I'm a fine artist who became a software engineer so I wouldn't have to deal with all the art BS that accompanies a career in art. It's not a bad place to be... I make good money and I paint what I want... which happens to be sci-fi inspired. My heroes are illustrators and level designers. The art world will take about 200 years to catch, so much of what we love may eventually land in an art history book.
You mean the ignorant that like a stable platform, like to run AAA applications and games, like hardware compatibility and good overall driver support?
I'm a power user. Linux is a joke for doing real prodcutive work and new Macs runs about 1/2 the speed of my 2 year old Athlon.
Call me ignorant, but I'd rather spend my time working than editing obscure files located in the \etc or \user directories.
As much as slashdotters hat MS, the truth is that with all it's worts and blemishes, it works and works well for 95% of things that people want to do.
Perhaps you should go back and study how Britain suckered the US into WW1. I think you will find the strong desire to stay out of WW2 to have been a direct result of getting involved in WW2.
Beides, wasn't the US behavior in WW2 exactly what the Europeans would like us to do presently (ie., mind our own business until we're attacked?) Which one is it? Are we facists now or cowards then?
It seems to me that what America learned from WW2 was not to leave things up to the Europeans and not to wait until the enemy has the ability to attack you...
Maybe you should study the constitution a bit. In 1776 it was meant for land-owning white men only. I think we've come a long way from that despite a little media hype here and there. Even the way that we frame the consitution is different. If the founders knew how broadly rights would be applied, they might not have ratified the constitution in the first place.
I don't suppose it's obvious to you that this would be used for low intensity type of operations? You know, the kind when dropping a few 500 pound bombs does a lot more damage than what is necessary?
It aslo offers an alternative to perform a non-lethal action. Presently, the Pentagon is investing heavily in non-lethal technologies due to the fact that our only way to use force right now is to shoot or blow somebody(s) up.
But... that wouldn't fall into your agenda. You'd rather see military technology stay static, which would mean massive damage to any opposing side in any skirmish. That's a great solution...
As far as feeding the worlds poor... we also do that. How much money in food aid does your country send overseas each year? How many bags of grain have your nations flag printed on them?
Technology has solved many problems. For example, it has starved the problem of starving. Now the problem is getting the food where it's needed.
The car solved transportation problems in the US. Shortly, completely new designs will reduce direct pollution to 0 (with manufacturing and electricity production still being a problem.) Before 50 years, we'll have working nana and fusion.
Think it won't happen? That's what nearly everyone said about every tech gadget in your life and most major discoveries.
I don't buy it. I don't think you use a cell phone in the US, but rather are just spouting BS you read in some European paper (especially when you spell "Myths" as "Mythes."
Damn near everyone in the country already has a land line and most people have access to a computer online (if they don't already one at least one or two.)
I have threee computers at home, a cable modem and digital cable and a phone line. My roommate has another 3 computers. At work, I have a T1 and about 10 computers. We also both have regular cell phones. Someone please explain to me why the hell I should care about a lousey image on a cell phone when I can have more bandwidth and computer power than I can possibly use?
Screw WAP and cell phones. A networked PC-Pad might tempt me though...
It seems to me that old-style typewriter desks are usually different than computer stations. I'm not sure exactly how, but I think they were lower. I started typing on old style type writers (some electric, some daisy wheel, etc.) They were not pleasant to work with until the very last generation before computer based word processors took over.
It seems like office furniture overall has changed in basic measurements and angles (made larger for more men now?) I suspect that RSI has sky rocketed because of hours in front of the computer per day + less attention given to proper setup of the workstation + the mouse. Mice are very, very often set up badly (this is made worse by cheap mice.)
After reading this I took a quick look at my hand on my mouse... Logitech Mouseman Plus USB. My arm rest on my properly adjusted chair armrest, the ball of my hand rests on my properly adjusted desk, and may fingers/thumb lightly uses my mouse. I think I picked this up from FPS gaming, but my arm never has to hold itself up for any amount of time and I have no pressure resting on my fingers. I also do a large amount of art this way (and with my Wacom tablet.)
I think you need to re-evaluted you whole workstation and how you use the mouse. Changes the devices won't help much if your overall station isn't setup right and you're forcing positions.
Seriously though, as a hardcore gamer and addicted computer geek who has logged an average of about 14 hours per day in front of the computer, I love the damn thing. If only MS could build an OS as good as this keyboard.
I know, lots and lots of you are old school and hate ergo keyboards. I once worked at a medium sized company that mandated that everyone switched. about 4/5 people switched withing one day and none of them I still talk to ever went back. The other 1/5 never even tried to switch.
I started on a C-64, so I guess I count as old school too! If only I could get an Ergo keyboard on my Dell Inspiron Laptop.:(
One note though... all ergo keyboards aren't created equal. If you get one, get a good solid keyboard. Don't be cheap.
I've used all the reviewed browsers quite a bit. In the end, they all work farily well, but not as well as IE 6. I've also been playing with Mozilla on Windows as well.
One of the biggest reasons that I still don't take Linux seriously is the font drawing. I'm a graphics heavy user and use a hi-res flatscreen. Even before, with good 19in CRT, the fonts in Linux were pretty jaggy. Now they are horrible. This is a problem that shows up especially bad in the browser windows (all of them, but to different degrees.) The new Konqorer/KDE is much better, but still bad.
I want Linux to be usable on the desk top, I really do. But until the little things are taken care of, I'll stick with XP.
BTW, his last article (comparing 2K to Linux for an office upgrade) doesn't take into account retraining the staff or lost hours due to the staff learning how to do things in a different way. For example: using Gimp may allow you to get by on linux for graphics, but you certainly won't go from Photoshop to the Gimp in one day and be productive (maybe not for several days.) And if you're a power user, you will never achieve the productivity on the Gimp that you have with Photoshop. As someone who does budgets for small development teams, I know that the equipment is the cheap part of production. Manhours is the real issue (this applies to browsers as well, but to a much less extent.)
Simply put, the thought of giving the RIAA and MPAA more of my money makes me want to throw up. I've stopped spending money on CDs because of copy protection and their attitude towards file sharing (what could become the biggest boon to music ever...) I'm afraid to buy new CDs now less they be tainted with some kind of protection that makes them useless in most of my gizmos.
Oh yea, I would also like to buy a lot of stuff that's considered "import" (does that really mean anything anymore?) But when the prices cost more than the DVDs (think anime soundtracks), it's seems simply ludicrous.
Maybe I can just send the money straight to the artist and have them send me a CD or two?
Having a SCSI or IDE drive will do absolutely nothing to increase your frame rate. However, the level load may be affected by drives and RAM.
Personally, I do a shit load of video editing on 7200 IDE drives. They perfrom like champs. I take the extra money I save from not buying SCSI and build a coupld of more computers.
I work with PCs and build my own PCs. They are high quality machines that work very well. I upgrade with top notch parts as I need to or feel the urge.
I do most of my creative work on a PC running XP. It works very well... Photoshop and Primiere fly, Counter-Strike rocks, and there are drivers for everything. I plug things in and they work.
I play with linux just for fun. I can almost do something useful with it now. A couple lines of code, a email check, some webbrowsing. Eventually, I might get my USB multimedia perpherials to work with it.
My point is that the stereotype about who uses what is wrong, but seems to be consistently reinforced from various media. I am the creative type whose also a techie. I started using PCs because of price and software, now I see no reason to even try a Mac again other than playing with it a few minutes at CompUSA.
If only I could get some cool apple industrial design in my PC cases without taking a dremel to it...
Slashdot Mirror
The the Europeans wonder why we think they're a bunch of pompus assholes...
Mmmm... the population of Europe (just the EU) is about 20% greater than the US.
Take a good look at the hardware in an apple today... ide controllers, ati/nvidia video, standard CD/DVD players/burners, standard firewire/usb buses.
I don't see where there would be all that much work past a new mobo.
- money_shot
Eh... Quicktime is a player, not a codec. Personally, I don't feel like shelling out money to Sorenson to get decent quality/compression.
- money_shot
oops... made a mistake in my own link, it should be:
www.artkolective.com/theartistjames
I'm a fine artist who became a software engineer so I wouldn't have to deal with all the art BS that accompanies a career in art. It's not a bad place to be... I make good money and I paint what I want... which happens to be sci-fi inspired. My heroes are illustrators and level designers. The art world will take about 200 years to catch, so much of what we love may eventually land in an art history book.
www.theartkolective.com/theartistjames
You mean the ignorant that like a stable platform, like to run AAA applications and games, like hardware compatibility and good overall driver support?
I'm a power user. Linux is a joke for doing real prodcutive work and new Macs runs about 1/2 the speed of my 2 year old Athlon.
Call me ignorant, but I'd rather spend my time working than editing obscure files located in the \etc or \user directories.
As much as slashdotters hat MS, the truth is that with all it's worts and blemishes, it works and works well for 95% of things that people want to do.
Money_shot
Perhaps you should go back and study how Britain suckered the US into WW1. I think you will find the strong desire to stay out of WW2 to have been a direct result of getting involved in WW2.
Beides, wasn't the US behavior in WW2 exactly what the Europeans would like us to do presently (ie., mind our own business until we're attacked?) Which one is it? Are we facists now or cowards then?
It seems to me that what America learned from WW2 was not to leave things up to the Europeans and not to wait until the enemy has the ability to attack you...
- James
Maybe you should study the constitution a bit. In 1776 it was meant for land-owning white men only. I think we've come a long way from that despite a little media hype here and there. Even the way that we frame the consitution is different. If the founders knew how broadly rights would be applied, they might not have ratified the constitution in the first place.
- Money_shot
I don't suppose it's obvious to you that this would be used for low intensity type of operations? You know, the kind when dropping a few 500 pound bombs does a lot more damage than what is necessary?
It aslo offers an alternative to perform a non-lethal action. Presently, the Pentagon is investing heavily in non-lethal technologies due to the fact that our only way to use force right now is to shoot or blow somebody(s) up.
But... that wouldn't fall into your agenda. You'd rather see military technology stay static, which would mean massive damage to any opposing side in any skirmish. That's a great solution...
As far as feeding the worlds poor... we also do that. How much money in food aid does your country send overseas each year? How many bags of grain have your nations flag printed on them?
- Money_shot
Wendy Lee is an anime Goddess.
Besides, real fans watch anime in both langauges and do comparative studies.
money_shot
I figure we'll just engineer some new animals when we need them.
Bullshit.
Technology has solved many problems. For example, it has starved the problem of starving. Now the problem is getting the food where it's needed.
The car solved transportation problems in the US. Shortly, completely new designs will reduce direct pollution to 0 (with manufacturing and electricity production still being a problem.) Before 50 years, we'll have working nana and fusion.
Think it won't happen? That's what nearly everyone said about every tech gadget in your life and most major discoveries.
I'm building a biodome and arming it with heavy weapons. Screw the poor countries.
- money_shot
Guess you haven't noticed the banking and political scandals in Japan... I don't think they have much on us as far as ethics or loyalty to employees.
- James
I don't buy it. I don't think you use a cell phone in the US, but rather are just spouting BS you read in some European paper (especially when you spell "Myths" as "Mythes."
Damn near everyone in the country already has a land line and most people have access to a computer online (if they don't already one at least one or two.)
-James
I have threee computers at home, a cable modem and digital cable and a phone line. My roommate has another 3 computers. At work, I have a T1 and about 10 computers. We also both have regular cell phones. Someone please explain to me why the hell I should care about a lousey image on a cell phone when I can have more bandwidth and computer power than I can possibly use?
Screw WAP and cell phones. A networked PC-Pad might tempt me though...
-James.
Damn! Now there will be villianous competition.
It seems to me that old-style typewriter desks are usually different than computer stations. I'm not sure exactly how, but I think they were lower. I started typing on old style type writers (some electric, some daisy wheel, etc.) They were not pleasant to work with until the very last generation before computer based word processors took over.
It seems like office furniture overall has changed in basic measurements and angles (made larger for more men now?) I suspect that RSI has sky rocketed because of hours in front of the computer per day + less attention given to proper setup of the workstation + the mouse. Mice are very, very often set up badly (this is made worse by cheap mice.)
money_shot
After reading this I took a quick look at my hand on my mouse... Logitech Mouseman Plus USB. My arm rest on my properly adjusted chair armrest, the ball of my hand rests on my properly adjusted desk, and may fingers/thumb lightly uses my mouse. I think I picked this up from FPS gaming, but my arm never has to hold itself up for any amount of time and I have no pressure resting on my fingers. I also do a large amount of art this way (and with my Wacom tablet.)
I think you need to re-evaluted you whole workstation and how you use the mouse. Changes the devices won't help much if your overall station isn't setup right and you're forcing positions.
money_shot
I'm never giving up my MS Pro Ergo USB!!!!!!!
:(
Seriously though, as a hardcore gamer and addicted computer geek who has logged an average of about 14 hours per day in front of the computer, I love the damn thing. If only MS could build an OS as good as this keyboard.
I know, lots and lots of you are old school and hate ergo keyboards. I once worked at a medium sized company that mandated that everyone switched. about 4/5 people switched withing one day and none of them I still talk to ever went back. The other 1/5 never even tried to switch.
I started on a C-64, so I guess I count as old school too! If only I could get an Ergo keyboard on my Dell Inspiron Laptop.
One note though... all ergo keyboards aren't created equal. If you get one, get a good solid keyboard. Don't be cheap.
Thanks,
money_shot
I've used all the reviewed browsers quite a bit. In the end, they all work farily well, but not as well as IE 6. I've also been playing with Mozilla on Windows as well.
One of the biggest reasons that I still don't take Linux seriously is the font drawing. I'm a graphics heavy user and use a hi-res flatscreen. Even before, with good 19in CRT, the fonts in Linux were pretty jaggy. Now they are horrible. This is a problem that shows up especially bad in the browser windows (all of them, but to different degrees.) The new Konqorer/KDE is much better, but still bad.
I want Linux to be usable on the desk top, I really do. But until the little things are taken care of, I'll stick with XP.
BTW, his last article (comparing 2K to Linux for an office upgrade) doesn't take into account retraining the staff or lost hours due to the staff learning how to do things in a different way. For example: using Gimp may allow you to get by on linux for graphics, but you certainly won't go from Photoshop to the Gimp in one day and be productive (maybe not for several days.) And if you're a power user, you will never achieve the productivity on the Gimp that you have with Photoshop. As someone who does budgets for small development teams, I know that the equipment is the cheap part of production. Manhours is the real issue (this applies to browsers as well, but to a much less extent.)
Thanks,
James
Simply put, the thought of giving the RIAA and MPAA more of my money makes me want to throw up. I've stopped spending money on CDs because of copy protection and their attitude towards file sharing (what could become the biggest boon to music ever...) I'm afraid to buy new CDs now less they be tainted with some kind of protection that makes them useless in most of my gizmos.
Oh yea, I would also like to buy a lot of stuff that's considered "import" (does that really mean anything anymore?) But when the prices cost more than the DVDs (think anime soundtracks), it's seems simply ludicrous.
Maybe I can just send the money straight to the artist and have them send me a CD or two?
Thanks,
Having a SCSI or IDE drive will do absolutely nothing to increase your frame rate. However, the level load may be affected by drives and RAM.
Personally, I do a shit load of video editing on 7200 IDE drives. They perfrom like champs. I take the extra money I save from not buying SCSI and build a coupld of more computers.
I'm a painter. I'm a techie. I'm a manager.
I grew up with Apple and used Macs in college.
I work with PCs and build my own PCs. They are high quality machines that work very well. I upgrade with top notch parts as I need to or feel the urge.
I do most of my creative work on a PC running XP. It works very well... Photoshop and Primiere fly, Counter-Strike rocks, and there are drivers for everything. I plug things in and they work.
I play with linux just for fun. I can almost do something useful with it now. A couple lines of code, a email check, some webbrowsing. Eventually, I might get my USB multimedia perpherials to work with it.
My point is that the stereotype about who uses what is wrong, but seems to be consistently reinforced from various media. I am the creative type whose also a techie. I started using PCs because of price and software, now I see no reason to even try a Mac again other than playing with it a few minutes at CompUSA.
If only I could get some cool apple industrial design in my PC cases without taking a dremel to it...