True, the larger Toshiba drives offer more bang for the buck. However, Toshiba doesn't produce 5 gig drives anymore. As I recall, they produce 20, 40, and 60 gig drives right now.
Capacity may go up... but manufacturing, materials, and equipment costs usually remain the same. Even if Toshiba still produced new 5 gig drives, they'd still be pricey.
Ya, but remember, "video" doesn't always mean "Movies, shows, shorts, etc" in the hardware world. Apple could be looking for someone who is familiar with displays.
Recycling isn't "mandatory" for most people. You can toss those cans in the trash if you want, even if your neighborhood has curbside pickup. However, people recycle because they want to reserve natural resources and reduce growing landfills.
Perhaps. However, I don't believe the US went into Iraq solely for oil. Yet, oil was a big "bonus" for a lot of greedy bastards (Haliburton got those government contracts with bidding, and that's a GIANT no no when you're dealing with millions in federal funding).
But, back to "empathy." When I look at empathy and Iraq I don't quite see the same thing you do. I see/saw...
a) an inability to empathize with opinions of most other 1st world industrialized nations. If you can't convince like minded people (with sophisticated intelligence agencies) about your cause, then you should seriously reevaluate your plans.
b) an inability to empathize with the Iraqi people. They have a very different culture, a very different history, and a very different communication structure. They interpret our actions differently then we do, and our soldiers interpret their actions differently then they do. A good military operation take this into account. Any crusty old general will tell you this.
It's like a dog humping a porcupine. The porcupine isn't the most dangerous thing in the world, and the dog means no harm, it only wants to love the porcupine. However, the porcupine doesn't view a gyrating dog on it's back as a friend... and the dog's go'na get stung with some quills. If the dog was smart enough, it should have approached the porcupine differently.
I think fear and empathy can be very important qualities. By "fear" I don't mean shaking and peeing your pants; and by "empathy", I'm not referring to crying after watching Titanic with a box of bon-bons. I'm referring to caution and the ability to understand people you may need to confront or represent.
For anyone who's interested, there's a fairly cool DVD out called "The Fog of War." The Fog of War is a (academy award winning) documentary which focuses on former secretary of defense McNamara. The documentary spends a lot of time reviewing the flawed decision making process which surrounded the Vietnam war.
Whether you like McNamara or think he's an SOB, he spends a lot of time talking about how a lack of empathy screwed us over in Vietnam. Although we may have felt bad for South Vietnam, we didn't take the time to do our homework. We never really researched the history and ideologies of North / South Vietnam and China, and that bit us in the butt. A similar thing happened in Iraq. We expected to be greeted with flowers and open arms, but now we're being shot at.
These might be fun for vacation. I usually don't bring my computer with me when I travel, and I could get digital prints developed at a local drug store.
However I don't see why these would be beat the ease of my personal digital camera, iPhoto, and or Kodaks print service when I'm at home. A child could use that software; pictures can be printed, mailed to me in a day, or printed that day at a local photo lab; and I can be totally nude while sending my photos off to print:).
As cool as disposable cameras are, it's nice not to go down to the local drug store in order to turn in my film.
My kitchen phone interferes with my WiFi network all the time.. it's really annoying.
From time to time it selects the same channel that my desktop computer is on, and I have to switch phones because damn thing doesn't have a channel button on it.
I should probably go out an buy a new phone. But the problem only occurs once or twice a month, so I never really remember to do anything about it.
I'm a industrial design graduate student, and perhaps I'm still a bit too critical; nevertheless, Frog design doesn't impress me very much. They are a bloated ID firm that makes clunky interfaces and uses boring gaudy plastics.
Frog design did some work for Apple back in the 80's (as did a number of product design firms); however, Jonathan Ive and Apple's current ID team could utterly spank Frog Design any day of the week. The interface work Frog has done for Windows Media Player was tacky and unnecessary. They frequently attempt to make things look "cool" for no apparent reason. Those Moto phones, like most cell phones, have clunky interfaces, etc etc.
Frog design took the easy way out with this machine. They took a PC, placed it in some silly colors that kids would like, gave it mouse ears, a stylus, and some parental control software. Aside from that, it's an obnoxiously ugly Windows PC that your child is going to hate in a few years.
It's a heck of a lot harder to create a machine that kids will be able to grow with for 3 or 4 years, have a simple intuitive interfaces, and be capable of withstanding the horrible abuse that children issue upon a personal computer. Moreover, it's even more difficult to create something that both children and adults will love. A silly blue Windows PC doesn't seem to fit that criteria for me.
I'd much rather give a small child an eMac with "simple finder" enabled.
(PS. Check out IDEO.com... They're also a giant ID firm, but they tend to produce products that are more functional and drool-worthy).
I don't buy this argument. As an industrial designer I've had to study "convergence" over and over again. People have been trying to combine ridiculous devices for years. When the industrial age came around people attempted to converge household and appliances with each other, various tools with other tools, etc etc. This worked as a catchy marketing tool at first; however consumers began to realize that individual specialized devices and tools tend to be a lot more functional.
This convergence trend is starting to rear its ugly head again. Shitty phones, combined with shitty cameras, combined with shitty messaging devices. Bleh. No doubt, modern cell phones are little computers that can adapt with software. Yet, with convergence you force tools to restrict themselves to form-factor, interactive, and I/O constraints that they normally wouldn't have.
I don't know what Sony is doing for industrial design these days... but whatever their resource is, it sucks. Sony's ID has been on a slippery slope. I don't see how they could possibly keep up with a company like Apple. Apple is one of the few large hardware companies that has an in-house team, as well as some of the worlds most acclaimed designers.
Sony's going to need to establish a good ID department before they start producing innovative products again.
I was just about to say the same thing. I've had sleep problems for years; however, smoking a little you-know-what tends to work wonders. Late night TV is better, I fall asleep at a reasonable time, and I wake up refreshed.
This isn't going to get Apple any significant media attention. Only geeks like us pay attention to irrelevant news like this. It's a $400,000 to 500,000 sale, that's about it.
They have a large enough incentive. If iPods were cheep, they would easily saturate the market.
Steve has been itching to sell a cheep iPod; however, no one is producing a small cheep hard disks. The capacities are going up, but the manufacturing process is still expensive.
Slashdot is full of trollish geeks who think prices on 10 gig Toshiba drives drop as soon as 20 gig drives hit the market. But, fact of the matter is Toshiba stops selling smaller capacity drives when larger capacity drives come out.
I'm fairly sure Apple thinks the 60 gig iPod won't be a big seller. The 3G 40gig iPod didn't fly of the shelfs. Most people bought the base model or the lower end model that comes with a dock.
Most folks don't care about having a gigantic iPod. Very few people need a 60gig hard disk media player.
Many project managers and executives make the mistake of not properly investing in manpower, which is quite expensive. If you go to India you have the luxury of being able to hire additional developers. However, if you stay in North America that doesn't mean you should hire the bare minimum for your development staff. That's dumb.
A small overworked development team is only going to cause you headaches. You're going to hire a comparable staff, bid higher, mark up your software, and understand your available advantages with onshore development etc.
It probably won't be a long wait. ID's fairly good with Mac ports. They do everything in-house and they usually do a fine job (they need to since their engine is going to be licensed for tons of games).
Doom 3 was introduced on a Mac, and they've supposedly been keeping up with Mac development.
But since I have a Dual 450 G4, don't poop gold bricks, and can't afford a new PowerMac... I doubt I'll be buying a Mac copy of Doom 3 any time soon. I'll probably snag the stripped down xbox version:/
Why does everyone disagree with Gates? DVD may be cheep and consumers may like it, but it is not going to be around for more then 10 years. The industry is already exploring a switch to HD- DVD, Blue Ray, etc... and that's probably going to happen. Especially since those media formats look a lot better on an HD TV.
Moreover, it's not to crazy to think that our movies will, in some way or another, come over broadband in a few years. This is how many digital theaters currently acquire their films. It's cheeper (insurance an licensing for film is enormous) and it's significantly more flexible.
Many folks are currently exploring ways for consumers to have movies piped in from their local theaters. Who knows if this will take off or not... but it will probably be an option in a few years.
All in all, wether it is going to be movies via the internet, or movies on newer silver disks, DVD ain't gon'a be around for more then ten years. The movie industry would LOVE for us to re-buy all of the movies that we currently own. Seriously.
You obviously haven't seen Wet Hot American Summer. Watch that movie to the end, and you'll understand why he'd be perfect for anything Monty Python related.
Konfabulator was a very original piece of software. I can't think of anything else like it. Apparently, Arlo can't as well... and he once worked as a UI designer for Apple.
Dashboard is practically a direct rip-off of Konfabulator. It comes with similar default "widgets," widgets are transparent and glossy, and new widgets can be developed with JS.
Moreover, Apparently Konfabulator is very popular at Apple and Pixar (lots of registered Apple and Pixar users). Schiller supposedly loves the damn thing.
I have no problems with Apple adding something like this into MacOS. However, once they start stomping on the rights of small developers, that's fucking low. This is the second time they've done this, and this time it's an even more blatant case of copyright infringement.
If Apple had developed Konfabulator, and Arlo had developed dashboard 1 year later, Arlo would've been nailed by Apple's legal department.
Why should we even attempt to develop platform specific utilities and software for OS X? If it becomes popular, Apple is going to snag it, make money off of it, and not compensate the original authors.
Slashdot Mirror
True, the larger Toshiba drives offer more bang for the buck. However, Toshiba doesn't produce 5 gig drives anymore. As I recall, they produce 20, 40, and 60 gig drives right now.
Capacity may go up... but manufacturing, materials, and equipment costs usually remain the same. Even if Toshiba still produced new 5 gig drives, they'd still be pricey.
Ya, but remember, "video" doesn't always mean "Movies, shows, shorts, etc" in the hardware world. Apple could be looking for someone who is familiar with displays.
Recycling isn't "mandatory" for most people. You can toss those cans in the trash if you want, even if your neighborhood has curbside pickup. However, people recycle because they want to reserve natural resources and reduce growing landfills.
So much for 100% environmentally friendly ;). I'll buy the environmentally friendly argument once they find a way to make cans out of hemp ;)
Perhaps. However, I don't believe the US went into Iraq solely for oil. Yet, oil was a big "bonus" for a lot of greedy bastards (Haliburton got those government contracts with bidding, and that's a GIANT no no when you're dealing with millions in federal funding).
But, back to "empathy." When I look at empathy and Iraq I don't quite see the same thing you do. I see/saw...
a) an inability to empathize with opinions of most other 1st world industrialized nations. If you can't convince like minded people (with sophisticated intelligence agencies) about your cause, then you should seriously reevaluate your plans.
b) an inability to empathize with the Iraqi people. They have a very different culture, a very different history, and a very different communication structure. They interpret our actions differently then we do, and our soldiers interpret their actions differently then they do. A good military operation take this into account. Any crusty old general will tell you this.
It's like a dog humping a porcupine. The porcupine isn't the most dangerous thing in the world, and the dog means no harm, it only wants to love the porcupine. However, the porcupine doesn't view a gyrating dog on it's back as a friend... and the dog's go'na get stung with some quills. If the dog was smart enough, it should have approached the porcupine differently.
I think fear and empathy can be very important qualities. By "fear" I don't mean shaking and peeing your pants; and by "empathy", I'm not referring to crying after watching Titanic with a box of bon-bons. I'm referring to caution and the ability to understand people you may need to confront or represent.
For anyone who's interested, there's a fairly cool DVD out called "The Fog of War." The Fog of War is a (academy award winning) documentary which focuses on former secretary of defense McNamara. The documentary spends a lot of time reviewing the flawed decision making process which surrounded the Vietnam war.
Whether you like McNamara or think he's an SOB, he spends a lot of time talking about how a lack of empathy screwed us over in Vietnam. Although we may have felt bad for South Vietnam, we didn't take the time to do our homework. We never really researched the history and ideologies of North / South Vietnam and China, and that bit us in the butt. A similar thing happened in Iraq. We expected to be greeted with flowers and open arms, but now we're being shot at.
hehe. Since when did Matt and Trey become conservative. Matt was in Bowling for Columbine ;)
These might be fun for vacation. I usually don't bring my computer with me when I travel, and I could get digital prints developed at a local drug store.
:).
However I don't see why these would be beat the ease of my personal digital camera, iPhoto, and or Kodaks print service when I'm at home. A child could use that software; pictures can be printed, mailed to me in a day, or printed that day at a local photo lab; and I can be totally nude while sending my photos off to print
As cool as disposable cameras are, it's nice not to go down to the local drug store in order to turn in my film.
My kitchen phone interferes with my WiFi network all the time.. it's really annoying.
From time to time it selects the same channel that my desktop computer is on, and I have to switch phones because damn thing doesn't have a channel button on it.
I should probably go out an buy a new phone. But the problem only occurs once or twice a month, so I never really remember to do anything about it.
I'm a industrial design graduate student, and perhaps I'm still a bit too critical; nevertheless, Frog design doesn't impress me very much. They are a bloated ID firm that makes clunky interfaces and uses boring gaudy plastics.
Frog design did some work for Apple back in the 80's (as did a number of product design firms); however, Jonathan Ive and Apple's current ID team could utterly spank Frog Design any day of the week. The interface work Frog has done for Windows Media Player was tacky and unnecessary. They frequently attempt to make things look "cool" for no apparent reason. Those Moto phones, like most cell phones, have clunky interfaces, etc etc.
Frog design took the easy way out with this machine. They took a PC, placed it in some silly colors that kids would like, gave it mouse ears, a stylus, and some parental control software. Aside from that, it's an obnoxiously ugly Windows PC that your child is going to hate in a few years.
It's a heck of a lot harder to create a machine that kids will be able to grow with for 3 or 4 years, have a simple intuitive interfaces, and be capable of withstanding the horrible abuse that children issue upon a personal computer. Moreover, it's even more difficult to create something that both children and adults will love. A silly blue Windows PC doesn't seem to fit that criteria for me.
I'd much rather give a small child an eMac with "simple finder" enabled.
(PS. Check out IDEO.com... They're also a giant ID firm, but they tend to produce products that are more functional and drool-worthy).
I don't buy this argument. As an industrial designer I've had to study "convergence" over and over again. People have been trying to combine ridiculous devices for years. When the industrial age came around people attempted to converge household and appliances with each other, various tools with other tools, etc etc. This worked as a catchy marketing tool at first; however consumers began to realize that individual specialized devices and tools tend to be a lot more functional.
This convergence trend is starting to rear its ugly head again. Shitty phones, combined with shitty cameras, combined with shitty messaging devices. Bleh. No doubt, modern cell phones are little computers that can adapt with software. Yet, with convergence you force tools to restrict themselves to form-factor, interactive, and I/O constraints that they normally wouldn't have.
I don't know what Sony is doing for industrial design these days... but whatever their resource is, it sucks. Sony's ID has been on a slippery slope. I don't see how they could possibly keep up with a company like Apple. Apple is one of the few large hardware companies that has an in-house team, as well as some of the worlds most acclaimed designers.
Sony's going to need to establish a good ID department before they start producing innovative products again.
I was just about to say the same thing. I've had sleep problems for years; however, smoking a little you-know-what tends to work wonders. Late night TV is better, I fall asleep at a reasonable time, and I wake up refreshed.
His net worth for 2004 is around a 1 to 1.5 billion... which is down from about 10 or 11 billion.
No doubt, he's "well off," but not rich enough to start a new network anytime soon.
That, and Ted Turner is kind'a broke these days.
Well, don't forget that most of the successful small or "indi" labels are simply subsidiaries of the big 5 (I guess it's 4 now).
This isn't going to get Apple any significant media attention. Only geeks like us pay attention to irrelevant news like this. It's a $400,000 to 500,000 sale, that's about it.
They have a large enough incentive. If iPods were cheep, they would easily saturate the market.
Steve has been itching to sell a cheep iPod; however, no one is producing a small cheep hard disks. The capacities are going up, but the manufacturing process is still expensive.
Slashdot is full of trollish geeks who think prices on 10 gig Toshiba drives drop as soon as 20 gig drives hit the market. But, fact of the matter is Toshiba stops selling smaller capacity drives when larger capacity drives come out.
I'm fairly sure Apple thinks the 60 gig iPod won't be a big seller. The 3G 40gig iPod didn't fly of the shelfs. Most people bought the base model or the lower end model that comes with a dock.
Most folks don't care about having a gigantic iPod. Very few people need a 60gig hard disk media player.
Ya, but they'd be loosing money. Those things are expensive to produce.
Many project managers and executives make the mistake of not properly investing in manpower, which is quite expensive. If you go to India you have the luxury of being able to hire additional developers. However, if you stay in North America that doesn't mean you should hire the bare minimum for your development staff. That's dumb.
A small overworked development team is only going to cause you headaches. You're going to hire a comparable staff, bid higher, mark up your software, and understand your available advantages with onshore development etc.
It probably won't be a long wait. ID's fairly good with Mac ports. They do everything in-house and they usually do a fine job (they need to since their engine is going to be licensed for tons of games).
:/
Doom 3 was introduced on a Mac, and they've supposedly been keeping up with Mac development.
But since I have a Dual 450 G4, don't poop gold bricks, and can't afford a new PowerMac... I doubt I'll be buying a Mac copy of Doom 3 any time soon. I'll probably snag the stripped down xbox version
Why does everyone disagree with Gates? DVD may be cheep and consumers may like it, but it is not going to be around for more then 10 years. The industry is already exploring a switch to HD- DVD, Blue Ray, etc ... and that's probably going to happen. Especially since those media formats look a lot better on an HD TV.
Moreover, it's not to crazy to think that our movies will, in some way or another, come over broadband in a few years. This is how many digital theaters currently acquire their films. It's cheeper (insurance an licensing for film is enormous) and it's significantly more flexible.
Many folks are currently exploring ways for consumers to have movies piped in from their local theaters. Who knows if this will take off or not... but it will probably be an option in a few years.
All in all, wether it is going to be movies via the internet, or movies on newer silver disks, DVD ain't gon'a be around for more then ten years. The movie industry would LOVE for us to re-buy all of the movies that we currently own. Seriously.
You obviously haven't seen Wet Hot American Summer. Watch that movie to the end, and you'll understand why he'd be perfect for anything Monty Python related.
Konfabulator was a very original piece of software. I can't think of anything else like it. Apparently, Arlo can't as well... and he once worked as a UI designer for Apple.
Dashboard is practically a direct rip-off of Konfabulator. It comes with similar default "widgets," widgets are transparent and glossy, and new widgets can be developed with JS.
Moreover, Apparently Konfabulator is very popular at Apple and Pixar (lots of registered Apple and Pixar users). Schiller supposedly loves the damn thing.
I have no problems with Apple adding something like this into MacOS. However, once they start stomping on the rights of small developers, that's fucking low. This is the second time they've done this, and this time it's an even more blatant case of copyright infringement.
If Apple had developed Konfabulator, and Arlo had developed dashboard 1 year later, Arlo would've been nailed by Apple's legal department.
Why should we even attempt to develop platform specific utilities and software for OS X? If it becomes popular, Apple is going to snag it, make money off of it, and not compensate the original authors.