15 years ago. 1989. One thing this article can't pick up on due to it being a PC magazine is the amount of platform diversity there was then.
In 1989 I had an ST I think. The Amigas were going strong, and the C64 was hanging on in there by its fingertips. The magazine awards best PC to a Mac IIcx. In the UK at least, there were things such as the Amstrad PCW range - CPM-based (I believe) green screen business machines that did well for themselves as straight wordprocessing devices.
Then slowly it all died away, until now we're basically on a PC-only world on the desktop, even if a few flickers of OS competition are stirring. Only the Mac remains outside the fold, and I say this as an OS X user. Even so, just two hardware platforms for personal computing is hardly the same as the plethora of makes available in the 80s.
Ah well. Fun while it lasted. Time to dig out the Spectrum vs C64 vs Beeb flamewars of the school playground...
Is this an up-and-coming theory, or is it like cold fusion?
Both. It has proponents way out there on the fringe, who are quite clearly either mad or trying to make money from books.
It's originator, however, is quite serious and has done a considerable amount of research on the topic. There are diagrams, pictures of cosmological events explained using plasmas...quite a lot. Patrick Moore, for example, went on to explain that he thought at least some of it might be right - it had a 'ring of truth' to parts of it.
Try here for a much better link without the silly hyperbole.
Cheers,
Ian
Re:They score some points with me on a first skim.
on
Securing Mac OS X
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Today, anti-virus software for Mac OS X is worthless. There are no viruses to check for on OS X for it to protect against. IF or when a virus or a worm comes out for OS X then anti-virus software will have a use. Until then, you are just wasting money.
Not quite true, particularly in a corporate setting. Let me state first off that I run OS X and don't have any anti-virus software, but I can see a use for it.
Chances are that the email you're sending is getting read on a Windows box. If you're forwarding along a mail containing an attachment, you might be unwittingly forwarding a Windows virus which is totally harmless to you, but not so to your recipient. I had one the other day - README.CPL. Mac users don't need to care that that's a Windows control panel, and might not even know. Your virus checker might not prevent you from catching non-existent viruses, but it will help you be nicer to the Windows-using world by catching anything you're sending out. Can also help with macro viruses I imagine, though I don't have MS Office on my machine so I can't be certain of that.
really don't understand why the bet sneaks into every headline about this story. Why are humans so obsessed with who was right and wrong?
It's more to show that even the most eminent and revered are human, and it's reassuring to know these people aren't so far out of touch as to not have a bit of fun now and again.
For example, I went to a lecture by Sir Patrick Moore, at which he was asked questions as to whether he believed the electrical universe theory could be correct. His answer? "I hope not, I owe a crate of whiskey to its originator should that prove to be true...".
Oh and also, just so you know, your post was OT, since the article is about a MIDI sequencer, not PCM audio through the soundcard.
Not in this case - the article specifically references VST instruments. VST will be played through the sound card, so Linux sound card drivers and latencies are very important indeed in this case.
Wow, even as a Mac user, I find this thread annoying simply for the impending flame war that will inevitably erupt.
It's in the "It's Funny. Laugh." section - this is supposed to provoke a flamewar just for the sheer hell of it. As a Mac, PC, Solaris and Linux user, I intend to sit back, have a chuckle, and toast the marshmellows using the searing heat radiating from my browser window...
"I've no idea what this Kay dude is talking about, I just finished reading this very interesting article on Australian dingos in my World Book. Now excuse me while I have to finish my latest iCompositions in my iGarageband, and organise my iPhotoalbums, all while wirelessly browsing the iWeb sitting in my iGarden."
Ok - I'll bite. And I'll bite for personal computing at large, rather than just as an Apple user (which I happen to be, but the below could be achieved on any platform).
The very interesting articles I've digging out recently are on how to play the clarinet. I do use my machines to write music. I quite definitely have my photo albums on the the machine. I'll add video to your list too, and DVD authoring. I'll add web authoring. I'll add accounts - not exciting, but definitely simulating ideas. I'll add communciation - email and video conferencing with friends who are at least hundred of miles away, in some cases on a different continent. In my case, I'll add development and web authoring. And yes, when circumstances allow I sit in my garden and use the 802.11g connection.
I honestly, truly, have no idea what Alan Kay is on about. Generalising the whole of computing on a business knocking out office documents is a bit poor. Then again, the article didn't have much in the way of direct quotes from Mr. Kay - perhaps his main thrust has been misunderstood?
I like the lack of a left hand in a lot of my synth stuff; lets me work harder on the actual bass line and melodic harmonies, blah blah blah...
Yep - can understand that. I tend to record by playing in with a baseline in split mode on the keyboard (or electronic piano as I now use), then go back and add a more complex base afterwards.
I don't think any of my stuff is that awesome, either - I think it's a requirement for keyboardists or something.
Main problem I've got is that I mess around too much. I have about ten partially completed tracks, some totally completed in my head but never recorded, others I need to finish off, but I never get round to it. There's too much fiddling with the machinary available, that's the trouble.
You use Reason (Propellerheads Software)? Acid Pro? Cakewalk? FruityLoops?
Moved over to OS X a few months ago so am casting about at the moment. Was using Cubase VST and Acid Pro under Windows, now having a look at things like Logic Express.
Interesting one for me this - I got into keyboards and computers at roughly the same age (about nine), and have been using one to help with the other ever since.
This mushroomed when I got an Atari ST - still the most influential machine for me. I got it for the games, but also spent time learning C on it and got into Steingberg Pro 12 - I bought the excellent for its time mono monitor, and never looked back.
Main inspiration for learning electronic music as a kid would be the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Always remembered for their Dr Who work, it's often forgotten that they did an awul lot more than this - the incidental music for the nature series Life On Earth was superb, and it's a track called The Astronauts (Through A Glass Darkly album, Peter Howell) which finally made me decide I wanted to play.
I've since decided to try learning piano as well as keyboard (very different - left hand work especially), but I'm essentially a keyboard player dabbling with piano, not a pianist dabbling with keyboards.
So, who else then? Any links to music? I've barely put online anything I did, but there's some really early teenage stuff from me and also a couple of ~1999 tracks available here. Don't laugh too loudly please...I've written better. Honest.
Modern Electronica, House, Techno, etc actually came from Detroit, Michigan, USA. THe Motor City. Every year there is the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.
Yeah, but if you keep quiet about it we'll try our hardest to forgive you.
And last, I had a look at their schedule - they have a talk "How to talk to the press". Isn't this is the same old rotten smell of socialism (greenpeace)?
Err....you think corporates and politicians don't have similar "How to talk to the press" meetings?
Instead, work through your problems, and let people know that there are ways around the issues that you encountered.
Most particularly, make sure you let the maintainers of the relevant package know your problems and also the solution if you found one. That way, the next iteration of the system might well have these problems sorted.
I've been taking that approach in a number of projects I submit feedback to, not all of them open source, and it seems to work well.
I'm with you on this. Quicken is the only thing now that's keeping me on Windows.
I actually run Virtual PC under OS X purely to get Quicken. I know there's a Quicken for OS X, but it's not up to the Windows version and doesn't come in a UK localised flavour. Result: emulation of Quicken under Windows.
I do look at the Crossover Office site from time to time, but they never list Quicken as being a Gold supported app. I have fairly complex personal accounts, and I also run my own business so the cost of keeping a Windows box around plus Quicken is drastically outweighed by the advantages I get from having it.
I also look at the open source side of things from time to time - sorry, not close yet. I'm sure it will get better, but I'm unlikely to revisit for a few years. Reporting is lacking in the oss competitors, and again I run into the no localised UK version problem. UK localisation is important - nothing to do with spelling 'favourites' correctly, but rather to do with keeping all the tax-line items up to date according to the latest UK law.
I'd actually love to go open source on this one - being locked into a platform is not something I enjoy, and I'm totally locked into this one. However, the plaform isn't Windows per se, it's Quicken.
So how is it that the estate can halt the use of the Daleks but can't halt the entire series?
Terry Nation claims to have come up with the Daleks himself*, but he was a hired writer for the series at the time. I don't know what deal they had, but it seemed he kept more control over his own ideas than the BBC probably thought they'd allowed him.
* There are many arguments about this. A number of people suggest that technicians working on the show actually came up with the Dalek design.
...but most artists alive wish only to impact the world, by sharing their life-blood with the public -- forget the bottom line.
It's a nice, romantic view but it isn't the case here. Terry Nation had a serious falling out with the BBC over control and payments, and continually refused the BBC permission to use them. I believe various other monsters are involved as well - a true Whovian will be able to fill the details in here, as opposed to myself who just watches the programmes on cable sometimes.
Plus, the BBC doesn't have a very good record with Daleks. There aren't very many working models left, and when the BBC borrowed one from the Dr Who Exhibition in Llangollen (now back in Blackpool after god know's hoow many years) they managed to damage it.
Nope, I'm not at all surprised by this decision. And to be honest, I'm not all bothered either. It would be nice for a bit of continuity I suppose, but really I'm sure they can find more villians to go up against.
More worrying to me is the idea of 50 minute stand-alone episodes, rather than maybe half-hour installments that you had before. I really feel they need to keep the cliffhangers that used to typify the series.
Did a search for my domain, Eruvia. It told me there were fifteen results, then gave me the first ten and and a next button.
Clicked next - suddenly, "Sorry, there a no results for 'eruvia'". Pardon? Try searching again from scratch, and once again suddenly Eruvia has disappeared. Can't get my original 15 results back at all.
I'm putting this down to extremely ungraceful load handling and the ongoing Slashdotting. What's this running on anyway? Netcraft says IIS/6.0 on Linux, so it's another Akamai job, but the hardware behind it doesn't seem up to scratch yet.
You didn't appeal? Or complain to the judicial authorities?
I did ask what my appeal rights were, and apparently there was no right of appeal in that case. I didn't think of complaining about the judge though - hmm. Yes, in retrospect that is a course I should have looked in to, though whether my insurance's legal cover would have stretched that far is open to question.
I was involved in a court case a couple of years ago, where the judge (magistrate?) decided that a circular road feature, with a number of lanes going into it and more coming off, around which you were meant to rotate in a clockwise fashion (UK) and which to top it all had a sodding great sign marked "Roundabout" in front of it wasn't a roundabout. Oh no, it was something else.
When asked what exactly it was then, he said it was 'an exit circular with many lanes' (exact quote - we're talking about the exit of J29 M1 for any UK readers). When asked to point out where, in the Highway Code, 'an exit circular with many lanes' was defined he refused to comment and suggested we move on. Since the entire case was that someone had incorrectly changed lanes on a roundabout without indicating in time, thus smashing into the rear left-hand side of me, 'moving on' was rather difficult as everything was based around the fact it took place on a roundabout.
The guy in question fulfilled all the cliches - an impossibly Oxford Don-type accent which was obviously put on (I know some Oxford dons, and besides this guy came from Mansfield which has a totally different accent), absolutely smug in his self-delusion of superiority...the works.
When my solicitor apologised for losing the case afterwards, my comment to him was "Don't worry. My no claims bonus is unaffected, it's a nice sunny day, and I've managed to see purest legal farce in action. I'm still happy".
I learned to never underestimate legal stupidity that day.
You know the irritating "it's the early bird that gets the worm" moral? Just answer them - now really. Who actually wants to get a worm? I'll hang on for ice cream, if you don't mind...
There certainly was a Word 4. It was on the Macintosh - my vote for perfect word processing would go to a System 6-based Mac running Word 4.2. Now there was a lean machine.
5.1 under System 7 felt slow in comparison, but did have one extra thing - envelope printing. If it wasn't for that, I'd have stuck with 4.2.
I'm reading a lot of comments along the lines of "This is a surprise?", and "so? That's the way these things go". This is depressing.
Look - a clear and serious fraud has been commited. People should be livid about this, even more so if this kind of behaviour is the norm. Just because it always happens doesn't make it right, and only pressure and accountability will ever sort the situation out. Shrugging the shoulders and going "so?" is really not all that helpful.
Slashdot Mirror
In 1989 I had an ST I think. The Amigas were going strong, and the C64 was hanging on in there by its fingertips. The magazine awards best PC to a Mac IIcx. In the UK at least, there were things such as the Amstrad PCW range - CPM-based (I believe) green screen business machines that did well for themselves as straight wordprocessing devices.
Then slowly it all died away, until now we're basically on a PC-only world on the desktop, even if a few flickers of OS competition are stirring. Only the Mac remains outside the fold, and I say this as an OS X user. Even so, just two hardware platforms for personal computing is hardly the same as the plethora of makes available in the 80s.
Ah well. Fun while it lasted. Time to dig out the Spectrum vs C64 vs Beeb flamewars of the school playground...
Cheerss,
Ian
Both. It has proponents way out there on the fringe, who are quite clearly either mad or trying to make money from books.
It's originator, however, is quite serious and has done a considerable amount of research on the topic. There are diagrams, pictures of cosmological events explained using plasmas...quite a lot. Patrick Moore, for example, went on to explain that he thought at least some of it might be right - it had a 'ring of truth' to parts of it.
Try here for a much better link without the silly hyperbole.
Cheers,
Ian
Not quite true, particularly in a corporate setting. Let me state first off that I run OS X and don't have any anti-virus software, but I can see a use for it.
Chances are that the email you're sending is getting read on a Windows box. If you're forwarding along a mail containing an attachment, you might be unwittingly forwarding a Windows virus which is totally harmless to you, but not so to your recipient. I had one the other day - README.CPL. Mac users don't need to care that that's a Windows control panel, and might not even know. Your virus checker might not prevent you from catching non-existent viruses, but it will help you be nicer to the Windows-using world by catching anything you're sending out. Can also help with macro viruses I imagine, though I don't have MS Office on my machine so I can't be certain of that.
Cheers,
Ian
It's more to show that even the most eminent and revered are human, and it's reassuring to know these people aren't so far out of touch as to not have a bit of fun now and again.
For example, I went to a lecture by Sir Patrick Moore, at which he was asked questions as to whether he believed the electrical universe theory could be correct. His answer? "I hope not, I owe a crate of whiskey to its originator should that prove to be true...".
Cheers,
Ian
Not in this case - the article specifically references VST instruments. VST will be played through the sound card, so Linux sound card drivers and latencies are very important indeed in this case.
Cheers,
Ian
>Assuming Mac users are smarter, you must really be a PC user
Hmm. It seems I lose. I shall turn in my Powerbook forthwith, and begin using Windows ME as penance.
Damn those marshmellow-like marshmallows!
Cheers,
Ian
It's in the "It's Funny. Laugh." section - this is supposed to provoke a flamewar just for the sheer hell of it. As a Mac, PC, Solaris and Linux user, I intend to sit back, have a chuckle, and toast the marshmellows using the searing heat radiating from my browser window...
Cheers,
Ian
Ok - I'll bite. And I'll bite for personal computing at large, rather than just as an Apple user (which I happen to be, but the below could be achieved on any platform).
The very interesting articles I've digging out recently are on how to play the clarinet. I do use my machines to write music. I quite definitely have my photo albums on the the machine. I'll add video to your list too, and DVD authoring. I'll add web authoring. I'll add accounts - not exciting, but definitely simulating ideas. I'll add communciation - email and video conferencing with friends who are at least hundred of miles away, in some cases on a different continent. In my case, I'll add development and web authoring. And yes, when circumstances allow I sit in my garden and use the 802.11g connection.
I honestly, truly, have no idea what Alan Kay is on about. Generalising the whole of computing on a business knocking out office documents is a bit poor. Then again, the article didn't have much in the way of direct quotes from Mr. Kay - perhaps his main thrust has been misunderstood?
Cheers,
Ian
Yep - can understand that. I tend to record by playing in with a baseline in split mode on the keyboard (or electronic piano as I now use), then go back and add a more complex base afterwards.
I don't think any of my stuff is that awesome, either - I think it's a requirement for keyboardists or something.
Main problem I've got is that I mess around too much. I have about ten partially completed tracks, some totally completed in my head but never recorded, others I need to finish off, but I never get round to it. There's too much fiddling with the machinary available, that's the trouble.
You use Reason (Propellerheads Software)? Acid Pro? Cakewalk? FruityLoops?
Moved over to OS X a few months ago so am casting about at the moment. Was using Cubase VST and Acid Pro under Windows, now having a look at things like Logic Express.
Cheers,
Ian
This mushroomed when I got an Atari ST - still the most influential machine for me. I got it for the games, but also spent time learning C on it and got into Steingberg Pro 12 - I bought the excellent for its time mono monitor, and never looked back.
Main inspiration for learning electronic music as a kid would be the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Always remembered for their Dr Who work, it's often forgotten that they did an awul lot more than this - the incidental music for the nature series Life On Earth was superb, and it's a track called The Astronauts (Through A Glass Darkly album, Peter Howell) which finally made me decide I wanted to play.
I've since decided to try learning piano as well as keyboard (very different - left hand work especially), but I'm essentially a keyboard player dabbling with piano, not a pianist dabbling with keyboards.
So, who else then? Any links to music? I've barely put online anything I did, but there's some really early teenage stuff from me and also a couple of ~1999 tracks available here. Don't laugh too loudly please...I've written better. Honest.
Cheers,
Ian
Yeah, but if you keep quiet about it we'll try our hardest to forgive you.
Cheers,
Ian
Err....you think corporates and politicians don't have similar "How to talk to the press" meetings?
Cheers,
Ian
Most particularly, make sure you let the maintainers of the relevant package know your problems and also the solution if you found one. That way, the next iteration of the system might well have these problems sorted.
I've been taking that approach in a number of projects I submit feedback to, not all of them open source, and it seems to work well.
Cheers,
Ian
And how do they do that, if the entire country is blocked?
Cheers,
Ian
I actually run Virtual PC under OS X purely to get Quicken. I know there's a Quicken for OS X, but it's not up to the Windows version and doesn't come in a UK localised flavour. Result: emulation of Quicken under Windows.
I do look at the Crossover Office site from time to time, but they never list Quicken as being a Gold supported app. I have fairly complex personal accounts, and I also run my own business so the cost of keeping a Windows box around plus Quicken is drastically outweighed by the advantages I get from having it.
I also look at the open source side of things from time to time - sorry, not close yet. I'm sure it will get better, but I'm unlikely to revisit for a few years. Reporting is lacking in the oss competitors, and again I run into the no localised UK version problem. UK localisation is important - nothing to do with spelling 'favourites' correctly, but rather to do with keeping all the tax-line items up to date according to the latest UK law.
I'd actually love to go open source on this one - being locked into a platform is not something I enjoy, and I'm totally locked into this one. However, the plaform isn't Windows per se, it's Quicken.
Cheers,
Ian
Terry Nation claims to have come up with the Daleks himself*, but he was a hired writer for the series at the time. I don't know what deal they had, but it seemed he kept more control over his own ideas than the BBC probably thought they'd allowed him.
* There are many arguments about this. A number of people suggest that technicians working on the show actually came up with the Dalek design.
Cheers,
Ian
It's a nice, romantic view but it isn't the case here. Terry Nation had a serious falling out with the BBC over control and payments, and continually refused the BBC permission to use them. I believe various other monsters are involved as well - a true Whovian will be able to fill the details in here, as opposed to myself who just watches the programmes on cable sometimes.
Plus, the BBC doesn't have a very good record with Daleks. There aren't very many working models left, and when the BBC borrowed one from the Dr Who Exhibition in Llangollen (now back in Blackpool after god know's hoow many years) they managed to damage it.
Nope, I'm not at all surprised by this decision. And to be honest, I'm not all bothered either. It would be nice for a bit of continuity I suppose, but really I'm sure they can find more villians to go up against.
More worrying to me is the idea of 50 minute stand-alone episodes, rather than maybe half-hour installments that you had before. I really feel they need to keep the cliffhangers that used to typify the series.
Cheers,
Ian
Clicked next - suddenly, "Sorry, there a no results for 'eruvia'". Pardon? Try searching again from scratch, and once again suddenly Eruvia has disappeared. Can't get my original 15 results back at all.
I'm putting this down to extremely ungraceful load handling and the ongoing Slashdotting. What's this running on anyway? Netcraft says IIS/6.0 on Linux, so it's another Akamai job, but the hardware behind it doesn't seem up to scratch yet.
Cheers,
Ian
Cheers,
Ian
I did ask what my appeal rights were, and apparently there was no right of appeal in that case. I didn't think of complaining about the judge though - hmm. Yes, in retrospect that is a course I should have looked in to, though whether my insurance's legal cover would have stretched that far is open to question.
Cheers,
Ian
When asked what exactly it was then, he said it was 'an exit circular with many lanes' (exact quote - we're talking about the exit of J29 M1 for any UK readers). When asked to point out where, in the Highway Code, 'an exit circular with many lanes' was defined he refused to comment and suggested we move on. Since the entire case was that someone had incorrectly changed lanes on a roundabout without indicating in time, thus smashing into the rear left-hand side of me, 'moving on' was rather difficult as everything was based around the fact it took place on a roundabout.
The guy in question fulfilled all the cliches - an impossibly Oxford Don-type accent which was obviously put on (I know some Oxford dons, and besides this guy came from Mansfield which has a totally different accent), absolutely smug in his self-delusion of superiority...the works.
When my solicitor apologised for losing the case afterwards, my comment to him was "Don't worry. My no claims bonus is unaffected, it's a nice sunny day, and I've managed to see purest legal farce in action. I'm still happy".
I learned to never underestimate legal stupidity that day.
Cheers,
Ian
You know the irritating "it's the early bird that gets the worm" moral? Just answer them - now really. Who actually wants to get a worm? I'll hang on for ice cream, if you don't mind...
Cheers,
Ian
There certainly was a Word 4. It was on the Macintosh - my vote for perfect word processing would go to a System 6-based Mac running Word 4.2. Now there was a lean machine.
5.1 under System 7 felt slow in comparison, but did have one extra thing - envelope printing. If it wasn't for that, I'd have stuck with 4.2.
Cheers,
Ian
Look - a clear and serious fraud has been commited. People should be livid about this, even more so if this kind of behaviour is the norm. Just because it always happens doesn't make it right, and only pressure and accountability will ever sort the situation out. Shrugging the shoulders and going "so?" is really not all that helpful.
Cheers,
Ian
Cheers,
Ian