Re:Apple "invented" the beige Personal Computer...
on
Black Is The New Beige
·
· Score: 2
Weird coincidence(?), since he also introduced the first widely-known (afaik) black computer in 1988. Is Jobs the industry fashion leader or something?
Nah, that'd be the ZX81 (1981) or the ZX Spectrum (1982).
Manufacturers selling over the web offer you a choice of color and or style for your plain vanilla computer guts? Why not. To a limited degree this is probably happening, but not by major players, yet.
That depends on who manufactures your video card. You can get currently get blue, bright red, yellow, amber, neon green, and regular old fashioned PCB-green too.
I know this will start a heated debate, but if my tax dollars are paying for something, I want it issused so that some value comes back, not just a welfare-like giveaway.
Who cares what you want?;-)
If *MY* tax dollars are paying for something I damn well want to be able to use the fruits of that work any way I please - including in ways which are NOT GPL compatible.
Lifetime Tivo Service isn't expensive. Especially considering that you can upgrade the box very easily (and cheaply) to take larger hard drives, ethernet, etc. if you're so inclined.
Why stop at 16 Megs? The iPod has 128 Megs of Ram.
I've never understood that so-called "skip-proof" 'feature' of the iPod.
Surely, as everything is solid-state except the hard drive, if the drive 'skips', your data is gone because you've just had a hard-crash on your device?
Other than that... 128Mb? You're kidding, right? Are you sure it isn't 128kb?
Well, think about it though. Did it become the best browser as you say because MSFT is the best, or because no one else had a reasonable chance to develop one and make money? Thing is we will never know. And that's the whole point.
Well, given that Mosaic was free, Netscape was free (and if you read their pre-IPO filings, was always going to be completely free -- they were selling servers), Lynx is free, Athena was free... etc etc etc....
... what's the problem with IE being free again? Maybe you could answer that. Given that as I see it, every OTHER browser around at the time was *FREE*.
Consider.mht. Can anyone else read and write this format? No. What does that do if MSFT won't tell me how and people want to use it? It cuts me out of the equation, and I can't therefore compete.
It's a MIME ENCODED RFC822 MESSAGE BODY.
Want to know how I worked that out?
I opened the file and read the text. It said this:
From: <Saved by Microsoft Internet Explorer 5> Subject: Yahoo - Economist: States' Microsoft Plan Extreme Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 13:15:29 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0000_01C1E548.C7C24C1 0"; type="text/html" X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000
Even though you have to download software seperately if your a Windows user, Apple's 10 GB iPod is by far and away better.
There is no way any objective person could think this unit is superior.
It's got a 10 GB HD, 32 MB of Ram, the battery life is 10 hours, you can store your contacts on it, you can use it as a hard drive, you can even *BOOT* off it. There are also 3rd party apps to extend the functionality.
Waitaminute. Only 10Gb HD? The Nomad Jukebox 2 has 20Gb today.
The new Jukebox 3 will also have 20Gb, Firewire, etc. for the price of a 5Gb iPod.
What's superior about the iPod again? Oh... yeah... the size.
Well, sod the size. I want to carry my entire MP3 collection without paying a massive premium on top of the price of a Toshiba card-drive.
I'd love to see Textpad [textpad.com] come with win*. It's free as in annoyware (popup every 5th save?) though it's only $30 to register (to support more plugins).
I paid for my copy. If you use it a lot (I know I do), do the right thing - pay for yours.
M$ would not allow OEM's like Gateway, Compaq, and Dell to include any other browser on their machines. You could ONLY have IE, and you HAD TO INCLUDE IE with every machine.
WRONG.
You could have IE AND Netscape, but not only Netscape.
And IE had to be given the same prominence as IE. That is, if Netscape had an icon on the desktop, IE had to have one too.
...is a lack of high-quality games. I can count on one hand the number of X-box games that are worth the price. We always go back to Halo...the other games just can't measure up. When I buy a game system, I expect to have a decent game selection. X-box, when compared to PS2, just doesn't have that.
Is everyone just ignoring the fact that IT ISN'T CHRISTMAS OR THE RUN UP TO IT RIGHT NOW????
Anywhere outside of Q4, and you're looking at nearly zero sales of toys. Certainly an order of magnitude difference.
XBox released way too late in Europe. It was stupid - why release mid year? Everyone knows that the BIG money is made at the end of the year.
Lastly, a 2-disc special edition, with director's commentary and other goodies, is on it's way May 21st. Check out the cover art here [misterorange.com], and go to the digital bits [thedigitalbits.com] for more info. I don't think it has the chronological order option, but it might be on there as an easter egg (for those desperate and/or bored enough to watch it that way).
ARGH!
I'm getting so sick of this.
It happened with Fantasia - I go out and buy the new one and the old one. A week later, there's a special DVD set with an *extra* disk.
The SAME thing happened with ToyStory 2.
I did it again with Dogma.
WHY CAN'T THEY JUST SAY THAT THEY'RE DOING A SPECIAL VERSION LATER SO I DON'T HAVE TO BUY IT UNTIL THAT ONE COMES OUT?
Yeah, the propane thing. This was the only flaw that really got to me. That, and the fact that oxygen would have been somewhat *scarce* in the room after that little stunt. Not to mention Jodie's eyebrows. And since when do they make propane tanks light enough to fly around like that? Sheesh, it's a steel tank, not a punctured helium balloon.
Not all that scarce. Otherwise, surely you'd be worried every time you lit a candle in the bathroom?
There was A/C in there. And enough ventilation. And the room was big enough that there was no problem. (Hey, even on MIR, the Russians would occasionally smoke).
I'd be more worried about the toxicity of the gas.
As for the tank flying around like that - they're designed to shoot upwards if they explode.
It wasn't until version 4 of the two browsers that IE was widely regarded as fairly equal in quality with Netscape (not better, but just about the same). But by this time, IE was bundled with every copy of Windows, impossible to remove, and OEM's and ISP's were contractually forbidden to give Netscape equal availability. Netscape never had a chance to recover.
RUBBISH.
I bought a Packard Bell in 1998, which came with Windows 98, and both IE and Netcape preinstalled.
Explain that.
The 'contractually forbidden' clause was SPECIFICALLY that the OEMs weren't allows to remove IE from the desktop and replace it with Netscape - but both was fine.
Any DLL's which are part of Windows should be usable by any Windows applications I write.
If Internet Explorer is nothing than a 64K file which uses all the underlying Windows technology, then I should be allowed to make my own 64K application which is just as effective at surfing the web. Maybe I'll call it Brian's Browser. Since the bookmarks editor it uses is built into Windows, as is the web page 'subscription' service and the Auction Manager, it'll have basically the same feature set as IE and look/work very much the same, too.
I can then add on a few more features (maybe tabbed browsing or something) and sell it for $5 per copy, and make a little money off it, because Windows is so nice as to provide all the advanced web browsing funcionality as part of the base operating system.
Or, more to the point: Compaq should be able to bundle 'The Compaq Web Browser' with every PC it sells. The application would be only 64K large; it would use all the same built-in Windows code that IE uses for all its advanced functionality, except that the Compaq browser would have the Compaq logo at the top and default to a set of bookmarks which led to Compaq web pages. And the icon for this would be preinstalled on the Windows desktop, instead of the IE icon.
This would be fine with me. How nice of Microsoft to put all the time and effort into developing a state-of-the-art web browser, then making it part of Windows so that third-party applications can mix-and-match its technology at will!
That is exactly the case right now.
It's why AOL uses/used IE as their browser technology - because they can just wrap it in any way they like.
Your example of the "Compaq Web Browser" is actually kind of odd -- the IE Installation Kit tools let you do exactly that kind of customization to the browser - and have done so since at least Internet Explorer 3.0. @Home and Earthlink use it to customize their install packages. There's even a ZDNet version you can download if you so desire.
Also, see NeoPlanet - a custom skin around the IE render engine, which has been available on sale since at least 1996.
Using one that is proprietary, closed, and unportable certainly does indicate poor design to me, yes.
Portability becomes an issue only when one wants to port one's app to another platform.
If your initial analysis indicates that the cost of doing a port is far more than the possible profit from doing a port, then you may as well just write to the platform and cut the costs of the initial application design.
Good Design does not exist in a vacuum - there is a cost associated with bulletproofing, portability, etc etc which cannot be ignored in a commercial environment.
Ergo, if it's cheaper to design software such that it is tied to the 'proprietary, closed, unportable' HTML render engine, and would cost an estimated $20,000 less (in terms of development time, or possibly much more amortized over the duration of the product lifecycle) to do so, then it's probably worth it.
Haven't had any need for those programs. If I did, and found that they required components I have removed, I would have a choice of adding those components back in (easily done) or finding a competing product that is better designed.
So, let's see... using a freely available HTML rendering and parsing engine in some software indicates that the software isn't well designed?
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Weird coincidence(?), since he also introduced the first widely-known (afaik) black computer in 1988. Is Jobs the industry fashion leader or something?
Nah, that'd be the ZX81 (1981) or the ZX Spectrum (1982).
Simon
Manufacturers selling over the web offer you a choice of color and or style for your plain vanilla computer guts? Why not. To a limited degree this is probably happening, but not by major players, yet.
That depends on who manufactures your video card. You can get currently get blue, bright red, yellow, amber, neon green, and regular old fashioned PCB-green too.
Simon
Mr. Gates is hardly a revolutionary.
A businessperson, yes. A good businessperson? Of course; he's evil enough and it's hard to argue that his company is not monetarily successful.
I don't think you know what the word evil means. Either that, or you're lucky enough to have never encountered anything that actually was evil.
Simon
I know this will start a heated debate, but if my tax dollars are paying for something, I want it issused so that some value comes back, not just a welfare-like giveaway.
;-)
Who cares what you want?
If *MY* tax dollars are paying for something I damn well want to be able to use the fruits of that work any way I please - including in ways which are NOT GPL compatible.
Simon
Only after an educated voter base is established can these truly idiotic laws not get through.
What on EARTH makes you think you live in a direct democracy like that?
You don't.
You live in a democratic republic.
Want to know what that means?
You vote for the people WHO YOU WANT TO MAKE DECISIONS FOR YOU. Then *THEY* make decisions FOR YOU.
At this point, other than prodding them and saying "Hey Over Here!", the voting public have ZERO control over the system, until the next election.
Simon
Since when is $500 cheap? That's like half a year's salary for a Mexican working the orchards in California.
Since 1990, when a VCR cost more than that to buy on special at an electronics store.
Simon
So... in short...
You're cheap.
Lifetime Tivo Service isn't expensive. Especially considering that you can upgrade the box very easily (and cheaply) to take larger hard drives, ethernet, etc. if you're so inclined.
Simon
Why stop at 16 Megs? The iPod has 128 Megs of Ram.
I've never understood that so-called "skip-proof" 'feature' of the iPod.
Surely, as everything is solid-state except the hard drive, if the drive 'skips', your data is gone because you've just had a hard-crash on your device?
Other than that... 128Mb? You're kidding, right? Are you sure it isn't 128kb?
Simon
Well, given that Mosaic was free, Netscape was free (and if you read their pre-IPO filings, was always going to be completely free -- they were selling servers), Lynx is free, Athena was free... etc etc etc....
... what's the problem with IE being free again? Maybe you could answer that. Given that as I see it, every OTHER browser around at the time was *FREE*.
Consider
It's a MIME ENCODED RFC822 MESSAGE BODY.
Want to know how I worked that out?
I opened the file and read the text. It said this:Not too bright are you?
Simon
what rebooting? 09:18:38 up 348 days, 22:04, 4 users, load average: 2.34, 1.20, 1.44
I hope that's a server, and not a home machine - 'cos otherwise you're wasting a whole load of energy.
Simon
I assume it was you replying anonymously below.
Incorrect.
Xbox does not support 1080i.
Excuse me, Moron.
I have an XBox. You, it would appear, do not.
My video options are:
Video Mode (Letter Box, etc)
Enable 480p: On/Off
Enable 720p: On/Off
Enable 1080i: On/Off
So don't tell me that the XBox doesn't support it when I can see it with my own eyes, Moron.
Incorrect.
Xbox does not support 1080i.
Excuse me, Moron.
I have an XBox. You, it would appear, do not.
My video options are:
Video Mode (Letter Box, etc)
Enable 480p: On/Off
Enable 720p: On/Off
Enable 1080i: On/Off
So don't tell me that the XBox doesn't support it when I can see it with my own eyes, Moron.
Xbox does not support HDTV, it supports 480i, but not 1080i (HDTV standard)
Incorrect.
Xbox supports 1080i.
Simon
So you're planning on never buying anything, right?
No, I have a Nomad Jukebox. The iPod holds zero advantages for me.
Simon
Even though you have to download software seperately if your a Windows user, Apple's 10 GB iPod is by far and away better.
.
There is no way any objective person could think this unit is superior.
It's got a 10 GB HD, 32 MB of Ram, the battery life is 10 hours, you can store your contacts on it, you can use it as a hard drive, you can even *BOOT* off it. There are also 3rd party apps to extend the functionality.
Waitaminute. Only 10Gb HD? The Nomad Jukebox 2 has 20Gb today
The new Jukebox 3 will also have 20Gb, Firewire, etc. for the price of a 5Gb iPod.
What's superior about the iPod again? Oh... yeah... the size.
Well, sod the size. I want to carry my entire MP3 collection without paying a massive premium on top of the price of a Toshiba card-drive.
Simon
I'd love to see Textpad [textpad.com] come with win*. It's free as in annoyware (popup every 5th save?) though it's only $30 to register (to support more plugins).
I paid for my copy. If you use it a lot (I know I do), do the right thing - pay for yours.
Simon
M$ would not allow OEM's like Gateway, Compaq, and Dell to include any other browser on their machines. You could ONLY have IE, and you HAD TO INCLUDE IE with every machine.
WRONG.
You could have IE AND Netscape, but not only Netscape.
And IE had to be given the same prominence as IE. That is, if Netscape had an icon on the desktop, IE had to have one too.
Simon
...is a lack of high-quality games. I can count on one hand the number of X-box games that are worth the price. We always go back to Halo...the other games just can't measure up. When I buy a game system, I expect to have a decent game selection. X-box, when compared to PS2, just doesn't have that.
Is everyone just ignoring the fact that IT ISN'T CHRISTMAS OR THE RUN UP TO IT RIGHT NOW ????
Anywhere outside of Q4, and you're looking at nearly zero sales of toys. Certainly an order of magnitude difference.
XBox released way too late in Europe. It was stupid - why release mid year? Everyone knows that the BIG money is made at the end of the year.
Simon
Lastly, a 2-disc special edition, with director's commentary and other goodies, is on it's way May 21st. Check out the cover art here [misterorange.com], and go to the digital bits [thedigitalbits.com] for more info. I don't think it has the chronological order option, but it might be on there as an easter egg (for those desperate and/or bored enough to watch it that way).
ARGH!
I'm getting so sick of this.
It happened with Fantasia - I go out and buy the new one and the old one. A week later, there's a special DVD set with an *extra* disk.
The SAME thing happened with ToyStory 2.
I did it again with Dogma.
WHY CAN'T THEY JUST SAY THAT THEY'RE DOING A SPECIAL VERSION LATER SO I DON'T HAVE TO BUY IT UNTIL THAT ONE COMES OUT?
*pop*
Si
Yeah, the propane thing. This was the only flaw that really got to me. That, and the fact that oxygen would have been somewhat *scarce* in the room after that little stunt. Not to mention Jodie's eyebrows. And since when do they make propane tanks light enough to fly around like that? Sheesh, it's a steel tank, not a punctured helium balloon.
Not all that scarce. Otherwise, surely you'd be worried every time you lit a candle in the bathroom?
There was A/C in there. And enough ventilation. And the room was big enough that there was no problem. (Hey, even on MIR, the Russians would occasionally smoke).
I'd be more worried about the toxicity of the gas.
As for the tank flying around like that - they're designed to shoot upwards if they explode.
Simon
It wasn't until version 4 of the two browsers that IE was widely regarded as fairly equal in quality with Netscape (not better, but just about the same). But by this time, IE was bundled with every copy of Windows, impossible to remove, and OEM's and ISP's were contractually forbidden to give Netscape equal availability. Netscape never had a chance to recover.
RUBBISH.
I bought a Packard Bell in 1998, which came with Windows 98, and both IE and Netcape preinstalled.
Explain that.
The 'contractually forbidden' clause was SPECIFICALLY that the OEMs weren't allows to remove IE from the desktop and replace it with Netscape - but both was fine.
Simon
Where can I find the documentation for how to write my own front-end to the IE code in Windows?
http://msdn.microsoft.com. Look in the Internet Technologies / Internet SDK section for shdocvw.dll
Simon
Any DLL's which are part of Windows should be usable by any Windows applications I write.
If Internet Explorer is nothing than a 64K file which uses all the underlying Windows technology, then I should be allowed to make my own 64K application which is just as effective at surfing the web. Maybe I'll call it Brian's Browser. Since the bookmarks editor it uses is built into Windows, as is the web page 'subscription' service and the Auction Manager, it'll have basically the same feature set as IE and look/work very much the same, too.
I can then add on a few more features (maybe tabbed browsing or something) and sell it for $5 per copy, and make a little money off it, because Windows is so nice as to provide all the advanced web browsing funcionality as part of the base operating system.
Or, more to the point: Compaq should be able to bundle 'The Compaq Web Browser' with every PC it sells. The application would be only 64K large; it would use all the same built-in Windows code that IE uses for all its advanced functionality, except that the Compaq browser would have the Compaq logo at the top and default to a set of bookmarks which led to Compaq web pages. And the icon for this would be preinstalled on the Windows desktop, instead of the IE icon.
This would be fine with me. How nice of Microsoft to put all the time and effort into developing a state-of-the-art web browser, then making it part of Windows so that third-party applications can mix-and-match its technology at will!
That is exactly the case right now.
It's why AOL uses/used IE as their browser technology - because they can just wrap it in any way they like.
Your example of the "Compaq Web Browser" is actually kind of odd -- the IE Installation Kit tools let you do exactly that kind of customization to the browser - and have done so since at least Internet Explorer 3.0. @Home and Earthlink use it to customize their install packages. There's even a ZDNet version you can download if you so desire.
Also, see NeoPlanet - a custom skin around the IE render engine, which has been available on sale since at least 1996.
Simon
Using one that is proprietary, closed, and unportable certainly does indicate poor design to me, yes.
Portability becomes an issue only when one wants to port one's app to another platform.
If your initial analysis indicates that the cost of doing a port is far more than the possible profit from doing a port, then you may as well just write to the platform and cut the costs of the initial application design.
Good Design does not exist in a vacuum - there is a cost associated with bulletproofing, portability, etc etc which cannot be ignored in a commercial environment.
Ergo, if it's cheaper to design software such that it is tied to the 'proprietary, closed, unportable' HTML render engine, and would cost an estimated $20,000 less (in terms of development time, or possibly much more amortized over the duration of the product lifecycle) to do so, then it's probably worth it.
Simon
Haven't had any need for those programs. If I did, and found that they required components I have removed, I would have a choice of adding those components back in (easily done) or finding a competing product that is better designed.
So, let's see... using a freely available HTML rendering and parsing engine in some software indicates that the software isn't well designed?
Well I never.
Simon