Exactly, just like the other two people replying to you said... iMovie is free with Apples and can save out to that so very tightly controlled format... the common DVD... so I can save out a movie onto a disc and play it in anyone's DVD player... THAT's the way it should be... I should not be forced to make my family/friends have MS products on their PC to play my movies... and I would LOVE to be able to save out to a format such as DVD so that people without PCs can see my movies.
This is why, when my laptop dies, my replacement shalst be a Mac... no ifs or buts.
Crap Microsoft, Crap indeed. You are now lying through your... well, backside. MS = Choice my arse.
Microsoft is ALL about cornering you into using MS products...
PRIME example is their damn Movie Maker 2... quite nice program to use (I haven't used iMovie, so I can't compare), but then try and save... "Hmmm, I'd like to save to an open format that pretty much anyone can play... VCD or SVCD, or perhaps just plain MPEG would be nice." "Hmmm, I seem to ONLY be able to save to MS formats unless I have a few gig free to save out to a straight DV dump and then use someone else's program to convert to a more user friendly format, so really I'm forcing anyone who wants to watch movies I've made to have an MS compatible player"
I have a Compaq laptop that was bought in the US by the Dot Com I was working for which went under 2 years back. I bought the laptop for $500US (An Armada M700 850MHz with 320Meg of RAM, still does the job fine for me at home)... anyway, on returning to Australia I had the battery just die and not recharge any more... on checking their website (hard to navigate, but very handy to be able to bring up warrenty info based on your serial number) I found the machine has a 3 year warrenty.
I had it picked up and delivered back with new battery within a few days.
Months later and the powerpack gave up the ghost... around a 3 day turnaround there, they just sent out a new powerpack with no further questions (I think they have issues).
Recently the fan stopped working so I called them up to have that fixed and thought they could also fix up a couple of niggly things that were bugging me about it, a) one of the buttons for the nipple was getting annoying to click properly, and b) the speakers had deteriorated to where the sound from them was very average.
Now I thought the last two items could be put down to usual wear and tear and I would be charged for them, or not be able to have them repaired.
But nope... system board replaced, new top part of the case, new speakers and nipple/buttons...
Works better than new now.
I'm a happy camper who has not been out of pocket once.
(Admittedly those are a reasonable list of faults, but nothing catostrophic)
Or perhaps you could use the big, bad Telstra and now get uncapped/128 Cable for $69.95 whith no excess download charges and speed limited to just to 64K after 10Gig...
Optus are now running scared (I'm an Optus cable customer) as they have suddenly given those of us on the 3Gig plans an extra 3Gig for the next two months before they announce their 'new plans'
Me thinks they will be close to Telstra.:)
About time telstra went with no excess data charges.
"Sometimes, I can't help but wonder that we humans are like viruses, we just reproduce/replicate endlessly."
And sometimes I can't help but wonder how people can think they can quote movies and others will think it's their own thoughts rather than a script writers.
The thing that baffles me with Quicktime is that you still have to PAY to have the privilage of doing what every other free player out there already does... show a movie in fullscreen.
I'm all for Quicktime charging to be able to author quicktime movies, but to be able to watch them in fullscreen baffles me.
(And I love how on their website they demonstrate it as some amazing feature to be able to do so and call it their 'Theatre' mode or some such crud...)
Dear god! I unsuspectingly clicked on that link too, expecting some funny thing about google... but jeeeeesus! I've never closed a window faster in my life (computer based window, I'm sure I've been pretty fast on the house window closing in the past)... god that's wrong.
Ahhh, thanks for the clarification... if that is the case then I definitely want this feature on any 35mm camera I buy, as it's the main thing I love about film cameras (and now more expensive digital), the ability to easily limit your depth of field etc.
"No depth of field (a.k.a. depth of focus) preview"
I am actually interested in this point as I'm sure my Dad's camera, the one I used to use before I got my own digital, and which I want my own of as it was beautifully simple and effective to use, had this....
ie. When I looked through the view finder I could cleary see the background blurred out and my subject nicely focused when using a narrow DOF...
Oh man, that is cool... sure, the NGage isn't... it's ugly as sin (Exactly how ugly is sin anyway? Surely there are some pretty darn attractive sins? Lust for example... man, that can be a darn puurty sin).
But this is for any phone using the same base operating system, so in effect it runs on others already (as shown in the article), and more in the future... maybe even phones that... wait for it... look like phones!
When the contract on my current phone runs out (in around 10 months I think), there is bound to be a phone that's nice and cheap running the operating system... and SNAP, I shalst have it, and I shalst have Galaga, 1942 and pacman on my phone.
And I shall be happy.
And I shall forget that the actual reason for having the phone is to take and make calls... but I shan't care, for I shall have 1980 arcady goodness in my pocket (Insert lewd references to pockets and joysticks here).
I have had the same mobile phone number I got in 2000... and have switched carriers along the way... and will probably switch again.
It's all very easy, and a great feature, I don't want to ever have to go and change everything that lists my phone number (business cards, resumes etc.) or have to stay with one carrier just because I want to keep the number.
About time you yanks got the feature!:D Yeay for you guys, you'll find it's a great boon.
(Although I see some saying you're paying $2.20 for the privilage? That's nasty)
bingo... they'll support THEIR software and THEIR hardware, they CAN'T support every other piece of software out there, especially software which goes and wipes out bits of other software... it's just too hard to explain it all to someone who doesn't grasp the lower concepts.
* Car manufacturers won't give people instructions on how to fit after market exhausts. * Mobile phone makers won't guide people through how to fit after market flashing antenna attachments to their phones. * Apple won't support customers who want to install linux over the top of OSX...
Really... this is predominantely a guy bitching about how Dell won't send people to his website to buy his product (he is, check the article)...
They have no reason to provide support such as this, it's time the consultants should be using to support the Dell Hardware and Dell Software. Let LavaSoft et al handle their own darn support.
They are not shipping PCs with spyware on it already, they just aren't telling people how to install programs like ad-aware etc. They don't have any requirement to do so, they support problems with the PCs as they ship them, not with extra programs on them.
Stop making stuff up... where do you get this crap information from?
1) Your analogy is a little flawed... it's more like the car manufacturer/seller saying "Call the DOT" (Although, I'm not sure how a collision equates to spyware... I would suggest maybe the problem with the car would more likely be the removal of dodgy gas that you've put in it from some petrol station that you want to know how to get rid of, but doing so might clean out some dodgy thing the car maker has also put in your tank)
2) The problem with cosying up with a spyware cleaner is that this would then pressure said cleaner to maybe turn a blind eye to Dell's own spyware... then perhaps the spyware removal software wouldn't recognise Dell's software as spyware even if it could be classified as such.
"Look at the automotive industry, can you imagine if all the cars ran on gasoline but Chevy's needed one brand of gas and Ford needed another brand of gas and so on? You would have to carefully plan your trips to make sure the right gas stations were at the right locations so you could get you specific brand of gas. This would lead to a lack of competition among gas companies (what competition there is now) and more outrageous prices without any method of check to see if the cost is justified."
The petrol in the cars is more akin to the CPU under the hood... you've got Unleaded/Diesel fuel(AMD/Intel) which dictates the type of engine (motherboard) that the car (Computer) needs to use.
After this though, cars may do the 'same' thing, but they do it in any one of a number of ways... different ways of steering (steering assist, power steering, drive by wire, old-world rack and pinion), different suspension methods, different sound systems, different seats.
Same for computers... you've got your basic building blocks there and you can whack in different hardware and software bits to make it do things in different ways, but with the same end goals.
You've used a flawed analogy that doesn't help anyone understand anything better.
If that's how they handle the case of a high number of people at their website... in this very ugly manner... imagine how they handle other extreme cases with their hardware/software... Not confidence inspiring really.
Yeah, but... the Government website...
on
Web 'Rules' Changing?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
But, to me, the Government website was a mess... WAY too many headings on the one page for my liking... why couldn't they have the headings on one page which linked through to the sub headings? Or, to keep it in one page, click on the heading to expand out the sub headings?
Reducing the number of clicks to get somewhere just to reduce the number of clicks is ridiculous when the tradeoff is an actually harder to immediately grab site.
"Learning to use a computer is just like learning a new language!"
Which is why it should be treated as such and given its own class... as it already is. You learn your new language in language class, and you learn about computers in your computer class... you learn how to read and write and do maths etc. in your other classes, you do not need the distraction of a PC for those... to have the issues of crashes, or reboots, or running out of batteries or accessing the web, or IMing your classmates.
Where is the benefit in children so young requiring these PCs?
Have a nice computer lab... the computers can be years old... it doesn't matter, what do you need heaps of power for in a teaching environment? They just need enough to do word processing, spreadsheet usage, maths, some programming... and some fun stuff... NONE of which need anything more powerful than PCs 5 or more years old.
I'm a geek... I love my PCs, I have many, I have a wireless network, I work with them all day... but I see how very distruptive they can be to learning... keep them out of the classrooms of the young!
I have a 3 month old, so not old enough to be doing any sort of self entertaining yet in the car (it's either sleeping, crying or hitting the soft toy bug that we hang near him... so I suppose that is some sort of entertainment)... but when he and his future siblings are old enough you can be darn sure we'll be talking/singing with them in the car, giving them books to read/colour in, travel games to play (I used to play travel games of scrabble etc with my brother)... yes they'll whinge... yes they'll make the trip unbareable at times, but overall... it makes them and you better people...
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Exactly, just like the other two people replying to you said... iMovie is free with Apples and can save out to that so very tightly controlled format... the common DVD... so I can save out a movie onto a disc and play it in anyone's DVD player... THAT's the way it should be... I should not be forced to make my family/friends have MS products on their PC to play my movies... and I would LOVE to be able to save out to a format such as DVD so that people without PCs can see my movies.
This is why, when my laptop dies, my replacement shalst be a Mac... no ifs or buts.
Crap Microsoft, Crap indeed. You are now lying through your... well, backside. MS = Choice my arse.
Microsoft is ALL about cornering you into using MS products...
PRIME example is their damn Movie Maker 2... quite nice program to use (I haven't used iMovie, so I can't compare), but then try and save... "Hmmm, I'd like to save to an open format that pretty much anyone can play... VCD or SVCD, or perhaps just plain MPEG would be nice." "Hmmm, I seem to ONLY be able to save to MS formats unless I have a few gig free to save out to a straight DV dump and then use someone else's program to convert to a more user friendly format, so really I'm forcing anyone who wants to watch movies I've made to have an MS compatible player"
"Hmmm, MS can blow me, and blow me hard"
You obviously havent seen their baby range, which includes soft toys with sometimes a large, central duplo sized lego piec which is removable...
I have a Compaq laptop that was bought in the US by the Dot Com I was working for which went under 2 years back. I bought the laptop for $500US (An Armada M700 850MHz with 320Meg of RAM, still does the job fine for me at home)... anyway, on returning to Australia I had the battery just die and not recharge any more... on checking their website (hard to navigate, but very handy to be able to bring up warrenty info based on your serial number) I found the machine has a 3 year warrenty.
I had it picked up and delivered back with new battery within a few days.
Months later and the powerpack gave up the ghost... around a 3 day turnaround there, they just sent out a new powerpack with no further questions (I think they have issues).
Recently the fan stopped working so I called them up to have that fixed and thought they could also fix up a couple of niggly things that were bugging me about it, a) one of the buttons for the nipple was getting annoying to click properly, and b) the speakers had deteriorated to where the sound from them was very average.
Now I thought the last two items could be put down to usual wear and tear and I would be charged for them, or not be able to have them repaired.
But nope... system board replaced, new top part of the case, new speakers and nipple/buttons...
Works better than new now.
I'm a happy camper who has not been out of pocket once.
(Admittedly those are a reasonable list of faults, but nothing catostrophic)
"There are some images of the place up on their website"
:P
Shouldn't that be "There were some images of the place up on their website"?
Or perhaps you could use the big, bad Telstra and now get uncapped/128 Cable for $69.95 whith no excess download charges and speed limited to just to 64K after 10Gig...
:)
Optus are now running scared (I'm an Optus cable customer) as they have suddenly given those of us on the 3Gig plans an extra 3Gig for the next two months before they announce their 'new plans'
Me thinks they will be close to Telstra.
About time telstra went with no excess data charges.
"Sometimes, I can't help but wonder that we humans are like viruses, we just reproduce/replicate endlessly."
And sometimes I can't help but wonder how people can think they can quote movies and others will think it's their own thoughts rather than a script writers.
The thing that baffles me with Quicktime is that you still have to PAY to have the privilage of doing what every other free player out there already does... show a movie in fullscreen.
I'm all for Quicktime charging to be able to author quicktime movies, but to be able to watch them in fullscreen baffles me.
(And I love how on their website they demonstrate it as some amazing feature to be able to do so and call it their 'Theatre' mode or some such crud...)
Geeze, you think that Raimi isn't a big enough geek to love Superman and want to do a homage to one of the greatest superhero films of all time?
Dear god! I unsuspectingly clicked on that link too, expecting some funny thing about google... but jeeeeesus! I've never closed a window faster in my life (computer based window, I'm sure I've been pretty fast on the house window closing in the past)... god that's wrong.
Ahhh, thanks for the clarification... if that is the case then I definitely want this feature on any 35mm camera I buy, as it's the main thing I love about film cameras (and now more expensive digital), the ability to easily limit your depth of field etc.
"No depth of field (a.k.a. depth of focus) preview"
I am actually interested in this point as I'm sure my Dad's camera, the one I used to use before I got my own digital, and which I want my own of as it was beautifully simple and effective to use, had this....
ie. When I looked through the view finder I could cleary see the background blurred out and my subject nicely focused when using a narrow DOF...
Am I missing something?
Oh man, that is cool... sure, the NGage isn't... it's ugly as sin (Exactly how ugly is sin anyway? Surely there are some pretty darn attractive sins? Lust for example... man, that can be a darn puurty sin).
But this is for any phone using the same base operating system, so in effect it runs on others already (as shown in the article), and more in the future... maybe even phones that... wait for it... look like phones!
When the contract on my current phone runs out (in around 10 months I think), there is bound to be a phone that's nice and cheap running the operating system... and SNAP, I shalst have it, and I shalst have Galaga, 1942 and pacman on my phone.
And I shall be happy.
And I shall forget that the actual reason for having the phone is to take and make calls... but I shan't care, for I shall have 1980 arcady goodness in my pocket (Insert lewd references to pockets and joysticks here).
Ahhhhh.
You poor man, you're not wirelessly connected... :(
:D
How sad...
I have had the same mobile phone number I got in 2000... and have switched carriers along the way... and will probably switch again.
:D Yeay for you guys, you'll find it's a great boon.
It's all very easy, and a great feature, I don't want to ever have to go and change everything that lists my phone number (business cards, resumes etc.) or have to stay with one carrier just because I want to keep the number.
About time you yanks got the feature!
(Although I see some saying you're paying $2.20 for the privilage? That's nasty)
bingo... they'll support THEIR software and THEIR hardware, they CAN'T support every other piece of software out there, especially software which goes and wipes out bits of other software... it's just too hard to explain it all to someone who doesn't grasp the lower concepts.
* Car manufacturers won't give people instructions on how to fit after market exhausts.
* Mobile phone makers won't guide people through how to fit after market flashing antenna attachments to their phones.
* Apple won't support customers who want to install linux over the top of OSX...
Really... this is predominantely a guy bitching about how Dell won't send people to his website to buy his product (he is, check the article)...
They have no reason to provide support such as this, it's time the consultants should be using to support the Dell Hardware and Dell Software. Let LavaSoft et al handle their own darn support.
They are not shipping PCs with spyware on it already, they just aren't telling people how to install programs like ad-aware etc. They don't have any requirement to do so, they support problems with the PCs as they ship them, not with extra programs on them.
Stop making stuff up... where do you get this crap information from?
1) Your analogy is a little flawed... it's more like the car manufacturer/seller saying "Call the DOT" (Although, I'm not sure how a collision equates to spyware... I would suggest maybe the problem with the car would more likely be the removal of dodgy gas that you've put in it from some petrol station that you want to know how to get rid of, but doing so might clean out some dodgy thing the car maker has also put in your tank)
:)
2) The problem with cosying up with a spyware cleaner is that this would then pressure said cleaner to maybe turn a blind eye to Dell's own spyware... then perhaps the spyware removal software wouldn't recognise Dell's software as spyware even if it could be classified as such.
Or am I just being a finicky bastard?
"Look at the automotive industry, can you imagine if all the cars ran on gasoline but Chevy's needed one brand of gas and Ford needed another brand of gas and so on? You would have to carefully plan your trips to make sure the right gas stations were at the right locations so you could get you specific brand of gas. This would lead to a lack of competition among gas companies (what competition there is now) and more outrageous prices without any method of check to see if the cost is justified."
The petrol in the cars is more akin to the CPU under the hood... you've got Unleaded/Diesel fuel(AMD/Intel) which dictates the type of engine (motherboard) that the car (Computer) needs to use.
After this though, cars may do the 'same' thing, but they do it in any one of a number of ways... different ways of steering (steering assist, power steering, drive by wire, old-world rack and pinion), different suspension methods, different sound systems, different seats.
Same for computers... you've got your basic building blocks there and you can whack in different hardware and software bits to make it do things in different ways, but with the same end goals.
You've used a flawed analogy that doesn't help anyone understand anything better.
If that's how they handle the case of a high number of people at their website... in this very ugly manner... imagine how they handle other extreme cases with their hardware/software... Not confidence inspiring really.
But, to me, the Government website was a mess... WAY too many headings on the one page for my liking... why couldn't they have the headings on one page which linked through to the sub headings? Or, to keep it in one page, click on the heading to expand out the sub headings?
Reducing the number of clicks to get somewhere just to reduce the number of clicks is ridiculous when the tradeoff is an actually harder to immediately grab site.
I agree with what you say...
"Learning to use a computer is just like learning a new language!"
Which is why it should be treated as such and given its own class... as it already is. You learn your new language in language class, and you learn about computers in your computer class... you learn how to read and write and do maths etc. in your other classes, you do not need the distraction of a PC for those... to have the issues of crashes, or reboots, or running out of batteries or accessing the web, or IMing your classmates.
Where is the benefit in children so young requiring these PCs?
Have a nice computer lab... the computers can be years old... it doesn't matter, what do you need heaps of power for in a teaching environment? They just need enough to do word processing, spreadsheet usage, maths, some programming... and some fun stuff... NONE of which need anything more powerful than PCs 5 or more years old.
I'm a geek... I love my PCs, I have many, I have a wireless network, I work with them all day... but I see how very distruptive they can be to learning... keep them out of the classrooms of the young!
And you forgot that he used capital letters for his subject heading... that's an important one!
So very, very true... Great comment indeed.
I have a 3 month old, so not old enough to be doing any sort of self entertaining yet in the car (it's either sleeping, crying or hitting the soft toy bug that we hang near him... so I suppose that is some sort of entertainment)... but when he and his future siblings are old enough you can be darn sure we'll be talking/singing with them in the car, giving them books to read/colour in, travel games to play (I used to play travel games of scrabble etc with my brother)... yes they'll whinge... yes they'll make the trip unbareable at times, but overall... it makes them and you better people...