Whether it 'wins' is one thing, but it does look as if the Wii is going to get Nintendo a lot more attention this time. And Nintendo game platforms have always been places where new ideas get tried it. From the doomed Virtual Boy through bongos-as-controllers to dual-screen touch-sensitive handhelds, a Nintendo machine has always given things a bit of a go.
Maybe the new creativity might start showing through that?
Am I the only one who finds it the least bit ironic that while the EU fines MS for bundling application, Apple is bashing MS with comericals bragging about how it bundles MORE software? I guess having no marketshare gives you the right to extra competative advantage?
Yes, I noticed that. However, the comparison is actually "Mac vs PC", not "Mac vs Microsoft". I can't buy a PC from Microsoft, I can buy a PC from Dell. Or HP. Or Fred down the road if I give him the cash to build one.
Dell, HP and Fred-down-the-road can bundle whatever applications they like. Years ago a lot of budget places used to bundle Lotus Smartsuite to keep their prices down vs bundling Office. So the comparison is valid. And yes, having no marketshare does rather free you from monopolist rules because, pretty much by definition, you're not a monopolist.
If a single mega-company were to migrate to Linux and rely on Red Hat for support...
...then Red Hat would ramp up its support staff pretty much overnight, or start subcontracting quickly to someone else. Someone like, oooh, IBM Global Services to take a not-so-random example.
This 767 story should remind us that the Google guys are no better than Ken Lay, the Tyco guy, or Marth Stewart.
No it shouldn't. I don't remember any of the Google lot having been convicted for anything - there's quite a difference there. Also, I'm not American so I don't know who the Tyco guy is, but Ken Lay and Martha Stewart in the same breath? Wouldn't you think there was just a little bit of difference in the level of scam pulled...?
I'm not a Google fan really. In fact, if someone would give me as clean an interface I'd switch away from its search in a heartbeat, as I find it too heavily spammed and blogged these days. But really...it might show something about the Google boys' characters, but it doesn't show them as criminals.
I own a 15" 1.83Ghz MacBook Pro, and the whine is appalling on it. As of yesterday, there's now a programme for swapping the logic boards out. That story takes place in the US - I've just called in the UK and found that although the swap exists, I'll have to go in to an Apple service centre to get the fault confirmed before I can go ahead with it.
This one is more interesting than most however. Normally you here about that on the server side. It's interesting that the organisation is choosing to retain Unix-based desktops rather than go Win32. Interesting also that they've not moved to Solaris 10.
All of it. Every last claim, counterclaim, ludicrous bit of nonsense, deeply insightful meditations...everything. Everything has lead to this one, perfect moment in court:
"... asserting infringement of the entire ELF format... also... for the first time, claims to the ELF magic number.'"
Read it again. Then again. Then think quietly to yourself "did a highly paid legal expert really have to stand up in court and claim he owned the magic number of the elves?". Then start to giggle. Then laugh. Then just collapse in fits of hysterics, which is exactly what I'm doing right now.
What about the leprecauns' gold? That's what I want to know. And where's the last unicorn? Centaurs too, I've always wanted to know what happened to them...
I'm in the UK, and recently imported a Scooba after being very impressed with the Roomba. The Clorox Scooba cleaning fluid is available in the States only, and would cost an utter fortune to import. It's not so much the price of the fluid, $29.99 for five bottles of 32 fluid oz, but the shipping which seems to be around $120 - more than we paid on shipping for the robot itself.
That's obviously untenable - I've got some tests lined up for a bottle of Flash Liquid All-Purpose to see if it will do the same job. Simple things - ph balance, foam test, conductivity and traction. If all passes, then I'll be using Flash inside the Scooba instead of Clorox. But I'd rather use the recommended stuff, so if iRobot feels like making it available in Europe than that would be very welcome.
The Roomba has been the ultimate in word-of-mouth marketing, by the way. Since buying one I've had three other people buy just by hearing my description of it, and they in turn have inspired about three more people each to buy one. Great little devices.
Breezy->Dapper. Got to the bit where it says "Starting PCMCIA services..." part way through apt-get dist-upgrade --show-upgraded. Never came back. Had to pull the power plug and reboot - now it's tsuck at "Starting PCMCIA Services..." during boot and won't go anywhere.
One dead machine. I'm burning a rescue CD whilst typing this, should be able to get it back by removing anything to do with PCMCIA. But still, you get the level of annoyance.
I only hope that there's some stuff on Philip K. Dick there, I've seen one or two fascinating TV documentaries on him.
Not sure there needs to be, there's precious little of his stuff in the film. Not that this makes it a bad film of course - in fact I think it's an excellent film. But the main points of "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?", specifically the caring for live creatures and the collective shared belief in Wilburism transcending the reality of the origins of Wilburism are completely gone.
Enjoy the film. Enjoy the Philip K. Dick story. But never think they are even vaguely about the same subjects.
Got to say that I find this terribly sad. When I started in computing, SGI used to be some magical company that I aspired to touching the hem of - sort of how Pixar is viewed today, although obviously without the narrative bit.
I know it was inevitable. I know the economics. I know various other things but still...still...it's a sad, sad day.
It's the price I'm interested in. Last time there was a move from G4-based devices to Core Something devices (Solo or Duo) was the Mac Mini. And the price went up quite a lot for that.
I don't know, it sounds a lot more like the REXX and AppleScript way of doing things to me. An application exposes a dictionary of possible actions (rephrased in OO, an application object exposes methods) and passes the results to the next REXX or AppleScript-aware application.
Both REXX and AppleScript predate wide scale adoption of OO, so I might be off-base. It does sound very similar though, and personally I think there's room for both that approach and the classic Bourne shell-style approach.
I mostly welcome all of this, though with the odd privacy concern here and there. However, the one thing I have a problem with is that the card payment and mobile payments systems are privately owned.
In most countries, in fact in all that I can think of, the currency is controlled by the state. If I pay for something using a five pound note, I'm guaranteed that note is acceptable anywhere in the UK. Due to differing debit card systems, rates charged to retailers and just general availability, the same cannot be said of my debit or credit cards. Some places don't take some forms of debit card, others charge extra for using credit cards...it's a mess. A mostly-working one, but if cash is going to disappear then the remaining problems need sorting.
Personally, I would welcome a state-backed debit card. No rates chargeable to the retailer for accepting them, and if you want to operate as a retail operation or bank within that state then it is mandatory that you accept the card. Then control of this is out of private hands and into a publically accountable body. Yes, there are problems with giving the state this information but I believe there are more problems letting the only means of payment be controlled by competeting private institutes.
OK, so I know it's slightly different. However, I would like to have seen them also go into an Apple Store and ask similar questions.
My experience has been nothing but good in there (Regent Street), but others have reported problems so I'm perfectly happy to believe I've just been lucky and that flaws exist.
Not a fan post claiming superiority or anything, it's just something I would have been curious to see. Apple make a lot of their 'shopping experience' (ugh, really dislike using the experience word) and it would have been interesting to see how they stacked up.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe the new creativity might start showing through that?
Cheers,
Ian
Yes, I noticed that. However, the comparison is actually "Mac vs PC", not "Mac vs Microsoft". I can't buy a PC from Microsoft, I can buy a PC from Dell. Or HP. Or Fred down the road if I give him the cash to build one.
Dell, HP and Fred-down-the-road can bundle whatever applications they like. Years ago a lot of budget places used to bundle Lotus Smartsuite to keep their prices down vs bundling Office. So the comparison is valid. And yes, having no marketshare does rather free you from monopolist rules because, pretty much by definition, you're not a monopolist.
Cheers,
Ian
Cheers,
Ian
No it shouldn't. I don't remember any of the Google lot having been convicted for anything - there's quite a difference there. Also, I'm not American so I don't know who the Tyco guy is, but Ken Lay and Martha Stewart in the same breath? Wouldn't you think there was just a little bit of difference in the level of scam pulled...?
I'm not a Google fan really. In fact, if someone would give me as clean an interface I'd switch away from its search in a heartbeat, as I find it too heavily spammed and blogged these days. But really...it might show something about the Google boys' characters, but it doesn't show them as criminals.
Cheers,
Ian
Of course you don't hit print screen yourself, you get a macro package to do it for you and automate the whole thing.
Cheers,
Ian
Cheers,
Ian
Hmm. Perhaps if it had recruited a few extrovert genuises instead...?
Cheers,
Ian
Cheers,
Ian
Cheers,
Ian
Or even hear about it...
Cheers,
Ian
This one is more interesting than most however. Normally you here about that on the server side. It's interesting that the organisation is choosing to retain Unix-based desktops rather than go Win32. Interesting also that they've not moved to Solaris 10.
Cheers, Ian
"... asserting infringement of the entire ELF format ... also ... for the first time, claims to the ELF magic number.'"
Read it again. Then again. Then think quietly to yourself "did a highly paid legal expert really have to stand up in court and claim he owned the magic number of the elves?". Then start to giggle. Then laugh. Then just collapse in fits of hysterics, which is exactly what I'm doing right now.
What about the leprecauns' gold? That's what I want to know. And where's the last unicorn? Centaurs too, I've always wanted to know what happened to them...
Cheers,
Ian
That's obviously untenable - I've got some tests lined up for a bottle of Flash Liquid All-Purpose to see if it will do the same job. Simple things - ph balance, foam test, conductivity and traction. If all passes, then I'll be using Flash inside the Scooba instead of Clorox. But I'd rather use the recommended stuff, so if iRobot feels like making it available in Europe than that would be very welcome.
The Roomba has been the ultimate in word-of-mouth marketing, by the way. Since buying one I've had three other people buy just by hearing my description of it, and they in turn have inspired about three more people each to buy one. Great little devices.
Cheers,
Ian
Cheers,
Ian
One dead machine. I'm burning a rescue CD whilst typing this, should be able to get it back by removing anything to do with PCMCIA. But still, you get the level of annoyance.
Cheers,
Iam
Cheers,
Ian
Not sure there needs to be, there's precious little of his stuff in the film. Not that this makes it a bad film of course - in fact I think it's an excellent film. But the main points of "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?", specifically the caring for live creatures and the collective shared belief in Wilburism transcending the reality of the origins of Wilburism are completely gone.
Enjoy the film. Enjoy the Philip K. Dick story. But never think they are even vaguely about the same subjects.
Cheers,
Ian
Aura: "I've changed."
Prince Barin: "I've changed too, Aura"
Zarkoff: "Hah! I knew it was a prime number from the Zeiman series! I haven't changed..."
Cheers,
Ian
I know it was inevitable. I know the economics. I know various other things but still...still...it's a sad, sad day.
Cheers,
Ian
(Flash link, can get a Quicktime link plus other episodes from here.
Cheers,
Ian
Cheers,
Ian
Was it something I said?
Cheers,
Ian
I don't know, it sounds a lot more like the REXX and AppleScript way of doing things to me. An application exposes a dictionary of possible actions (rephrased in OO, an application object exposes methods) and passes the results to the next REXX or AppleScript-aware application.
Both REXX and AppleScript predate wide scale adoption of OO, so I might be off-base. It does sound very similar though, and personally I think there's room for both that approach and the classic Bourne shell-style approach.
Cheers,
Ian
In most countries, in fact in all that I can think of, the currency is controlled by the state. If I pay for something using a five pound note, I'm guaranteed that note is acceptable anywhere in the UK. Due to differing debit card systems, rates charged to retailers and just general availability, the same cannot be said of my debit or credit cards. Some places don't take some forms of debit card, others charge extra for using credit cards...it's a mess. A mostly-working one, but if cash is going to disappear then the remaining problems need sorting.
Personally, I would welcome a state-backed debit card. No rates chargeable to the retailer for accepting them, and if you want to operate as a retail operation or bank within that state then it is mandatory that you accept the card. Then control of this is out of private hands and into a publically accountable body. Yes, there are problems with giving the state this information but I believe there are more problems letting the only means of payment be controlled by competeting private institutes.
Cheers,
Ian
My experience has been nothing but good in there (Regent Street), but others have reported problems so I'm perfectly happy to believe I've just been lucky and that flaws exist.
Not a fan post claiming superiority or anything, it's just something I would have been curious to see. Apple make a lot of their 'shopping experience' (ugh, really dislike using the experience word) and it would have been interesting to see how they stacked up.
Cheers,
Ian