Slashdot Mirror


User: seanadams.com

seanadams.com's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
1,426
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 1,426

  1. Re:Pity about the os9 GUI on A History of Apple's Operating Systems · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was given a rhapsody developer's release for x86 some time in 1998.

    I was astonished at how easy it was to install on a PC, and how flawlessly all of the (supported) hardware worked. It was just bizarre to install an OS on a PC and have it work right the first time. I had never seen windows/linux/freebsd install that easily, but Apple managed to get it working just fine on an OS that they never even shipped!

  2. Re:It was Steve Jobs on The Disposable Computer · · Score: 3, Informative

    It was computer design by temper tantrum.

    That may well be, but it's still perhaps one of the smartest moves apple ever made. While the rest of the computing world focused on standardized components, interchangeable io cards and memory, replaceable drives etc... Apple made an all-in-one system whose only interesting upgrade path was a new machine from Apple.

    And so, those who valued a complete, tested, supported system went with Apple, and that was the basis for (one of?) the most successful hardware companies ever.

    You can't argue with success, even if Jobs is a bit of a whack.

  3. Re:Where's Mail.app on Next Generation Mail Clients Reviewed · · Score: 1

    I've personally responded to over 4000 emails, never ONCE have I mistakenly opened an email containing a virus

    Hehe... the fun thing about reading mail on a Mac is that you can safely take a peek at all those .pif files and such.

  4. Re:Where, not how much! on Nearly Half of U.S. 'Net Users Post Content · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Again, gasp, shock- the old system was better.

    You lost me there... how, exactly, was the old system better? I know precisely where to go for "the usual things", like stock quotes, weather, news, etc. A portal is of no value beyond a cursory introduction to the 'net, and that's why the guys like excite, yahoo, etc are dead/dying. What google helps me find is the gold that could never be traced out by manuallly maintained indexes that I might frequent.

    I agree with you that widespread dependence on google is a bit frightening, but the worst we'd end up with if google disappeared (or lost credibility) is what we had before, which was basically jack shit.

  5. Re:Created then abandonded on Nearly Half of U.S. 'Net Users Post Content · · Score: 1

    It's amazing though how many people create these wonderful(or not so wonderful as your opinion may be) websites, then just abandon them.

    I think that's a hell of a lot better than the majority of web pages, which move, or even worse, disappear within a couple months of their debut. Personally, I maintain a web site and while I spend almost no time on it lately, I'm happy to pay the hosting bills in the hope that the information might be useful to someone.

    I just think it's sad when somebody/somecorp puts in the effort to make a site and then pulls the plug. It's not really expensive to keep it available, so why take it down?

  6. Re:winamp? on Cheap PC Oscilloscopes - Any Recommendations? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Good point... I think you could probably address that by bypassing the cap on the input, but then your "zero" level would probably be 1.15V.

  7. Re:winamp? on Cheap PC Oscilloscopes - Any Recommendations? · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You know, for classroom demonstrations a sound card should be perfectly acceptable for all kinds of things... especially considering that there is also very nice free spectrum analyzer software available. On top of that, students can easily repeat experiments on their systems at home. Of course with a max sampling rate of 48KHz there's only so much you can do, but low speed osciallators, R/C circuits, switching power supplies and all sorts of things can still be seen to a useful extent.

  8. Re:Dude, where's my shares? on Firmware Upgrades For Everything · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The concept is called time to market, the price you pay is quality.

    What's your point? Where is it written that this compromise must be made if you're to have upgradeable firmware? It just makes updates possible after a product has shipped. There's nothing inherently bad about that.

    Products that support and responsibly apply upgradeable firmware capabilities are better in every way. Products that ship early with buggy firmware "because they can" will still suck, just like there are sucky products that don't support firmware upgrades.

  9. Perception? on Tech Training Schools Going Bust · · Score: 5, Insightful

    During the dot-com boom, there was the perception that a few months of computer training could lead to a fabulous job.

    Perception? How soon we forget - that actually happened. It happened all over silicon valley.

    We'll have another unsustainable tech boom as soon as everyone forgets those mistakes entirely.

  10. Re:Nobody is listening on Morse Code Enters The 21st Century · · Score: 1

    Interesting...

    Still, everybody knows what morse sounds like, and if you were really in trouble and somebody heard/saw your signal, they could easily find someone to decipher it. I can certainly think of a few situations, admittedly extraordinary, where morse could be useful or even life saving (you're crushed under a toppled building but manage to peck out "I'm under the girder" etc.)

    The only morse I bothered to learn, and I think everybody should, is SOS. dit dit dit dash dash dash dit dit dit. It's easy to remember, easy to signal even with a flashlight, and I bet all airline pilots, search/rescue, and military people know it. It could save your life!

  11. Re:Freenet... on Freenet Project More Stable, In Need · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What if it was YOU that had your personal information dragged all through freenet from an Ex-Wife or Disgruntal banker? I bet then you would wish for some control to the service.

    No, I would be going after my ex-wife or banker, not complaining about freenet.

  12. Re:Bycatch is a big problem... on Digital Camera Could Help Sort Fish, Save Stocks · · Score: 1

    I understand that not everyone is vegetarian (as I am)

    That's fine, but I've always wondered: if God didn't want us to eat fish, then why are they made of meat?

  13. Re:Thanks for the review on Embedded Ethernet and Internet Complete · · Score: 2, Informative

    There are a LOT of ways to do it these days. As with any CPU, you have to very carefully consider your volume expectations, r&d budget, and performance/feature requirements. The most MIPS for the dollar is probably the Ubicom ip2022 processor (120 or 160 MIPS for $10-$15 ea). This chip is used in the Squeezebox as well as some wireless access points and birdges. The ip2k is interesting because of its very fast interrupt latency which enables it do the ethernet MAC in software.

    However there are other products such as the Rabbit platform which have royalty free software and cheaper development kits, so they're more suitable for small volume or lower speed applications such as control systems. It is a multi-chip design with external ethernet and memory though, so not cheap per-unit.

  14. weak on Macintosh 2004 Case Mod · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is a really weak case mod. Step 1: find square box. step 2: stuff a pc in said square box.

    It would have been interesting if it had incorporated some kind of technical/artistic/nostalgic trick. For example: using modern mac parts (g4 cube maybe) and fitting a new display in place of the original. Or better yet, figure out how to get the old display working on a new machine. Or neatly fit new connectors (usb, firewire, ethernet) in place of the old, etc. This is just a motherboard in a different box - there is nothing interesting or clever about it.

  15. Re:Haiki rules on Perl Haiku Poetry Contest · · Score: 1

    $x = "sck sck fe dolr";
    $x =~ s/sc/suc/g; $x =~ s/fe/5/g; $x =~ s/l/lla/;
    $x .= "luv u " . localtime();


    Translation: "will suck your laundry right now"

  16. Re:Here we go again... on 'Bagle' Worm Heading For A Windows PC Near You · · Score: 4, Funny

    I sense a palladium ad here around those same lines. "No untrusted code can execute"

    Ironically, the only code I might trust is that which was NOT signed by Microsoft. :)

  17. Re:Sad state of affairs on 'Bagle' Worm Heading For A Windows PC Near You · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Not speaking as a Windows user, but: I don't think you have to be "stupid" to click on a certain clickable thing. That's why it's clickable.

    It's the developers of said email software who are stupid. The idea that their users should want an email... a totally insecure message, to have full access to their personal Turing Machines in the form of a clickable .exe. The user is the last to blame for all this virus nonsense - it's the guys writing the OS and the email software who should know better!

  18. Re:Here we go again... on 'Bagle' Worm Heading For A Windows PC Near You · · Score: 2, Flamebait

    In a perfect world, one WOULDN'T need to take these precautions...

    Nobody said anything about a perfect world. But there is a real world outside of Microsoft where we software users can trust the guys who wrote the code to at least have our best interests in mind.

  19. Here we go again... on 'Bagle' Worm Heading For A Windows PC Near You · · Score: 2, Informative

    The article says Bagle has been detected in more than 100 countries.

    Are you saying that this new worm knows no geographical boundaries? Heavend forfend!

    BTW: two fixes are already avilable for this virus:
    • Free, but worth thousands more: FreeBSD, Linux, and more...
    • Pricey, but worth every penny: Mac OS X


    Note to developers, developers, developers, developers:
    everyone from the home user to big business wants OFF OF WINDOWS, and not just because of the viruses. Please,
    stop catering to the (dying) satus quo, and port your apps to Unix so we can switch over completely.
  20. Re:It never really stopped on P2P File Swapping on the Rise Again? · · Score: 2, Funny

    What the RIAA doesn't seem to realize is that, people are able to block certain IP addresses in many of the client programs.

    Yes, but this only works because their computer is BROADCASTING AN IP ADDRESS!

  21. Re:I haven't used p2p in months on P2P File Swapping on the Rise Again? · · Score: 2, Funny

    Since they're a lot of them around that are 100k or less that's a lot of music. Plus they transfer so much better than mp3s over a slow connection.

    Meh. Why not just record over one of those talking greeting cards with 3.8 seconds of your favorite music, and take that with you? So much more compact, and less expensive too... sure it's not the best sound and it doesn't hold much, but it's better than waiting to transfer those enormous mp3 files, right?

  22. Is it ill tempered? on The Cheese Slicing Laser · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Somebody throw me a brie!

  23. Re:stupid formats on HP Working With Apple To Add WMA Support To iPod · · Score: 1

    I know this thread is ancient but:

    yes, FLAC is totally extensible to more channels (it has no optimizations even for stereo, in fact) and yes the same algorithm works (with probably better compression rates) at higher sample rates.

  24. Re:where do these funny points come from? on Microsoft Unhappy With HP's iTunes Decision · · Score: 1

    $hint=~s/terribly/awfully/g;
    assert($you=>clue == 0);

  25. Re: Not all with DRM on HP Working With Apple To Add WMA Support To iPod · · Score: 1

    I think it was pretty obvious that by platform lockin, I was referring to the iTunes/iPod/iTMS platform, not the operating system.