Maybe I placed the accent in the wrong place. The machines are programmed to THINK that humans are their batteries. The reality may be something else, but the premise that the machines need humans for energy is one the the machines never question.
In other words, the makers duped the machines, and now the machines are duping their "crops".
I never wrote that the battery thingy was real, only that the machines believe it because it's how they're programmed.
The machines were PROGRAMMED to think of humans as batteries. It is entirely plausible that the first generations were entirely voluntary, and patted themselves on the back for their cleverness.
After all, Morpheus freely admits that they know very little about the past. Perhaps the machines were threatened with being turned off, and that's why they started the war?
Sure, the physics are freaky,but think of this:
It all makes sense if you imagine this as the result of a Microsoft MMORPG
Despite the ranting tone, the poster has a point; Macromedia put a lot of effort in making *all* of their apps use identical tabbed tool options, identical keyboard shortcuts, et cetera.
Why Adobe singled out Flash as the target is beyond me. Flash was orginally a third party product that got assimilated into the Macromedia fold, and gradually adopted FreeHand's appearance. Heck, until Flash 5 came out, it was a bear moving graphics from FreeHand to Flash!
The new "MX" line certainly looks as if Macromedia knew they might lose, and started migrating away from the old style. This will just force them to step up the speed, and maybe add FreeHand & Director earlier than they wanted to.
Considering how the "infringement" runs throughout the entire Macromedia line, yet Adobe targeted only one program, I'd appeal. At the very least, it would give Macromedia time to bring the rest of their products into the MX safe harbor.
It's sad. I like Flash, I like FreeHand, and I like Photoshop/InDesign. I used to like these companies for making good, intuitive tools. Sigh...
Add to this the BSD roots of Mac OS X, and Adobe may truly be pursuing more UNIX-compatible versions of their software.
After all, a new rewrite in Cocoa would also help streamline old code, and some of the newer programs like InDesign and LiveMotion ought to be relatively well documented for the transition teams.
Still, Corel's little foray probably still has them convinced that Linux can't make money, and coupling their proprietary image rendering code to GPL-licensed code is probably giving them headaches as well.
So yes, we may see Photoshop for UNIX, but only for Mac OS X, IRIX, Solaris and their cousins.
"I wouldn't think it would be a platform of choice for renderfarms. 1000 OS X licenses would increase costs, with little or no benefit for renderfarms.
Of course the desktop is a different issue. It is very interesting that Dreamworks turned down OS X and Win2K and went with GNU/Linux instead. Especially given that they new they would have to do some work to get their GNU/Linux desktops working properly."
Well, the license price isn't as big a factor as the fact that they'd be replacing their hardware with Mac stuff as well. Much as I like Apple's hardware, I see no reason to chuck usable workstations onto the scrap heap.
The same goes for Microsoft's Windows family: it wouldn't work on existing SGI and Sun workstations. Moving from one flavor of UNIX to another is actually the least painful choice.
True, it wouldn't help much, but the important thing is, it wouldn't HURT much either (if at all)!
The benefits to the non-members of this frikkin' cartel are what impels them. It's not that free samples hurt them, but that they help out the independant competitors who can't whip up million-dollar marketing campaigns. Money spent on independant artists isn't going into their pockets, and is just encouraging those rebels to stay out of their grasp.
It's not just the bottom line. It's the control over artists and audiences.
The thing about Halo is that it comes from Bungie, a company that started out by making quality games for the Macintosh platform (the Marathon series is still popular), and Halo debuted at Macworld as a demonstration of the Mac's 3D capabilities.
Since then, years have passed with the release contantly being pushed back, Microsoft assimilating Bungie and turning it into a wholly different company, and relentless hype about how good Halo was going to be. The Mac and PC versions are probably done, and Microsoft is holding them back because there really isn't anything else unique about the XBox worth paying for.
Maybe that's why Tribes is better. Halo was held back in development for far too long, and other game companies were able to pass it by and steal its thunder.
I miss the old Bungie. Games like Marathon and Myth were fun because they combined a good story with good programming. Oni was a sign of the end, as it got sanitized (persistant blood stains were removed at Microsoft's insistance) and the storyline changed. Bungie used to release editors for their games, but I doubt that we'll see Halo or Oni editors appear.
I fear the day that Microsoft buys Ambrosia just so they can have Escape Velocity...
5. It's actually a good road map as to where we got our misconceptions about certain elements.
4. It seems to be well laid out, from an information viewpoint.
3. It gets into the geeky "how far off base were the book's authors?" question. Cool for plotting science blunders, as well as when the writer knew what he was doing.
2. It gives background info about the comic where the element made its "guest appearance", including the fate of the book series, and the character.
After all, I use my DVD player as the home stereo's CD player as well. Will it play on that as well? What about newer players with MP3 disc capabilities? Are these owners left out in the cold as well?
I may not buy this, but my wife likes this sort of crap (the music, not the protection scheme). She's already pissed that her Orange Blue CD's no longer work on the main home stereo machine, nor on the iBook. There, the warning was fine print on the CD itself, and noticed way too late.
Yet another artist we won't be patronising, not even merchandise. A shame. If only more people in the business would realise we are their patrons, not their dairy livestock.
The charm in Myst was the entire backstory (hey, I even read that mediocre "Book of Atrus" novel!), where the whole Myst concept was actually more like "Stargate", but it was left open as to whether writing the book created the world, or found a world that matched what it described.
The conflict between Atrus and his father, his sons turning into power-mad tyrants, and his wife's crusade to free her people--all of that is good seeds for stories. It also has a detailed culture, the D'Ni, and would give the protagonist more of a chance to carry on a dialogue with Atrus, and develop a personality of his/her own. Atrus could also become more active, other D'Ni could appear, and so on...
However, a TV-Myst could also become a "mileu of the week" show, and that could get bland quickly.
1. I know it's hard to accept, but the reason that internships and legal commitments to projects are so hard for minors to receive is a good one, namely that the minor's right to walk away at any time needs to be preserved. If you do work in your free time, fine. But committing to a project where others are depending on you to hold a schedule is too risky for most companies. After all, school and stuff like that comes first; companies don't like playing second fiddle.
2. After reading Finlay's rant, I noticed that Apple *did* try to let him legally contribute, namely through a proxy developer. The arrangement wasn't fun or productive, so Apple decided to pull the plug.
3. That Apple was so tactless is also due to geographical distances. If Finlay lived closer to the Mothership, I'm sure he would have been contacted before the plug was pulled. That's the downside of our global model thingy.
4. Another thing: I didn't see anywhere that Apple didn't want ANYTHING to do with him, they would probably welcome him with open arms one he's a legal adult. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple wasn't already hammering out a system to handle minors as developers and contributors in their Dungeon of International Law Experts.
5. No list is truly illuminated without a fifth point, so here goes: if Finlay hadn't written his rant, we wouldn't have noticed this at all. Apple isn't alone in this (see your own example), but open source projects need new rules. Is is fair to allow a minor access to code and the right to contribute? Can you legally hold them to a schedule? How do you reward young progammers? All this needs to be discussed a LOT more, or the myth that all underage programmers are malicious hackers or *wunderkinder* will continue.
It's refreshing to see someone actually test these claims. my hat's off to you, sir. Unfortunately, I'm too far away from any Apple store to try this out, so I thank you for your posting.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to put my hat back on, since it's raining and I need to go outside.
...the problem is with the implementation. By assigning a trade cartel as the collector, independant artists are going to suffer. This is bad because they are the ones who will lose twice: first, because they often distribute their works though recordable media, and are thus subsidising their competitors, and second, because their works are more often copied due to the increased diffculty of finding their works at the local purchase outlet.
What the industry lobbyists want us to ignore is that casual copying is often beneficial to the artist as a marketing tool. Word-of-mouth and "try before you buy" are hard to measure, but they exist. If they like it, they'll purchase a copy, especially if the packaging (case, booklet, etc.) is done well. In my experiences, the "packaging" has always been what encourages poeple to buy stuff, especially when you get older. Personal tapes and stuff just don't look as good in the bookshelf.
...but Microsoft did this one by themselves. After seeing this on the news, and reading the Heise article, it mentzioned that Sony had displayed their Playstations in the same display style as in the previous 2 years. Thus Sony didn't feel as if they were doing wrong. Since Microsoft is new to the console market, they paid more attention to the fine print and got all prissy about their competition bending the rules.
Another thing mentioned is that Sony attempted to settle, but that Microsoft refused to budge. I guess Microsoft's famed paranoia is now working to their disadvantage? Either that, or the CeBIT team was using short-sighted tactics.
The point of all this is that the rules were in place because of the now-defunct CeBIT Home, which was supposed to be the venue for entertainment. It was to prevent overlap with a trade show that no longer exists.
After reading the article, I noticed some subtle semantics that suggest that the author went out of his way to bash Apple.
The stores are complaining that Apple isn't DELIVERING, and pointing to the number of Macs SOLD through te Apple stores. Nowhere did I see proof that Apple Stores were receiving more for their shelves. More likely computers were ordered and then shipped to the customer.
If there is a problem, it's that Apple is working too hard to fill back orders, and not providing enough stock to the resellers. This is understandable, because the orders are paid for -- certain sale versus possible sale. But if they swing the other way, they get bashed for bad service.
I suspect that the problem lies with the duhstributors. Apple stores are probably savvy to the whole order process in comparison, not intentionally preferred. After all, the big guys in the middle tend not to give a damn. Oh well...
1.IE/Mac v. IE/Windows: well, since most web sites made by non-programmers cater to IE/Win, it's no wonder. Call it taste. Me, I personally like Netscape 6 on Mac the best, but I've got other perversions as well.
2. Calling something a "tool" isn't saying much. Apple's constant success (as a leading PC hardware manufacture) has been making tools that get the job done without as much pain. It's like comparing a deluxe Leatherman to a generic Swiss army knife.
3. Your example is with, to put it mildly, one of the funkiest computers Apple ever built. The Performa 5200 was built to be a low-end consumer device, and its lack of upgradeable features as well as its nonstandard architecture was a headache for a lot of people. I have one of these things, and it's currently serving double duty as kid's PC and bedroom TV.
The hardware Apple makes nowadays suffers less from this. In fact, developers complain more that Apple is TOO restrictive in their hardware support, abandoning legacy computers like the pre-G3 Macs. Still. developers have the freedom to choose between Carbon, Cocoa and Java.
And as to your other comment, the transition to Mac OS X from OpenStep/Rhapsody wasn't cheap at all, or intended to win over the geeks. It was a concentrated effort involving tons of work/money. Add to that Steve Jobs' imfamous desire not to compete for market share, but for coolness, and you can see how Apple is cool again after the dark days of Spindler and Amelio.
As fom my take, this whole "cult" thingy is a leftover from Guy Kawasaki's Mac EvangeList days, where Mr. Kawasaki decided to take a marketing trick from television evangelists. It was good at keeping Apple alive during the dark days, but was abandoned when Steve Jobs took over. Nowadays, people stick with Apple because they're comfortable with it, just like Audi drivers prefer their cars over anything GM has to offer.
First off, the first link points to a Swedish news site (instead of German newswires like Stern or Heise), but the debate is raging in Germany. Microsoft was taken off guard by this petition, and by the amount of support it has been receiving. Thus the "wounded bear" attitude in Microsoft's open letter.
Second, this is about Linux on existing computers, a market Apple definitely does NOT want to enter. Apple makes hardware, and writes its own interface above Darwin/FreeBSD. In Apple's eyes, the OS is only there to sell its own hardware, not for profit. But this isn't the place to beat THAT horse carcass.
Third, AFAICT the only one seeing this as a War is Microsoft. Microsoft is playing a Monopoly/Risk sort of game, where the winner drives all other players from the board. Apple is playing a totally different game, one where you win by being the best/coolest/owning the McGuffin. Linux advocates are sometimes playing one game, sometimes playing the other, but rarely do Linux users/advocates all play the game, or the same rules, or share the same goals.
I personally find the goal of the petition worth supporting. My personal taste runs towards Apple, but I'm willing to see the massive benefits of using existing hardware (if for no other reason than to save landfill space). And Linux is, at the moment, the best option.
Oh, some links to other reports, in German:
I think the best solution would be a Kevin Mitnick-style one where the money MSFT donates can be spent on anything *but* computers. They can buy art supplies, new gym equipment, renovate the cafeteria, but computers will have to come out of the normal budget. After all, if the courts can slap restraining orders of this sort on private individuals, why not on companies?
Up until now, I tought all of the pundits were crowing about what a victory it was for Apple, having the MPEG-4 being based off of QuickTime. Now they're talking about the new QuickTime being based off of MPEG-4.
QuickTime already supports SWF (Flash 4) embedding as well as a slew of other formats, and IMNSHO its only real failing is in the fact that it still doesn't officialy work on UNIX/Linux (Mac OS X excepted). However, the BSD underpinnings of Mac OS X may change that...
...as soon as they find some Linux coders that'll sign the non-disclosure agreement.
So, Bruce wants to combine an ID thingy with a videocamera-cell phone? A device that lets you play reporter or cop, and is impossible to spoof? Good luck.
Actually, this has been going on ever since the LA cops got caught whalin' on some DUI named Rodney King. Most of the news footage from 11.9.01 came from amateurs. And CNN's videophones are starting to catch on, sort of like mobile videoconferencing.
The pipe dream in all of this is making it equivalent to a form of ID. Do I really want to lug this thing around with me everywhere I go? What if I want to mix and match, a Sony camera and a Nokia phone? And what it I want to use this thing for private entertainment? What do you meain, I can't? Does that mean I need an extra version for private use?
This shoudn't be in the hands of a regulatory body.Each customer and manufacturer should decide for himself how deep and in which direction they want to go. Sorta like what's happening as we speak--er, write.
Saying a movie ended on time doesn't mean that it hit the 90 minute mark, but rather it ended with just enough questions left open.
Too many movies (and, to be fair, other storytelling media) spend too much time wrapping up events after the climax, letting you see what eventually happened to the heroes. I suppose the example most/.ers would recognise is the different endings of Blade Runnner.
The hardest part of telling a story is saying "The End".
New mobility option for handicapped?
on
This is IT?
·
· Score: 1
Actually, this is where I see this thing headed; it has a considerably smaller footprint than a standard wheelchair, and I can imagine later models being able to handle escalators. The main problem is dealing with when somebody falls down.
I suppose it could be a solution for those with limited mobility, who now putt around in those motorised wheelchairs. Given that this company is also involved in stair-climbing wheelchairs, it might be what we see this thing doing most.
Still, I don't think this is insurmountable, it's just a question of surviving the "Version 1.0" phase.
Interesting, but you forget that Linux isn't a monlithic movement. Only parts of the Linux "community" are ever involved, be it hating Microsoft, working on this or adapting that, or advocating the other thing.
Trying to fight Linux is like trying to fight water with your fists. You can fight the container (Red Hat, Mandrake, etc.) but that just spills the water, and the well remains unaffected. (I know, it's an imperfect metaphor, so don't read TOO much into it!)
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe I placed the accent in the wrong place. The machines are programmed to THINK that humans are their batteries. The reality may be something else, but the premise that the machines need humans for energy is one the the machines never question.
In other words, the makers duped the machines, and now the machines are duping their "crops".
I never wrote that the battery thingy was real, only that the machines believe it because it's how they're programmed.
The machines were PROGRAMMED to think of humans as batteries. It is entirely plausible that the first generations were entirely voluntary, and patted themselves on the back for their cleverness.
After all, Morpheus freely admits that they know very little about the past. Perhaps the machines were threatened with being turned off, and that's why they started the war?
Sure, the physics are freaky,but think of this:
It all makes sense if you imagine this as the result of a Microsoft MMORPG
Despite the ranting tone, the poster has a point; Macromedia put a lot of effort in making *all* of their apps use identical tabbed tool options, identical keyboard shortcuts, et cetera.
Why Adobe singled out Flash as the target is beyond me. Flash was orginally a third party product that got assimilated into the Macromedia fold, and gradually adopted FreeHand's appearance. Heck, until Flash 5 came out, it was a bear moving graphics from FreeHand to Flash!
The new "MX" line certainly looks as if Macromedia knew they might lose, and started migrating away from the old style. This will just force them to step up the speed, and maybe add FreeHand & Director earlier than they wanted to.
Considering how the "infringement" runs throughout the entire Macromedia line, yet Adobe targeted only one program, I'd appeal. At the very least, it would give Macromedia time to bring the rest of their products into the MX safe harbor.
It's sad. I like Flash, I like FreeHand, and I like Photoshop/InDesign. I used to like these companies for making good, intuitive tools.
Sigh...
Add to this the BSD roots of Mac OS X, and Adobe may truly be pursuing more UNIX-compatible versions of their software.
After all, a new rewrite in Cocoa would also help streamline old code, and some of the newer programs like InDesign and LiveMotion ought to be relatively well documented for the transition teams.
Still, Corel's little foray probably still has them convinced that Linux can't make money, and coupling their proprietary image rendering code to GPL-licensed code is probably giving them headaches as well.
So yes, we may see Photoshop for UNIX, but only for Mac OS X, IRIX, Solaris and their cousins.
"I wouldn't think it would be a platform of choice for renderfarms. 1000 OS X licenses would increase costs, with little or no benefit for renderfarms.
Of course the desktop is a different issue. It is very interesting that Dreamworks turned down OS X and Win2K and went with GNU/Linux instead. Especially given that they new they would have to do some work to get their GNU/Linux desktops working properly."
Well, the license price isn't as big a factor as the fact that they'd be replacing their hardware with Mac stuff as well. Much as I like Apple's hardware, I see no reason to chuck usable workstations onto the scrap heap.
The same goes for Microsoft's Windows family: it wouldn't work on existing SGI and Sun workstations. Moving from one flavor of UNIX to another is actually the least painful choice.
True, it wouldn't help much, but the important thing is, it wouldn't HURT much either (if at all)!
The benefits to the non-members of this frikkin' cartel are what impels them. It's not that free samples hurt them, but that they help out the independant competitors who can't whip up million-dollar marketing campaigns. Money spent on independant artists isn't going into their pockets, and is just encouraging those rebels to stay out of their grasp.
It's not just the bottom line. It's the control over artists and audiences.
The way I figure it, they don't care if their case is a bunch of luncheon meat. All they want is cheap publicity.
Think about it: when people see this "news" item, some of them will go look at the dang billboards, possibly by webcam or whatever.
Bingo! More eyeballs! Even though they're likely going to lose, they come off cheaper than if they had actually bought coverage!
After all, there's a hoary old marketing proverb that there's no such thing as bad publicity...
The thing about Halo is that it comes from Bungie, a company that started out by making quality games for the Macintosh platform (the Marathon series is still popular), and Halo debuted at Macworld as a demonstration of the Mac's 3D capabilities.
Since then, years have passed with the release contantly being pushed back, Microsoft assimilating Bungie and turning it into a wholly different company, and relentless hype about how good Halo was going to be. The Mac and PC versions are probably done, and Microsoft is holding them back because there really isn't anything else unique about the XBox worth paying for.
Maybe that's why Tribes is better. Halo was held back in development for far too long, and other game companies were able to pass it by and steal its thunder.
I miss the old Bungie. Games like Marathon and Myth were fun because they combined a good story with good programming. Oni was a sign of the end, as it got sanitized (persistant blood stains were removed at Microsoft's insistance) and the storyline changed. Bungie used to release editors for their games, but I doubt that we'll see Halo or Oni editors appear.
I fear the day that Microsoft buys Ambrosia just so they can have Escape Velocity...
5. It's actually a good road map as to where we got our misconceptions about certain elements.
4. It seems to be well laid out, from an information viewpoint.
3. It gets into the geeky "how far off base were the book's authors?" question. Cool for plotting science blunders, as well as when the writer knew what he was doing.
2. It gives background info about the comic where the element made its "guest appearance", including the fate of the book series, and the character.
1. It covers the REAL periodic table. 'Nuf said.
After all, I use my DVD player as the home stereo's CD player as well. Will it play on that as well? What about newer players with MP3 disc capabilities? Are these owners left out in the cold as well?
I may not buy this, but my wife likes this sort of crap (the music, not the protection scheme). She's already pissed that her Orange Blue CD's no longer work on the main home stereo machine, nor on the iBook. There, the warning was fine print on the CD itself, and noticed way too late.
Yet another artist we won't be patronising, not even merchandise. A shame. If only more people in the business would realise we are their patrons, not their dairy livestock.
The charm in Myst was the entire backstory (hey, I even read that mediocre "Book of Atrus" novel!), where the whole Myst concept was actually more like "Stargate", but it was left open as to whether writing the book created the world, or found a world that matched what it described.
The conflict between Atrus and his father, his sons turning into power-mad tyrants, and his wife's crusade to free her people--all of that is good seeds for stories. It also has a detailed culture, the D'Ni, and would give the protagonist more of a chance to carry on a dialogue with Atrus, and develop a personality of his/her own. Atrus could also become more active, other D'Ni could appear, and so on...
However, a TV-Myst could also become a "mileu of the week" show, and that could get bland quickly.
I guess we'll have to wait for more details.
1. I know it's hard to accept, but the reason that internships and legal commitments to projects are so hard for minors to receive is a good one, namely that the minor's right to walk away at any time needs to be preserved. If you do work in your free time, fine. But committing to a project where others are depending on you to hold a schedule is too risky for most companies. After all, school and stuff like that comes first; companies don't like playing second fiddle.
2. After reading Finlay's rant, I noticed that Apple *did* try to let him legally contribute, namely through a proxy developer. The arrangement wasn't fun or productive, so Apple decided to pull the plug.
3. That Apple was so tactless is also due to geographical distances. If Finlay lived closer to the Mothership, I'm sure he would have been contacted before the plug was pulled. That's the downside of our global model thingy.
4. Another thing: I didn't see anywhere that Apple didn't want ANYTHING to do with him, they would probably welcome him with open arms one he's a legal adult. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple wasn't already hammering out a system to handle minors as developers and contributors in their Dungeon of International Law Experts.
5. No list is truly illuminated without a fifth point, so here goes: if Finlay hadn't written his rant, we wouldn't have noticed this at all. Apple isn't alone in this (see your own example), but open source projects need new rules. Is is fair to allow a minor access to code and the right to contribute? Can you legally hold them to a schedule? How do you reward young progammers? All this needs to be discussed a LOT more, or the myth that all underage programmers are malicious hackers or *wunderkinder* will continue.
It's refreshing to see someone actually test these claims. my hat's off to you, sir. Unfortunately, I'm too far away from any Apple store to try this out, so I thank you for your posting.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to put my hat back on, since it's raining and I need to go outside.
...the problem is with the implementation. By assigning a trade cartel as the collector, independant artists are going to suffer. This is bad because they are the ones who will lose twice: first, because they often distribute their works though recordable media, and are thus subsidising their competitors, and second, because their works are more often copied due to the increased diffculty of finding their works at the local purchase outlet.
What the industry lobbyists want us to ignore is that casual copying is often beneficial to the artist as a marketing tool. Word-of-mouth and "try before you buy" are hard to measure, but they exist. If they like it, they'll purchase a copy, especially if the packaging (case, booklet, etc.) is done well. In my experiences, the "packaging" has always been what encourages poeple to buy stuff, especially when you get older. Personal tapes and stuff just don't look as good in the bookshelf.
...but Microsoft did this one by themselves. After seeing this on the news, and reading the Heise article, it mentzioned that Sony had displayed their Playstations in the same display style as in the previous 2 years. Thus Sony didn't feel as if they were doing wrong. Since Microsoft is new to the console market, they paid more attention to the fine print and got all prissy about their competition bending the rules.
Another thing mentioned is that Sony attempted to settle, but that Microsoft refused to budge. I guess Microsoft's famed paranoia is now working to their disadvantage? Either that, or the CeBIT team was using short-sighted tactics.
The point of all this is that the rules were in place because of the now-defunct CeBIT Home, which was supposed to be the venue for entertainment. It was to prevent overlap with a trade show that no longer exists.
After reading the article, I noticed some subtle semantics that suggest that the author went out of his way to bash Apple.
The stores are complaining that Apple isn't DELIVERING, and pointing to the number of Macs SOLD through te Apple stores. Nowhere did I see proof that Apple Stores were receiving more for their shelves. More likely computers were ordered and then shipped to the customer.
If there is a problem, it's that Apple is working too hard to fill back orders, and not providing enough stock to the resellers. This is understandable, because the orders are paid for -- certain sale versus possible sale. But if they swing the other way, they get bashed for bad service.
I suspect that the problem lies with the duhstributors. Apple stores are probably savvy to the whole order process in comparison, not intentionally preferred. After all, the big guys in the middle tend not to give a damn. Oh well...
Let's go through this one point at a time, OK?
1.IE/Mac v. IE/Windows: well, since most web sites made by non-programmers cater to IE/Win, it's no wonder. Call it taste. Me, I personally like Netscape 6 on Mac the best, but I've got other perversions as well.
2. Calling something a "tool" isn't saying much. Apple's constant success (as a leading PC hardware manufacture) has been making tools that get the job done without as much pain. It's like comparing a deluxe Leatherman to a generic Swiss army knife.
3. Your example is with, to put it mildly, one of the funkiest computers Apple ever built. The Performa 5200 was built to be a low-end consumer device, and its lack of upgradeable features as well as its nonstandard architecture was a headache for a lot of people. I have one of these things, and it's currently serving double duty as kid's PC and bedroom TV.
The hardware Apple makes nowadays suffers less from this. In fact, developers complain more that Apple is TOO restrictive in their hardware support, abandoning legacy computers like the pre-G3 Macs. Still. developers have the freedom to choose between Carbon, Cocoa and Java.
And as to your other comment, the transition to Mac OS X from OpenStep/Rhapsody wasn't cheap at all, or intended to win over the geeks. It was a concentrated effort involving tons of work/money. Add to that Steve Jobs' imfamous desire not to compete for market share, but for coolness, and you can see how Apple is cool again after the dark days of Spindler and Amelio.
As fom my take, this whole "cult" thingy is a leftover from Guy Kawasaki's Mac EvangeList days, where Mr. Kawasaki decided to take a marketing trick from television evangelists. It was good at keeping Apple alive during the dark days, but was abandoned when Steve Jobs took over. Nowadays, people stick with Apple because they're comfortable with it, just like Audi drivers prefer their cars over anything GM has to offer.
Hell, maybe I should use a bong more often as well. The wonderful code I could produce...
Swedish government? Porting the Mac to x86? Huh?
s /i ndex_45450.html
8 02 42,00.html
8 09 33,00.html
2 -0 04/
First off, the first link points to a Swedish news site (instead of German newswires like Stern or Heise), but the debate is raging in Germany. Microsoft was taken off guard by this petition, and by the amount of support it has been receiving. Thus the "wounded bear" attitude in Microsoft's open letter.
Second, this is about Linux on existing computers, a market Apple definitely does NOT want to enter. Apple makes hardware, and writes its own interface above Darwin/FreeBSD. In Apple's eyes, the OS is only there to sell its own hardware, not for profit. But this isn't the place to beat THAT horse carcass.
Third, AFAICT the only one seeing this as a War is Microsoft. Microsoft is playing a Monopoly/Risk sort of game, where the winner drives all other players from the board. Apple is playing a totally different game, one where you win by being the best/coolest/owning the McGuffin. Linux advocates are sometimes playing one game, sometimes playing the other, but rarely do Linux users/advocates all play the game, or the same rules, or share the same goals.
I personally find the goal of the petition worth supporting. My personal taste runs towards Apple, but I'm willing to see the massive benefits of using existing hardware (if for no other reason than to save landfill space). And Linux is, at the moment, the best option.
Oh, some links to other reports, in German:
Stern:
http://www2.stern.de/computer-netze/news/topnew
Spiegel:
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/politik/0,1518,1
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/politik/0,1518,1
Heise Online:
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/odi-01.02.0
I think the best solution would be a Kevin Mitnick-style one where the money MSFT donates can be spent on anything *but* computers. They can buy art supplies, new gym equipment, renovate the cafeteria, but computers will have to come out of the normal budget. After all, if the courts can slap restraining orders of this sort on private individuals, why not on companies?
Huh? Is this a chicken or egg thingy?
Up until now, I tought all of the pundits were crowing about what a victory it was for Apple, having the MPEG-4 being based off of QuickTime. Now they're talking about the new QuickTime being based off of MPEG-4.
QuickTime already supports SWF (Flash 4) embedding as well as a slew of other formats, and IMNSHO its only real failing is in the fact that it still doesn't officialy work on UNIX/Linux (Mac OS X excepted). However, the BSD underpinnings of Mac OS X may change that...
...as soon as they find some Linux coders that'll sign the non-disclosure agreement.
So, Bruce wants to combine an ID thingy with a videocamera-cell phone? A device that lets you play reporter or cop, and is impossible to spoof? Good luck.
Actually, this has been going on ever since the LA cops got caught whalin' on some DUI named Rodney King. Most of the news footage from 11.9.01 came from amateurs. And CNN's videophones are starting to catch on, sort of like mobile videoconferencing.
The pipe dream in all of this is making it equivalent to a form of ID. Do I really want to lug this thing around with me everywhere I go? What if I want to mix and match, a Sony camera and a Nokia phone? And what it I want to use this thing for private entertainment? What do you meain, I can't? Does that mean I need an extra version for private use?
This shoudn't be in the hands of a regulatory body.Each customer and manufacturer should decide for himself how deep and in which direction they want to go. Sorta like what's happening as we speak--er, write.
Saying a movie ended on time doesn't mean that it hit the 90 minute mark, but rather it ended with just enough questions left open.
/.ers would recognise is the different endings of Blade Runnner.
Too many movies (and, to be fair, other storytelling media) spend too much time wrapping up events after the climax, letting you see what eventually happened to the heroes. I suppose the example most
The hardest part of telling a story is saying "The End".
Actually, this is where I see this thing headed; it has a considerably smaller footprint than a standard wheelchair, and I can imagine later models being able to handle escalators. The main problem is dealing with when somebody falls down.
I suppose it could be a solution for those with limited mobility, who now putt around in those motorised wheelchairs. Given that this company is also involved in stair-climbing wheelchairs, it might be what we see this thing doing most.
Still, I don't think this is insurmountable, it's just a question of surviving the "Version 1.0" phase.
Interesting, but you forget that Linux isn't a monlithic movement. Only parts of the Linux "community" are ever involved, be it hating Microsoft, working on this or adapting that, or advocating the other thing.
Trying to fight Linux is like trying to fight water with your fists. You can fight the container (Red Hat, Mandrake, etc.) but that just spills the water, and the well remains unaffected. (I know, it's an imperfect metaphor, so don't read TOO much into it!)