In the movie "Men In Black," Tommy Lee Jones' character makes an offhand remark to the effect of, "The aliens didn't make contact until we indicated serious interest in making contact by setting up the Men In Black program."
I think it's telling that Sanctuary's About page describes the hardware and software used to create the show, but doesn't tell me what the show is, you know, about.
Art is about creating an emotional connection with the viewer. Maybe when the Sanctuary folks realize that's more important than "an innovative 3D computer-model tracking system live on set" they'll begin to accrue more viewers.
Not necessarily. I'm a hiring manager, and the money I pay for employees is part of the cost of the goods my company produces.
If an employee's salary demands exceed the profit my company can generate from the goods, then regardless of what other companies are paying, I cannot sustain that salary level. That either means my company is inefficient, or selling the goods at below market value, or that other factors (such as a surplus of VC money for startups) is allowing the other company to pay more to produce the same goods.
There is also the chance that the employee wasn't actually very good, or was difficult to manage. Either of those cases have caused me to pass on a demand, despite putting me in a situation where I had to replace the employee because they walked.
Those factors (and more) can take the negotiation out of the realm of straight supply and demand.
It would be neat if they did some other type of scanning, such as laser scanning the exterior, so that the book's heft and presence can be reproduced in the future. I've printed out crisp, high-resolution PDFs of user manuals, and having three hundred pages of printer paper binder clipped together just isn't the same as a nice, perfect-bound manual with a glossy cover.
Sure, I imagine most of the consumption in the future will be done in a digital environment, but it would be nice if future generations had the option of popping the file into whatever will pass for a replicator and getting a decent representation of a long-vanished physical object- especially since the technology exists and the incremental memory needed is fairly trivial.
Lucky you! Now you can go back to the exciting days of sitting at home because you are 'expecting a call!'
You get to be one of those fortunate jobhunters who 'wait by the phone!'
For some bizarre reason, when my cellphone goes off I am somehow able to ignore it... in fact, I rarely pick up my phone for any caller unless it's someone I *really* want to speak with. No caller ID? You're welcome to leave a voicemail that I may review at some point in the future.
To me, a cellphone is an enabling technology- it enables me to make and receive phone calls at my convenience. It does not force me to take work calls after hours, nor does it force me to answer it everytime it rings in a movie theater. Those are human behaviors that I can control. I guess if you can't control your own behaviors, then getting rid of the technology that enables bad behaviors is the only answer...
Automated toll collection tags used in the Northeast ("EZ-Pass") are already being used to monitor traffic flow. Not only are these tags traceable to you, they are connected to your credit card, which is auto-debited for tolls. Currently they are not being used to auto-ticket speeders (you wouldn't even need to use 'sophisticated' math to figure that one out), but they do warn that the EZ-Pass info will be used for traffic monitoring and monitoring 'violations of your agreement.'
Here it is in the service agreement (search onpage for 'monitoring'):
I spend 95% of my day on my Mac, and although I have a Windows machine KVMd to my monitor, I just use the Exchange Web client through Safari. Setting up meetings is a little annoying, but since the vast majority of my Exchange transactions involve either accepting or denying meetings, or checking my calendar for the day, its limitations are acceptable.
That doesn't solve the problem of Exchange being used in the first place, but it does solve the issue of having to use Windows to access it.
As sensors become smaller, lighter, and more networked, it makes sense to put recording devices on ANYTHING remotely mission critical, mainly because at a certain point it becomes negligent not to.
When I ride over the Queensboro Bridge in NYC, I stare up with apprehension at the thousands of rusting girders that hold that rattletrap together. The only thing forestalling a collapse is having actual dudes crawling over it all the time checking visually for cracks and obvious failures. The smart pebble technology previously mentioned on Slashdot - http://www.betterroads.com/articles/feb03b.htm - would make me feel more comfortable.
I feel the same way on airplanes- do I trust that a ground tech working for a lowest-bidder maintenance company has adequately checked the airframe? I sure would like real-time fatigue information being beamed to the pilot, so he can decide wether to fly or not based on risking his own skin.
The most amazing thing about our age of astounding engineering is still the amount of ignorance we maintain about our constructions (Bucky Fuller's famous, and unanswered question to an architect: How much does your building weigh?). Thus, safety margins, inspections, building codes, all serving as bandaids to a fundamental ignorance that bites back BIG when a failure does occurr (sure, the WTC can absorb the impact, but can it survive the potential energy bundled in a plane, including the BTUs in the fuel? Nope).
Privacy wonks will worry about networked sensors in their toilets watching them take a crap, but really, if anyone wants to see mine, they're more than welcome to it- I just don't want to hear about it (eeewwww).
Seems like most of the naysayers are just assuming you'd use this screen to simply overleave two 2D displays.
This is linear thinking- sort of like assuming that the powerful GPUs in video cards would only ever be used to render chrome spheres floating over checkerboard floors. Instead, different, more clever uses (like Quartz and Core Image) have emerged for that seemingly extravagant and surplus capability.
Similarly, I fell like somthing like this will be used to add an intangible quality to the dry 2d display- 'life' or 'vibrance.'
Imagine two displays that render the exact same image, except in the areas where it's tracking your eyes or mouse, the images are more in phase while the rest of the screen goes out of phase.
It could literally help focus your attention on the important info, where today's screens are limited to color, 'boldness' and opacity.
I think we won't see the real usefluness of this until it's had time for creative people to tinker with working examples of it, which is the case for most technology, really.
Non-New Yorkers may be excused for not getting our backward terminology for train staff.
The 'Conductor,' who in the rest of the worl drives the trains, sits in the center of NYC subway trains and opens and closes the doors, and announces stops (until the recorded voices in recent trains, that is).
The guy driving the train up front, and looking for kids and other garbage on the tracks, is called the 'motorman.' You see, he's the guy that turns the motor on and off. Or something.
Anyhow, they're planning to eliminate the conductor, but keep the motorman- so there will still be someone up front watching for imminent collisions. When they're not asleep, that is.
On the BART or DC's Metro, the displays that tell you when the next train is coming are really just there to calm your impatience- normally the train you're waiting for is the only one you can take anyhow.
In New York City, which has an enormously complex subway system, it's different. If you're standing in the Times Square subway station, you can choose from at least seven different subway lines, radiating in all directions.
Without a status display, New Yorkers are reduced to leaning over the edge of the platform to peer down a darkened tunnel for the telltale glint of subway headlights when deciding to wait for the 3 or jump on the 1. Forget about running upstairs to check for the R- you have to go with your gut that the IRT generally comes more frequently than the BMT (how's that for some old school NY goodness?)
The most exciting thing the article mentions are the status displays (grafitti resistant, I hope) that give you a running diplay of approaching trains and their time to arrival.
New Yorkers are notoriously impatient, and a large part of why we're so rude is having to deal with the daily hassles of getting from one end of the stinkin' island to another. I guarantee these status screens will attract so many eyeballs that they'll pay for themselves with supplemental advertising within months.
Films and other large productions are tightly scheduled, with costs against these schedules mapped out months in advance. I can't think of a producer who would count on an essentially unschedulable resource as a vital part of their production pipeline, regardless of its economy.
That said, I could totally see a use for a 'render pool' catering to independent filmmakers, students, and nonprofits for whom cheap is more important than timely.
Who cares if it's overtaking Mac- as long as the share it's taking over from is Windows.
If Linux was *replacing* Mac on the desktop, that would be worrisome. Instead, you're seeing municipalities, counties, even countries switching from Win to Lin. You're not hearing about ad agencies doing mass migrations to Linux, replacing Photoshop with the Gimp and Quark with... with... um, well, you're not hearing about it.
Meanwhile, the mac addicts will single-click along, content with their 3%- and happier still that they've got some stronger allies against the real threat to their desktop security.
I work for a large provider of internet services- in fact, we make one of the most popular IM clients in use today.
Here, not being logged into IM is tantamount to not being at work at all. You're expected to be available for chat at any time you're at your desk and don't have an 'away' message up. If you can't manage 5-10 simultaneous IM conversations at once, you'd have a hard time keeping up here.
As other posters have said, it's conveniently situated between e-mail and phone- asynchronous, yet instant. Additionally, it is useful for things like large file transfers and for slinging URLs during conference calls... it makes a great collaborative tool.
The one interesting, yet mildly annoying, thing about it is the office language that has evolved around IM. The 'burstable' nature of the messaging has caused people to adopt SMS-like abbreviations for common phrases:
yt? : "You there?" used to ping people to see if they are actually available for chat. This bugs me; I personally just start the message with useful info and wait to see if I get a reply. otp: "On the phone" - used to explain your distraction or delay in getting back to a "yt?" ping. ygm: "You've got mail"- notify someone on IM that you've sent them an e-mail (seems redundant but it's easy to miss an e-mail notification with all the IMs flying around).
Finally, a really useful aspect is the ability to cut across multiple levels of corporate hierarchy with a flick of the "enter" key. One of the senior folks in my company stays logged in all day- his screen name is his last name (as is the case with most people here who eschew 'cutesy' screen names). I've only pinged him once or twice- sending URLs for review and the like- but it's nice to know that I can access top folk directly, and not have my e-mail screened and/or deleted by an admin assistant. Of course, if I'm not careful with how I use that access, that IM could lead to IU (instant unemployment...)
To me, dedicated e-book readers seem to come from the same place as those portable DVD players that cost as much as a laptop with a DVD drive.
Why buy a one-purpose piece of hardware when there are solutions that perform that purpose well, and do other useful stuff?
To compound the problem, they release the content on a closed, proprietary platform that only runs on their hardware. It's the Vectrex of our time! (Not to slag Vectrex, I loved mine).
IMO a better path would have been to build a multi-purpose handheld optimized for e-book reading- license the Palm OS so that people could do all that other stuff too, but use a big, clear screen with dedicated nav buttons so it was the best darn e-book reading Palm money can buy. Or the best darn e-book reading Linux pad, I'm not picky.
It seems the downfall of this company (and many others) is they assume they are operating in a standalone universe. With that assumption, creating a closed system of readers and content makes sense (how else could someone have possibly thought DivX was a good idea?). Out in the wilds of the real world, they're murdered by their less annoying competition.
You can still answer your e-mail at your convenience, but now you can do it at the coffee shop. Or sitting on a park bench, you know, outside.
If your fear is the expectation that your managers want you to answer e-mails immediately when outside the office, I would say that those expectations are the problem, not the technology.
I rarely answer my cellphone unless the caller ID displays the number of someone I want to talk to right then. Similarly, I don't answer IMs unless I feel like it... how is the sender to know whether or not I'm actually at my computer?
I think anything that give me more choice is a good thing. The technology itself allows that choice, but it's my responsiblity to manage my relationships to allow me to take advantage of it.
Law is notoriously slow to catch up to technology. It was years after the first car showed up that someone had the bright idea to install traffic lights, or impose a speed limit. More recently, file trading took the RIAA completely by surprise-- it was many months before they even acknoledged the problem, let alone started to take legal action.
In the case of damaging actions which are currently part of accepted business practices, I think we'll start to see the law come around. I'm particularly interested in when the first major lawsuit against Microsoft will appear for lost business due to mass internet slowdowns from Outlook virus propogation.
I just clicked over from MacMinute, where they reported the BugBear virus had slowed the.Mac service... not from vulnerabilities, but from sheer load on the infrastructure. All it takes is for some pissed off, Mac-using litigator to realize that negligence on the part of Microsoft is damaging a public utility, and we're off...
Perhaps it's blind hero-worship, but he seem to embody everything good & stable that his partner [Steve Jobs] lacks.
Some would say that it's precisely this personality contrast that allowed Apple to succeed, and jumpstart the personal computer industry with the Apple II and its descendants.
Based on published accounts, Woz likely would have been happy tinkering away on his projects to satisfy his own personal curiousity- it took Jobs' prodding to convince him to leave his comfortable job at Hewlett-Packard and commercialize his brilliance.
I'm sure most engineers would be loathe to admit that some marketing or sales sleaze provided them with the inspiration- or desperation- to create something novel or elegant, but Jobs apparently played that role in the genesis of Apple- Woz alludes to his constant questions about extending his technology in this very article.
For web designers on Macs, there's still no substitute for having a PC box in close proximity.
...except for setting your Mac screen gamma to PC standard (2.2) like I do:-)
That said, VPC is very helpful for seeing what all the different Windows interface widgets do to your layout- the controls look, act, and size quite differently and can negatively affect the design of your sites.
Wildly attaching political criticism of the US to any random discussion is not social commentary- it's tiresome, off-topic blather.
Just because your anxiety about the world's political situation has become the central issue in your life doesn't mean we all want to read your emotional acting out. There are proper venues for experssing your displeasure with the US government- try the Security Council, for one.
Slashdot Mirror
...on the Sunday morning when I'm on an eight hour outage call starting at 4AM...
or the Monday night when I stay at the office until 10 working on a time sensitive launch...
do they turn the "hooky" clock backwards in that case?
In the movie "Men In Black," Tommy Lee Jones' character makes an offhand remark to the effect of, "The aliens didn't make contact until we indicated serious interest in making contact by setting up the Men In Black program."
I wonder at what threshold the aliens browse /.?
I think it's telling that Sanctuary's About page describes the hardware and software used to create the show, but doesn't tell me what the show is, you know, about.
Art is about creating an emotional connection with the viewer. Maybe when the Sanctuary folks realize that's more important than "an innovative 3D computer-model tracking system live on set" they'll begin to accrue more viewers.
Not necessarily. I'm a hiring manager, and the money I pay for employees is part of the cost of the goods my company produces.
If an employee's salary demands exceed the profit my company can generate from the goods, then regardless of what other companies are paying, I cannot sustain that salary level. That either means my company is inefficient, or selling the goods at below market value, or that other factors (such as a surplus of VC money for startups) is allowing the other company to pay more to produce the same goods.
There is also the chance that the employee wasn't actually very good, or was difficult to manage. Either of those cases have caused me to pass on a demand, despite putting me in a situation where I had to replace the employee because they walked.
Those factors (and more) can take the negotiation out of the realm of straight supply and demand.
What makes you think NBC Executives aren't reading Slashdot?
It would be neat if they did some other type of scanning, such as laser scanning the exterior, so that the book's heft and presence can be reproduced in the future. I've printed out crisp, high-resolution PDFs of user manuals, and having three hundred pages of printer paper binder clipped together just isn't the same as a nice, perfect-bound manual with a glossy cover.
Sure, I imagine most of the consumption in the future will be done in a digital environment, but it would be nice if future generations had the option of popping the file into whatever will pass for a replicator and getting a decent representation of a long-vanished physical object- especially since the technology exists and the incremental memory needed is fairly trivial.
Moviefone has a pretty robust Narnia section up in their site:
l es_of_narnia
http://movies.aol.com/movie_exclusive_the_chronic
They have both video and photo galleries with trailers and behind the scenes segments. Sort of like DVD extras style stuff.
Lucky you! Now you can go back to the exciting days of sitting at home because you are 'expecting a call!'
You get to be one of those fortunate jobhunters who 'wait by the phone!'
For some bizarre reason, when my cellphone goes off I am somehow able to ignore it... in fact, I rarely pick up my phone for any caller unless it's someone I *really* want to speak with. No caller ID? You're welcome to leave a voicemail that I may review at some point in the future.
To me, a cellphone is an enabling technology- it enables me to make and receive phone calls at my convenience. It does not force me to take work calls after hours, nor does it force me to answer it everytime it rings in a movie theater. Those are human behaviors that I can control. I guess if you can't control your own behaviors, then getting rid of the technology that enables bad behaviors is the only answer...
Automated toll collection tags used in the Northeast ("EZ-Pass") are already being used to monitor traffic flow. Not only are these tags traceable to you, they are connected to your credit card, which is auto-debited for tolls. Currently they are not being used to auto-ticket speeders (you wouldn't even need to use 'sophisticated' math to figure that one out), but they do warn that the EZ-Pass info will be used for traffic monitoring and monitoring 'violations of your agreement.'
t erms.asp
Here it is in the service agreement (search onpage for 'monitoring'):
https://www.ezpass.csc.paturnpike.com/paturnpike/
I spend 95% of my day on my Mac, and although I have a Windows machine KVMd to my monitor, I just use the Exchange Web client through Safari. Setting up meetings is a little annoying, but since the vast majority of my Exchange transactions involve either accepting or denying meetings, or checking my calendar for the day, its limitations are acceptable.
That doesn't solve the problem of Exchange being used in the first place, but it does solve the issue of having to use Windows to access it.
Does is count when you use your thumb for hitchhiking when your Microsoft powered car breaks down?
...our new era of information saturation.
As sensors become smaller, lighter, and more networked, it makes sense to put recording devices on ANYTHING remotely mission critical, mainly because at a certain point it becomes negligent not to.
When I ride over the Queensboro Bridge in NYC, I stare up with apprehension at the thousands of rusting girders that hold that rattletrap together. The only thing forestalling a collapse is having actual dudes crawling over it all the time checking visually for cracks and obvious failures. The smart pebble technology previously mentioned on Slashdot - http://www.betterroads.com/articles/feb03b.htm - would make me feel more comfortable.
I feel the same way on airplanes- do I trust that a ground tech working for a lowest-bidder maintenance company has adequately checked the airframe? I sure would like real-time fatigue information being beamed to the pilot, so he can decide wether to fly or not based on risking his own skin.
The most amazing thing about our age of astounding engineering is still the amount of ignorance we maintain about our constructions (Bucky Fuller's famous, and unanswered question to an architect: How much does your building weigh?). Thus, safety margins, inspections, building codes, all serving as bandaids to a fundamental ignorance that bites back BIG when a failure does occurr (sure, the WTC can absorb the impact, but can it survive the potential energy bundled in a plane, including the BTUs in the fuel? Nope).
Privacy wonks will worry about networked sensors in their toilets watching them take a crap, but really, if anyone wants to see mine, they're more than welcome to it- I just don't want to hear about it (eeewwww).
Seems like most of the naysayers are just assuming you'd use this screen to simply overleave two 2D displays.
This is linear thinking- sort of like assuming that the powerful GPUs in video cards would only ever be used to render chrome spheres floating over checkerboard floors. Instead, different, more clever uses (like Quartz and Core Image) have emerged for that seemingly extravagant and surplus capability.
Similarly, I fell like somthing like this will be used to add an intangible quality to the dry 2d display- 'life' or 'vibrance.'
Imagine two displays that render the exact same image, except in the areas where it's tracking your eyes or mouse, the images are more in phase while the rest of the screen goes out of phase.
It could literally help focus your attention on the important info, where today's screens are limited to color, 'boldness' and opacity.
I think we won't see the real usefluness of this until it's had time for creative people to tinker with working examples of it, which is the case for most technology, really.
Non-New Yorkers may be excused for not getting our backward terminology for train staff.
The 'Conductor,' who in the rest of the worl drives the trains, sits in the center of NYC subway trains and opens and closes the doors, and announces stops (until the recorded voices in recent trains, that is).
The guy driving the train up front, and looking for kids and other garbage on the tracks, is called the 'motorman.' You see, he's the guy that turns the motor on and off. Or something.
Anyhow, they're planning to eliminate the conductor, but keep the motorman- so there will still be someone up front watching for imminent collisions. When they're not asleep, that is.
On the BART or DC's Metro, the displays that tell you when the next train is coming are really just there to calm your impatience- normally the train you're waiting for is the only one you can take anyhow.
In New York City, which has an enormously complex subway system, it's different. If you're standing in the Times Square subway station, you can choose from at least seven different subway lines, radiating in all directions.
Without a status display, New Yorkers are reduced to leaning over the edge of the platform to peer down a darkened tunnel for the telltale glint of subway headlights when deciding to wait for the 3 or jump on the 1. Forget about running upstairs to check for the R- you have to go with your gut that the IRT generally comes more frequently than the BMT (how's that for some old school NY goodness?)
The most exciting thing the article mentions are the status displays (grafitti resistant, I hope) that give you a running diplay of approaching trains and their time to arrival.
New Yorkers are notoriously impatient, and a large part of why we're so rude is having to deal with the daily hassles of getting from one end of the stinkin' island to another. I guarantee these status screens will attract so many eyeballs that they'll pay for themselves with supplemental advertising within months.
Films and other large productions are tightly scheduled, with costs against these schedules mapped out months in advance. I can't think of a producer who would count on an essentially unschedulable resource as a vital part of their production pipeline, regardless of its economy.
That said, I could totally see a use for a 'render pool' catering to independent filmmakers, students, and nonprofits for whom cheap is more important than timely.
Who cares if it's overtaking Mac- as long as the share it's taking over from is Windows.
If Linux was *replacing* Mac on the desktop, that would be worrisome. Instead, you're seeing municipalities, counties, even countries switching from Win to Lin. You're not hearing about ad agencies doing mass migrations to Linux, replacing Photoshop with the Gimp and Quark with... with... um, well, you're not hearing about it.
Meanwhile, the mac addicts will single-click along, content with their 3%- and happier still that they've got some stronger allies against the real threat to their desktop security.
I work for a large provider of internet services- in fact, we make one of the most popular IM clients in use today.
Here, not being logged into IM is tantamount to not being at work at all. You're expected to be available for chat at any time you're at your desk and don't have an 'away' message up. If you can't manage 5-10 simultaneous IM conversations at once, you'd have a hard time keeping up here.
As other posters have said, it's conveniently situated between e-mail and phone- asynchronous, yet instant. Additionally, it is useful for things like large file transfers and for slinging URLs during conference calls... it makes a great collaborative tool.
The one interesting, yet mildly annoying, thing about it is the office language that has evolved around IM. The 'burstable' nature of the messaging has caused people to adopt SMS-like abbreviations for common phrases:
yt? : "You there?" used to ping people to see if they are actually available for chat. This bugs me; I personally just start the message with useful info and wait to see if I get a reply.
otp: "On the phone" - used to explain your distraction or delay in getting back to a "yt?" ping.
ygm: "You've got mail"- notify someone on IM that you've sent them an e-mail (seems redundant but it's easy to miss an e-mail notification with all the IMs flying around).
Finally, a really useful aspect is the ability to cut across multiple levels of corporate hierarchy with a flick of the "enter" key. One of the senior folks in my company stays logged in all day- his screen name is his last name (as is the case with most people here who eschew 'cutesy' screen names). I've only pinged him once or twice- sending URLs for review and the like- but it's nice to know that I can access top folk directly, and not have my e-mail screened and/or deleted by an admin assistant. Of course, if I'm not careful with how I use that access, that IM could lead to IU (instant unemployment...)
Similarly, just leaving my PowerMac dualie (Quicksilver, 2002) on at night has eliminated the need for a white noise generator.
This famously loud machine drown out the street noise from outside- and I live on Amsterdam Ave., in Manhattan (a noisy street in a noisy town).
Ironically, putting the computer to sleep (which spins down the drive and the fans) makes it more difficult for ME to sleep...
To me, dedicated e-book readers seem to come from the same place as those portable DVD players that cost as much as a laptop with a DVD drive.
Why buy a one-purpose piece of hardware when there are solutions that perform that purpose well, and do other useful stuff?
To compound the problem, they release the content on a closed, proprietary platform that only runs on their hardware. It's the Vectrex of our time! (Not to slag Vectrex, I loved mine).
IMO a better path would have been to build a multi-purpose handheld optimized for e-book reading- license the Palm OS so that people could do all that other stuff too, but use a big, clear screen with dedicated nav buttons so it was the best darn e-book reading Palm money can buy. Or the best darn e-book reading Linux pad, I'm not picky.
It seems the downfall of this company (and many others) is they assume they are operating in a standalone universe. With that assumption, creating a closed system of readers and content makes sense (how else could someone have possibly thought DivX was a good idea?). Out in the wilds of the real world, they're murdered by their less annoying competition.
To me, wireless e-mail is liberating.
You can still answer your e-mail at your convenience, but now you can do it at the coffee shop. Or sitting on a park bench, you know, outside.
If your fear is the expectation that your managers want you to answer e-mails immediately when outside the office, I would say that those expectations are the problem, not the technology.
I rarely answer my cellphone unless the caller ID displays the number of someone I want to talk to right then. Similarly, I don't answer IMs unless I feel like it... how is the sender to know whether or not I'm actually at my computer?
I think anything that give me more choice is a good thing. The technology itself allows that choice, but it's my responsiblity to manage my relationships to allow me to take advantage of it.
Law is notoriously slow to catch up to technology. It was years after the first car showed up that someone had the bright idea to install traffic lights, or impose a speed limit. More recently, file trading took the RIAA completely by surprise-- it was many months before they even acknoledged the problem, let alone started to take legal action.
.Mac service... not from vulnerabilities, but from sheer load on the infrastructure. All it takes is for some pissed off, Mac-using litigator to realize that negligence on the part of Microsoft is damaging a public utility, and we're off...
In the case of damaging actions which are currently part of accepted business practices, I think we'll start to see the law come around. I'm particularly interested in when the first major lawsuit against Microsoft will appear for lost business due to mass internet slowdowns from Outlook virus propogation.
I just clicked over from MacMinute, where they reported the BugBear virus had slowed the
Perhaps it's blind hero-worship, but he seem to embody everything good & stable that his partner [Steve Jobs] lacks.
Some would say that it's precisely this personality contrast that allowed Apple to succeed, and jumpstart the personal computer industry with the Apple II and its descendants.
Based on published accounts, Woz likely would have been happy tinkering away on his projects to satisfy his own personal curiousity- it took Jobs' prodding to convince him to leave his comfortable job at Hewlett-Packard and commercialize his brilliance.
I'm sure most engineers would be loathe to admit that some marketing or sales sleaze provided them with the inspiration- or desperation- to create something novel or elegant, but Jobs apparently played that role in the genesis of Apple- Woz alludes to his constant questions about extending his technology in this very article.
For web designers on Macs, there's still no substitute for having a PC box in close proximity.
...except for setting your Mac screen gamma to PC standard (2.2) like I do :-)
That said, VPC is very helpful for seeing what all the different Windows interface widgets do to your layout- the controls look, act, and size quite differently and can negatively affect the design of your sites.
Moritz,
:-)
Wildly attaching political criticism of the US to any random discussion is not social commentary- it's tiresome, off-topic blather.
Just because your anxiety about the world's political situation has become the central issue in your life doesn't mean we all want to read your emotional acting out. There are proper venues for experssing your displeasure with the US government- try the Security Council, for one.
That said, someone please mod me Off-Off Topic