..not to interject some shameless Mac advocacy, but stuff like this is exactly why I'm a shameless Mac advocate (though any non-MS OS would apply). When you have upward of 90% market share, most of which is locked into you for eternity, is stuff like this really that important? I would think the resources put into developing and maintaining schemes like this, coupled with the awful PR it generates, are probably worse for you at the end of the day, or at least a wash. Windows activation is one exception to the "only/.er's will bother to do it" rule. I know more than one computer illiterate person who has 'fixed' their ill gotten copy of Windows XP. Shmeh.
For what it's worth, I said the exact same thing when Expose came out. I thought it was another pretty useless feature I'd never actually use, much less need. I have no idea when or where or why I started using it, but now if I use a mac without it turned on I make a very specific 'BAHHHGH' sound.
I have to disagree with the grandparent. It isn't a lack of imagination, it's a severe misunderstanding about the way evolution works. yes, there are plenty of examples of convergence in nature (sharks, dolphins, and ichthyosaurs being a neat one). But those were all *vertebrates*. Even the vast differences between fish, mammals, and reptiles are light years closer together than anything we'd find off planet. Everything here has the same genetic material, galactic-ally speaking. =)
Man, where have you been? In this age of South Park Conservatism and forgotten accountability, standing up for anything is LAME. It really does worry me about not only the future of Free Software, but the future of this country. I know it sounds like hyperbole, but talk to a random sampling (or on/., a not so random sample) of kids about *anything* that smacks of idealism and you get some bullshit about "reality" or "pragmatism" (and I use those terms in jest). Huge swaths of our populace has forgotten what one idealistic person like RMS can do. IMO, at our own peril.
Yes, as a dues paying, card carrying member of the Liberal Media Conspiracy, I must confirm your suspicions. Anyone who doesn't like the collective works of Matt and Trey has "an agenda". We hoped nobody would piece our diabolical plot together, but you've seen through us like 10 year Fruit of The Looms. You're through the looking glass now, Otis. Up is down, friends are foes, and nothing is the same from here on out...
A friend of mine hounded me forever to watch Firefly on disc, and I just couldn't get into it at all. Whedon's good name hold absolutely no water with me ( vampires? sorry. Alien Resurrection? puke.), and I was actually turned off by the whole western motif. The only redeeming factor (imo) was falling out of my chair laughing when the bad guys uniforms looked exactly like Spaceballs. My friend was stunned, as I'm sure most here would be, but I actually would rather watch *any* Star Trek (/me dodges rotten cabbage)....even Voyager (/me dodges multiple large rocks).
Argh... I know this sounds Apple fanboy-ish, and I know how unpopular that is in moderation =p, but while many others are working on this... Apple has it now. It's called Quartz Extreme (catchy, I know =/).
Maybe it's too soon to tell where they (among others) are going to take it, but the signs from them (and MS) point toward Nowheresville. It just speeds up the same old gui.
Here is the problem with having too many pots cooking. As many people have said in related (iPod Video) threads, music is a background thing you have going while you do x, while watching video is something you *do*. Now, the only market segment this portable video model can really work with is children and public transit commuters. People who use a passive mode of transportation. But the PSP is well outside of "buy it and shut the kids up" pricing. This could have worked really really well for them with kids movies, but how many kids will get a PSP for good grades or whatever? Sony seems to be trying to straddle the success of Apple and Nintendo here, and a whack in the nuts is a quite possible outcome.
But I find the one button mice a lot more comfortable, as my hand doesn't have to be glued to the thing in a pre-determined position in order to click it. Oddly enough, I was a fan of the hockey puck mouse before it, as I was one of the only people to use the thing correctly, by steering it with my fingertips, leaving my hand parked to the desk. Same with my ibook, I leave my thumb laying more or less horizontally over the single button. If apple goes to two button laptops, I'm pretty much fucked. =/
Any Airport Express owner (I'm assuming the same for the Airport base station) can tell you that idiot proof wifi security is already here. Knowing Nintendo, it's also a no-brainer for them.
One of the first emails I sent was to Jef Raskin, applauding his work after doing some reading on human interface. He sent me back a very nice letter, and man, was I suprised. So long Jef, and thanks.
Am I guilty of copyright infringement by downloading old arcade roms to play for five minutes at a time, usually while waiting for something? I guess so.
Are these companies actually losing money by me using something for free that I would not purchase from them at a price that was deemed profitable by say, Namco? If roms were somehow purged from the internet, I still would not buy the Namco classics series. I would just play a different game. Is this making sense yet? You aren't losing money if I never intended to give it to you, period.
This is different than me selling boxes pre-loaded with roms, I know. I'm just sick of the IP apologists around here calling me a theif. =)
David St. Hubbins: I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem *may* have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being *crushed* by a *dwarf*. Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the object.
Ian Faith: I really think you're just making much too big a thing out of it.
Derek Smalls: Making a big thing out of it would have been a good idea.
When you guys first threw your weight into the console game arena, I have to admit I was worried. I was afraid you would do the same thing to it that you've done to the web browser, the personal computer, and well...everything else you've touched. That is, bury anything interesting or innovative under a huge pile of blood money. It really has ruined those things, and made you guys even bigger and wealthier. But it also pissed some people off. Some smart and innovative people, like the folks at Apple, the screaming millions of Linux contributers, the phoenix that was Netscape and is now Mozilla/FF/Thunderbird. You've inspired huge communities of people to do some great things.
And they're starting to nip at your heels, aren't they?
Back to video games. Well, Sony is Sony. Think the installed base of Atari without the complacency. They are fully aware that you'll devour them if they slip up, so they are trying like hell not to. I would say they've done a good job so far. Nintendo has taken a different tack (though they are still beating you everywhere but here). While people denigrate them for being a "kiddy" platform, they forget that we have such a huge market for games now partly because of the success of the NES with us when we were kids.
Your foray into gaming has ensured we have a top dog (maybe an alpha Aibo?) that stays quick on its feet, and guaranteed Big N will be around for at least another 20 years. I couldn't be happier with that. Please, feel free to remain the limburger cheese of the console business. Continue to turn people like me off with your one hit wonder lineup of games. Fight hard for you status as the console people buy after they already have one of the others. And don't hesitate to milk your installed base for whatever (subscriptions, DRM, feature creep) you can.
Slashdot Mirror
..not to interject some shameless Mac advocacy, but stuff like this is exactly why I'm a shameless Mac advocate (though any non-MS OS would apply). When you have upward of 90% market share, most of which is locked into you for eternity, is stuff like this really that important? I would think the resources put into developing and maintaining schemes like this, coupled with the awful PR it generates, are probably worse for you at the end of the day, or at least a wash. Windows activation is one exception to the "only /.er's will bother to do it" rule. I know more than one computer illiterate person who has 'fixed' their ill gotten copy of Windows XP. Shmeh.
Sorry, couldn't resist. =D
For what it's worth, I said the exact same thing when Expose came out. I thought it was another pretty useless feature I'd never actually use, much less need. I have no idea when or where or why I started using it, but now if I use a mac without it turned on I make a very specific 'BAHHHGH' sound.
Where does my " Comparing Family Guy and The Simpsons is roughly analogous to comparing spiked Dr Pepper and Guinness" post go?
I have to disagree with the grandparent. It isn't a lack of imagination, it's a severe misunderstanding about the way evolution works. yes, there are plenty of examples of convergence in nature (sharks, dolphins, and ichthyosaurs being a neat one). But those were all *vertebrates*. Even the vast differences between fish, mammals, and reptiles are light years closer together than anything we'd find off planet. Everything here has the same genetic material, galactic-ally speaking. =)
Man, where have you been? In this age of South Park Conservatism and forgotten accountability, standing up for anything is LAME. It really does worry me about not only the future of Free Software, but the future of this country. I know it sounds like hyperbole, but talk to a random sampling (or on /., a not so random sample) of kids about *anything* that smacks of idealism and you get some bullshit about "reality" or "pragmatism" (and I use those terms in jest). Huge swaths of our populace has forgotten what one idealistic person like RMS can do. IMO, at our own peril.
Yes, as a dues paying, card carrying member of the Liberal Media Conspiracy, I must confirm your suspicions. Anyone who doesn't like the collective works of Matt and Trey has "an agenda". We hoped nobody would piece our diabolical plot together, but you've seen through us like 10 year Fruit of The Looms. You're through the looking glass now, Otis. Up is down, friends are foes, and nothing is the same from here on out...
I USED to love Star Wars. That love has been BEATEN out of me. This franchise is an abomination... a walking shell of THE UNDEAD!!
ahem...sorry
A friend of mine hounded me forever to watch Firefly on disc, and I just couldn't get into it at all. Whedon's good name hold absolutely no water with me ( vampires? sorry. Alien Resurrection? puke.), and I was actually turned off by the whole western motif. The only redeeming factor (imo) was falling out of my chair laughing when the bad guys uniforms looked exactly like Spaceballs. My friend was stunned, as I'm sure most here would be, but I actually would rather watch *any* Star Trek (/me dodges rotten cabbage)....even Voyager (/me dodges multiple large rocks).
Maybe it's too soon to tell where they (among others) are going to take it, but the signs from them (and MS) point toward Nowheresville. It just speeds up the same old gui.
Bummer I don't have any mod points. "Open Source Chicken", and the corresponding mental image, is the funniest thing I've heard all day.
This is a pretty funny one, but there are hundreds of parody blogs out there already. Enough to where I'm too lazy to link them all.
I can't believe I posted something like that on /. on a Saturday night! Shut up, just shut up. =p
However, fat geeks will always have another thing to consider. Darwinian death. Eat those twinkies, my pretties... just means more pussy for me!
Here is the problem with having too many pots cooking. As many people have said in related (iPod Video) threads, music is a background thing you have going while you do x, while watching video is something you *do*. Now, the only market segment this portable video model can really work with is children and public transit commuters. People who use a passive mode of transportation. But the PSP is well outside of "buy it and shut the kids up" pricing. This could have worked really really well for them with kids movies, but how many kids will get a PSP for good grades or whatever? Sony seems to be trying to straddle the success of Apple and Nintendo here, and a whack in the nuts is a quite possible outcome.
Remind me not to go to boingboing.net for at least two weeks. I can see it now:
"Apple RAPES their customers by ROAD RAGING a new DRM scheme on them. BLOGOSPHERE and puppies are OUTRAGED."
Wrong crowd indeed! =)
But I find the one button mice a lot more comfortable, as my hand doesn't have to be glued to the thing in a pre-determined position in order to click it. Oddly enough, I was a fan of the hockey puck mouse before it, as I was one of the only people to use the thing correctly, by steering it with my fingertips, leaving my hand parked to the desk. Same with my ibook, I leave my thumb laying more or less horizontally over the single button. If apple goes to two button laptops, I'm pretty much fucked. =/
Any Airport Express owner (I'm assuming the same for the Airport base station) can tell you that idiot proof wifi security is already here. Knowing Nintendo, it's also a no-brainer for them.
One of the first emails I sent was to Jef Raskin, applauding his work after doing some reading on human interface. He sent me back a very nice letter, and man, was I suprised. So long Jef, and thanks.
Am I guilty of copyright infringement by downloading old arcade roms to play for five minutes at a time, usually while waiting for something? I guess so.
Are these companies actually losing money by me using something for free that I would not purchase from them at a price that was deemed profitable by say, Namco? If roms were somehow purged from the internet, I still would not buy the Namco classics series. I would just play a different game. Is this making sense yet? You aren't losing money if I never intended to give it to you, period.
This is different than me selling boxes pre-loaded with roms, I know. I'm just sick of the IP apologists around here calling me a theif. =)
What do they do for an encore, rape Donkey Kong Jr with an Atari controller?
Well, I didn't say I was proud of myself, but there it is. =)
David St. Hubbins: I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem *may* have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being *crushed* by a *dwarf*. Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the object.
Ian Faith: I really think you're just making much too big a thing out of it.
Derek Smalls: Making a big thing out of it would have been a good idea.
When you guys first threw your weight into the console game arena, I have to admit I was worried. I was afraid you would do the same thing to it that you've done to the web browser, the personal computer, and well...everything else you've touched. That is, bury anything interesting or innovative under a huge pile of blood money. It really has ruined those things, and made you guys even bigger and wealthier. But it also pissed some people off. Some smart and innovative people, like the folks at Apple, the screaming millions of Linux contributers, the phoenix that was Netscape and is now Mozilla/FF/Thunderbird. You've inspired huge communities of people to do some great things.
And they're starting to nip at your heels, aren't they?
Back to video games. Well, Sony is Sony. Think the installed base of Atari without the complacency. They are fully aware that you'll devour them if they slip up, so they are trying like hell not to. I would say they've done a good job so far. Nintendo has taken a different tack (though they are still beating you everywhere but here). While people denigrate them for being a "kiddy" platform, they forget that we have such a huge market for games now partly because of the success of the NES with us when we were kids.
Your foray into gaming has ensured we have a top dog (maybe an alpha Aibo?) that stays quick on its feet, and guaranteed Big N will be around for at least another 20 years. I couldn't be happier with that. Please, feel free to remain the limburger cheese of the console business. Continue to turn people like me off with your one hit wonder lineup of games. Fight hard for you status as the console people buy after they already have one of the others. And don't hesitate to milk your installed base for whatever (subscriptions, DRM, feature creep) you can.
Thanks,
Dwarfgoanna