My video camera is subject to inspection. Anyone know why this is? I've actually never heard of this. What is the reason for inspecting video cameras (aside from the fact that they might look like bombs)?
Anonymous Coward, I get your point. We hack because we can. But there is another deeply geeky principle that might lead the grandparent to question the merits of this hack: DRY. Geeks are lazy and most of us pride ourselves on that.
I wonder if this isn't common across most of Europe. It is at least in Spain.
In addition to internet ordering the major grocery chains in Spain (two of the largest are actually French and German owned) offer other creative options. I for example found I didn't particularly like shopping for groceries online. There were too many things I wanted to see and select in person: fresh fruit and vegetables, meats, cheeses, etc. But I also found I didn't like lugging my groceries home on public transit so I would shop in the store and then have my groceries wheeled back into large coolers to be delivered either same or next day.
Why does this work so well in Europe but seem so rare in the States? It could be because of a significant difference in population density. These sorts of services seem to work well in densely populated areas where cars are less available (or desirable) than in more rural settings. The US has historically had a very disparate population living in primarily rural settings. This seems to be changing as small towns are shrinking as cities grow.
Digital information has certain properties that distinguish it from atomic information:
1) It is infinitely easier to distribute. 2) It is significantly easier to index. 3) It is significantly more malleable.
In most cases the digital-information-haves cast these properties as inherently benevolent in nature. Unfortunately this is not the case. These properties are instead morally neutral. While a universally accessible, fully indexed, fully accessible digital archive of all the books on earth sounds like an idea which on the whole will benefit humanity we can not ignore the darker side to digital information.
1) Information that is infinitely easier to distribute can lead to infinite information being available. The more information there is available the more we depend on gatekeepers to provide us what is relevant.
2) The index of information is a form of information in it's own right (meta information) which itself contributes to the glut of information previously mentioned.
3) The more malleable information becomes the more it is subject to alteration. Each version of an altered document adds to the information glut leading us back to a greater dependency on information gatekeepers.
As the technology for digital books develops and less people find books as convenient as their counterpart in the digital world people will inevitably begin replacing their books or simply stop buying printed books. I don't think this is as much a science fiction dream as it may sound. How many of you still read a printed newspaper?
We may need no convincing to burn our books. They may never need to be outlawed. They will instead be subtly subverted by the insidious desire for "convenience". The kings of convenience will then be free to rule using the most powerful political tool in the information age: FUD.
Also, how about those of us who have owned a PowerBook Apple Care free for a while. Unfortunately Apple Care begins at the date of your hardware purchase not your Apple Care purchase. This leaves me wondering if I should purchase Apple Care after I have owned my Power Book for a year and half or not. Is it worth it for 1 1/2 - 2 years of coverage?
And for your statistics whizzes how about my chances as I move overseas. Will my moving across an ocean to a strange place increase the probability of needing such a service. Of course the 800 numbers they give probably aren't worth as much to me where I'm going.
One less than useful but definitely cool feature that has been added is the ability to associate album art with songs. There are two things missing however:
1) When you have an Album selected in the iTunes browser you can not see the art. You are only shown art when you have a song selected. I wish there was Album level art.
2) There is no way to easily download art for all of your files. This seems like a solvable problem. A little bit of Apple Script and Amazon should be the key to CDDB style updates.
Is anyone up to the task? I'm no Apple Script whiz-kid but if something doesn't show up soon I may just have to brush up.
You're right I must admit - I am not a.mac subscriber. I found a link to the first image (the one that the slashdot editors left in my message) on a another Mac news site but I also submitted the story with a second image which did not get published. I snooped for that one. I guess that means I have more time than money - I can spend time snooping images but I can't pay for.Mac.
Either that or I have a more powerful service than.Mac called a webhost.
If you're feeling observant you will notice that the title of this article promises "images" but only delivers one. You will also note that my quote is a bit odd, claiming that the image "describes" the new feature when in fact it only gives a release date. This is because my quote has been heavily edited including a reference to this additional image.
The image that was posted by slashdot has been posted everywhere but this additional image (which describes the feature in slightly more detail and which clarifies "what's going on in this image") was the reason I submitted the story to slashdot to begin with.
I guess Jakob was right - people don't READ on the web.
Project management? Maybe I'm missing something that the German version has but the very little information that is given in English doesn't indicate any project management related features. This is a phone/web based PIM with no business model like the dozen or so that were started in the U.S. a year or two back and eventually went under.
Slashdot Mirror
Anonymous Coward, I get your point. We hack because we can. But there is another deeply geeky principle that might lead the grandparent to question the merits of this hack: DRY. Geeks are lazy and most of us pride ourselves on that.
The organization referred to as Sans in this article is the SANS Internet Storm Center found at http://isc.sans.org/ You can find the reference to Black Tuesday and more information on this update at http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?storyid=1928
I wonder if this isn't common across most of Europe. It is at least in Spain.
In addition to internet ordering the major grocery chains in Spain (two of the largest are actually French and German owned) offer other creative options. I for example found I didn't particularly like shopping for groceries online. There were too many things I wanted to see and select in person: fresh fruit and vegetables, meats, cheeses, etc. But I also found I didn't like lugging my groceries home on public transit so I would shop in the store and then have my groceries wheeled back into large coolers to be delivered either same or next day.
Why does this work so well in Europe but seem so rare in the States? It could be because of a significant difference in population density. These sorts of services seem to work well in densely populated areas where cars are less available (or desirable) than in more rural settings. The US has historically had a very disparate population living in primarily rural settings. This seems to be changing as small towns are shrinking as cities grow.
Digital information has certain properties that distinguish it from atomic information:
1) It is infinitely easier to distribute.
2) It is significantly easier to index.
3) It is significantly more malleable.
In most cases the digital-information-haves cast these properties as inherently benevolent in nature. Unfortunately this is not the case. These properties are instead morally neutral. While a universally accessible, fully indexed, fully accessible digital archive of all the books on earth sounds like an idea which on the whole will benefit humanity we can not ignore the darker side to digital information.
1) Information that is infinitely easier to distribute can lead to infinite information being available. The more information there is available the more we depend on gatekeepers to provide us what is relevant.
2) The index of information is a form of information in it's own right (meta information) which itself contributes to the glut of information previously mentioned.
3) The more malleable information becomes the more it is subject to alteration. Each version of an altered document adds to the information glut leading us back to a greater dependency on information gatekeepers.
As the technology for digital books develops and less people find books as convenient as their counterpart in the digital world people will inevitably begin replacing their books or simply stop buying printed books. I don't think this is as much a science fiction dream as it may sound. How many of you still read a printed newspaper?
We may need no convincing to burn our books. They may never need to be outlawed. They will instead be subtly subverted by the insidious desire for "convenience". The kings of convenience will then be free to rule using the most powerful political tool in the information age: FUD.
I suppose when you get to the end it is all about IO.
Also, how about those of us who have owned a PowerBook Apple Care free for a while. Unfortunately Apple Care begins at the date of your hardware purchase not your Apple Care purchase. This leaves me wondering if I should purchase Apple Care after I have owned my Power Book for a year and half or not. Is it worth it for 1 1/2 - 2 years of coverage?
And for your statistics whizzes how about my chances as I move overseas. Will my moving across an ocean to a strange place increase the probability of needing such a service. Of course the 800 numbers they give probably aren't worth as much to me where I'm going.
One less than useful but definitely cool feature that has been added is the ability to associate album art with songs. There are two things missing however:
1) When you have an Album selected in the iTunes browser you can not see the art. You are only shown art when you have a song selected. I wish there was Album level art.
2) There is no way to easily download art for all of your files. This seems like a solvable problem. A little bit of Apple Script and Amazon should be the key to CDDB style updates.
Is anyone up to the task? I'm no Apple Script whiz-kid but if something doesn't show up soon I may just have to brush up.
The Consumer Electronics Show is in Vegas this week. Looks like someone got mixed up.
You're right I must admit - I am not a .mac subscriber. I found a link to the first image (the one that the slashdot editors left in my message) on a another Mac news site but I also submitted the story with a second image which did not get published. I snooped for that one. I guess that means I have more time than money - I can spend time snooping images but I can't pay for .Mac.
Either that or I have a more powerful service than .Mac called a webhost.
If you're feeling observant you will notice that the title of this article promises "images" but only delivers one. You will also note that my quote is a bit odd, claiming that the image "describes" the new feature when in fact it only gives a release date. This is because my quote has been heavily edited including a reference to this additional image.
The image that was posted by slashdot has been posted everywhere but this additional image (which describes the feature in slightly more detail and which clarifies "what's going on in this image") was the reason I submitted the story to slashdot to begin with.
I guess Jakob was right - people don't READ on the web.
-Shmuel
Why do we need a "replacement" for Perl? Why not let AppleScript do what it is good for and let Perl do the heavy lifting?
Project management? Maybe I'm missing something that the German version has but the very little information that is given in English doesn't indicate any project management related features. This is a phone/web based PIM with no business model like the dozen or so that were started in the U.S. a year or two back and eventually went under.