Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English, please correct my errors!:)
I think it's great that you're trying to improve your English. I only wish more native English speakers would the same!:p
Although many people combine two sentences with a comma, doing so actually creates a run-on sentence that is grammatically incorrect. You can correct this by either saying:
I'm trying to improve my English, so please correct my errors!
...or...
I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors!
...or...
I'm trying to improve my English -- please correct my errors!
I can see how that might be a problem. On the other hand, if an employee is at all unclear as to whether the information truly serves the public interest, perhaps s/he should provide the information to the media in an anonymous fashion.
I understand your concern. Personally, I believe this falls under the rubric of common sense. For example, I imagine that the guidelines as to what Apple employees can and cannot say to the press are probably crystal clear. I find it hard to believe that there would be any uncertainty among Apple employees as to whether it's okay to disclose information about unannounced products.
Employees have a responsibility not to reveal trade secrets to outsiders. I just don't see the ambiguity here.
Wow. Such intelligent and well thought-out responses. [/sarcasm]
In response to the information-free comment from AC #2:
RTFA, moron. The judge explicitly draws a distinction between the lemmings' interest in these sites and the public interest. Your "proof" is based on a fundamental ignorance of what the "public interest" means.
Who cares about whether Apple's announcements actually get people excited? I do. So do a lot of other people. So does Apple, obviously. Any other bright questions?
Oh, it seems you have one. Answer: Nobody said Apple has the constitutional right to generate excitement. They do, however, have the right to protect their trade secrets. ThinkSecret, on the other hand, does not have the right to protect sources that disclose said secrets. It's sad that this has to be explained to you.
You're the perfect reason to loathe SlashDot anonymous cowards.
We could only be so lucky. Honestly, I won't mind too much if this hubbub results in ThinkSecret and the rest of the rumor mill going belly-up. Much like the judge mentioned in his ruling, I don't believe the "information" those sites provide actually serves the public interest. If the prognosticating were half-way reliable, perhaps it might have value to those to need to make purchase decisions. But it's not half-way reliable, so there really isn't any value being provided.
Those sites just take all the sizzle out of Apple's announcements, leaving people unnecessarily disappointed and let down. Good riddance to them.
That was in fact not your response to the initial post -- you modified your response along the way. There's nothing wrong with "clarifying" one's point, of course. Just don't pretend that's what you said to begin with, because it isn't.
What you claimed to be a common misconception...
As long as the digital data is there, it's not any better or worse regardless of the type of cable.
...is simply an outright fact. If all the data is being transmitted, there's no signal quality difference between an inexpensive cable and an expensive cable. In your case, your first cable clearly didn't transmit all the the information properly, thereby violating the very clearly stated condition that all the digital data be present.
I think we all agree that your amended point is probably true: cable quality can influence whether data is transmitted correctly over longer distances. Thing is, your point isn't really relevant to the conversation at hand, since the original poster very clearly said his statement assumes all the data is being transmitted. Let's further illustrate by example:
Me: "Assuming you had better reading and grammar skills, your point would be valued more highly by the Slashdot community."
You: "But I can't seem to comprehend very well, and I wrote that my cheap cable 'looses' the signal. Ergo, you are wrong: my point will not be valued very highly."
Me: "Actually, I'm not wrong. Try reading the assertion a few more times until it sinks in."
I hope that clears things up. I'm sorry if you find the experience of public embarrassment to be "rude," but such an interpretation is really nobody else's responsibility but your own. You might have been be better served by responding to the original post thusly:
You are quite right, but in my experience, higher quality cables can help ensure that your assumption (i.e., that all data is transmitted correctly) remains true over longer-than-average cable lengths.
In stark contrast to your "misconception" flag-waving, the above response would have all but eliminated the aforementioned public humiliation.
It's not a personal insult -- it's a fact. You seem to lack certain discussion and reading comprehension skills.
The original post says quite clearly that assuming all the digital data is being transmitted, there is no difference in signal quality between an inexpensive cable and an expensive one.
So you got a crappy cable. A single data point does not a statistically-significant sample size make.
Your assertion proves nothing except that you bought one inexpensive, crappy cable that didn't work, and one expensive cable that did work. That's all.
There are tons of inexpensive cables that produce results indistinguishable from that produced by your expensive cable.
Given the topic, I couldn't resist the opportunity to offer up the most shameless of plugs. Shinza.com is devoted to bringing the best Japanese gadgets to your doorstep. Be sure to check the popular line of ZeroShock notebook sleeves. The catalog is a little sparse at the moment, but the coming weeks will bring a lot of changes. Bookmark the site and drop by from time to time!
Yeah, well, thanks for coming out, but what I said has been already confirmed by executives at Apple: the "updates" for the previous iPods (including your precious iPod Mini) do not include any of the advanced software functionality added to the 4G iPods:
* Shuffle songs with one click * Create multiple On-The-Go playlists * Delete songs from On-The-Go playlists * Select reading playback speed for audiobooks * Hear the clicker user interface sound through headphones
So, really, please check your facts first. If you know something we don't, perhaps you should provide some evidence instead of spewing information-free statements such as "it works."
Oh, and while I'm issuing thank-you's, thanks for shouting.
And I almost forgot: A final thank-you is also owed to you for modding my post down as overrated. The most hilarious part is that you then posted in the thread, invalidating your subtracted mod point and adding it back to my rating.
In sum, please do yourself a favor and go buy a clue. I hear they're on special at Target.:)
I don't think the parent poster "forgot" that the Mac OS X UI source isn't available for custom compiles. That's not what Gentoo MacOS is about -- it's about being able to easily install and update popular *nix software on Mac OS X.
Who would want a Mac without Quartz, Spotlight, etc? I certainly wouldn't give up these features. But some people might want to use alternate desktop managers on Apple hardware. Just because you're not interested in doing so doesn't mean there is no reason for others to want to.
Besides, you don't necessarily have to forgo the Finder and Exposé to use Gentoo MacOS. It's a package manager, and as such can install a bunch of *nix tools that work alongside Mac OS X without replacing it.
Gentoo MacOS brings the Gentoo Portage package management system to Mac OS X. Yes, it provides functionality similar to Fink and DarwinPorts, and all three solutions have agreed to cooperate in the future.
Portage seems to have several advantages over the other package management tools, including the following summary from the Portage manual:
Multiple versions and revisions of the same package in the tree, conditional dependency resolution and feature support, fine-grained package management, sandboxed safe installation, configuration file protection, profiles, and much more.
The Metapkg Alliance was formed explicitly to improve cooperation between Fink, Gentoo, and DarwinPorts. Besides, have you actually tried Gentoo MacOS yet? Perhaps it offers (or will eventually offer) a significantly large value proposition over the other port distributors. Only time will tell.
Yes, Apple offers a new software update for previous iPod models, but these updates don't include the new features present on the 4th generation iPods announced today.
but if you just want a box capable of running an X server
Um... Who said that? He was pointing out that if the parent poster is not happy with the default desktop on OS X (Aqua), s/he can always choose from a multitude of X desktops.
One of the biggest problems with *nix systems are dependencies. This is a problem that would go away if all applications were distributed as self-contained packages, a practice that should be the default behavior when distributing software applications. With few exceptions, anything that requires the end user to download pre-requisite software when it could be easily bundled is, quite honestly, just plain silly.
"What about security? What about performance?"
The app should be designed to give the end user a choice: Do you want to use a dynamicly linked library? Fine -- tell us where it's located and we'll ignore the stuff we thoughtfully bundled for you. Do you just want the damn thing to work? Yes? Fine -- you don't need to do anything further, and we'll just use the bundled libraries.
"What about disk space?"
Given the benefits of software that just works, a few extra MBs of space is not even worth wasting brain cycles on. For those that feel otherwise, I suggest they figure out a way for apps to be packaged such that undesired bundled libraries could be easily jettisoned.
This isn't La-La Land that we're talking about here -- just look at Mac OS X. Most applications there aren't even "installed" in the *nix/Windows sense of the word; the end user downloads the package and drags the application icon into the Applications folder. Done. Any dependencies are contained within the.app bundle. This is the way all software should work.
If application developers would all agree to do this, the world would be a much better place.
Our firm is discussing the possibility of setting up a "caller ID" type of system.
Then your firm is trying to re-invent the wheel.
This idea is not new and has been around for a while. It's called "challenge/response" and has already been implemented by ISPs, corporations, and individuals. There are a number of freely available packaged solutions that are much more robust than anything a single IT department is likely to produce. But if you're intent on rolling your own, you should probably read:
Sounds like something else is screwy on either the server or client side. I've used Entourage since it was first released, and it has never required me to download entire messages via IMAP. Not only do I routinely receive just the headers of my IMAP messages, but I've not experienced any other related IMAP weirdness whatsoever.
That isn't to suggest that Entourage's IMAP implementation is flawless -- it's not. When Entourage is revved this spring along with Office/Mac 2004, hopefully IMAP protocol handling will be among the improvements.
MSoffice on Mac is STILL second rate. [Why?] One Word: Access.
Let me get this straight.
No matter how many usability and feature benefits it has over its Windows counterpart, the Mac version of MS Office is "second rate" because it lacks -- of all things -- Access? A product which you admittedly call "nasty" and "a pig?" While the Mac could certainly use a solid GUI-based relational database -- and please resist the urge to even think about tossing up FileMaker as falling in this category -- Access is hardly the solution we need. With PostgreSQL, MySQL, and other enterprise class databases available for Mac OS X, I fail to see how the lack of a Mac version of Access somehow renders Office v.X as the "barest minimum."
...as soon as MS pulls Office off the Mac, the MAc's future will die a death at the hands of Moore's Law.
First of all, please explain to me and the rest of the folks here how Moore's Law is going to kill the Mac. I would love to hear how ever-increasing microprocessor transistor density is going to spell the death knell for Apple. Pray tell us.
Secondly, if Microsoft were to drop Office for the Mac, it would only incentivize Apple to put its support behind OpenOffice. As odd as it may seem, millions of Linux users worldwide manage to use OpenOffice to exchange office documents with their Windows colleagues. Why couldn't Mac users do the same?
Things may or may not be as cool as they seem, but they are certainly not as bleak as you portray.
I agree that the Unicode support in Office is not very good. The MS Mac Business Unit folks are well aware of this unfortunate fact, and hopefully this deficiency will be addressed in a future version of Office.
Regarding the Japanese features, you should really be more thankful that they exist at all. If it weren't for the presence of a very talented, Japanese-savvy member of the team (Dan Crevier), those features wouldn't even be in MS Office to begin with.
I agree that the MS Language Registry is clumsy and instead should just be a preference checkbox instead. Presumably there is a good reason for doing it they way they did, as those folks are all very bright people.
But to get to the point... I have been using the Japanese features of MS Office for years, and I have never even heard of the menus turning into a "mishmash of English and Japanese." My menus are, and have always been, completely in English. Moreover, the Japanese features can be toggled on a per-contact basis in Entourage, for example, so I'm not sure how other users (with completely separate Entourage identity databases) would see anything other than a completely English-centric environment. I think you have something else going on there; you may want to consider re-installing and updating to the latest version of the Office v.X software.
While I can't speak too much about Japanese support in the other Office apps, I've always found the Japanese support in Entourage to be top-notch and worthy of high praise. MS Office on Windows has nothing like it whatsoever.
You can use VLC to save these MMS streams as AVI files. From within VLC, go to File > Open Network, select HTTP/FTP/MMS from the radio button list, and paste the MMS link in the Media Resource Locator field. Then check the Advanced Output checkbox and click on the Settings button at right. In the next dialog, choose output to File, browse to a location on your HD, and choose AVI as your encapsulation method. (I couldn't get anything other than AVI to properly capture and play the audio stream.) Hit the OK buttons to exit both dialog boxes, and after a short pause VLC's playhead should begin moving. VLC won't show the movie as it's being captured, so just let it go until the playhead jumps back to the left-most "begin" position. Then you can check the location you saved the file to and open it with VLC to check that you got it all.
The audio sync isn't perfect, but it's better than not being able to capture them at all. If someone figures out how to improve the audio sync, please let us all know. Anyway, hope this helps!
Slashdot Mirror
I think it's great that you're trying to improve your English. I only wish more native English speakers would the same!
Although many people combine two sentences with a comma, doing so actually creates a run-on sentence that is grammatically incorrect. You can correct this by either saying:
Hope this helps!
Just in case you are wondering where you can get these cables, they should be available for pre-order from our site within 24 hours:
http://shinza.com/
Availability is expected within 3-4 weeks.
I can see how that might be a problem. On the other hand, if an employee is at all unclear as to whether the information truly serves the public interest, perhaps s/he should provide the information to the media in an anonymous fashion.
I understand your concern. Personally, I believe this falls under the rubric of common sense. For example, I imagine that the guidelines as to what Apple employees can and cannot say to the press are probably crystal clear. I find it hard to believe that there would be any uncertainty among Apple employees as to whether it's okay to disclose information about unannounced products.
Employees have a responsibility not to reveal trade secrets to outsiders. I just don't see the ambiguity here.
Wow. Such intelligent and well thought-out responses. [/sarcasm]
In response to the information-free comment from AC #2:
RTFA, moron. The judge explicitly draws a distinction between the lemmings' interest in these sites and the public interest. Your "proof" is based on a fundamental ignorance of what the "public interest" means.
Who cares about whether Apple's announcements actually get people excited? I do. So do a lot of other people. So does Apple, obviously. Any other bright questions?
Oh, it seems you have one. Answer: Nobody said Apple has the constitutional right to generate excitement. They do, however, have the right to protect their trade secrets. ThinkSecret, on the other hand, does not have the right to protect sources that disclose said secrets. It's sad that this has to be explained to you.
You're the perfect reason to loathe SlashDot anonymous cowards.
We could only be so lucky. Honestly, I won't mind too much if this hubbub results in ThinkSecret and the rest of the rumor mill going belly-up. Much like the judge mentioned in his ruling, I don't believe the "information" those sites provide actually serves the public interest. If the prognosticating were half-way reliable, perhaps it might have value to those to need to make purchase decisions. But it's not half-way reliable, so there really isn't any value being provided.
Those sites just take all the sizzle out of Apple's announcements, leaving people unnecessarily disappointed and let down. Good riddance to them.
Thanks, Tay. No worries about the mod points. It's the thought that counts! :)
What you claimed to be a common misconception...
I think we all agree that your amended point is probably true: cable quality can influence whether data is transmitted correctly over longer distances. Thing is, your point isn't really relevant to the conversation at hand, since the original poster very clearly said his statement assumes all the data is being transmitted. Let's further illustrate by example:
Me: "Assuming you had better reading and grammar skills, your point would be valued more highly by the Slashdot community."
You: "But I can't seem to comprehend very well, and I wrote that my cheap cable 'looses' the signal. Ergo, you are wrong: my point will not be valued very highly."
Me: "Actually, I'm not wrong. Try reading the assertion a few more times until it sinks in."
I hope that clears things up. I'm sorry if you find the experience of public embarrassment to be "rude," but such an interpretation is really nobody else's responsibility but your own. You might have been be better served by responding to the original post thusly:
In stark contrast to your "misconception" flag-waving, the above response would have all but eliminated the aforementioned public humiliation.
It's not a personal insult -- it's a fact. You seem to lack certain discussion and reading comprehension skills.
The original post says quite clearly that assuming all the digital data is being transmitted, there is no difference in signal quality between an inexpensive cable and an expensive one.
So you got a crappy cable. A single data point does not a statistically-significant sample size make.
Your assertion proves nothing except that you bought one inexpensive, crappy cable that didn't work, and one expensive cable that did work. That's all.
There are tons of inexpensive cables that produce results indistinguishable from that produced by your expensive cable.
Given the topic, I couldn't resist the opportunity to offer up the most shameless of plugs. Shinza.com is devoted to bringing the best Japanese gadgets to your doorstep. Be sure to check the popular line of ZeroShock notebook sleeves. The catalog is a little sparse at the moment, but the coming weeks will bring a lot of changes. Bookmark the site and drop by from time to time!
If you like Ghost in the Shell, you'll love the MAPP Mouse by creator Masamune Shiro. It's one of the most unique designs ever to grace a mouse:
MAPP Mouse
Yeah, well, thanks for coming out, but what I said has been already confirmed by executives at Apple: the "updates" for the previous iPods (including your precious iPod Mini) do not include any of the advanced software functionality added to the 4G iPods:
:)
* Shuffle songs with one click
* Create multiple On-The-Go playlists
* Delete songs from On-The-Go playlists
* Select reading playback speed for audiobooks
* Hear the clicker user interface sound through headphones
So, really, please check your facts first. If you know something we don't, perhaps you should provide some evidence instead of spewing information-free statements such as "it works."
Oh, and while I'm issuing thank-you's, thanks for shouting.
And I almost forgot: A final thank-you is also owed to you for modding my post down as overrated. The most hilarious part is that you then posted in the thread, invalidating your subtracted mod point and adding it back to my rating.
In sum, please do yourself a favor and go buy a clue. I hear they're on special at Target.
I don't think the parent poster "forgot" that the Mac OS X UI source isn't available for custom compiles. That's not what Gentoo MacOS is about -- it's about being able to easily install and update popular *nix software on Mac OS X.
Who would want a Mac without Quartz, Spotlight, etc? I certainly wouldn't give up these features. But some people might want to use alternate desktop managers on Apple hardware. Just because you're not interested in doing so doesn't mean there is no reason for others to want to.
Besides, you don't necessarily have to forgo the Finder and Exposé to use Gentoo MacOS. It's a package manager, and as such can install a bunch of *nix tools that work alongside Mac OS X without replacing it.
Portage seems to have several advantages over the other package management tools, including the following summary from the Portage manual:
The Metapkg Alliance was formed explicitly to improve cooperation between Fink, Gentoo, and DarwinPorts. Besides, have you actually tried Gentoo MacOS yet? Perhaps it offers (or will eventually offer) a significantly large value proposition over the other port distributors. Only time will tell.
Yes, Apple offers a new software update for previous iPod models, but these updates don't include the new features present on the 4th generation iPods announced today.
You've got some faulty assumptions there, bub.
One of the biggest problems with *nix systems are dependencies. This is a problem that would go away if all applications were distributed as self-contained packages, a practice that should be the default behavior when distributing software applications. With few exceptions, anything that requires the end user to download pre-requisite software when it could be easily bundled is, quite honestly, just plain silly.
.app bundle. This is the way all software should work.
"What about security? What about performance?"
The app should be designed to give the end user a choice: Do you want to use a dynamicly linked library? Fine -- tell us where it's located and we'll ignore the stuff we thoughtfully bundled for you. Do you just want the damn thing to work? Yes? Fine -- you don't need to do anything further, and we'll just use the bundled libraries.
"What about disk space?"
Given the benefits of software that just works, a few extra MBs of space is not even worth wasting brain cycles on. For those that feel otherwise, I suggest they figure out a way for apps to be packaged such that undesired bundled libraries could be easily jettisoned.
This isn't La-La Land that we're talking about here -- just look at Mac OS X. Most applications there aren't even "installed" in the *nix/Windows sense of the word; the end user downloads the package and drags the application icon into the Applications folder. Done. Any dependencies are contained within the
If application developers would all agree to do this, the world would be a much better place.
Our firm is discussing the possibility of setting up a "caller ID" type of system.
Then your firm is trying to re-invent the wheel.
This idea is not new and has been around for a while. It's called "challenge/response" and has already been implemented by ISPs, corporations, and individuals. There are a number of freely available packaged solutions that are much more robust than anything a single IT department is likely to produce. But if you're intent on rolling your own, you should probably read:
Proper principles for Challenge/Response anti-spam systems.
> ...requires you to download entire messages...
Sounds like something else is screwy on either the server or client side. I've used Entourage since it was first released, and it has never required me to download entire messages via IMAP. Not only do I routinely receive just the headers of my IMAP messages, but I've not experienced any other related IMAP weirdness whatsoever.
That isn't to suggest that Entourage's IMAP implementation is flawless -- it's not. When Entourage is revved this spring along with Office/Mac 2004, hopefully IMAP protocol handling will be among the improvements.
MSoffice on Mac is STILL second rate. [Why?] One Word: Access.
...as soon as MS pulls Office off the Mac, the MAc's future will die a death at the hands of Moore's Law.
Let me get this straight.
No matter how many usability and feature benefits it has over its Windows counterpart, the Mac version of MS Office is "second rate" because it lacks -- of all things -- Access? A product which you admittedly call "nasty" and "a pig?" While the Mac could certainly use a solid GUI-based relational database -- and please resist the urge to even think about tossing up FileMaker as falling in this category -- Access is hardly the solution we need. With PostgreSQL, MySQL, and other enterprise class databases available for Mac OS X, I fail to see how the lack of a Mac version of Access somehow renders Office v.X as the "barest minimum."
First of all, please explain to me and the rest of the folks here how Moore's Law is going to kill the Mac. I would love to hear how ever-increasing microprocessor transistor density is going to spell the death knell for Apple. Pray tell us.
Secondly, if Microsoft were to drop Office for the Mac, it would only incentivize Apple to put its support behind OpenOffice. As odd as it may seem, millions of Linux users worldwide manage to use OpenOffice to exchange office documents with their Windows colleagues. Why couldn't Mac users do the same?
Things may or may not be as cool as they seem, but they are certainly not as bleak as you portray.
I agree that the Unicode support in Office is not very good. The MS Mac Business Unit folks are well aware of this unfortunate fact, and hopefully this deficiency will be addressed in a future version of Office.
Regarding the Japanese features, you should really be more thankful that they exist at all. If it weren't for the presence of a very talented, Japanese-savvy member of the team (Dan Crevier), those features wouldn't even be in MS Office to begin with.
I agree that the MS Language Registry is clumsy and instead should just be a preference checkbox instead. Presumably there is a good reason for doing it they way they did, as those folks are all very bright people.
But to get to the point... I have been using the Japanese features of MS Office for years, and I have never even heard of the menus turning into a "mishmash of English and Japanese." My menus are, and have always been, completely in English. Moreover, the Japanese features can be toggled on a per-contact basis in Entourage, for example, so I'm not sure how other users (with completely separate Entourage identity databases) would see anything other than a completely English-centric environment. I think you have something else going on there; you may want to consider re-installing and updating to the latest version of the Office v.X software.
While I can't speak too much about Japanese support in the other Office apps, I've always found the Japanese support in Entourage to be top-notch and worthy of high praise. MS Office on Windows has nothing like it whatsoever.
You can use VLC to save these MMS streams as AVI files. From within VLC, go to File > Open Network, select HTTP/FTP/MMS from the radio button list, and paste the MMS link in the Media Resource Locator field. Then check the Advanced Output checkbox and click on the Settings button at right. In the next dialog, choose output to File, browse to a location on your HD, and choose AVI as your encapsulation method. (I couldn't get anything other than AVI to properly capture and play the audio stream.) Hit the OK buttons to exit both dialog boxes, and after a short pause VLC's playhead should begin moving. VLC won't show the movie as it's being captured, so just let it go until the playhead jumps back to the left-most "begin" position. Then you can check the location you saved the file to and open it with VLC to check that you got it all.
The audio sync isn't perfect, but it's better than not being able to capture them at all. If someone figures out how to improve the audio sync, please let us all know. Anyway, hope this helps!