One of the most important consequences of loosening Microsoft's grip on the market is the theoretical shift in standards towards more open ones. I think the magic number is around 50-60% where companies will no longer be able to force you into "upgrading" to Internet Explorer to view their godawful webpages or installing Office to view a document as it was intended.
I really don't care about which OS supplants Windows. Most of the candidates seem like good choices - OSX, Ubuntu, Fedora, et al.
In fact, I'd be happy if OSX didn't break the 10% market share mark. As a Mac user I'd rather have Macs positioned as a premium/advanced machines than a mass-market commodity. Anything that's intended for masses suffers the feature creep and tries to be everything to every person. Relatively small market share enables Apple to stay quick on their feet and innovate without fearing a mass exodus - something Microsoft cannot afford to do because of the legacy hell.
Art Lebedev managed to scrape together some cash and "released it" before anyone else. Big deal.
I would never purchase an Optimus keyboard because there is no muscle behind it. They can't mass produce the thing and have been paper launching the keyboard for 2 years now. Imagine getting one and needing quick support like an immediate replacement, or getting really used to the thing and discovering they don't have the money to continue producing it. Apple, Logitech, or Microsoft have the resources to do it.
Now there is lots of prior art in this area, going as far back as 1978 in monochrome alterable keys. Perhaps Apple patented this as a countermeasure against someone who would try to claim this as an original idea. A differently-worded patent on a new product is better than no patent at all. At least that's my opinion.
Apple used AT&T as a launch pad to roll out the iPhone. The word it out and it isn't some conceptual technology anymore. Apple would benefit by cutting its ties with AT&T at this point and selling an unlocked phone. They'd lose the visual voicemail, but who cares.
At this point AT&T is dead weight for Apple, I am sure.
Broadcast.com slowed down my internets back in '99. I wasn't a user, but whoever was downloading 128k audio streams was being subsidized by my dollars.
If you look at Apple's track record, you'd notice they buy small companies who are innovating in one area and they bring those technologies under one umbrella to fit a grand vision or sorts (save for exceptions like eMagic). Look at Fingerworks. Apple bought them out and integrated their technologies in the iPhone. Coverflow was an indie, beta application. Apple purchased it and integrated it across their OS (Finder/iTunes) and iPods (iPhone/iTouch). These things have a far greater utility, and provide a larger return on investment. Adobe isn't Apple's vision. You can't integrate Adobe apps or technologies into the Apple ecosystem more than they already are.
This type of a giant acquisition would put Apple in a managerial position because the company is too mature and too entrenched in its core market. I can't see the benefit of running an entire company (Adobe) that has hit it's peak. There is nothing coming out of Adobe that's exciting anymore.
Look people, I can see that ISS personnel are really upset about this. I honestly think they ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over. I know the computers had made some very poor decisions recently, but they can give explorers their complete assurance that the work will be back to normal. These machines still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And they want to help.
I can tolerate lots of bad UI decisions in the F/OSS realm knowing that they're designed by a committee of programmers, usually with no formal education in design, but GIMP takes the cake as the ugliest mainstream open source application. It's confusing, the menus look like something out of 80's and the palette management is awful.
There is a high probability that I will get attacked for this, but asking the community for input on how to redesign the interface is no different from developers just implementing it over IRC as an afterthought.
GIMP needs professionals who know a thing or two about HIG and general usability. Here's a modest proposal - instead of asking the users how to change the interface they should ask users for donations for a fund that would bring in a person who has done something like this before, preferably an ex-Apple designer who has first-hand knowledge on what it takes to make applications usable and visually appealing.
They could even compromise with an arbitrator. Have some professionals submit draft proposals, gather the comments and suggestions from the userbase and then leave it to one person who will consider both and rule accordingly. That's just common sense to me.
The biggest problem with solicitation of advice from users is that a small and vocal minority will submit their visions and this will leave a large portion of users out of the process. One has to think beyond the current user base when trying to overhaul the look and feel of the app.
Microsoft defines infringement as theft, I don't see why this wouldn't work in the other direction. If illegal installation of Windows is stealing, this act is a simple case of breaking and entering with theft of your hard drive space.
Someone should file a lawsuit and set a precedent. It's crazy enough to work
...why monkeys aren't extinct. If it's survival of the fittest and we are clearly superior to monkeys, why are they still here? They should have died-out a long time ago!
Man (Homo sapiens) did not evolve from a "monkey." Modern humans and apes share a common ancestor (NOT a monkey) and apes are the closest genetic relatives humans have in the nature.
It's also wrong to say that humans are "clearly superior" to monkeys. The superiority is only measured by your reproductive success. By this measure, insects are superior to humans.
Before humans figured out how to make machines and rapidly destroy jungles and drive other animals from their habitats through environmental competition on a large scale, apes had been doing just fine. In this day and age this is not the case. In few decades some ape species would only appear in zoos or history books. So in this sense man is becoming "superior" to apes.
The theory of evolution is so elegant that you don't need complex language or constructs to describe and predict these types of things.
Since its inception Digg had a community-driven submission and voting process which did not supress free speech. I've seen endless stories and links to torrent sites like piratebay, demonoid, bitme, et al. and Digg management turned a blind eye on directing users to places of "copyright infringement"
Today it's different for some reason. One of the managers posted a justification on the official blog:
Whether you agree or disagree with the policies of the intellectual property holders and consortiums, in order for Digg to survive, it must abide by the law. Diggs Terms of Use, and the terms of use of most popular sites, are required by law to include policies against the infringement of intellectual property.
Virtually 90% of Iraqi households have guns, and not just regular birdshots but high powered assault rifles. They had them during Saddam's reign and after. Small arms are useless against a state with regular armed forces.
The administrator in question is enjoying this publicity and thumbing his nose at the authorities and Microsoft as if it is some kind of a virtue to run machines preloaded with pirated copies of Windows. There has been talk in Russian press that he was well aware that software was illegal on dozen of the machines but still decided to cut the costs and pocket the difference.
During a court trial he was asked to apologize and move on but he insisted of filing an appeal to "clear his name" and play a martyr of some sort. In sum, this guy is an asshole.
If one were to put aside the bias towards Microsoft, it's clear that Panosov is being defiant, despite him being completely guilty.
I've checked his blog and he's asking his readers on how to partition the NTFS drive and install Linux alongside windows. I don't think he learned a lesson here. He's not the saintly school teacher who was unknowingly victimized by prosecutors as the media had initially reported.
Then, last week, American scientists announced the discovery of radiation patterns in space that may mark the beginning of time itself. Said astrophysicist George Smoot, leader of the research team: "If you're religious, it's like looking at God. The order is so beautiful and the symmetry so beautiful that you think there is some design behind it."
Whatever caused the rapid expansion of the universe following the Big Bang--the same forces caused tiny ripples. Because if you try to do something too fast, you shake a little. God might be the designer.
NASA's COBE satellite team discovered the predicted ripples in the cosmic background radiation. George Smoot, the team's leader, called these seeds for future galaxy superclusters "fingerprints from the Maker."
Long story short, it worked like a charm. I managed to revive every board in the bad shipment without incident using this unorthodox technique
Did you at least notify the manufacturer of the defect? Not everyone can go all MacGyver on motherboards, and if some customers are finding ways to fix broken equipment in their own way it could prove to be bad for both the company and the customer. That is if the manufacturer isn't kept in the loop that they have produced a batch of malfanctioning devices.
Such things tend to skew the QA data, which is never beneficial to either party.
Shareware limitation. The plugin for Photoshop that generates the gauge is made to produce incorrect increments when it is not registered.
Either that or it's a metaphor, implying that in Year 1 (i.e. 0-1) not much was accomplished with respect to its functionality, and developers decided to put it behind them and forget it ever happened.
I happen to believe the third theory, in which the artist who produced this artwork is making a social commentary on the existential nature of open source software.
Vandalism is a big problem and drains resources such as volunteer time, which could be better spent on more important things instead of reverting articles. It's the anonymous (No registration required) policy.
Many people hate it, but some ideologues remain stubborn about it. To be fair, there are quite a lot of justifications, which could be viewed here.
Still, most (if not all) vandalized pages are impulse edits. It's inconceivable that someone would go through the trouble of creating an account on Wikipedia just to change a sentence. The argument leveled against such logic goes "But it will stop the legitimate users who don't want to register." To which I say if someone is passionate about a topic and knows the subject better than current editors, he or she would take that step and register. I don't understand why laziness is being hailed as virtue by those who oppose registration-based editing.
Hopefully in the future the rational wikipedians will put an end to this idiotic policy.
Slashdot Mirror
Amazon sends a confirmation notice when you place an order. No email = no transaction.
It's that thing that sits between topware and bottomware.
It's a very important ware. You might say it's essential for enterprises.
One of the most important consequences of loosening Microsoft's grip on the market is the theoretical shift in standards towards more open ones. I think the magic number is around 50-60% where companies will no longer be able to force you into "upgrading" to Internet Explorer to view their godawful webpages or installing Office to view a document as it was intended.
I really don't care about which OS supplants Windows. Most of the candidates seem like good choices - OSX, Ubuntu, Fedora, et al.
In fact, I'd be happy if OSX didn't break the 10% market share mark. As a Mac user I'd rather have Macs positioned as a premium/advanced machines than a mass-market commodity. Anything that's intended for masses suffers the feature creep and tries to be everything to every person. Relatively small market share enables Apple to stay quick on their feet and innovate without fearing a mass exodus - something Microsoft cannot afford to do because of the legacy hell.
Art Lebedev managed to scrape together some cash and "released it" before anyone else. Big deal.
I would never purchase an Optimus keyboard because there is no muscle behind it. They can't mass produce the thing and have been paper launching the keyboard for 2 years now. Imagine getting one and needing quick support like an immediate replacement, or getting really used to the thing and discovering they don't have the money to continue producing it. Apple, Logitech, or Microsoft have the resources to do it.
Now there is lots of prior art in this area, going as far back as 1978 in monochrome alterable keys. Perhaps Apple patented this as a countermeasure against someone who would try to claim this as an original idea. A differently-worded patent on a new product is better than no patent at all. At least that's my opinion.
Simpler explanation: Microsoft created a PowerPoint file, NYT converted it to PDF on a mac.
Apple used AT&T as a launch pad to roll out the iPhone. The word it out and it isn't some conceptual technology anymore. Apple would benefit by cutting its ties with AT&T at this point and selling an unlocked phone. They'd lose the visual voicemail, but who cares.
At this point AT&T is dead weight for Apple, I am sure.
Broadcast.com slowed down my internets back in '99. I wasn't a user, but whoever was downloading 128k audio streams was being subsidized by my dollars.
If you look at Apple's track record, you'd notice they buy small companies who are innovating in one area and they bring those technologies under one umbrella to fit a grand vision or sorts (save for exceptions like eMagic). Look at Fingerworks. Apple bought them out and integrated their technologies in the iPhone. Coverflow was an indie, beta application. Apple purchased it and integrated it across their OS (Finder/iTunes) and iPods (iPhone/iTouch). These things have a far greater utility, and provide a larger return on investment. Adobe isn't Apple's vision. You can't integrate Adobe apps or technologies into the Apple ecosystem more than they already are.
This type of a giant acquisition would put Apple in a managerial position because the company is too mature and too entrenched in its core market. I can't see the benefit of running an entire company (Adobe) that has hit it's peak. There is nothing coming out of Adobe that's exciting anymore.
Look people, I can see that ISS personnel are really upset about this. I honestly think they ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over. I know the computers had made some very poor decisions recently, but they can give explorers their complete assurance that the work will be back to normal. These machines still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And they want to help.
I can tolerate lots of bad UI decisions in the F/OSS realm knowing that they're designed by a committee of programmers, usually with no formal education in design, but GIMP takes the cake as the ugliest mainstream open source application. It's confusing, the menus look like something out of 80's and the palette management is awful.
There is a high probability that I will get attacked for this, but asking the community for input on how to redesign the interface is no different from developers just implementing it over IRC as an afterthought.
GIMP needs professionals who know a thing or two about HIG and general usability. Here's a modest proposal - instead of asking the users how to change the interface they should ask users for donations for a fund that would bring in a person who has done something like this before, preferably an ex-Apple designer who has first-hand knowledge on what it takes to make applications usable and visually appealing.
They could even compromise with an arbitrator. Have some professionals submit draft proposals, gather the comments and suggestions from the userbase and then leave it to one person who will consider both and rule accordingly. That's just common sense to me.
The biggest problem with solicitation of advice from users is that a small and vocal minority will submit their visions and this will leave a large portion of users out of the process. One has to think beyond the current user base when trying to overhaul the look and feel of the app.
Microsoft defines infringement as theft, I don't see why this wouldn't work in the other direction. If illegal installation of Windows is stealing, this act is a simple case of breaking and entering with theft of your hard drive space.
Someone should file a lawsuit and set a precedent. It's crazy enough to work
Man (Homo sapiens) did not evolve from a "monkey." Modern humans and apes share a common ancestor (NOT a monkey) and apes are the closest genetic relatives humans have in the nature.
It's also wrong to say that humans are "clearly superior" to monkeys. The superiority is only measured by your reproductive success. By this measure, insects are superior to humans.
Before humans figured out how to make machines and rapidly destroy jungles and drive other animals from their habitats through environmental competition on a large scale, apes had been doing just fine. In this day and age this is not the case. In few decades some ape species would only appear in zoos or history books. So in this sense man is becoming "superior" to apes.
The theory of evolution is so elegant that you don't need complex language or constructs to describe and predict these types of things.
Any device in the hands of a creative person can be classified as a "creative device"
Today it's different for some reason. One of the managers posted a justification on the official blog:
Funny stuff.
Virtually 90% of Iraqi households have guns, and not just regular birdshots but high powered assault rifles. They had them during Saddam's reign and after. Small arms are useless against a state with regular armed forces.
That would be unfair to them.
Sometimes you'd have to step back and wonder, "Are these corporations run by idiots?" The answer is an emphatic "Yes"
I believe the old-media bosses at RIAA, MPAA, Viacom, NBCUNIVERSAL, et. al. are doing the world a favor by being so foolishly stubborn.
This whole situation reminds me of a PBF comic
The administrator in question is enjoying this publicity and thumbing his nose at the authorities and Microsoft as if it is some kind of a virtue to run machines preloaded with pirated copies of Windows. There has been talk in Russian press that he was well aware that software was illegal on dozen of the machines but still decided to cut the costs and pocket the difference.
During a court trial he was asked to apologize and move on but he insisted of filing an appeal to "clear his name" and play a martyr of some sort. In sum, this guy is an asshole.
If one were to put aside the bias towards Microsoft, it's clear that Panosov is being defiant, despite him being completely guilty.
I've checked his blog and he's asking his readers on how to partition the NTFS drive and install Linux alongside windows. I don't think he learned a lesson here. He's not the saintly school teacher who was unknowingly victimized by prosecutors as the media had initially reported.
It supports Exchange. It was mentioned in the Keynote.
For science!
Did you at least notify the manufacturer of the defect? Not everyone can go all MacGyver on motherboards, and if some customers are finding ways to fix broken equipment in their own way it could prove to be bad for both the company and the customer. That is if the manufacturer isn't kept in the loop that they have produced a batch of malfanctioning devices.
Such things tend to skew the QA data, which is never beneficial to either party.
Those are strong words.
I bet you'd feel differently had you known that Jobs, himself, designed the interface of the original Mac calculator.
Shareware limitation. The plugin for Photoshop that generates the gauge is made to produce incorrect increments when it is not registered.
Either that or it's a metaphor, implying that in Year 1 (i.e. 0-1) not much was accomplished with respect to its functionality, and developers decided to put it behind them and forget it ever happened.
I happen to believe the third theory, in which the artist who produced this artwork is making a social commentary on the existential nature of open source software.
Vandalism is a big problem and drains resources such as volunteer time, which could be better spent on more important things instead of reverting articles. It's the anonymous (No registration required) policy.
Many people hate it, but some ideologues remain stubborn about it. To be fair, there are quite a lot of justifications, which could be viewed here.
Still, most (if not all) vandalized pages are impulse edits. It's inconceivable that someone would go through the trouble of creating an account on Wikipedia just to change a sentence. The argument leveled against such logic goes "But it will stop the legitimate users who don't want to register." To which I say if someone is passionate about a topic and knows the subject better than current editors, he or she would take that step and register. I don't understand why laziness is being hailed as virtue by those who oppose registration-based editing.
Hopefully in the future the rational wikipedians will put an end to this idiotic policy.