Give me function over form any day, but I still like style and comfort. I just disagree with you about weight being an issue and heat is a definite non-issue if you're just word processing.
Agreed, we all have different tolerances and comfort zones.
In any case making something white and round, or thin enough to fit in a folder, or translucent so you can see the circuit board is not called style. It's called a gimmick.
Mini-skirts were a gimmick, now they're a style. Same could be said for those hideous rubber shoes - "crocs" (which I found the name by searching for "hideous rubber shoes" LOL). The RAZR was a gimmick - but now slim cellphones are stylish. Translucent computer cases were a gimmick the first time, but now are a big fashion in the PC "gearhead" community; just search for "case mods". A slim, rounded, thin laptop that is network-dependent is indeed a gimmick, because it's new. 5 years from now? It may just be another style.
In other words the weight and heat doesn't bother me at all.
I want to say that there's a difference between "not uncomfortable" and "comfortable". Straight out of college I had a hand-me-down mattress which worked fine and was not uncomfortable. Later in life when I was doing well I bought a new one for about $800, and the difference was incredible. Lying in bed was actually pleasurable instead of just "not uncomfortable".
I'd pay real money for a laptop that had one built in, including the split and the hump. It'd be as big as a stack of three Airs, but I don't care, it'll still fit in my pack and I could finally stand to use it
If you don't care about the space, why not carry the external keyboard with you?
How many people feel lust for a phone? Pretty much no one... until the iPhone.
A possibly better example would be the Motorola RAZR, which was nothing special - except it was ridiculously thin. It sold (and continues to sell) like hotcakes, even when it was initially $500+.
ISDN is too slow. Isn't it still 128 Kb/sec both ways? The last time I checked it was like 100 bucks a month like three years ago. Has it gone cheaper since then?
Indeed, it is 128k if you use both B channels. You can drop to 64k and use the other channel for voice (make or receive regular landline call), then go back to 128k when you're done with the call. The phone will ring normally even if you're using both B channels.
In NC it was about $80/month for the line (but it replaces any existing landlines) plus ISP service (about $20/month), so yeah about $100/month total. This was a few years ago.
It's not cheap or particularly fast, but if your only other option is dialup, it starts to look a lot better. In particular the latency is much better than dialup for online games, and it's always 64k per channel - not like 56k modems that may only connect at 26k because of line conditions.
The Third World doesn't need laptops. It needs rice and medicine. Or ideally, it needs none of these things, since the reason it's having problems is that it's disorganized and cannot support its own population. Let them die out and the third world stabilizes itself.
Rice and medicine are great in the short term, like after a disaster, but long term any free aid like that just kills local industry, ensuring that the third world country you're "helping" remains third world - and dependent on aid.
Laptops to poor people may seem useless (and I'm not convinced of their worth), but at least it's trying to change the underlying cause of being poor (access to production), instead of simply prolonging their existence for another day.
Or are you implying that my G5 was as old/obsolete as a 1.5 ghz Celeron?
Yes. How old was your G5 when you decided to replace it?
The main point was that both the Windows and Mac paths have some dead ends. It's not some crazy Apple conspiracy that you can't upgrade your G5; it happens with all technology.
You might have a point there if not for the following points:
1) A 1.5 ghz Celeron, even when brand new, costs something around $800. 2) My dual 1.8 ghz G5, when brand new, costs something around $2100.
Macs have generally been more expensive (moreso before the switch to Intel); I don't see how that invalidates the comparison of technological dead ends.
I love how you've never used Mac OS 9 and yet you come at this problem with the approach that I'm the one who's lying.
Then I should've phrased it better, but I was just trying to avoid the "just Google it" response. I did google it, and didn't come up with anything enlightening.
I love how you've never used Mac OS 9 and yet you come at this problem with the approach that I'm the one who's lying.
I like how you equate asking for an example with calling people liars. Not everyone is out to get you.
So, the list: - Spatial file browser - Tabbed folders - Stuff thats actually is in OS X and so irrelevant to the discussion (colored labels, drill down)
This isn't a "personal preference" it was a feature that OS 9 had and OS X does not have. (Whether or not you used this feature may be a personal preference, but that doesn't change the fact that OS X does not have it. I used it all the freakin' time.)
I guess we have different definitions of features then. I'd consider a method of organizing my files one feature, and a method of launching applications another. Both OS 9 and OS X have these. They use different methods of doing so, but both can do so.
For example, spatial vs. non-spatial file managers - they both do the same thing (organize files), one's just nicer to use. Which one is nicer depends on who you talk to (I happen to like non-spatial), so I'd call that a personal preference.
Tabbed folders vs. folders in the dock (or Stacks in 10.5) - correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds like they do the same thing: let you quickly access commonly used files and folders. I'd consider the Quick Launch bar in the Windows task bar the same feature, just done differently. Again, which one is nicer depends on the user.
So, you consider these two items missing features; I'd say their underlying features are there, just implemented differently.
BTW before you criticize OS 9, or call everyone who's missing features from it a liar, maybe you could spend a few microns actually using it, huh? You won't get a response as hostile as mine next time.
I've criticized OS 9? Where? I had no idea. Must be the same sentence I used the word liar.
As for using OS9 myself, I don't own a PowerPC machine, or know anyone that does. That makes it a bit difficult to try out OS 9.
A lot of my complaints really boil down to "Macs are no better than PCs now, so why suffer the limited software selection?"
Indeed, if Windows makes you happier, use it.
If OS X isn't going to let me move my applications around (despite their being 'self-contained'), then why not just use Windows where nobody promised I could move my applications around at all in the first place?
I've not experienced this. I've moved Skype, the DVD player, and several other programs out of Applications to different folders and they seem to work just fine. I actually moved them, not created an alias. Can you describe your experience being unable to move applications a little more?
2) Apple doesn't make an affordable desktop with swappable video cards. Sadly, I'm one of the sadly World of Warcraft-addicted, and although it's virtually the only PC game I ever play, I can't spend the Apple premium for a computer that I can't even upgrade to run my favorite video game better. (I was running it on a dual 1.8 ghz G5 with a Radeon 9800 before, but that machine's too wimpy to really run WOW well with the expansion.)
Depends on your definition of affordable. I play WoW on my quad-core 2.66 Ghz Mac Pro (with swappable ATI X1900) and it's awesome. I previously played on a Dell P4 2.4 Ghz and ATI X850.
I'm sorry your G5 sucked at WoW and couldn't be upgraded. Think of a 1.5 Ghz Celeron with an AGP slot and DDR1 RAM - there's really no way to upgrade that machine to be good either. In both cases you'd have to toss the old machine and buy a new one, since the new processors, memory, and video card wouldn't be compatible with the old motherboard.
3) OS X does a really, really, really crummy job of handling unreliable wifi networks. Like, you know, the one I'm connected to right now on my commuter train. At least Windows won't freeze up utterly when it can't ping a share; OS X did that regularly. And don't even get me started on Apple's.Mac service. (I hear the new version finally made improvements here, but it's too late for me.)
Yeah, the Finder sucks. Then again, Explorer also locks up on me when the share is no longer available.
Also I'm bitter that Apple *STILL* hasn't replaced all the features of OS 9 in OS X. You can't put out version 10 of a product with fewer features than version 9! I don't know how Apple supporters justify that.
Since I've never used version 9, I have no idea what's missing. I've seen some lists of "missing features" but it's always things like "some of the Apple menu functionality was replaced by the Dock, and I liked the Apple menu better". Personal preference isn't a missing feature. If there are actual missing features, I'm curious what they are?
Do you hire someone to come to your house and check on the status of your desktop machine? How do you back it up?
I maintain my own desktop. You have to maintain your desktop whether or not you maintain a server so you can of course argue that the additional server maintenance is no big deal, but in my opinion desktop maintenance is considerably easier than server maintenance.
Most desktop failures are immediately obvious, whereas server things like mail flow have to be checked on - you might have no new messages because nobody's emailed you, or because your mail server isn't delivering messages properly. If my desktop is powered off while I'm away for a week, no problem. If my server dies on my second day of vacation, that's a bad thing.
For backups my desktop has mirrored drives, plus scheduled backups to an external drive. Also my phone has a copy of my email, contacts, etc.
Or have you actually migrated everything you do online?
Just about. Email, web, scheduling are all online, and I actually wind up accessing these on my phone more than my desktop.
I still do my finances local, and the occasional document. Video games are local. Work is done on a work computer, which is maintained by the company.
I realize that moving to "my crap is on the network" instead of "my crap in on my computer" is not for everyone, especially if one enjoys running a server. I used to, and so I did; now I don't.
But I don't remember that being free. I wasn't the one who signed us up for it, but I imagine we must be paying something to have 25 gigs of storage per mailbox when everyone else has less than 5.
Google Apps has several levels of service and space. They do have a free option, since I've never paid them anything. I have 6 mb of space per account (same as regular Gmail).
Power is not really an issue -- the difference between one desktop and a desktop + server is not really significant.
Agreed, the cost is not an issue, I should have been more clear. Maintaining continuous power is an ongoing task (monitoring and testing UPSes, replacing batteries).
Disks only become an issue when one fails.
As mentioned, this has already happened to me. I don't feel like doing another recovery.
Backups are an issue, and I actually don't have particularly good ones right now. I do have a plan for that, though.
Disk failures are a matter of "when", not "if".
All of these - power availability, hardware failure, backups - are solved problems, just as changing oil/brakes/etc on a car are solved. Knowing how to do something doesn't mean I actually want to do it.
I don't change my own oil any more (even though I'm perfectly capable), and I don't spend time every week checking on my UPS, backups, and disk status. Let someone else do it.
I used to do about what you describe, except I had also set up Horde Imp webmail on my own server for those times I didn't have a laptop with me. After several botched upgrades (webmail, IMAP, OS level, you name it), then drive failures (hooray mirroring) and then finally a power supply failure, I got tired of maintaining the whole setup, and switched to Google Apps.
Doesn't change the from address. And if it did, that'd make me a bit more likely to be filtered, I'd bet.
With Google Apps (and similar offerings from Yahoo, etc) there is no @gmail.com address, just accounts at your custom domains. I had no trouble migrating from my Qmail+IMAP+SSL setup, and my mail is no more filtered than it used to be.
You give up some control over your email - no more greylisting for me - but the convenience of someone else worrying about power, disks, backups, spam filtering, etc is too much to pass up for me, especially since it's free. If Google went bankrupt tomorrow, I don't even lose mail since it's already been downloaded through IMAP. In fact, I normally access my mail through my mail program or my phone (IMAP and SMTP over SSL); I almost never actually use the web interface except to create filters.
If you think that air brakes are going to get you 150g's, you need to look at the physics of bodies traveling through air more carefully.
I don't recall saying that they would, just that air braking was one technology they could use besides tire friction. I also listed retro rockets. Throw all 3 of those together and add in some other fictional technology, and you're all set.
Of course, I haven't seen the show yet, and don't know how they'll explain the stopping power (if they bother to explain it at all).. just that they're going to rely on more than tire friction.
The original KITT eventually added air brakes (panels that popped out like in planes) to stop faster; nothing says this one needs to rely solely on tire friction. Retro-rockets are another idea.
Regardless, I was only stating that making a car that can do things that would kill a passenger is not silly if the car can drive itself.
300MPH to 0 in 12 feet? Sure, let's calculate the G's from that. Somehow I missed the specs for the inertial dampeners. What really peeves me is that this is Science Fiction that is too lazy to try to conform to the realm of possibility rather than exceed those limits to make a really good story.
The car can drive itself; if there are no passengers and the car can withstand 470g, then what's the problem with braking that fast? No doubt the car brakes slower with passengers so as not to kill them.
I am saying is that maybe radio could do more good talk shows (and this is my preference) if the music will be harder to play due to higher costs.
If talk is more profitable than music, then yes. Witness what happened when TV realized that reality TV was cheaper to produce than actual good writing.
Also I am saying that I am wondering why some people are constantly listening to music, I wonder if this is an escape from reality?
I think most people listen to music in the background while doing something else (driving, working, playing games). They're not escaping anything, since they're concentrating on reality, not the music. Sitting and listening to music for hours would be, yes, but that's not as common. Watching TV or movies, or reading a fiction book are also (healthy) escapes.
Almost anything can be used as an escape from reality. If you spend all your time listening to and thinking about a particular talk show, and ignore your family/job/bills, then that talk show would be an escape from reality.
The only problem with escaping reality is when people do it too much and let their reality suffer.. unpaid bills, unattended family, etc.
Would you have one of these in your cellar? I wouldn't.
Sure. More people have died from high school football or swimming pools than nuclear power. And lets not even talk about the 40,000 people a year that die in car crashes. Why would you be afraid of a nuclear reactor, and not cars?
Anyways, imagine every new subdivision came with a reactor preinstalled, and everyone was guaranteed 5 cent/KWH electric for the next 40 years. I'd buy a house there.
I'd rather tune down my power consumption by a magnitude and switch to solar energy or something.
If you can lower your consumption by a magnitude, why haven't you done so already?
There's the waste disposal cost and the decommissioning cost to add to that as well. Nuclear waste is hellishly expensive to transport and dispose of... offseting the gains you get from the cheaper power generation. Decomissioning can eat up more money than building the thing in the first place.
The waste is already underground in a sealed shielded container. Just leave it there!
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the US has about a 60 month process to certify a reactor from the time the application is filed,
Part of this is because every reactor has used a different design. If it takes 60 months to certify the first reactor's design and installation, and 1 month to certify each additional installation using the same exact design, that'd work.
The down side is battery power density can't really handle heating a car very well in the winter. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone lives in Southern California.
Just wait a few years, with global warming you will!:)
Serious answer: I'm having trouble finding a link, but I've read about Mercedes(?) talking about moving to 40 volt electric systems, so that they could move to all-electric heater and A/C.
To me this is way more entertaining than constantly repeating noise pollution that passes for music
And to others, it's not. I don't listen to the radio, but I do usually have iTunes playing in the background with my ~2000 songs (all legal). It repeats, but only about every 5 days of playing time.
I never understood the mentality that "I like X and not Y, so Y is bad". You've given good examples of insipid lyrics, and I've heard just as much stupidity in talk radio. It's a personal preference - I like vanilla ice cream, you like chocolate. That doesn't mean either flavor is bad.
Even if the [anything] is good, there is no reason to be obsessed about it.
Where [anything] = music, TV, talk radio (gasp), books, sports, sex, politics.. pretty much everything.
Slashdot can be considered a web app. A simple one to be sure, but it's a database of comments, a journal-writing program, and a messaging system.
Hint: My browser is about as much a desktop application as it gets (hint: that textbox isnt some fancy ajax wordprocessor).
Web apps require a web browser, yes. Fancy or not, Slashdot still (barely) qualifies as a web app. Just about anything that isn't a static web page would.
The US is overall a hell of a better place than a lot of places.
Today. Will it always be? Or will we install constant surveillance, which will then be used by future governments, which may or may not be as good as this one?
Slashdot Mirror
Some days I believe it!
Agreed, we all have different tolerances and comfort zones.
Mini-skirts were a gimmick, now they're a style. Same could be said for those hideous rubber shoes - "crocs" (which I found the name by searching for "hideous rubber shoes" LOL). The RAZR was a gimmick - but now slim cellphones are stylish. Translucent computer cases were a gimmick the first time, but now are a big fashion in the PC "gearhead" community; just search for "case mods". A slim, rounded, thin laptop that is network-dependent is indeed a gimmick, because it's new. 5 years from now? It may just be another style.
I want to say that there's a difference between "not uncomfortable" and "comfortable". Straight out of college I had a hand-me-down mattress which worked fine and was not uncomfortable. Later in life when I was doing well I bought a new one for about $800, and the difference was incredible. Lying in bed was actually pleasurable instead of just "not uncomfortable".
uncomfortable - tolerable/not uncomfortable - comfortable
Anyways, products can be judged on a lot of things:
- comfort
- style/fashion (status symbol)
- performance
- compatibility
- price
Many Slashdotters regard the first two as foolish metrics, but outside of computerland, they're often the determining ones.
If you don't care about the space, why not carry the external keyboard with you?
A possibly better example would be the Motorola RAZR, which was nothing special - except it was ridiculously thin. It sold (and continues to sell) like hotcakes, even when it was initially $500+.
Indeed, it is 128k if you use both B channels. You can drop to 64k and use the other channel for voice (make or receive regular landline call), then go back to 128k when you're done with the call. The phone will ring normally even if you're using both B channels.
In NC it was about $80/month for the line (but it replaces any existing landlines) plus ISP service (about $20/month), so yeah about $100/month total. This was a few years ago.
It's not cheap or particularly fast, but if your only other option is dialup, it starts to look a lot better. In particular the latency is much better than dialup for online games, and it's always 64k per channel - not like 56k modems that may only connect at 26k because of line conditions.
Have you looked into ISDN? I know Earthlink used to have decent rates for it.
Rice and medicine are great in the short term, like after a disaster, but long term any free aid like that just kills local industry, ensuring that the third world country you're "helping" remains third world - and dependent on aid.
Laptops to poor people may seem useless (and I'm not convinced of their worth), but at least it's trying to change the underlying cause of being poor (access to production), instead of simply prolonging their existence for another day.
Yes. How old was your G5 when you decided to replace it?
The main point was that both the Windows and Mac paths have some dead ends. It's not some crazy Apple conspiracy that you can't upgrade your G5; it happens with all technology.
Macs have generally been more expensive (moreso before the switch to Intel); I don't see how that invalidates the comparison of technological dead ends.
Then I should've phrased it better, but I was just trying to avoid the "just Google it" response. I did google it, and didn't come up with anything enlightening.
I like how you equate asking for an example with calling people liars. Not everyone is out to get you.
So, the list:
- Spatial file browser
- Tabbed folders
- Stuff thats actually is in OS X and so irrelevant to the discussion (colored labels, drill down)
I guess we have different definitions of features then. I'd consider a method of organizing my files one feature, and a method of launching applications another. Both OS 9 and OS X have these. They use different methods of doing so, but both can do so.
For example, spatial vs. non-spatial file managers - they both do the same thing (organize files), one's just nicer to use. Which one is nicer depends on who you talk to (I happen to like non-spatial), so I'd call that a personal preference.
Tabbed folders vs. folders in the dock (or Stacks in 10.5) - correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds like they do the same thing: let you quickly access commonly used files and folders. I'd consider the Quick Launch bar in the Windows task bar the same feature, just done differently. Again, which one is nicer depends on the user.
So, you consider these two items missing features; I'd say their underlying features are there, just implemented differently.
I've criticized OS 9? Where? I had no idea. Must be the same sentence I used the word liar.
As for using OS9 myself, I don't own a PowerPC machine, or know anyone that does. That makes it a bit difficult to try out OS 9.
Indeed, if Windows makes you happier, use it.
I've not experienced this. I've moved Skype, the DVD player, and several other programs out of Applications to different folders and they seem to work just fine. I actually moved them, not created an alias. Can you describe your experience being unable to move applications a little more?
Depends on your definition of affordable. I play WoW on my quad-core 2.66 Ghz Mac Pro (with swappable ATI X1900) and it's awesome. I previously played on a Dell P4 2.4 Ghz and ATI X850.
I'm sorry your G5 sucked at WoW and couldn't be upgraded. Think of a 1.5 Ghz Celeron with an AGP slot and DDR1 RAM - there's really no way to upgrade that machine to be good either. In both cases you'd have to toss the old machine and buy a new one, since the new processors, memory, and video card wouldn't be compatible with the old motherboard.
Yeah, the Finder sucks. Then again, Explorer also locks up on me when the share is no longer available.
Since I've never used version 9, I have no idea what's missing. I've seen some lists of "missing features" but it's always things like "some of the Apple menu functionality was replaced by the Dock, and I liked the Apple menu better". Personal preference isn't a missing feature. If there are actual missing features, I'm curious what they are?
I maintain my own desktop. You have to maintain your desktop whether or not you maintain a server so you can of course argue that the additional server maintenance is no big deal, but in my opinion desktop maintenance is considerably easier than server maintenance.
Most desktop failures are immediately obvious, whereas server things like mail flow have to be checked on - you might have no new messages because nobody's emailed you, or because your mail server isn't delivering messages properly. If my desktop is powered off while I'm away for a week, no problem. If my server dies on my second day of vacation, that's a bad thing.
For backups my desktop has mirrored drives, plus scheduled backups to an external drive. Also my phone has a copy of my email, contacts, etc.
Just about. Email, web, scheduling are all online, and I actually wind up accessing these on my phone more than my desktop.
I still do my finances local, and the occasional document. Video games are local. Work is done on a work computer, which is maintained by the company.
I realize that moving to "my crap is on the network" instead of "my crap in on my computer" is not for everyone, especially if one enjoys running a server. I used to, and so I did; now I don't.
Google Apps has several levels of service and space. They do have a free option, since I've never paid them anything. I have 6 mb of space per account (same as regular Gmail).
Agreed, the cost is not an issue, I should have been more clear. Maintaining continuous power is an ongoing task (monitoring and testing UPSes, replacing batteries).
As mentioned, this has already happened to me. I don't feel like doing another recovery.
Disk failures are a matter of "when", not "if".
All of these - power availability, hardware failure, backups - are solved problems, just as changing oil/brakes/etc on a car are solved. Knowing how to do something doesn't mean I actually want to do it.
I don't change my own oil any more (even though I'm perfectly capable), and I don't spend time every week checking on my UPS, backups, and disk status. Let someone else do it.
With Google Apps (and similar offerings from Yahoo, etc) there is no @gmail.com address, just accounts at your custom domains. I had no trouble migrating from my Qmail+IMAP+SSL setup, and my mail is no more filtered than it used to be.
You give up some control over your email - no more greylisting for me - but the convenience of someone else worrying about power, disks, backups, spam filtering, etc is too much to pass up for me, especially since it's free. If Google went bankrupt tomorrow, I don't even lose mail since it's already been downloaded through IMAP. In fact, I normally access my mail through my mail program or my phone (IMAP and SMTP over SSL); I almost never actually use the web interface except to create filters.
I don't recall saying that they would, just that air braking was one technology they could use besides tire friction. I also listed retro rockets. Throw all 3 of those together and add in some other fictional technology, and you're all set.
Of course, I haven't seen the show yet, and don't know how they'll explain the stopping power (if they bother to explain it at all).. just that they're going to rely on more than tire friction.
The original KITT eventually added air brakes (panels that popped out like in planes) to stop faster; nothing says this one needs to rely solely on tire friction. Retro-rockets are another idea.
Regardless, I was only stating that making a car that can do things that would kill a passenger is not silly if the car can drive itself.
The car can drive itself; if there are no passengers and the car can withstand 470g, then what's the problem with braking that fast? No doubt the car brakes slower with passengers so as not to kill them.
If talk is more profitable than music, then yes. Witness what happened when TV realized that reality TV was cheaper to produce than actual good writing.
I think most people listen to music in the background while doing something else (driving, working, playing games). They're not escaping anything, since they're concentrating on reality, not the music. Sitting and listening to music for hours would be, yes, but that's not as common. Watching TV or movies, or reading a fiction book are also (healthy) escapes.
Almost anything can be used as an escape from reality. If you spend all your time listening to and thinking about a particular talk show, and ignore your family/job/bills, then that talk show would be an escape from reality.
The only problem with escaping reality is when people do it too much and let their reality suffer.. unpaid bills, unattended family, etc.
Sure. More people have died from high school football or swimming pools than nuclear power. And lets not even talk about the 40,000 people a year that die in car crashes. Why would you be afraid of a nuclear reactor, and not cars?
Anyways, imagine every new subdivision came with a reactor preinstalled, and everyone was guaranteed 5 cent/KWH electric for the next 40 years. I'd buy a house there.
If you can lower your consumption by a magnitude, why haven't you done so already?
The waste is already underground in a sealed shielded container. Just leave it there!
Part of this is because every reactor has used a different design. If it takes 60 months to certify the first reactor's design and installation, and 1 month to certify each additional installation using the same exact design, that'd work.
Just wait a few years, with global warming you will!
Serious answer: I'm having trouble finding a link, but I've read about Mercedes(?) talking about moving to 40 volt electric systems, so that they could move to all-electric heater and A/C.
And to others, it's not. I don't listen to the radio, but I do usually have iTunes playing in the background with my ~2000 songs (all legal). It repeats, but only about every 5 days of playing time.
I never understood the mentality that "I like X and not Y, so Y is bad". You've given good examples of insipid lyrics, and I've heard just as much stupidity in talk radio. It's a personal preference - I like vanilla ice cream, you like chocolate. That doesn't mean either flavor is bad.
Where [anything] = music, TV, talk radio (gasp), books, sports, sex, politics.. pretty much everything.
Slashdot can be considered a web app. A simple one to be sure, but it's a database of comments, a journal-writing program, and a messaging system.
Web apps require a web browser, yes. Fancy or not, Slashdot still (barely) qualifies as a web app. Just about anything that isn't a static web page would.
No, but iTunes does support Apple Lossless, which is also lossless and convertible to MP3, AAC, Ogg, etc.
Today. Will it always be? Or will we install constant surveillance, which will then be used by future governments, which may or may not be as good as this one?