I know that would have gotten x-thousand people crunching for LotR;) Dinner with the cast and a trip to NZ would be nice. If they worked it right, it would be a lot cheaper than buying yet more racks of computers, too:)
Episode 1 was slightly worse than Episode II, which was semi-fun to watch, with nostalgia for Episode IV, but not great. Episode III at least promises we get to see that leering Christian What's-'is-name dipped in acid. The sooner the better.
Not that they need extra hardware, but imagine the resulting credits list if they had to list everyone whose computer rendered a few frames of (the Hobbit? The tales of Narnia?)...
I don't know much about Microsoft Windows, which is to say, I know even less about Windows than the little I know about Linux or Mac OS / Mac OS X. The reasons why are partly philosophical (I like Free software), partly monetary (I like free software) but mostly aesthetic (YMMV, but I like both the various Apple OSes and various *nix varieties more than I have ever liked Windows, *shrug*,no accounting for taste). That said, I've found that some software for Windows goes on easy, some doesn't -- the one time I made the mistake of actually *installing* Windows 98 on a computer, the process failed at multiple points and led to an all-day hair-pulling fest. Hardware problem? Maybe, but that hardware ran Linux fine... My limited experience since then with Windows software has been mostly attempts to help my dad install drivers for gadgets he's bought for his several computers. My conclusion about those is that most drivers may *install* correctly, but are hampered by very poorly constructed configuration phases in the form of "Wizards" which are not very wizardly, just ambiguous exercises in condescending presumption. It's lovely when the light on a wireless card shows it's powered up and getting signal, but the driver that comes with the card says it can find no appropriate hardware... PnP, whatever:) Isn't this the year 2003?
If you see *nix software installation as downloading sources, configuring and compiling, then Yes, it would be a bear to anyone new to it. However, that's not the only way to install software on Linux -- software installation has come a long way in the last several years.
[Aside #1: OK, I'll take back what I said about my Windows experience being mostly about installing random drivers for peripherals: I sometimes upgrade other people's Windows machines by adding various free software pieces, and for the software I add, the effort of installation is about the same either way, when unzipping / untar-ing with Linux vs. using WinZip or similar under Windows.]
[Aside #2: A surprizing number of Windows machines don't have an unzipping utility built in, at least machines running Windows 98. I thought it was included, if not part of the actual OS -- am I wrong? Maybe people just throw it away, or stash it in a folder that the OS doesn't search when finding appropriate apps for compressed archives? This, like the 'just hit enter' password screen, will remain one of the Windows Universe's mysteries. In such cases, I download an unzipping utility; I found one tonight called FreeZip, which I used to put Mozilla Firebird on an unsuspecting friend's computer... for another friend, same thing a few nights back, and on her computer we used some other random unzipping utility. Where does WinZip disappear to? Or did I just hallucinate that it used to be on Windows machines by default? Are there any good open-source unzipping programs that work on Windows? What is the airspeed velocity of a coconut-laden European swallow?]
However, if your system can use apt-get (Debian, Red Hat) or Mandrake's urpmi, these (in most cases) wins hands-down vs. the various 'unzip, then run an installer' methods. I *have* run into some weirdnesses with apt-get (like when upgrading a 700k program tries to trigger a 300MB total system upgrade... huh?), but I will echo another respondent by suggesting the front-end called Synaptic. Synaptic is really quite good... it's not *completely* transparent (what is?) and it certainly is not perfect, but anything I can get to work I figure must be child's play for anyone else:)
Once it's set up on your machine though, apt-get install $softwarepackage is a pretty low-impact installation method.
[Aside #3: The "last couple of years" stuff includes synaptic, but not apt-get itself, which has been around for a while now:) Two other projects which cer
By coincidence, I downloaded (the current) Mepis shortly before reading your comment here. Have not yet had a chance to burn / use it, but I'm hoping it's up to the hype:)
Live-CD distros are really quite amazing in what they include... it's fun to go into a computer store and (with permission) reboot with one in a computer's drive.
I bet a knoppix-derived or other debian-based live-CD distro with a 2.6 kernel would garner some:)
I finally figured out (well, found a workaround for, anyhow) a bizarre sound problem on my Toshiba laptop* -- before that, I was holding out hope that 2.6 would contain a magical fix -- but a nice minimalistic, ultra-up-to-date, (but installable) live CD would still be nice. Wonder when a new Knoppix will be out...
timothy
* in my case, on a Satellite 1005, both the main volume level and the PCM volume level have to be to be set to 100 percent, then backed off to more reasonable listening levels, or there's no sound at all...
Wouldn't mind being 10 or 20 years younger, but Hey -- I'm spoiled as an American living in the age of vaccinations and teflon, with warm, reasonably waterproof and yet breathable synthetic fabrics, lemon-flavored prunes in resealable pouches, low-cost nearly instantaneous communications, etc, so ought not complain.
Happy birthday to you, too, when next one strikes...
timothy
p.s. Good book, you might like: "The Making of the Atomic Bomb."
(that is, our today is their yesterday, and our tomorrow has already begun, there), and since Linus is undeniably from Over There, I can count this as a birthday present. Thanks, Linus.
Noticed someone's comment yesterday pointing to this site: scocountdown.com. Note that the deadline you're referring to is not the one at the top of the page.
If you've read "Venus on the Halfshell," you'd know that nuking a trainful of your favorite brand of pervert is not particularly effective, long-term;)
Dunno how popular it is in comparison to various other destinations, but when I lived briefly in Germany (11th grade) I know that several classmates liked to go to Morocco on vacation. Specifically, to go there to smoke hash, cheaper than it apparently was in Amsterdam.
When I read this article yesterday evening, I had exactly the opposite reaction. I thought, heh, someone at the G&M really has it in for SCO and is letting it show;) Funny thing is, I was looking at the exact same chunk of text:
"SCO has admitted that its action is designed to shore up sagging sales by wringing revenue out of its rights to Unix, an older operating system from which Linux was derived."
"SCO has admitted" -- admission implies wrongdoing
"that its action is designed to shore up" -- "designed" sounds like it's a conniving plan (as in "designing women," "he has designs on the young maiden" etc, and "shore up" is what you do in the face of imminent disaster.
"sagging sales" -- sag, sag, sag
"by wringing revenue" -- SKUH-WEEEZE
"out of its rights to Unix, an older operating system from which Linux was derived." -- sounds disdainful. Like saying "the ox-cart, an older vehicle from which modern cars are derived."
a) ignore age recommendations, generally -- they're mostly nonsense:)
b) Get games that require creativity in some form. Monopoly could be seen as requiring financial creativity at least, but many games are nothing but throw-the-die-on-your-turn. Win, Lose or Draw, Pictionary, Cranium (if the players are all prepared for it)... these games make you solve a problem visually or physically, communicate with the other players.
c) Avoid games with complex pieces, or that require batteries to power whatzitz or doohickeys. They will get lost, or break.
It depends what you mean by "market approvals." If you mean mandatory, FDA / FCC / FTC style neck-stomping (which is what it sounds like you mean), then consider these actual responses from the Council of Wise Men, circa 2039 (they fell through a small time-warp, one of the many features in Gnome 6.2, which came out the previous year).
- "Your window manager isn't friendly enough to people with one hand and colorblindness. Sorry, you'll have to try again before you can legally release it."
- "Your human interface guidelines vary from ours. Sorry, you'll have to make yours conform to ours, or file a request for an initial variance hearing to take place within 90 days; at that juncture, an administrative board will determine whether a variance will be considered, and may at its option propose alternative remedies."
- "Your word processor saves in a format that's different from the Officially Approved Standard v1.39c (revised), and does not save into one of the other previously approved formats. Since it's new, you can't claim grandfathering protection either. Sure, you claim it's a transparent, XML-based, human-parseable format, but rules is rules. Sorry, you'll have to have your software re-evaluated by The Committee."
- "This game features images we think are offensive. You'll have to revise them before this can be released. Protection of children, dontcha know."
Trying to narrow this question to "commercial software" is a difficult task, too: remember, software can be written by people who don't program for a living, open source / Free software can be sold (and is therefore commercial, though distinct from the current conventional closed-source software business), and software not intended as "commercial" (is perl commercial? Not per se, it isn't) is often used in commercial settings.
Do you really want to limit the field of software to those pieces of software which have passed a bureaucratic approval system? Or to programmers who have buckled under and agreed to some imposed vision of software design? A lot of very nice open source software improves primarily by being tested (read "dragged through the mud") while in its raw state. Some of it might even be very useful in early stages, no matter how ugly it is, and since there's no accounting for taste, I would take umbrage at any particular list of requirements that tried to determine in advance how software should act. (Emacs?)
I like the fact that computers are flexible, and there's a robust, heterogeneous environment with lots of languages, security models, development styles and programmers. No system of centralized control *with the force of law* will do anything but weaken this.
On the other hand, there's plenty of room for voluntary, peacable information sources that do nothing but provide informative ratings, review compliance with currently conventional / acceptable standards, etc. Consumer Reports, Underwriters' Laboratories, Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. This is also something Insurance companies do, and a reason that there's "hacking insurance" as featured on Slashdot a year or two ago. If a business cares to heed, or to act on, any of these sources' advice, they're free to and it may benefit them in the long run. I certainly don't want products to require the Good Housekeeping Seal, though.
Yesterday in the Seattle Fry's I noticed a little sign ("Store special price!" or something to that effect) next to the $1299 20" Apple LCD display.
Uh, that, too is the *regular* price. (unless my eyes / brain deceive me, and they had it for $1199, with me misreading the sign..) It's nice to have immediate gratification, I guess, but unless other retailers are selling it for more than you can get it direct from the maker, it seems a strange thing to call attention to.
"Sausages -- Special this week, not on sale! Regular Price!"
Sad to hear that so many people were disappointed in a 2.6GHz computer (yikes, how could you be so miserly, you Scrooge!), glad at least the recipient was grateful.
Note that when I worked (just a few years ago) on the dreaded and mostly-dreadful Marketing side of things, the same sex-organ-envy logic applied, and it's endemic to the marketing side of computer companies. We (at least I) on the ad-agency side would point out occasionally to the marketing managers (on the computer company side -- 4 letters, in Texas, rhymes with "Prell"...) that (and again, this is a few years ago) that a 400MHz Intel chip is a lot more than "sufficient for running basic word processing apps." This claim drew blank stares, mostly. "But... but it's on the low end of the line. Therefore, it's 'sufficient for basic word processing apps.'" Complete lack of remorse or comprehension;)
Not that people don't sometimes decide that their current computer is plenty (marketing is a broad activity, and thank heavens it's not a one-way decision maker), and not that new and ever-better computer guts and computers aren't something I'm very glad to see, but the marketing machine selling computers both personal and corporate is fueled by buzzwords and appeals to envy and other insecurities.
(That said, Hey, I am not immune to envy or curiosity, and would love to have a latest-n-greatest workstation -- an item which would of course change as the years go by -- at any given moment. My actual current work machine is way overpowered for anything it's called to do, though -- and it's a hand me down from a friend who really does have use for a more powerful machine, so asked me "Hey, do you have any use for a 1.2GHz Duron?" 1.2GHz!? I sometimes still have trouble believing that processors got past the 100MHz mark;))
Every time I open my iBook, and especially on the times that I've used it, open, on the passenger seat of my car as an audio player, I've wished that fat central hinge (which works better and is stronger than I first thought it appeared) had the other degree of motion necessary to flop that display around ala Toshiba's (and many other companies') tablets. (That is, the ones that include a keyboard and swivel into notebook mode when desired.)
An open laptop is much more precarious than a tablet would be, esp. one like the iBook, which does not open to a full flat position, and a touch screen would make a laptop much more useful as a car computer in the style of this car-mounted iBook, but... well, less awkward.:)
Having seen a few nice (factory-option) GPS navigation system / car computers (though not in any car *I'm* likely soon to own), I am a convert, despite previously considering them nothing more than a silly affectation, evidence that people had more money than sense.
On an airplace, too, or better still in the gate waiting area, a tablet would be a far more convenient style for catching up on news sites, watching movies, etc. Trivial, maybe, but it's something I'd like in a portable computer.
The "mp3 thing" never really touched me, I have no MP3 collection to speak of. (I do have a few songs and samples people have sent me, but it's only a handful.)
Ogg, meanwhile, I think is exciting and interesting, so when I started to put my CD collection into compressed format, that's what I used. There are (finally!) a few players that support it, like the Karma. I hope to see Ogg decoders in (U.S.-available) CD-based players soon, though; there are a few available in Korea already. Plane ticket's a bit pricey just for that, though;)
Hey, thanks for pointing that out! I've never seen one of those before. I was burned by a (mediocre, quickly broken) battery pack for my Zaurus operating on the same basic line of thought, but this one (Belkin) looks pretty solid. Hmmm, temptinginger and temptinger.
"And you think that AA or AAA batteries will SAVE you money in the long term, perhaps?"
Err... Yeah!:)
With rechargeables, that is. I have enough devices that use (read 'devour') AA and AAA batteries that I already have a charger and a few sets of each of those sizes in NiMH varieties (and, guessing at current exchange rates, I paid about the same... at least if $35 US is right;)). I forget the capacity I have in my batteries (1700, I think), but I've noticed newer but otherwise equivalent batteries, same brand, etc., beat 'em by 15 or so percent.
Certainly rechargeable, relatively versatile AAs have saved me a lot of money already vs. disposables. I'm sure there are environmental arguments both ways, but I hope / suspect that no matter how nasty are the ingredients in the rechargeables, it's overall better for the planet to use those than the disposable kind.
I might care / think more about iTunes if I *did* have an iPod, since then I might use it for other than a CD-player app when I happen to have the iBook out;) It seems competent, but I have some complaints, none worth going into right now.
1) The battery. Ignoring the "dirty little secret" brouhaha (what, you thought batteries did *not* have a finite lifespan?), the plain fact is that specialized, proprietary batteries are annoying. Your priorities may be different (hey, them's the breaks, to me and to Apple) but I'd happily settle for a reasonably shorter battery life and even a slightly thicker waist in the iPod if in exchange it would take rechargeable AA or AAA batteries.
Device-specific batteries have advantages sometimes (allow sleeker shapes etc), but AA (and nearly as much, AAA) batteries are available everywhere in alkaline form, and easily gettable (in Western countries) in lithium variety. Better yet, both rechargeable AA/AAAs and the chargers that charge them (can I say 'charge' a few more times?) have gotten considerably better in the last few years. This is one reason I like my Nikon 990 camera over the later ones in the same series. I can carry extra batteries for cheap:)
2) No ogg vorbis support. This may not apply to you, but 99% the compressed music I have is in the form of oggs, ripped for convenience from my CD collection. If the iPod adds a firmware upgrade which allows ogg decoding (I've heard mixed reports on the feasability of this wrt current iPods, but a chip upgrade in a later series could do it even if the pessimists are right), I'd probably get over my disdain for the battery and shell out for one.
Obviously, this is just a rant, since Apple is unlikely to give the iPod AA/AAA batteries, and makes more money selling ITMS music in AAC than they'd probably make by adding Ogg Vorbus Support as a bullet point on the features list. However, these two factors, singly and apart, do make other players more attractive. (Like the Rio Karma; same battery lameness, but Hey, plays ogg;))
Now, when will low-end MP3 players at Target add ogg to *their* bullet list of features, though? (Part of) all I want is to listen to some books while driving, without changing CDs (or buying an overkill CD-changing car stereo).
No one linked to the Strauss story said this; I wrote that headline in the mode of a baffled friend of coworker of his explaining this seemingly random vitriol, seeming ignorance of the Princeton computer community, etc. Sorta like "... it's always the quiet ones, isn't it?"
a) Most anti-smoking ads are so smarmy and annoying that they almost make me not only want to take up smoking myself, but to stand outside elementary schools, handing out free packs, as a tribute to the (mostly) blowhard hypocrites and busybodies who create them. Maybe I'm wrong. (Not that smoking isn't negative and harmful in all the ways it's portrayed to be -- just that it gets singled out for special attention precisely because it's an easy target, moral ex-lax, "like coming out in favor of all those things that other people are *against*, like peace, justice, brotherhood, etc.") Like a lot of other things (which is to say, everything) inhaling hot particles of smoke of *anything* is going to hae drawbacks, and it might have some benefits (such as, I dunno, pleasure). But smoking gets special pariah treatment, even by an industry (advertising) full of smokers legal and otherwise.
b) That said, I've seen recently some billboards consisting of anti-smoking propaganda in the form of epitaphs. The idea is trite, phoney, cliche, weak, insipid, derivative (etc), but for some reason, the following slogan (on a gravestone) really made me laugh:
"I'm finally cool."
[dr evil]"It's a double meaning, get it? Two meanings?"[/dr evil]
The reason we run Slashback is to collect corrections and updates, for instance the one here about M. Groenig / Simpsons / Fox News.
If a story is still on the front page, we try to get a correction in there as an update. For stories that have rolled off the front page, though, more people will see the correction here than there, simply because readership for particular stories drops off a very steep cliff once they're in the Older Stories list instead of right there on the homepage.
I don't watch Fox News enough to particularly like or dislike it, though I will admit to liking the Simpsons. It's nearly as good as Futurama.
Slashdot Mirror
Chuck:
I should have caught Wolber/Wobler -- my apologies.
Tim
I know that would have gotten x-thousand people crunching for LotR ;) Dinner with the cast and a trip to NZ would be nice. If they worked it right, it would be a lot cheaper than buying yet more racks of computers, too :)
Episode 1 was slightly worse than Episode II, which was semi-fun to watch, with nostalgia for Episode IV, but not great. Episode III at least promises we get to see that leering Christian What's-'is-name dipped in acid. The sooner the better.
timothy
Not that they need extra hardware, but imagine the resulting credits list if they had to list everyone whose computer rendered a few frames of (the Hobbit? The tales of Narnia?) ...
timothy
I don't know much about Microsoft Windows, which is to say, I know even less about Windows than the little I know about Linux or Mac OS / Mac OS X. The reasons why are partly philosophical (I like Free software), partly monetary (I like free software) but mostly aesthetic (YMMV, but I like both the various Apple OSes and various *nix varieties more than I have ever liked Windows, *shrug*,no accounting for taste). That said, I've found that some software for Windows goes on easy, some doesn't -- the one time I made the mistake of actually *installing* Windows 98 on a computer, the process failed at multiple points and led to an all-day hair-pulling fest. Hardware problem? Maybe, but that hardware ran Linux fine ... My limited experience since then with Windows software has been mostly attempts to help my dad install drivers for gadgets he's bought for his several computers. My conclusion about those is that most drivers may *install* correctly, but are hampered by very poorly constructed configuration phases in the form of "Wizards" which are not very wizardly, just ambiguous exercises in condescending presumption. It's lovely when the light on a wireless card shows it's powered up and getting signal, but the driver that comes with the card says it can find no appropriate hardware ... PnP, whatever :) Isn't this the year 2003?
... for another friend, same thing a few nights back, and on her computer we used some other random unzipping utility. Where does WinZip disappear to? Or did I just hallucinate that it used to be on Windows machines by default? Are there any good open-source unzipping programs that work on Windows? What is the airspeed velocity of a coconut-laden European swallow?]
... huh?), but I will echo another respondent by suggesting the front-end called Synaptic. Synaptic is really quite good ... it's not *completely* transparent (what is?) and it certainly is not perfect, but anything I can get to work I figure must be child's play for anyone else :)
:) Two other projects which cer
If you see *nix software installation as downloading sources, configuring and compiling, then Yes, it would be a bear to anyone new to it. However, that's not the only way to install software on Linux -- software installation has come a long way in the last several years.
[Aside #1: OK, I'll take back what I said about my Windows experience being mostly about installing random drivers for peripherals: I sometimes upgrade other people's Windows machines by adding various free software pieces, and for the software I add, the effort of installation is about the same either way, when unzipping / untar-ing with Linux vs. using WinZip or similar under Windows.]
[Aside #2: A surprizing number of Windows machines don't have an unzipping utility built in, at least machines running Windows 98. I thought it was included, if not part of the actual OS -- am I wrong? Maybe people just throw it away, or stash it in a folder that the OS doesn't search when finding appropriate apps for compressed archives? This, like the 'just hit enter' password screen, will remain one of the Windows Universe's mysteries. In such cases, I download an unzipping utility; I found one tonight called FreeZip, which I used to put Mozilla Firebird on an unsuspecting friend's computer
However, if your system can use apt-get (Debian, Red Hat) or Mandrake's urpmi, these (in most cases) wins hands-down vs. the various 'unzip, then run an installer' methods. I *have* run into some weirdnesses with apt-get (like when upgrading a 700k program tries to trigger a 300MB total system upgrade
Once it's set up on your machine though, apt-get install $softwarepackage is a pretty low-impact installation method.
[Aside #3: The "last couple of years" stuff includes synaptic, but not apt-get itself, which has been around for a while now
Wolfrider:
:)
... it's fun to go into a computer store and (with permission) reboot with one in a computer's drive.
By coincidence, I downloaded (the current) Mepis shortly before reading your comment here. Have not yet had a chance to burn / use it, but I'm hoping it's up to the hype
Live-CD distros are really quite amazing in what they include
timothy
I bet a knoppix-derived or other debian-based live-CD distro with a 2.6 kernel would garner some :)
...
...
I finally figured out (well, found a workaround for, anyhow) a bizarre sound problem on my Toshiba laptop* -- before that, I was holding out hope that 2.6 would contain a magical fix -- but a nice minimalistic, ultra-up-to-date, (but installable) live CD would still be nice. Wonder when a new Knoppix will be out
timothy
* in my case, on a Satellite 1005, both the main volume level and the PCM volume level have to be to be set to 100 percent, then backed off to more reasonable listening levels, or there's no sound at all
Wouldn't mind being 10 or 20 years younger, but Hey -- I'm spoiled as an American living in the age of vaccinations and teflon, with warm, reasonably waterproof and yet breathable synthetic fabrics, lemon-flavored prunes in resealable pouches, low-cost nearly instantaneous communications, etc, so ought not complain.
...
Happy birthday to you, too, when next one strikes
timothy
p.s. Good book, you might like: "The Making of the Atomic Bomb."
(that is, our today is their yesterday, and our tomorrow has already begun, there), and since Linus is undeniably from Over There, I can count this as a birthday present. Thanks, Linus.
timothy
It's now down to less than 21 days, actually.
Noticed someone's comment yesterday pointing to this site: scocountdown.com. Note that the deadline you're referring to is not the one at the top of the page.
timothy
If you've read "Venus on the Halfshell," you'd know that nuking a trainful of your favorite brand of pervert is not particularly effective, long-term ;)
timothy
Dunno how popular it is in comparison to various other destinations, but when I lived briefly in Germany (11th grade) I know that several classmates liked to go to Morocco on vacation. Specifically, to go there to smoke hash, cheaper than it apparently was in Amsterdam.
timothy
When I read this article yesterday evening, I had exactly the opposite reaction. I thought, heh, someone at the G&M really has it in for SCO and is letting it show ;)
Funny thing is, I was looking at the exact same chunk of text:
"SCO has admitted that its action is designed to shore up sagging sales by wringing revenue out of its rights to Unix, an older operating system from which Linux was derived."
"SCO has admitted" -- admission implies wrongdoing
"that its action is designed to shore up" -- "designed" sounds like it's a conniving plan (as in "designing women," "he has designs on the young maiden" etc, and "shore up" is what you do in the face of imminent disaster.
"sagging sales" -- sag, sag, sag
"by wringing revenue" -- SKUH-WEEEZE
"out of its rights to Unix, an older operating system from which Linux was derived." -- sounds disdainful. Like saying "the ox-cart, an older vehicle from which modern cars are derived."
timothy
a) ignore age recommendations, generally -- they're mostly nonsense :)
... these games make you solve a problem visually or physically, communicate with the other players.
b) Get games that require creativity in some form. Monopoly could be seen as requiring financial creativity at least, but many games are nothing but throw-the-die-on-your-turn. Win, Lose or Draw, Pictionary, Cranium (if the players are all prepared for it)
c) Avoid games with complex pieces, or that require batteries to power whatzitz or doohickeys. They will get lost, or break.
It depends what you mean by "market approvals." If you mean mandatory, FDA / FCC / FTC style neck-stomping (which is what it sounds like you mean), then consider these actual responses from the Council of Wise Men, circa 2039 (they fell through a small time-warp, one of the many features in Gnome 6.2, which came out the previous year).
- "Your window manager isn't friendly enough to people with one hand and colorblindness. Sorry, you'll have to try again before you can legally release it."
- "Your human interface guidelines vary from ours. Sorry, you'll have to make yours conform to ours, or file a request for an initial variance hearing to take place within 90 days; at that juncture, an administrative board will determine whether a variance will be considered, and may at its option propose alternative remedies."
- "Your word processor saves in a format that's different from the Officially Approved Standard v1.39c (revised), and does not save into one of the other previously approved formats. Since it's new, you can't claim grandfathering protection either. Sure, you claim it's a transparent, XML-based, human-parseable format, but rules is rules. Sorry, you'll have to have your software re-evaluated by The Committee."
- "This game features images we think are offensive. You'll have to revise them before this can be released. Protection of children, dontcha know."
Trying to narrow this question to "commercial software" is a difficult task, too: remember, software can be written by people who don't program for a living, open source / Free software can be sold (and is therefore commercial, though distinct from the current conventional closed-source software business), and software not intended as "commercial" (is perl commercial? Not per se, it isn't) is often used in commercial settings.
Do you really want to limit the field of software to those pieces of software which have passed a bureaucratic approval system? Or to programmers who have buckled under and agreed to some imposed vision of software design? A lot of very nice open source software improves primarily by being tested (read "dragged through the mud") while in its raw state. Some of it might even be very useful in early stages, no matter how ugly it is, and since there's no accounting for taste, I would take umbrage at any particular list of requirements that tried to determine in advance how software should act. (Emacs?)
I like the fact that computers are flexible, and there's a robust, heterogeneous environment with lots of languages, security models, development styles and programmers. No system of centralized control *with the force of law* will do anything but weaken this.
On the other hand, there's plenty of room for voluntary, peacable information sources that do nothing but provide informative ratings, review compliance with currently conventional / acceptable standards, etc. Consumer Reports, Underwriters' Laboratories, Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. This is also something Insurance companies do, and a reason that there's "hacking insurance" as featured on Slashdot a year or two ago. If a business cares to heed, or to act on, any of these sources' advice, they're free to and it may benefit them in the long run. I certainly don't want products to require the Good Housekeeping Seal, though.
[heart on sleeve]
timothy
Yesterday in the Seattle Fry's I noticed a little sign ("Store special price!" or something to that effect) next to the $1299 20" Apple LCD display.
..) It's nice to have immediate gratification, I guess, but unless other retailers are selling it for more than you can get it direct from the maker, it seems a strange thing to call attention to.
Uh, that, too is the *regular* price. (unless my eyes / brain deceive me, and they had it for $1199, with me misreading the sign
"Sausages -- Special this week, not on sale! Regular Price!"
timothy
Sad to hear that so many people were disappointed in a 2.6GHz computer (yikes, how could you be so miserly, you Scrooge!), glad at least the recipient was grateful.
...) that (and again, this is a few years ago) that a 400MHz Intel chip is a lot more than "sufficient for running basic word processing apps." This claim drew blank stares, mostly. "But ... but it's on the low end of the line. Therefore, it's 'sufficient for basic word processing apps.'" Complete lack of remorse or comprehension ;)
;))
Note that when I worked (just a few years ago) on the dreaded and mostly-dreadful Marketing side of things, the same sex-organ-envy logic applied, and it's endemic to the marketing side of computer companies. We (at least I) on the ad-agency side would point out occasionally to the marketing managers (on the computer company side -- 4 letters, in Texas, rhymes with "Prell"
Not that people don't sometimes decide that their current computer is plenty (marketing is a broad activity, and thank heavens it's not a one-way decision maker), and not that new and ever-better computer guts and computers aren't something I'm very glad to see, but the marketing machine selling computers both personal and corporate is fueled by buzzwords and appeals to envy and other insecurities.
(That said, Hey, I am not immune to envy or curiosity, and would love to have a latest-n-greatest workstation -- an item which would of course change as the years go by -- at any given moment. My actual current work machine is way overpowered for anything it's called to do, though -- and it's a hand me down from a friend who really does have use for a more powerful machine, so asked me "Hey, do you have any use for a 1.2GHz Duron?" 1.2GHz!? I sometimes still have trouble believing that processors got past the 100MHz mark
timothy
Every time I open my iBook, and especially on the times that I've used it, open, on the passenger seat of my car as an audio player, I've wished that fat central hinge (which works better and is stronger than I first thought it appeared) had the other degree of motion necessary to flop that display around ala Toshiba's (and many other companies') tablets. (That is, the ones that include a keyboard and swivel into notebook mode when desired.)
... well, less awkward. :)
An open laptop is much more precarious than a tablet would be, esp. one like the iBook, which does not open to a full flat position, and a touch screen would make a laptop much more useful as a car computer in the style of this car-mounted iBook, but
Having seen a few nice (factory-option) GPS navigation system / car computers (though not in any car *I'm* likely soon to own), I am a convert, despite previously considering them nothing more than a silly affectation, evidence that people had more money than sense.
On an airplace, too, or better still in the gate waiting area, a tablet would be a far more convenient style for catching up on news sites, watching movies, etc. Trivial, maybe, but it's something I'd like in a portable computer.
timothy
The "mp3 thing" never really touched me, I have no MP3 collection to speak of. (I do have a few songs and samples people have sent me, but it's only a handful.)
;)
Ogg, meanwhile, I think is exciting and interesting, so when I started to put my CD collection into compressed format, that's what I used. There are (finally!) a few players that support it, like the Karma. I hope to see Ogg decoders in (U.S.-available) CD-based players soon, though; there are a few available in Korea already. Plane ticket's a bit pricey just for that, though
timothy
"Fuck Ogg. Fuck it up its stupid ass. Outside of about 5 regular trolls on Slashdot, nobody cares about Ogg."
Errr
timothy
Hey, thanks for pointing that out! I've never seen one of those before. I was burned by a (mediocre, quickly broken) battery pack for my Zaurus operating on the same basic line of thought, but this one (Belkin) looks pretty solid. Hmmm, temptinginger and temptinger.
timothy
"And you think that AA or AAA batteries will SAVE you money in the long term, perhaps?"
... Yeah! :)
... at least if $35 US is right ;)). I forget the capacity I have in my batteries (1700, I think), but I've noticed newer but otherwise equivalent batteries, same brand, etc., beat 'em by 15 or so percent.
;) It seems competent, but I have some complaints, none worth going into right now.
Err
With rechargeables, that is. I have enough devices that use (read 'devour') AA and AAA batteries that I already have a charger and a few sets of each of those sizes in NiMH varieties (and, guessing at current exchange rates, I paid about the same
Certainly rechargeable, relatively versatile AAs have saved me a lot of money already vs. disposables. I'm sure there are environmental arguments both ways, but I hope / suspect that no matter how nasty are the ingredients in the rechargeables, it's overall better for the planet to use those than the disposable kind.
I might care / think more about iTunes if I *did* have an iPod, since then I might use it for other than a CD-player app when I happen to have the iBook out
timothy
1) The battery. Ignoring the "dirty little secret" brouhaha (what, you thought batteries did *not* have a finite lifespan?), the plain fact is that specialized, proprietary batteries are annoying. Your priorities may be different (hey, them's the breaks, to me and to Apple) but I'd happily settle for a reasonably shorter battery life and even a slightly thicker waist in the iPod if in exchange it would take rechargeable AA or AAA batteries.
:)
;))
Device-specific batteries have advantages sometimes (allow sleeker shapes etc), but AA (and nearly as much, AAA) batteries are available everywhere in alkaline form, and easily gettable (in Western countries) in lithium variety. Better yet, both rechargeable AA/AAAs and the chargers that charge them (can I say 'charge' a few more times?) have gotten considerably better in the last few years. This is one reason I like my Nikon 990 camera over the later ones in the same series. I can carry extra batteries for cheap
2) No ogg vorbis support. This may not apply to you, but 99% the compressed music I have is in the form of oggs, ripped for convenience from my CD collection. If the iPod adds a firmware upgrade which allows ogg decoding (I've heard mixed reports on the feasability of this wrt current iPods, but a chip upgrade in a later series could do it even if the pessimists are right), I'd probably get over my disdain for the battery and shell out for one.
Obviously, this is just a rant, since Apple is unlikely to give the iPod AA/AAA batteries, and makes more money selling ITMS music in AAC than they'd probably make by adding Ogg Vorbus Support as a bullet point on the features list. However, these two factors, singly and apart, do make other players more attractive. (Like the Rio Karma; same battery lameness, but Hey, plays ogg
Now, when will low-end MP3 players at Target add ogg to *their* bullet list of features, though? (Part of) all I want is to listen to some books while driving, without changing CDs (or buying an overkill CD-changing car stereo).
timothy
No one linked to the Strauss story said this; I wrote that headline in the mode of a baffled friend of coworker of his explaining this seemingly random vitriol, seeming ignorance of the Princeton computer community, etc. Sorta like "... it's always the quiet ones, isn't it?"
Sorry for any confusion.
timothy
a) Most anti-smoking ads are so smarmy and annoying that they almost make me not only want to take up smoking myself, but to stand outside elementary schools, handing out free packs, as a tribute to the (mostly) blowhard hypocrites and busybodies who create them. Maybe I'm wrong. (Not that smoking isn't negative and harmful in all the ways it's portrayed to be -- just that it gets singled out for special attention precisely because it's an easy target, moral ex-lax, "like coming out in favor of all those things that other people are *against*, like peace, justice, brotherhood, etc.") Like a lot of other things (which is to say, everything) inhaling hot particles of smoke of *anything* is going to hae drawbacks, and it might have some benefits (such as, I dunno, pleasure). But smoking gets special pariah treatment, even by an industry (advertising) full of smokers legal and otherwise.
b) That said, I've seen recently some billboards consisting of anti-smoking propaganda in the form of epitaphs. The idea is trite, phoney, cliche, weak, insipid, derivative (etc), but for some reason, the following slogan (on a gravestone) really made me laugh:
"I'm finally cool."
[dr evil]"It's a double meaning, get it? Two meanings?"[/dr evil]
timothy
The reason we run Slashback is to collect corrections and updates, for instance the one here about M. Groenig / Simpsons / Fox News.
If a story is still on the front page, we try to get a correction in there as an update. For stories that have rolled off the front page, though, more people will see the correction here than there, simply because readership for particular stories drops off a very steep cliff once they're in the Older Stories list instead of right there on the homepage.
I don't watch Fox News enough to particularly like or dislike it, though I will admit to liking the Simpsons. It's nearly as good as Futurama.
timothy