Microsoft also has one of the largest corporate CS research departments in the industry, and they frequently contribute to everything from journals to W3C specification committees.
The same is true with Google and its cache. You have to put an opt-out tag if you want Google not to cache your web pages, for fear of losing editorial control or subscription revenue.
Microsoft's opt-out == evil. How dare they. Google's opt-out == good. Why would you ever want to deny Google the opportunity to provide such a valuable service?
I define "beta" as anything with the word "BETA" right next to the name. It's amazing that you claim that GMail and Froogle might not be beta products when they put the word right next to the name.
Google News doesn't have to be beta. Google Images isn't beta, doesn't have any ads, and works about as poorly as Google News does. "Beta" does not imply "ad-free for now," since at least two of Google's services (Groups 2, GMail) are still in beta and generate ad revenue nonethelesss.
Now I can show Pure Pwnage to my parents and they will understand it perfectly. However, they may be concerned that teh_pwnerer is "involved in the theft of intellectual property, particularly licensed software" due to his use of expressions like "pwn."
Hell, I tell people "I taped SNL last night," and I own a ReplayTV DVR/PVR/whatever. I think it's just as reasonable as to say "dial 123-4567" on a cell phone that lacks a rotary dial, or to say that a phone without a bell "rings."
I've found it most useful for programs like Saturday Night Live where I might want to skip to a specific segment that occurred about 80 minutes in, or in programs that I record just so I have a specific segment. For example, I recorded Good Morning America (2 hours of it) because some people I know were featured in a short blurb. I ended up remembering the time point where they were featured so I could jump right to it. An even better feature would be to crop out a segment to save space, much like how VCRs let you pause while recording.
The "skip to # minutes" feature really isn't useful for most shows. I mostly use it for "skip to beginning," and TiVo has that covered too.
My family, for whom I bought a TiVo last year, loses power maybe once a month. TiVo never informs you that it rebooted (it just keeps running, like it should) so it's a crapshoot as to whether ->| will bring you forward 30 seconds or 15 minutes.
I have to say that Replay's in-show navigation beats the hell out of TiVo's because of the JUMP button. Beginning of the show: 0 JUMP. Five minutes in: 5 JUMP. One hour twenty minutes in: 80 JUMP. And if you JUMP into the middle of a commercial block and you have Commercial Advance turned on, you get advanced to the next program segment automatically.
Except TiVo lacks both automatic commercial skip and the ability to quickly skip 30 seconds* past a commercial. They bank on the fact that if anything, you have to use the fast-forward button to skip through commercials. That's when the "billboards" will get displayed.
* Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select. Then the power goes out. Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select. Then TiVo upgrades its software and reboots. Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select. Then TiVo changes its business model and updates its software to plug that little hole.
Not to mention that if you buy a 45xx or 50xx series ReplayTV, you still get Commercial Advance. (I've heard that there are ways to hack the 55xx series to have it too.) Despite rumors that ReplayTV's new owners might disable the feature, it still works just as well as it did two years ago.
TiVo, on the other hand, doesn't even have a "skip 30 seconds button" -- just a hack that must be re-entered every time the unit loses power (such as in a power outage). Furthermore, once you enter said hack, you can no longer back up to the beginning of a program from the middle (ReplayTV: 0 JUMP) because the button to jump from segment to segment gets re-used as 30-second skip.
Compare Windows Fast User Switching to Linux's "ability" to switch from one X server to another X server. Windows wins every time if both users are logged in.
Major Shake: Do you have a car? Meatwad: Well, we have a cart. Would you like me to pull you somewhere? Major Shake: No, that'd take forever. Hey, maybe I can replicate your neighbor's rig. Frylock: I thought you said you couldn't replicate other things. Major Shake: Well, I don't know that I can't. I will need one of those... amazing... space age... you know, tubes. Frylock: What, a pipe? Major Shake: Yeah, that.
(later) Meatwad: So is he, like, replicating it? (Major Shake bashes Carl's windshield with a pipe) Frylock: No, he's hotwiring it.
Yes, but the original author is not required to answer your question satisfactorily if at all. Companies that plan a massive roll-out of an ERP tool can't rely on ad-hoc support; companies typically expect a support contract of some kind. Some Linux companies offer support contracts, but only for products which they have chosen to support.
Yeah, but Slashdot wears its bias on its sleeve like a common supermarket tabloid. I prefer to read my news from sources like Reuters and the New York Times that at least present their biases with the dignity they deserve.
Depends on what you mean by "decent." If you want to pay big dollars to get a lot of PDA features, then you're going to get a camera. A camera costs a phone maker maybe a couple of dollars -- are you really that frugal to demand that your $400 high-end phone cost $390 so it won't have a camera in it*?
If you really want a good organizer, buy one and carry it alongside your piece of crap phone. Phone manufacturers don't make $200 organizer-phones because carriers don't want to sell them because consumers don't want to buy them. (Really, consumers don't. Geeks aren't numerous or frugal enough to support the organizer-phone market.)
* Sprint and other carriers sell camera-less Treos to address the "but my workplace banned camera phones problem." Alas, they charge the same amount for one without a camera as for one with a camera.
I bought a Motorola v180 for $80 cash -- you can get it for free or less (really!) with a contract. It's a phone. It's small, lightweight, durable to the point where you don't panic if you drop it, and it has a readable color screen.
It even has a USB port if you want to hack it. It does not, however, have a substantial PDA (basic phone book and datebook), have a camera, play MP3s (as far as I could tell), or do any other fancy stuff.
Nobody's forcing you to buy a camera phone. And if the v180 is too ritzy for you, T-Mobile offers a Nokia 6010 for even less money.
You can get a phone with no features if you really want. Quit this "I just want a phone that makes phone calls" bitching.
Or they could just do what they did with Google Images: remove the "beta" tag and continue not to run advertising.
This would address the exact problem you discuss with Google and Germany (and many other countries) in that Google can't always make a business model out of aggregating others' content without their permission.
They also released Orkut (it's Brazilian Portuguese for "Server Error") which has been in beta but has been universally forgotten by the community at large.
It'll be fun to see what happens when companies start discontinuing products that have been in beta forever. Might Google be evil then?
Yahoo! isn't "Beta," and they don't charge for most of their services.
Yahoo!, for example, has the balls to actually take the heat when their products fail. Google can fall back on its fanboys to apologize for Google's mistakes.
Blogging exists because people want sass with their news.
OLD: Olympus introduced their m-robe:500 MP3 player today. It includes a 20GB hard drive and a 1.3 megapixel camera. NEW: Olympus, those cocksuckers whose representative gave me the cold shoulder at the last CES, "introduced" their so-called "MP3 player." It has a 20 gig drive (helloooo... 80 GB anyone?!) and a shitty little camear. I bet it'll sell for like $900 and nobody will buy one. Go rot in hell you little shits. Comments?
Slashdot Mirror
Because we all know that Google never buys companies just to get at technology, right?
Microsoft also has one of the largest corporate CS research departments in the industry, and they frequently contribute to everything from journals to W3C specification committees.
The same is true with Google and its cache. You have to put an opt-out tag if you want Google not to cache your web pages, for fear of losing editorial control or subscription revenue.
Microsoft's opt-out == evil. How dare they.
Google's opt-out == good. Why would you ever want to deny Google the opportunity to provide such a valuable service?
I define "beta" as anything with the word "BETA" right next to the name. It's amazing that you claim that GMail and Froogle might not be beta products when they put the word right next to the name.
Google News doesn't have to be beta. Google Images isn't beta, doesn't have any ads, and works about as poorly as Google News does. "Beta" does not imply "ad-free for now," since at least two of Google's services (Groups 2, GMail) are still in beta and generate ad revenue nonethelesss.
Now I can show Pure Pwnage to my parents and they will understand it perfectly. However, they may be concerned that teh_pwnerer is "involved in the theft of intellectual property, particularly licensed software" due to his use of expressions like "pwn."
Whatever happened to the verb record?
Hell, I tell people "I taped SNL last night," and I own a ReplayTV DVR/PVR/whatever. I think it's just as reasonable as to say "dial 123-4567" on a cell phone that lacks a rotary dial, or to say that a phone without a bell "rings."
I've found it most useful for programs like Saturday Night Live where I might want to skip to a specific segment that occurred about 80 minutes in, or in programs that I record just so I have a specific segment. For example, I recorded Good Morning America (2 hours of it) because some people I know were featured in a short blurb. I ended up remembering the time point where they were featured so I could jump right to it. An even better feature would be to crop out a segment to save space, much like how VCRs let you pause while recording.
The "skip to # minutes" feature really isn't useful for most shows. I mostly use it for "skip to beginning," and TiVo has that covered too.
My family, for whom I bought a TiVo last year, loses power maybe once a month. TiVo never informs you that it rebooted (it just keeps running, like it should) so it's a crapshoot as to whether ->| will bring you forward 30 seconds or 15 minutes.
I have to say that Replay's in-show navigation beats the hell out of TiVo's because of the JUMP button. Beginning of the show: 0 JUMP. Five minutes in: 5 JUMP. One hour twenty minutes in: 80 JUMP. And if you JUMP into the middle of a commercial block and you have Commercial Advance turned on, you get advanced to the next program segment automatically.
Except TiVo lacks both automatic commercial skip and the ability to quickly skip 30 seconds* past a commercial. They bank on the fact that if anything, you have to use the fast-forward button to skip through commercials. That's when the "billboards" will get displayed.
* Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select. Then the power goes out. Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select. Then TiVo upgrades its software and reboots. Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select. Then TiVo changes its business model and updates its software to plug that little hole.
Not to mention that if you buy a 45xx or 50xx series ReplayTV, you still get Commercial Advance. (I've heard that there are ways to hack the 55xx series to have it too.) Despite rumors that ReplayTV's new owners might disable the feature, it still works just as well as it did two years ago.
TiVo, on the other hand, doesn't even have a "skip 30 seconds button" -- just a hack that must be re-entered every time the unit loses power (such as in a power outage). Furthermore, once you enter said hack, you can no longer back up to the beginning of a program from the middle (ReplayTV: 0 JUMP) because the button to jump from segment to segment gets re-used as 30-second skip.
Compare Windows Fast User Switching to Linux's "ability" to switch from one X server to another X server. Windows wins every time if both users are logged in.
From "Bad Replicant":
Major Shake: Do you have a car?
Meatwad: Well, we have a cart. Would you like me to pull you somewhere?
Major Shake: No, that'd take forever. Hey, maybe I can replicate your neighbor's rig.
Frylock: I thought you said you couldn't replicate other things.
Major Shake: Well, I don't know that I can't. I will need one of those... amazing... space age... you know, tubes.
Frylock: What, a pipe?
Major Shake: Yeah, that.
(later)
Meatwad: So is he, like, replicating it?
(Major Shake bashes Carl's windshield with a pipe)
Frylock: No, he's hotwiring it.
Yes, but the original author is not required to answer your question satisfactorily if at all. Companies that plan a massive roll-out of an ERP tool can't rely on ad-hoc support; companies typically expect a support contract of some kind. Some Linux companies offer support contracts, but only for products which they have chosen to support.
The bullet is enormous! There is no escaping.
Jumping is useless.
There's also Video Ouija and Meatwad's untitled insult game ("You stole my wristwatch." "You dumb, I already have a wristwatch! You dumb!" BUUUURNED!)
But what I wouldn't give for a re-release of Clamdigger...
Yeah, but Slashdot wears its bias on its sleeve like a common supermarket tabloid. I prefer to read my news from sources like Reuters and the New York Times that at least present their biases with the dignity they deserve.
Depends on what you mean by "decent." If you want to pay big dollars to get a lot of PDA features, then you're going to get a camera. A camera costs a phone maker maybe a couple of dollars -- are you really that frugal to demand that your $400 high-end phone cost $390 so it won't have a camera in it*?
If you really want a good organizer, buy one and carry it alongside your piece of crap phone. Phone manufacturers don't make $200 organizer-phones because carriers don't want to sell them because consumers don't want to buy them. (Really, consumers don't. Geeks aren't numerous or frugal enough to support the organizer-phone market.)
* Sprint and other carriers sell camera-less Treos to address the "but my workplace banned camera phones problem." Alas, they charge the same amount for one without a camera as for one with a camera.
I bought a Motorola v180 for $80 cash -- you can get it for free or less (really!) with a contract. It's a phone. It's small, lightweight, durable to the point where you don't panic if you drop it, and it has a readable color screen.
It even has a USB port if you want to hack it. It does not, however, have a substantial PDA (basic phone book and datebook), have a camera, play MP3s (as far as I could tell), or do any other fancy stuff.
Nobody's forcing you to buy a camera phone. And if the v180 is too ritzy for you, T-Mobile offers a Nokia 6010 for even less money.
You can get a phone with no features if you really want. Quit this "I just want a phone that makes phone calls" bitching.
Since when does "not beta" mean "loaded with ads"?
Please find the ads on Google Images, a release-quality service that Google actually supports.
Or they could just do what they did with Google Images: remove the "beta" tag and continue not to run advertising.
This would address the exact problem you discuss with Google and Germany (and many other countries) in that Google can't always make a business model out of aggregating others' content without their permission.
When Microsoft ships a product that has flaws in it, Microsoft has a responsibility to fix it or risk losing customers.
When Open Source Group X releases a 0.5.4-version product that has flaws, they respond to customers with "WELL ITS NOT 1.0 SO RTFM AND STFW AND GTFO."
They also released Orkut (it's Brazilian Portuguese for "Server Error") which has been in beta but has been universally forgotten by the community at large.
It'll be fun to see what happens when companies start discontinuing products that have been in beta forever. Might Google be evil then?
Google Images is not a beta service, but Google makes no money from it. There are no ads anywhere to be found on Google Images.
Beta means that Google doesn't care to support it yet. Thanks for writing.
Yahoo! isn't "Beta," and they don't charge for most of their services.
Yahoo!, for example, has the balls to actually take the heat when their products fail. Google can fall back on its fanboys to apologize for Google's mistakes.
Blogging exists because people want sass with their news.
OLD: Olympus introduced their m-robe:500 MP3 player today. It includes a 20GB hard drive and a 1.3 megapixel camera.
NEW: Olympus, those cocksuckers whose representative gave me the cold shoulder at the last CES, "introduced" their so-called "MP3 player." It has a 20 gig drive (helloooo... 80 GB anyone?!) and a shitty little camear. I bet it'll sell for like $900 and nobody will buy one. Go rot in hell you little shits. Comments?
Innovative, isn't it?
Was there ever a time when you could trust someone's random personal web site as a definitive, credible source of anything?
The belief that "If it's on the Internet, it must be true" is about as good as "If it's on television, it must be true."
This post was brought to you by Campbell's Chunky Soup, the official soup of Super Bowl XXXIX. Have a super bowl for lunch!