"This is one of those articles that should be deleted real quick"
You're like the fourth person to bitch about this dupe. How come the dupe gestapo doesn't take extra care to make sure somebody else hasn't posted a gripe about the dupe?
Well, I've typically gotten geeky gifts for Toys for Tots. (i.e. Some kid got a Game Boy last year...) My main reason for this for this was that my dad did not make lots of money when I was growing up. Things like NES's were well out of my father's range to purchase. One day, though, he scraped together enough to get me a used Game Boy. Not long after, I developed a strong interest in game programming and found a whole new use for the computer he had gotten me. (this was partly fueled by not having a steadily growing library of games, so I spent a considerable amount of time wondering how they worked...) Today I'm quite happy with how life turned out. Most Walmarts and Best Buys have collection boxes for these sorts of gifts. As a matter of fact, the Best Buy I went to recently had a "donate $10 to Toys for Tots" option while purchasing. Maybe t'is the season for a contribution like that?
Since I can't load the page at hand, I thought I'd at least offer this other little suggestion that's more on-topic. I don't know about the OSS world, but I work in 3D for a living. Lots of people have written very helpful little scripts to make the 3D work more pleasant. Most of those people have a paypal donate button. I think this year I'm going to shake loose a little loot in their direction. (Come to think of it, I feel a little bad for not doing this sooner.) I'm sure there are plenty of OSS places that'll take contributions.
"Have you ever even SEEN an image that's been resized by the browser? They almost always look like crap."
Opera performs nice filtering on images when you magnify the page. Also, the browser that comes with the Palm Pilot also does a really nice job of resizing images. Internet Explorer, as of version 5.5 at least, does not do nice filtering. (i'd be curious to know if 6.0+ was modified since I've discovered it will nicely resize stand-alone images too big for the page.) It's up to the browser.
Somebody else mentioned that pages scale up nicely on the Mac. I need to second this. My cousin has a really nice Apple laptop. He showed us a movie trailer on it. He just magnified the whole desktop (browser and all) to show the trailer, and it worked really really well. People around here bitch about eye candy, but man, I have to give credit to Apple for making it that useful. (Unrelated topic, but I was also pleasantly surprised by how well the speakers on that laptop worked. My Toshiba laptop sounds like a Game Boy in comparison.)
"...why not just add 1 cent more of taxes to a gallon of gas, and earmark that money for the purpose of paying the electric bill?"
Why should the people who never use these ramps pay for it? Why should those with more efficient cars pay less than those who don't have the money to buy a hybrid? Why not make high traffic areas a little more self sufficient?
Before you hit reply: I'm not answering these questions to shut you up or anything like that. I bring them up because those are exactly the sort of questions that'll bubble up if that sort of recommendation is made. My point isn't that your plan is wrong, it's that the moment you mention increasing gas prices, angry people will come out of the woodwork. It doesn't matter if I'm right or you're right, the result would be lots of stupid ads on the TV and a flood of people to the ballot box voting on who had the best commercial.
This comment paid for by the Getting-Massive-Amounts-Of-People-To-Agree-On-A-Ta x-Increase-Is-A-Pain-In-The-Ass Commitee.
"If only 20 of those 30 years didn't have to include Microsoft, computers would be pretty good today."
After reading the article, it's not all that clear that Apple would have the PC's penetration today. Apple's marketshare didn't go above 14%, even before Windows 95 came along. Like or hate Microsoft, Billyboy was right about the market power of clones.
"Seriously, if anyone was previously in doubt that you had no argument, saying stuff like this leaves them with no doubt."
Getting suckered into an unrelated argument isn't going to fare any better. I've been around Slashdot long enough to know better. As for what others think: If I thought I was being judged fairly, I might actually care. Fuck them.
"AND his metaphor was quite adequate. Apple sells hardware (iPod) that uses content (Protected-AAC, MP3, and others). Microsoft sells hardware (Xbox) that plays content (Xbox games)."
No. YOUR metaphor was not adequate for reasons too obvious for me to even point out here. Amusingly, there was a much more related metaphor you could have used, unfortunately it would have worked against you.
"So what exactly is your objection? That Apple doesn't support all formats?"
Nope. I was objecting to the comment that Napster's CEO was 'bald faced' lying. I don't love Apple or hate Napster enough to stand behind such rash conclusions.
"What about his computer that was supposedly "cleaned"--what makes them think so, and how can they prove it?"
I had a relative that needed to 'wipe' his computer fairly regularly. (no, not for anything illegal.) He had an app that would go through each sector of a hard drive and 0 it out repeatedly. As I understand it, and no I'm not an expert, just formatting a drive won't necessarily clear the data off it. Even if it did 0 out all the data, it would still be recoverable by a professional service. I believe tihs worked by reading some sort of residual that could indicate whether that bit was a 1 or a 0. This app was supposed to be so thorough that even the professional services couldn't read the data. (this was the sort of thing the gov't would use for classified computers.)
I may not have all the details 100% right (... corrections gratefully welcomed!) but the gist of my point is this: If they took his computer, noticed the HD was totally blank even though it looked like it should at least have an OS on it, and they analyzed and found out that something more serious than a basic format had occured, they'd have justifiable reasons to believe that he blanked it intentionally to remove incriminating evidence. To the best of my knowledge, though, they wouldn't be able to prove that he did it as a result of their arrival. Circumstantial at best. Personally, I could see an innocent man OR a guilty man doing the exact same thing.
"What "lock-in" scheme are you referring to exactly?"
You're talking about a work-around that more or less works. The problem is that you go to buy the new music, and you're stuck paying too much for a CD with songs you probably don't want to have. iPod. iTunes. That's it.
It has been pointed out, though, that you can buy MP3 versions of songs legitimately. I was not aware of this so I really don't want to fight this point too hard. Yes, I was in error. That said, my beef wasn't so much with Apple, but the way people around here treat them. I'm rather tired of arguing this point, though, because nobody wants to admit that they're not using cold un-erring logic to arrive at their tastes.
"...Or you could just go with Linux."... or you could just move to a new place that doesn't have power failures! Heck, if he moves far enough north, he won't need to run fans on his CPUs, either!!!!
Is something running on that computer that isn't running on others? I'm wondering if an important boot file is being left 'open' and never successfully closes unless Windows shuts down. Since you mentioned it being a Gateway computer, I would look closely at this. Maybe they have a recovery app that's shadow-copying your boot stuff so you can recover it later. (Maybe even the Windows save state for system files...?)
On a different topic, years ago I had a problem where Windows 98 would hose itself if you shut it down. It'd actually wipe out the FAT table. Why? The HD was new with a bigger cache than most discs had at the time. Windows would shut the power off to the drive before the disc was done writing data from the cache. I don't have high hopes that this has anything to do with your computer, but if I had nothing else to try in your situation, I'd see if the problem happens with a different HD.
"No, it's not. Nobody sends you an MP3 file that you need to open and edit. "
Heh. Distractionary tactic aside, my point still stands.
"If you mean the record companies, then yeah, they can break the lock-in by using the MP3 format. "
So long as the RIAA is an oligopoly, s'not happenin.
"So really what's being said is that it's Apple's right to not support other formats. "
Oh please. What's really being said is "I like Apple more than Napster / RIAA". Don't feed me that bullshit. It'd be better for everybody if other services could compete with iTunes. Unfortunately, since people are reading my posts as "The RIAA is right and Apple is wrong" (which, I wasn't btw. Nobody's paying much attention to what I'm actually saying...), they're willing to say that it's okay for Apple to screw the consumer.
"THERE ARE MANY SUCH PLAYERS OUT THERE. "
That would be an AWESOME rebuttal if I had said something like "gee, it's too bad there's no such thing as an MP3 player out there that plays.WMA."
"In either scenario you are either exceptionally stupid or exceptionally whiney. "
Heh. Well you were sorta close in one case. I subscribed years ago. Love it. Apple recently developed the new iPod. I wouldn't mind having it, but gersh dern, their proprietary nature makes it so I can't use the service I want to use. So, I have to shop elsewhere. I'm not sure why that's my fault instead of Apple's, but I can't say I've been overwhelmed with people behaving rationally here to begin with. So, don't worry, I won't be losing any sleep here.
"Oh, and saying things like "I really wish you guys would actually listen to what I'm saying before you hit reply" and "I guess I really shouldn't be so surprised but man, you all should listen to yourselves" makes you sound like a condescending cunt."
Perhaps, but it wouldn't bother you if it didn't have a grain of truth to it. Considering some of the weak rationalizations and the general distrationary tactics used to smack me down (and the mod bombing...), you'll pardon me for not feeling terribly challenged by your comment here. You went with the flow, whoop-de-fuck.
"Whether or not any businesses choose to use the format is irrelevant- it's a publicly accepted format in very widespread use."
It may be publically accepted, but it has not been accepted by any businesses. They will not use the MP3 format. The reason why Apple even got off the ground with iTunes was because of the rights restrictions they put into the format. Saying "well, it'll support MP3, so the industry has a way out" is like saying "But you can save Word docs in.HTML, so there's no fuss over proprietary formats!"
I really wish you guys would actually listen to what I'm saying before you hit reply. I realize that Apple is great and never does anything wrong but you're defending a less capable product that almost exclusively runs on iTunes. I guess I really shouldn't be so surprised but man, you all should listen to yourselves.
" With MP3 formated files, I can move from any one player to any other player."
Nobody will sell those MP3 files on-line. So you have to jump through extra hoops to get to them. I'm sorry, but I'm not accepting MP3 as a non-lock-in example.
"Buying an iPod does not force me to buy from iTMS."
Okay, maybe I'm being ignorant here. What other services can you buy iPod compatible music for? I'm dead serious, I'll back down if you can name one or two. Part of my reaction here is that I CAN'T use my existing music service with an iPod, but with other players I can. You'd be doing me a huge favor if you could suggest an alternative music service with a subscription model that I could use an iPod with.
"He's implying that without Apple, the music industry would have some great online business going and be selling tons more music."
Wrong. He's implying that Apple has created a device that Apple can sell music for. (I'm truely amazed at how people around here have a short memory when it comes to Apple's shenanigans). Apple owns the market, and they're the ones that make all the money on it. Competitors can't even ween in on it. Boo hoo? Well, sure. We love Apple, the iPod, and iTunes. Who cares if other businesses aren't permitted to offer alternative services? No no, we don't want choice around here. It's Apple! They're allowed to make it for us!!
Slashdot Mirror
""Which Linux do you use for desktop?" 10/10" :rolleyes: (Pity this isn't VB.)
:rolleyes: smiley.
I gave an interviewee a little spook once. We bought the guy lunch, asked him questions. "Babylon 5 or Star Trek, answer quick!"
Well, okay, everybody else did the
"This is one of those articles that should be deleted real quick"
You're like the fourth person to bitch about this dupe. How come the dupe gestapo doesn't take extra care to make sure somebody else hasn't posted a gripe about the dupe?
Well, I've typically gotten geeky gifts for Toys for Tots. (i.e. Some kid got a Game Boy last year...) My main reason for this for this was that my dad did not make lots of money when I was growing up. Things like NES's were well out of my father's range to purchase. One day, though, he scraped together enough to get me a used Game Boy. Not long after, I developed a strong interest in game programming and found a whole new use for the computer he had gotten me. (this was partly fueled by not having a steadily growing library of games, so I spent a considerable amount of time wondering how they worked...) Today I'm quite happy with how life turned out. Most Walmarts and Best Buys have collection boxes for these sorts of gifts. As a matter of fact, the Best Buy I went to recently had a "donate $10 to Toys for Tots" option while purchasing. Maybe t'is the season for a contribution like that?
Since I can't load the page at hand, I thought I'd at least offer this other little suggestion that's more on-topic. I don't know about the OSS world, but I work in 3D for a living. Lots of people have written very helpful little scripts to make the 3D work more pleasant. Most of those people have a paypal donate button. I think this year I'm going to shake loose a little loot in their direction. (Come to think of it, I feel a little bad for not doing this sooner.) I'm sure there are plenty of OSS places that'll take contributions.
"Have you ever even SEEN an image that's been resized by the browser? They almost always look like crap."
Opera performs nice filtering on images when you magnify the page. Also, the browser that comes with the Palm Pilot also does a really nice job of resizing images. Internet Explorer, as of version 5.5 at least, does not do nice filtering. (i'd be curious to know if 6.0+ was modified since I've discovered it will nicely resize stand-alone images too big for the page.) It's up to the browser.
Somebody else mentioned that pages scale up nicely on the Mac. I need to second this. My cousin has a really nice Apple laptop. He showed us a movie trailer on it. He just magnified the whole desktop (browser and all) to show the trailer, and it worked really really well. People around here bitch about eye candy, but man, I have to give credit to Apple for making it that useful. (Unrelated topic, but I was also pleasantly surprised by how well the speakers on that laptop worked. My Toshiba laptop sounds like a Game Boy in comparison.)
"...why not just add 1 cent more of taxes to a gallon of gas, and earmark that money for the purpose of paying the electric bill?"
a x-Increase-Is-A-Pain-In-The-Ass Commitee.
Why should the people who never use these ramps pay for it? Why should those with more efficient cars pay less than those who don't have the money to buy a hybrid? Why not make high traffic areas a little more self sufficient?
Before you hit reply: I'm not answering these questions to shut you up or anything like that. I bring them up because those are exactly the sort of questions that'll bubble up if that sort of recommendation is made. My point isn't that your plan is wrong, it's that the moment you mention increasing gas prices, angry people will come out of the woodwork. It doesn't matter if I'm right or you're right, the result would be lots of stupid ads on the TV and a flood of people to the ballot box voting on who had the best commercial.
This comment paid for by the Getting-Massive-Amounts-Of-People-To-Agree-On-A-T
I know it doesn't help much, but I meta-modded your flamebait moderation as unfair. Dimwit mods.
"What's a "cel phone"?"
I wish I was so smart that simple typos like these would confuse me.
"Yess!! Soon I'll be able to browse for pr0n hands free =D"
Of all the smilies to use...
"If only 20 of those 30 years didn't have to include Microsoft, computers would be pretty good today."
After reading the article, it's not all that clear that Apple would have the PC's penetration today. Apple's marketshare didn't go above 14%, even before Windows 95 came along. Like or hate Microsoft, Billyboy was right about the market power of clones.
"If Microsoft had to actually compete, they would cease to exist."
I'd find this more insightful if Microsoft's monopolies weren't de-facto.
"Seriously, if anyone was previously in doubt that you had no argument, saying stuff like this leaves them with no doubt."
Getting suckered into an unrelated argument isn't going to fare any better. I've been around Slashdot long enough to know better. As for what others think: If I thought I was being judged fairly, I might actually care. Fuck them.
"Reading your own posts, are you?"
:)
Touche.
"AND his metaphor was quite adequate. Apple sells hardware (iPod) that uses content (Protected-AAC, MP3, and others). Microsoft sells hardware (Xbox) that plays content (Xbox games)."
No. YOUR metaphor was not adequate for reasons too obvious for me to even point out here. Amusingly, there was a much more related metaphor you could have used, unfortunately it would have worked against you.
"So what exactly is your objection? That Apple doesn't support all formats?"
Nope. I was objecting to the comment that Napster's CEO was 'bald faced' lying. I don't love Apple or hate Napster enough to stand behind such rash conclusions.
"What about his computer that was supposedly "cleaned"--what makes them think so, and how can they prove it?"
I had a relative that needed to 'wipe' his computer fairly regularly. (no, not for anything illegal.) He had an app that would go through each sector of a hard drive and 0 it out repeatedly. As I understand it, and no I'm not an expert, just formatting a drive won't necessarily clear the data off it. Even if it did 0 out all the data, it would still be recoverable by a professional service. I believe tihs worked by reading some sort of residual that could indicate whether that bit was a 1 or a 0. This app was supposed to be so thorough that even the professional services couldn't read the data. (this was the sort of thing the gov't would use for classified computers.)
I may not have all the details 100% right (... corrections gratefully welcomed!) but the gist of my point is this: If they took his computer, noticed the HD was totally blank even though it looked like it should at least have an OS on it, and they analyzed and found out that something more serious than a basic format had occured, they'd have justifiable reasons to believe that he blanked it intentionally to remove incriminating evidence. To the best of my knowledge, though, they wouldn't be able to prove that he did it as a result of their arrival. Circumstantial at best. Personally, I could see an innocent man OR a guilty man doing the exact same thing.
"Just another reason to have an open/unsecured wap on your network so you can have plausible deniability."
Would that even work? Suppose I leave my apartment unlocked and some drug dealers leave a stash there, then I'm busted with it. Plausible deniability?
(Note: Yes, this is a very inadequate example. No problemo. I'm still curious what would happen, so it's not a total loss...)
"What "lock-in" scheme are you referring to exactly?"
You're talking about a work-around that more or less works. The problem is that you go to buy the new music, and you're stuck paying too much for a CD with songs you probably don't want to have. iPod. iTunes. That's it.
It has been pointed out, though, that you can buy MP3 versions of songs legitimately. I was not aware of this so I really don't want to fight this point too hard. Yes, I was in error. That said, my beef wasn't so much with Apple, but the way people around here treat them. I'm rather tired of arguing this point, though, because nobody wants to admit that they're not using cold un-erring logic to arrive at their tastes.
"So do you also get pissy when PS2 games wont play in your Xbox?"
I can always count on Slashdot to fence with woefully inadequate metaphors.
"...Or you could just go with Linux." ... or you could just move to a new place that doesn't have power failures! Heck, if he moves far enough north, he won't need to run fans on his CPUs, either!!!!
Is something running on that computer that isn't running on others? I'm wondering if an important boot file is being left 'open' and never successfully closes unless Windows shuts down. Since you mentioned it being a Gateway computer, I would look closely at this. Maybe they have a recovery app that's shadow-copying your boot stuff so you can recover it later. (Maybe even the Windows save state for system files...?)
On a different topic, years ago I had a problem where Windows 98 would hose itself if you shut it down. It'd actually wipe out the FAT table. Why? The HD was new with a bigger cache than most discs had at the time. Windows would shut the power off to the drive before the disc was done writing data from the cache. I don't have high hopes that this has anything to do with your computer, but if I had nothing else to try in your situation, I'd see if the problem happens with a different HD.
"Why aren't you bitching about Rhapsody's proprietary format?"
Because it's not Rhapsody's fault that Apple won't license their DRM technology.
"Eat your own dog food, you bought it, no one forced you to."
I just wanted to point out how funny this sounds coming from somebody who is against broader iPod support.
"For the last fucking time.. APPLE WILL NOT LICENSE THEIR DRM"
I just wanted to thank you for pointing that out. I can't believe how much unwarranted bullshit I've taken in this thread.
Have a good evening.
"No, it's not. Nobody sends you an MP3 file that you need to open and edit. "
.WMA."
Heh. Distractionary tactic aside, my point still stands.
"If you mean the record companies, then yeah, they can break the lock-in by using the MP3 format. "
So long as the RIAA is an oligopoly, s'not happenin.
"So really what's being said is that it's Apple's right to not support other formats. "
Oh please. What's really being said is "I like Apple more than Napster / RIAA". Don't feed me that bullshit. It'd be better for everybody if other services could compete with iTunes. Unfortunately, since people are reading my posts as "The RIAA is right and Apple is wrong" (which, I wasn't btw. Nobody's paying much attention to what I'm actually saying...), they're willing to say that it's okay for Apple to screw the consumer.
"THERE ARE MANY SUCH PLAYERS OUT THERE. "
That would be an AWESOME rebuttal if I had said something like "gee, it's too bad there's no such thing as an MP3 player out there that plays
"In either scenario you are either exceptionally stupid or exceptionally whiney. "
Heh. Well you were sorta close in one case. I subscribed years ago. Love it. Apple recently developed the new iPod. I wouldn't mind having it, but gersh dern, their proprietary nature makes it so I can't use the service I want to use. So, I have to shop elsewhere. I'm not sure why that's my fault instead of Apple's, but I can't say I've been overwhelmed with people behaving rationally here to begin with. So, don't worry, I won't be losing any sleep here.
"Oh, and saying things like "I really wish you guys would actually listen to what I'm saying before you hit reply" and "I guess I really shouldn't be so surprised but man, you all should listen to yourselves" makes you sound like a condescending cunt."
Perhaps, but it wouldn't bother you if it didn't have a grain of truth to it. Considering some of the weak rationalizations and the general distrationary tactics used to smack me down (and the mod bombing...), you'll pardon me for not feeling terribly challenged by your comment here. You went with the flow, whoop-de-fuck.
Only on Slashdot would it be the end-user's fault that Apple's proprietary formats are inconvienent.
"Whether or not any businesses choose to use the format is irrelevant- it's a publicly accepted format in very widespread use."
.HTML, so there's no fuss over proprietary formats!"
It may be publically accepted, but it has not been accepted by any businesses. They will not use the MP3 format. The reason why Apple even got off the ground with iTunes was because of the rights restrictions they put into the format. Saying "well, it'll support MP3, so the industry has a way out" is like saying "But you can save Word docs in
I really wish you guys would actually listen to what I'm saying before you hit reply. I realize that Apple is great and never does anything wrong but you're defending a less capable product that almost exclusively runs on iTunes. I guess I really shouldn't be so surprised but man, you all should listen to yourselves.
" With MP3 formated files, I can move from any one player to any other player."
Nobody will sell those MP3 files on-line. So you have to jump through extra hoops to get to them. I'm sorry, but I'm not accepting MP3 as a non-lock-in example.
"Buying an iPod does not force me to buy from iTMS."
Okay, maybe I'm being ignorant here. What other services can you buy iPod compatible music for? I'm dead serious, I'll back down if you can name one or two. Part of my reaction here is that I CAN'T use my existing music service with an iPod, but with other players I can. You'd be doing me a huge favor if you could suggest an alternative music service with a subscription model that I could use an iPod with.
"He's implying that without Apple, the music industry would have some great online business going and be selling tons more music."
Wrong. He's implying that Apple has created a device that Apple can sell music for. (I'm truely amazed at how people around here have a short memory when it comes to Apple's shenanigans). Apple owns the market, and they're the ones that make all the money on it. Competitors can't even ween in on it. Boo hoo? Well, sure. We love Apple, the iPod, and iTunes. Who cares if other businesses aren't permitted to offer alternative services? No no, we don't want choice around here. It's Apple! They're allowed to make it for us!!