Vectrex/Macintosh comparison
on
Digital Retro
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Yes, I know that sounds daft. However, I have this book and thoroughly enjoyed it, and it also opened my eyes to a possibility.
One of the things it mentioned was that the original Mac project was to produce a games machine, but that as time went on that altered and it became a general-purpose computer. However....look at the Vectrex pictures in the book, then look at the Mac. Interesting, isn't it? I'll have a dig now for some links, but for those who have the book you'll see one hell of a physical resemblance, particularly in profile. I wonder...Mac shape inspired by the Vectrex? I don't know, but stranger things have happened.
So it's an iPod killer with, at most, one-third the storage space.
iPod Mini killer. Minis have 4Gig, this has 5Gig.
I have an original iPod, the 5Gig model. At the time, it was sold as 1000 songs in your pocket. I can't help noticing that this same device is advertising 2,500 songs. So, err...bit rate? I think they're claiming a little too much for themselves.
To be fair, at 128kbps MP3 VBR I got more than 1k tracks on mine. But the 1k is realistic if you use 192 MP3 or AAC at 160.
The Zen thing looks ugly, but it does have an FM radio. I do wish Apple would do that instead of mucking about with photos. It's an audio device first - please concentrate on the audio.
A pirated copy of Windows still has exactly the same code as a genuine one.
For the moment.
How can MS say that genuine software is more reliable?
By denying known pirated keys access to future updates.
Personally, I'm all in favour of an anti-piracy drive. In this day an age, when you get get a decent OS for free, there really is no excuse for pirating Windows anymore. Cost doesn't come into it - perfectly serviceable alternatives exist and can legally be had for the cost of a CD-R.
don't mind me, I'm an ancient git who's been reminiscing about 1mhz 8 bit machines today
The best way to cure this, I find, is to go and buy one. Not emulate, actually go and fetch the hardware you're reminiscing about from eBay.
I have a 48k Spectrum, a C64, then some newer and still vaguely useful machines like an Atari ST (dedicated MIDI box) and an SE/30. Try actually using them for real, and you'll soon go scurrying back to your platform-de-jour remembering how hard it was to make these things do anything useful.
Of course, it was fun and might still be fun, but on the whole the computing past is nice to visit but you wouldn't want to live there.
Does the fact that most of the browsers crash mean that they are vunerable in some way?
Potentially.
does the fact that they do crash a good thing?
No. Never ever is it a good idea to crash on receipt of invalid data. It's up to the program to try and parse this, realise it can't do so successfully, then act ccordingly (error message, best-guess try, whatever. I prefer error message myself, but can understand those who prefer best-guess).
Here is a clue...If you honestly think you are improving your childs chances by being contactable by cellphone then you are a self deluded fool.
Ah, the sweet, seet sounds of reasonable discourse. The people telling me I'm being unreasonable to sit in silence and leve if an call came in are also being super-agressive, telling me to "get a clue", or calling me a "self-deluded fool". Calm down, it's a talk site - you must surely expect to run into people who don't share your opinon once in a while, right?
So, on to the substance of the reply. Firstly, at no point in my post did I suggest I would be the first point of call - I merely need to be a point of call. Let's assume my kid is injured and requires hospitalisation - I'm not the first point of call, the ambulance is. But do expect me not to want to know, so that I can be there at my kid's side? You don't think emotion comes into this? On the kid's side too - you don't think they'd want me to be there?
Secondly, not everything in life that requires my attention needs escalating to 999. Perhaps the kid is having a nightmare. Perhaps they're fighting and won't listen to the babysitter (note: I have two truly excellent babysitters who I trust entirely, but kids are not especially predictable so who knows?). Perhaps the babysitter has forgotten where the cough medicine is. Nothing to trouble the emergency services with, but still enough reason to give me a quick nudge.
In those circumstances, I fail to see how me having a silent phone, which alerts only myself, can be a problem for you. At the most, it will mean that I need to get up to walk past you in order to take the call outside.
If you're raging at the misuse of mobiles in cinemas and theatres then please understand I'm on your side. The solution isn't technical though, it's society-based discipline. Phone makes an audible ring? Throw 'em out. No questions, no comeback - out. Phone alerts but doesn't make a sound and the owner doesn't suddenly start using it in the middle of the auditorium? Well then, who has been harmed?
But what will they be able to do? They don't know who I am, and may not know where I'm sitting. Perhaps I'm at the bathroom when they come to look for me. Inevitably, there will be delay in trying to find me, if they can be relied on 100% to make the attempt.
Nope, in something as serious as whether my kids are ok, I prefer direct contact please.
I keep my phone on the cinema, but on silent. My reason is simple - I have kids, and if the babysitter needs to contact me for an emergency I don't want them to have to wait until after the film. Silent is the compromise - it still vibrates to let me know of the call, and I can leave the room to take it.
This system would block the sitter's call to me, yet that is no less valid as an emergency than a 999 call is.
Nope - I'd like to be in favour of a tech. solution to this problem, but the difficulty in knowing what's important and what isn't cannot be surmounted by base-station filtering. The only answer is just to throw the offenders out.
You genius, man. Here I was messing around with creating bootable FreeDOS CDs to do the same thing on my Shuttle, when all I actually needed to do was dedicated the scrap 486 Compaq laptop being thrown out by my company and offered to me first.
"I'm a long time geek and about to be a first time father."
Extrapolation from my fairly recent experience: "...and thus am currently dreaming up all sorts of over the top schemes to monitor the baby."
Reality from my experience: forget it. A radio baby monitor is enough, in fact after a while we stopped using even that because our own ears sufficed just as well. The only over the top thing I actually implemented was using a camcorder's nightshot capability to see if the baby was actually asleep - allowed me to do it without going in the room and waking her up. Even that stopped after about two months.
You won't be able to of course, and this advise will be impossible for you to take but, but...relax. Really. You'll have enough genuine stress from crying etc. without also rigging up monitoring systems which you'll barely use. If the baby is crying at night, check on it (sorry - don't know him/her in your case). If the baby isn't crying at night - leave it alone! If you need a monitoring system for during the day, you're slacking offf - should be giving the baby personal attention of some kind (yourself, your other half, a nursery...).
Honestly - all these things sounded like a great idea to me at the time as well, but come the actual events I just abandoned them as not worthwhile. My own experience? I'm a father of two - one daughter who will be three in January, one son who will be one in a week's time. Hectic does not begin to describe the first few months of both my daugter's life but even more so my son's (when we had the both of them to look afteR), but you do work out a pattern eventually.
Charging people for *how* they access their mail? That's ridiculous.
Unless, of course, your funding model for free accounts is built around people seeing adverts on the HTML interface, something that WebDAV interfaces bypass...
Cheers,
Ian
Yes, and cable companies -still- don't show it
on
Ceefax Turns 30
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Slashdot title length made me tell a slight falshood there - a number of franchise areas can receive this. But a large majority can't get hold of it, both Telewest and NTL areas (major UK cable suppliers).
And yes, I'm in an NTL area that can't get it. And yes, I'm terribly annoyed - I used to use the subtitling quite often, even though I'm not deaf. Just wanted the volume off to listen to music, for instance, or needed to be quiet for some other reason.
NTL, please sort out the broadcasting of teletext as you claimed you weere going to do more than three years ago.
I'd like to see some independent evidence that the iPod scroll wheel is actually superior...The main attraction to designers of touch sensitive devices like Synaptics produces seems to be that they are comparatively cheap, fairly intuitive to novice users, take up little space, and don't gum up.
I have an original 5Gig iPod. No touch sensitivity here, the scroll-wheel is mechanical. So the wheel was done for design reasonss, not purely for touch sensitivity.
Also, look at the very latest iPods - I allowed myself a wry smile here, as I'd always mainted that capacity disregarded, the original iPods are better designed than all but the newest ones because they don't depend on a row of buttons at the top. Apple clearly agreed, the buttons have disappeared and the pure scroll-wheel interface has returned.
So there's two strikes regarding the wheel being chosen for design, as opposed to cost features.
(Link to Griffin Powermate)...Not sure if it's quite what you're after, but it looks interesting. I almost bought one recently.
I bought one recently, in fact I'm using it now. Accept no substitutes as an iTunes control (volume, scrolling through lists, pausing etc.) or movie editor. And it's great for Tempest under MAME.
Well, it's true you don't know me but I haven't worn a watch in about five years. I feel a lot less stressed without one, and I'm still able to keep track of time. I need to know when to leave the house - my ordinary clocks will tell me that (as will my body clock), I need to know what time it is at work - my computer will tell me that. I need to know what time it is to catch my train - the station clocks will tell me that. And, if it any moment I need to know the time I can look at my mobile phone, or simply ask someone if my phone isn't charged.
I imagine there'll always be someone for whom it's absolutely vital, but for the rest of you - try this for a while. Feels odd at firt, but you soon find it quite liberating not caring if you're running 1 minute 23 seconds late as compared to yesterday. Relaxation is sure to follow.
Yeah, that's right, Linux is a threat to UNIX, not Microsoft. I wonder if they keep a box of sand next to their desks to bury their heads in.
They're absolutely right. The major migrations in big corporations tend to be replacement of Solaris boxes, with I suppose HP and AIX getting a look in too.
The home user running Mandrake isn't what they're thinking about here, though I'm sure they spend some time on that too. No - they're thinking about datacentre stuff. But don't take my word for it - ask Sun. Ask 'em how their sales are recently, and why they've had to start offering Linux and x86.
From the judgement: 3. On the issue of ignoring patent claims, the working group has at least rough consensus that the patent claims should not be ignored. Additionally, there is at least rough consensus that the participants of the working group cannot accurately describe the specific claims of the patent application. This stems from the fact that the patent application is not publicly available. Given this, it is the opinion of the co-chairs that MARID should not undertake work on alternate algorithms reasonably thought to be covered by the patent application. We do feel that future changes regarding the patent claim or its associated license could significantly change the consensus of the working group, and at such a time it would be appropriate to consider new work of this type.
Look closely. The wording to pay close attention to is "This stems from the fact that the patent application is not publicly available. Given this, it is the opinion of the co-chairs that MARID should not undertake work on alternate algorithms reasonably thought to be covered by the patent application.".
In other words, we don't know what the patent is, so we shouldn't waste time doing any work an anything that might infringe it. That's significantly different to saying that the original patent-encumbered work won't be accepted, in fact the wording has been very carefuly picked to remain non-committal on that point.
Next, look at an extract from point 4 of the summary: 4....With regard to items 3 and 4 above, it is also the opinion of the co-chairs that any attempt by the MARID working group to define any new scopes other than "mailfrom" and "pra" for the SPF syntax will at this time result in failure to find consensus within the working group.
In other words, not only the should the committee not waste its time until all the patent claims are made public, but neither should anybody else try submitting new things until the committee knows what's happening with the current proposals.
I read the summary as a glorified "we can't know what to do as not all claims have been made public, so we'll just put everything off until the claims are fully known". Neither backing for, nor rejection of Sender-ID. And certainly nothing whatsoever about falling back purely onto SPF.
I know someone working inside a fairly well-known news site, and I commented to him about the large number of utterly unbelievable "In Romania..." stories, such as man marries cow, or man believes he is the reincarnation of Dracula (reincarnation of the undead?).
He replied that most of them were just made up. Many were filed by a reporter living in Austria, and he thought it sounded close enough to be believable but obscure enough that no-one could ever check any references. "In Romania..." stuff just happens. Allegedly. Certainly in some circles, it's just press shorthand for a fluff story that may be completely made up.
Not saying that's the case here - I still need to read it. Just a general warning regarding stories about Romania - crank up the scepticism level just a bit.
Seriously - the ending just dragged. I could feel people squirming in their seats as yet another cinematic false ending was foisted upon them.
Now I'm a huge fan of the books, and believe that the Scouring should have been retained as it was a major part of the book's point, to the extent that the book had a point beyond pure myth building. So it's not that I'm moaning about length as such. Just that if you're going to cut the plot, you should also cut the congratulationary stuff that goes on around the sub-plot you cut. And yes, that means straight to the Grey Havens and no Shire scenes for you, m'lads.
That's it. No hidden meaning, no technical advantage, no uberl33th@x0r nonesense, nothing about skinning...just straightfowardly it looks good. No deeper explanation exists. Or needs to exist.
Slashdot Mirror
One of the things it mentioned was that the original Mac project was to produce a games machine, but that as time went on that altered and it became a general-purpose computer. However....look at the Vectrex pictures in the book, then look at the Mac. Interesting, isn't it? I'll have a dig now for some links, but for those who have the book you'll see one hell of a physical resemblance, particularly in profile. I wonder...Mac shape inspired by the Vectrex? I don't know, but stranger things have happened.
Cheers,
Ian
iPod Mini killer. Minis have 4Gig, this has 5Gig.
I have an original iPod, the 5Gig model. At the time, it was sold as 1000 songs in your pocket. I can't help noticing that this same device is advertising 2,500 songs. So, err...bit rate? I think they're claiming a little too much for themselves.
To be fair, at 128kbps MP3 VBR I got more than 1k tracks on mine. But the 1k is realistic if you use 192 MP3 or AAC at 160.
The Zen thing looks ugly, but it does have an FM radio. I do wish Apple would do that instead of mucking about with photos. It's an audio device first - please concentrate on the audio.
Cheers,
Ian
Or to simplify the vocabulary a little, "copy what they hear the most of".
Cheers,
Ian
For the moment. How can MS say that genuine software is more reliable?
By denying known pirated keys access to future updates.
Personally, I'm all in favour of an anti-piracy drive. In this day an age, when you get get a decent OS for free, there really is no excuse for pirating Windows anymore. Cost doesn't come into it - perfectly serviceable alternatives exist and can legally be had for the cost of a CD-R.
Cheers,
Ian
The best way to cure this, I find, is to go and buy one. Not emulate, actually go and fetch the hardware you're reminiscing about from eBay.
I have a 48k Spectrum, a C64, then some newer and still vaguely useful machines like an Atari ST (dedicated MIDI box) and an SE/30. Try actually using them for real, and you'll soon go scurrying back to your platform-de-jour remembering how hard it was to make these things do anything useful.
Of course, it was fun and might still be fun, but on the whole the computing past is nice to visit but you wouldn't want to live there.
Cheers,
Ian
Potentially.
does the fact that they do crash a good thing?
No. Never ever is it a good idea to crash on receipt of invalid data. It's up to the program to try and parse this, realise it can't do so successfully, then act ccordingly (error message, best-guess try, whatever. I prefer error message myself, but can understand those who prefer best-guess).
Cheers,
Ian
Ah, the sweet, seet sounds of reasonable discourse. The people telling me I'm being unreasonable to sit in silence and leve if an call came in are also being super-agressive, telling me to "get a clue", or calling me a "self-deluded fool". Calm down, it's a talk site - you must surely expect to run into people who don't share your opinon once in a while, right?
So, on to the substance of the reply. Firstly, at no point in my post did I suggest I would be the first point of call - I merely need to be a point of call. Let's assume my kid is injured and requires hospitalisation - I'm not the first point of call, the ambulance is. But do expect me not to want to know, so that I can be there at my kid's side? You don't think emotion comes into this? On the kid's side too - you don't think they'd want me to be there?
Secondly, not everything in life that requires my attention needs escalating to 999. Perhaps the kid is having a nightmare. Perhaps they're fighting and won't listen to the babysitter (note: I have two truly excellent babysitters who I trust entirely, but kids are not especially predictable so who knows?). Perhaps the babysitter has forgotten where the cough medicine is. Nothing to trouble the emergency services with, but still enough reason to give me a quick nudge.
In those circumstances, I fail to see how me having a silent phone, which alerts only myself, can be a problem for you. At the most, it will mean that I need to get up to walk past you in order to take the call outside.
If you're raging at the misuse of mobiles in cinemas and theatres then please understand I'm on your side. The solution isn't technical though, it's society-based discipline. Phone makes an audible ring? Throw 'em out. No questions, no comeback - out. Phone alerts but doesn't make a sound and the owner doesn't suddenly start using it in the middle of the auditorium? Well then, who has been harmed?
Cheers,
Ian
Same way I did, also in the 70s - luck. If you can improve your kids' chances without wrapping them up in cotton wool, then why not?
Cheers,
Ian
Cheers,
Ian
But what will they be able to do? They don't know who I am, and may not know where I'm sitting. Perhaps I'm at the bathroom when they come to look for me. Inevitably, there will be delay in trying to find me, if they can be relied on 100% to make the attempt.
Nope, in something as serious as whether my kids are ok, I prefer direct contact please.
Cheers,
Ian
This system would block the sitter's call to me, yet that is no less valid as an emergency than a 999 call is.
Nope - I'd like to be in favour of a tech. solution to this problem, but the difficulty in knowing what's important and what isn't cannot be surmounted by base-station filtering. The only answer is just to throw the offenders out.
Cheers,
Ian
Thanks for the idea.
Cheers,
Ian
Fair point - I'll restate: If you need a monitoring system for when your baby is awake, you're slacking off.
Cheers,
Ian
Extrapolation from my fairly recent experience: "...and thus am currently dreaming up all sorts of over the top schemes to monitor the baby."
Reality from my experience: forget it. A radio baby monitor is enough, in fact after a while we stopped using even that because our own ears sufficed just as well. The only over the top thing I actually implemented was using a camcorder's nightshot capability to see if the baby was actually asleep - allowed me to do it without going in the room and waking her up. Even that stopped after about two months.
You won't be able to of course, and this advise will be impossible for you to take but, but...relax. Really. You'll have enough genuine stress from crying etc. without also rigging up monitoring systems which you'll barely use. If the baby is crying at night, check on it (sorry - don't know him/her in your case). If the baby isn't crying at night - leave it alone! If you need a monitoring system for during the day, you're slacking offf - should be giving the baby personal attention of some kind (yourself, your other half, a nursery...).
Honestly - all these things sounded like a great idea to me at the time as well, but come the actual events I just abandoned them as not worthwhile. My own experience? I'm a father of two - one daughter who will be three in January, one son who will be one in a week's time. Hectic does not begin to describe the first few months of both my daugter's life but even more so my son's (when we had the both of them to look afteR), but you do work out a pattern eventually.
Cheers,
Ian
Unless, of course, your funding model for free accounts is built around people seeing adverts on the HTML interface, something that WebDAV interfaces bypass...
Cheers,
Ian
And yes, I'm in an NTL area that can't get it. And yes, I'm terribly annoyed - I used to use the subtitling quite often, even though I'm not deaf. Just wanted the volume off to listen to music, for instance, or needed to be quiet for some other reason.
NTL, please sort out the broadcasting of teletext as you claimed you weere going to do more than three years ago.
Cheers,
Ian
I have an original 5Gig iPod. No touch sensitivity here, the scroll-wheel is mechanical. So the wheel was done for design reasonss, not purely for touch sensitivity.
Also, look at the very latest iPods - I allowed myself a wry smile here, as I'd always mainted that capacity disregarded, the original iPods are better designed than all but the newest ones because they don't depend on a row of buttons at the top. Apple clearly agreed, the buttons have disappeared and the pure scroll-wheel interface has returned.
So there's two strikes regarding the wheel being chosen for design, as opposed to cost features.
Cheers,
Ian
I bought one recently, in fact I'm using it now. Accept no substitutes as an iTunes control (volume, scrolling through lists, pausing etc.) or movie editor. And it's great for Tempest under MAME.
Cheers,
Ian
Well, it's true you don't know me but I haven't worn a watch in about five years. I feel a lot less stressed without one, and I'm still able to keep track of time. I need to know when to leave the house - my ordinary clocks will tell me that (as will my body clock), I need to know what time it is at work - my computer will tell me that. I need to know what time it is to catch my train - the station clocks will tell me that. And, if it any moment I need to know the time I can look at my mobile phone, or simply ask someone if my phone isn't charged.
I imagine there'll always be someone for whom it's absolutely vital, but for the rest of you - try this for a while. Feels odd at firt, but you soon find it quite liberating not caring if you're running 1 minute 23 seconds late as compared to yesterday. Relaxation is sure to follow.
Cheers,
Ian
It depends on the accent and intonation. Consider it Darth Vader-style (original trilogy of course)...
"Sir, the rebels have sent memos to the open source users"
"(menacing wheeze) That's....not prudent. Prepare a shuttle craft"
Or how about Pratchett Death-style:
"THAT'S...NOT PRUDENT. THERE IS NO JUSTICE. THERE'S JUST ME."
Or Dirty Harry-style.
"So the question you've got to ask yourself is, do you feel prudent punk? Well, do yah?"
Myriad of remaining comedy voices left as an exercise for the reader.
Cheers,
Ian
They're absolutely right. The major migrations in big corporations tend to be replacement of Solaris boxes, with I suppose HP and AIX getting a look in too.
The home user running Mandrake isn't what they're thinking about here, though I'm sure they spend some time on that too. No - they're thinking about datacentre stuff. But don't take my word for it - ask Sun. Ask 'em how their sales are recently, and why they've had to start offering Linux and x86.
Cheers,
Ian
3. On the issue of ignoring patent claims, the working group has at least rough consensus that the patent claims should not be ignored. Additionally, there is at least rough consensus that the participants of the working group cannot accurately describe the specific claims of the patent application. This stems from the fact that the patent application is not publicly available. Given this, it is the opinion of the co-chairs that MARID should not undertake work on alternate algorithms reasonably thought to be covered by the patent application. We do feel that future changes regarding the patent claim or its associated license could significantly change the consensus of the working group, and at such a time it would be appropriate to consider new work of this type.
Look closely. The wording to pay close attention to is "This stems from the fact that the patent application is not publicly available. Given this, it is the opinion of the co-chairs that MARID should not undertake work on alternate algorithms reasonably thought to be covered by the patent application.".
In other words, we don't know what the patent is, so we shouldn't waste time doing any work an anything that might infringe it. That's significantly different to saying that the original patent-encumbered work won't be accepted, in fact the wording has been very carefuly picked to remain non-committal on that point.
Next, look at an extract from point 4 of the summary: ...With regard to items 3 and 4 above, it is also the opinion of the co-chairs that any attempt by the MARID working group to define any new scopes other than "mailfrom" and "pra" for the SPF syntax will at this time result in failure to find consensus within the working group.
4.
In other words, not only the should the committee not waste its time until all the patent claims are made public, but neither should anybody else try submitting new things until the committee knows what's happening with the current proposals.
I read the summary as a glorified "we can't know what to do as not all claims have been made public, so we'll just put everything off until the claims are fully known". Neither backing for, nor rejection of Sender-ID. And certainly nothing whatsoever about falling back purely onto SPF.
Cheers,
Ian
He replied that most of them were just made up. Many were filed by a reporter living in Austria, and he thought it sounded close enough to be believable but obscure enough that no-one could ever check any references. "In Romania..." stuff just happens. Allegedly. Certainly in some circles, it's just press shorthand for a fluff story that may be completely made up.
Not saying that's the case here - I still need to read it. Just a general warning regarding stories about Romania - crank up the scepticism level just a bit.
Cheers,
Ian
Now I'm a huge fan of the books, and believe that the Scouring should have been retained as it was a major part of the book's point, to the extent that the book had a point beyond pure myth building. So it's not that I'm moaning about length as such. Just that if you're going to cut the plot, you should also cut the congratulationary stuff that goes on around the sub-plot you cut. And yes, that means straight to the Grey Havens and no Shire scenes for you, m'lads.
Cheers,
Ian
They look good.
That's it. No hidden meaning, no technical advantage, no uberl33th@x0r nonesense, nothing about skinning...just straightfowardly it looks good. No deeper explanation exists. Or needs to exist.
Cheers,
Ian