What makes Black Hawk Down so jarring and effective a film is that it's about a real story. U.S. soldiers really did find themselves in a horrific shoot-out in Somalia, and really did behave heroically under awful pressure. These same soldiers are now crawling around the hills of Afghanistan, their cause clear and powerful. That movie is thus a terrific salute to ordinary people who have to take a deep measure of themselves in extraordinary situations.
I understand there are many possible (and valid) applications for technology like this, but is there really anything I can do on one of these that I couldn't do with a PDA, and still manage to keep my dignity intact? =)
Somehow, I don't think consumer application and adoption of this stuff will happen anytime soon. The whole "wearable computing" movement seems to survive of sci-fi fumes alone.
Actually, that sounds light to me, considering my G4 Cube sans monitor weighs about the same. Granted, the iMac has a fan instead of a gigantic heat sink. =)
This isn't flamebait, but isn't this the situation with all laptop vendors? LCDs drop pixels, and on an all-in-one computer (desktop or laptop) you are stuck with it. Did you post this about the netVista or Thinkpad? =)
Re:delightful.....yes, it is
on
Apple PDA?
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Judging by the trollish nature of your post, I'm guessing you haven't actually used an iPod (or possibly any of the latest Mac hardware). It's anything BUT underpowered (It's too early in the morning for me to make a pun about how it charges it's 10 hour battery via Firewire), and guess what? There is no comparable unit.
Apple's strength (and their current strategy) is that all their stuff works together in ways that cheap commodity crap cannot. Yes, many of the features are Mac-only. Gee, maybe thats because they want more people to buy Macs. Go figure.
Just because they carry a massive boulder of FUD around on their back does not mean they aren't doing some really cool sh!t these days. I'll bet my left testicle that this thing can do sh!t no other PDA can do.
Why?
1) Jobs is one nitpicky SOB, and this (ala the Cube and iMac) looks like one of his pet projects.
2)This is Apple's latest marketing scheme and product strategy. Leveraging the fact that they make the hardware AND software.
3)Apple invented the fscking PDA. There is no question they have been working on this since the Newton got killed.
While you can have fun getting your Visor, Rio, and Heinz 57 box to play nice, life just got a little sweeter for 5% of us. =)
Re:I use P2P often at work
on
P2P in 2001
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· Score: 1
Man, that must be nice. I got yelled at and firewalled at my job for doing essentially the same thing.=)
"What the f___? You think we pay you to download old Simpson's episodes?!?" -My Boss
Regardless of whether this is feasible or not (it most likely is not)....
I think this whole situation was put most elegantly by a scientist I can't remember =) concerning the gaur (a wild old world cow, one of which had been born from an antelope or some such at a zoo). He said something to the effect of, " I want to save the gaur, the one that walks through the forest, interacts and mates with other gaurs, dies, and has a leak tree grow from it's carcass. That thing out there (the one born at the zoo), is not the gaur I want to save."
Sony Execs: What is industrial design??
on
New AIBO Demo'd
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· Score: 1
You know, it just struck me that people would be more willing to look over AIBO's shortcomings if the thing weren't so crummy looking. Looking at this pic, I thought to myself: If I were directing a sci-fi movie, and needed a robot that said, "stylish post modern digi companion".....well, lets just say whoever brought me this Robby-inspired monstrosity would be fired on spot. Sony should license Apple to do their industrial design for these things...call them iBo or something. =)
I thought "What Linux Stands For", was being able to put your own tools together, and use them for whatever you need to get done. Community or no community. Apparently, some people have/prefer Mac hardware, and would like to use Linux on it while still reaping the benefits of Mac compatibility. Who are you to tell them otherwise?
I have been running OSX since the beta. Considering how bad the Classic layer seems to work (though I hear it's much improved in 10.1), maybe someone should try to port this over. Then I could run Mac on Linux on Mac's Unix. =)
leaving the Auckland showroom at one minute after midnight with a brand new, Windows XP-ready machine.
I take this to mean people are actually standing in line for this? Isn't today's PC consumer a little smarter than they were in '95 and '98? Have we learned nothing? I mean, doesn't everybody read/.?
Aside from playing R&D lab for the rest of the industry, and the fact that Apple stories here (a mainly Linux crowd) generate the interest that they do.......
I think one of the panel members summed it up best by saying something along the lines of... "If they didn't, why would we be talking about them?"
Milhouse: And also, you should win things by watching.
Re:Stupidity is Self Curing
on
Eco-Terrorism
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· Score: 1
They simply aren't interested in solving the problems of how to clothe, feed, and house six billion+ healthy homo sapiens at anything beyond a subsistence level.
Umm.... should we really have that problem in the first place?
Under any other regime, this would probably be the case. But since when does Jobs (the terms 'Steve Jobs' and 'Apple Computer are pretty much interchangeable at this point) bend to the will of consumers? If anything, he has a track record of making the user bend to his will. Remember floppies? Does OSX run on anything pre-Jobs without a serious hack? Sometimes this strategy backfires on him (see NeXT), but he seems to have done a pretty good job of this since his return to Apple.
I for one, hope the ghosts of companies past win out, and OSX retains it's wholesome 'nixy goodness. (And holy shit, I'm one of the Mac faithful.)
I think part of what Apple is trying to do is coax the AOL/neophyte crowd into actually using their machines to do things other than surfing and chatting. Their current OS/hardware is good enough to do these things, and will be for some time. Apple is dangling the upgrade carrot at them with super easy video editing, just like they did with desktop publishing. One of the things they have to do for this to work is make the OS simpler, or at least as non threatening as possible. They, and therefore MS =), are going AOL-style at the desktop.
Whoduthunkit?
The 99 year old gay men of the world who make less than ten thousand dollars a year, enjoy cooking, skateboarding, and fencing, and would NOT like to be notified of any exciting new offers. =)
Slashdot Mirror
What makes Black Hawk Down so jarring and effective a film is that it's about a real story. U.S. soldiers really did find themselves in a horrific shoot-out in Somalia, and really did behave heroically under awful pressure. These same soldiers are now crawling around the hills of Afghanistan, their cause clear and powerful. That movie is thus a terrific salute to ordinary people who have to take a deep measure of themselves in extraordinary situations.
Zip up your fly, Jon...your jingo is hanging out.
cue the drummer, please
Somehow, I don't think consumer application and adoption of this stuff will happen anytime soon. The whole "wearable computing" movement seems to survive of sci-fi fumes alone.
Actually, that sounds light to me, considering my G4 Cube sans monitor weighs about the same. Granted, the iMac has a fan instead of a gigantic heat sink. =)
This isn't flamebait, but isn't this the situation with all laptop vendors? LCDs drop pixels, and on an all-in-one computer (desktop or laptop) you are stuck with it. Did you post this about the netVista or Thinkpad? =)
Apple's strength (and their current strategy) is that all their stuff works together in ways that cheap commodity crap cannot. Yes, many of the features are Mac-only. Gee, maybe thats because they want more people to buy Macs. Go figure.
Just because they carry a massive boulder of FUD around on their back does not mean they aren't doing some really cool sh!t these days. I'll bet my left testicle that this thing can do sh!t no other PDA can do.
Why?
1) Jobs is one nitpicky SOB, and this (ala the Cube and iMac) looks like one of his pet projects.
2)This is Apple's latest marketing scheme and product strategy. Leveraging the fact that they make the hardware AND software.
3)Apple invented the fscking PDA. There is no question they have been working on this since the Newton got killed.
While you can have fun getting your Visor, Rio, and Heinz 57 box to play nice, life just got a little sweeter for 5% of us. =)
"What the f___? You think we pay you to download old Simpson's episodes?!?" -My Boss
Gee...can't we get some real guests? =)
(It's a joke, not flamebait. Learn the difference.)
I think this whole situation was put most elegantly by a scientist I can't remember =) concerning the gaur (a wild old world cow, one of which had been born from an antelope or some such at a zoo). He said something to the effect of, " I want to save the gaur, the one that walks through the forest, interacts and mates with other gaurs, dies, and has a leak tree grow from it's carcass. That thing out there (the one born at the zoo), is not the gaur I want to save."
You know, it just struck me that people would be more willing to look over AIBO's shortcomings if the thing weren't so crummy looking. Looking at this pic, I thought to myself: If I were directing a sci-fi movie, and needed a robot that said, "stylish post modern digi companion".....well, lets just say whoever brought me this Robby-inspired monstrosity would be fired on spot. Sony should license Apple to do their industrial design for these things...call them iBo or something. =)
I thought "What Linux Stands For", was being able to put your own tools together, and use them for whatever you need to get done. Community or no community. Apparently, some people have/prefer Mac hardware, and would like to use Linux on it while still reaping the benefits of Mac compatibility. Who are you to tell them otherwise?
leaving the Auckland showroom at one minute after midnight with a brand new, Windows XP-ready machine.
I take this to mean people are actually standing in line for this? Isn't today's PC consumer a little smarter than they were in '95 and '98? Have we learned nothing? I mean, doesn't everybody read
=)
I think one of the panel members summed it up best by saying something along the lines of... "If they didn't, why would we be talking about them?"
=)
=)
From The Simpsons.....=)
Man: How many of you kids would like Itchy & Scratchy to deal with real-life problems, like the ones you face every day?
Kids: [clamoring] Oh, yeah! I would! Great idea! Yeah, that's it!
Man: And who would like to see them do just the opposite -- getting into far-out situations involving robots and magic powers?
Kids: [clamoring] Me! Yeah! Oh, cool! Yeah, that's what I want!
Man: So, you want a realistic, down-to-earth show... that's completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic robots?
Kids: [all agreeing, quieter this time] That's right. Oh yeah, good.
Milhouse: And also, you should win things by watching.
They simply aren't interested in solving the problems of how to clothe, feed, and house six billion+ healthy homo sapiens at anything beyond a subsistence level.
Umm.... should we really have that problem in the first place?
Under any other regime, this would probably be the case. But since when does Jobs (the terms 'Steve Jobs' and 'Apple Computer are pretty much interchangeable at this point) bend to the will of consumers? If anything, he has a track record of making the user bend to his will. Remember floppies? Does OSX run on anything pre-Jobs without a serious hack? Sometimes this strategy backfires on him (see NeXT), but he seems to have done a pretty good job of this since his return to Apple.
I for one, hope the ghosts of companies past win out, and OSX retains it's wholesome 'nixy goodness. (And holy shit, I'm one of the Mac faithful.)
I think part of what Apple is trying to do is coax the AOL/neophyte crowd into actually using their machines to do things other than surfing and chatting. Their current OS/hardware is good enough to do these things, and will be for some time. Apple is dangling the upgrade carrot at them with super easy video editing, just like they did with desktop publishing. One of the things they have to do for this to work is make the OS simpler, or at least as non threatening as possible. They, and therefore MS =), are going AOL-style at the desktop.
Whoduthunkit?
The 99 year old gay men of the world who make less than ten thousand dollars a year, enjoy cooking, skateboarding, and fencing, and would NOT like to be notified of any exciting new offers. =)