I would question if DX10 is really that hard to have work (I won't say port, b/c I'm sure somewhere in MS it's already running on XP and has been all along) on XP. It looks to me that MS is using DX10 as a way to force users to move to Vista. They did something similar with DX9.something. Back when I was writing some graphics stuff for fun there were some updates to DX9 that wouldn't install on Win2k. Many users got them to work by just putting the dlls in the right places, so it didn't seem to be a 'technical' issue.
Good point, Google Browser Sync is one I forgot. What I want is a google browser sync that works across all browsers. IE, FF, Safari, Opera...a plugin for each that syncs up their bookmarks with your master list would be a cool addon.
I can't comment on recent apple quality, but I'm typing this on a G4 PB that still works great. I would venture to say that this is the best laptop I've ever owned in terms of build quality. The refusing the pre-announce thing is very annoying from apple though and the main reason I'm still on the PB.
I've pretty much made the decision to never move to Vista. Between XP, OS X, and linux I should be able to run any program I need to for the foreseeable future. Of course I'll be hosed when MS forces people to move to Vista for DX10, but then I'll just get my game fix from whatever console is hot atm.
True. I wish more people would use OGL, b/c that would mean more games for os x and linux. At this point though OGL has a tough hill to climb to be used heavily in the game space again.
Exactly. It also shows that the slowness with with OGL incorporates new features in a huge hinderence. Back when he was making those statements OGL was much better to develop for than DX. DX though didn't stand still and has eclipsed OGL for the most part.
Usually I toss in the blender some fresh frozen fruit, bit of yogurt, ice, and whey powder to make a quick, tasty and healthy meal. Once at work I'll get some coffee or a soda to get my caffeine fix going for the day.
I used to be one of those people that didn't eat breakfast, but after forcing myself to do it for a couple weeks I look forward to eating it every morning and have a lot more energy throughout the day.
The reality is, they do no want someone who can learn quickly, they want someone who already knows what to do.
Those are dumb employers then. When we hire someone we look for people who learn quickly. First off we have lots of proprietary systems that we won't be able to find someone with experience in anyways (and they'll most likely have to learn them before becoming effective). Second, technology is always changing. I want someone who can learn and adapt to all of the new technologies that are coming out.
You've basically summarized the only reason for anyone to upgrade any office version the last few releases. Excel. People always point out Word as not having any new features (well how many features can a word processing program have w/o turning it into a typesetting program?), but Excel is where there have been many cool new features added with each release.
I'm far from an Apple fan boy(or a fanboy of anything for that matter, everything could stand some improvement). The thing is that they have probably the best form of DRM out there right now. The music companies(either right or wrong) are requiring some sort of copy protection in order to distribute music online. Apple seems to have worked pretty hard to make all parties happy (ie, you can use itms and rarely have to think about DRM and the music companies came onboard). I don't know enough about emusic to know if they carry all the same labels as itms.
I look at the problem of stealing music as one that is going to have to be solved with compromise. The history of file sharing has shown the music companies that releasing files w/o some sort of protection won't work. They will require it in order to release files in a digital medium. From mine (and it appears many others) this is a fair trade off for ease of access digitally, legally, and the side benefit of my ownership being tracked in a fairly permanent way.
As far as your friends face. I'm sure you told her that apple was evil and left out the part that all she probably needed to do was call them and all her music would be restored. This would be even a better service if she had lost her hard drive in a crash for example.
It's a lot easier to forget arbitrary strings of characters than it is to lose a physical object.
They are not arbitrary. Even if they were, in the digital content age these types of things are important to remember and keep track of. To me it's easier to write down and/or remember 1 user and pwd than it is to keep track of tons of CDs and make sure they don't get lost or destroyed. As more things online go digital it's going to become even more important.
I don't benefit at all form having to unlock music before using it.
There is a great benefit for it, which I stated before. One of the things I've heard people moan about is having to rebuy their CDs when one is lost. With ITMS anything you buy is now attached to your account (by way of DRM). You now basically permanently own that song. You can lose the CD, your computer, pretty much anything and still get that song back for free. There is no other way to do that legally that I know of.
Why don't you help your friend and tell her to call apple so she can re-activate her songs instead of trying to push your itms, apple sucks agenda on her.
The point is it's unreasonable for Apple to force me to ask them permission to play these files. I don't have to ask Honda for permission every time I drive my car. I don't have to ask Panasonic for permission to watch TV. And, I don't have to ask CDBaby for permission to play CDs purchased there.
Losing your account information is equivalent to losing the keys to your car or losing the CDs you purchased. In all those cases it's harder to recover from that loss than it is from losing your itms account (my guess is that you can simply call apple and answer some questions to verify yourself).
In fact I think apple should advertise (and make it a big plus for using their service) that you never have to worry about losing your music again. They say they only keep track of the last 100 songs you purchased, but reports are if you call they will give them all to you again. To me that's a great service and would have saved me from rebuying the same CD multiple times for various reasons.
So by now she doesn't know her login, or even what email address she used to log in. The result is that she cannot access her legally purchased iTunes songs.
She tried calling apple? If this mysterious person has lost her email, her account name, and I'm guessing her password what makes you think she would've kept up with a CD all this time? Or are you arguing that you should always steal music, so just in case you lose the music you have no cost involved? Buy purchasing through itms she's probably in better shape when it comes to getting the music again in a legal manner.
Such a good point. College is looked at now by many young adults as a place to go party and watch college athletics (another problem) while being away from their parents for 4 years. If you really want to know why jobs are moving elsewhere look at the typical education levels of an American vs. the rest of the world. In the US, education just isn't important either at a personal or societal level. People in the US are happy to drink their way through college, hopefully get a job when they get out and sit at home every night watching Idol reruns. Meanwhile you have really ambitious Indians, Chinese, etc... who are being educated well and continuing to be educated. Even when the Indians start getting paid nearly the same salary (which they will, their salaries have already gone up quite a bit), they'll still be used b/c their education levels will be so much better.
Um, bullshit. As someone who was working corporate during that time, many jobs were 'let' and no, those jobs did not come back home at any time. So, those jobs were lost. Saw it with my own eyes.
And who is to say that new jobs weren't created? I know it's fun to think that all the CxOs just take home all the money the company saves when they find a cheaper way to do the same work, but that's not the case. They use the money they saved to invest in new products, new markets and new jobs. The downside is that this means to be successful you have to stay aware or what's going on around and keep your skills up.
LOL, in fact for many people a Mac is all they need. As computers become more and more mainstream (ie, your parents, grand parents, great grand parents), these people are going to be doing things like email, web, and digital pictures. For this type of person a mac is often exactly what they need. For example, AutoCad may not run on a mac, but who cares (majority of people don't!).
Apple has looked at what most people do with a computer and have made those things simple and fun to do. Very similar to what they did with the ipod.
I understand that college isn't cheap. You can find good deals in education though. I came from a lower middle class family. My parents made just enough to not qualify for any free college money (and I'm not a woman or a minority), but not enough to actually pay for it. So what I did was live at home and go to a local school. Now, we were fortunate enough to have a good local college nearby, but my example shows that education doesn't have to cost 100k+.
Also, while in school I worked 25-30 hours/week while taking 12 hour class loads and summer school and only finished 1 semester late with ~10k in student loans. I throw this out there because I keep seeing shows on TV where people are crying about being 100k in debt and all they have is BA in history or something. Many (not all) of these people should have thought about the consequences of going to party for 4 years before it was too late. School should be about getting an education, but so many people have been sold on the experience (partying, sports, etc...) that education often seems to take a backseat.
Ah but notice they earned $25,000 in 2004 and owe no income tax. They only got $2,138. They also qualify for an EIC of $2,209, bringing their total refund to $4,347!. Even adding your $8664/year in food stamps in Texas, that only comes to $12,111 in government welfare, which is nowhere near the $35,000. It's not even half that, half being $17,500. To reach it they'd have to have another 2 children. You can only reach $40k by including their earnings, which is the vast majority of their income, more than 2/3. And that's if they live in Texas and get foodstamps. However it doesn't say they live in Texas or get foodstamps. But it does say they work, that is they earned $25,000.
The first example I found only included federal income tax returns, which they received almost $5k from (which they didn't pay anyways). Food stamp rates differ by state so I just picked one applied what else they would receive if they lived in Texas. That still leaves things like subsidized housing, state income tax returns, other assistance programs, etc... that haven't been applied and they already have gotten almost 1/2 their original salary in basically 'free' money. Many people don't realize how much assistance is given out.
I'll keep looking for the original article in which they did all the leg work of looking up the numbers and bringing them into one place.
They also should have the chance to get more education, be it finishing high school and going to a trade or vocational school, or going to college.
What bothers me is that nearly everyone by and large has that chance. Certain cultures in the US just don't look at education as important and then don't take advantage of the opportunities given.
The problem is that you don't have any kids. I can't find the original article from 6-9 months ago, so the quickest example I could come up with from google is here. From the article:
Sam and Barbara are married and raising four children under age 17. They earned $25,000 in 2004 and owe no income tax. Their maximum CTC is $4,000 (4 children x $1,000). Fifteen percent (15%) of their earnings over $10,750 is $2,138 ($25,000 - $10,750 = $14,250; 15 percent of $14,250 is $2,138). Since the couple has no income tax liability, none of their CTC is used--the full $4,000 remains. Since this is more than 15 percent of their earnings above $10,750, Sam and Barbara receive a CTC refund of $2,138. They also qualify for an EIC of $2,209, bringing their total refund to $4,347!
You'll notice this is just on their federal taxes and doesn't include Medicaid, food stamps, WIC, SSI, housing allowances, state refunds, etc... That same family above, if they lived in Texas would also receive $8664/year in food stamps. So now we're nearing 40k and we've only done federal tax returns and food stamps.
Now I'm not saying it's going to be easy to raise a family on this amount of money, but by setting things up this way we as a society are giving the wrong message (have more kids, we'll give you more assistance). I also don't want kids starving in the streets, but at some point we are going to have to make people responsible when they bring new lives into this world.
The thing often missing from the dirt-poor family isn't resources. If you are truly poor, then you can get an education for nearly nothing. If you're poor and a minority, then you're all set. No, the thing that is often missing is that the parents don't instill any work ethic or values in their kids. But if you think about it, why would they? In the US now you can pop out a few kids, never work a day in your life and make the equivalent of 35k-50k/year (depending of what state you live in) with all the gov. assistance that's handed out. The kids see this and think why shouldn't they do the same. The handout society that we have some how gotten into is where all these problems are coming from. It's self perpetuating and at this point there is no easy way out (without basically cutting off an group of able bodied people from the public dole).
Actually, Boortz has a good point! While I in HS, at my first real job, I was making more than the minimum wage of the time. You know, I always wonder if anyone actually makes minimum wage. A friend of mine owns a company and he employs quite a few people mainly for labor. He pays everyone double or more than minimum wage and gives bonuses for good work. The job isn't skillful, just labor intensive. The guys that work for him aren't living the high life or anything, but with many never having graduated HS it's not bad money.
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I would question if DX10 is really that hard to have work (I won't say port, b/c I'm sure somewhere in MS it's already running on XP and has been all along) on XP. It looks to me that MS is using DX10 as a way to force users to move to Vista. They did something similar with DX9.something. Back when I was writing some graphics stuff for fun there were some updates to DX9 that wouldn't install on Win2k. Many users got them to work by just putting the dlls in the right places, so it didn't seem to be a 'technical' issue.
Good point, Google Browser Sync is one I forgot. What I want is a google browser sync that works across all browsers. IE, FF, Safari, Opera...a plugin for each that syncs up their bookmarks with your master list would be a cool addon.
I'll agree that Safari works better on the mac than FF does. Give me 2 plugins for safari that work like adblock and firebug and I'll quit using FF.
At least you won't have to worry about any fanboy wars with game consoles.
LOL, should be the next slashdot pole.
Which has the worst fanboy wars?
a)consoles
b)OSs
c)editors (vi vs. emacs)
d)cowboy neal
e)gentoo vs. every other linux
I can't comment on recent apple quality, but I'm typing this on a G4 PB that still works great. I would venture to say that this is the best laptop I've ever owned in terms of build quality. The refusing the pre-announce thing is very annoying from apple though and the main reason I'm still on the PB.
I've pretty much made the decision to never move to Vista. Between XP, OS X, and linux I should be able to run any program I need to for the foreseeable future. Of course I'll be hosed when MS forces people to move to Vista for DX10, but then I'll just get my game fix from whatever console is hot atm.
True. I wish more people would use OGL, b/c that would mean more games for os x and linux. At this point though OGL has a tough hill to climb to be used heavily in the game space again.
I salute you for reading comments with an open mind and changing your opinion. Doesn't happen often (ever?) on slashdot! :)
Exactly. It also shows that the slowness with with OGL incorporates new features in a huge hinderence. Back when he was making those statements OGL was much better to develop for than DX. DX though didn't stand still and has eclipsed OGL for the most part.
Usually I toss in the blender some fresh frozen fruit, bit of yogurt, ice, and whey powder to make a quick, tasty and healthy meal. Once at work I'll get some coffee or a soda to get my caffeine fix going for the day.
I used to be one of those people that didn't eat breakfast, but after forcing myself to do it for a couple weeks I look forward to eating it every morning and have a lot more energy throughout the day.
The reality is, they do no want someone who can learn quickly, they want someone who already knows what to do.
Those are dumb employers then. When we hire someone we look for people who learn quickly. First off we have lots of proprietary systems that we won't be able to find someone with experience in anyways (and they'll most likely have to learn them before becoming effective). Second, technology is always changing. I want someone who can learn and adapt to all of the new technologies that are coming out.
It may not explode, but at some point it will run out of fuel. We might be happy for some global warming when that happens lol
You've basically summarized the only reason for anyone to upgrade any office version the last few releases. Excel. People always point out Word as not having any new features (well how many features can a word processing program have w/o turning it into a typesetting program?), but Excel is where there have been many cool new features added with each release.
I'm far from an Apple fan boy(or a fanboy of anything for that matter, everything could stand some improvement). The thing is that they have probably the best form of DRM out there right now. The music companies(either right or wrong) are requiring some sort of copy protection in order to distribute music online. Apple seems to have worked pretty hard to make all parties happy (ie, you can use itms and rarely have to think about DRM and the music companies came onboard). I don't know enough about emusic to know if they carry all the same labels as itms.
I look at the problem of stealing music as one that is going to have to be solved with compromise. The history of file sharing has shown the music companies that releasing files w/o some sort of protection won't work. They will require it in order to release files in a digital medium. From mine (and it appears many others) this is a fair trade off for ease of access digitally, legally, and the side benefit of my ownership being tracked in a fairly permanent way.
As far as your friends face. I'm sure you told her that apple was evil and left out the part that all she probably needed to do was call them and all her music would be restored. This would be even a better service if she had lost her hard drive in a crash for example.
What if you didn't need backups? The music you own is attached to you. You can go download again at anytime.
It's a lot easier to forget arbitrary strings of characters than it is to lose a physical object.
They are not arbitrary. Even if they were, in the digital content age these types of things are important to remember and keep track of. To me it's easier to write down and/or remember 1 user and pwd than it is to keep track of tons of CDs and make sure they don't get lost or destroyed. As more things online go digital it's going to become even more important.
I don't benefit at all form having to unlock music before using it.
There is a great benefit for it, which I stated before. One of the things I've heard people moan about is having to rebuy their CDs when one is lost. With ITMS anything you buy is now attached to your account (by way of DRM). You now basically permanently own that song. You can lose the CD, your computer, pretty much anything and still get that song back for free. There is no other way to do that legally that I know of.
Why don't you help your friend and tell her to call apple so she can re-activate her songs instead of trying to push your itms, apple sucks agenda on her.
The point is it's unreasonable for Apple to force me to ask them permission to play these files. I don't have to ask Honda for permission every time I drive my car. I don't have to ask Panasonic for permission to watch TV. And, I don't have to ask CDBaby for permission to play CDs purchased there.
Losing your account information is equivalent to losing the keys to your car or losing the CDs you purchased. In all those cases it's harder to recover from that loss than it is from losing your itms account (my guess is that you can simply call apple and answer some questions to verify yourself).
In fact I think apple should advertise (and make it a big plus for using their service) that you never have to worry about losing your music again. They say they only keep track of the last 100 songs you purchased, but reports are if you call they will give them all to you again. To me that's a great service and would have saved me from rebuying the same CD multiple times for various reasons.
So by now she doesn't know her login, or even what email address she used to log in. The result is that she cannot access her legally purchased iTunes songs.
She tried calling apple? If this mysterious person has lost her email, her account name, and I'm guessing her password what makes you think she would've kept up with a CD all this time? Or are you arguing that you should always steal music, so just in case you lose the music you have no cost involved? Buy purchasing through itms she's probably in better shape when it comes to getting the music again in a legal manner.
Americans are uneducated
Such a good point. College is looked at now by many young adults as a place to go party and watch college athletics (another problem) while being away from their parents for 4 years. If you really want to know why jobs are moving elsewhere look at the typical education levels of an American vs. the rest of the world. In the US, education just isn't important either at a personal or societal level. People in the US are happy to drink their way through college, hopefully get a job when they get out and sit at home every night watching Idol reruns. Meanwhile you have really ambitious Indians, Chinese, etc... who are being educated well and continuing to be educated. Even when the Indians start getting paid nearly the same salary (which they will, their salaries have already gone up quite a bit), they'll still be used b/c their education levels will be so much better.
Um, bullshit. As someone who was working corporate during that time, many jobs were 'let' and no, those jobs did not come back home at any time. So, those jobs were lost. Saw it with my own eyes.
And who is to say that new jobs weren't created? I know it's fun to think that all the CxOs just take home all the money the company saves when they find a cheaper way to do the same work, but that's not the case. They use the money they saved to invest in new products, new markets and new jobs. The downside is that this means to be successful you have to stay aware or what's going on around and keep your skills up.
LOL, in fact for many people a Mac is all they need. As computers become more and more mainstream (ie, your parents, grand parents, great grand parents), these people are going to be doing things like email, web, and digital pictures. For this type of person a mac is often exactly what they need. For example, AutoCad may not run on a mac, but who cares (majority of people don't!).
Apple has looked at what most people do with a computer and have made those things simple and fun to do. Very similar to what they did with the ipod.
I understand that college isn't cheap. You can find good deals in education though. I came from a lower middle class family. My parents made just enough to not qualify for any free college money (and I'm not a woman or a minority), but not enough to actually pay for it. So what I did was live at home and go to a local school. Now, we were fortunate enough to have a good local college nearby, but my example shows that education doesn't have to cost 100k+.
Also, while in school I worked 25-30 hours/week while taking 12 hour class loads and summer school and only finished 1 semester late with ~10k in student loans. I throw this out there because I keep seeing shows on TV where people are crying about being 100k in debt and all they have is BA in history or something. Many (not all) of these people should have thought about the consequences of going to party for 4 years before it was too late. School should be about getting an education, but so many people have been sold on the experience (partying, sports, etc...) that education often seems to take a backseat.
Ah but notice they earned $25,000 in 2004 and owe no income tax. They only got $2,138. They also qualify for an EIC of $2,209, bringing their total refund to $4,347!. Even adding your $8664/year in food stamps in Texas, that only comes to $12,111 in government welfare, which is nowhere near the $35,000. It's not even half that, half being $17,500. To reach it they'd have to have another 2 children. You can only reach $40k by including their earnings, which is the vast majority of their income, more than 2/3. And that's if they live in Texas and get foodstamps. However it doesn't say they live in Texas or get foodstamps. But it does say they work, that is they earned $25,000.
The first example I found only included federal income tax returns, which they received almost $5k from (which they didn't pay anyways). Food stamp rates differ by state so I just picked one applied what else they would receive if they lived in Texas. That still leaves things like subsidized housing, state income tax returns, other assistance programs, etc... that haven't been applied and they already have gotten almost 1/2 their original salary in basically 'free' money. Many people don't realize how much assistance is given out.
I'll keep looking for the original article in which they did all the leg work of looking up the numbers and bringing them into one place.
They also should have the chance to get more education, be it finishing high school and going to a trade or vocational school, or going to college.
What bothers me is that nearly everyone by and large has that chance. Certain cultures in the US just don't look at education as important and then don't take advantage of the opportunities given.
The problem is that you don't have any kids. I can't find the original article from 6-9 months ago, so the quickest example I could come up with from google is here. From the article:
Sam and Barbara are married and raising four children under age 17. They earned $25,000 in 2004 and owe no income tax. Their maximum CTC is $4,000 (4 children x $1,000). Fifteen percent (15%) of their earnings over $10,750 is $2,138 ($25,000 - $10,750 = $14,250; 15 percent of $14,250 is $2,138). Since the couple has no income tax liability, none of their CTC is used--the full $4,000 remains. Since this is more than 15 percent of their earnings above $10,750, Sam and Barbara receive a CTC refund of $2,138. They also qualify for an EIC of $2,209, bringing their total refund to $4,347!
You'll notice this is just on their federal taxes and doesn't include Medicaid, food stamps, WIC, SSI, housing allowances, state refunds, etc... That same family above, if they lived in Texas would also receive $8664/year in food stamps. So now we're nearing 40k and we've only done federal tax returns and food stamps.
Now I'm not saying it's going to be easy to raise a family on this amount of money, but by setting things up this way we as a society are giving the wrong message (have more kids, we'll give you more assistance). I also don't want kids starving in the streets, but at some point we are going to have to make people responsible when they bring new lives into this world.
The thing often missing from the dirt-poor family isn't resources. If you are truly poor, then you can get an education for nearly nothing. If you're poor and a minority, then you're all set. No, the thing that is often missing is that the parents don't instill any work ethic or values in their kids. But if you think about it, why would they? In the US now you can pop out a few kids, never work a day in your life and make the equivalent of 35k-50k/year (depending of what state you live in) with all the gov. assistance that's handed out. The kids see this and think why shouldn't they do the same. The handout society that we have some how gotten into is where all these problems are coming from. It's self perpetuating and at this point there is no easy way out (without basically cutting off an group of able bodied people from the public dole).
Actually, Boortz has a good point! While I in HS, at my first real job, I was making more than the minimum wage of the time. You know, I always wonder if anyone actually makes minimum wage. A friend of mine owns a company and he employs quite a few people mainly for labor. He pays everyone double or more than minimum wage and gives bonuses for good work. The job isn't skillful, just labor intensive. The guys that work for him aren't living the high life or anything, but with many never having graduated HS it's not bad money.