The only valid reason I can think of is the perception that it's safer (not security) and easier to use a Mac, which is likely true to a varing degree depending on implementation.
Perception? Sorry, I use Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD and Linux on a daily basis. It's not a perception, the Mac IS easier to use.
Now, Linux is catching up (*I* find it as easy to use as Windows now but I'm a old unix guy) but it's NOT there yet and these claims to the contrary are silly.
Well, knowledge about Slashdotters -- you know, useless knowledge; kind of like knowing 1970's baseball player stats or can a swallow carry a coconut.
I'd never suggest a low id implied actual wisdom or anything like that:-)
Re:Innovate, not copy
on
Gates on Google
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
There seems to be this Slashdot-think that companies should always come up with radical innovations. Even Google hasn't, after all, plenty of companies were doing searching, web-mail and news browsing way before them. They just took an idea, added a few new features and a bit of polish.
Have you tried other seach engines? Do you remember how bad Alta-Vista was when Google first came on the scene? They took a problem and mostly solved it unlike the "solutions" that came before.
Slashdot-think about innovation vs. Microsoft has a lot to do with Microsoft's constant "freedom to innovate" crap and the overwhelming impression the uneducated have about how much Microsoft innovates.
It's also about how Microsoft copies an idea badly and then uses marketing muscle and illegal monopoly tactics to destroy the better technical soluion. As tech geeks, watching better products die is very disheartening.
The two proprietary operating systems I use every day, Mac OS X and Windows XP are both much improved over their previous incarnations. So has FreeBSD which is my main development OS.
I'm not sure where he's drawing this "death spiral" conclusion from because I'm not seeing it.
Now, vendor lockin, DRM abuses, etc. etc. THAT I am seeing and OSS may be our saviour there.
I have the following on my ipod for commuting, all are really good listening (I won't list the ones that don't work in audio -- trust me -- there's a lot). The following I've listened to multiple times:
Lord of the Rings (the unabridged Rob Inglis reading, 49.5 hours)
The Hobbit (unabridged Rob Inglis again, 11 hours)
The Entire Harry Potter series (read by Jim Dale, works REALLY well in audio format, 8.5 hours up to 26.5 hours)
Foundation (didn't realize how conversation oriented these books were until I heard them)
Ender's Game (pretty clear that OSC is a playwright)
The following are worth listening to at least once:
Dumas (The Three Muskateers, Count of Monte Cristo)
LeGuin (The Earth Sea Trilogy)
I got a one year membership at a "Books on Tape" rental store, currently I'm going through the classics. The old heroic novels (The Three Muskateers) are amazing on tape.
One thing that's interesting -- I find books I've already read to be especially good; there's a whole different feel to the story when read by a good character actor.
Wow, that's what I pay for a real CA (Canadian version of a CPA) to do my taxes, including e-filing, refiling for previous years and other fun money saving tricks-- how complicated are your taxes?
Of course it takes him like 15 minutes to do my taxes so his hourly rate is actually HUGE:-)
I'm not a MS fan (I'm typing this on my Mac and my company uses FreeBSD) but...
Why *should* MS allow WINE users to get to their updates site? The article links into a discussion where WINE developers are talking about how they should fix WINE so users don't need to go to the Microsoft site for needed software!
WTF?
Hell, if competitors were getting their customers to access my companies resources I'd be firewalling them out -- those services are for our customers. In fact, I think our company would have to sue them to stop this behavior.
Now, if they were blocking MS Office Updates for people running MS Office on WINE -- then we'd have a story.
This puts an interesting spin on those dicussions about advertising on the moon. If I put "art" on the moon -- say
added a bit of colour to the wolf (or rabbit or man or what ever you see) to "reveal the dynamic nature of man and be a harsh critique of post-Vietnam Americanism".
Would I now be able to collect royalties on all moon photos?
Sounds like a great way to "claim" the moon, at least for some purposes...
I had this epiphany during a 1 year stint at a Windows based company (ick, never again)...
People who use windows have learned all of these tricks and recipes on how to use their windows computer. These recipes have been hard won, sometimes it's taken them weeks to get their new machine back to a usable state. They finally found the pictures directory that their camera software uses when it reads the pictures off their digital camera.
They think if they switch to a Mac or Linux they will have to spend months learning all new tricks, the hidden menus for adding short cuts, etc. etc.
They don't realize that they won't have half of these problems once they switch. They don't realize that there ARE no viruses or spyware on the Mac or Linux.
I keep telling everybody who needs help with the PC to down load ad-aware, etc. And then I tell them to notice that there is no Mac version of this software and if they would switch...
Huh? I used to say search the internet for it -- and I had a long list of search engine urls that I would hand out, including Yahoo and Altavista but about 5 or 6 others as well.
This is how Google became a verb -- because you could go to a single search engine and expect to find what you were looking for.
Well, I know Apple does have DRM but you wouldn't know it.
Currently my wife (iPod + 20" iMac) and my daughter
(Windows + Yep) are both buying music from
iTunes and swapping music lists with each other.
They had one little blip
the first time and they figured out how to register it to the
other computer in about 20 seconds -- I didn't even
get involved!
The copyright is a artifical, social contract where we give the creator of new art a limited monopoly as a reward for creating the art in the first place. The intent is that this reward will incent this artist or other artists to create more art.
There is no natural moral wrong in copying. One does not destroy the original art work by copying it and hence does
no harm to the holder of the original. We've created
a moral wrong by setting up this social contract, where as
a society we will give the artist certain rights if they create
more art.
What we've lost sight of is that this social contract is for
the benefit of society as a whole, not the artist. If the artist
is not willing to distribute the works (by taking advantage
of the copyright) then they are breaking their half the of
contract.
Perhaps copyrights need to be modified so that if the art is
not distributed any longer, or in a particular region, the
copyright holder loses the copyright protection in that
region.
The Disney "it's going in the vault" advertising campaign drives me crazy. We gave you a copyright for a reason, and it wasn't to screw us over with availability.
The biggest advantage you have is you are a geek, so use it! Use technology and tools to make yourself and your team better.
For instance, I have a web site that tracks my team progress against deadlines, lists what they are working on, major risks, etc. Set it up according to the suggestions in the Software Project Survival Guide but it applies to any kind of management.
Read, and follow the suggestions of, the One Minute Manager. Be sincere, I ignore a lot of the touch feely stuff, but the delegation, goal setting etc. is key and easy with this method. Use advanced management techniques later.
Why is this bozo blaming enterprise buzzword bingo on Apple?
Check out their web page for the Xserve. It's their enterprise product and it's also their most technical page. It has little of their standard marketing flare and is loaded with tech specs.
Sigh. What I meant was that we are not a particular demographic that are also "Gamers" that we run the gamet of demographics in addition to that of Gamers.
Currently we are categorized as "people who live in their mother's basement and annoy comic book store owners
with long arguments about Wolverine vs. Spiderman".
I must have been drinking when I posted the original -- I don't usually have a dozen spelling mistakes either:-)
It's not funny nor insightful if the article already makes this "it's obvious" point in it's subject...
Knowing that Games in general are not a subset of the population means that we are a demographic which can be a good thing as companies start thinking of us a targe audience.
Slashdot Mirror
Now with full body naked airport scans of JLo, Jennifer Aniston, Britney Spears, ...
Perception? Sorry, I use Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD and Linux on a daily basis. It's not a perception, the Mac IS easier to use.
Now, Linux is catching up (*I* find it as easy to use as Windows now but I'm a old unix guy) but it's NOT there yet and these claims to the contrary are silly.
Like meeting the Borg decades before meeting the Borg!
Perhaps next you can explain why modern military small arms still have bayonets?
I think the reviewers involvement is very apropos here -- he's panning it. Kind of a reverse ad hominem.
I'd never suggest a low id implied actual wisdom or anything like that :-)
Have you tried other seach engines? Do you remember how bad Alta-Vista was when Google first came on the scene? They took a problem and mostly solved it unlike the "solutions" that came before.
Slashdot-think about innovation vs. Microsoft has a lot to do with Microsoft's constant "freedom to innovate" crap and the overwhelming impression the uneducated have about how much Microsoft innovates.
It's also about how Microsoft copies an idea badly and then uses marketing muscle and illegal monopoly tactics to destroy the better technical soluion. As tech geeks, watching better products die is very disheartening.
As a sub 300K uid you should know all of this :-)
My advice, pack it in -- you're in one of those "responsibility without authority" ratholes that has no exit.
I'm not sure where he's drawing this "death spiral" conclusion from because I'm not seeing it.
Now, vendor lockin, DRM abuses, etc. etc. THAT I am seeing and OSS may be our saviour there.
- Lord of the Rings (the unabridged Rob Inglis reading, 49.5 hours)
- The Hobbit (unabridged Rob Inglis again, 11 hours)
- The Entire Harry Potter series (read by Jim Dale, works REALLY well in audio format, 8.5 hours up to 26.5 hours)
- Foundation (didn't realize how conversation oriented these books were until I heard them)
- Ender's Game (pretty clear that OSC is a playwright)
The following are worth listening to at least once:- Dumas (The Three Muskateers, Count of Monte Cristo)
- LeGuin (The Earth Sea Trilogy)
I got a one year membership at a "Books on Tape" rental store, currently I'm going through the classics. The old heroic novels (The Three Muskateers) are amazing on tape.One thing that's interesting -- I find books I've already read to be especially good; there's a whole different feel to the story when read by a good character actor.
Huh? All the comments have been in English so far; what do I need the fish for?
Wha? Oh, for the article.
Nevermind.
Of course it takes him like 15 minutes to do my taxes so his hourly rate is actually HUGE :-)
Although it could be because I hate headphones :-)
A sextant is not a gadget. Neither is an abacus. They should not be on this list.
A swiss army knife is a useful gadget, almost a tool. If it didn't have a toothpick and a useless little pen it wouldn't qualify as a gadget.
Yes, we are safe because where, oh where, would they be able to get the plutonium
Why *should* MS allow WINE users to get to their updates site? The article links into a discussion where WINE developers are talking about how they should fix WINE so users don't need to go to the Microsoft site for needed software!
WTF?
Hell, if competitors were getting their customers to access my companies resources I'd be firewalling them out -- those services are for our customers. In fact, I think our company would have to sue them to stop this behavior.
Now, if they were blocking MS Office Updates for people running MS Office on WINE -- then we'd have a story.
Would I now be able to collect royalties on all moon photos?
Sounds like a great way to "claim" the moon, at least for some purposes ...
People who use windows have learned all of these tricks and recipes on how to use their windows computer. These recipes have been hard won, sometimes it's taken them weeks to get their new machine back to a usable state. They finally found the pictures directory that their camera software uses when it reads the pictures off their digital camera.
They think if they switch to a Mac or Linux they will have to spend months learning all new tricks, the hidden menus for adding short cuts, etc. etc.
They don't realize that they won't have half of these problems once they switch. They don't realize that there ARE no viruses or spyware on the Mac or Linux.
I keep telling everybody who needs help with the PC to down load ad-aware, etc. And then I tell them to notice that there is no Mac version of this software and if they would switch ...
This is how Google became a verb -- because you could go to a single search engine and expect to find what you were looking for.
Currently my wife (iPod + 20" iMac) and my daughter (Windows + Yep) are both buying music from iTunes and swapping music lists with each other.
They had one little blip the first time and they figured out how to register it to the other computer in about 20 seconds -- I didn't even get involved!
There is no natural moral wrong in copying. One does not destroy the original art work by copying it and hence does no harm to the holder of the original. We've created a moral wrong by setting up this social contract, where as a society we will give the artist certain rights if they create more art.
What we've lost sight of is that this social contract is for the benefit of society as a whole, not the artist. If the artist is not willing to distribute the works (by taking advantage of the copyright) then they are breaking their half the of contract.
Perhaps copyrights need to be modified so that if the art is not distributed any longer, or in a particular region, the copyright holder loses the copyright protection in that region.
The Disney "it's going in the vault" advertising campaign drives me crazy. We gave you a copyright for a reason, and it wasn't to screw us over with availability.
For instance, I have a web site that tracks my team progress against deadlines, lists what they are working on, major risks, etc. Set it up according to the suggestions in the Software Project Survival Guide but it applies to any kind of management.
Read, and follow the suggestions of, the One Minute Manager. Be sincere, I ignore a lot of the touch feely stuff, but the delegation, goal setting etc. is key and easy with this method. Use advanced management techniques later.
Check out their web page for the Xserve. It's their enterprise product and it's also their most technical page. It has little of their standard marketing flare and is loaded with tech specs.
I guess that all buzzword and no product stuff is why Apple recently announced Mac mini, iPod shuffle, iLife and iWork.
I guess they also are not selling big honking displays or yet another version of their iMac.
What do you have to do to lose the buzzword moniker, reinvent an entire industry?
Currently we are categorized as "people who live in their mother's basement and annoy comic book store owners with long arguments about Wolverine vs. Spiderman".
I must have been drinking when I posted the original -- I don't usually have a dozen spelling mistakes either :-)
Knowing that Games in general are not a subset of the population means that we are a demographic which can be a good thing as companies start thinking of us a targe audience.
This might mean more games.
It also might mean more advertising in game :-/