Come on! What's all this yap about different kernel versions, different networking implementations, different yada yada? The point here is not to turn Windows into Linux, complete with competing packages and kernels, but to build a Windows that you can add other software to, and have it work as well and reliably as Microsoft's own.
Yes, the only way to do this is with open APIs. But please recognize the distinction between things like Office and Internet Explorer (even Windows Explorer, for that matter), what should be standalone applications - and are standalone on normal platforms. We're not talking about TCP/IP implementation or the windowing system - those are rightly within the OS realm.
Productivity apps are not. That includes media players and everything else that doesn't usually interact directly with the hardware. Remember what "OS" stands for? It's an underlying platform that supports other apps - MS is trying to claim that what are independent apps on other platforms can't be separated from Windows. They sure as hell can make Office and WMP and Internet Explorer for Mac OS, but not for Windows? I don't think so.
And I don't understand why the states haven't brought Apple into the courtroom. They're a consumer OS maker, they make all the same functional apps as Microsoft, and they don't claim OS X won't run without the QuickTime player. Who else could show as well that IE and WMP can stand alone, but the company that MS makes standalone versions for?
I don't know whether that's beautiful or even an experiment, but wrap your head around this - the pitch is contained in and dripping from something that also is a liquid at room temperature; that is, the glass beaker it's in.
Wasn't Innotek the name of one of the slave-driving software companies in Office Space? The one where Lumberg used to work and where Michael and Samir get jobs after they're laid off?
Hey, wake up! I think the libertarian Slashdot ethos has convinced you all that more choice for you personally is always a good thing.
Wake-up call: it isn't.
The 'must-carry' provisions are meant to keep local broadcasters alive - not give people across the country access to their content. When national providers like EchoStar can pick and choose which local stations to air, and which (the much more important part) not to in particular markets, then local news is going to get worse than it already is. And national mainstream media will become even more powerful. What happens when even local ad dollars go to Time-Warner (or whatever) instead of to your local affiliate, goodbye any local autonomy. More fluff, all the time.
Shite! I'm off work today and I can't find a site on the Web without some halfass joke stories... on Inside Mac Games they're giving away a rocket launcher with id. I thought about weapons licensing for about two seconds and then shook my head.
But what if something really goes down? Israel kills Arafat, and the nukes start flying? HOW WILL WE KNOW WHAT TO DO? DEAR GOD I'M FRIGHTENED!
And I can so see that bastard Wil Wheaton on that shitty Star Trek show.
Frankly, CeBit organizers should have told Richard Roy his company had been found in violation of U.S. antitrust law (a scared shadow of the EU version) and asked to leave with all his exhibitors - wouldn't want a legitimate trade show to lose its reputation because a piratical company happens to be there.
There's a simple solution to bullshit like this - flip Microsoft the bird and spend your and your company's money elsewhere.
Please pay attention to what they said! It's not always the case that if you've generated business interest in a product, even signed some deals to distribute it to users, that you see an immediate revenue stream.
Your customers are going to want to pay in installments, not in an up-front lump sum. Or perhaps by the service incident, as with many proprietary companies. Either way, it's very easy to see how they could foresee positive revenue growth a year away - but not be able to collect on that right now.
I know this is cliche, but look at Amazon - nobody's run up that stock because it was making a profit at inception. Now it has double-digit market share after quarter after quarter of red ink. Business doesn't always pay off short-term - if you're going to support Mandrake, do it now. As they've made abundantly clear, they need it - now.
Doesn't seem like it to me. I've read at least 15 comments - modded up! - that complain of having to pay 30 bucks or whatever for a simple utility that came from "30 lines of VB code."
Apparently, most of you are neither gamers nor Mac users, because if you'd ever played Ambrosia's games you'd figure out that they are as full-featured as anything you'll find commercially. The term "shareware" hasn't applied to any of Ambrosia's releases in years, for the reasons laid out in the article - the unregistered versions are much closer to the demos commercial houses sometimes put out.
Why isn't anyone complaining about the high price of commercial games like RtCW? Why are you plunking down $50 or whatever for a game? I'll tell you: because that's what it costs to keep everyone involved in business. Same with Ambrosia - they don't sell the Hello World "shareware" that passes for the real thing on the Wintel platform. They simply have an electronic distribution system rather than a physical one, and that opens them up to piracy problems that CD publishers don't face. I have to keep my AoE II CD in my drive when I play it - why does that not engender this kind of whining?
Bottom line: if you don't use Macs and (ergo) have not used Ambrosia's games, shut up about price. Same for the other quality Mac shareware folks like Spiderweb and Freeverse. They don't make "shareware" like you know it, so be quiet. Their games are worth every cent they charge.
iPod killer? Yeah, right. There seems to be no dimensions information on sonicblue's site... hmm. I wonder why not? It looks like a damn Atari Jaguar, and it probably has a 3.5" HD, making it MUCH cheaper to make (as well as bigger and heavier) than the iPod.
It sure makes a journalist cringe when somebody writes that NYTimes v. Sullivan gave "journalists" freedom of the press. Like they said in Civics class, the First Amendment did that. Sullivan's precedent established the level of protection - strict scrutiny - accorded political speech, as the ministers' ad in the NYT was.
Also, and this is a question that seems to come up a good bit on/., there's no such thing as a "journalist," much as many professionals and academics in my field would like it otherwise. There is no privilege, for example, between a reporter and a source - ask Dallas writer Vanessa Leggett, who's been in jail for six months now for refusing to do a federal prosecutor's job for him by turning over her interview notes. The Morning News ran a story by a good friend of mine on her last Sunday, look it up if you want some truly foolish justice.
"Journalists" don't appear anywhere in the U.S. Constitution - freedoms of speech and of the press mean basically the same thing: and that's been interpreted to mean free political, social, religious, etc. expression in whatever medium. Sure, Congress can regulate even pure political speech, but only within amazingly circumscribed limits. That's why (Texas v. Johnson) burning flags is legal, and why the bastards need to burn the First Amendment itself to ban it.
This decision, of course, is good news for people online, but it's not really new - the Supreme Court has already presumptively granted Internet content the same high-level protection it gives print media (but not broadcast, notably). And there will be more said about this - the pervasiveness of online content is such that it puts radio/TV to shame. There's a reason porn is pay TV and not NBC, and the web won't be so free for long, unfortunately. Enjoy it while it's still up.
Keep in mind, the folks at MacFixIt must by definition have applied this modification (and that's what it is, specified in the EULA, whether you "feel" it's a mod or not) to be able to publish information on it. The act of publishing the info is not illegal, but the actual package removal was.
Also, this is not only copyright infringement - the letter cites the Lanham Act, which makes it illegal to engage in unfair competition. That's essentially what MacFixIt (and now Slashdot, incidentally) has done - forced Apple's full OS X 10.1 product to compete unfairly with a $19.95 CD. It's a law usually used in advertising administrative law, but it does fit here. Apple doesn't need the DMCA on this one; and given their "piracy is a social problem, not a technological one" stance, they're probably glad for that.
I, for one, would like to see some support on these boards for a major manufacturer, with as much IP as any other, who doesn't give a rat's ass about the DMCA and sells its own "unprotected" MP3 player. Would most companies do that? In this case, Apple has a need to defend its IP - otherwise, they have shown they really do think different.
Home users are increasingly switching to broadband cable/DSL over slowmo phone co. lines. And home broadband routers like Linksys' are getting increasingly inexpensive; even wireless ones are approaching commodity pricing. What will be the fallout when there's a router in every home? Router Wars 2003?
What is the problem with you Linux freeks? It's a small, light, fast, featureful mp3 player that pushes the usability envelope in its niche. Plus it's usable with other OSs (though Apple created FireWire, other cos. have been smart enough to license it). It's a little costly, but so was the first Newton - and the Mac Portable was like $6,000 when it came out. Didn't stop notebook computing from hitting it big. Don't bitch about the product cause it costs too much. And don't say it's lame because there's no AMD hardware or free software running inside it.
Hmmm... I wonder why so many respondents concentrate on business classes and on "technical" subjects like math and computer science?
It seems to me that a college (that's what we're talking about, right?) education is always going to be incomplete if you don't equip the student to deal with life - not give him "tools" for an employer's use, or "skills" to list on a resume, but a real education, a (dare I say) moral education that teaches people to live and to live with each other. Those are the most important "skills" we can master.
My background: a political science degree from a good, not great, traditional school, master's in mass communications at a state university. That's right, I'm tooting the horn for my own education. But frankly, I've seen too many business and technical-education folks without the sense God gave a turnip trying to find their way in the world and not having a damn clue.
The first thing you teach people is how to think - that's really what high school's for, which is why they teach you Western Civ all over again in college. This means a core curriculum that's very extensive and demanding, in all disciplines. Then you need to start learning things - history, science, religion, literature, philosophy, music. Learn to appreciate. What good are you at a task if you don't understand its importance in the "scheme of things?"
Then, when you've developed into what one might call a "real person," you can focus on whatever it is you want to work at - computer science, or business, or another scientific field, or poetry, or whatever. But you've got to have a foundation - otherwise you're just a mindless drone checking off items on lists, no more human than the computer sitting on your desk.
Education is the most important thing a society passes on to its future generations. It inculcates critical, independent thinking, political orientations that give our society life and vitality, and the moral wisdom to make decent choices in a morally ambiguous world.
It's simple, and I'm sorry if you haven't yet been fortunate enough to figure out - if you haven't learned to live, well, you aren't alive. You're a useless individual doing empty, useless things. Your pleasures and pains and fears are small, inconsequential affairs, and when you are gone, truly gone, there will be no memory left behind.
The alternative? Pursue learning and usefulness to the world. Stop what you're doing, look around, and figure out what it is you need to do. And do it. That's what an education is for.
Hasn't this system shown its bugs when used in the past at major events like the Super Bowl?
Even if they manage to improve its accuracy, the most important ingredient in better airport security is better-paid, more-reliable personnel. At many major airports, like New Orleans where I live, the scanner folks start at minimum wage and get about three hours of training. Ouch.
When airlines start taking security seriously - and stop trying to increase profit margins by paying people squat - then we'll have a safer system.
What's most important about this is only obvious if you're a regular Salon reader - it's overall the best news site on the Web. Especially for politics and consumer/corporate issues, Salon is simply indispensable. I paid for a "subscription" the day it was offered, and I'd pay again, and pay more, for the kind of kickass independent journalism only a site like Salon can provide.
Ads? I don't see them with the "premium" service, but who cares? I don't understand why/. readers, so steeped in Internet culture and spending hours a day on their computers don't realize that content-for-free isn't a workable business model.
There's other places to get news - but they don't make money! There is no Internet-only news site that makes money - period. Salon is a very high-profile experiment that will, one way or the other, guide many decisions made by corporate managers about whether online is a viable market.
News organizations pay a LOT of attention to Salon and how it's doing, because they know it's a bellwether. Take it from a media professional - if Salon goes down you will feel the repercussions. Even the most insular geek sitting in the dark will feel the absence of useful journalism on the Web. And it will be because you, the Slashdot reader, didn't care enough to make it happen.
Pay! It's only thirty bucks, you know you can spare it. You'll be doing yourself more of a favor than you know. And if you can't be bothered to shell it out or deal with ONE ad a day for a few seconds, fuck you - no free lunch for you, asshole. Thanks for ruining it for everyone else.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court hasn't concluded free speech is as important as free action. People are completely at liberty to sign away their rights to freedom of speech, whether it be technical information or simply expression of opinion. Contract law allows this (see The Insider for a good pop take on this phenomenon) and the only way to combat MS is the simplest way - don't buy their products. Don't use Hotmail. Don't patronize their websites. Isolate and destroy. Period.
Overblown, but issues remain
on
Mac Rants
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· Score: 5, Insightful
It's certainly true that on a slow news day (if any such thing ever afflicts/.) a good Apple-oriented flame war does wonders for the blood pressure. But both those silly AAPLtalk comparison charts and the (slashdotted) "rant" above deserve some credit for trying to shine some light into the darkness of "why do people care so much?"
Though this forum, populated as it is by many thousands of folks who go neither way in the Apple/MS debate, may not be the most sympathetic place to say it, there are big fat differences between Windows and the Mac OS.
The "MHz myth" and shitty GeForce drivers are part of what sets us apart, but the rationale of the rabid Mac user (I am one, I admit it) revolves around esthetics, both artistic and operational. I'm not talking only about pretty translucent plastic cases or sexy PowerBook curves - but the truth is, these things matter. Gaba's dismissal of the floppy's importance might ring hollow to some, but his awarding of points for the G4's easily-accessed interior is easily overlooked. Design issues have a strong bearing on how people interact with the machines that serve them - whether that relationship feels adversarial or cooperative depends on many small factors that, together, determine quality design.
Easy-access cases are just one of those; clean, uncluttered user interface, reliable hardware (something many people forget is how tough Apple products are), and genuinely useful, user-friendly bundled apps (iMovie, iDVD, iTunes) are all important parts of the Mac design ethic. You only needed to look at an issue of the Mercury News a few weeks ago to sum up the difference: Microsoft made headlines for, again, lobbying John Ashcroft to drop the Justice Department's historic antitrust suit; Apple became one of a handful of companies to begin recycling harmful computer components like mercury and boron.
It may sound simple, but it works for me: everywhere I look, whether at my computer screen, the business pages, or the aisles of a computer store, Apple products are better-designed and better-made. Dare I say, by better people? For a better world? It's easy to laugh, and then turn back to an unrecognizably ugly Windows interface that still reminds me of playing Boulderdash II on an EGA screen.
My means are as tight as anyone else's (more so, I sometimes think over my Ramen noodles), and the Apple premium's a bitch. But we are ever sub specie aeternitatis - and we must do what we can.
For a list clearly too heavy on first-person shooters (even old-school ones), Descent and sequels' absence is a joke. Myst/Riven also deserve a place - perhaps developers didn't think much of them, but their audiences certainly did. How many more copies were sold of Myst/Riven than of Doom or even Quake? Plenty. But the most egregious slight is to Myth and its sequel. A revolution in gameplay no FPS since Wolf 3D has managed, groundbreaking atmospherics and beautiful finish (Dwarves have never bitched and moaned so entertainingly) made Myth unquestionably one of the best ever - even for pale-faced freaks with index-finger twitches.
Definitely aggravated by the felonious abuse of "incredibly."
But on more gameplay-related issues, uh, is this really a big deal? The AI is incredibly responsive and state-based -- either the enemies are standing around, patrolling, or shooting at you. Sound familiar?
Frankly, I was waiting for the interviewer to bear down and ask, what's going to differentiate RTCW from Wolf for the Apple IIgs, besides the Q3 engine?
Apple calls BSD Darwin's "wrapper." As a lot of work has already gone into porting Darwin over, Hubbard's expertise with BSD on x86 hardware will only make that easier. Sure, he can help with the open-source community, but of all the names people call Steve Jobs, stupid usually isn't among them.
And Motorola's PowerPC, despite the embedded market, simply hasn't allowed Mac OS to compete on a horsepower (or economy-of-scale) basis. If Apple's working internally on the x86 alternative -- and I'd bet my cat they have been for some time - this could be very, very significant news.
Can you imagine? Mac OS X (and onward) on decent hardware? Screw Altivec, give me SMP Athlons. Overnight, the desktop landscape would change for consumers and professionals.
That's if, of course, Apple can stomach firing their hardware design people and start writing device drivers to go with that kernel. But frankly, I'm kind of stoked.
If you look closely at the push to remove pay phones, you'll find that it's motivated mainly by phone companies (especially mobiles) who want to eliminate public access to telephones. Sure, cell phones calls are cheaper, but you don't need a credit card to make a pay phone call - nor a $250 deposit.
This is the same sort of business vampirism that makes phone calls from prisons cost several dollars per minute in some states through a monopolist phone provider.
Probably few Linux geeks see the absence of available public telecommunications as a serious problem; but there are many more people stuck in relative poverty than checking out Slashdot right now. Pay phones, without a steady income or steady job, may be their only way of talking to their families, for example. For them a pay phone is worth a hell of a lot more than a data jack in an airport phone.
Slashdot Mirror
Ummmm - that screenshot looks like ass. There, I just told you.
Come on! What's all this yap about different kernel versions, different networking implementations, different yada yada? The point here is not to turn Windows into Linux, complete with competing packages and kernels, but to build a Windows that you can add other software to, and have it work as well and reliably as Microsoft's own.
Yes, the only way to do this is with open APIs. But please recognize the distinction between things like Office and Internet Explorer (even Windows Explorer, for that matter), what should be standalone applications - and are standalone on normal platforms. We're not talking about TCP/IP implementation or the windowing system - those are rightly within the OS realm.
Productivity apps are not. That includes media players and everything else that doesn't usually interact directly with the hardware. Remember what "OS" stands for? It's an underlying platform that supports other apps - MS is trying to claim that what are independent apps on other platforms can't be separated from Windows. They sure as hell can make Office and WMP and Internet Explorer for Mac OS, but not for Windows? I don't think so.
And I don't understand why the states haven't brought Apple into the courtroom. They're a consumer OS maker, they make all the same functional apps as Microsoft, and they don't claim OS X won't run without the QuickTime player. Who else could show as well that IE and WMP can stand alone, but the company that MS makes standalone versions for?
I don't know whether that's beautiful or even an experiment, but wrap your head around this - the pitch is contained in and dripping from something that also is a liquid at room temperature; that is, the glass beaker it's in.
WiFi - oh, you mean AirPort. And the "radio"? Come on, how much time has been spent here trying to come up with alternatives to Apple terminology?
They did invent the spec, after all.
Wasn't Innotek the name of one of the slave-driving software companies in Office Space? The one where Lumberg used to work and where Michael and Samir get jobs after they're laid off?
Hey, wake up! I think the libertarian Slashdot ethos has convinced you all that more choice for you personally is always a good thing.
Wake-up call: it isn't.
The 'must-carry' provisions are meant to keep local broadcasters alive - not give people across the country access to their content. When national providers like EchoStar can pick and choose which local stations to air, and which (the much more important part) not to in particular markets, then local news is going to get worse than it already is. And national mainstream media will become even more powerful. What happens when even local ad dollars go to Time-Warner (or whatever) instead of to your local affiliate, goodbye any local autonomy. More fluff, all the time.
Shite! I'm off work today and I can't find a site on the Web without some halfass joke stories... on Inside Mac Games they're giving away a rocket launcher with id. I thought about weapons licensing for about two seconds and then shook my head.
But what if something really goes down? Israel kills Arafat, and the nukes start flying? HOW WILL WE KNOW WHAT TO DO? DEAR GOD I'M FRIGHTENED!
And I can so see that bastard Wil Wheaton on that shitty Star Trek show.
Frankly, CeBit organizers should have told Richard Roy his company had been found in violation of U.S. antitrust law (a scared shadow of the EU version) and asked to leave with all his exhibitors - wouldn't want a legitimate trade show to lose its reputation because a piratical company happens to be there.
There's a simple solution to bullshit like this - flip Microsoft the bird and spend your and your company's money elsewhere.
Please pay attention to what they said! It's not always the case that if you've generated business interest in a product, even signed some deals to distribute it to users, that you see an immediate revenue stream.
Your customers are going to want to pay in installments, not in an up-front lump sum. Or perhaps by the service incident, as with many proprietary companies. Either way, it's very easy to see how they could foresee positive revenue growth a year away - but not be able to collect on that right now.
I know this is cliche, but look at Amazon - nobody's run up that stock because it was making a profit at inception. Now it has double-digit market share after quarter after quarter of red ink. Business doesn't always pay off short-term - if you're going to support Mandrake, do it now. As they've made abundantly clear, they need it - now.
Doesn't seem like it to me. I've read at least 15 comments - modded up! - that complain of having to pay 30 bucks or whatever for a simple utility that came from "30 lines of VB code."
Apparently, most of you are neither gamers nor Mac users, because if you'd ever played Ambrosia's games you'd figure out that they are as full-featured as anything you'll find commercially. The term "shareware" hasn't applied to any of Ambrosia's releases in years, for the reasons laid out in the article - the unregistered versions are much closer to the demos commercial houses sometimes put out.
Why isn't anyone complaining about the high price of commercial games like RtCW? Why are you plunking down $50 or whatever for a game? I'll tell you: because that's what it costs to keep everyone involved in business. Same with Ambrosia - they don't sell the Hello World "shareware" that passes for the real thing on the Wintel platform. They simply have an electronic distribution system rather than a physical one, and that opens them up to piracy problems that CD publishers don't face. I have to keep my AoE II CD in my drive when I play it - why does that not engender this kind of whining?
Bottom line: if you don't use Macs and (ergo) have not used Ambrosia's games, shut up about price. Same for the other quality Mac shareware folks like Spiderweb and Freeverse. They don't make "shareware" like you know it, so be quiet. Their games are worth every cent they charge.
iPod killer? Yeah, right. There seems to be no dimensions information on sonicblue's site... hmm. I wonder why not? It looks like a damn Atari Jaguar, and it probably has a 3.5" HD, making it MUCH cheaper to make (as well as bigger and heavier) than the iPod.
And as others have already cogently pointed out:
USB.
It sure makes a journalist cringe when somebody writes that NYTimes v. Sullivan gave "journalists" freedom of the press. Like they said in Civics class, the First Amendment did that. Sullivan's precedent established the level of protection - strict scrutiny - accorded political speech, as the ministers' ad in the NYT was.
Also, and this is a question that seems to come up a good bit on
"Journalists" don't appear anywhere in the U.S. Constitution - freedoms of speech and of the press mean basically the same thing: and that's been interpreted to mean free political, social, religious, etc. expression in whatever medium. Sure, Congress can regulate even pure political speech, but only within amazingly circumscribed limits. That's why (Texas v. Johnson) burning flags is legal, and why the bastards need to burn the First Amendment itself to ban it.
This decision, of course, is good news for people online, but it's not really new - the Supreme Court has already presumptively granted Internet content the same high-level protection it gives print media (but not broadcast, notably). And there will be more said about this - the pervasiveness of online content is such that it puts radio/TV to shame. There's a reason porn is pay TV and not NBC, and the web won't be so free for long, unfortunately. Enjoy it while it's still up.
Keep in mind, the folks at MacFixIt must by definition have applied this modification (and that's what it is, specified in the EULA, whether you "feel" it's a mod or not) to be able to publish information on it. The act of publishing the info is not illegal, but the actual package removal was.
Also, this is not only copyright infringement - the letter cites the Lanham Act, which makes it illegal to engage in unfair competition. That's essentially what MacFixIt (and now Slashdot, incidentally) has done - forced Apple's full OS X 10.1 product to compete unfairly with a $19.95 CD. It's a law usually used in advertising administrative law, but it does fit here. Apple doesn't need the DMCA on this one; and given their "piracy is a social problem, not a technological one" stance, they're probably glad for that.
I, for one, would like to see some support on these boards for a major manufacturer, with as much IP as any other, who doesn't give a rat's ass about the DMCA and sells its own "unprotected" MP3 player. Would most companies do that? In this case, Apple has a need to defend its IP - otherwise, they have shown they really do think different.
Home users are increasingly switching to broadband cable/DSL over slowmo phone co. lines. And home broadband routers like Linksys' are getting increasingly inexpensive; even wireless ones are approaching commodity pricing. What will be the fallout when there's a router in every home? Router Wars 2003?
What is the problem with you Linux freeks? It's a small, light, fast, featureful mp3 player that pushes the usability envelope in its niche. Plus it's usable with other OSs (though Apple created FireWire, other cos. have been smart enough to license it). It's a little costly, but so was the first Newton - and the Mac Portable was like $6,000 when it came out. Didn't stop notebook computing from hitting it big. Don't bitch about the product cause it costs too much. And don't say it's lame because there's no AMD hardware or free software running inside it.
Hmmm... I wonder why so many respondents concentrate on business classes and on "technical" subjects like math and computer science?
It seems to me that a college (that's what we're talking about, right?) education is always going to be incomplete if you don't equip the student to deal with life - not give him "tools" for an employer's use, or "skills" to list on a resume, but a real education, a (dare I say) moral education that teaches people to live and to live with each other. Those are the most important "skills" we can master.
My background: a political science degree from a good, not great, traditional school, master's in mass communications at a state university. That's right, I'm tooting the horn for my own education. But frankly, I've seen too many business and technical-education folks without the sense God gave a turnip trying to find their way in the world and not having a damn clue.
The first thing you teach people is how to think - that's really what high school's for, which is why they teach you Western Civ all over again in college. This means a core curriculum that's very extensive and demanding, in all disciplines. Then you need to start learning things - history, science, religion, literature, philosophy, music. Learn to appreciate. What good are you at a task if you don't understand its importance in the "scheme of things?"
Then, when you've developed into what one might call a "real person," you can focus on whatever it is you want to work at - computer science, or business, or another scientific field, or poetry, or whatever. But you've got to have a foundation - otherwise you're just a mindless drone checking off items on lists, no more human than the computer sitting on your desk.
Education is the most important thing a society passes on to its future generations. It inculcates critical, independent thinking, political orientations that give our society life and vitality, and the moral wisdom to make decent choices in a morally ambiguous world.
It's simple, and I'm sorry if you haven't yet been fortunate enough to figure out - if you haven't learned to live, well, you aren't alive. You're a useless individual doing empty, useless things. Your pleasures and pains and fears are small, inconsequential affairs, and when you are gone, truly gone, there will be no memory left behind.
The alternative? Pursue learning and usefulness to the world. Stop what you're doing, look around, and figure out what it is you need to do. And do it. That's what an education is for.
Hasn't this system shown its bugs when used in the past at major events like the Super Bowl?
Even if they manage to improve its accuracy, the most important ingredient in better airport security is better-paid, more-reliable personnel. At many major airports, like New Orleans where I live, the scanner folks start at minimum wage and get about three hours of training. Ouch.
When airlines start taking security seriously - and stop trying to increase profit margins by paying people squat - then we'll have a safer system.
What's most important about this is only obvious if you're a regular Salon reader - it's overall the best news site on the Web. Especially for politics and consumer/corporate issues, Salon is simply indispensable. I paid for a "subscription" the day it was offered, and I'd pay again, and pay more, for the kind of kickass independent journalism only a site like Salon can provide.
Ads? I don't see them with the "premium" service, but who cares? I don't understand why
There's other places to get news - but they don't make money! There is no Internet-only news site that makes money - period. Salon is a very high-profile experiment that will, one way or the other, guide many decisions made by corporate managers about whether online is a viable market.
News organizations pay a LOT of attention to Salon and how it's doing, because they know it's a bellwether. Take it from a media professional - if Salon goes down you will feel the repercussions. Even the most insular geek sitting in the dark will feel the absence of useful journalism on the Web. And it will be because you, the Slashdot reader, didn't care enough to make it happen.
Pay! It's only thirty bucks, you know you can spare it. You'll be doing yourself more of a favor than you know. And if you can't be bothered to shell it out or deal with ONE ad a day for a few seconds, fuck you - no free lunch for you, asshole. Thanks for ruining it for everyone else.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court hasn't concluded free speech is as important as free action. People are completely at liberty to sign away their rights to freedom of speech, whether it be technical information or simply expression of opinion. Contract law allows this (see The Insider for a good pop take on this phenomenon) and the only way to combat MS is the simplest way - don't buy their products. Don't use Hotmail. Don't patronize their websites. Isolate and destroy. Period.
It's certainly true that on a slow news day (if any such thing ever afflicts /.) a good Apple-oriented flame war does wonders for the blood pressure. But both those silly AAPLtalk comparison charts and the (slashdotted) "rant" above deserve some credit for trying to shine some light into the darkness of "why do people care so much?"
Though this forum, populated as it is by many thousands of folks who go neither way in the Apple/MS debate, may not be the most sympathetic place to say it, there are big fat differences between Windows and the Mac OS.
The "MHz myth" and shitty GeForce drivers are part of what sets us apart, but the rationale of the rabid Mac user (I am one, I admit it) revolves around esthetics, both artistic and operational. I'm not talking only about pretty translucent plastic cases or sexy PowerBook curves - but the truth is, these things matter. Gaba's dismissal of the floppy's importance might ring hollow to some, but his awarding of points for the G4's easily-accessed interior is easily overlooked. Design issues have a strong bearing on how people interact with the machines that serve them - whether that relationship feels adversarial or cooperative depends on many small factors that, together, determine quality design.
Easy-access cases are just one of those; clean, uncluttered user interface, reliable hardware (something many people forget is how tough Apple products are), and genuinely useful, user-friendly bundled apps (iMovie, iDVD, iTunes) are all important parts of the Mac design ethic. You only needed to look at an issue of the Mercury News a few weeks ago to sum up the difference: Microsoft made headlines for, again, lobbying John Ashcroft to drop the Justice Department's historic antitrust suit; Apple became one of a handful of companies to begin recycling harmful computer components like mercury and boron.
It may sound simple, but it works for me: everywhere I look, whether at my computer screen, the business pages, or the aisles of a computer store, Apple products are better-designed and better-made. Dare I say, by better people? For a better world? It's easy to laugh, and then turn back to an unrecognizably ugly Windows interface that still reminds me of playing Boulderdash II on an EGA screen.
My means are as tight as anyone else's (more so, I sometimes think over my Ramen noodles), and the Apple premium's a bitch. But we are ever sub specie aeternitatis - and we must do what we can.
For a list clearly too heavy on first-person shooters (even old-school ones), Descent and sequels' absence is a joke. Myst/Riven also deserve a place - perhaps developers didn't think much of them, but their audiences certainly did. How many more copies were sold of Myst/Riven than of Doom or even Quake? Plenty. But the most egregious slight is to Myth and its sequel. A revolution in gameplay no FPS since Wolf 3D has managed, groundbreaking atmospherics and beautiful finish (Dwarves have never bitched and moaned so entertainingly) made Myth unquestionably one of the best ever - even for pale-faced freaks with index-finger twitches.
Definitely aggravated by the felonious abuse of "incredibly."
But on more gameplay-related issues, uh, is this really a big deal? The AI is incredibly responsive and state-based -- either the enemies are standing around, patrolling, or shooting at you. Sound familiar?
Frankly, I was waiting for the interviewer to bear down and ask, what's going to differentiate RTCW from Wolf for the Apple IIgs, besides the Q3 engine?
Didn't happen. My guess: not much.
Apple calls BSD Darwin's "wrapper." As a lot of work has already gone into porting Darwin over, Hubbard's expertise with BSD on x86 hardware will only make that easier. Sure, he can help with the open-source community, but of all the names people call Steve Jobs, stupid usually isn't among them.
And Motorola's PowerPC, despite the embedded market, simply hasn't allowed Mac OS to compete on a horsepower (or economy-of-scale) basis. If Apple's working internally on the x86 alternative -- and I'd bet my cat they have been for some time - this could be very, very significant news.
Can you imagine? Mac OS X (and onward) on decent hardware? Screw Altivec, give me SMP Athlons. Overnight, the desktop landscape would change for consumers and professionals.
That's if, of course, Apple can stomach firing their hardware design people and start writing device drivers to go with that kernel. But frankly, I'm kind of stoked.
If you look closely at the push to remove pay phones, you'll find that it's motivated mainly by phone companies (especially mobiles) who want to eliminate public access to telephones. Sure, cell phones calls are cheaper, but you don't need a credit card to make a pay phone call - nor a $250 deposit. This is the same sort of business vampirism that makes phone calls from prisons cost several dollars per minute in some states through a monopolist phone provider. Probably few Linux geeks see the absence of available public telecommunications as a serious problem; but there are many more people stuck in relative poverty than checking out Slashdot right now. Pay phones, without a steady income or steady job, may be their only way of talking to their families, for example. For them a pay phone is worth a hell of a lot more than a data jack in an airport phone.