clear that they wouldn't sue, then they should never have threatened to.
Don't worry, Amendments are cheap.
We have lots of Congressman and Senators paid for.
Maybe we can borrow a President from Microsoft for a while so we don't have to wait for our 2/3rds majority to be paid for.
I just created this file while my browser was running, shut down Mozilla and tried to restart it. It complained (and bombed out) the first time, and then restarted fine (and has been running well since). You can verify the UserAgent String you are using by looking at the "Help/About" window (the string appears below the build number). Using this string also has another advantage. Up until now I've been running Mozilla on Win2K (requirement for work), now I can proudly proclaim that I'm running it on Linux (which I would rather be).
:)
Nice!
Oh... and does anyone else find it Ironic that the theme of WindowsXP, displayed in a big GIF on the MSN homepage is... "YES YOU CAN!"
Nice product. All you need to do is add a two port 10/100 NIC in the PCI slot, like this one (for a mere $275) and you can even have it manage a DMZ.
::grin::)
(we'll refrain from mentioning the Quad port NIC for $600
I'm not talking about the "Open With..." option where you can choose what application should open and run the file, I'm talking about taking what has traditionally been a one dimentional relationship (File Type->Application), and defining the system so that instead of the traditional "Windows" way of application grabing the TYPE and removing the entries previously registered, they would just add additional entries for that TYPE.
Right clicking could bring up a menu entry that lists all the applications that registered to open that file type,with the "Default" set to handle Double Clicking on the icon. This would also be a way fo dealing with the removal of an application that was previously registered to be the Default handling application for a given type, since other applications could be "promoted" to fill in the blank default (or at the least a list could be presented to the user of which app should become the default, instead of the traditional "Open With..." treasure hunt).
I didn't realize that Windows XP came with this feature (Win9x/Win2k/WinME certainly don't). Sorry if WinXP has this feature already, I wasn't aware of it. I don't usually Beta test MicroSoft software until the Public Beta when they release it to the public as a finished product.